Confessions of a Former Altcoiner: How I Became a Maxi and Found Inner Peace

I’ll admit it: I used to believe in diversification. I thought having a colorful portfolio of coins with cool logos, flashy whitepapers, and promises of “the next Bitcoin” made me some kind of altcoiner crypto genius. I even staked. Yes, I was that guy.

But after enough rug pulls, gas fees that felt like ransom notes, and watching Vitalik launch another layer-two abstraction I didn’t ask for, I had an epiphany: Bitcoin doesn’t need to change. I did.

This is the story of how I went from chasing 100x moonshots to valuing self-custody, decentralization, and sanity. It’s not just about Bitcoin. It’s about finding peace in a chaotic space full of hype, scams, and Discord groups with too many rocket emojis.

And no, I don’t care what your DAO is doing. I’m finally free.

Step 1: The Altcoiner Honeymoon Phase

I got in during the 2017 bull run. ICOs were everywhere, and I was convinced I had discovered a secret parallel economy. Every new coin was a revolution, every whitepaper read like gospel. I threw money at anything with a logo and a Medium post. If the token had “AI,” “green,” or “quantum” in the name, even better.

Sure, I made some gains. But mostly, I learned that promises are cheap and liquidity is an illusion.

Step 2: Rug Pull Hangovers and Gas Fee Rage

Then came 2018. And 2019. Let’s just call it the Long Sad. Projects vanished. Telegram groups went silent. NFTs hit, and suddenly my Twitter feed was a clown show of pixelated monkeys and self-proclaimed “community managers.”

Meanwhile, I was paying $80 just to move tokens from one wallet to another. What happened to peer-to-peer? What happened to the revolution?

Step 3: The Orange Pill Moment

Somewhere in the despair, I stumbled into Bitcoin Twitter. Not the price-pumping, laser-eyes crowd. The real ones. People talking about hard money, energy economics, sovereignty, freedom tech. It felt… sane.

So I started reading. I devoured The Bitcoin Standard, listened to podcasts from people who didn’t speak in buzzwords, and actually started running a node. For the first time, I understood the why—not just the price.

Step 4: Decluttering My Crypto Life

I sold everything. ETH, SOL, DOT, MATIC, whatever—I dumped the lot. Bought sats. Pulled them off exchanges. Got a hardware wallet. Learned about UTXOs and multisig. Suddenly, I wasn’t chasing APYs anymore—I was securing my future.

It felt like digital minimalism. No more altcoiner charts, no more tokenomics, no more Discord drama. Just one asset, one mission: preserve value and resist tyranny.

Step 5: Inner Peace (and Fewer Notifications)

Bitcoin Maximalism isn’t about hating other projects. It’s about not needing them. It’s about focusing on the one tool that actually does what crypto was supposed to do: separate money from the state.

Now, I sleep better. I think long-term. I ignore the noise. And when someone tries to pitch me a new coin, I just smile and say: “Thanks, but I already found what I was looking for.”

Got a similar story? Or still stuck in altcoiner rehab? 🙂 Let’s talk in the comments.