I'd be a *billionaire* now if I hadn't sold the 55,000 bitcoins I mined on my laptop in 2009-2010 way too early (mostly before 2012). That is regretful, but then again, with the early bitcoiners we set in motion something greater than personal gain.

https://t.co/ra0feHnrHs
Then I ran https://t.co/HZPJh3OZ4q for a while in 2010. At the time, there was no established exchange rate, and I operated it more like a bitcoin faucet than a business, ending up with 30,000 BTC less.
Perhaps owing to Finnish culture, idealistic mentality and lack of life experience, I never thought much about making money. It happened accidentally as a byproduct of Satoshi asking me to keep my node running so others could connect. Thank you, Satoshi.
In 2011 when the exchange rate peaked at $15-$30, I sold over 10,000 BTC to buy a fairly comfortable studio apartment near Helsinki. Big deal for a 22-year-old who never had much money. Probably the most expensive studio in the world now, but at least I got more than 2 pizzas.
I quit a boring job as a junior software developer and went to study Japanese for a couple months in Fukuoka, Japan. Also visited the Tokyo office of Mt. Gox when they were still doing great. Tokyo sunset from the office:
In October 2011 I offered a 1000 BTC bounty for "getting a major business to accept Bitcoin", which was never claimed. https://t.co/VNmGuLAtcH
I was planning to hodl the rest of my BTC, but had to sell the most of it at a bad rate (~$5) in 2012 when finding a new job took longer than expected.
Since then I've kept my varying amount of savings in BTC. That's not much, but still nice gains over the years. Happy about the recent development.
Some lessons learned: 1) Money matters: more is always better than less. 2) Still, you don't need to be rich to lead a perfectly good life. It's about the basic things. 3) You don't live forever. Pursuing something greater than yourself brings meaning in life.
Thank you, Satoshi and others who have made Bitcoin what it is today. May it bring peace and prosperity to the world. Long live Bitcoin.

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