Well I first heard about Bitcoin after the price spike in late 2013. I looked into it, but when I heard it was a "public ledger" my first thoughts were 'that's a load of crap, why would I (or anyone else) want my personal financial affairs broadcast for the world to see?' I was also shocked that people thought 10 minutes to confirm a transaction was somehow 'fast.'
It wasn't until a friend put me on to Darkcoin and anonymous transactions that I took a keener interest. It was the only coin allegedly offering anonymous transaction so I bought some Bitcoin to buy some Darkcoin. A couple of months later the Cryptonote coins launched, claiming to offer 'truly' anonymous transactions. Those coins looked a better bet than Darkcoin so I invested in them as well.
Since then, Bitcoin has really just been a gateway for me to invest in other cryptocurrencies. I do hold some BTC, however I think most of the innovation is elsewhere in this space (e.g. like this site).
Thanks Nanzo, that's so interesting, I'm still paddling in the crypto pool, I have to wade in a bit further and start checking out other things. It's really good to be able to feed of the expertise of people like yourself.
I'm going to take a look at Dash and ask @bleepcoin what he thinks; he's my cryptoguru :-)
CG