This week's most memorable moments

Greetings,

Rizzo, the Bitcoin Historian, back with a recap of the most interesting Bitcoin moments from the week that was.

This week, we took a pill in Ibiza with the Winklevoss twins and saw an early Bitcoin legend go all-in during the 2013 bull run. 

But first, anyone can buy Bitcoin at the right time. It takes a lot more not to lose it. Are you still risking your Bitcoin on an exchange? Are you unsure where to start with self-custody?

So head over to Casa, enjoy the 10% OFF with the promo code PETERIZZO and cure your insomnia.

Alright, let’s dive in. 

$113 l He went all in

It takes serious guts to go all in on Bitcoin. Now imagine the guts if you did that in 2013, without Michael Saylor, Nayib Bukele, or even Bitcoin Twitter.

An early Bitcoin believer admitted the slight insanity of his bet, but he went for it anyways. In 2013, while the price hovered around the triple digits, a 30-year old legend put everything he had in BTC.

From his posts, we can see he understood the risks, but he went for it anyway. 

What gives me chills, though, is that he understood the fiat lifestyle all around him (weddings, houses, and materialistic possessions), and thought that Bitcoin was the best bet.

That’s foresight, and it turned $50,000 into $28 million.

$10 l Taking the orange pill in Ibiza

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are larger than life.

Some remember them for their role in Facebook, and how Mark Zuckerberg apparently screwed them. Other think of them as typical TradFi bros who maybe just got lucky being early to Bitcoin.

I’ve got an alternate read. I think the Winklevoss twins have shown time and time again that they are savvy investors. (You can also read this deep cut blog post to learn more about the many challenges they’ve faced.)

Their Bitcoin story is a classic. They were partying in Ibiza when someone told them about it. It was just at the time of the 2012-13 Cyprus economic crisis, when the government closed all banks due to a potential bank run. 

After they saw that, the Winklevoss didn’t need much convincing. After all, what is money but the largest social network in the world?

$100 l “It’s like buying gold in 1,000 BC”

Dan Morehead has a way with words.

Back in 2013, he shared a riveting email on why Bitcoin was “about to melt-up” at a time when he was creating one of the first crypto hedge funds in the world.

Back then, that rocketship was ready to propel the asset to $200. (Flash forward to today and we’re stacking sats for $55,000.)

The best part of the email though, is the analogy Morehead makes to gold. “It’s like buying gold in 1,000 BC,” he explained at a time when the vast majority of the world was yet to understand the value proposition.

In other words, he was truly early. Today, he’s a Bitcoin billionaire.

$0.10 l 1 Bitcoin for a dime

The week is never complete without a trip down memory lane and the absurd prices early OGs were trading for BTC. 

This chart, from 14 years ago, shows the price at less than a dime. Yes, a dime.

It’s absurd, even unthinkable today. Now, go read the blog post where this chart was from to see how the author wasn’t phased.

“The spike in the graph you see above was when bitcoin.org was slashdotted on July 11, 2010,” he wrote. “Prices rose to 8 cents a bitcoin and has climbed down to about 6 cents a bitcoin. However, analyzing the graph suggests bitcoin's value is holding steady between 6-7 cents.”

He ended optimistically: “I don't think we'll ever return to the days when a bitcoin was 1 cent or less.”

$0 l Satoshi’s first email

I saved the best for last. 

16 years ago this week, Satoshi Nakamoto emailed Adam Back for the first time to explain that he had completed a decentralized digital peer-to-peer currency.

“I’m getting ready to release a paper that references your Hashcash paper and I wanted to make sure I have the citation right,” Satoshi wrote. 

He predicted that Back would find it interesting, since it was something the cypherpunk community (to which both belonged in some way) had been valiantly trying to create for decades. 

Back, a tad nonchalantly, said the citation was right and he would take a look at his paper. According to him, he wouldn’t give it another thought for 3 years.

I recommend this article I wrote about the full extent of the email exchange between Satoshi and Back. Two legends, one legacy. 

Extra posts:

• The Bitcoin miner who vanished without a trace

• Satoshi registers the first Bitcoin website

• Why David Chaum is a Bitcoin legend

See you on Friday,

Rizzo

P.S. Don’t forget that your Bitcoin is one mistake away from falling in the wrong hands. Just check out Casa, and see for yourself what they offer. I promise you won’t regret it.

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