In 2014, I bought bitcoin when it was priced in he $600 range. I bought it out of curiousity and hype. I still remember the day.

I was sitting a work. The day was about to end.

I just created a Coinbase account. And I pushed the buy button.

I turned to my coworker and said “I just bought some bitcoin!”

I was so proud of myself. I felt like I had just joined a secret society. An unknown world. And it felt cool to be an outsider but also an insider.

After purchasing bitcoin, I remember applying to cryptocurrency jobs. I wanted to be a part of something new. And crypto was cool.

Not everyone understood it (I still really don’t). But it was catching on.

I read about Fred Ersham and Brian Armstrong, and how they quit their jobs and moved to San Francisco to start Coinbase. I learned about Satoshi Nakamoto and wondered who he really was. I read about Mt. Gotx and Silk Roads and Ross Ulbritch. I was learning more about bitcoin.

I even had this crazy idea of joining some meet up grounds in NYC about Bitcoin but never did. And I registered a domain to write about bitcoin, believing that I could be part of something early and grow a brand. But I never pursued it.

I forgot about crypto as quick as I bought it. I was too focused on changing careers that I focused on that. I don’t regret it. But I do.

If I would have dove more into bitcoin and cryptocurrency, maybe I would have understood it better. I had no idea that the number of coins would never grow after being fully mined. I had no idea how mining even worked. And I didn’t understand what blockchain was or how this currency was a hedge against inflation.

I was curious, but I didn’t ask the right questions. And I never got the answers.

And because of that, I look back thinking what could have been.

I remember the bull run in 2017, I believe. Bitcoin was going crazy, everyone was talking about how it would go to $20k.

I told a few people I bought bitcoin back in the day and they thought I was some psychic that could tell the future. They thought I was rich and made a bunch of money. I was neither. But I did feel cool that I had some bitcoin and I didn’t envy others that had it, cause I already owned it.

I never sold my bitcoin. I think it peaked around $18-19k and then went back down to $3k. For me, it was never about making money. It was about owning something that was potentially going to be a big deal (even though I didn’t understand it).

Now, we are in the mist of a bull run. Bitcoin recently hit $42k and is now hovering around $33k as I write this. It was as low as $30k earlier and reports are trying to freak people out that there is a big sell off.

This time around, I started to dig deeper into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (mainly ethereum and litecoin), to see what they were all about.

A lot of investors are saying from the top the hill, Bitcoin will hit $500k by the end of the decade, 50k then 100k, there’s no stopping! This is digital gold! Stack satoshis!

Perhaps they’re right. The government prints so much money nowadays, I don’t even know what the real rate of inflation is. But I’ve learned through the years that the government likes to use monetary policy to help the market and economy…so my question now is, how will they view cryptocurrencies which are decentralized and there’s no magic button to just create more coins.

I like the idea of cryptocurrencies now. I think the blockchain is very unique and eliminates a lot of fraud issues. And getting rid of financial institutions that charge fees and slow down transaction processes such as money transfers and what not is great. I do not believe bitcoin will be the only digital currency but I do think a lot of the alternative coins are “shitcoins.”

I’m still holding or hodling as they say, cryptos and will probably continue to buy more over the course of the next year or two. I don’t know what will happen but just like 2014, I’d rather be in the game than out.