Why I did not buy Bitcoin?

In 2010, I learned about such a phenomenon as cryptocurrency, and, like any other interesting technology, this to some extent captured my mind. But it so happens that the brain is not delighted with any technology, and in this case especially, and I have something to tell.



In this article, I am not going to once again consider the technological features, compare cryptocurrencies and Fiat, put pressure on the consciousness with specific numbers of possible benefits, oh no. Just talk about what cognitive distortions all the time prevented me from buying cryptocurrency. Perhaps, if you find them at home, then some issues can be clarified (in any direction). And if you do not find it, then most likely you know what to do even without these reflections. Another advertisement? Well yes. In marketing form? Well no.

"Why I did not buy bitcoin on the stock exchange" (2010)

Anyway, during the entire time from 2010 I met people, notes, or information codes about cryptocurrency in various other forms, and sometimes it attracted attention. Once a friend told me, “hey, have you heard about such a thing as bitcoin? They say this is an interesting investment, because in a couple of months it has already grown by 10%. ” This is how many per annum, I thought, 50%? Wow, this is definitely worth a look.



In fact, the exchanges of that time were clumsy and uncomfortable. I admit, when I first went to BitcoinMarket.com I did not even understand what to click. Well, really, where is the big “exchange” button? Later, I began to realize that in order to exchange something, you need to have something, and somehow it is something you must first enter, and this is a separate quest with its own subtleties, and, having tormented Google for an hour, my motivation has been exhausted. Too many incomprehensible words, phenomena, and processes that I could not trust.



What I thought: "Some sort of nonsense, that's enough for me"

What I told others: This is something too specific, it seems that nobody needs it. And he didn’t really want to talk like that, there is something else to talk about.



What actually happened: my basic training in the field of finance was clearly not enough.

Even now, I begin a paragraph with the words "in fact." Although it was so? Well, at least I still want to think that this is the case.

"Do not buy so nain" (2010)

I added a note on the word “mining” to the bookmarks while I was still studying the first issue of cryptocurrency. Then some free time appeared, and I decided to return to the question. It seems that money can be generated, it sounds interesting, but at the same time suspicious. How so, money out of nothing? I have always been told that it does not happen that money, they say, is the equivalent cost of labor, and you cannot sell something if it does not produce something. However, the notes, of course, were not on this topic, but something about mining software. At that time, as a programmer with five years of experience, I decided that I would deal with the programs. It's very simple, we download and run the miner, and the money starts to drip into the account, so at least they write. In the end, I downloaded something, but it did not work. Yeah, it says he needs a wallet address. How to get the wallet address? Yeah, you need to put the client and generate it. It did not scare me, naturally. And I downloaded the bitcoin core. For some reason, it didn’t start up on the first attempt, and remember what I changed in the configuration, but it worked, on the second attempt. And I was very unpleasantly surprised that I started counting some hours (or rather days, but then the number began to decrease faster than in real time) before the synchronization was completed. How is that even? Yes, during this time I can download the whole series, not one series, but the whole season. No, I'll wait, no problem. Only the browser began to dull obnoxiously, and what else to occupy myself I did not invent. “Well, no, no!”, I thought, I do not want to score my computer with some incomprehensible nonsense, and the client closed it.



What I thought: "Well, to hell with it, still free cheese only in a mousetrap"

What I told others: The technology is raw and geeky. What should people do in life so that they all like it? By the way, did you know that free cheese is only in a mousetrap?



What actually happened: I am impatient, this is my particular feature, well, and I still had, and not nearly advanced iron at that moment.

"Wow, he has grown 100 times!" (2011)

We covered this topic with a friend at a regular meeting in billiards. By that time (closer to mid-2011), the BTC rate had already reached $ 1.0 per coin, which was an excellent information guide in the media: it even leaked onto relatively popular technical resources. "So what do you think you will buy?" “Yes, it would be nice though,” I replied. “But no one gives any guarantee, suddenly the course will go down now, and you just throw out the money? How much would you put on it? Further conversations have come about that it is most reasonable to bet amounts that are not sorry, not afraid to lose. It was only then that I was afraid to lose any penny! I decided that the amounts of tens of dollars can hardly make a state: simple arithmetic.



I invest $ 10, the rate is growing 100 times (but I, of course, did not believe in it), and I have $ 1000. Is it a lot for me? No, not at all, programmer salaries were already significantly more then. Life will not change.



I invest $ 100, the rate drops to zero (I thought this was likely), and the hell is very disappointing. This, by the way, is the cost of a very decent vidyahi at that time.



What I thought: Maybe I'd rather just buy vidyahu and I will not think about it?

What I said: I will think about it.



What actually happened: greed is not a vice, but really a real obstacle. I looked at the loss more vividly than at the winnings. My self-confidence was mainly based on the absence of “losses”, and not on “cool victories”, and this cannot be bought back for money. Got scared? No, a bit is not the combination of words, but I think this psychology can be understood.

“I will think about it” (2011)

While I was thinking about this (well, that is, of course, about everything, anything, but not about this), the course somehow miraculously jumped another 30 times, in just two months. Honestly, I would not want to know about it, but if you are browsing the Internet, you often come across different things, for example, I would very much like to see some images.



I really did not want to know about it. It was a disappointment.



"I could have ..." here is my thought. This is the first meeting in life with lost profits. No, of course it happened anyway before, for example, a good vacancy, where you were not taken.



"How much could I earn if I worked there, oh." “But it could not have earned it!”, And really, who will foresee all the complex factors? But here the situation was different, there were no complicated factors. Here is the rate of $ 1, but $ 30, and everything else - has not changed. This is the real “if”, among all “if”.



I screwed up. The bottom line: I do not have Bitcoins, but now there is disappointment. The real "loss", as I felt it myself.



What I thought: Well, to hell with him! You never know where you will find, where you will lose.

What I started to say: Bitcoin is some kind of lottery



What actually happened: Nothing. The course has grown 30 times, that's all that happened. It happens.

“Ha ha ha” (2011)

Now I had a real motivation to follow the news about the Bitcoin course, to prove, first of all to myself, that I am right, and this is nothing more than a lottery. I was still sure that I did not make any serious mistakes in my life, and even more so in financial planning, as a simple particular, in which, as it seemed to me, any high school graduate should be well versed.



And he who seeks will find. By the end of the year, the rate fell to $ 2 per coin, 15 (!) Times.

Ha ha ha. Naive! They are already in champagne there, probably all swam, and now are ruined! Ha ha ha. Yes, I am probably a bad person.



What I thought: ha ha ha!

What I started to say: Bitcoin is like a sports lot, for very naive and desperate.



What actually happened was a correction, although I did not know such a word before.

"..." (2011-2012)

Now all this again became absolutely not interesting to me, even for a long time. Yes, I occasionally met with regular notes on the Bitcoin course, but now it didn’t worry me so much. Somehow, out of boredom and curiosity, I figured out about how the exchanges work, what volatility is, what a correction is, well, or I thought I did. Because there was no practical motivation to do something about it. But, all the same, I overlooked the whitepaper of Bitcoin, and although not everyone understood it, but some technical points became clearer. Well, the technology and technology that is in it; I was good at understanding the DBMS, and in the context of this, the description of the blockchain seemed cool. Of course, the merkle tree is a cool “hack” as I saw it then, but the rest was not impressed. No, it’s not at all necessary to think that I was just doing this. Once a month or two, when I got on Wikipedia and “accidentally poked the wrong link”.

What I said: yes the same as before. Sometimes, of course, in a conversation with geeks something also surfaced about technology, and in some places it was interesting, without prejudice.



What actually happened: well, I guess I was growing up a bit. For this period, I can not even write the title.

“Are you mine?” (Beginning of 2013)

Once a friend asked me if I was mine. I laughed that “adults do not ask about such things, but, in any case, no more than twice a day.” I don’t know what exactly he wanted to know, but I wondered why, actually, why not? Now I already understood something about these technologies, something about my past omissions. Then it happens “by itself”: OK, download the client, ok, now we synchronize the blockchain, yeah, now we register on the exchange, ready, now, wait, wait, what is the pool? That is, complexity has grown so much? That is, not any video card is already suitable?

No, okay, okay, I will not indulge in the mistakes of the past, here is a profit calculator, here is a store with accessories, and in the end, I still wanted to play in the new Dead Space. So, the pool, aha, the video card aha, the miner aha, does not start, aaaag, it started up, well.



Now I am mine!

True interest dropped noticeably when I saw the electricity bill. Wait, wait, do people have to pay for it themselves? Well, yes, of course, of course. I had to subtract expenses from the profit, and from the feeling that “I am a good fellow” - some significant constant. How much profit is there, $ 20 per month? (the dollar rate was then below 30 rubles, if that)



What I thought: Yes, I have the same salary 100 times more. Well, why is all this then?

What I said: Mining is not profitable. Well, that is, once it was profitable, but now everything is, the train has left.



What actually happened: Other interests in life. So with all happens. You can look at it from different points of view, and from the point of view of psychology I decided for myself an unsolved problem - I figured it out. He won, calmed down.

Ignorance gives strength only when you do not even know what exactly you do not know, and when you have already learned, you need to do something about it.

“What the hell ?!” (end of 2013)

Less than a year, and the course has jumped by a factor of 10, now transcending a significant psychological bar of $ 1,000. “If I continued mining, then I would have already ... money,” is my first thought. Again, lost profit, but this time it was not just next to me, but it would have been with me, in my face, in my pocket if I hadn’t done anything. Why did I take down the software, stopped mining, what really disturbed me? Inaction (or indecision) can also be a good strategy? Oh, some kind of nonsense, I can not believe it.



What I thought: @ # $% ^ & *!

What I said: Yes @ # $% ^ & * it is all @ # $% ^ & *!



What actually happened: you had to rest more, work less, give your little head to air. Real economic processes are damn complex, and a couple of sluggish convolutions do not cover them. This is not at all what to buy bread in the store. And inaction and truth can be quite a good strategy. And in the modern social and fast world few can teach you this.

“I will manage somehow without these your bitcoins” (2014)

After all, this seems to be a feature of a rational person - not to mess with something that does not bring pleasure , and moreover, brings chaos and disappointment. The world in many aspects is complex, not perfect, unpleasant, but in fact no one forces us to climb there.

This is what I said to myself, then said more than once, and finally I really began to think so .



What I said: first, nothing about cryptocurrencies. See the article? Scrolled through . See the comment on the topic? Scrolled through . Start talking about it around you? Keep quiet .

What actually happened: the rate fluctuated, falling to hundreds of dollars and rising to thousands. Is this something important? I do not know.

“Or not get along?” (End 2014)

At that time, the economic crisis, as it is called, hit Russia. The dollar grew in relation to the ruble by a few percent a day; my not-so-large state was melting before my eyes. Well, that is, this was not the only problem. But something else you can try to change yourself, but something not. At this moment I began to seriously consider the probability of buying cryptocurrencies. Well, that is how seriously, seriously - this is a word in which you usually make a more serious face, and force yourself to create panic first, somewhere deep inside, and then suppress. I have not learned anything new during this time either about cryptocurrencies, or about the banking system, or about money in principle. And I remembered that I did not want to create unnecessary psychological problems for myself, again associating with the fact that I had been so disappointed earlier. And still did not believe that I, in a certain sense, am obliged to learn so many different things to improve my standard of living.



So, after sitting with a serious face for a couple of days, my choice fell not at all on cryptocurrency, on real estate. Someone would say, it's incredibly stupid to buy an apartment in a crisis, but this is also because he probably didn’t study the question too well. I knew that there would be options being sold urgently and cheaply, simply because people urgently need money in order to change something in their lives in changing conditions, and such options were found, despite the fact that average rates per square meter .m were frankly bad.



It is not without reason that I jumped off the topic, although this does not apply to cryptocurrency directly, but this experience has taught me a lot. It was terrible. First, waste options were offered from private traders (of course), with the majority of which banks did not contribute. Forget about how many of these options were simply unreliable, for the sake of studying the demand, did garbage at all, and how many of the remaining ones simply did not suit. But, and nice too. The thing is, have you often run with millions in your pocket around the city? The appointment of meetings at the bank, not always at a convenient time for you, exchangers (yes, some of the savings were in foreign currency) with random rates (well, you booked the course, so what, see what the situation is now), and actually collect the entire amount from yourself It turned out to be not the most trivial, at least emotionally, process. Should I pack money in my pockets or put them in a backpack (I, of course, did not consider bags). Whether to call a taxi home or walk a bit (the probability of a taxi driver-intruder didn’t seem to be zero, but people on the streets are also dangerous). From a legal point of view, I worked on aspects of the purchase itself (or rather, it seemed to me so), but this also does not mean that everything seemed reliable. To transfer money through a bank cell, but can I trust the bank for one hundred percent? At that moment, the absence of a clause stating that the property of the cell insured for its value could not be pleasing. What will happen in steps if the transaction stretches indefinitely? Does this piece of paper from a notary have enough power to challenge unpleasant options in court? How can I check this? I can even consult with people of different degrees of competence in this matter, but can I trust them? How, in the end, should I roll back the transaction, if some minimum amount has already been deposited with the agency, and it clearly does not intentionally lose it (and has probably already spent it)? Perhaps you will say that I am naive, and it was worth paying attention to other moments, but how do I know which ones? I do not understand this technology in the smallest detail, but I really needed to use it and rather urgently.



Everything ended well, but I will buy the next apartment only through the blockchain, something like this: the seller signs with his key the intention to sell the object (in his property) with the identifier for such and such, for the cost of such and such. Then he receives a translation, and at the same time, the very fact of the implementation of intentions and the transfer of ownership. The payment itself is the proof of the transaction. Two steps. The third step, if you need a lack of mutual claims (and it is necessary, yes). This, and everything else can be done without leaving the computer. It's still stressful, of course, when you manage the sums or property accumulated over the years of your life, but this stress, at least, does not stretch over months (!).



Do you still think (if you thought so) that cryptocurrency is another conditionally useless technology?



I've stopped. Before that, all the time I somehow thought only about the speculative benefit of working with cryptocurrencies, but after, or in the process of a real estate transaction, I already understood what I consider to be the most important. And I will deliberately leave it in the form of conditional intrigue, for understanding is not equal to knowledge, and perhaps it may be wrong (yes, I mean my own).



For me, the puzzle was going, but, ironically, there were no significant savings to buy cryptocurrency, realizing its investment value, there was no possibility.

“Understanding” (2015)

In fact, it is much easier to “understand” something when you have no intention of doing anything. Or opportunities, but the opportunity can be created using intentions. And this year was hard for me, or I wanted to think that it was difficult for one reason or another, but there was no money for the crypt. But they were on small repairs, new sofas, great gadgets, and other good things that you shouldn’t deny yourself, even if you know that there is somewhere a good investment option. I do not think this is some kind of cognitive disorder. A good decision can wait.

The Bitcoin rate floated around $ 200-500 per coin, but is it really important? If he quickly went to the moon, I would probably buy it faster, even realizing that this is not an absolutely correct decision. But everything was relatively calm.



Finishing a cool story, in 2016 I did decide, and the amount came up, and there were no difficulties with the acquisition. I thought many times in moments, but was it too late for me to hop on the train? I do not undertake to evaluate it, but I still believe that I will buy the next apartment through the blockchain , and every day it becomes more and more real.