2011: The Beginning - First Encounters
Discovering Bitcoin on Slashdot & Ars Technica
- Back in 2011, I regularly read tech sites like Slashdot and Ars Technica. It was there that I first encountered stories about “crazy internet money.” As a long-time computer geek, I was:
- Skeptical but intrigued: I knew digital currencies were possible—ever heard of Flooz?!—but they never worked beyond the issuing entity
- Technically curious: The computer science problems that were simultaneously solved in Bitcoin were mindblowing…almost to an unbelievable level
- Early adopter: No, I’m not a hipster–can’t grow facial hair much at all–but I got interested in Bitcoin before it was cool
CPU Mining and First Loss
- Mining method: Used Bitcoin Core on CPU to mine directly to wallet.dat
- Success: Actually managed to mine some Bitcoin (was it really 50BTC then?!)
- The disaster: The wallet.dat file was corrupted and lost in a hard drive failure
- Lesson learned: Backups are not optional in Bitcoin
- Cost: Unknown amount (Bitcoin was worth pennies then, but priceless lesson)
2012: Outsmarting Myself
Losing A Wallet Password
After losing the previous wallet to a failed hard drive, I began regularly backing up my wallet file(s). However, I also put a password on the file. Let’s put a pin in that.
2013-2016: The Altcoin Exploration
2013: Dogecoin Experiment
- Discovery: Learned about “the memecoin to rule them all”
- Method: Used faucets to accumulate DOGE
- Experience: First introduction to crypto culture
2013: …And I Lost The Password
- Discovery: When trying to open the wallet on a restored machine, I realized I didn’t remember the password…on a wallet that had multiple Bitcoin
- Action: I contacted a wallet-recovery service for assistance in recovering the wallet
- Results: They were unable to recover the wallet
- Lesson learned: Remember your password
2014: Starting (Undisciplined) DCA
- Platform: Started monthly Bitcoin purchases on Coinbase
- Strategy: Dollar-cost averaging before it was cool
- Regularity: October 2014 marked the beginning of accumulation (but it certainly was not disciplined)
2014: BTC Hardware Wallet Upgrade #1
- Purchase: Trezor Model One
- Benefit: Finally had a reasonable signing solution for my Bitcoin (instead of a hard drive and backups)
2015: Ethereum Distraction
- The Turing complete revelation: “Wait, Ethereum is Turing complete?!”
- Path taken: My software development background led me down the “Bitcoin 2.0” rabbit hole
- Time sink: Spent way too much time on complex smart contracts
- Lesson: Sometimes simpler is better
2016: GPU Mining Era
- Platform: NiceHash for GPU mining profitability
- Focus: Mostly mining altcoins for Bitcoin profits
- Experience: Learned about mining profitability and hardware management
2017: ASIC Mining and the Trading Disaster
ASIC Mining Adventure
- Hardware: Got into ASIC mining, mostly Litecoin (L3++ machines)
- Strategy: Mining Litecoin to accumulate Bitcoin
- Complexity: Miner configurations, pools, exchanges, swaps: hard to manage & maintain
- Results: Accumulated Bitcoin at a discount
Gunbot Automated Trading Disaster
Feeling confident about my technical skills, I discovered automated trading bots:
- Platform: Gunbot - popular cryptocurrency trading bot
- Strategy: Automated grid trading for “passive income”
- Setup: Configured complex trading algorithms for Bitcoin and altcoins
- Initial success: Small profits that made me overconfident
The DeFi Trading Experiment
I got into early DeFi before “DeFi” was even a common term:
- Platforms: Various early decentralized exchanges
- Strategy: Automated arbitrage and liquidity provision
- Complexity: Multiple smart contract interactions
- Gas fees: Transactions were very expensive (especially when they failed!)
- Technical issues: Smart contract bugs and failed transactions
The Automated Trading Catastrophe
The combination of Gunbot and early DeFi trading was disastrous:
- Over-optimization: Configured overly aggressive trading parameters
- Market volatility: 2017 December crash wiped out automated positions
- Slippage losses: Automated trades executed at terrible prices
- Gas wars: Paid enormous fees during network congestion
- Smart contract failures: Lost funds in buggy early DeFi protocols
“Taking Profits”
Sometimes you’ve got to let it ride…
- The selling mistake: Started selling into the 2017 Bitcoin rally in August
- Compounded error: Kept selling through November
- Ultimate failure: Bought back in December (the absolute top)
The Total 2017 Damage
The year of “advanced trading” cost me dearly:
- Mining profits lost: Sold early, bought at peak
- Bot subscriptions: Hundreds of dollars–almost 1BTC since I bought the license during the lows that year–spent on Gunbot licenses
- Trading losses: Automated bot made terrible decisions during crash
- DeFi disasters: Lost funds in early smart contract failures
- Gas fees: Hundreds spent on failed transactions
- Psychological damage: Overconfidence leading to massive losses
The Psychology Problem
This was my first major psychological mistake compounded by technology:
- Paper hands: Sold during the rally instead of holding
- Overconfidence: Thought automated trading made me invincible
- FOMO buying: Bought back at the peak after selling low
- Complexity trap: Believed technology could beat simple discipline
- Lesson: Automation and complexity don’t replace patience and discipline
Lessons from the Trading Bot Era
- Automated trading is hard: Bots make mistakes just like humans
- Complexity adds risk: Every additional system adds failure points
- Early DeFi was dangerous: Smart contracts were experimental and buggy
- Gas fees matter: Automated trading can burn through fees quickly
- Simple beats complex: Dollar-cost averaging beats sophisticated algorithms
One (Somewhat) Good Decision: BTC Hardware Wallet Upgrade #2
- Purchase: Ledger Nano S
- Justification: Altcoins can’t be stored in a Trezor, so at least I put them in a hardware wallet…
- Problem: Mining directly to a hardware wallet creates a lot of problems, discussed elsewhere on this site
2018: The Altcoin Circus
Getting Overwhelmed
2018 was when crypto started getting really complex:
- Too many projects: Hundreds of new altcoins daily
- Information overload: Couldn’t keep up with developments
- Analysis paralysis: Too many choices, no clear direction
PoWH3D & UpStake
- The pyramid scheme: Got caught up in proof-of-weak-hands gamification of crypto
- The promise: High yields through gambling mechanisms
- Reality: Just sophisticated pyramid schemes with crypto dressing
- Lesson: Just buy and hold Bitcoin
2019: The First Major Security Loss
Celsius Yield Trap
- The mistake: Moved most crypto assets to Celsius for “yield”
- The thinking: “Free money” from lending my Bitcoin
- Reality: Centralized counterparty risk
- The scam: CEO was a scammer: I lost significant Bitcoin
- Lesson: Not your keys, not your Bitcoin (the hard way)
2020: Forced Savings and More Exchange Risk
401k Conversion
- Platform: Used iTrustCapital to convert retirement funds
- Investment: Significant retirement money converted to crypto
- Mistake repeated: Still leaving Bitcoin on exchange
- Risk: Centralized custodian with my life savings
The Pattern Recognition
Looking back, I see the pattern:
- Convenience over security: Always choosing easy over safe
- Trusting third parties: Assuming companies would protect me
- No proper backup: Still didn’t have secure backup systems
Heating My House with Miners
In the winter, I repurposed ASIC miners–mostly the L3++–for home heating:
- Low setup complexity: Plugged miners in and fed into the HVAC system
- Heating rebate: Cost of heating offset by Bitcoin accumulation
- Noise management: Custom firmware & modified fans
- Temperature monitoring: Automated systems to prevent overheating
2021: The Ultimate FOMO Disaster
Altcoin Scams
Wanting to make up for losses, I tripled down on mistakes:
- Elephant.money: “DeFi protocol” promising 1000x returns
- DRIP: Heavily endorsed high-yield project
- Multiple ‘degen’ tokens: In short, ponzis that generated yield for early adopters
- Opportunity Cost: Substantial Bitcoin sent to various scams
- Psychology: Trying to recover losses with bigger risks
- Result: More money lost to speculative nonsense
Home Mining Upgrade
I added electrical capacity to my garage to keep pipes from freezing:
- Upgraded electrical: Added a subpanel to the garage
- Bought PDUs: Each with dedicated switches & fuses
- Bought miners: Added used miners (S19, S19 Pro, T19) to garage for heat
2022: The Painful Reality Check
Well, It Started Off Great…
- Out of the blue: The wallet recovery guy contacted me and let me know that he’d cracked the password
- Process: I sent him my wallet.dat file, he took his cut–20% or 30%–and sent me the rest of my Bitcoin
- Lesson: The Bitcoin community is awesome
The Great Crash
Bitcoin crashed from $69k to $35k, then to $16k:
- Portfolio devastation: Down 70% from peak
- Psychological impact: Depression, regret, anger at myself
- The realization: I had no idea what Bitcoin actually was and how it is, in fact, a zero-to-one discovery of digital scarcity
Celsius Collapse
- The event: Celsius went bankrupt
- Loss: Most of my crypto (and a significant amount of my Bitcoin)
- Lesson: Centralized “crypto” platforms are extremely risky
The Learning Awakening
This was my rock bottom:
- Total losses: Substantial amount in Bitcoin value lost
- Psychological state: Complete demoralization and shame
- The pivot: Learn if Bitcoin was really the apex predator or if it was all a scam
- Decision: Suck it up, Buttercup
Return to Dollar-Cost Averaging (but disciplined this time)
- Strategy: Regular Bitcoin purchases regardless of price
- Discipline: Automated purchases, emotion removed
- Focus: Long-term accumulation, not trading
- Results: Slow but steady position rebuilding
2023: The Recovery Year
Executive Presentation
- Stealth Accumulation: Used miners to heat conference rooms and sent the Bitcoin to a company wallet
- Executive Team: Gave my initial pitch to the executives to really get into Bitcoin (after showing them the company already had some on the balance sheet)
Bitcoin Focus
- Conversions: Traded altcoins for Bitcoin
- Philosophical Alignment: Started preferring Bitcoin-only companies
- Mining: Purchase of additional Bitcoin miners, including local and remotely hosted
- Results: Continued growth in Bitcoin position
The Education Marathon
Instead of more mistakes, I chose education:
- Books consumed: The Bitcoin Standard, Inventing Bitcoin, The Sovereign Individual (I’ll post a list of all of the books on this site soon)
- Whitepaper study: Read and reread Satoshi’s whitepaper multiple times
- Technical learning: Nodes, mining, pools, security, privacy
- Bitcoin node: Set up two Bitcoin nodes (for redundancy)
- LND node: Set up LND to test out Lightning
Upgraded Security Implementation
- Hardware wallet: Blockstream Jade (later upgraded to Foundation Passport & ColdCard models)
- Multisig: Geographically distributed hardware wallets (thanks, Matthew Kratter!)
- Seed phrase backup: Multiple copies in different secure locations
- Security hygiene: MFA everywhere, password manager, TOR/VPN when required
- Recovery testing: Successfully restored from seed phrase multiple times
2024: The First Step Is To Admit You Have A Problem
Attended a Mining Bootcamp
Decided to talk with industry professionals to get a better understanding of the backbone of Bitcoin production
- Hands-on experience: Learned ASIC operation, maintenance, and optimization
- Mining economics: Understanding hash rate, electricity costs, mining difficulty adjustments, and profitability calculations
- Industry insights: Learned about real estate acquisition, differences in power grids, market dynamics, and how financial regulations impair development of Bitcoin mines
- Networking: Connected with professional miners and industry experts
More Education
After a few years without social media, I set up a few accounts to engage with the Bitcoin community:
- NOSTR: Tested a number of clients in the (quite obvious) early days
- Club Orange: Joined a few groups, including Lifetime, Mining, and Lightning (used to be called Orange Pill App)
- Telegram: Joined a number of channels, especially dedicated to modding miners
Focusing On Helping Others
Realized my painful experiences had value:
- Community participation: Helping newcomers in Bitcoin communities
- Mentorship: Helped friends, family, and co-workers familiarize themselves with Bitcoin
- Wrestle with reality: Started really thinking through the causality chain of every mistake
Hosted Mining & Dedicated Bitcoin Spreadsheet Modeling
Utilizing the data analysis skills obtained in my career, I started writing spreadsheets to model:
- Personal Finances: How Bitcoin affects retirement planning
- Miner Profitability: Fastest ROI vs longest “survival” rate vs tax writeoffs
- Miner Optimization: Optimized parameters in custom firmware to get more hashrate at the lowest possible electrical cost
2025: Meatspace FTW
Attended Multiple Conferences
- Heatpunk Summit: Best signal-to-noise ratio at a conference I’ve ever attended – the thought leadership in this space is incredible
- BitBlockBoom: Another great Bitcoin-only conference: many friendships made and solidified here
- Kansas City Bitcoin Summit: Great meetup with a(n almost) local Bitcoin group
- Mining Disrupt: Proves just how much “Bitcoin-only” leads to better signal
Presentations
- Simply Bitcoin appearance: Appeared as a guest on a live show to discuss some of the topics on this website
- 5th Bitcoin Block Party in KC: Asked to speak during the event after my appearance on the Simply Bitcoin live show
- More executive presentations: Gave the “Bitcoin should be on the balance sheet” pitch to the Board of Directors
Bitcoin-only
- Migrated IRA: Moved from iTrustCapital to Unchained for a multi-sig, self-sovereign IRA
No Spam Allowed
- Switched to Knots: After conversations with Bitcoin Mechanic in meatspace and researching the travesty of Bitcoin Core 30, it was the obvious answer
Started Wichita Bitcoiners
- Inaugural meeting: Great time meeting with people of all skill sets and experience levels
Personal Progress
- Portfolio recovery: Back to a disciplined accumulation through dollar-cost averaging
- Security posture: Maximum security practices with redundancy
- Teaching effectiveness: Better at explaining complex Bitcoin concepts
- Psychological health: Much healthier relationship with Bitcoin
2026: Present Day - Different Kind of Wealth
Personal Touch
In 2026, I continue to meet face-to-face with Bitcoiners:
- Wichita Bitcoiners: Set up a website (wichitabitcoiners.com) to coordinate further meetups
- Heatpunk Summit: Presenting with the President of TESSERE about heating commercial buildings with miners
- BitBlockBoom: Attending to continue to collaborate with Bitcoiners around the country
Continued Growth
The Bitcoin story never ends:
- Ongoing learning: Lightning Network, privacy tools, technical developments
- Community service: More people needing guidance as Bitcoin adoption grows
- Personal development: Still learning, still making (much smaller) mistakes
- Education evolution: Finding better ways to teach Bitcoin concepts
- Purpose: Helping others avoid the mistakes I made
The Complete Lessons Summary
Technical Lessons (The Hard Way)
- Not your keys, not your Bitcoin: The most expensive lesson, learned multiple times
- Seed phrase security: Never, ever store seed phrases digitally
- Exchange risk: Only keep trading amounts on exchanges
- Backup everything: Test backups, verify recovery processes
- Address hygiene: Never reuse Bitcoin addresses
Psychological Lessons (Even More Expensive)
- FOMO kills: Emotional trading always leads to losses
- Market timing impossible: Dollar-cost averaging beats genius
- Get-rich-quick is a trap: Bitcoin is not a lottery ticket
- Patience pays: Long-term thinking beats short-term gambling
- Humility required: I don’t know everything, and that’s okay
Security Lessons (The Most Important)
- Security first, always: Convenience costs more than you think
- Assume you’re targeted: Act like hackers specifically want your Bitcoin
- Defense in depth: Multiple layers of security protection
- Test everything: Verify backups, transactions, recovery processes
- Stay updated: Bitcoin security practices evolve over time
The Story Continues
Bitcoin taught me:
- What money actually is: Store of value, medium of exchange, unit of account
- The importance of security: Digital asset protection is non-negotiable
- The value of patience: Long-term thinking beats short-term gambling
- Power of community: Learning together is better than failing alone
- The need for humility: Recognizing what you don’t know is strength
My Bitcoin story has cost me over half a million dollars in direct and indirect losses, so…don’t be Chad.
Want to share your own Bitcoin journey? I’d love to hear your story (anonymously if preferred): chad@dontbechad.com
Last updated: February 2026