I initially bought Bitcoin for $4 per coin.
Not because I understood the tech (I didn't).
Not because I saw the future (I couldn't).
But because someone explained how digital currency could change the world for people who didn't have traditional banking access.
I had committed $250K to CoinLab and another $250K to purchase coins at $4 per coin when Peter Vinceennes (founder of CoinLab) said he'd mine it for me.
Peter tried to store the bitcoin at Mt. Gox, and the money “disappeared.”
When the US Marshal's office auctioned 30,000 bitcoins, I jumped back in.
I bid $632 per coin vs. market price of $618 because I believed Bitcoin was truly changing the game. I won all nine lots.
The price almost immediately fell to $180, but I held on.
To thank the speakers at the first class of Draper University, I gave them some physical Bitcoin coins.
Some of them have torn apart their houses looking for them.