There is a saying that the flapping of a butterfly's wings can change history. How Satoshi created Bitcoin, and what happened next, can be read in many other articles. What I want to focus on here is what happened when the butterfly metaphorically landed on my forehead.

It could just as easily have flown past me, and I probably would not have found Bitcoin when I did. That in turn would have meant that the others I have passed my Bitcoin knowledge on to would not have found Bitcoin when they did, and had their lives changed as a result.

Here I will discuss the coincidences that not only affected and improved my life, but also the lives of those I came in contact with, and those they have affected in their turn. Your decisions today, to actually explain Bitcoin to a friend or a stranger on the internet, can change the conditions for a family for generations without you knowing about it. This is the power of a butterfly's wing, the butterfly effect.

Many bitcoiners say that it took three or four points of contact before they took the plunge and bought their first satoshis.

For me, the story began in the summer of 2017. I had an acquaintance who made money on these mysterious “cryptocurrencies”. This was before the parabolic bullrun, but he was in good profit, had sold his holdings and was rich.

Later that fall, I got in touch with Bitcoin again, because another friend asked me about it since I was a diligent small saver on the stock market. I repeated what I had learned and read in the media, that Bitcoin was a scam, a pyramid scheme and very risky. At Christmas time that same year, I stood by and saw the price of one bitcoin reach record levels, around $ 20,000, and that was when I bought a little. It did not take long before the price stopped going up and I sold my modest position at a loss.

I think many people can recognize themselves in this. You hear about others who make big profits with bitcoin, but you don’t buy yourself. You are afraid, you make your decisions based on other people's opinions and you stay in your comfort zone. Then you fomo in at a peak and sell when the correction comes, because you do not understand what you are investing in.

I tried to gain back the loss I suffered with bitcoin, and bought and sold from time to time because I realized that it was volatile and could move up and down. In the end I almost went break even, and then I sold everything and did not look back.

Fast forward to the spring of 2019 when bitcoin was once again declared dead by the media. I felt satisfied that I was completely out of the crypto market. It was a confirmation that I had acted correctly and sold my bitcoin. However, it did not take long before the price started to rise again, and I once again became a little interested. The big difference now was that I started reading, and tried to understand why bitcoin could move so strongly up and down.

This is where the reference to the butterfly comes in.

As a beginner, you often go to YouTube. I don’t remember exactly who I found, but it was some random crypto influencer who showed a graph, talked about how bitcoin price would behave in the near future and what we had to expect in terms of price development.

It made me more interested, so I looked up the password to my old Twitter account and started following an account called PlanB. From there it was easy to find others in this new world, and in just a few weeks I had started following around hundred people in crypto, most of them YouTubers. Much of the material I consumed in the beginning was focused on trading and less on the fundamentals. I can’t say exactly what became my tipping point, other than that it happened on twitter. For me, it started in the comment fields below the posts.

I read what others wrote, asked some questions myself and got answers. These people were incredibly helpful.

Via Twitter, I quickly found other ordinary people to follow, read and be inspired by. I became more interested in the technology behind it, rather than just the price. I read how someone sold everything he owned and bought bitcoin, and someone else who took out a bank loan to buy more bitcoin. It was such a natural jargon and every time someone wrote that he bought bitcoin he got a lot of comments and likes. For me, this was a whole new world, and thanks to all the plebs on Bitcoin Twitter, I dared to explore and read more. I asked things on Twitter and got answers. I asked the usual beginner question; if there would not be a dip soon so I could buy more. I got the answer that it was already cheap and that I should buy regardless of the price in dollars.

I gained the confidence to buy more. When the price later went down a few hundred dollars and I took the courage to open Twitter, the only thing I could see was "Buy The Fucking Dip". I did not buy dips. But I did not sell either. The whole autumn of 2019 was full of anxiety, but every time I hesitated, I read something on Twitter that made me feel a little safer.

Thanks to all the common people, not influencers, that I followed, I was able to gradually expand my circle. 

I found podcasts and other more qualitative texts that explained Bitcoin in more detail. I had the conviction to buy more in December 2019 thanks to everyone I followed on Twitter. I had no idea what I was doing, but somehow I trusted them. After all, they had been through this before and wrote that it was a sale.

When we had reached January 2020, I listened to Bitcoin podcasts from morning to night, while reading all the articles I could find. I unfollowed all the crypto influencers, and in the beginning of February I started a new Twitter account with a pseudonym and pure focus on Bitcoin. I had become increasingly convinced that Bitcoin was something to put my life into.

The journey was not straight, and it could have ended many times along the way. Therefore, with this text, I want to thank everyone who "shitposts" on Twitter and say to you that it actually matters. It changes people's lives. Without all the Twitter plebs who helped me in the beginning, I would have had fewer satoshis, and I would not have been in a position to help hundreds of new Bitcoiners.

During the first three months of 2020, I bought bitcoin regularly because I wanted to spread the purchases. I reached what was for me a significant stacking goal three days before the big Corona crash. I therefore missed the absolute bottom, but thanks to Bitcoin Twitter, the podcasts and all the article writers, I now understood what Bitcoin was really about and felt rather safe, even though in one day I "lost" half the value of my holdings.

A couple of days after the crash, the panic subsided and the price of bitcoin started to rise again, just as my new friends on Twitter had said it would. I began to scale out of the stock market gradually.

So what I want to highlight with this text is how one thing leads to another. That we all have our role to play on the road to Hyperbitcoinization.

It bothers me to admit it, but without that disgusting shitcoin-shilling crypto influencer, I probably would not have found PlanB at the time I did. Without the comments on PlanB's tweets, I would not have gotten in touch with all the shitposting plebs and without them, I would not have started listening to podcasts about Bitcoin.

After a few more months, when I felt that I had learned and understood so much about Bitcoin that I could actually explain it adequately to others, I decided to start an Instagram account. I started writing about Bitcoin in my own native language, Swedish, and commenting on influencers in the stock trading sphere. In Sweden there is the equivalent of Bitcoin twitter, we call it "Instagram Finance". The interest in my Bitcoin account was rather low, but I still gained 1500 followers in a few months. During the late autumn of 2020, the number of followers increased in step with the price of bitcoin, and today I have 4500 followers, and 1400 people who read my Instastories daily. These stories have become an educational series with Bitcoin-only news and facts. I get daily messages from people who, thanks to my posts, end up reading more, understanding more about what Bitcoin is, buying a small position and then talking about Bitcoin with others.

I could just as easily have gotten my Bitcoin information elsewhere that day in 2017, and maybe never found PlanB and all the maximalists on Twitter. Then I would not have started my Instagram page, and everyone I have received grateful emails from might not have bought bitcoin.

Hypothetical reasoning, but something we should all have in mind. You do not know the power of what you write or do. Your tweet can be the trigger for someone. The person you give five minutes of your time to, to whom you patiently respond - that person's life can change forever. For generations. That is the power of Bitcoin.

In a way, I feel lucky to have found Bitcoin. On the other hand, almost everyone has heard of it but few dig deeper. And even fewer understand. So maybe it's not about luck, but in my case it was probably a bit lucky that I got the start I got. Few...

This text is in many ways about me, but I do not wish to highlight myself. I would rather highlight how each one of us has a unique story about how we found Bitcoin, or rather how Bitcoin found us. About what Bitcoin has done, not only for us as individuals, but for our future heirs for several generations. It is truly fascinating how life changes for every person each of us "orange pills" and how these people in turn touch other people who then have their lives changed.

Bitcoin does not care about me. Tick ​​tock next block. But because the butterfly landed on me and affected me, I now realize that butterflies can land on other people's foreheads too, and that my actions today can and will affect other people.

I'm incredibly grateful that the butterfly landed on me that day. It could just as easily have landed on a flower next to me and I would never have found PlanB, which in turn led me to new friendships with twitter plebs, and exposure to all the other great thinkers, philosophers and Bitcoin economists of our time. I'm so grateful to you all! As grateful as my followers who tell me that thanks to me they found Bitcoin. Thank you! We all have our part to play in the revolution.

This is my love letter to all bitcoin maximalists. 

-swehodl