Gather around Boys 👦 and Girls 👧

AcreBTC posed the question on Twitter:
https://x.com/AcreBTC/status/1920502372239094026

And it got me thinking about what was my most FOMO moments in the web3/crypto space? What came to mind was the AMPLEFORTH airdrop but I didn't FOMO because I made a killing from that. Then I thought about on Hive there was me buying a Splinterlands LAND plot and selling it for a insane profit and then years later end up buying 6 more plots, but that wasn't that great either. So then I thought I would go back, back to where it ALL started from.

The first time I really got into Crypto or actually more so when I first started to hear more about Crypto and how my lack of action haunts me to this day.

---

Setting the Stage

The year was 2013 and more specifically it was just after the new year around the first week in January of 2013. I had recently gotten married and moved into our new house and was going through our first Winter in the house. I befriended my neighbor across the street from me who we are going to call... Justin.

Justin worked for a IT consulting company and I worked in the IT department of a Insurance company at the time so we had a lot in common to talk about. Justin was about 10 years older than me but still young at heart. He had little kids and I had little kids and so yeah we became friends fairly quickly.

Well one weekend it was snowing and cold as icicles outside. I was shoveling my driveway and I looked across the street and Justin was pulling his snowblower out of his garage but this time his car wasn't in the garage and what I saw against the back wall still haunts me to this day.

---

The moment

Justin walking out of his garage with his snowblower revving and ready to go, but all I could focus on was the wall of what seemed like computer against his back Garage wall. I was perplexed and curious and nervous and all the emotions.

Why would someone need that many computers running in their garage? I have been in his house and it wasn't some high tech house which TV's in each room connected to a PC running elsewhere. So what were they for?

Why is all I could keep asking myself. So after we were both done I went over to shoot the shit with him and I just straight up asked.

Me: Hey Justin what are all those computers for?

Justin: HA oh well... they are all mining Bitcoin.

Me: Seriously, And they work?

Justin: Yup, I have already earned a couple thousand of Bitcoins which isn't worth too much but maybe one day. And if you see I have the exhaust from all the PC's vented back into my house to keep it warm so I pay less for heating too.

(it was then that I saw how he had created some vacuum air flow from the back of each computer and routed into the HVAC for his whole house Heating airducts. He has fancy switching as well so during the summer he could redirect the heat into the outside and not the house)

I was speechless. At this point in time I knew about Bitcoin, I knew it was a cryptocurrency but more still more niche and just a fun project of sorts. But there was my neighbor just across the street earning thousands of some digital token. I didn't know how much "a few thousand Bitcoin" cost or would cost but the feeling of putting your computer(s) to work to earn something intrigued me.

---

The FOMO

I don't know if you were aware but around that same week, the price of Bitcoin was about $15. Later that same year it would rise all the way up to $1,132.00.

Say Justin "only" had 1,000 Bitcoin that day we talked and then stopped mining. Well if he sold it that year at it's peak that would have been $1,132,000.00.

Or if he kept all those Bitcoin until today...

Well that would be $102,928,000.00 of Bitcoin.

---

It was then that I knew I wanted to get into Crypto. I didn't have a dedicated GPU at that time or even a decent CPU so I decided to wait and come back to it. Well fast forward until I had a better computer and BTC mining was only on ASCI devices so I knew that ship sailed. But this is also why I started to mine other tokens in the past years because of the FOMO I felt back then and even now.

I lost touch with Justin but recently reconnected a few months back. I had to ask him how he was and if he ever withdrew his BTC. What he told me was that he basically took 2 years off of work and just withdrew some BTC to replace his salary for 2 years. He took a few vacations with his kids to amazing places and basically just lived like a millionaire for 2 years.

He ended up going back to work and decided to save the rest of his BTC until further notice really.

---

The Lesson

IF I followed my gut all those years ago. I would be incredibly wealthy today. Or let's be honest.. I probably would have sold a lot of them off when new ATH's were reached. But still I should of, could of, would of. You live and learn right?