How Bitcoin improved my life

At the end of 2020, I made a New Year's resolution to buy Bitcoin. Little did I know that this would be one of the best decisions of my life. I want to share my story with you here and get you excited about Bitcoin.

After I bought #Bitcoin for the first time in January 2021, the price plummeted from an all-time high, leaving me clueless a few weeks into my Bitcoin journey. What initially looked like one of the most lucrative investments in human history turned into a nightmare. I "lost" almost 70% of my savings in a very short space of time.

When I realized this situation, I asked myself the questions: "What did I actually buy?", "What is Bitcoin actually?". I couldn't answer these questions at the time, as I had only dealt with Bitcoin superficially.

So I had work to do. I had to teach myself what Bitcoin actually is and why I shouldn't sell my entire stake now. This task turned out to be more challenging than I had expected. I couldn't find the right approach, I didn't know where to start.

Since I dealt with investments in my spare time, I largely only looked at Bitcoin from this perspective: Bitcoin as an investment to accumulate more fiat money.

After several days or weeks of searching for the answer to the question of what Bitcoin is, a book was recommended to me: The Bitcoin Standard by u/saifedean and u/aprycotmedia as publisher. The hurdle was high, but Bitcoin grabbed me. I was fascinated by the mystery behind this technology. Why don't I understand it, why can't anyone explain it to me in an understandable way? This book was supposed to be the answer!

At the beginning of the book, the history of money and the problems of earlier forms of money were introduced. I had a feeling that the euro had problems, but I didn't realize they were so big and so devastating. I first considered Bitcoin as an alternative monetary system because I realized that Bitcoin has the best monetary properties, even better than gold.

After reading this book, I no longer knew what was right and what was wrong. Had I been living a lie my whole, albeit short, life? The next few weeks were to be the most intense and formative of my life. It was as if I was possessed by the knowledge that awaited me. Family and friends didn't know what had gotten into me. I dropped out of my degree in business psychology because I suddenly had a different view of economics. The Austrian School of Economics destroyed all the economic theories I had learned up to that point. Within two months, my whole life had changed.

I felt the need to pass on the information I had gathered and was met with rejection. No one I was excited to tell about Bitcoin was interested in my thoughts. "It will never catch on", "You live in your own world", "That's far too utopian". From today's perspective, this time was painful, but also necessary. I needed resistance from outside to convince myself of Bitcoin.

Nevertheless, my need to communicate was not satisfied. I looked for another outlet: social media. I started sharing my thoughts on Instagram under the name u/BitBeller. I was able to write my opinion without encountering much resistance. I even received approval! u/Satoshis_Erbe, u/thiele_julius, u/bitcoin__apex & u/atomicc0805 were the first to give me the same energy that I wanted to put out there. I am very grateful for that!

There was another hurdle to overcome. What am I going to do with my life now? Another degree course was out of the question for me. I had to reorient myself. I heard about a job as a social media manager at u/Coinfinity, the oldest Bitcoin broker in Austria. Integrating my new hobby, Bitcoin, into my day-to-day work sounded like a perfect match. I applied and was hired. Together with u/fabthefoxx and u/fichte42, we worked on short articles to make it as easy as possible for beginners to get started with Bitcoin: Exactly what I was missing a few years ago. The #BitcoinBlinks were born: https://coinfinity.co/bitcoin-blinks Today they are even available as a small book. I'm very proud of that.

Today, I don't care about the 70 percent drop. I started "stacking" Bitcoin, buying Bitcoin regularly. Every Bitcoin purchase has made me freer.

Today, my life is very different from before Bitcoin. I can work in the field that fascinates me and bring this technology closer to other people every day. And something else has changed in my life, perhaps even the most important thing:

Bitcoin has allowed me to lower my time preference. I have found a way to save my purchasing power. I can save. With Bitcoin, I look forward to the future because all of humanity can use a monetary system that is independent and accessible to everyone. Inflation is not an issue for me. For me, everything will always be cheaper in the long term with Bitcoin. I can concentrate on the here and now and make well-considered decisions without being afraid of the future.

I will do everything in my power to spread this technology, no matter what obstacles await me and no matter how much headwind I face.

For me, Bitcoin is no longer an investment. Bitcoin is freedom for me.

This text was translated 1:1 from German to English by twitter. I apologize for any mistakes.