Boomer on the dance floor! The 64-year-old Bitcoin breakdancer about investing
One of the world’s oldest competitive breakers, or breakdancers, twists and shouts Bitcoin (BTC) on dance floors across the United States. At 64, Ben Hart told Cointelegraph that he reckons he is “the world’s oldest actively competitive breaker”.
For context, Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, is the same age. But Gensler is unlikely to tear up the dance floor wearing Bitcoin jerseys anytime soon:
Someone is asking for more footage of me, the 64-year-old breakdancer wearing one #Bitcoin shirt in all his crushing battles. Me last weekend in Chicago.
Retweet if you like this! pic.twitter.com/oEVLa6Xh7k
— Ben Hart (@BenHartBitcoin) 21 August 2022
Hart took up breakdancing in 2011, amazed by the “athleticism” of the hip-hop street dance. He recruited an expert to teach him the ropes and spent years honing his skills by incorporating flips, power moves and freezes.
He took a similar approach to Bitcoin, which he first learned in 2014. He spent hundreds of hours studying the technology before buying his first Bitcoin in 2019. Hart took Gary Gensler’s MIT course on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies and read the Bitcoin White Paper « smallest. tenfold.” Also, instead of going all in, Hart began by averaging the dollar costs of what he considers “the only truly decentralized cryptocurrency or asset out there.”
As a result, when the price crashed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 – and many sold – Hart bought more. His thorough education crystallized into a resolute conviction about the currency’s future.
Furthermore, Hart explains “When the Fed launched its manic money printing in 2020 to start handing out free money to people (even much more money printing than usual), I thought this was the exact situation Bitcoin was designed for.”
“Bitcoin’s mission is to be honest money. So I started buying a lot more Bitcoin.”
Hart was hooked. So much so that he started wearing Bitcoin jerseys to breakdancing competitions and evangelizing Bitcoin to his entourage while keeping them away from trading and altcoins.
More of the 64 year old guy (me) representing #Bitcoin (new #BTC shirt) in Chicago breakdance match.
I think I’m the world’s oldest competitive breaker.
Can’t think of a better way to spend 8 hours on a Sunday. Retweet and follow if you like this. pic.twitter.com/He6iWE8IMX— Ben Hart (@BenHartBitcoin) 24 August 2022
“I think basically trade is a loser’s game. […] My advice to them is to take 10% of whatever they had to invest and buy Bitcoin. That’s what I tell my kids to do.”
Hart told Cointelegraph that he is asking his junior breaker colleagues to stop trading and “forget about the other cryptos for now.”
Hart has been seen on the dance floor on TV shows like Good Morning America, while he has already made inroads into the Bitcoin community. Cory Kliippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, see you later to have extended an invitation Hart’s way for the Bitcoin conference Pacific Bitcoin in November this year.
Related: Busking on Bitcoin: How Lightning Network Surpasses Ethereum for Betting
Hart and his wife have six children and divide their time between Miami and Chicago. Besides wrestling, he now dedicates his time to Bitcoin education. He joins a growing list of Bitcoin Boomers – HODLers born between 1946 and 1964 – as his first Bitcoin book is soon to be published.