Today marks exactly ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ from when I got into Bitcoin.
๐ญ๐ฌ. ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐. Honestly, it's hard for me to believe it. It feels like 5 years, at most.
The following is my story of how I got into Bitcoin, & what's followed since then up to this point. It's primarily for posterity, so if you're uninterested, please keep scrolling. But I'd still like it to be out there, so if you are interested, I hope you enjoy what follows.
I first heard the word "Bitcoin" in Feb 2014, while watching a YouTube video of an indy journalist cover current events. They said a subscriber had asked them to comment about Bitcoin, so they did, saying it was a Ponzi scheme, & warning their viewers to stay away from it. I thought that Bitcoin sounded like some new version of the old Nigerian Prince email scam, so I told myself to avoid it if I ever encountered it, shrugged it off, & promptly forgot about it...for the next year-and-a-half.
In early 2015, someone suggested I read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" to better understand why the Fed needs to be stopped. I found a free audiobook of it, & listened to it every day going to & from work (I was an assistant in a small retirement planning business). I remember the rage I felt against the Fed as I finished the audiobook. I could see that practically every problem in our society could be traced back to the creation of the Federal Reserve in some way. Ron Paul was absolutely right: we needed to end the Fed!
Just 2 days later, on 15 July 2015, my boss gave me an assignment to find news articles about the market, so he could comment on them during his weekly local radio show. I hit up MarketWatch & started searching through articles there. That was when I saw the title of a short article about Bitcoin. It was asking something along the lines of whether it would ever bounce back up (it was somewhere around $250 at the time). My first thought was "Bitcoin? Is that still a thing?" as I began scrolling past it.
What happened next I can only attribute to divine intervention.
I had grown up Mormon (though I'm no longer one), & had spent years feeling frustrated that very few would ever just give the Book of Mormon a chance, but would reject it without any thought or consideration. I had complained about such people for hours straight, often quoting Albert Einstein:
"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance."
"How could they be so closedminded?!?" I'd ask, often ready to just give up on humanity entirely.
So as I began to scroll past the article about Bitcoin, my mind was suddenly reminded about all those things, & a small voice entered my mind & said, "How hypocritical of you." I froze in mid-scroll, realizing I was doing exactly what I had so long despised others doing. So I clicked on the article. It didn't say much, so it wasn't very helpful. I was still pretty sure that Bitcoin was a scam, so I decided to look into it more, until I found enough evidence that it was a scam, so I could warn others against it with some solid reasoning.
After work, I searched online for more info, & after sifting through YouTube & passing up a lot of clearly garbage videos, I found some excellent videos from Andreas Antonopoulos, who explained Bitcoin in clear, simple, & incredibly impactful ways.
As the days went by, I found that Bitcoin wasn't a scam, but I thought of a handful of ways that it could possibly fail. If I was wrong about those possible failure scenarios, though, then Bitcoin would have ๐ฎ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ท๐ฆ implications for the future of our society. So I researched every perceived weakness I thought Bitcoin had, to see whether or not it was really a problem. I asked questions on public web forums, & got lots of great answers (
@npub1q5un...6dh3 was there; thank you!), & one by one, each of my concerns were snuffed out.
About 2 weeks later, I could think of no more possible vulnerabilities. I remember pure hope hitting me like a lightning bolt, as I realized we now had a powerful replacement for the fiat system. As F. A. Hayek put it, it was "a sly, roundabout way" that "they can't stop."
At the time, my wife & I were basically living paycheck-to-paycheck, so we didn't have much to exchange for Bitcoin. But I found I was able to spare $5, so I created a Coinbase account (it was 2015, so my options were very limited), & I bought my first $5 of bitcoin.
I immediately began telling others about Bitcoin, starting with my wife & kids. I made many common mistakes early on, like thinking the future was "crypto" or "Blockchain", & not just Bitcoin, but I never bought any other cryptos (mostly due to a lack of funds, at first).
As the blocksize war heated up, I was a big blocker at first, but as I learned more, & became a Bitcoin maximalist, I saw the wisdom of smaller blocks & SegWit. I spun up my first node on a laptop, specifically so I could help decentralize the network & support the UASF.
Around that time, I got a new job doing package deliveries for FedEx, which allowed me to listen to Bitcoin podcasts & audiobooks all day, & learn even more about Bitcoin.
@Guy Swann's "Cryptoconomy" (now Bitcoin Audible) podcast was especially influential for me.
But nothing could've prepared me for the Bitcoin Standard, by
@Saifedean Ammous. I had initially gotten into Bitcoin b/c it changes the world from the outside-in by replacing the fiat system. But learning about time preference showed me it also changes ๐ช๐จ from the inside-out!
When I was Mormon missionary, I wasn't concerned with the number of converts; instead, I focused on how I could help permanently fix many of the world's problems by helping people change from the inside out through Jesus, just as God had helped me in my younger years. So when I saw how Bitcoin naturally incentivizes low time preference, leading to many positive lifestyle changesโphysically, socially, financially, mentally, emotionally, & even spirituallyโI knew that Bitcoin was a much bigger deal than I had ever considered before.
I had already been "geeking out" about Bitcoin to my wife, coworkers, friends, extended family, neighbors, & pretty much anyone I spoke to. I had even created an online Bitcoin-only group on MeWe, where members could share news & educational content, & talk about Bitcoin.
In one of the podcasts I had listened to, I had also learned about the Japanese concept of "Ikigai", or one's purpose for living. Another way to think of it is the 4-way combo of:
- What you love
- What you're good at
- What the world needs
- What the world will pay for
With all the ways Bitcoin fixes the world from the outside in, & all the ways it fixes us from the inside out, along with my desire to help people change from the inside out, & my geeky enthusiasm for Bitcoin, I decided to take on a new online username: ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ช๐จ๐ข๐ช
But after learning all this, & knowing how important it was to onboard as many people as possible, I felt trapped in a job that took up almost all my time. How was I ever going to live my Ikigai if I was stuck in a delivery truck all day long, for most days of the week?
In August 2021, I started getting cluster headaches, which are like migraines that are clustered in a small area on the the side of the head, & usually strike at night (but not always). These made me incapable of delivering packages safely, so I had to leave FedEx.
While looking for work & healing from my cluster headaches, I decided that I should finally meet other Bitcoiners in person. The only local meetup I found was crypto-centric, but I checked it out, anyway. They had ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค levels of shitcoinery, so I left halfway through. So I created my own Bitcoin-only meetup for the Chattanooga area. On 1 October 2021, at block 703083, I started it with only myself, my oldest son, & 1 visitor there. That was all who showed up for the next few months, though the visitor was always a different person.
At the end of March 2022, I heard that
@npub12ce8...pm0f was looking for a couple volunteers to maintain their booth at the Bitcoin 2022 Conference. I still had no income, so going down to Florida to volunteer seemed insane, but I felt a spiritual "nudge" to do it anyway, so I did. Even with the shitcoiny stuff at the conference, it was unforgettable, & for me, simply life-changing. I got to meet many of the people who had helped me down the rabbit hole initially, & at the end of the conference,
@npub12ce8...pm0f offered me a job as their Community Manager.
I worked at
@npub12ce8...pm0f until July 2023, which was great, but I didn't agree with some of the things we wee doing. A friend of mine was working with
@Svetski on
@npub1tayp...9l42, & they needed a Community Manager. So when they offered me the job, I excitedly accepted.
As the Community Manager for
@npub1tayp...9l42, I led the community in training the LLM on everything ever said about Bitcoin, & to answer questions the way Bitcoin maximalists would. Bitcoin education is closely tied to my Ikigai, so this project was pure joy to work on! One of my favorite mini-projects at the time was the 21 Questions book. I gathered the 21 most common & important questions about Bitcoin, & asked them of many well-known people in the Bitcoin space, along with
@npub1tayp...9l42, & compiled their answers into a single book.
But the
@npub1tayp...9l42 project wasn't very sustainable, so our team pivoted away from it, & to a genius idea of
@Svetski's called
@Satlantis: The Social Events Appโa nostr-based combo of Trip Advisor, Nomad List, & Google Places. My role changed, & I became the "Ambassador Concierge". I love
@Satlantis: The Social Events App, but I honestly felt like a fish out of water in my new role, as if I constantly needed to write with my left hand. Nothing was wrong with the business or anyone I was working with; I was just being called in another direction, & I was resisting it.
Last January, I had a lot of internal turmoil, & spent time praying, meditating, & working through my inner conflict. I visited El Salvador for the Plan โฟ Conference, where I spoke about
@Satlantis: The Social Events App at the Circular Economy Summit. There, I found the clarity I needed.
In El Salvador, I met many people doing exactly what I felt called to do. I also met old friends in ways that could not be mere coincidence. Combining these was enough to point me in the right direction, & inspire me to build a circular economy in the #Chattanooga area. This meant I had to leave
@Satlantis: The Social Events App, though. So I stepped down from my position there in February, & immediately began building
@Bitcoin Chatt from a small meetup (usually 6-12 attendees each month) to a nonprofit on a mission to turn #Chattanooga into a Bitcoin city.
It's had a slow start, but in the last few months we've gone from 1 business in the area accepting bitcoin to 7, & more are on the way. I'm now giving monthly Bitcoin workshops at a location downtown, & attending business expos, where I orange pill visitors to my booth. Another
@Bitcoin Chatt initiative is what I'm calling Proof of Work. It'll provide flexible, part-time work that pays in sats, so participants can earn KYC-free bitcoin for savings. It's in the early stages & I'm working with a cleaning company. It's looking very promising!
A lot has happened in 10 years, & these were just highlights! Most of my 5 older kids (ages 11-18) can't remember a time before I discovered Bitcoin, & my 18-month-old was literally hearing about it before he was born! After me, he's the biggest Bitcoin geek in our family!
If you read all that, wow! I really didn't expect you to.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story, & thank you to everyone I've met along the way, whether you were mentioned here or not. Bitcoin brings so much hope, & you're a bigger part of that than you realize.
Here's to another 10 years! I look forward to discovering the adventures they'll bring.
๐งก
