In the early 2010s, Bitcoin was still a mystery to most, but I was one of the few who stumbled upon it. Back then, I was just a teenager with a passion for gaming. My hardware was modest: a 9600 GSO graphics card, which I used for both gaming and Bitcoin mining. It wasn’t much, but it was something. My interest grew when I heard about the legendary Butterfly Labs mining rigs. These machines were powerful, but they came at a price—both in dollars and in sacrifices. The one I had my eye on didn’t even have a display output, meaning I'd have to give up gaming, which I loved. I asked my dad if he could help me get one, but he refused, thinking it was just a passing phase.
Bitcoin continued its slow climb, and by 2015, when the price hit $300, I asked my dad again if we could buy some. His answer was still "no." But the idea of Bitcoin stuck with me. I was captivated by its potential, so I decided to find a way on my own.
In 2017, I invested in a Bitmain D3 mining rig. It wasn’t for Bitcoin, though—it was for mining Dash, a cryptocurrency with its own unique technology and community. The rig mined on the X11 algorithm and promised decent profits in the beginning. I even managed to gather enough for my first BTC, which I bought when it was priced around $2,000 to $3,000. But before my machine even arrived, the first wave of rigs had hit the market, and the profitability plunged overnight. By the time I was ready to start, the daily returns had dropped to less than a dollar. I canceled my order, and, luckily, got a refund. But by then, Bitcoin’s price had nearly doubled.
We had only money for 0.87 BTC and we requested to seller to make it 1 BTC for some little extra cash and he was kind enough to agree to our request and later as you can see he sent us 0.12 BTC.
I gave him some tips about mining and all the big machines like Bitmain etc.
With part of the refund in Bitcoin, I had to give the 0.48 something odd to my friend as we both took one coin half was his and half was mine. I now had about 0.45 BTC. I joined Discord groups, exploring new projects and making small investments here and there. I found coins like Pure and Sigil, among others. I even did some mining with a GTX 970, building up small stacks of various coins. Each coin had its own community and promise, and I was convinced I’d struck gold. I believed they’d increase in value over time, so I held onto them rather than converting to BTC or cash. But the market had other plans; those coins eventually lost value or vanished altogether.
I invested more in Masternodes, POS coins, I still have those wallet backups IDA, Geek, Stipend and many many more. I invested and bought many many coins. I was also able to mine Raven the same hour or day the mainnet was launched with a CPU and i was able to get my hands on a GPU miner few hours later and with my 970 i was able to mine 12000 Raven coin in just few hours. There is a interesting story behind the GPU miner. Will share it sometime.
One of my fondest memories—and a bittersweet one today—was using Dogecoin for daily purchases. Back then, Doge was something of a novelty coin. I would use thousands of Doge for groceries, never thinking it would one day skyrocket. Now, looking back at those transactions, I can’t help but feel a mix of nostalgia and regret.
Today, my wallet is empty. The Bitcoin and Doge I once held are gone, spent or lost to the market’s endless fluctuations. Seeing how things have changed since then, there’s a sense of melancholy in knowing what could have been. But my journey with Bitcoin isn’t just about financial gains or losses—it’s about the stories, the communities, and the lessons learned.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this and feel like sharing or tipping, here’s my wallet address: 1JvqY6BX5NZxLGwhT9E5ikoY2FkrNfeMQS. If you all are interested, I have more stories each with its own twists and turns in the world of crypto.
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