From Fire to Bitcoin: A Canadian Journey

by James · July 6, 2022

This is an opinion editor of Boomer, a longtime and active member of the Financial Independence / Early Retirement Movement (FIRE) and a contributor to Bitcoin Magazine.

It’s been exactly one year since I started my Bitcoin journey, and after being inspired by meeting several amazing Canadian Bitcoiners in recent weeks, I want to share my story. In some ways, my orange peel has been the biggest thing that has ever happened to me, but it has also been extremely trying. I guess you can compare it to “Heroes’ Journey”.

I have been a working-class economist in the Canadian government for about eight years. I am lucky to have a career as a public servant where I can help people. I feel honored to serve Canadians and make a positive difference for my country. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, I did my part to help. I followed mandates and restrictions, and I really felt I was doing the right thing.

The isolation and loneliness was very tough. As an extrovert who is used to a lively and collaborative environment where routine and sharing of ideas and thoughts was important, working from home was absolute torture. For years I had been quite active in the FIRE community (financial independence / early retirement) and started a coaching company for financial expertise. Like most in the FIRE movement, I dismissed Bitcoin as an interesting but probably transient fad. I could see that prolonged pandemic shutdowns would probably cause a shortage of supplies, and the combination of central bank money printing and government stimulus would be inflationary in the long run. I started considering certain inflation hedges for my own investment portfolio and thought that maybe my coaching service could differentiate itself that way. I started my orange pill journey with the intention of learning exactly how bitcoin would fit into an inflation hedging strategy, but I knew it had a place.

I have been an avid podcast listener for well over a decade, and I will often pick a topic and listen to as many podcasts as I can about it until I am ready to jump to a new topic. I started learning about “crypto” in the same way. Although I could see and understand the general economic aspects of bitcoin and how it can be digital gold, I have always lacked the computer science and technological skills to feel confident about jumping into the world of cryptocurrency. I guess I just felt too scared to really dive in. I could not distinguish between crypto and bitcoin, but when I decided to commit to learning, I went in with an open mind. I wish I could say I recognized these altcoins as shitcoins right away, but I did not. Although I did not fully understand what they were, I created a modest portfolio of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market value in an attempt to emulate what a cryptocurrency index fund would look like.

Meanwhile, I was listening to podcasts from Robert Breedlove, Peter McCormack and Pomp, who all told me that bitcoin was the only true cryptocurrency. I remember listening to Breedlove’s series with Michael Saylor in the middle to the end of June 2021 and feeling that things were starting to fall into place. This is when I. really started down in the rabbit hole. I ordered a copy of “The Bitcoin Standard”, and I spent the summer consuming as much Bitcoin content as I could. I created a Twitter account strictly speaking for Bitcoin in September, and I have been trying to contribute as much as I can to the Bitcoin community since then.

If the summer of 2021 was my introduction to Bitcoin, the fall was a honeymoon. I had so much excitement and I wanted to share it with as many people as possible. Since the COVID-19 restrictions eased a bit, I set up a FIRE meeting in early October to talk about how bitcoin fits into a FIRE lifestyle. Over the years, I have organized about 10 such meetings where people share ideas on how to save money, maximize credit card rewards and live on purpose. A normal attendance at one of these events was around eight people; my Bitcoin event brought out a dozen. I was not aware of it at the time, and looking back on it, I know I was nowhere near qualifying for it. It was around this time that a local Bitcoiner met me for a coffee. The first time I talked about Bitcoin with a Bitcoiner in person.

By the end of 2021, I had sold completely out of my altcoins and was completely inside bitcoin. The song of the shitcoin siren is tempting, and most of us fall for it at some point in the journey. Fortunately, I did not learn this lesson the hard way. I was able to sell my positions with a small loss, and I consider that loss the price of my Bitcoin education. It was around this time that I also learned the importance of self-defense.

As anyone who has dived deep into the rabbit hole knows, there are some parts of the journey that make you question previous beliefs and may change your view of certain aspects of the world around you. I realize this is tough for everyone, but try to do it alone – during another COVID lockdown – while staying in Ottawa in the winter.

When Freedom Convoy was reported on the news, I was already questioning much of what I saw. As the convoy began to make its way to Ottawa, I decided to follow it. I literally drove with the convoy across several Canadian provinces and saw people waving Canadian flags as they gathered at crossings. It was a completely surreal experience that I will never forget.

It lifted my spirits to see “community” again after two years of closure. It was also heartwarming to see Quebecers and Albertans chatting in broken English during the protests. I grew up in the 1990s, at a time when there was a genuine canyon in Canada between French-speaking Quebec and the rest of Canada. This distinction had an extra big impact on me, since my mother is French and my father is English. Something special happened in Ottawa this winter, and it makes me sad that many – maybe even most – Canadians still have not realized it yet.

I was aware of what the Bitcoin community was doing to support Freedom Convoy. I followed the Twitter threads and listened to the podcasts. I knew Canadian Bitcoiners went out of their way to do what they felt was right to support the movement. I really wanted to help, but I was scared. I was afraid that if I contributed in any way, I would jeopardize my career. I also knew I was just a pleb with 250 Twitter followers that no one knew. How could I possibly help, even if I was not a coward? At its core, Bitcoin is about proof of work, and I had not done the work at the time.

I was invited to a Bitcoin meeting organized on Twitter that happened while the convoy was in town. Several Bitcoiners that I had followed for a while had come to the capital to experience what happened in person. I can only speak for myself, but friendships built through orange peeling feel special. This was the kind of community I was looking for.

In the months since the trucks left Ottawa, I have focused on learning as much as I can and letting my curiosity take me wherever it goes. There have been times when I felt burnt out and pessimistic after the trip. The first year of a Bitcoiners path is not always easy, but it got better for me as I met others who had been through it. I am constantly amazed at how much of my preconceived notions have been questioned, and much about how I viewed money and economics has been re-learned. It is humiliating and stimulating at the same time. It is such a unique experience, but I am grateful for those who have come before me. I know I’m still early in the journey, and there will be more trying times ahead, but I know I’ll not deal with them in loneliness.

Every time I meet another Bitcoiner, I leave the conversation with a sense of energy. It’s amazing how people with all kinds of backgrounds and interests can find common ground in Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation. I’m so incredibly bullish on bitcoin, and I feel that way because of Bitcoiners.