Hello everyone,

I am a physics PhD student and lover of free markets!

My first foray into bitcoin was back in 2010 when I invested $300 in my friends mining rig. Boy do I wish I had invested more!

Since then I have been lurking, watching bitcoin thrive and grow. I am naturally skeptical of just about everything, and bitcoin was certainly no exception. However, after watching bitcoin grow and having been "behind the curve" on several exciting developments several times, I feel like I need to get more involved in the bitcoin community.

I am still bothered by the large block chain size and slow verification speeds, but as I understand some future changes to the bitcoin protocol could remedy these issues.

Anyway, I am happy to be joining the forum and I look forward to being involved in new developments.

Here are some recent developments I am following:
-- The "Bitshares" project [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279771.msg2989563#msg2989563]
-- Coinbase and Ripple
-- Investing in bitcoin related projects with Bitfunder [https://bitfunder.com/]