My Bitcoin Goals in 2023

I have a confession to make.

Ethereum was the first altcoin that I bought. It was June 2021; I can’t remember now how much one BTC cost. But I recall shaking my head in resignation, thinking that I would never be able to “compete” for BTC with the rest and settled for what I thought was second best.

Fortunately, I came to my senses soon enough. I was a father of a toddler and believed that Bitcoin had the best chance of meaningful adoption. Hence, even if I felt inadequate, I needed to jump into the warring pool and accumulate some Bitcoin so that I would gain first-person insights into the genesis of the digital asset world. Bonus points if I could accumulate at least one BTC so that I could pass it down to him.

But really, I was never too besotted with BTC. I acquired it because I thought I had to. However, I didn’t favour it particularly.

All this changed in December 2022. I have been dabbling with the Lightning Network, having downloaded sMiles and Carrot and accumulated those precious sats. I was even resourceful enough to recruit six people to join the 21 Days of Bitcoin organised by Bitcoin Magazine, which netted me 2100 sats in referral fees on my Carrot app. However, I was naive. My first LN withdrawal was a disaster because I willingly paid 7000 sats to facilitate the transaction from the Wallet of Satoshi to my Gemini account. I erroneously thought that the LN was atrociously expensive.

On hindsight, I had done it all wrong. If I carried out an on-chain transaction with the WoS, of course I should be expected to pay so much sats. However, if I were to stay within the LN, making LN payments would only cost me a few sats. I arrived at this understanding after discovering Stacker News and spending time to absorb all things about BTC and the LN. That December also led me to uncover many interesting ways of getting sats: Vestly, Apollo, and even R/Bitcoin. It was like the Lightning Network was a dynamic and adventurous world that I had the good fortune to stumble upon. So I was hooked on getting myself familiarised with all these methods of stacking sats.

I know it’s bad practice to feel emotionally attached to an investment, but I’m really loving the LN. And I don’t see how an emotional involvement with the LN would do me any harm anyway - not when I’m having fun getting sats and tipping other people. I am enjoying using part of my sats pool to tip posts that I find enlightening on Stacker News and Reddit. I strive to collect more sats so that I can give people more generous tips in future.

The existence of Apollo also makes me enthusiastic about trying out all the BTC products out there. I know 200 sats for a published review isn’t a lot, but it appeals to the creative side of me who lives to write. Being able to share my experience with kindred spirits motivates me to accumulate my BTC in a way that ignites the fire within me. So exciting!

In sum, these are my BTC goals this year. To get my hands wet with BTC-related products, gain sats by talking about them, keep some for myself (and my son) and tip others the rest. I will dedicate myself to these goals wholeheartedly!