Bitcoin and Garage Coffee in 2013

Let’s talk about garage coffee in 2013.

That year, on a lazy afternoon, young people from all walks of life flocked to this newly emerged entrepreneurial mecca, chatting with various people with dreams, and blending projects, including the proud students of Tsinghua University and Peking University, There are the desperate Beipiaos, the dreamers with projects, and the cunning investors. Also that afternoon, Li Xiaolai was excitedly introducing what Bitcoin was to the first batch of curious young people in China in the garage coffee. Two young people sitting in the back row whispered, and one asked: "Brother, what do you think about this?" Is this thing reliable?" Another person replied in a low voice: "To be honest, I don't understand it, but it seems pretty cool." There was a young man named Erbao from Shanxi in the front row, but he listened very intently.

As recently as 2013, Garage Coffee could still pay with Bitcoin. In March of that year, an American international student named Jack asked if he could use Bitcoin to buy coffee. Garage Coffee Employee No. 2 Huang Fen later said: "We had a partner who was researching Bitcoin at the time, and we were worried that there was no place to look for it, so we agreed. However, before we could get the Bitcoin, we were replaced by the partner who was researching Bitcoin. , we finally received cash.”

01

In 2013, Zhao Dong was already the technical director of Garage Coffee. At that time, he bought shares in Moji Weather and wanted to start a business, so he drank coffee in the garage.

Zhao Dong (2013):

Last year, in March, a friend said that he was playing with Bitcoin, and he suggested that I also buy some Bitcoin. I asked why I should buy this thing? He said make money. It's very simple. I first started playing with Bitcoin because it looked like it could make money, because I had some money in my hands after selling Moji Weather.

In addition, I happened to sell my house last year. Why did I sell my house? Because I posted a Weibo post in October last year, roughly talking about my purchase of Bitcoin after selling my house. , many people think that I sold my house to speculate in Bitcoin. Every time I come out, I say this is a misunderstanding. I did not sell my house to speculate in Bitcoin. In fact, I felt that China's real estate was going to collapse very early on. Finally last year, I felt that house prices were relatively high, so I told my wife that we should sell the house. When I talked to my wife before, she felt that there were no other assets in the family, and she felt that it would not be safe to sell the house and use the money to do other things. Last year, I finally succeeded in convincing my wife to sell the house, and I decided to do so on the same day. Sold, sold on the same day.

Before that, part of the money I spent from selling Moji was actually a very poor investment. About half of my money was deposited in the bank on a regular basis, and the other half was bought in funds. There were no particularly good investments at that time, and the regular interest rates on bank deposits were very low. After I bought the fund for a year, I found that I basically lost money, around 10%. I didn’t have good financial management skills. Just at this time, my friend told me that you can play with Bitcoin. I took a look at the historical trend of Bitcoin. It fluctuated greatly. Large fluctuations prove that speculation is possible.

At that time, I deposited 50 yuan into Bitcoin China. I first tried what Bitcoin was. At that time, it should be 2,500 yuan per coin. It was not particularly fast at the beginning, but later I discovered Bitcoin is rising very fast, and I am a little anxious. One day I was drinking with my friends at the garage coffee shop. In those few days, the price suddenly rose from 600 yuan to 1,000 yuan. My friend and I bought some Bitcoins together. Each of us got 10,000 yuan, and each of us bought 10. If it fell, we wouldn’t care. Anyway, 10,000 yuan is not particularly important to us. We sell it when the price rises to 1,500 yuan, regardless of whether it goes up or not. We each bought 10 coins for 10,000 yuan. In less than a week, the price suddenly rose to 1,800 yuan. It should have exceeded 1,500 yuan at noon that day. At that time, he called me and said that Bitcoin passed 1,500 yuan. , let’s sell it. I said yes, I will sell it when I get back. When I returned to the computer, the price reached 1,800 yuan. I sold 10 of them at exactly 1,800 yuan. I was very happy after selling them.

At midnight, two of my classmates from Dalian came over to drink with me at the Garage Coffee. When we were drinking until midnight, I often took out my phone to check the price of Bitcoin. When I saw the price dropped to about 650 yuan, and then rebounded to 900 yuan, I bought 10 more for 900 yuan. I sold it again the next morning for 1,300 yuan. In less than two weeks, I used 10,000 yuan to earn more than 10,000 yuan. I bragged to my wife and said that this investment was very successful. At that time, I didn’t After using an iPhone, I bought an iPhone. My first iPhone was due to a lucky speculation.

Xiao Lai once told me that he also spent a lot of money mining at that time. After the mining failed, he realized that capital itself is the most efficient in the world of money. I asked him at that time, how did you achieve the cost of 1 US dollar when buying Bitcoin, and he laughed and said that he happened to catch a descending channel at that time. When I bought Bitcoin, I bought it for 10,000 yuan for the first time. It happened to rise to the historical high of 266 US dollars, and then it fell. After the fall, there was a bear market for about a few months. This happened to be a downward channel. I Buy heavily in a descending channel.

At that time, it was about 800 yuan. Every time it dropped a little, I bought a little bit. When it dropped by 50-100 yuan, I bought 100,000 yuan. In this way, I bought 400 yuan from 800 yuan, with an average price of 500 yuan. These 2,000 Bitcoins That’s how it comes about, and the cost is relatively low.

02

This year, Tian Jia, a 26-year-old senior student in the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, also came to Garage Coffee. “Maybe because I graduated from the Department of Computer Science, I am particularly interested in Bitcoin. Interested." The boy, who spoke softly at the time, seemed very excited when talking about his first contact with Bitcoin.

"At that time, there was a report abroad called "The Most Dangerous Currency in History", and I learned that there was a currency called Bitcoin." After tracing the source, Tian Jia also planned to start trying to mine Bitcoin. "Although excavators are becoming more and more advanced now, it is most cost-effective to burn graphics cards for mining."

In 2011, he spent 10,000 yuan He saved a "mining machine" in Zhongguancun. Using this mining machine, he spent 3 months digging out 100 Bitcoins. "Taking care of machines is more tiring than taking care of people." Tian Jia recalled that in his small rental house at the time, there was a "mining machine" that used more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in three months just to mine Bitcoin. The mining machine dissipates heat very well. "Even the clothes that have just been washed will dry after a while in the room."

Then, Tian Jia used part of his Bitcoins to buy the high-end computer he had dreamed of for a long time. In his opinion, this transaction was quite a bargain, and it also stimulated his interest in Bitcoin.

03

On the evening of December 6, 2013, the atmosphere in the Zhongguancun Garage Cafe was very tense. Bitcoin experienced a historic shock. Basically every laptop running A page with real-time Bitcoin trading quotes opened. Whether they are working or talking about things, people will glance at the constantly jumping numbers from time to time, always ready to take action as soon as there is a market trend. Even the few guys behind the bar gathered together to check the market prices on their mobile phones, hoping to buy one or two Bitcoins at the bottom. The boss, Su Su, kept answering calls from the media and answering various questions about Bitcoin. Although the entire hall is relatively quiet, the atmosphere is obviously not as relaxed and lively as usual. "Today we have witnessed history! The market is changing too fast. If you have a meal, you will miss the opportunity." Erbao, a senior player in the coffee, stopped the reporter who came to interview and said: "Now, as long as you are in the IT circle, basically everyone Pay attention to Bitcoin. If you go to any coffee shop in Zhongguancun now, you will definitely hear people talking about Bitcoin.”

The three people in the 2013 garage coffee story, Zhao Dong, Tian Jia and Erbao, are now. They have all become well-known in the industry and have a net worth of hundreds of millions.

But if you go back to that lazy afternoon that year, you happened to pass by the garage coffee to buy a drink and heard their discussion, would you notice the turbulent future of this trickle?