Tag: bitcoin

Back around 2015, I found myself unexpectedly popular on a video chat platform called Blab—popular enough that one generous viewer decided to gift me 0.1 bitcoin. At the time, this felt like a nice gesture but nothing earth-shattering. Bitcoin was still this mysterious digital currency that most people barely understood, and converting it to actual spending money seemed impossibly complicated.

So I did what any reasonable person would do: absolutely nothing. I’m fairly certain the bitcoin eventually reverted to the sender, and the whole thing faded from memory until a recent deep dive through old Facebook messages brought it all flooding back.

There it was—evidence of my brief brush with what would become a small fortune. Today, that 0.1 bitcoin would be worth roughly $10,000. Cue the existential crisis about alternate realities where I’m significantly wealthier.

But here’s the thing: the more I’ve reflected on this “missed opportunity,” the more I’ve realized it probably wasn’t one at all. Even if I’d managed to navigate the technical hurdles of setting up a wallet and cashing out, there’s virtually no chance I would have held onto that bitcoin for a decade. I would have spent whatever cash I got on something forgettable—maybe a nice dinner, some gadget I thought I needed, or any number of things that seemed important at the time.

The idea that I would have had the foresight and discipline to hold onto a volatile digital asset through years of ups and downs, waiting for the perfect moment to cash in? That’s giving past-me way too much credit.

So while it’s tempting to frame this as a tale of missed fortune, it’s really just life being life—messy, unpredictable, and full of decisions that only make sense in hindsight. Sure, having 0.1 bitcoin right now would be pretty nice. But dwelling on it feels a bit like mourning lottery tickets I never bought.

Circa 2015, during a period of active engagement with the now-defunct online video platform Blab, I achieved a degree of prominence that resulted in a supporter presenting me with a gratuity of 0.1 bitcoin (BTC). At current market valuations, this quantity of cryptocurrency represents a significant sum. At the time of the gift, however, its monetary value was substantially lower, and its practical utility was further diminished by the considerable complexities involved in converting such digital assets into fiat currency.

Possessing only a rudimentary understanding of cryptocurrency and daunted by these logistical hurdles, I gave the matter little consideration and took no action to secure the funds. I presume the unclaimed transaction was eventually reversed. The incident was forgotten until I recently rediscovered the message while reviewing my archival correspondence.

This discovery initially prompted a contemplation of the counterfactual: an alternate timeline in which a seemingly minor event had yielded a substantial financial windfall. Yet, further reflection suggests that this vision of a missed opportunity is not as tenable as it first appears. Had I possessed the foresight and technical acumen to establish a digital wallet and liquidate the asset, it is highly probable that, given my priorities at the time, the proceeds would have been allocated to ephemeral expenditures rather than being held as a long-term investment.

Ultimately, the episode is perhaps best characterized not as a consequential financial misstep, but as a curious intersection of technological immaturity and youthful indifference. It stands as a personal anecdote illustrating a moment when a nascent technology had not yet fully entered the public’s financial consciousness. Nevertheless, one cannot help but acknowledge the substantial present-day value of that unclaimed digital token.