Quote from: chesthing on September 09, 2016, 11:42:48 PM

You missed my point, which is you have no hope of any "trading" success without keeping both fiat and btc on an exchange. I have no problem with early adopters, but they have no business criticising people who heard about btc after it's $1100 run for trying to improve their positions. I realize they had challenges back then when it was worthless, but it's a totally different game when a bitcoin costs hundreds of dollars.
And you are damn right early adopters were lucky. I never heard of btc before late '13/early '14. If I had heard about it and looked at it I may have seen it's value, but I'll never know. Those who found it and saw it are the only ones who had the chance. Stumbling upon it in the early days is 100% luck.

Well, I 'stumbled on Bitcoin' when it was still in single figures and did at one point have 177 BTC sitting in my wallet (bought for like $3.50 each or something), but then Intersango, the only UK exchange closed. Looked at Gox and Stamp and was like "passports, utility bills, bank details!?!?! No fkn chance!"......so I ended up spunking the lot on Silk Road. By the time I was seriously looking at putting around £1000 into Bitcoin, it was in double figures and approaching X-Mas 2012. I had a theory, that the Bitcoin price was driven by Silk Road demand (cos what other use was there for Bitcoin), and that therefore, after X-Mas and New Year, the price would go back down to single figures, at which point I would buy.....lol........but I think the fact that I am a fucking loser has been well established by now.

You have more than a point regarding the need for Bitcoiners to be able to hold Bitcoin and USD on exchanges. The exchanges is where the entire price discovery mechanism is. Bitcoin is only worth anything, because it can be easily converted for national currencies on these exchanges. If everyone took the advice of those who advise against trading on exchanges, then Bitcoin would be worthless.