I bought my first Bitcoin in 2011, and it has served me well. My rationale behind buying it had nothing to do with future value speculation. It was more to do with how I can pay subcontractors that worked for me in countries that didn't have a reciprocal banking agreement with the USA. Trying to may a guy who was in Bangladesh, writing code for me that was quality and yet was living in poverty, was insane. I spent years driving around to Western Unions and having to pay extortion fees with banks to pay him. Then we discovered Bitcoin and the world changed. I bought a LOT of it back then. Thankfully I held onto it, but in 2017 I sold my holdings, wrote Uncle Sam a big check and paid off my house.
Why did I leave it then? Because of humans. The tipping point for me was watching a John Oliver comedy skit on his "Last Week Tonite" show that demonstrated just how f-d up people got over the speculation and price increases, without realizing that this was a tool that could equalize trade and remove govt control from people that just wanted to sell goods & services to each other.
I still believe in it. I believe more in the reason behind it, and the importance that decentralization has to our own freedom. It doesn't have to be Bitcoin. It has to be something that is truly decentralized, unable to be controlled by any entity and something that can be adopted by the average person. The fact that most BTC mining is being done in China scares the crap out of me to be honest. And I read today that Iran just gave BTC mining the thumbs up, which suggests that US government will come down hard on it, citing Iran's use as some reason why it is evil and only being used by terrorists and child molesters. This is not the truth, and we all know it. But grandma doesn't and if she listens to the lies being spewed about this, then we lose adoption.
So I'm not sure where this goes, but right now what little BTC I have left is going to pay for some medical tourism I'm needing in Guadalajara, Mexico, where I am heading off to get major shoulder surgery and reconstruction done. Why? Because I don't trust the US medical cartels and their 10x charging methods. I'm almost tempted to get my shoulder surgery done ($9K in GDL vs. $120K in Arizona BTW), and then get a tattoo with a big arrow to my shoulder and the price variation on there for all to see.
Anyway that's my rant. Hope this opens up some interesting discussion.
Myles
