I suspect few people in the world have interacted with more individuals who lost bitcoin than I have.
I answered support tickets for a non-custodial web wallet that, at the time, was the most popular in the world.
I'm talking about 100,000+ tickets over five years, many from users who lost access to their funds. Not just tiny amounts, mind you.
Sometimes hundreds of bitcoin.
My inability to help them still weighs on me.
We added warnings and info about the importance of backups. It's not that I could have done more. The nature of the old Blockchain(.)info wallet made that impossible.
The bottom line is personal responsibility demands extraordinary effort, and not everyone is up for the challenge.
Lost password? Sorry, I can't help.
Lost seed phrase? Sorry, I can't help.
Funds stolen by a phishing site? *Sigh*
What troubles me most isn't the sadness I felt from doing this daily for so many years. No, eventually you grow numb to it.
That's what truly hurt.
I imagine this is a lesser version of what people in the medical field have to do to cope with their jobs - learning to stop caring so much.
It takes a toll on your humanity if you live this way for too long.
I could have stayed in that job. Stacked more sats. It made sense, financially. I'd have a lot more bitcoin today if I did.
Instead, I left, choosing to be with my family and focus on self improvement.
Anyone who has worked during the early years of a startup will understand how incredibly burnt out you are once you finally step away. It took me years to push through that.
But I still think about those users.
The ones who made all the mistakes of the past that you, the bitcoiners of today, would learn from.
Almost seven years have passed since I left, and I'm no longer numb to their pain. I feel sadness for them again.
And I'm grateful for that.
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and take some time to reflect on the things that truly matter in this life. 🧡✌️
