by • Konstantin Rabin is a finance and technology writer who was one of the few lucky people to find out about Bitcoin back in 2011.
• He had three chances to invest in Bitcoin, but chose not to each time due to financial uncertainty.
• Through his journey, he learned key lessons that are worth sharing with anyone who doubts the power of BTC.
My Journey With Bitcoin
I am one of those fortunate enough to have been aware of Bitcoin more than a decade ago before it gained mainstream attention. Unfortunately, I chose not to act on this opportunity and let it fly by. This article is my story of how I passed up investing in bitcoin three different times before eventually becoming a HODLer and the important lessons I learned along this journey.
The Inception
Back in 2011, I started my first full-time job at an online brokerage where many colleagues were passionate about trading and investments. It was here that I met my friend Edgar who shared some interests with me such as gaming and smoking cigarettes. One day during 2012, he changed his Skype status to something that looked like gibberish: “1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2.” When I asked him what it was, he explained passionately about Bitcoin addresses and blockchains – sparking my interest in the topic greatly.
My First Doubts
Having worked in the investment industry for some years, I was familiar with many scams and fake products such as e-gold that seemed similar on surface level. Therefore, my biggest concern was whether or not Bitcoin was just another get-rich-quick scheme or if there might be something more behind it all worth gambling on. As 2012 happened to also be one of my worst years financially speaking, I sadly decided against investing anything into BTC at this point as well – a decision I would come to regret later on down the line…
Second Chances
Fast forward several years later after blockchain technology had already started making waves across industries, something exciting happened – Bitcoin reached its all-time high price around December 2017! A lot of people were making money hand over fist during this time so naturally this news caught my eye again too – could history repeat itself? Despite being financially stable by now though, something still held me back from taking action – fear of missing out (FOMO). Even though everything pointed towards huge potential returns if investing now compared to earlier days when prices were much lower, FOMO made me doubt myself again instead..
The Final Call
Finally after several more months spent researching blockchain fundamentals even further while seeing other people having success with their BTC investments made me realise that there really isn’t any reason why someone shouldn’t invest a portion of their savings into crypto currencies today! So finally in May 2020 ,I took the plunge and bought 0.02BTC; an amount which is still growing steadily thanks to long term HODLing!
Conclusion
Although hindsight is 20/20 when looking back at missed opportunities like these ones surrounding cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; it’s often difficult for us humans to make decisions based on potential future gains alone or weigh up risks versus reward correctly without any prior experience or understanding of certain topics beforehand – yet it doesn’t mean we should stop trying either! Hopefully this story can help provide perspective for anyone else considering getting involved with crypto currencies too; because when you’re able understand what makes them valuable despite all their flaws then you’ll know you’ve truly found your gold mine ;)
