'Bitcoin Baby' Soon To Be a Teenager (blockworks.co) 18
"Twelve years ago, a baby was born after someone used bitcoin to pay for a frozen egg IVF," writes longtime Slashdot reader bobdevine. "I, for one, welcome..."
Blockworks tells the story of how it all came to be: In February 2012 -- almost two years after Laszlo's pizzas -- a fertility doctor named C. Terence Lee set about a personal and professional quest to onboard his patients to Bitcoin by accepting BTC for his services. He started with a "Bitcoin accepted here" sign in his window, and then a Reddit post.
"Jumping in to do my part to support the BTC economy. This may be a historic first?" Lee wrote in a post on the BitMarket subreddit, titled: "[WTS][USA] Male Fertility Evaluation." Lee was offering a 15-minute consultation to discuss fertility questions and a sperm analysis in exchange for 15 BTC, valued at $70 or so at the time. "Actual value over $100," he wrote. Within three months, he'd found a Bitcoin customer.
"The patient turned out not... so much having a burning desire to know about his fertility, but he was a Bitcoin enthusiast, and he liked the idea of participating in history, in this ritual ceremony of what could be perhaps the world's first Bitcoin medical transaction," Lee explained at a 2013 conference in San Jose. "So we chatted about Bitcoin. He taught me a lot about mining. That's how he acquired bitcoin. And we did a sperm test, and it turned out he had really good sperm ... after it was done he sent me 15 bitcoins... "
Lee changed up his strategy to only quiz his most trusted patients. There was one couple, who, on their fourth attempt at IVF, agreed to pay in bitcoin for a 50% discount, with Lee walking them through exchanging U.S. dollars for bitcoin via CryptoXChange, a now-defunct exchange operating out of Australia. The sperm stuck, leading CNN to reveal, on this day in 2013, "the world's first Bitcoin baby" -- a baby bought entirely with bitcoin. Thirty bitcoin to be exact, an amount then worth $500, or $3 million today.
Blockworks tells the story of how it all came to be: In February 2012 -- almost two years after Laszlo's pizzas -- a fertility doctor named C. Terence Lee set about a personal and professional quest to onboard his patients to Bitcoin by accepting BTC for his services. He started with a "Bitcoin accepted here" sign in his window, and then a Reddit post.
"Jumping in to do my part to support the BTC economy. This may be a historic first?" Lee wrote in a post on the BitMarket subreddit, titled: "[WTS][USA] Male Fertility Evaluation." Lee was offering a 15-minute consultation to discuss fertility questions and a sperm analysis in exchange for 15 BTC, valued at $70 or so at the time. "Actual value over $100," he wrote. Within three months, he'd found a Bitcoin customer.
"The patient turned out not... so much having a burning desire to know about his fertility, but he was a Bitcoin enthusiast, and he liked the idea of participating in history, in this ritual ceremony of what could be perhaps the world's first Bitcoin medical transaction," Lee explained at a 2013 conference in San Jose. "So we chatted about Bitcoin. He taught me a lot about mining. That's how he acquired bitcoin. And we did a sperm test, and it turned out he had really good sperm ... after it was done he sent me 15 bitcoins... "
Lee changed up his strategy to only quiz his most trusted patients. There was one couple, who, on their fourth attempt at IVF, agreed to pay in bitcoin for a 50% discount, with Lee walking them through exchanging U.S. dollars for bitcoin via CryptoXChange, a now-defunct exchange operating out of Australia. The sperm stuck, leading CNN to reveal, on this day in 2013, "the world's first Bitcoin baby" -- a baby bought entirely with bitcoin. Thirty bitcoin to be exact, an amount then worth $500, or $3 million today.
On the flip side... (Score:4, Funny)
'Bitcoin Abortion' Never To Be a Teenager
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Facts are facts.
Re: (Score:3)
a baby bought entirely with bitcoin.
IVF as practiced at least generally results in a whole lot of abortions, also known to thinking people as murders.
Just look at the quote above and the words used to talk about the even by people who ostensibly see it as good thing, 'bought' as if this person is some kind of pet or worse slave.
We need to remember there was only ever one price enough to purchase a child of God, and that price was his own blood.
Re: (Score:2)
Ignoring climate change is even more murderous than abortion because it results in the death of fully formed humans, just in the future.
Current projections put deaths at a quarter of a billion people dying as a result of climate change by 2100 and billions of people displaced from their homes. People in the most developed countries are the highest GHG polluters (per capita) which means the pollution your family generates is responsible for the death of at least one person in the future.
Statistically, the mo
Doctors ?? (Score:2)
WTF?
Every one knows the first significant purchase was Pizza.
What has the world become?
Re: (Score:3)
Every one knows the first significant purchase was Pizza.
That actually is mentioned already in the summary.
For a brief period before the transaction fees went kind of nuts, there actually were people trying to use this shit as actual currency. In the early days, you could mine it yourself, or mine alt-coins and exchange them for Bitcoin (mostly because there was still speculation in those days that some alt-coin might steal Bitcoin's thunder), or just buy Bitcoin directly from some sketchy exchange. Then, for all your trouble, you could figure out what Bitcoin
Re: (Score:2)
"For a brief period before the transaction fees went kind of nuts, there actually were people trying to use this shit as actual currency."
I've never stopped using BTC as currency. The transaction fee is $1.44 right now which is roughly the same as the fee for a $20 international paypal transaction or $30 domestic. Of course the BTC doesn't go up with the amount so if you buy a fishtank for $100 or a house for $250k you win pretty hard with BTC... even if you buy it internationally.
"Very few people outside o
Bitcoin as a currency (Score:2)
Hey, don't dunk on Bitcoin as a currency. Its given the world so many benefits: The teenager in the article cost the equivalent of $500,000.
But thanks to Bitcoin, at todays market rates you can buy several teenagers for half a million dollars now, and get free shipping. That is progress, right?
Poor kid (Score:3)
I'm sure the kid will appreciate having been "bought".
Re: (Score:2)
Another one of those people who thinks dowries were a way to buy the bride... nope, dowries were paid to the husbands family to compensate for the financial burden of the bride.
Re: (Score:2)
Whatever they call it, there are many cultures where the groom is expected to offer the bride's family some sort of tribute for the wedding to be allowed.
Re:Poor kid (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure the kid will appreciate having been "bought".
Heck, I'm still slightly miffed that I spent half a BTC back in mid 2014, to buy an Intel NUC DN2820FYKH through TigerDirect. (True story, I actually even still have it) Today, that'd be worth about enough to buy a Model Y and the obligatory "This is just my ride - not a political statement" bumper sticker.
But if we're talking $3 million or... a teenager? Yeah, the buyer's remorse would be hitting pretty hard.
Re: (Score:1)
It seems the patients were "walked through" the whole process of buying the bitcoin just for this gimmick. So there really should be no buyer's remorse.
Re: (Score:3)
I suppose that makes most other IVF babies "credit card babies"?
It makes me wonder how many "cash babies" there are.
Re: (Score:1)
One for The Onion .. (Score:2)
College savings ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if the parent put Bitcoin corresponding to the other 50% into a college savings account. Might actually be enough to cover tuition.
Which baby was the first (Score:3)
Which baby was the first to be bought with pyramid scheme money? Surely someone in Amway paid for IVF decades ago?