The Origins of “Don’t Buy Bitcoins, Use Carrots Instead”
Among the earliest memes in cryptocurrency history lies a curious phrase: “Don’t buy Bitcoins, use carrots instead.” Long before today’s flood of crypto memes, this odd slogan captured the imagination of Bitcoin’s first internet communities, becoming both an inside joke and an early example of how culture and finance merged online.
The Spark — April 22, 2011
On April 22, 2011, a Dutch user named Niels van der Linden uploaded an 8-minute, 30-second video to the internet titled “Don’t Buy Bitcoins.”
At the time of this upload, Bitcoin traded at just $0.77 per coin.
In the video, Niels argued that Bitcoin was a poor choice of currency or investment — urging viewers instead to “use carrots,” treating them as a hypothetical alternative with more “real” utility. His straight-faced delivery and extended monologue left the early Bitcoin community divided: was it satire, trolling, or a genuine critique?
Witcoin & the Meme Explosion
The first to latch onto this video were users of Witcoin, an early Bitcoin community website (something like a proto-Reddit for Bitcoiners).
There, community members started circulating the phrase “Don’t buy Bitcoins, use carrots instead” as a kind of in-joke. It became a way of mocking skeptics while also celebrating the absurdity of comparing carrots — a perishable vegetable — to a cryptographic digital asset.
Soon, the slogan appeared in comment sections, memes, and early Bitcoin forums. It spread partly because it was funny, partly because it was trollish, and partly because it reflected the oddball DIY culture of Bitcoin in 2011.
Why It Mattered
- One of the first Bitcoin memes – Alongside “Magic Internet Money,” this stands as one of the earliest community-wide jokes in crypto.
- Captured early skepticism – Even at $0.77, critics were dismissive of Bitcoin, equating it with useless abstractions.
- A symbol of trolling culture – The carrot became shorthand for how absurd arguments against Bitcoin could sound.
- Memetic resilience – More than a decade later, the phrase still resurfaces in niche circles as a reminder of Bitcoin’s strange early internet roots.
Legacy
While the world forgot about Witcoin, and Niels van der Linden’s original video gathered digital dust, the carrot slogan remains etched into Bitcoin lore. Like “HODL” or “Have fun staying poor,” it shows that memes weren’t just decoration in crypto history — they were the narrative weapons of a movement.
Today, “Don’t buy Bitcoins, use carrots instead” is remembered not for its literal meaning, but as a badge of how early Bitcoiners turned criticism into comedy — and comedy into culture.
