2013:

Heard about the Bitcoin white paper. I read it, didn’t really understand it, but thought the encryption idea was smart. Told a friend of my grandparents, XXXX, that I thought it was cool. He said the encryption part was old tech — that the economics behind Bitcoin was what mattered. That comment stuck with me, but it all felt overwhelming. I dropped it and forgot about it.

2017:

My cousin XXXX said, “We should all get into Bitcoin — it only goes up.” I dismissed it as a bubble.

April 2020:

Covid boredom plus my interest in trading stocks pulled me back toward crypto. I opened a Coinbase account and bought Ethereum — my first-ever crypto. I read articles on Coinbase but barely understood anything. Somewhere I heard about a “halving” coming up for Bitcoin, so I started reading what that meant.

May–Nov 2020:

Traded random crypto coins and basically broke even. Started listening to What Bitcoin Did podcast. The guest “Shinobi” hooked me immediately — something about how he explained things. I checked prices constantly, even on vacation. Still thought Bitcoin was too high to buy, so I stuck with other coins.

Nov 2020:

PayPal added Bitcoin. I bought my first couple hundred dollars at $18K. Started devouring What Bitcoin Did episodes and other Bitcoin podcasts. One guest flipped the switch for me — it all clicked. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Suddenly everything about money, history, and value felt different. I re-read parts of Sapiens, watched every documentary on money and Bitcoin I could find, and my brain wouldn’t shut off.

Nov 2020–Feb 2021:

Every. Single. Night. I stayed up reading about Bitcoin until I fell asleep — Kindle downloads, Twitter threads, old econ books, computer science papers. Talked out loud about it to XXXX (mostly while they were asleep). I put every spare dollar into Bitcoin as it climbed. Sold stocks to buy more. Bought some ETH around $700. I was obsessed.

Feb 2021:

Took out a HELOC to try an arbitrage idea: earn yield on BlockFi and pay it down with interest. DMed “Shinobi” on Twitter — he actually replied and walked me through setting up cold storage. Wild times.

2021:

At that point, every conversation I had circled back to crypto within five minutes. Got friends and coworkers to buy Bitcoin. Managed small amounts for family. Moved most of my holdings offline and made them hard to sell. Gritted through crashes, fought off doubt. Sold a little too much in mid-2021 but still at a profit. Hated watching USD hit my bank account while my BTC cost basis rose. Moved more to cold storage. Bought a Ledger for ETH (never used it, ended up selling ETH near the top). Wrote notes on how Brittany could access wallets if something happened to me. Yield arbitrage was done as BlockFi slashed returns.

Sept 2021:

Debated selling Bitcoin to pay off the HELOC, but yields were gone and prices dropped. On Sept 7, BTC crashed from $52K to $40K fast. Without hesitation, I bought more at $46K BTC and $3,600 ETH. I knew one day my kids and Brittany would laugh at all the stress I had over selling. That moment clarified something: I’m happy whether Bitcoin is worthless or priceless. I finally understood money isn’t real the way I once thought — and I wanted to contribute to this world while it still feels new.

Oct 2021:

Bitcoin breaks $60K. I only sell a little. ETH hits $4K, I trim some. Make a huge percentage gain in SHIB (down to my last million coins). Still hold around XXX BTC. Plan to sell a little at $75K and $100K just to pay off the HELOC but keep the rest long-term.

Dec 2021:

Macro uncertainty, big weekend crash. Bought more around $47–48K for me and my parents.

March 2022:

Moved everything off BlockFi and exchanges into cold storage. Closed out cards. Didn’t trust custodians anymore.

June 2022:

BTC crashes from $30K to $17K. Bought more on the way down.

Nov 2022:

HELOC finally paid off without selling Bitcoin — just cutting back and grinding through. FTX collapses. BlockFi freezes cards, but I only had $30 on there because it felt sketchy months earlier. Nearly all my Bitcoin is in cold storage. Start reading about multisig and Bitcoin’s OP scripting. Deep dive into mempool mechanics.

Dec 2022:

Tidying up my setup. Exploring Lightning Network — it’s fascinating.

Jan 2023:

Got my full node running through myNode, integrated with Electrum. Verified transactions using my own node.

Feb 2023:

Experimented with Lightning node setup and started using Nostr via the Damus app.

Late 2024:

Bitcoin breaks $100K. I sell a tiny bit at $101K just because I promised myself I would. Parents tell me to sell about a quarter of their holdings, maybe the same for Grandma’s. I handle it but hate selling. Around this time, Trump and his son start talking about “buying Bitcoin for a US reserve fund” — ridiculous idea.

Aug 2025:

Bitcoin around $115K. Node running perfectly with bigger storage. No altcoins. No trading. Just Bitcoin.