Just saw another post from someone looking to spend their first $1k on a mining rig. It’s a classic mistake.
In my experience helping people start their Bitcoin journey, that first $1k is much better spent on:
- Buying the asset directly (DCA style).
- Investing $100 in a solid hardware wallet (Coldcard, BitBox, or Trezor).
- Education.
Mining is an industrial game now. For an individual, "mining" your own security is the real profit. What was your biggest "waste of money" when you first started?
The "I have $1000" trap: Why new Bitcoiners should focus on security over hardware.
byu/AnyMeet6281 inBitcoinBeginners
Posted by AnyMeet6281
1 Comment
Fair take. Quick question though, when you say security, are you talking mostly about self custody with a hardware wallet, or also stuff like backups and seed storage?
I’ve seen people do the same thing with mining gear, then realize later they never even secured their wallet properly. Buying BTC directly and understanding how your wallet and keys actually work usually goes a lot further early on.
One practical step I always tell people is to test a small send and recovery with your seed before moving real amounts, it catches a lot of mistakes early. Only caveat is people get overconfident after setup and skip redundancy, which is where things usually go wrong.