How Bitcoin helped a family to have kids | Crypto Stories Ep. 20

Me and my wife got married in 2014. We've been 
together since 2008. This year it will be 14   Years, which is crazy when I actually say it out 
loud. But yeah, as soon as we got married, we   Wanted kids and we struggled for a long time. But 
you know, I think the truth is: sh*t just happens.   My name's Noodle, and I'm from northwest 
London. I've got that nickname from my   Dad. He used to call me nicky-nacky noodle, 
and it just became Noodle for short. I set   Up a digital agency in 2009, and then in 
2014, I partnered with two other people to   Optimise the business's performance and gain some 
fantastic new clients. And now thinking about it,   I'm sitting in the garden right now and 
I'm absolutely blessed in as much as we   Have a great business and we have some incredible 
clients. I must have first heard about Bitcoin at   The end of 2012. I was in the gym chatting to 
this guy that I got on well with. He was like:   "Have you ever heard of it?" And it's funny 
because he was trying to explain the Silk   Road thing to me, which was on the dark web. We 
went out, but it was normally on a Friday night. On a Saturday night, we'd be at someone's 
house smoking weed and chilling. So anyway, my   Friend told me we could experiment with it, and I 
thought: "Let's do it!" I mean, genuinely, Bitcoin   Opened my eyes to not just financial world, but so 
much more. I was reading books, watching YouTube   Videos, it was non-stop. I couldn't soak up 
enough information quickly enough. It was   Kind of almost hovering between a passion and 
an addiction. I felt like I couldn't hoover up   Enough information in Bitcoin and read about how 
the Federal Reserve works, and then read about how   Fractional reserve banking works and currency 
debasement, and this, and that, and the other.   My wife said to me that with some of our wedding 
money, she wants to buy Bitcoin. And I remember   It, something about it, it was around £400. 
Not dollars, but pounds. And who would have   Known that that Bitcoin would then go on to 
effectively fund our IVF treatment, which is   Not cheap. Female body clocks, you simply can't 
afford to muck around. We struggled for a long,   Long time to have kids, believe me. We've never 
really liked the stigma around IVF, which means   We actually prefer to talk about it and kind 
of keep it sort of hush-hush the whole time. Anyway, I thought: "You know what? F*ck 
it!" I said to my wife, "We're sitting   On a decent amount of Bitcoin. Let's do this. 
It's one way or the other." And being honest,   I probably would have got a loan out if I 
didn't have Bitcoin because to me, family   Is important and I would have thrown anything and 
everything at it in order to try and make it work.   The cost behind IVF — astronomical. 
Most people can't afford it or they go   Into debt to be able to afford it. And some 
people may have said: "Oh, well, you know,   You shouldn't have sold your Bitcoin, you should 
have got a loan." But I wasn't prepared to be   That pigheaded about it. I wanted to get 
on with things. I didn't want to have to   Worry about getting approved for loans or 
financing or whatnot. I can't remember how  

Many Bitcoin I used in the end. With IVF, 
it's not like you go through this whole   Process and at the end you lump with a big 
fat invoice. You're paying the whole time.   So I was just selling as and when I needed 
money to fund each step in that IVF process. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, 
five, four, three, two, one, zero. When I had the Bitcoin there and ultimately 
there was a kind of thought I was thinking   That this is going to be our little Bitcoin 
baby and it was all worth it in the end. It was   Two rounds with our first child and our second 
child was just the one round. Without Bitcoin,   We would never have been able to 
do this. And who knows if I'd have   Been able to get a personal loan for 
several tens of thousands of pounds.