It was the spring of 2009. At the time I was involved with a group wanting to create a local currency using custom stamped silver coins in the Lehigh Valley area of northeast PA. Nothing came of our desire to create a local currency. One of my fellow alternative currency enthusiasts asked if I heard of Bitcoins. I said no; please tell me more. My associate didn't know much themselves but said I should check it out online.
I have been involved with the Internet for many years by this time. I was aware of DigiCash in the 90's, and I thought it might be the answer to an alternative money using the Internet. Nothing came of DigiCash. I was very disappointed. Other attempts to create a digital currency in the 2000's didn't go anywhere. I didn't think that Bitcoin would have anything to offer. But, I researched Bitcoin on the Internet and found it interesting. Interesting enough to download the blockchain and do some mining.
The blockchain wasn't as large as it is today but it still took a good amount of time to download due to my slow Internet connection. I had a basic computer but it was enough to mine bitcoins in the spring of 2009 with just a "CPU" processor. I left my computer run and managed to mine 150 bitcoins. I forget what the price of bitcoin was at the time but I remember the price being so low as to not think much of the 150 bitcoins that I managed to mine. It also didn't help that there was nothing that you could do with the bitcoins at the time.
Before I could mine another block my computer crashed. I blamed the crash on the bitcoin mining. It was the only computer I had at the time so I didn't want to risk any more bitcoin mining. As time passed I totally put aside mining bitcoin and lost interest in bitcoins.
Unfortunately, this would not be the 1st and last missed opportunity.