Occupy Wall Street Spoke My Pain

Occupy Wall Street Spoke My Pain

How I Came to Believe in Bitcoin’s World-Changing Promise

I was in my mid-thirties when my wife and I started our family. She was ten years younger than me, and we both grew up in a time when the American dream was still a possibility. I bought a personal computer and was one of the cool kids when I installed a 10 MB hard drive. Friends told me it would last a lifetime. Little did we know that technology growth is exponential.

In 2006, I bought my second primary residence as an independent computer consultant with a family of four young children. I was doing OK financially. I was not wealthy, but I was able to provide my family with a better than average standard of living. Running my own business was a grind of 60–80 hours a week, but I was happy to do it because I love my family.

2008 hit and the consulting market went into a tailspin; my business was devastated, and making mortgage payments was no longer easy. Out of despair, I contacted my mortgage servicer to discuss alternative arrangements, and they informed me that they did not know who my mortgage holder was. Through the magic of Wall Street wiz kids, my relationship with my mortgage holder had been obliterated. I was frustrated beyond belief and wanted to break something or somebody.

I lost the house, the market eventually picked up, and my business recovered. Occupy Wall Street was giving voice to some of the pain and suffering I experienced through losing my home. My ears were in tune with their message that may otherwise have been easily overlooked.

As a strategic technology consultant, I am always scanning the technology horizon for anything that may benefit my customers. Along comes Bitcoin; I remember the Ecash, misfire, and did not immediately jump in. By 2013, I had seen enough in the press to give Bitcoin more focus. As I started to understand all the moving parts, I also understood there were greater implications for the social and economic impact of this new, unique development.

It’s no accident that the developer of Bitcoin put a message in the first Bitcoin block from the London Times: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” The stark pit of despair between Wall Street and Main Street suddenly had an escape route that never existed before. While Wall Street was too busy making easy money from leveraging debt and low-interest rates, those of us who had learned hard lessons about how the system works saw a light at the end of the tunnel where traditional money people did not.

In 2014, I opened a Coinbase account and received $.01 from a Bitcoin faucet; over the next few months, I accumulated more Bitcoin and got caught up in the original Ethereum offering and subsequent ICO madness. The relevance of Bitcoin clicked immediately for me because of my experience of being burned by banks and the government bailout. I don’t participate in any other crypto coins; although some may have relevance in time, I think it is too early to know.

As an early investor, I made some money. I’m still not wealthy. It was never my goal, but I took some of my profits and made and invested it in something much more important than crypto. I invested in education, attended an MIT course, bought every book I could get my hands on, and devoured them.

Today, I write about Bitcoin and have since 2015 when I wrote a newsletter on ICOs called “Crypto Gambler.” What Bitcoin can do for the world is more important than my bottom line. The internet, and everything that came after the World Wide Web, Commerce, and Smart Phones, has profoundly impacted our world. Bitcoin has the same potential to be an even bigger influence because it combines technology, culture, and money. It shifts the control of money away from the Banks and governments that have been poorly managing it up till now.

For those of you who are saying, “More of that millennial dribble about magic internet money.” I am a Boomer, 71 yrs young. I have had the privilege of seeing many new technologies unfold (no, not fire), and this looks to me to be a winner for everyone. I want to leave the world a better place than I found it. I firmly believe that Bitcoin is a force that will help that transformation take place.