Let me begin, i think my story is probably the opposite way round than most people:

I study computer science and concentrated on IT Sec and Cryptography in my masters study. At the same time I started working in finance.

So all the puzzle pieces were there long before I heard of Bitcoin: I knew PoW, I could calculate Hashes and Signatures etc., I understood fiat and hard money, I knew how markets moved and how banks create m3 money.

I don't remember when I first heard about Bitcoin. But I remember that my tipping point I was on my own sunken into my thoughts. I wasn't convinced by anybody, I did not get orange pilled by a Youtube video, Twitter or a Podcast - The pieces fell into one another like a big heureka moment and I was like "Oh my god" and honestly I was anxiety panicking in the first moment.

It was 2010 I was playing Eve online and Goonswarm was talking about bitcoin.

I got offered a job by a bitcoin exchange back in 2015 and I didn't take it but the CEO orange pilled me and I've been into it ever since

I first used BTC in 2013 to buy things online... I knew it was a powerful tech... But I was finally orange pilled by Andreas Antonopolous in 2017. Dabbled with alts and icos until finally by 2020, I saw the light that beetcorn is the only one that matters. Now I'm a toxic maxi.

In 2009 as Paypal were blocking donations to torrent sites. Didn't really take it seriously until later though.

I first heard about Bitcoin in 2012 on SlashDot. And then maybe also saw the Bitcoin ticker displayed next to Oil and Gold on Russia Today around the same time. Once I saw that RT was showing it, and not BBC and CNN, I knew it was something big. But I was too stupid to realize just how big. I bought 1.126 BTC for $50 in 2013, and sold it 3 months later for $100. Stupid stupid stupid. On top of that with some .2 BTC that I considered useless change, I ordered a V for Vendetta mask online and lost around .1 to an online poker game. So stupid! I had even installed a miner software on my laptop and could have cranked out 100s of bitcoins, but....stupid, oh so stupid.

Text from a friend to buy.

i was ex-pat in a country with tight capital controls. friend was visiting, and i had a stack of cash... told friend "here's all the cash you need for your visit, pay me back btc when you get back home"

handsome profit, but i sold it all :'(

years later i began stacking in earnest. now it's an everyday all the time sort of obsession.

Heard this Radiolab podcast on ZCash. Got serious about figuring out what the hell this thing called Bitcoin, that I ignored in the news 3 times before over 5 years, was all about.

First purchase was Ethereum, then Bitcoin, then some ZCash on Kraken way back in the day. Briefly got into day trading, lost a bunch of money. Bitcoin only, now, obviously. But, all the while kept learning, improving, reading technical books (now learning C++), getting better at programming.

But the tipping point is always curiosity, IMO. Steve jobs was wrong, it's not "stay hungry," it's "stay curious". The tipping point to evil is often thinking one's model of understanding is on a plateau.

Funny story. I gut into the tech first and it took me a long time to get the monetary idea.

The German einundzwanzig community (especially the podcast) and the German YouTube channel "Blocktrainer" were big for me.

The Bitcoin Standard Book has a line that was more or less: "History has shown multiple times that nobody can insulate himself from the harder money". We are still early.

It probably was Molyneux that influenced me to look into it

My story is very simple. Bitcoin = because FUCK BANKS. In 2012 I went to buy some beers and I met a friend that was mining BTC. He sold me 1BTC and I paid it with beer money. Went home and wife asked me: where are the beers? I said: I met x friend and I drink with him all beers. I never stop stacking sats from then. BECAUSE FUCK BANKS.

I remember looking at all the asset options and was like whats up with this bitcoin thing i hear so much about it I already had a good understanding of Austrian economics and it just made sense. Also went to BTC 21 n hung with a bunch of toxics that showed me truth saw problems I didn't like moved all in to the big orange coin and never looked back baybeeeee!