---
title: "I Bought Bitcoin at the Inauguration of La Maison du Bitcoin"
date: 2014-05-13T18:44
author: Julien Reszka
description: "La Maison du Bitcoin opened in Paris today. I bought a small amount of bitcoin at the inauguration and had no idea what to do with it next."
keywords: ["startups", "engineering", "opportunity", "future of work", "economics"]
canonical: https://julienreszka.com/blog/i-bought-bitcoin-at-the-inauguration-of-la-maison-du-bitcoin/
---

# I Bought Bitcoin at the Inauguration of La Maison du Bitcoin

La Maison du Bitcoin opened in Paris today. I bought a small amount of bitcoin at the inauguration and had no idea what to do with it next.

La Maison du Bitcoin opened today on Rue du Caire in Paris and I went to the inauguration.

The space is small and clean. There are explanations on the walls and a few terminals. The people there were enthusiasts, early adopters, and a handful of journalists. Nobody looked like a banker.

I bought a small amount of bitcoin before I left. I am not sure why exactly. I did not have a plan for it. I did not have a thesis about where the price was going. I just felt like I should have some, the same way you feel like you should read a book you keep hearing about even before you know if it is good.

What I actually understood at that point:

- Bitcoin is a currency not controlled by any government or central bank
- Transactions are recorded on a public ledger nobody owns
- The supply is capped and new coins are created by solving computational puzzles
- A lot of very technical people take it seriously
- A lot of other people think it is a scam

What I did not understand:

- What to do with it after buying it
- How wallets actually work or how to keep it safe
- Why the price moved the way it did
- Whether any of this would matter in ten years

The honest answer is that I bought it because being in the room made it real in a way that reading articles had not. The transaction happened. I had a small number in a wallet on my phone.

I do not know if this will turn out to have been a smart decision or an irrelevant one. But I know that having a small amount of something focuses your attention differently than having none of it. I will follow this more carefully now.

---

**Actionable insight:** When something new confuses you but still pulls your attention, buy or build the smallest possible version of it. The confusion is a signal worth paying attention to, not a reason to wait.

## Key figure

**~330 EUR** — Approximate price of one bitcoin in euros on the day La Maison du Bitcoin opened in Paris, May 13, 2014

*Source: Bitcoin price data, CoinMarketCap; EUR/USD rate, May 2014*

## Myth vs reality

**Myth:** Bitcoin is used by criminals and will be shut down by governments

**Reality:** That was the mainstream view in 2014. The same year, France opened a legal bitcoin shop in central Paris. The technology survived every shutdown prediction and every obituary written about it.

*Source: La Maison du Bitcoin inauguration, Paris, May 2014*