The Long Road To Bitcoin Expertise Is Worth The Work

While learning the ins and outs of Bitcoin entails plenty of hard work, the payoff should not be underestimated.

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Competency in any subject can take hard work and dedication. But Bitcoin, being both technically oriented and encompassing so many disciplines, can be especially challenging. I discussed this idea and much more with Chris Alaimo, one of our recent employee additions here at Bitcoin Magazine. His work in multimedia made him a perfect fit for the video side of our magazine, and it was excellent to hear how he first got into bitcoin, lessons learned and what he’s looking forward to. Be sure to check out the podcast and written interview below.

How were you first introduced to Bitcoin?

I was first introduced to bitcoin in 2010 with the Bitcoin pizza story (of course, I didn't buy it, but I heard about it then).

Then, my second touchpoint with bitcoin was in the back half of 2017 when an acquaintance from college said everyone should buy bitcoin and we will all get rich, but they were the type of person to have never invested in anything and not a reliable person for investment advice. So, not that I called the top, but I thought Bitcoin was the equivalent of tulip mania and I didn't buy any then either and felt vindicated when it crashed from $20,000 to $7,000.

My final touchpoints were in early March 2020 for the "Investors Podcast" for the quarterly mastermind talk with Preston Pysh, Stig Brodersen, Hari Ramachandra and Tobias Carlisle, where Preston recommended Bitcoin and I said to myself cryptocurrency isn't my thing and then he recommended it again in end of May in 2020.

In all my years of listening to the podcast I had never heard one of them recommend a pick in back-to-back quarterly masterminds and I remember saying to myself, "Wait a minute, what am I missing that Preston recommended Bitcoin again in back-to-back quarterly mastermind calls?!?" and by early June of 2020, I bought a little bit of bitcoin for around $9,000 and that is when I really went down the rabbit hole.

What's the primary "life lesson" that you have learned from your time in bitcoin?

Life is hard and it isn't fair, but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth living. Always try to better yourself each and every day. You aren't competing against the world, you are competing against yourself.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to begin working in the bitcoin industry?

Bitcoin trades 24/7 and there is always something new to learn. Once again, this relates to my last question: Bitcoin and life aren't easy, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

People in the space are usually more than happy to help newcomers. The best people in the space will always tell you to come to your own conclusions and do your own research, but they are more than willing to explain anything and everything and then it is up to you to study, learn and experiment yourself.

What’s the primary change for the world you want to see come out of the adoption of bitcoin?

Free and open markets and true entrepreneurship. Not all of these companies that are basically propped up with cheap debt, low interest rates, and tax breaks / incentives.

What are you most looking forward to in the Bitcoin space?

Expansion of the Lightning Network and third layer functionality.

Price prediction for the end of 2021, and the end of 2030?

My price prediction was $228,000 at the beginning of the year, but now that we are in the last month of 2021, I think it will be closer to $100,000. I always thought that about $4 million per bitcoin by 2035 when 99% of the total supply is mined and a market cap of about $80 trillion makes sense based on a super-conservative growth rate of 30% per year, assuming $100,--- by the end of this year, so that would be around $1 million per bitcoin by end of 2030, but price is all over the place and impossible to predict in truth.

My true price prediction is a block height of 716,389 blocks by the end of 2021.