Topic: David Zimbeck interviewed by Leah Zitter - insight in the mind of David Zimbeck (Read 163 times)

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Leah: Any reason why you referred to your Education as “school of hard knocks” - what were the defining moments that made you who you are?

David Zimbeck:
Mostly because I've let life be my teacher instead of school. People don't learn in school they are dictated what to think. They aren't taught to think. Life teaches you to think. In a perfect world schools would never use books and they would never teach unproven theories. Most of physics and biology and chemistry and history is completely based on theory. Sometimes even deliberately deceptive to hide intelligent design and prevent creative thought. Unfortunately the schools are set up so people will blindly trust authority. It is frustrating to hear so many people say "oh well scientists have proven X". Actually no they haven't. In order to see if something is true, you must run the experiment yourself. It's dangerous to assume that things were taught to us honestly. The best way to know is test it yourself, research it, see what schools are not teaching, what does life teach us? Tesla said that modern science had substituted mathematics for experiment and have a model that has no relation to reality. You can math model anything but that doesn't make it true. Things are cleverly omitted from equations, the equations don't represent reality. Refraction and magnification of light is constantly overlooked in many modern models. Nikola Tesla was not a believer in atomic theory for example. No wonder his brilliant innovations go mostly ignored. It's by design. In a perfect world schools would teach us to farm, sew, cook, be kind to each other, play sports and games, work with chemicals, botany, replenish and care for soil, 3d print, innovate and invent, work with circuit boards, meditate, pursue truth, martial arts, etc. In school they give you a lesson and then a test. In martial arts they give you a test that teaches you a lesson. Kids don't belong sitting in a chair all day. It's unhealthy, they need to play. Our teenage years are mostly wasted sitting in a chair when that time should be pursued socializing, playing sports, dating, cooking, farming, art, etc. Think of how excited kids would be if school was like this. Kids would be begging their parents to take them to school. But no, on the contrary they dread homework, the forced memorization of nonsense. Modern school is basically a religion, the books are the bibles and the teachers are the preachers. The kids don't actually run their own experiments to see if the modern theories are true. Nor do they try to use the scientific method to question if there is another way to look at the world. Since there is usually more than one way to explain what we see. The kids soon become adults too afraid to dare question anything they learned. Then they become the ones who enslave their own children assuming the law is morality. If anything I hope to inspire people to form schools and communities that change this model. I'm hoping my kids can learn this way. Maybe we can learn together. The school of the street, school of hard knocks is the best school. It taught me to teach myself and to listen to what the world shows me.

Leah: Do you want to name colleges/ schools you attended?

David Zimbeck:
I did get my GED and then spent a short amount of time at Pace University in New York. It was about a semester I spent there. However I realized the amount of time it was going to potentially waste and the money it would cost my parents and then it made me realize that it was not worth the time. I'm happy I chose to do things the way I did because it allowed me to learn and experience things on my own. I did miss out on some of the social stuff but made up for it in my various travels and experiences.



Leah: How long before I get a return on the staking is it daily or what? B. Is there somewhere I can see what I am getting for staking? C. When does staking become worthwhile?

David Zimbeck:
Staking is always worthwhile because it protects the network by verifying transactions. The time it takes to get a return is random. You can check online explorers to see all the staking statistics. The reward we have is fixed at 20 coins per block which averages to be 1% per year.

Leah: A. What is the inflation structure? B. Any special perks or incentives for devs? C. How is development funded?

David Zimbeck:
The inflation is 1% per year and there is not a special perk for the dev. Development is not funded unfortunately due to what happened at the projects beginning. However, by fighting tooth and nail for the projects success our personal stake and the core investors who stayed loyal to the project have been able to increase the size of our staff.

Leah: Do you have any ideas beyond moderation/escrow to keep scammers from ruining the platform?

David Zimbeck:
I truly feel that escrow with deposits is self-regulating. However, we do have a reputation system where users can see statistics on who has lost contracts. This combined with double deposit allows for a flexible system. A seller may be predicted to almost never default so his deposit is dropped or even removed over time. This can probably even be mathematically computed. The point of unbreakable contracts is that liars simply cannot defeat honest parties in the long run. A person who breaks contracts combined with a reputation system could see his required deposits skyrocket as people lose trust for him. Honestly a scammer would avoid this platform because it's almost profitless for them.

Leah: What advantages does BitBay have over Ob2, Sys, Safe Exchange, Confido, or Particl?

David Zimbeck:
So far most of those projects don't even have a product. New projects indeed pop into existence daily and investors should first check that they have a working product. Out of the projects you listed, only one of them is going to implement a double deposit system and that is Particl. They had a rebrand a while ago and have closely shadowed BitHalo/BlackHalo and BitBay. So we hope they complete their product but until it's done we can't say what will become of it. Syscoin has tons of cool development behind them and some of their community enjoys "competing" with us but we don't really see them as competition. As far as markets are concerned we are not blockchain based which is much more secure! More nodes, and no way to discover users by broadcast time and no bloat. And of course there is double deposit and our massive feature list. We do contracts. Their project is very different from ours in my humble opinion. Their dev is a friend of mine as we have chatted over the phone various times. Syscoin doesn't use two party escrow though. They use a 3rd party escrow and I feel that doesn't solve any problems. Since crypto is not reversible it's even more risky than Amazon or other platforms. Because a escrow agent could luckily get paired on his own deal and then take the escrow for himself. Even if the escrow is honest, he must guess during disputes which punishes the innocent. Since at that point it's a coin toss. So I would ask, why not use Amazon? BitBay offers a true advantage of not having to pay an arbiter and reducing potential for loss. I think Confido was reported in many news outlets as doing an exit scam on the investors. I've not personally investigated it though so I'm not going to say one way or the other. To be honest ANY project doing legitimate coding I wish them well. We hope that the worlds coders collaborate instead of compete because to a bright future we need to get there together. What I can say is, BitBay had a working smart contracting prototype 4 years ago. It's tested, it's open source, it's got a full fledged counter-offer system, tons of customization and thought went into this. If anyone ever invests in a project all I recommend is buy something REAL. Make them earn your investment. Don't put money into ICOs, put it into projects with working prototypes and devs that are willing to work endless nights for the betterment of humanity. Invest in what you believe in, not in what you believe will make a buck.

Leah: What is the total number of BAY in circulation and why was it chosen?

David Zimbeck:
One billion coins and I didn't choose it. Those numbers were decided by the founders. It's a good number of coins and I think for an economy to grow you need to have a bigger supply. Since volume and price discrepancy will require more refined differences in prices.

Leah: How does BitBay secure privacy on a decentralized p2p network?

David Zimbeck:
The privacy is because Bitmessage passes the messages around and it's hard to know who originally sent it. Also it's not possible to know who is able to decrypt the messages. Since messages are not stored on a server it becomes even harder to shut down. It's really a simple and wonderful system. I hope to see it continue to evolve.

Leah: what's your price prediction for BitBay?

David Zimbeck:
Not sure. But what I do know is I'm working hard. Also the project has really taken on it's own life. The baby is growing up strong. Community members have started to devote themselves full time all on their own because they care about the project. This has me happy to think that even if something happens to me it will continue to develop and grow. They know the ideologies of a good blockchain from our conversations and I think those will continue with the project for many years.

Leah: How does the unbreakable contract work for sellers? Is the value of the collateral greater than the purchase, so the seller won’t be defrauded? It seems to me that the double escrow system, intelligent as it is, can still be abused to screw sellers.

David Zimbeck:
What you are perhaps not realizing is that the payment is also advanced into escrow. If you do a traditional double deposit then both parties should simply place a deposit equal to the item value. The buyer advances his payment into the escrow as well. So it's imbalanced. The buyer is in escrow at 2:1 so when the item ships he would be paying double if he doesn't release payment. There is definitely no risk for the seller here unless the seller sends an empty box. Actually when the deal starts it's the buyer who is at more risk. When the item arrives however then the balance is shifted at 1:2. So at some point one party has more to lose than the other. It wouldn't matter in the long run though because breaking a contract causes you to lose funds and your reputation.

Leah: Can you direct me to an exchange to buy BitBay crypto.

David Zimbeck:
The most popular is Bittrex although they are not taking as many new signups so we might see volume go to other exchanges like Cryptopia or something.

Leah: Can I find somewhere a number of daily transactions?

David Zimbeck:
Yes you can. On chainz.cryptoid.info

Leah: Does Bitbay have paper wallet capabilities?

David Zimbeck:
Yes it does. You can print out the key files in the BitBay client. Even the web wallet shows you your key which you might write down somewhere or print out.

Leah:  Do you have any intentions to separate Polish exchange BitBay.net from BitBay market by creating a different name to prevent confusion and harm brand recognition. What do you intend to do about scenarios like this: “I recently saw a news article saying Bitbay exchange was opening in India, only to be disappointed to find out it was a Polish exchange called Bitbay. Bitbay is a great name for a decentralized alternative to eBay, however this name clash will cause confusion?”

David Zimbeck:
It's funny because we started at the same time. I think we had an international presence before they did especially because coins are borderless. In the end I don't see there being confusion. They are an exchange. Most exchanges don't even last. Mt. Gox is gone, Btc-e was wiped out, Mintpal, and so many others. We believe in decentralized exchange. Also our scope is beyond sales of items... even to compare to e-bay is inadequate. We have the peg and banking aspects, we have unbreakable contracts which apply to all fields where agreement is required. Barter, employment, insurance, real estate, etc. It's an entire economy in a platform. In any case we wish them well. There is no reason to change our name though because it's recognized. You never know though, time will tell.

Leah: “Also we can "cold stake" which is staking from two computers..” why is staking from two computers, better than from one? What are its benefits? Why not expand to more than two computers if “cold staking” is helpful?

David Zimbeck:
Well if you noticed recently the hacks with Spectre and Meltdown as those hacks can read anything from memory. This is bad because it means if you type in a password someone can get it. Cold staking eliminates any chance your account would get compromised. This is extremely important for banks and high profile accounts. Why risk it? This way, the keys are in two totally different locations.

Leah: “BitBay is "Proof of Stake 3" which is a good protocol.” - Why? I understand PoS. What is PoS 3?

David Zimbeck:
It's good because it removed "coinage" which was getting more the longer you hold. This encouraged users to stay disconnected. So that breaks consensus. Instead to get a reward you must stay connected. Also, it lets me stake by spending which is awesome for voting and spending exotic accounts like multisignature.

Leah: “It's starting to blossom and it's amazing to watch.” I came across several Reddit comments that wondered how you managed to flourish despite meager marketing. Your response?

David Zimbeck:
Well it happened organically. I just kept working despite what happened because it was my goal to finish what was started and proposed. Our marketing has gradually improved and I think I read somewhere that Bitcoins price is directly correlated to how many users it has. So as we expand hopefully we can get a good network effect as well.

Leah: What’s your plan to publicize your project and enable it to achieve objectives (investors, ICO, recruitment of developers, marketing,…)?

David Zimbeck:
There is almost endless strategies for marketing. Social media, Video SEO, regular SEO, local PR firms, foreign PR firms, going to meet-ups, seminars, public speaking, forums, promotions, etc. I'm not sure what will be the catalyst but we hope to reach out in as many creative ways as we can.

Leah: What is Bitbay’s (a) governance and (b) economic model?

David Zimbeck:
Well users can vote and they even successfully voted on a fork to increase the stake reward! The economic model is based on the peg so that supply and demand can be closer in harmony.

Leah: How do you plan to make BitBay easer for the lay person?

David Zimbeck:
Hopefully by having more web based applications.

Leah: Will recent SEC crypto-regulations impact BitBay? In which way? Are there cryptocurrency forecasts for 2018 that will impact BitBay in a positive way? The reverse? (elaborate).

David Zimbeck:
I don't think they effect us at all. The ICO started in China(BTER) and was long before any regulation and passes the statute of limitations and the founders are also gone so it's a free project. We don't pay dividends either so I am pretty sure we don't fall under their umbrella. We would simply be a commodity as ruled in the states. But remember the world doesn't revolve around the first world countries. There is thousands of countries with different rules so to regulate it would be a bit of a joke because even if users were given certain restrictions in some countries that would not apply in others and thus be impossible to enforce. The things that effect us in 2018 is mass adoption coming to crypto. Any negative impacts may be propaganda or something. It's hard to predict the unpredictable. We are optimistic.


Leah: Re. your Voting function, 5 days ago you need it wasn’t out. When do you expect it out?

David Zimbeck:
Our voting function is out. It's been working for a year actually. Users can vote while they stake the coin making it provably fair.

Leah: “We still need a few things though. We need a good mobile platform and the user interface needs to be fast. And even with the perfect system you have to market it.” Your road map/ approx. date for each of these to appear?

David Zimbeck:
A new one was just released. The things you mentioned are not the focus of the current roadmap. We are first completing the things like the peg and then we shall see where the project goes.

Leah: What are the chances you’ve passed up on that you regret?

David Zimbeck:
It's funny, I used to regret a lot more. But lately, I've moved beyond it. There is nowhere else to look but forward. The best place to improve is within. I'm very introspective for this reason. "An error does not become a mistake unless you refuse to correct it." ~ Kennedy. And errors are what cause us to learn and improve. People are so quick to judge themselves thinking their own self-image is tarnished and not perfect. I used to believe that, but that belief is starting to fade. When blinded how can you map your environment without bumping into a few walls, getting hurt, taking knocks and disappointment. I'm trying to magnify my creator and the wonders of reality. To self discover, and unlock truth. But have I made mistakes? Sure. I'm no stranger to pain, shame, regret, despair. I've got to focus on the present to get things done and continue to get stronger. "Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain." ~ Nixon

Leah: What do you want most out of life?

David Zimbeck:
Well perhaps that changes from time to time. Some things are universal like happiness, love, and peace. I've waited for a very, very long time to see the end of slavery and pain in the world. As governments enslave the mind and don't honor their word. I'm not sure what will happen in my lifetime but that would bring my soul great peace. Then again, I'm not really sure of what is real, what is illusion. Thus I will continue to seek.

Leah: How do you spend the majority of your free time? Why?

David Zimbeck:
Walks on the beach, meditation, and I'm looking to exercise more. Mostly for peace of mind. I love sports and it's nice to travel and see other cultures. I like to eat at nice places and any type of creative entertainment.

Leah: What did you want to be when you were a kid?

David Zimbeck:
Well at first I wanted to be a renaissance man. I had a lot of interests so to keep mastering things was something that piqued it. Then I was interested in building a resort sustainable village that had all the worlds best tech. This was at a very young age. I figured the solutions were already here and people only had to see all of it in the same place to be influenced to do it themselves. When I picked up chess in some ways it was not what I wanted in the long run. This is why I moved into puzzle composition because it was an art form. This way, I was able to leave my mark on that industry without competing full time. It was actually my exit strategy even at the young age of 14. Before chess I loved soccer and martial arts. I had always saw myself as a business man.

Leah: What is your greatest strength?

David Zimbeck:
I'm not sure. Perhaps my tenacity. I'm not able to truly know where I stand in terms of progress, however I've been always trying new ways to break the barriers in front of me. It's exhausting at times. I've always been good at construction and creativity. It's fun to compose and create. I'm hoping to get strengths in new things, to be well versed. However they say to know thyself and so I'm still becoming acquainted with what that implies.

Leah: What is your greatest weakness?

David Zimbeck:
Sometimes I get very tired or burned out. Also, I've taken on a great amount of weight. What an awesome feeling it would be to walk around without it. I don't always dream, it would be nice to improve my eyesight or senses. Sometimes I'm too friendly and it causes me to spend a lot of time which should be devoted on other things. I've had to learn to distance myself from even the strongest relationships in order to pursue new things. Because I travel, it's unclear where to call home. I've sadly spent a lot of time away from family. It's made it hard to keep a girlfriend too. Sometimes I ask myself if I'm spiritual enough or what I should be looking for. I'm a strong believer in perspective. When seen from the right perspective, everything can change in an instant. Like many people I've sometimes repeated the same mistakes. I tell myself I'm going to exercise daily and then I don't do it. My body gives in and I get anxious to start working on something. It cuts into my productivity. However, I'm working on that too. I'm trying to consolidate so I don't have to multitask as much and can focus.

Leah: “broker good exchange relationships so the transition is seamless” Please clarify?

David Zimbeck:
Well the peg works best on a decentralized exchange. However the majority of volume is on central exchanges. So we need to make sure they run our algorithm for the peg or at least supply my software with all the information it needs to calculate users balances. Ideally it would be good to have them give it trade history so that it can know exactly who owes who and how liquid each account is. It may even require flying out to meet some of these owners and make deals.


Leah: “I know I want to get involved in construction and farming” You've mentioned these industries 3-4 times. Why the strong desire? And how does it match your apparent need for intellectual stimulation? And your stated wish to better the world?

David Zimbeck:
Yeah I noticed that in my responses. Hahaha. It's perhaps my body is crying out. We spend way too much time apart from each other, not touching the world, not in nature where we belong. The computer and cellphone which was meant to unite us has ironically divided us to the point where I see families at dinner with their heads in a cellphone. This "instant gratification" has made people overlook simple and powerful mediums of happiness. I'm also a believer in going off the grid and teaching others to do so. It seems that crypto is a part of the puzzle! Halo solves enforcement, Bitcoin solves basic trade and banking and notary, and perhaps our peg solves volatility. However the more important things like decentralized manufacturing, decentralized schooling, decentralized media, decentralized farming and cheap and scalable construction is key. Crop nutrients are being depleted so farming needs to be completely revolutionized and people should start to take the power back into their own hands. That will not only lessen the burden on governments but it will also free the people and give them more free time to be with their loved ones. So first I will do it for myself, farm and construct all while compiling the best off grid techniques that are the easiest to scale. The pattern is the same, we should self teach, self defense, make our own food or at least feed our local communities. It's funny, I cannot personally better the world. A wicked person will try to destroy anything they touch. It's the job of good people to work to defend themselves against this. Many good people are misled and some even lose hope. What could better things though is self-sustaining passive technology. I think it's even possible our ancestors had it better than we did. For example, a simple water tower like a condensation tower can give water to a community. It's free, it's clean, trustworthy, could potentially survive a drought. This type of structure will not need electricity, and if given to people for free solved a single problem. If society follows this model we can solve the issues one at a time. Of course we should strengthen our insight too. Beyond the material I'm sure there is much more to do. It's best to take on one thing at a time. If someone who reads this sees an opportunity to fix one single problem and they put their time into it then in my own small way I've helped.


Leah: “And even today BitHalo is still the only platform in the world that does peer to peer smart contracts..” If I’m not mistaken doesn’t P2P smart contracts represent Blockchain 2.0. Examples include Ferranti Computer Systems? (“While blockchain 1.0 was characterized by the deployment of transactions using cryptocurrencies, the definition of 2.0 extends the use case to transactions between two parties using the smart contract feature and may or may not involve digital currency”) https://www.engerati.com/energy-retail/article/blockchain/blockchain-20-choosing-platform-peer-peer-energy-trading

David Zimbeck:
Yes from the description of that article indeed Halo's use cases extend beyond currency to agreement. There is also other contract systems that try to make applications but if they lack two party enforcement then it is a totally different niche. There is a lot of applications of blockchains that I think we have not seen all of them yet. However the basics, like a company that pays dividends will be something I see taking the market by storm. We could see entire industries migrating to this. I think the terms 2.0 or 3.0 are just buzz terms. What matters perhaps is the tools we get to use and how easy they are for people to access and learn.

Leah: What would your perfect future be like?

David Zimbeck:
Hahaha that is for me to find. There are definitely things I want. The way I search for love. My spiritual pursuits. I've got some very specific things I'm looking for. I know I want to get involved in construction. I want to travel more. I'm very interested in the Southern rim of the world. South America, South East Asia, etc. India and Africa are also interesting places to me. But travel is just one aspect. Home is where the heart is. Hopefully life surprises me in a good way. To see the world at peace would be very nice.

Leah: What do you want to be remembered for?

David Zimbeck:
Honestly I don't need to be remembered. I want my ideas to be remembered. People need to open their eyes, wake up. No longer be brainwashed or believe whatever they are told. Not put so much faith in experiments that they haven't done themselves. "Prove all things". People really take this for granted I think. People should learn to walk a righteous path, a simple path. Not to tell others what to do, better themselves. To be willing to see things from another perspective. Not to be judgmental and leave all judgment up to their creator or however it may be. I'm not entirely sure, I don't have all the answers but I do know that it's the ideas that must survive.

Leah: Certain blockchain programmers say it is essential to master economic theory (or crypto economics) as well as LLL, Serpent and Solidity to become a top blockchain developer. What is your opinion?

David Zimbeck:
That is definitely not true. Why is it that all of a sudden everyone who enters the blockchain space is a self-proclaimed expert in economics?? It's so funny to watch. First of all, anything of value will grow. That is the only true economic theory. Supply and demand. It's something that is inherently known in everyone. From what I saw about economics in school it was completely corrupt, perverted and even deceptive. Although schools usually are dishonest. Didn't learn farming, botany, construction, sewing, cooking, mechanics, electronics or really anything of value in school. They give monologues instead of dialogues, you sit in a chair all day and listen to boring brain washing lectures, are then asked to memorize the material. No independent thought. No disagreeing with the material, not a single experiment done, never touching anything with our hands. Multiple choice tests where we aren't allowed to disagree with the question or answer. Economics and banking follow suit with the corruption. Lending money they don't have, printing money from thin air and of course you know someone in the world has infinite money because they control the banking electronic system. They probably don't have their name reported and just hold it privately. This is what blockchain will hopefully correct. This is not standard economics, this is like a revolution in thinking about economics. No more funds from thin air, it will all be accounted for somewhere. As for Solidity anyone who says that is totally wrong. Ethereum is already poised to centralize because they allowed literally everything to be built on it. They didn't consider scale something Bitcoin had fought so bitterly over. You would think they would learn the lesson. The language itself is okay. However smart contracts aren't limited to a language. You should be able to deploy in any language you want on a sidechain or in a sand boxed fashion. Why not a JavaScript sand box or a Python sand box. There is tons of languages at our disposal the most cross platform should be the one people embrace.

Leah: What got you to smart contracts? Were you influenced by Nick Szabo? If so, how?

David Zimbeck:
No I didn't know who he was. Nor was I aware of any prior ideology. In fact, when I had the idea I even looked on forums and watched how people amusingly debated how they couldn't exist on Bitcoin in Bitcoins current implementation. I saw on the Bitcoin wiki page how malleability made advanced commitments hard. Although to be precise Bitcoin is a smart contracting system because of the digital signatures and the ability to use that to sign intent. However my idea was to make it self-enforcing with deposits. What got me into it was my prior search for solutions to world problems. Bitcoin didn't impress me too much since the decentralizing of money won't stop the media from dictating to people. However I saw a lot of interesting potentials with blockchain and this is what eventually lead me into coming up with the Halo idea.

Leah: Are you still in touch with Black Halo/ Blackcoin? If so, what are your plans for its future?

David Zimbeck:
I do stop by occasionally, handle support requests and talk about it. However they don't use it enough as the top 500 addresses my address was the only one on a Halo account. That is what really burned me out the most. They talk a lot about proof of stake and the argument sounds pretty tired in today's explosive research and innovation. To stay ahead they need to innovate or at least promote the Halo innovations or colored coins or other side projects they work on. Also they should think of adding that multipool again perhaps this time with freezing funds using checklocktimeverify. That multipool is what really got them popular when they started although their quick mining schedule led to very poor distribution in the beginning. My plans is to finish the last templates of Halo. Then I want to see if Halo expands. Also if we do atomic trading between Halo that decentralized exchange would be nice. They may get a stake in the NightTrader project so if that ever goes beyond basic microtrading and atomic trade within Halo and into a full fledged exchange then I might be able to give them an incentive. Perhaps lower fees, or a small stake or something. I haven't decided. Time will tell.

Leah: If Black Halo/ and BitHalo were the first to introduce smart contracts - why do you think they did not become as famous as they should have?  Why is Ethereum (that is mistakenly known as the implementer of the concept) more famous than they?

David Zimbeck:
Well mostly because the news completely censored me. We had gotten into a battle with Coindesk because they told Josh Buow from Blackcoin that they wouldn't do an article on BitHalo because of "confidential reasons" that told me they were censoring the news. I'm not sure if they had a government or bank involved in some subtle way with editors in their pockets. Or perhaps they had Ethereum or other projects in their pocket. Or perhaps they were just censoring the news! Rumor got out anyways and it led to a Twitter outburst and also users commenting on non Halo articles asking when they would do one on Halo. Finally I had gotten upset and sent them a very angry email and copied it to all their editors I could find. I told them they were censoring the news and essentially were becoming everything that Bitcoin claimed to defend against. I called them out for being hypocrites. Then I get a response of them saying "oh geez we planned on doing an article but it fell on the back burner". This was a very diplomatic response and to be honest I didn't buy it. They had done an article on Armory upon their release saying they were the first multisig when we had multisig for months with automated joint accounts! This was a slap in the face. Also we had it done on Bitcoin, the media baby, the darling. Also they had articles saying "Where are smart contracts? Where is multisig?" when they knew we had already done it. They even mentioned non-existent projects like Rootstock, etc. Why was Ethereum being praised instead of Halo? This is one of the many pieces of evidence that led me to believe there was high level involvement of some fairly powerful or wealthy people who had their own projects and agendas they wanted to pursue. And those agendas didn't include some guy who pops out of nowhere with Halo. This was a defining moment. Ethereum didn't have a platform and yet they were doing seminars, holding meet-ups and carefully positioning themselves in peoples minds. It frustrated me to see them raise millions without a working product when I had a working product. Granted I still had to improve it, it was just a prototype. In all honestly it was not a surprise I got propagandized later by a group of guys. I've got a lot of stories about being approached by some people and some of the leaks that were sent to me from insiders. Not to mention I was offered other projects before BitBay that I knew were total traps. I had promised myself to take the next project because my parents asked me to stop turning down projects. Amusingly the next project I took and I walked straight into one. Then I had to turn it into a positive as that was the only choice to investors who believed in the ideas. And thus the first major article we had on Halo we had to fight for. We had some more PR around the same time, some on the PR wire. And actually a few publicists who were involved in Blackcoin reported on us. So we had a good amount of articles. But I only had one friend marketing for me and we had very little money are resources which was another issue. Actually I don't mind what happened. Everything comes in steps. This way, I can focus on my work without distractions. Also one reason why BitHalo didn't get noticed was because when you issue a token people invest in it and they promote it for you! There was no BitHalo token. But there was an Ethereum token. So my target market was smaller. Only the news could have recognized it and pushed it but they had no financial incentive to do so. Unfortunately the news does work that way sometimes. I remember talking to institutional investors and a lot of them wanted me to issue a token. I was more interested in the software itself and didn't quite see the reason to issue my own coin. Now that I've seen where the space went it totally makes sense. You get much more control and people can invest in your idea directly by buying the coin. Perhaps that is why BitBay is more successful than BitHalo because people can invest in BitHalo indirectly by taking interest in BitBay.


Leah: Do you think Ethereum adapted the concept from you?

David Zimbeck:
No actually they don't do double deposit escrow. Vitalik is absolutely aware of it. We have talked and even been in live debates together. However they turned out being more of an ICO platform for other coins to build their ideas on. Also they used to work with Bitcoin magazine and I think even coded the pybitcointools library I used when I first made Halo. So they were earlier to the game than me. However in the end I was the first person to make a working platform. And even today BitHalo is still the only platform in the world that does peer to peer smart contracts. It's user base will grow when Bitcoin becomes more usable. Right now with those fees I don't see people using it for anything other than a store of value.

Leah: In which way/s are the smart contracts on BlackHalo/ BitHalo different to those of Ethereum? Has Ethereum improved on your concept in any way? Are there any differences?

David Zimbeck:
My contracts are peer to peer. With offers, counter offers and so forth. My program is a protocol built within the wallet. I've used Bitcoin to it's potential. Their system is hard coded into the blockchain and is more of an addition to the scripting language. So the concepts are entirely different approaches. My approach focuses on real world uses. Ridding the world of deception. Honor your word, the handshake deal. That is why the Halo was the chosen symbol. Because it's "honor among thieves". Forcing dishonest people to be honest and creating a system that favors honest people in the moment. We could literally put a Halo on any coin with my design. It's not a coin but a protocol. We could turn any coin including Ethereum into a Halo. That is the major difference. It's just an idea to be applied. Ethereum is a platform or an approach to a computer science problem of how much they can do on a blockchain. Regardless of what they do, they need a way to enforce real world agreements and in my humble opinion two party escrow is the perfect system. There are no middle men, no judges or lawyers, no biased third parties. It comes down to you and your counter party alone.

Leah: “We also feature the world's first truly decentralized marketplace” (Black Halo) - didn't Bitcoin do that?

David Zimbeck:
No Bitcoin doesn't have a decentralized marketplace. They decentralize transfer of value and notary and such. Our marketplace is not based on a blockchain at all. It's a peer to peer system that utilizes Bitmessage. It doesn't have a server and that is the major innovation. That information can be shared without storing it on a server. Instead it's done collectively by passing messages.

Leah: Blackcoin seems to be king of PoS. Why is it not better known?

David Zimbeck:
Well Peercoin was the first POS coin I think. Then Blackcoin improved it by removing coinage. Also they were the first coin to go full POS. Since Peercoin was also proof of work. They did it because they were concerned about certain attacks probably with block computation. However, there are definitely ways around this to make things more random. For example using the hash of blocks on other chains to further randomize things. Blackcoin's rat4 wanted to prove that the system could be secure. He did a fast mining and then full proof of stake and then literally every new coin in the industry copied this. Also they had a multipool which mined other coins to buy up Blackcoin and that was insanely popular! However that eventually stopped. Then it seemed like every coin was doing the infamous "premine". So Blackcoin was extremely well known. But perhaps it just fell out of fashion. At one point it was a top 10 coin. Then again, so was Peercoin. Whatever happened to Primecoin? A lot of interesting coins have fallen out of fashion but don't count them out. They could always make a comeback.

Leah: As far as I understand you created Black Halo/ Blackcoin, but “BlackCoin was created by the developer Rat4” (e.g. Wikipedia). Where do you come in?

David Zimbeck:
I was just a community member and investor. Some people think I made Blackcoin but actually I had absolutely nothing to do with it. If you look on the forums I was telling people I had a surprise for them while I was working quietly on Halo. In retrospect I totally should have started my own coin. But this was how came into the crypto space. Developing for free for someone else's project. Luckily, rat4 was actually really helpful. He made a really useful innovation for me where I can stake p2sh accounts which is what we use for "cold staking" for example.

Leah: What motivates you - gives you the unique self-discipline drive that you have? Certain careers like acting, movie production, your work on the oil rigs (“100 hour work weeks, hard labor”) and when you taught yourself to program show incredible focus and drive that few people have and so many want to possess. Do you have any suggestions (strategies) for those who want to be motivated and/or want to know how to motivate others?

David Zimbeck:
Well I can only speak from personal experience. I've always loved hard labor and the feeling of getting strong and more aware. When I was a little kid for example and I first got involved in chess there was various things that kept me passionate. At first when I started chess I wasn't so interested but everyone told me I was a natural. So I kept at it. Then I started puzzle composition and gradually became one of the top composers at a young age breaking world records and such(and indeed that was the goal I set for myself). Perhaps it was because composition harbored my artistic desires, to nurture creativity and engineering. I can tell you that to do this requires extreme patience. My standards were set high. That helps. Set your standards as high as possible. Make the bar for yourself beyond where anyone had set it before. My goal was to make the most complex puzzles. As a child, I was not able to proof my work because the computers were no strong enough. Even today modern chess computers are very limited in their depth and not good for proofing puzzles so it meant long nights as a kid proving my work to be sound. Sometimes I would come up with ideas for compositions in my sleep. Chess requires patience. Chess is a little bit boring until you start to understand it. Then it becomes exciting because you can see it's potential for tactics. Then you can start to appreciate tactics and the games depth. Then think. If a tiny 8 by 8 board can contain so much potential. Imagine what life contains. Imagine how little we know. How brilliant the design of reality is. People tend to think reality is a happy accident because they close their mind to the obvious intelligent design. The brilliant engineering of animals and plants. It's so beautiful. If someone asked me how do I do it I would tell them to look within themselves. They are gifted with a soul, a body with it's awesome design. Somehow within they must have the tools at their disposal. The engineering of their body alone is a miracle. So should they not have the potential to excel if they apply themselves? I would think so. They fight their own battles, their own road to self mastery. They must live up to their own expectations because the only person who truly knows them is the one in the mirror. That is the one person they cannot fool! So to excel anywhere they must face challenges without fear, with strength, passion, creativity, humor, and so forth. Above all they must be honest with themselves and willing to look at things from other perspectives and then remember that actions speak louder than words. To move forward, take actions and let their errors be their teacher and their intuition as their guide.

Leah: You built Black Halo and BitBay on Python. Why did you choose that programming base to others?

David Zimbeck:
Well it was cross platform and I didn't have to mess with building problems. C++ really frustrates me because building is a huge pain in the ass! So many libraries and things made incompatible with each other. It's a strict language too so they don't let you compile when you know your code will work. Python is fun and fast. It also works on all platforms. However now that I have been coding in the industry for a while I think JavaScript is the best language. That language works out the box, doesn't run into the same problems cross platform and it works on mobile and web! Also it is good to move a lot of the security to the front end and be really modular and object oriented. Halo wasn't built as a plug in. It was built as hard core security. I see now that the masses don't care so much about their security. They want convenience. So we need to focus on both eventually.

Leah: In May, you wrote that your targets for 2017 were “I’m completely devoted to working 8 hour days to finishing the features in BitBay and Halo. I want to have everything finished by the end of the year including the pegging… This year we will have all the contract templates done, cold staking, decentralized pegging, python contracts etc.”

Did you achieve these? What else do you accomplish in 2017?

David Zimbeck:
Almost! I've got a few templates left to do and then the peg. I got bogged down in management and to be honest spent more time than I expected on all of this. But it was a lot of work. Managing sucked up months. Then I had some downtime from getting burned out. Regardless, I've still managed to pioneer a lot of the technology and BitBay is still above and beyond it's peers.

Leah: Did you incorporate pegging in Halo, too? If Halo and BitBay are so similar, why don't you integrate them?

David Zimbeck:
I don't control the Bitcoin blockchain so it's not really possible for me to integrate supply control into Bitcoin.

Leah: You say you code the whole thing yourself. Given your hefty workload, have you changed your mind about recruiting assistance?

David Zimbeck:
Oh I wanted assistance ever since I started. At heart I'm a businessman! But the problem is good help is hard to find. When I first tried hiring the guy didn't deliver and I lost money. Plus I was very poor so I had to do it myself. Now even though I have more funds, I'm still finding it hard to find good coders. The code is very valuable so I need to make sure I'm happy with whoever works on it. I'm finally ready to let other people work on it so I'm excited about that.

Leah: What are your marketing plans (to show you have something real, not vaporware)?

David Zimbeck:
That is always our plan. The get people to download this and see it's potential! We want people to see how exciting these ideas really are and it's been a fun ride because a lot of people are indeed starting to see it.

Leah: It seems like your two main contributions to crypto history are “double deposit escrow” and "rolling peg" - am I correct? (or would you add another). If you had to choose one over the other, which would you say is your most important contribution? Why?

David Zimbeck:
Decentralized markets was also my contribution. That was indeed bound to exist but I'm not sure anyone would have used Bitmessage for it. Bitmessage is like TOR level security. In fact I think some of the messages I sent to the Bitmessage devs encouraged them to keep working on it. It was really close to becoming abandon-ware. However yes I consider my most critical contributions to be the ones you mentioned. Double deposit escrow is the most important for society because for the first time in history we can have enforcement of agreements without the threat of a gun or jail. Without the dependence on governments. This is so important, it's a peaceful contract. It is a contract that favors the honest party and removes the middle man. I'm so happy with this idea. It can change so many things if used in the right way.

Leah: What are your plans after you finish BitBay? Do you intend to start another ICO? Are there any other problems you want to work on?

David Zimbeck:
Most likely I will leave crypto and only work on the management end of things. If I ever do another project it will be NightTrader exchange. But I'm not sure that needs to happen. I've got other strong desires to do construction and farming. Those are just far too tempting and exciting for me. Finally no more sitting all day. The problems I want to work on is showing people how to go off grid, demystifying the worlds best technologies. Putting it all in one place where they can see once and for all how to solve all of this. Of course first I lead by example. Do it for myself, get my hands dirty and then hopefully someone else will get inspired and do the same.

Leah: People have problems knowing which ICOs to invest in. How should people know they can trust you? (or what are your distinctive signs that can make people trust you)?

David Zimbeck:
They don't have to trust me. First off we are far beyond the fundraising phase. They only need to see that there is working software, it does what it says it does, it's been used to sell real estate, gems, clothes, employ people, etc. It speaks for itself. And when people invest in an ICO I always tell them to always look for a working prototype. If there isn't a prototype make sure that the ideas are innovative and can scale and belong on a blockchain. I'm interested in seeing when dividend paying projects hit the market. Like I'm hoping to see some massive construction company get involved and do huge real estate projects (hopefully economically friendly off grid ones or 3d printing). Like maybe a blockchain REIT. I'm thinking people are cautious because of regulations but we have the entire world at our fingertips with crypto. So there are other countries where this can be done. Atomic trading is a tech to keep an eye out for. Also sidechains, notary, game projects, etc. The only thing I would warn is make them prove it to you. Avoid the hype. And make sure they aren't faking the volume or giving themselves too much of the marketcap or that they aren't secretly buying their own project. Such actions aren't allowed in the stock market for a reason. Remember crypto is unregulated so be careful of those moves. Invest in what you believe in.

Leah: “keylogger defense” - is that another one of your innovations? Is it unique to BitBay (and Halo)? If well-programmed smart contracts are said to be already unhackable, why do you need this?

David Zimbeck:
Yes actually it is. This idea was of a virtual keyboard where you don't even have to click. This is needed because if someone who lives with you wants to steal your coins and knows the location of your keys then they only need your password and thus can use a keylogger. If you run a server and it gets hacked and a keylogger is on there, you need a defense. Key files are good but they might know where your keyfile is. So you need to have this anti-keylogger to protect yourself.

Leah: In Feb., 2017, the BitBay team wrote: 'At this point the “million dollar question” is the discovery of what the true fair market price [for BitBay] really should be!' Have you decided on one yet?

David Zimbeck:
With the peg we have to let the market decide organically. Because the amount of liquidity matters a lot. We want high volume so we want the price to find it's harmony with that. However I would not be surprised if it ends up being a few dollars. Time will tell.


Leah: How is BitHalo different to BlackHalo? (Both wallets seem to have the same elements including smart contracts and double escrow). If they’re integrated (as it appears on your LI), why do you have two different brands?

David Zimbeck:
The brand is Halo. However BitHalo runs on Bitcoin is more expensive and slower. However BitHalo connects to online explorers and doesn't need to download blockchain. BlackHalo is what I used for testing so that was really where the bulk of my contracts were conducted before BitBay.

Leah: Are you still working on BitHalo?

David Zimbeck:
Yes I am. I've made a lot of adjustments and even have a way to switch to get BitcoinCash out of Halo. It will closely follow behind BitBay.

Leah: What are your 2018 goals for Halo?

David Zimbeck:
I just want to finish what I've started. Finish the peg and watch the fireworks.

Leah: How do you divide your day between BitBay, BitHalo, BlackHalo?

David Zimbeck:
All development and work is in BitBay. The other projects will eventually benefit from all this work at a later date I think.

Leah: Of these three, which is your favorite platform why?

David Zimbeck:
I don't really have a favorite. Although the peg in BitBay excites me and that stability is what is needed to make the contracts thrive.

Leah: How will your platforms avoid Bitcoin/ Ethereum blockchain bloat?

David Zimbeck:
I've looked at DPOS although that is a concession of slight centralization because of the pruning and limited nodes. I think the best might be a reputation system for IP addresses or staking accounts. And then perhaps have server nodes. Perhaps do a system where different addresses are tasked with handling traffic that is broken up. So the more nodes the more things are delegated. Perhaps have multiple nodes contribute to a block like a merged staking system. To lower the workload. It's okay if things move to massive servers as long as it's not controlled by volatile delegates. The delegates might be a temporary solution though. Sidechains like Lisk are a big interest of mine. Running a sidechain for anonymity for example. Blockchain pruning is needed. If you have a node reputation system combined with pruning that might work. It's unrealistic to think that we should hold all agreements and actions ever conducted on a database. Honestly that is crazy. We just need a way that many nodes are aware of the traffic and can confirm signatures are valid. There is a way and we should evolve towards the best platform step by step.

Leah: “I manage custom projects and teams of outsourcing from all around the world.” (LI). Do you want to elaborate on that (How you do so)? Also how do you find the time for this, given your innumerable other projects?

David Zimbeck:
When I was doing film editing projects I started to do a lot of outsourcing. Also I experimented for a while in ordering things on Alibaba and attempting to sell them. Also I ran a series of experiments on virtual reality research. I had a project at OSU where some students worked on my Capstone project. They won 1st prize I think. I was using color patterns for recognizing movement in 3d space and other experiments. At that time I was trying to hire some of the stuff out that students struggled with. My research concluded that VR should work using IMU units connected by wires to lower cost and not cameras. At least not until the coding improves immensely. Then I saw one company was working on what I had imagined so I was happy to see that. When doing commercial production my best technique was to post job postings and build huge databases of what everyone worked for. Los Angeles has almost unlimited people to tap into because they are always unemployed because the nature of the work they do. The entertainment industry is mostly independent contracting and thus they are out of a job every time a project ends. This is also true for any industry with independent contracting. So my tip for success in that field is building huge databases for contacts. Make sure you have people on call and that you are connected enough to gain a reputation to have people on call to immediately hire out under any budget you are given.

Leah: Why should investors choose BitBay to Bitcoin?

David Zimbeck:
First and foremost BitBay will have a moving peg. Also known as dynamic/rolling peg. Bitcoins biggest problem is price swings. It's not really stable as an investment or a currency. Historically it has been known to grow because it's new technology and the weakness of government backed currencies. However Bitcoin was meant to be "programmable money" and nobody has really taken advantage of this to play with the coins economy. This is what my peg does. It will increase and decrease the supply to control the price. This can force the price to really be anything and grow at a predictable rate. The decision is made by the investors themselves so it's completely fair. Also an algorithm is used that will maximize volume and price. The way it works is pretty simple. Coins freeze and unfreeze for everyone based on when they got involved. A user who has frozen coins can't sell them on an exchange but can still use them like a bond or future. They are called "frozen" but they are actually "slowed" down with a 1 month delay. This is what makes the liquid funds you hold much more valuable since it changes dynamically throughout the day based on demand. Up until now, most of my innovations have been cross-platform. Meant to work with any coin. The peg will be my unique blockchain innovation and it's really exciting because it solves Bitcoins biggest problem. Also Bitcoin is expensive to send due to bloat and so contracts are much cheaper and faster to do in BitBay as opposed to BitHalo. BitBay is "Proof of Stake 3" which is a good protocol. It wastes less energy than Bitcoin mining. Also we can "cold stake" which is staking from two computers among other exciting innovations. We have a "wall of features" on our site.

Leah: How has the incident where you were betrayed changed the way you work?

David Zimbeck:
Yeah, a famous story for the history books was how I got set up to be destroyed. I was small in a small industry in 2014... Bitcoin was still young. This put a lot of eyes on what I was doing. You could count the number of good blockchain coders on two hands when I started. The first sign was when we had problems getting into the news as they were clearly in someone's pocket or something like this because they were censoring my work. This is despite having the worlds first working smart contracts in Bitcoin. You would think the industry would have clamored. Instead some ominous group of guys founded BitBay and asked for my help. They were charming enough to get me involved unfortunately. Similar to JTRIG, they proceeded to cyberbully me using fake profiles almost immediately after they started fundraising. That went on for weeks. They also broke their promise to keep my name off it and instead used my name on the project. They also kept their portion of the funding and ran trying to propagandize me as a scapegoat. I was the one to come public with what they had been doing. However they counted on that and all hell broke loose as 100s of profiles most of them completely new started flooding the forums and other areas. Some profiles on bitcointalk entire comment history was about me such as the profile "Diabolic". It was pretty obvious but preventing it was the problem. Apparently their goal was to force me out of the industry. I don't give up so easy though since I was never in Bitcoin for the money. I've been in it to popularize unbreakable contracts to rid the world of deception in common agreements in a way that is self-enforced using the two deposits. The irony is I didn't use BitHalo unbreakable contracts when they asked me to do dev work on BitBay. So myself and the community took over the project. The community trusted me for good reasons. I was working my ass off with absolutely no funding honoring the promises that others gave them. They left, I stayed. The proof was in the years to follow as I persisted despite almost being in an echo chamber. In all honestly I wish the funding was there so we could have hired a big dev team. Instead I was stuck coding alone for a long time. I was used to it anyways as that is how I started when BitHalo's prototype was made. For a while we only had a few hundred dollars of volume a day. Today this has exploded going above 20 million dollars a day at times. It's an underdog story. We were the underdog fighting against some pretty evil people. And yet despite the challenges we rose above it. There was a few loyal people in the community who stayed by my side testing, supporting, working, volunteering their time to help me. They were like angels or something. It's an amazing story. The way it's changed me is to make me grateful. Also it has taught me to ignore what people think of me since the propaganda... a lot of people are too lazy to research. If a person spreads a rumor it's very hard to invalidate it because it's easier to fool people than to convince them they were fooled. And there are unfortunately a lot of wicked people in crypto who will stop at nothing to destroy certain projects. And they all vary in motive from governments to banks to other coins and private businesses and sometimes just unstable people. So it's helped me ignore my ego, not be so defensive, it's helped me stay motivated to help investors, and it has taught me to use discernment when choosing who to work with. At the time I had a licensing model for BitHalo willing to give it to other projects if they wanted. Now I'm much more selective as I realize the brand is valuable. Today things are changing. The team has grown, investors are very active, some of them full time. It's starting to blossom and it's amazing to watch.

Leah: One of the reasons that no banks and fewer merchants accept Bitcoin is because of its volatility. More people, too, would accept Bitcoin if its volatility were gone. Would BitBay, with its rolling peg, be enough to overcome these limitations?

David Zimbeck:
Yes. This is why it was designed. At first it was a tool to protect investors in worst case scenario. Also it was designed to revive any coin from the grave. The method had to be decentralized, not reliant on reserves, not reliant on backers, not reliant on trading tricks, shorts or options. It had to be pure. The best way was to control supply. In cash that can't be done. But with crypto a whole new set of amazing things can be done. So by controlling supply with freezing and unfreezing that supply changes by the hour potentially. The amount of times we allow it to move per day and the amount it moves each time it changes it what determines it's strength in holding a stable price. Also if we allow votes or algorithm is a big deal as it will influence volatility. For our debut we are going to allow some volatility but in a way that investors control by voting. There are other ways to do this. An exact price can be set if you allow unlimited rate changes. The more that rate adjusts the more fixed the peg to the algorithm even if that algorithm is told to slowly go up in value. But increasing value senselessly is not economically sensible. So you need it to be reactive to demand. It's more of an art than a science if you want the peg to move. It might be pegged to a basket of currencies and commodities. It may be programmed to stay near it's peaks. Regardless of how you do it, it finally solves the problem in a decentralized way.

Leah: You call decentralized pegging “a very important feature which can revolutionize crypto and world finance.” Do you want to elaborate in which way/s?

David Zimbeck:
Crypto has volatility. We solve that. Now the factor of a projects success will not be price but increasing demand. Popularity will be the reason now. Even something that has low popularity still has demand though which is why supply can adjust dynamically for that situation. Everyone and everything is in demand to somebody or something. Everything has value. The key is adjusting the supply to match that demand.

Leah: Do you think BitBay would be attractive enough for merchants to accept? (why/ why not?) what about price and speed of transaction - how does that compare to Bitcoin?

David Zimbeck:
A merchant needs a few things. An easy way in and out of fiat(we have p2p cash deals). A stable price(the peg). Low fees (our platform doesn't charge fees). And a way to have agreements honored(unbreakable contracts). If someone buys the process needs to be fast and smooth. Double deposit escrow AKA unbreakable contracts ensures honesty and trust. The "Halo handshake". It's a game that favors only honest parties which is something that is totally new to society. This is why it's so attractive. No more scams, no more middle men, no more fees, products are now held to a higher standard, merchants and buyers held to a higher standard. We still need a few things though. We need a good mobile platform and the user interface needs to be fast. And even with the perfect system you have to market it. It's a very important step which is being heard and being used.

Leah: Is BitBay built on PoS -as BlackHalo is?

David Zimbeck:
Yes they are both the same in this regard. Proof of stake is much more energy efficient. It's one of the better systems out there.

Leah: There are many who say blockchain rather than Bitcoin will survive and change industry. What is your opinion? Do you want to elaborate?

David Zimbeck:
I completely agree with this. The internet itself isn't made up of one company. That is just weird to think about. There is multiple banks, multiple telcom industries, multiple stocks. So why wouldn't there be multiple blockchains?! Bitcoin needs to keep up with the competition or be prepared for a major awakening. Bitcoin needs to change to survive and adapt or it will be replaced the way Facebook replaced Myspace. The brand might always survive though as it's heavily branded. And surely one day Facebook will be replaced. People tend to gravitate towards monopolies. It takes a while for them to migrate. But the migration is inevitable especially when superior alternatives exist. A superior alternative can be suppressed and indeed this is common today. Once known to a person, they will usually migrate. Also blockchains can exist for various reason. It's better to look at them as "stocks". Stake in an idea, group or company. Perhaps a construction company will have their own chain. Then you have notary platforms. There is really almost unlimited applications for this.


Leah: Why do you still have BlackHalo out there, if BitBay is an improvement of BlackHalo? If the founders hired you, left you with BitBay, why couldn't you integrate BlackHalo and BitBay?

David Zimbeck:
Well Blackcoin was where I started. It was funny because I didn't want to do my own ICO as I wasn't fond of the money grab. Instead I needed a coin to start on, they had proof of stake and was faster and cheaper than Bitcoin. So since they have the tech there is no reason not to let them have it. They get the honor of being the first along with BitHalo. BitBay is different because I can make updates to the chain, to the protocol and also the peg. I'm not sure how BitHalo and BlackHalo will get used but I think they will be here to stay. Blackcoin is a different blockchain really so I have no ability to merge them.

Leah: Certain financial experts predict Bitcoin will bust (is another bubble). What do you think? Why?

David Zimbeck:
The news loves to call a correction a bubble. The reason so many people are confused by cryptos rise is because nothing like it has existed before. Like the dot com boom. The biggest bubble is fake ICOs. I would say most of the projects on coinmarketcap are faking their volume or they secretly hold a majority of the supply without investors knowing. This gives a disingenuous perception of it's marketcap. If a team secretly holds 90% of it's coin and the marketcap is 100 million. Then the true circulating marketcap is 10 million if all they do is hold and slowly sell their portion. This is very dangerous to investors and that is where the bubble will happen. The news will interpret it the wrong way I think. All that will really happen is projects that are useless will disappear and projects that are good will stay. Investors should pay close attention to what they buy. Make sure there is a real project, good prospects for the future and so forth.

Leah: How do you think (a) your acting (b) your real estate © your experiences in chess (d) commercial production, or photography  - or even with oil rigs, satellites and on land contributed to your blockchain programming experiences?

David Zimbeck:
Chess has helped me visualize code. It has helped me plan, memorize and problem solve. It has helped me anticipate problems well in advance. It has helped me anticipate my enemies attacks and solve them before they arise. Unfortunately I didn't apply this skill when dealing with the founders of BitBay because I try to avoid judging people. But now I pay much more attention to my intuition with people. Chess is extremely useful for not just programming, it's useful in many things. Acting really just helps with public speaking and stuff. I've always been pretty articulate, me and my mom used to love playing scrabble and I used to read the dictionary. My sister and dad loved working theatre and they taught me to sing. I've never had a problem going in front of crowds and just being myself. As an actor I liked to be in roles that fit me and my personality (like a Pirate in "Pirates of The Caribbean 2". With acting however you don't always get that control based on what you get sent out for so I'm more fond of the business end of it. This is why I was doing production. That is very useful to what I do. Since it taught me to manage and organize, to outsource, to build huge lists of contacts if needed. There is almost endless lessons to take from production. I was working for Video Optimize mostly and they were putting me on a tight budget for some projects so it showed me how to maximize efficiency and squeeze the highest dollar per hour rate out of any project while maintaining quality. I was subcontracting a lot, building massive databases and finding out prices of everyone using job postings and automating how that was aggregated. Also my personal production projects taught me so much. It showed how to manage teams, when working with friends I had some flake on me so it taught me how to overbook and manage. Video Optimize showed me how to do Video Marketing so I was able to learn a lot about SEO and how things rank on Google. This is useful for any business really. Getting a team together, managing them, keeping a tight schedule, working long hours. Oil rigs is even more demanding. It was a strain on the body much like programming. Working 100 hours a week. Almost to the point where we would drop. It is not the kind of job where you can complain. You must move forward, muscle your way though everything, overcome your tiredness. Real estate taught me about contracts and escrow. The fundamentals of agreement. And really it shows me so many things that is wrong with the legal system. Really it's a broken system and shouldn't exist. It doesn't prevent fraud and if anything it harbors it. It's a system enforced with violence. So I was literally jumping for joy when I came up with the concept of double deposit escrow. Since this contract is enforced by the deposits themselves. Also real estate notary is not in an open format easy for the public. Imagine all of that on the blockchain. Hopefully soon we can say "Bye, bye" to the bureaucracy and paperwork. The time I picked up real estate things were melting down from the collapse. So my deals were hard. I had to make tons of sacrifices for clients. I closed two deals that year and it was eye opening. It showed me how corrupt banks and lenders were. This is why crypto is so exciting. We can see it open and transparent. Also loans can be done with the frozen coins so they are completely trustless. Instead of "lending" a person would simply trade frozen funds for liquid funds. This to me is a much cooler and honest system. I'm opposed to usury. I've seen how home prices inflate due to the fallacy of interest rates. Nobody can afford a home. If homes reflected their true value they would be a fifth of what they are now. If people didn't have loans and were forced to come up with cash in full the prices would readjust and it would be perfect. Photography is similar to production in the regard that we have to get a team together to get higher quality shoots. It's more fun and glamour though, working with models and stuff... hahah. There is no direct benefit to blockchain work other than just running a brick and mortar business. All professions can be approached from a business perspective. Working on satellite dishes was more about coordination on my jobs. Watching out for my own security because it was -50 below at times in North Dakota. Going on roof tops in the blistering cold. Working with fittings and pointing the dish and so forth. I was given my job in land easements out of pity because a client thought I was going to die working in the winter. Driving can be very dangerous in Dakota when the weather hits that low. My truck was old there is a good chance it wouldn't make it. Working easements was the first time I ever coded anything. I used WinAutomation to automatically type bulk legal documents and I wrote a custom address parser in Python so I could import those into spreadsheets. People immediately looked up to me as the tech guy because I was revolutionizing how they were working with Google sheets and how they were planning out their fiber optic and oil line projects. One job that was supposed to be a month of work I did in a day. It unfortunately got me fired because the managers were jealous and probably wanted the work for the comfy winter. Without the work it makes them think they are being worked out of a job. So I learned office politics. In reality this could have made the business millions but instead it really showed me that I had to run my own business. In fact, the day I got fired was the day I had the idea for BitHalo. So it was destiny.

Leah: “I moved into photography” - what kind of photography?

David Zimbeck:
I did a lot of head shots and fashion shoots. One of my favorite shoots was for my friends jewelry line. We had a bunch of beautiful girls with lots of awesome pieces. I got to experiment a lot in that job. We had some really exciting shots and ideas. I've worked with many different lighting set ups, lots of beautiful techniques with lighting and backdrops. When I was in Los Angeles it was required to work multiple jobs to push forward. So I was doing a lot of freelance work from photography, production, acting, real estate, web design, film editing, events and promotion. Whatever was available.

Leah: Your website says that “He also has his own film company” - Is this bio/website current? do you still run it?

David Zimbeck:
I do but I haven't had time to dig up old footage and edit it. I've had almost 100 clients. So it would be nice to get a portfolio together. More importantly it would be fun to run my own short films as I sort of enjoyed that. I had some awesome stuff. The working name was DigiStar films and my mom also registered Dash productions. When I was contracted though it was mostly for commercials and we didn't bother with the brand recognition. Today I would approach it differently. However this was probably my most consistent work other than acting gigs.

Leah: According to your LI, you’re currently involved in all these fields: Entertainment Services, Events, Commercial Production, Web Design, Editing, Photography, Human Resources, Real Estate, Open Source Software Developer, Cryptocurrency, Programming

How are you still involved in Entertainment Services? Commercial Production?

David Zimbeck:
Since I was doing production, events were easy for me. The most famous one was in the Pacific Palisades at Claire Goldstein's (Audio Visual Entertainment) house. I coordinated my acting agencies Christmas party there (Mademoiselle Talent) since I had lamented that there had not been a party the year prior and he used to host some really awesome Christmas parties. At the same time we had Video Optimize and DigiStars party there and it coincided with my birthday as well. We had a really awesome guest list. I also had a couple live bands perform there, and we catered food to everyone. It was a very demanding but fun event. I don't do events anymore but perhaps one day I would enjoy coordinating a rave or something. I would rather do short films than commercials now that I have the liberty to.



Leah: What do you mean by “Events”?

David Zimbeck:
An event can be any type of networking event such as large scale parties and promotional events for businesses, seminars, etc.

Leah: Did you design BitBay website? Which websites do you design?

David Zimbeck:
I oversee the design of my current websites but don't code as much anymore (such as BitHalo, BlackHalo, BitBay). The previous ones I coded myself from scratch. I've done sites for Fred Segal Salon, a well known cinematographer, some models and actors sites, my chess website, Motor studios, a lawyer and various other clients.

Leah: What kind of Photography do you do?

David Zimbeck:
Mostly models and actors and product lines. Although I have photographed businesses and buildings. Various clients in video marketing needed photos of their business. So I shot a lot of those.

Leah: How do you manage to juggle all these different occupations with 8 regular hours of programming?

David Zimbeck:
I don't anymore. All of my time is devoted the finishing my code. After that is done I plan on going into construction, farming and off-grid stuff.

Leah: What does your typical day look like? How many hours of sleep?

David Zimbeck:
My sleep schedule is probably the worst part about my schedule. I've struggled my entire life to keep normal hours. But basically I sleep when I'm tired. It can range from only a handful of hours to many hours. I mostly eat vegan, exercise, walk on the beach, code.

Leah: Do you keep yourself fit? If so, how?

David Zimbeck:
I've got a gym with tons of equipment in my house. Used to love martial arts and exercise. Back in the day I worked out for 2 hours a day for many years. The rigs were a great workout. However programming changed all of that. I lost almost all of my strength at one point. Now I've been in the process of recovering it. I've got a gym in my house. Also I've taken up Yoga.

Leah: Are you big on diet? If so, which type of diet?

David Zimbeck:
I believe the crops have been depleted. The reason most vegans are not healthy is because their vegetables are not raised right. If you have ever shopped at "Dean and Deluca" in New York you will know what I mean. So to me, food needs to be highly nutritious. I think human digestive system wasn't designed for meat. I do eat meat but have been on a quest to get off it entirely. A diet high in fruit and vegetables is ideal. Perhaps to overcome nutrient depletion you can combine your diet with foods that have high density or nutrients like chocolate and spirulina. Hopefully one day I have my own farm so I can get the best quality food.

Leah: How do you get the energy you need for your incredible workload/ responsibilities?

David Zimbeck:
I'm not always energetic. It drains me and sometimes I sleep for long periods of time. But I've been very persistent towards my goals. It's a marathon, not a race. At times I get bursts of energy and then just try to power my way through it. I'm thinking diet and exercise will help a lot.

Leah: Do any of your careers in #8 differentiate you to other blockchain programmers (do they give you special insight/ drive your platform programming in a different direction? If so, how?)

David Zimbeck:
I would think so. My story has been very unique. Not always do I live up to my own expectations but I do keep pushing for new heights. Now I'm very much at peace with myself. To be honest, I can't speak for anyone else or their path. It's a very colorful road I've taken and the training was not limited to one field. Being well rounded is critical for perspective and insight.

Leah: Certain things you said make me think you may practice crypto-anarchism.  Do you agree? If so do you think blockchain can cease war, remove tax and shatter borders (as certain crypto-anarchists argue)? Do you think it will replace fiat as exclusive currency?

David Zimbeck:
Government is not needed. The word itself Govern = Control and Mente = Mind. We either control our own minds or someone does it for us. Human behavior is self-regulating. The illusion is that police and military are there for our protection (they are the opposite). When 85% of the people in jail are there for victimless crimes the truth can not be more clear. The laws are enforced through fear of violence. This is the opposite of how society should be. Also the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Two wrongs don't make a right. A judge and jury cannot possibly know the truth and usually guess causing the innocent to suffer. We should be living in a lush paradise where everything is free. The world is abundant there is more than enough land for everyone. The water can be rich and clean, the world a giant fruit forest and no land off limits to anyone. But someone decided they owned the world. Someone claimed to have domain over us. When a child is born into the world they know nothing of law. But are threatened with violence if they do such trivial things as go outside naked, speak about controversial topics, don't give a percent of their hard earned money, can't collect rain water or sell raw milk. It's absurd. Anarchy is just a word. The real truth is simply that we should not be trusting cops and governments with anything! They don't have our best interest at heart. They are known to literally make up laws to whatever the feel. Who gives them the authority? The minority should not be ruled even by a majority as it is their suffering that must be heard. Nobody should be forcing anyone to do anything. Law is NOT morality. We should live in a moral society not a legal one. Law is perverted and immoral. People are conditioned to believe that what is "illegal" is immoral. "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." ~ Thomas Jefferson. Governments are known to incarcerate, confiscate children, poison citizens, send them off to die in wars, force vaccinate, force "educate" with speculative schooling that doesn't teach a single trade skill and even kill citizens. Blockchain can not stop war. However educating people to put their guns down and quit their jobs working for government can be the beginning of the end. The media is what needs to be silenced. Their opinions must go unheard, drowned in the sea of the nothing. When the media has the predominant voice on the internet, it will be what shapes peoples minds. So they can warp, shift and pervert everything they touch. Including blockchain. A wicked person will attempt to corrupt whatever they touch. So the key to saving everyone is to teach the citizens to exist without governments. How do they go off grid? How can they manufacture their own goods (3d printing). How to form mesh networks so communication is done without hearing the voice of the media. How to abandon their phones and computers for systems they control. Socialize in person. How to farm, construct, and do such things with the aid of new technologies. Passive technologies like water for air. Crypto-anarchy might need some form of internet so if they have no mesh network it's unclear if that can survive. Crypto itself can be used for economy and trade. Halo for enforcement. But at the end of the day trade can be a system of utilizing the service of others and in some cases abusing it. We instead need abundance and to do so people must look deeper into 3d printing and new construction and farming techniques that get trucks off the road and move manufacturing to the individual. Blockchains big boom was due to the powers that be accepting it and not trying to make it illegal. We got lucky this time, it's good that this has been allowed to grow so much. To what end I don't know.

Leah: I understand you innovated “double deposit escrow” too; was that how you innovated smart contracts? And is that how your smart contracts differ from those of Ethereum (for instance)?

David Zimbeck:
Yes I was the first person to do smart contracts. Not only that but a working platform with offers and counter offers. I have long said ideas are not discovered they are "rediscovered". Nobody owns an idea. After I started working on it I saw that there was similar ideas in the past. Ultimatum game, mutually assured destruction, Nash equilibrium. My name chosen was double deposit escrow because two people deposit into a two party escrow joint account. However unbreakable contracts is the simplest description because it cannot be broken without causing loss to yourself. That is why it differs from Ethereum. We enforce it in real world situations and do so in a way that is peer to peer!! This prevents all that bloat that Ethereum suffers from. I've always believed that contracts should be moved to sidechains to remove risk from the main chain or heavily pruned to allow for scaling.

Leah: What are your future goals? Long Term? Short term?

David Zimbeck:
I want to finish the peg and templates. Then I want to see where things go and hope new devs take over the project, refactor it, make it into JavaScript and that way my baby will be all grown up able to survive and defend itself without me. After that I am interested in construction and farming and perhaps the occasional inventing and sports. Meditation and spiritual development. Perhaps raising a large family. Also I might choose to continue my service to others and try to promote good technologies like water from air machines, solar and wind, Tesla and Royal Rife, 3d printing, etc. I've also got a mild interest in virtual reality sports to get people off the computer and in a more active state.

Leah: What do you want BitBay to accomplish this coming year?

David Zimbeck:
I want it to succeed in the peg, broker good exchange relationships so the transition is seamless, and best case scenario get some coders to work on a web based version of Halo. But the web version may not happen if the project doesn't become self-regulating. I want to focus on realistic short term goals.


Leah: How did you teach yourself programming in such a short time? What was your program of study?

David Zimbeck:
I just used Google, lot's of trial and error. Luckily Python interprets as it runs so that helps for fast testing. As a kid I did some Qbasic and a little bit of c++ in high school. Although I dropped out of high school. So this meant mostly teaching myself everything from scratch. It was just a matter of will power and persistence. It wasn't easy. I worked 16 hour days and was a bit used to it from the oil work. However it took a serious toll on my health. My friend was coming back to my trailer and bringing me Taco Bell spicy potato burrito and a Mountain Dew every night. That, almonds and chocolate and sunflower seeds kept me alive barely. Hahahaha. I developed a nasty cough. It was so bad I had to go fly to Florida after my prototype was done to have my parents nurse me back to health. I would wake up, roll out of bed, code sleep. It was crazy. I'm glad those days are over. It was what was needed to make the worlds first smart contracting platform when I was literally a nobody in cryptography and I came completely out of nowhere.

Leah: Do you see any connections between your acting career for example the movie The Real Deal (2009) on IMDB and your blockchain philosophy? There seems to be certain elements like an ideal or authentic existence versus phony system that seem to speak to crypto-anarchism. Your LI profile shows you were already interested in cryptocurrency at the time. Did crypto influence movie, or v.v?

David Zimbeck:
It's funny how the jobs I got cast in sometimes matched my philosophies. That was a small job. It was a fun little film project. One scene they had me impersonate Harry Potter. However my biggest job in the film industry was "Pirates of the Carribean 2". I was in tons of scenes like the "Jar of Dirt" scene which is a meme on YouTube. I was not credited on IMDB though even though I should have been. We booked an audition out of 10,000 people. It was only 20 pirates in the core and we were on location in Freeport Bahamas. It was booked as principal but Disney is a bit stingy and didn't give contracts out until the last minute. I might have gotten a line and credit had it not been for Hurricane Wilma which hit and we had to be flown home charter.  Also I was very new and inexperienced in the industry. Some of the core pirates submitted to IMDB and got on, I never bothered. My manager was not aggressive enough with that and I wish she had been. Regardless, I did lots of commercials as well (Time Warner, Arla, MTV, etc). None of my jobs influenced my philosophy. I was always the way I am. However I've always had a "pirate" attitude. And I was always looking for ways to improve the world I live in. That is why acting never spoke to me. Acting can be a phony system depending on how it's applied. Hollywood is one of the most corrupt systems out there. Even modern films hardly ever take risks or step outside the dogmatic format. Anarchism is an ideology about freedom. Being free to express and be heard. Free to break boundaries and step into uncharted waters. It should be the de facto philosophy. I was aware of crypto in 2009 but I was not involved. In fact my friend told me to mine it and I even downloaded the software but when I wanted to buy it he told me I had to go on forums. Neither him or myself got involved. You could say that was a billion dollar mistake. He said it would be valuable one day but I didn't give it enough thought to really see it as an investment vehicle. I saw it more as an experimental technology. If I had pursued it then my life would surely have been different. But perhaps this is fate, destiny whatever you want to call it. Things happened this way and so I look forward.