I wanted to buy drugs and had very little local access to the ones i wanted

Studied it in Uni for an ethics course.

i wanted something easier than paypal/cashapp/etc to transact with

I've been into decentralized networks from a young age. I've already been running a tor node around 2009/2010. First time I've stumbled onto bitcoin was on the "banking" section of the hidden wiki, and of course I've dismissed it as just another scam.

Then around a year later somebody published a relatively detailed blogpost about the inner workings of bitcoin on a local linux enthusiast news site, and it all just clicked. I was instantly hooked.

SHUM