“Gather all the information you can before jumping to conclusions about someone,

6 min readDec 1, 2020

Then I became overconfident and started buying all the small coins nobody had ever heard of. Most of those coins today are worth 80–90% less than what I paid for them. I see those investments as forced learning.
The premise was simple: an internet currency, with no founder, that was fully transparent, that was publicly verifiable, with no banks in the middle to create trust, that was secured by cryptography.
The Bitcoin creators became fed up with the existing financial system after the 2008 Financial Crisis, where the big American Banks were bailed out by the government for their reckless gambling on subprime mortgages. This event infuriated the Bitcoin creators enough to create the first ever digital currency.

It’s okay to say you don’t agree — aim to learn more about why they think that way. Also, try to remember that the point of many ordinary conversations is to get to know the other person better. Avoid judging others and always aim to respect different points of view.

20% of my money goes into Bitcoin and Ethereum, and it has for a very long time. I’m going to share with you why I do this, and how I came to make this decision. Before you think I’m crazy, at least take the time to understand why I do this, even if you have no intention of ever doing the same.

The only way to change the rules set out in the code is through a democratic vote where the network has to agree to change it. The chance of consensus on changing the code was almost impossible given how many voters there were. There have been several attempts to change the code that have all failed.

In 2012 I was working in a bank. One day a call came through from a young entrepreneur. They wanted to sell what they described as internet currencies. It was my job to assess their application and either approve or decline their request.

Not long after, one of my colleagues (turned mentor, who was more senior than me) overturned my decision and accepted their application. The company became one of the very first cryptocurrency exchanges.

Like a good mentee I took the time to understand why. My mentor took me out to lunch one day at the cafe next to our office. They were accepting a new shiny orange currency as payment: Bitcoin.

Only weeks after, the finance industry banned all cryptocurrency. You couldn’t buy, sell or be a business that accepted digital currency. My mentor and I were devastated. Still, I held onto a few coins.

As I went down the Bitcoin rabbit hole I discovered why bitcoin was created. It was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto. I became fascinated with him, until I eventually worked out that Satoshi was almost certainly a team of developers, not one single person.
Becoming a good conversationist is a process — it takes time. It’s important to practice as much as possible. Work on being a better listener, developing your knowledge and fostering a positive atmosphere. As your confidence improves, you begin to feel more relaxed.
“The irony of being a good conversationalist is that talking isn’t the most important piece; listening is what makes you memorable,” says Celeste Headlee, host of Georgia Public Broadcasting On Second Thought.

I said to him “how do you know how much our sandwich costs?” He then attempted to explain to me how Bitcoin derived its value. It seemed as though, one minute the sandwich costs half a Bitcoin, and the next minute it costs a full Bitcoin. I was confused.

Then… it all came crashing down. The price of all cryptocurrencies collapsed. I’m not going to lie: it felt terrible. I sold a little bit of my portfolio so I only kept the profits invested. That way, I didn’t care what happened going forward.

It was 10% cheaper to pay for my sandwich with Bitcoin than it was with dollars. The problem was buying Bitcoin was a pain in the butt. You needed to have a digital wallet and it was easy to lose your coins. My mentor bought some coins and paid for my lunch. I paid him back in dollars.

At the height of the cryptocurrency bubble in 2017 I made a decent amount of money quickly. Everybody was buying it. The IT guy at work who fixed my laptop for minimum wage was going all in. He was mortgaging his house to buy coins.
Becoming a good conversationist is a process — it takes time. It’s important to practice as much as possible. Work on being a better listener, developing your knowledge and fostering a positive atmosphere. As your confidence improves, you begin to feel more relaxed.
Winter set in. People stopped talking about Bitcoin. People said it was dead. People said governments would ban it. Still, an underground community kept the flame of Bitcoin and Ethereum going. I decided to do a crazy amount of research into the field.

“Gather all the information you can before jumping to conclusions about someone,

Written by William Tgex