Learn like a Wizard and cast a spell on complacency.
On the 10th of March 2023, something strange happened, but let’s first rewind a few years. I’ve been a “Bitcoiner” since the beginning of 2017 and I’ve continued to “research and learn” about “everything” in crypto ever since. Now, there’s a reason I put some of these words in quotes.
The thing is, 6 years feels like a very long time in this space. Like many of you reading this, I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs. I’m not wealthy, but I’ve been riding the highs and lows of the cycles and felt the joy and pain that go with that. I of course started out in Bitcoin but was soon drawn into all the other tokens and projects filled with golden promise. I downloaded 100s of wallets, and I made a huge number of mistakes ranging from accidental market orders on thin order books to sending my tokens to an address that I didn’t have access to anymore. I started to believe that I’d seen it all.
As the years went by I started to “educate” others. I shared my successes and failures, however, I always found that sharing the culture and the things you experience in different communities is the most difficult thing to transfer to someone else.
I write this post not because I feel superior to anyone, but because as someone who has been learning so much about the industry, I ate some humble pie today. You see, for the first time ever, after having read so many articles, after having played with SegWit BTC addresses, after having used multi-sig, etc, ….. for the first time, I used the Lightning Network and a bunch of associated wallets. Of course, I knew what Lightning was on the surface, I’ve read about the different concepts, and I know who Elizabeth Stark is, etc, etc. But .. I’ve never used it.
I’ll be completely transparent, I used the Lightning Network today because I fell in love with a bit of Bitcoin history over the past few months: Taproot Wizards
The idea behind Taproot Wizards is that a limited number of these very unique images (with their origins going back many years) will be inscribed into the Bitcoin blockchain, forever. By visiting https://school.taprootwizards.com/ and completing educational tasks you have a chance to get your hands on one of these yourself — the first challenge was to use the Lightning Network.
Now, stop laughing because I know there are folks out there who have used Lightning extensively, but as mentioned above, I’ve somehow managed to do “everything” except using the Lighting Network over the years and here are just a couple of my own takeaways:
- I had to get my head around the idea again that the lightning network was in fact a different network.
- This meant needing to think about how I could get BTC from one network to another.
- The addresses look different and an invoice was a concept that I had to wrap my head around quickly.
- I’ve found Lightning Apps for Windows (don’t ask!) to be very limited! One (Zap) crashed and couldn’t load the blockchain history properly on my PC.
- I then resorted to mobile apps, but how did I get the BTC to the lightning address?
- I found that transferring BTC from Kraken to a specific app worked as the mobile app automatically did the “conversion” from one wallet to another. It’s a feature that I think Kraken should really offer too.
- Once I wrapped my head around the basics, I successfully sent my BTC to the right address where the invoice was generated and I was amazed at the speed of the transaction.
All in all, this was a valuable experience for me and not something I would have done without the gentle nudge of the Taproot Wizards. My first impressions were that the Lightning ecosystem still had a long way to go in terms of maturity, but I also appreciate that I may not have picked all the right products from the outset, and in the end, I could see the ultimate value that we will likely enjoy when things start to fall in place.
I would like to leave you with two things: 1. There is always something new to learn no matter how long you have been in a specific industry. 2. Sometimes the only way to learn is by doing. I think this can be applied to so many different industries and tasks, and I was vividly reminded of that again today.
It is incredibly rare to find a community and a movement where you feel so passionate about it that it consumes your mind. Community and history are everything in this space. Taproot Wizards, however, is an opportunity to really own an authentic piece of identity as far as Bitcoin goes, and something that we will greatly cherish over the many years to come should we be fortunate enough to own one.
On the one hand, I understand that sharing this with the public can make it harder to get a place myself as a wizard, but on the other hand, if you learn something from it, then there is a sense of gratitude in that too.
To all the wizards and Bitcoiners, keep learning.
Best Wishes, Wizard.
