CTRL+Z: The one where I bought 10.000 Bitcoin...

Hola,

It’s Sunday again—time for CTRL+Z #2.
This one was painful to write because... well, I could have been a billionaire. But hey, in Dutch we say, "If my auntie had a..., she would have been my uncle." Not sure if that makes any sense :). Enjoy.

February 2011, San Francisco.

Every year, I spent a few weeks on the West Coast to catch up on the latest Silicon Valley trends. This was one of those trips.

I was strolling down Mission Street when I stopped at a traffic light on the corner of 6th. Next to me, a guy was engrossed in his iPhone 4, reading an article. I glanced over and immediately recognized the site.

"Hey man, what are you reading?"

"An article on thenextweb . com," he said.

"Oh cool, I’m the founder of The Next Web."

That got us talking. As we crossed the street, I asked what he was working on.

"I built an exchange to trade digital currencies."

"Huh..."

"Yeah, it's something new. A currency without a central bank. It's decentralized, really cool."

We walked a bit further when he casually mentioned his office was just around the corner. "Wanna check it out?" he asked.

Why not?

He pulled up a garage door, revealing a few desks and some servers.

"Here, this is the order book for Bitcoin," he said, pointing at the screen.

I had a background in trading options at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, so order books were familiar territory.

"Bitcoin is a digital currency, not owned by any central bank. The guy who invented it? No one knows who he is. But it’s decentralized and super interesting."

Okay, now he lost me. Digital currency? No central bank? Decentralized? What?

Still, I played along. He showed me how to place an order. To be fair, calling it an "exchange" was generous—the UI was absolutely horrific. But it worked. He placed an order at $0.72 per Bitcoin, and a minute later, it was executed. We grabbed a coffee while watching the price bounce between $0.70 and $0.80.

Before I left, he said, "You should buy some. Bitcoin is the future."

"Sure..."

Back at my hotel.

I figured I’d give it a shot. I loved order books, and the volatility I saw in that garage intrigued me. So I went to the website, checked the price—$0.70 bid, $0.72 ask—and placed an order.

BUY ORDER: 10,000 Bitcoin at $0.72

It asked for my credit card. I pulled out one of the five I had, typed it in, and hit "Buy Now."

Error: Something went wrong. Please check your credit card number.

Weird. Tried again. Same error.

I went through all my credit cards—AMEX, Visa, Mastercard. Each one failed. This was strange; I had never had issues with my cards before.

Hmmm. Now what?

I emailed the guy from the exchange. Within minutes, he replied, and we got on a call.

He checked the backend. "Huh, that's strange. We've never had this issue before. Are you sure there's no spending limit on your cards?"

I double-checked. Nope. No limits.

Silence.

Then he asked, "Wait... are your credit cards European?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Oh. We don’t accept those. Sorry."

And just like that, my 10,000 Bitcoin order died on the spot. I shrugged it off and moved on with my life.

If my European credit card had worked that night, I’d be sitting on $900 million worth of Bitcoin today.

But hey, who’s counting?

Happy Sunday, cheers,

Patrick

P.S. I’m co-hosting a small Bitcoin event in Amsterdam on March 6th (upcoming Thursday) with Jos Lazet (CEO of Blockrise), Richard Muirhead (Fabric VC) and Michaël van de Poppe (CryptoMichNL). Drinks, Bitcoin, and good company - https://lu.ma/9ae9nwmw - reply to patrick@hey.com if you’ve requested access and I'll let you in.

P.P.S. Thanks for the shoutouts and replies, Nalden, Robin Wauters, Oscar Kneppers, and many more. Appreciate it!