Doctor Bitcoin Jailed For Selling – Bitcoin Magazine

In 2011, journalist and tech entrepreneur Mark Hopkins shared dinner with a longtime friend who offered to pay for his half of the meal by sending Hopkins some newly-minted bitcoin, which the friend had mined himself on his laptop. In a recent telephone interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Hopkins quipped that he had never heard of the world’s first peer-to-peer cryptocurrency before, but “being a good nerd myself,” he had his laptop with him and downloaded the needed hardware to accept the offer (about half a bitcoin to cover a coffeehouse meal — “13 or 14 bucks’” worth of magic internet money — if you were wondering).

That transaction began a years-long journey down the Bitcoin rabbit hole for Hopkins, launching an “O.G.” path which included adopting the online teaching persona of Doctor Bitcoin, becoming vice president of Geosyn Mining (based in Fort Worth, Texas) and selling his personally-mined bitcoin for many years to interested parties, in person for cash or through completely above-board bank wires.

Hopkins said that his interest in selling bitcoin was “mostly to meet people” for networking purposes, and that he rarely bothered to profit except on the largest deals, but instead focused on turning higher-net-worth buyers into long-term clients for his marketing company.