Nostr Web Client

I suspect few people in the world have interacted with more individuals who lost bitcoin than I have.

I answered support tickets for a non-custodial web wallet that, at the time, was the most popular in the world.

I'm talking about 100,000+ tickets over five years, many from users who lost access to their funds. Not just tiny amounts, mind you.

Sometimes hundreds of bitcoin.

My inability to help them still weighs on me.

We added warnings and info about the importance of backups. It's not that I could have done more. The nature of the old Blockchain(.)info wallet made that impossible.

The bottom line is personal responsibility demands extraordinary effort, and not everyone is up for the challenge.

Lost password? Sorry, I can't help.

Lost seed phrase? Sorry, I can't help.

Funds stolen by a phishing site? *Sigh*

What troubles me most isn't the sadness I felt from doing this daily for so many years. No, eventually you grow numb to it.

That's what truly hurt.

I imagine this is a lesser version of what people in the medical field have to do to cope with their jobs - learning to stop caring so much.

It takes a toll on your humanity if you live this way for too long.

I could have stayed in that job. Stacked more sats. It made sense, financially. I'd have a lot more bitcoin today if I did.

Instead, I left, choosing to be with my family and focus on self improvement.

Anyone who has worked during the early years of a startup will understand how incredibly burnt out you are once you finally step away. It took me years to push through that.

But I still think about those users.

The ones who made all the mistakes of the past that you, the bitcoiners of today, would learn from.

Almost seven years have passed since I left, and I'm no longer numb to their pain. I feel sadness for them again.

And I'm grateful for that.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and take some time to reflect on the things that truly matter in this life. 🧡✌️

OgFOMK ArTS 1y ago

Having lost some Bitcoin recently via a lightning experiment I understand your feeling but also we can tell anyone that the Bitcoin you lost was the necessary step in order for you to appreciate how scarce it really is. You can never buy what Satoshi, himself stacked because he believed more than you. You can't get it back at the price you bought or mined. You can't. But you can stack today and use every means of protection and respect for this truly scarce asset and manage it better.

Ultimately we are here to live as humans and not stack Bitcoin. We are here to try and help others but also to help ourselves by helping others. If you had a big stack and it's all gone maybe you didn't invest in the education, skills, resources and values needed to appreciate Bitcoin.

I have to accept that myself. But I also accept the the years of mistakes and learning have made me better at managing, helping and then accepting when things go wrong.

Today if you are standing on zero you can work or buy more Bitcoin. You can build your stack and stack some goals.

Or you can give up and let someone else rug pull you out your family in the future.

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