I have a story for you today. This is the story of how I discovered, lost, then rediscovered Bitcoin. The reason why this is an important story to tell, is because I may be able to save you a lot of time and money if you heed my advice.
Many Bitcoiners have followed this same path that I will describe. So my story is not unique to me, it’s a repeatable set of experiences that have led many to reach the same set of conclusions. My aim is to allow you to reach the same conclusions, without having to go through the same trials and tribulations that I have.
I’ve decided to break my journey into four phases in order to relay the understanding.
Discovery | Euphoria | Mania | Return
Be Skeptical of Bitcoin
I am naturally a skeptical person, and so I have a tempered attitude when being approached with new and radical ideas. At the same time, new ideas excite me, so I will typically dive head first into new discoveries.
All in all, I would describe my approach as skeptical, but always curious. This seems like the right balance of attention when trying to parse fact from fiction, and reality from fantasy. When new information comes to light about the nature of Bitcoin, it is important to integrate this new information with the same level of critical thinking that you start with.
Just because you’re invested in Bitcoin (or not) should not be the permission slip you grant yourself to dismiss this new information. Like the internet, Bitcoin is constantly evolving, and requires you to monitor its evolution in order for you to remain in a place of truth and understanding.
Discovery
Bitcoin is unanimously the first cryptocurrency that most of us learn about. Because of this, Bitcoin has become a household name, regardless of whether or not anyone in the household has any. One of my favourite questions to ask someone is “When was the first time you heard of Bitcoin, and what did you think?”
Most people answer with something along the lines of
“I don’t understand it”
“seems like a neat idea”
“maybe not Bitcoin, but something else will take over”
“the government would never allow it”
“it’s obviously the way of the future”
I fell into the bolded categories.
Regardless of which camp(s) you fall into, most people require ample time to wrap their head around the efficacy of a currency that lives entirely on the internet. For me, I required about 2 years from the time I heard about it, to the time when I was literally bought into the idea.
If you’re lucky, then being exposed to Bitcoin will prompt the voice inside your head to ask you a question - “What is Money?”. That question is a seed that cannot be unplanted, and one that will grow into a bouquet of answers.
On the other hand, if you haven’t asked yourself that question, and Bitcoin doesn’t strike you as noteworthy or interesting, you may fall out of the Bitcoin journey, and into dismissal.
Dismissal
Dismissal is a Bitcoin purgatory of sorts. It is a place of ambivalence and aimlessness. Once you’ve dismissed Bitcoin, it is difficult to get back into the flow. That is, unless you are faced with a circumstance or experience that directly illustrates the need for Bitcoin for you. People who have found themselves in the dismissal phase may say things like.
“I looked into Bitcoin for 2 hours once, I don’t see what the big deal is about”
“I understand Bitcoin, it will definitely fail once governments crack down”
A red flag should be raised if you encounter someone who has spent little time looking into Bitcoin, yet claims to “understand” it. I have spent the better part of 7 years looking into Bitcoin, and I am still learning new things every single day.
Euphoria
There came a day when I just “got it”. I didn’t have a full grasp of Bitcoin, and all of its implications, but I got the bigger picture. I acquired a little bit of Bitcoin in my discovery phase, but it is in the Euphoria phase that I really got serious about owning some Bitcoin. The fear of missing out is an emotion I remember being particularly prevalent. I began to realize the consequences of NOT having Bitcoin; or not having enough Bitcoin.
Suddenly, I became the person at the dinner table explaining blockchain, seed phrases, and wallets. I exclaimed that there are only 21 million bitcoin as if it is some revelatory fact of nature (and it is). To others, I looked like a heretic, but little did they know that I’d discovered the holy grail, the arc of the covenant, and the fountain of youth.
You more than likely know someone similar!
While some people never leave the Euphoria phase (and stick with Bitcoin), other people, myself included, go on to research, and look into other cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications. They examine other cryptocurrencies with as much fervour and excitement that they’ve obtained from looking at Bitcoin. These are the people that enter into Mania.
Mania
I would characterize the Mania phase as a general state of confusion, clouded by unwarranted market confidence and optimism. The Mania phase manifested itself within me around 2017 when there was a large bull market. Altcoins were going up by double digit percentages on the daily. It was “alt season”, and I wanted in. Extreme FOMO took hold and I started the search for “the next Bitcoin”. Every use case seemed revolutionary, and every token looked like it was going to the moon.
I took my Bitcoin holdings, and some fiat currency to buy SIA and ETH. My rationale was - “its cheap” and “DeFi is going to the moon!!”. PancakeSwap was a good buy because “it was a DEX, NFT platform, Automated Market Maker, and Lottery System!”. I equated utility with value, and weighed the worth of a coin based on its potential to “meme” itself into the stratosphere. Meanwhile, there was a nagging question in the back of my mind. “What is money”?
I remember thinking to myself on a consistent basis - “Are all of these cryptocurrencies money? Are they even currencies? How can they all be going up so much? Is this a bubble? Can Dogecoin really reach $1 per DOGE?”
Whether you like it or not, the Mania phase ends when the bull run ends. Losses ensued, and I watched as my holdings dropped by 35%, 70%, 95% over the course of hours, days, and weeks. I was left holding a bag of worthless assets that I paid good “money” for. If there was so much utility in that coin, why did it drop so much, so quickly? Will it ever recover, and will I ever get your money back?
Back to Dismissal
If this journey sounds familiar to you up until this point, you can perhaps relate to feeling completely disenfranchised by this whole “cryptocurrency” phenomenon. You may lump Bitcoin into the same category as every other shitcoin you bought. After all, Bitcoin is also down 50% from its all time high, it is just as worthless as the rest of them. It seems to you like the whole market is made up of manipulators and fraudsters, and there is no hope left to recover any of your initial investment.
What it did to me was send me further down the rabbit hole of learning about how I conceptualized money.
Return to Bitcoin
A year or two had passed, and I decided to take a look at my cryptocurrency holdings, just for fun. Most of them were worth even less than the last time I looked. Some of them were holding their own. After seeing the rest of my cryptocurrency portfolio get decimated into worthlessness, Bitcoin remained, and even covered my losses.
To my surprise, Bitcoin had made a full recovery, and became worth more than what I bought it for in the first place. “How is this possible?”, I remember exclaiming. What is behind the wind that carries Bitcoin? That fails to carry the rest of the altcoins with it? Is there perhaps something unique about Bitcoin, that all other cryptocurrencies have failed to capture?…
Bitcoin is Money
For me, it was the price of Bitcoin that made me look at it in the first place. I came for the gains, but stayed for the philosophy. Bitcoin is the best answer I have found, for the question “What is Money?”. It is the simplest, and most complete answer that I have come across.
The price of Bitcoin, and the promise of gains made me look at Bitcoin, but it does not lead you to discover the deeper truths within Bitcoin. Deeper must be discovered through the employment of critical thinking and skepticism. It was my quest to understand money, and my openness to fact, and cogent arguments that led me to re-realize that Bitcoin is the best form of money that has ever existed, and may ever exist.
A Skeptic’s Questions About Bitcoin
These are the questions I had to find GOOD answers to, in order to convince myself that what I was investing in, was the right thing for my financial goals.
Why does the Bitcoin network use so much energy?
Why only 21 million Bitcoin?
Why are Bitcoin transactions irreversible?
Why is there no 1-800 number to fix my mistakes?
Why is Bitcoin so volatile right now?
Why are Bitcoin transaction fees so high?
Why are cryptocurrencies with “better” tech not worth more than Bitcoin?
Failing to adequately answer each one of these questions led me to purchase an altcoin, and lose money. That was my journey, but it doesn’t have to be yours. At any time, you can stop, answer these questions, and discover why the Bitcoin network was designed the way it was. The answers are not always intuitive, in fact, there is a ton of nuance to them all. Put your critical thinking skills to work, and find yourself a meaningful answer to the question “what is money?”.
Regards,
Keegan