as an admitted speculator, i can't tell you how much criticism i took in 2011 for speculating.
Whatever you do people are going to give you shit one way or another.
Yeah. In the bitcoin-success case, there's going to be a slew of really annoying "you just got lucky" attacks, with zero appreciation for the depth of thought and strength of conviction required to initiate and hold these positions. Not to mention the efforts many of us spend educating others and combating ignorance and stupidity every day.
Most people who got into bitcoin early I think will be able to withstand the "you just got lucky" attacks by peers or the population at large. The smart ones also won't flaunt it but simply create investment income and retire from day jobs quietly.
My real concern is these attacks may result in some form of "windfall profits" tax. If bitcoin becomes what we all think it may become and the global populace eventually recognizes it as a primary form of money, then there probably will be attempts spread out the out-sized early adopter gains gains through the tax structure.
There will be lots of arguments around "justice", "equality" and "fairness" but the result will simply be confiscation through taxation. It's not fair that you have $150M in bitcoin cypherdoc, you only need $50M (or $10M or $2M), anything more is greedy and selfish.
If bitcoin grows into trillions of dollars, governments all over the world are going to want a very large cut, and there are lots of arguments to justify this cut to the voters. These justifications BTW were the whole reason bitcoin was created in the first place.
who says i have any bitcoin? i just believe in the cause of fair money.