My name is Carlos, I have a lopsided grin, i walk kinda funny, i like to joke with people who know me but everyone else would say i'm mean looking. I’m a Bitcoiner and this is how I got there.

in 2024 I work long days in construction and save a little to my stash with a couple of bucks on a good day and none on a bad. I live in a private rental, small and damp but it’s quiet and somewhere to lay my head. I’m at college in the evening and have certainly come to enjoy study in the shadows more than work in the day. Broke my leg in a work accident, but you can’t claim sickness if you weren’t on the books, so I limp about, ride a jackhammer until I can’t feel my hands which is my cue to start shovelling. I read a lot, write a little and keep to myself as I don’t trust people and wouldn't expect them to trust me. I have $200 in BTC. I want to live and seize the opportunity but some days I struggle to survive.

in 2020 I got a compensation cheque over a ‘miscarriage of justice’ but really it was ‘misappropriation of blame’ - was only $3k but i put it into crypto. Lockdown came and there was no work so I spent what I had to eat and ‘invested’ the rest. I ended up jumping into the shallow end from a high board, trusted the wrong people, watched too many of the wrong type of influencers and lost everything. I don’t know where those years went and the Bitcoin opportunity walked on by in plain view.

in 2016 I was released from prison having served 3 years for aggravated assault. A difference of opinion where he thought I was someone I wasn’t, pushed me and I pushed him back, he fell onto a low wall and smashed his head. The police came and cracked my eyesocket and knocked 2 of my teeth out for good measure. During the trial I could feel myself falling further than he ever did, his family had money and a desire to prove he wasn’t in the wrong, it put me on the other side of the equation. On my release I was living in temporary accommodation and my room mate used to pawn DVDs and CDs for Bitcoin, how he ended up with so many box sets of Game Of Thrones I don’t know and didn’t ask. I passed my days in the betting shop, they knew me and left me alone as I absentmindedly watched the races while never placing a bet. There was a machine in the corner and kids smelling of cannabis came in and fed crumpled banknotes into it, receipts ‘for internet money’ the woman behind the counter said. I have $50 courtesy of prison. The Bitcoin opportunity passed me by and I was too bitter at the Government to notice.

in 2012 I was out of the military and doing a resettlement course hoping to go to college. I was working as a fitness instructor part-time, my money went on food and travel but I was loving the new challenge. I read an article about uses for a Rapsberry Pi and wanted to try my hand, but the kits were expensive and who knew if Bitcoin mining was going to catch on. So I let the opportunity pass me by, but I took note and was going to look into it when I got to college.

My name was Carl, I had an easy grin, i walked with swagger, I loved to joke with people and wanted to meet everyone and hear their story. I wasn’t a Bitcoiner yet, but the world was going to make me one.