My journey with Bitcoin has been long and in the process I've learned a lot, mainly about money and its meaning in the global landscape. I've been following Bitcoin since the genesis block, not with the same intensity as in recent years, but I've been here since the beginning. Initially I thought it was a scam to fool people, then I became a miner and got robbed by the pool. I gave up for a few years but came back around 2017. Bitcoin has taught me that price is not the most important thing because Bitcoin is a fundamental revolution in the way we relate to money. I've also learned to respect and listen to the opinions of those more experienced. I believe that we should enjoy the appreciation of Bitcoin, spending it on things we need but without the need to show off signs of wealth. The price volatility helps to keep humility in check.

If you go all the way back to my first post, you will realise that I have actually written about SWEATCOIN. I’m not gonna waste your precious cognitive energy by explaining this shitcoin, but this much is clear. I was once a fickle-minded “investor”, always chasing after the hottest coins in hopes for quick bucks.

Expectedly, a Stacker yelled at me for promoting shitcoins. But I chalked it down to the BTC Maxi toxicity. People here are just too far entrenched in the rabbit hole that they cannot see the value of other coins.

I didn’t learn my lesson and subsequently gathered a long list of misadventures:

During this period, I was also getting more involved in Stacker News, posting the occasional news about BTC’s price action. I expected fervent approval and lots of “wen lambo” comments, but my calculated posts fell on deaf ears. Maybe if I try hard enough, I could hear crickets singing.

And then it hit me that Stackers weren’t engrossed in BTC’s price because they held themselves to a higher order: selling fiat to buy BTC. Some of them even got paid in BTC and used their remuneration to settle their real life bills. Why is there a need for BTC to pump when they live defiantly off the chains of fiat?

Their cheerful nonchalance for sats was also manifested in how they applied labour of love and wrote long messages. Surely this is not the behaviour of “investors” trying to game a few sats. I gradually learnt about proof of work and value for value. The Bitcoiners whom I dismiss as closed-minded people subscribed to old-school values such as diligence and self-respect. I had a lot to learn from them.

I probably won’t yell at a newcomer for posting about shitcoins, but I would be delighted if someone considers me to be a BTC Maxi. As Stackers may say, “sooner or later, we all go back to the mothership.”

Mainly that a complete lack of humility is a common trait of anti-bitcoin types.

People who are invested in the old paradigm of trusting financial experts and betting on Traditional American Brands and Regulatory Certainty and Safe Havens like to humiliate forward-thinking, knowledgable, optimistic people who understand economics, technology, politics, and coding.

Totally nothing.