The first time I ever heard about Bitcoin was in 2011. I was in my friends basement playing NHL.

We had just gone out and upon returning, I realized that my friends older brother was busy working away on his computer. Curious, I approached him to ask what he was up to. "I'm working on this Bitcoin website where people do surveys for bitcoins." Of course I asked what is Bitcoin, the eternal question. He replied with "Its this currency made by some old Japanese guy name Satoshi Nakamoto." From that point on my life has never been the same.

Today I am a full coin, I live and breathe Bitcoin. It has totally and completely consumed my life and I absolutely love it. Bitcoin has taught me more about myself than I could have ever hoped to have learned in such a short time span. I am now fully at ease with dedicating my life to disseminating Bitcoin and everything it creates, including Steemit to as many people as I can.

Unfortunately for me, that night in the basement I was more preoccupied with my munchies than diving head first down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. Even though that decision may have cost me millions, I have come to realize that what is meant to be will be, and perhaps that was the best thing that could have ever happened.

By the time I was almost finished university, I was practically skipping classes to read about Bitcoin, whether I was in class or not it was consuming my mind at all times. In my second last year I attended my first meetup with the Bitcoin Co-op in Vancouver and shortly after joined on a project called CoinOS, an open-source payments software for merchants and individuals to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. For about a year and a half I helped spread Bitcoin adoption in Vancouver along with other vibrant and enthusiastic community members from the Co-op.

This is me at Car-free days on Commercial drive. We gave bitcoin away to unsuspecting people, some of which refused the notion of 'free money' :|

In 2015 I started Gluten Free Bitcoins with my friend Kate. Now I know how ridiculous that sounds, but let me explain the story behind it. One day we were hanging out discussing Bitcoin domains, for anyone who has looked pretty much any and everything Bitcoin related is gone, bought and held. However, the domain www.glutenfreebitcoins.com was available. We grabbed it right away, fearing that perhaps some other individual might clue in to this ultra lucrative domain name. Before long Kate has the logo drawn out on the mirror.

This is actually a direct copy of what was scribbled on the mirror that day, nothing has changed about it and we plan to stick with it in the future. The first thing we did was make a shirt, just a plain white T with this on the chest. Despite the sweet design, we failed to sell a single shirt for the first 6 months, and in fact, the first shirt we ever made we gave away to one of our first followers on Instagram. To be honest it was pretty discouraging that no one seemed keen to buy one of our shirts, but I think that may have come down to more of my lack of sales knowledge.

We haven't given up on gfbitcoins (our onename handle) and we fully plan to carry it on for as long as possible. We've since ditched the website in favor of OpenBazaar because we feel that it adequately and fully facilitates everything we needed online. We've designed almost 20 shirts and other items including stickers, like this one which we gave away for free while supplies lasted (more to come in the future). We're still debating the best way to angle this for the future but we are leaning towards some or all of the proceeds being donated to various charities and causes like the Free Ross Fund, or Sean's Outpost and back to OpenBazaar to support their development. You can follow us on Instagram @glutenfreebitcoin while we prepare to launch our full store.

Since 2015 I have been working at www.oneup.me, an open research platform for supplements that aims to put health within reach of every individual no matter what their knowledge and allow them to both contribute and share in the knowledge we create through ONEUP. We will be launching soon with a store on OpenBazaar in the next few months so please sign up for a beta invite!

Between ONEUP and Bitcoin I rarely have time for much else, but when I do, I enjoy spending time with my family, my dog Ginger, listening to music, fly fishing, video games, playing and watching soccer(that term was invented in England btw and its the most English thing of all time that we prefer "football" today, I am also English), researching Bitcoin, trading, cooking, teaching people about Bitcoin, and more recently reading.

I strongly believe that Bitcoin is the single most important thing to ever exist, and that it is the answer to all of our problems, perhaps even life itself. When I say this I am not referring to bitcoins the currency, I am referring to Bitcoin itself, everything that encompasses and has inspired, like steemit. I believe that Bitcoin is love, and that love is the answer to everything, that there is only love, and together there are no limits to the love we can share and grow in with each other.

It can be overwhelming to parse through the amount of issues we face today, but I know that the most important thing anyone can do to help is to help themselves, to become an individual capable of love, and I believe that Bitcoin is the most key aspect of allowing that fulfillment. Money is the root of evil, and until Bitcoin there has never been to a way extinguish that evil.

I am and have been a huge fan of OpenBazaar from the very start, more recently I have been teaching children about Bitcoin using OpenBazaar as a medium to understand this magic internet money. Its been mostly helping them to create and sell artwork they make but one time we made some alt coins, and no there is no ico... Here's a photo from one of the last sessions: https://www.instagram.com/p/BHidCv4gxCF/

...and a medium article I wrote on it: https://medium.com/@therealninza/my-experience-introducing-bitcoin-and-open-bazaar-to-kids-3af348e757c5#.ead6irq2o

The next time I write about it I will be posting on steemit as well.

You can actually buy this artwork on my OpenBazaar store if you want, all the proceeds are sent to Openbazaar. It's called Royal Pavilion and you can find it with my onename @therealninza.

If you read this far, congratulations and thank you for taking the time. If you want to follow me you can find me pretty much everywhere @therealninza. I will try to post on steemit much more in the future so follow me on here too if you want, I'll probably follow you back. I'll check back to reply to comments, feel free to ask any questions :)

Have a great day and as always,

The coin is strong.

K