Ever find yourself looking at Bitcoin prices and ardently wishing you had a time machine? Oh, like every minute of every day? Us, too.
Alas, there’s no going back in time to scoop up Bitcoin at mere cents but one can fantasize. Or read about the bigger Bitcoin regrets of other people and enjoy a little schadenfreude to get our mind off things. Like these 7 instances where people missed out on millions – even billions!
Missed Opportunities
Once upon a time, Bitcoin land was rife with opportunities. And while most of us weren’t even aware of what a Bitcoin was back then, there were others who had close encounters with these plentiful opportunities…and then passed them up.
Like this guy who stopped mining back in 2011 even though he was getting 0.5 BTC per day. Not near worth it back then – but now, a veritable fortune. And all those folk who decided faucets only gave away “negligible amounts of Bitcoin” – like 1 BTC per click – to be worth their time.
“No, Thanks”
Pop star Lily Allen confessed that sometime around 2009, she’d been offered somewhere between 200,000 to 250,000 Bitcoins to stream a live gig on the popular online game Second Life. She could’ve done the performance from the comfort of her home.
Pretty sweet deal, right? Well, back then a single Bitcoin was only worth a few cents each so…she turned it down.
As of 2017, Bitcoin has hit all-time high after all-time high. Which means that those 200,000 to 250,000 Bitcoin that weren’t worth anything back then are now worth somewhere between $3,119,993,000.00 and $3,899,991,250.00.
Sure, Allen’s already pretty successful and has done well for herself with an estimated net worth $20 million dollars – without Bitcoin. But still…3 billion dollars. Ouch.
Cash, Please
You may not have heard of Alex Koyfman, but he’s had the same Bitcoin regrets as Lily Allen, albeit on a smaller scale. In this article, he recounts doing contract writing work back in 2013 for a “somewhat eccentric rich guy” who offered to pay in Bitcoin. To that, the author replied: Cash, please.
A decision that the author now calls “the worst financial decision of my life.” ‘Cause if he’d just taken the gamble and accepted payment in Bitcoin – even for the fun of it – the “fees from that six-month contract would be worth more than $1.6 million.”
Shopping, Of Course
It’s early days in Bitcoin land and there’s almost nowhere that accepts Bitcoin. But you have a whole lot of them and your digital wallet is feeling kinda heavy. What do you do? The favorite American pastime, of course – you buy things you don’t really need!
Like that famous multi-million dollar pizza. Or a dunce cap. Or not even buying stuff but simply gambling it away. Of course, it wasn’t worth much then. But still, it’s got to sting.
It’s a Fad
In a recent conversation between District Magazine editor Eric Davidson and DJ Colin Perkins, a question was posed: What’s one of the stupidest things you’ve ever done?
Davidson’s answer? He discouraged his girlfriend from buying Bitcoin. Apparently, his girlfriend had got a tip to buy Bitcoin awhile back – and even had a bit of money saved – and he’d insisted it was “that’s ridiculous, don’t do that, that’s a fad.”
He’s since calculated what the un-bought coins might be worth today and still gets sweaty thinking about it.
Told You to Hold
Ever since this infamous drunken rant declaring I AM HODLING – Bitcoin advocates have been advising, nagging, screaming, imploring everyone with Bitcoins to really, just hold on to them.
But people never listen – and then live to regret it. Like this guy. And this guy.
But the greatest loser in this department? None other than the U.S. government. You see, way back in 2013, law enforcement authorities shut down Silk Road, a black market site on the dark web, arrested its founder, Ross Ulbricht, and seized 144,336 Bitcoins.
That fortune in Bitcoins was then sold by the United States Marshals Service for a grand total of $48,238, 116 – around $334 per Bitcoin. Now imagine if they’d just listened to the HODL wisdom. Today, they’d have been able to fetch over 2 BILLION dollars for that stash.
I Should’ve, Would’ve, Could’ve…
And of course, the most common Bitcoin regret of all time: I should’ve/could’ve/would’ve bought Bitcoin back when…and, well, you know the rest.
The truth is that almost every person who had the fortune to think of buying Bitcoin early as well as the misfortune to not act upon that thought regrets it quite a bit.
Like this guy who’s friend tried to convince back in 2012. And this guy who regrets not buying Bitcoin every time he planned to buy over the years. And countless others who said they were going to buy, planned to buy and just never pulled the trigger.
The funny thing is that this type of Bitcoin regret isn’t a recent phenomenon, they’ve just been magnified as of late. People have been churning out this Bitcoin regret machine pretty much every year since Bitcoin’s birth.
So if you find yourself hitting yourself on the head and wishing for a time machine, you have one of two options: Either invest at least a little into that Bitcoin you said you’d buy 8 years ago OR feel better about your decision by reading this article on why you probably wouldn’t have been a Bitcoin millionaire anyway.