Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 10. (Read 30584 times)
Loved reading gmaxwell's interview.
And BTW, thanks for your work on Codecs. I wasn't really aware of it.
And BTW, thanks for your work on Codecs. I wasn't really aware of it.
Prior to working on Bitcoin one of my big open source efforts was working on patent unencumbered audio codecs. [...] Codecs are a basically a billion dollar per year scam: Standards compatibility forces people to use various codecs and then patent holders extract money [...] But just by giving people a credible alternative the playing field is made more fair
What about Hostfat? At least if we are looking at account number or activity, I think he came to teh forum before you and he's still the moderator on the italian board.
Other that annoying nit-picking, definitely one of the best interviews so far!
Sure enough! I'll edit. Other that annoying nit-picking, definitely one of the best interviews so far!
Fun fact: I think other than Theymos (of course) I am the longest tenured still active moderator.
What about Hostfat? At least if we are looking at account number or activity, I think he came to the forum before you and he's still the moderator on the italian board.
Other that annoying nit-picking, definitely one of the best interviews so far!
EDIT: I put my money where my mouth is and voted for your interview on @zasad@ competition.
EDIT2: If your strategy on options made someone curious about this instrument, I do recommend reading my thread on this topic: these are very powerful instruments, which can be really harmful if not handled properly:
Everything you wanted to know about BTC options but were afraid to ask!
zasad@ made the strategic error of telling me I had until the end of November to respond -- so you get a WALL OF TEXT.
Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Some time prior to Aug 2004-- since that was >16 years ago, I can't say for sure before then but at least by Aug 2004 I was using Hal's RPOW system and talking to him about it, and I have those emails.
I was particularly interested in natively online money that didn't depend on traditional banks. Like many other people I'd been screwed by paypal randomly freezing my account, and I wanted there to be some kind of electronic money that you could use to pay for resources on distributed services like P2P file sharing that would probably get shut down by banks.
Reading "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson may have been a factor in my interest, but was also I long time follower of the various cipherpunky mailing-lists where these sorts of things were discussed-- along with a lot of libertarian and hard money philosophy. I'm old enough that computer hacking in the unauthorised access sense was made illegal in my lifetime and in my youth we got access to the Internet like real men: by sneaking in and running gopher over a shell at 2400 baud and we liked it that way. I was long interested in cryptography, -- somewhere I think I have a PGP key that I created in 1993 and long since lost the passphrase too -- I bet if I dug it up I could factor its public key now. I contributed some to some open source crypto protocols, for example the automatic establishment part of the OTR protocol came from me.
On the RPOW side, among other things I wrote to Hal to propose adding what we'd now call "smart contracting" to RPOW-- basically making it so that transfers were conditional on programmed rules specified by the payer. It seemed to me that it wasn't good enough to have money that operated without state authorities if you had to use state authorities to resolve disputes... we needed money where users could resolve disputes mechanically without trusting a third party or needing state agency to enforce their agreement. I was really happy to see these concepts in Bitcoin, clearly it was an idea whos time had come. If we want automated systems to be able to act autonomously we need money that doesn't depend on constant human intervention.
Beyond submitting bug reports and some ideas, I put in a bit of effort advocating RPOW (e.g. suggesting anonymous remailers could use it.). Hal tried to get me to write a GUI for RPOW but like him I'm really not a big fan of GUI programming. Ultimately RPOW kinda petered out without seeing much use, in fact: I don't believe I've ever spoke to anyone else who used it, other than Hal.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
A long time after I obtained my first Bitcoin. Like a lot of early participants my first Bitcoin was mined. When I first started the software there was only a windows version, so I ran it in wine and pretty much instantly forgot about it. Like RPOW there were no users and so it wasn't that exciting-- though I became aware of it pretty early, I'd missed the white paper until the end of 2010 and so I had kind of assumed it was a less secure distributed version of RPOW-- an exciting novelty, but not likely to be world changing.
In Dec 2010 or so I had some GPUs that had been given to me as part of a job-- I'd been paid to crack some cryptosystem used to control licensing on wimax radios and had written some software for doing that. I don't game so I didn't have anything to do with the GPUs and went searching for something to use them on. This was right around the time that GPU based Bitcoin mining started so there was a lot of discussion related to that and I ran into Bitcoin again. It seemed to have caught a lot more attention than RPOW ever did so I looked into it again and I found the whitepaper. As soon as I read it I was hooked: this was something that could actually work.
In addition to my GPUs I had a 160 core opteron cluster that I'd been using to develop the Opus audio codec, so its idle time also went to mining. Not too long after I read the entire source code (it wasn't very big at the time) and started contributing on the technical side.
I did also eventually buy Bitcoin for fiat but that wasn't until late 2011 after some crashes took the price from a high of ~$30 down to something like $3.5. At the time exchanging Bitcoin for fiat was a huge PITA and required dealing with sketchy exchanges and payment processors or risking getting ripped off and having your paypal account banned. Until I started maxing out my power I preferred to spend money on hardware/power to mine.
Probably the best moral equivalent for me to first buying Bitcoin is the first time I bought computer hardware with no other purpose than Bitcoin. In May 2011 I bought a ATI 5870 GPU for $150 from someone on craigslist. I met the seller in person and I have a vivid memory of my hands shaking as I handed over the money, feeling like I was mugging the guy and afraid he was going to cancel the trade.
A 5870 did about 350MH/s (about the same order of magnitude as my whole cluster, I think) and at the time the difficulty was about 100k, so that GPU would have produced about 3.2 BTC per day and would pay for itself super quick.
I lived in northern Virginia and had really inexpensive power-- something like $0.055/KWH. I went on to fill my basement with GPUs and had quite an adventure convincing random staff at AMD distributors to go search their warehouse for extra cases of GPUs as they all sold out due to mining demand. After the crash in 2011 my hashrate kept going up. At two points I was >1% of the network hashrate personally (once during the GPU era, and again after ASICs were a thing). My house was heated entirely by mining, in the winter you could see where the power lines were buried because it melted the snow there first. I had the police show up poking around, I think because either my power usage or due to unlawful use of FLIR had them thinking I had a grow op.
I wish I had pictures of my setup. I screwed 1x2" boards to the walls and then screwed the GPUs directly to them. Motherboards were attached to the GPUs with pci extension cables. Motherboards and PSUs were hung of the gpus (and walls in the case of the PSU) with zip ties. "Look Ma! No case required!". Everything running at 240v to maximise psu efficiency. I used 6 gpus to a board and wired the serial port of each board to the reset pins of the board next to it, so if the kernel hung I could restart the machines remotely.
The cheap consumer GPUs really weren't made for extended heavy usage. Fans would fail all the time and start making an awful noise. I'd get up in the middle of the night to fix them-- I hated dealing with it but wanted the Bitcoins more. For years after I suffered the mild traumatic effect of waking up thinking I heard a failing fan and hoping out of bed to go fix it.
My big GPU farm came to an end when I went to work for Mozilla and moved to California where power isn't so cheap... around that time though GPU based litecoin mining had started and I was able to RMA all my GPUs then sold them all for more than I paid for them! (this wasn't the end of my mining ... as real ASIC miners came not too long after)
3. How did you get on the forum?
My first interaction with the Bitcoin community was on IRC and email, but a lot of the discussion back then was on the forum. Personally, I never really liked web forums (though I eventually warmed up to BCT) but this was the obvious place to be.
Fun fact: I think after Theymos (of course) and Hostfat I am the third longest tenured still active moderator.
4.1.I heard that you have been one of the most active Bitcoin developers since 2011. What did you see important in this project and why did you decide to work in it?
I've only ever been most active in terms of talking to people, including non-developers. When it comes to actually writing software I'm not especially productive, my contributions are usually related to protocol design, incentives, review, system effects.. stuff like that.
Early on in Bitcoin's life it was clear that while in one sense the system was complete there was still a tremendous amount of work required to make it usable (esp while preserving its awesome properties). My first big and lasting contribution was probably the public address derivation (which was later standardised by BIP32): I'd talked to the FSF about taking Bitcoin donations and there was a desire to use a separate address per donation for invoicing purposes but it wouldn't be good to have the private keys on the webserver. So I came up with a cryptographic way of generating new Bitcoin addresses online while keeping the private keys offline. Somewhat ironically that original purpose is still not well covered by software today.
Prior to working on Bitcoin one of my big open source efforts was working on patent unencumbered audio codecs. I worked on the Ogg Vorbis audio codec and the Opus audio codec among other things. Codecs are a basically a billion dollar per year scam: Standards compatibility forces people to use various codecs and then patent holders extract money from every device and service that sends media over the internet while legally threatening inventors that come up with better stuff. To the limited extent that the patents are valid at all the value they provide over the alternatives is negligible, but you're forced to pay because of compatibility. Those costs are an unearned tax and a drag on innovation everywhere online (even in places where the patents aren't enforceable). The licensing discriminates against various business models (like open source) and people's personal freedom too. But just by giving people a credible alternative the playing field is made more fair: When Vorbis was published MP3 licensing fees halved pretty much over night, so its mere existence benefited people who never even used it. Vorbis only reached moderate adoption but today virtually every one of you has used Opus-- it's the mandatory codec for web based video conferencing and it's been shipped to literally billions of users.
So with codecs I was able to take some rocket sciency math and engineering stuff that I'm good at and enjoy and use it to make a tremendous benefit to the world. --- my interest in codecs freedom has it's own fun origin story (in short: I added VBR support to one of the earliest MP3 encoders, deployed it at my job, and had a vendor imply that they might get me sued/fired due to patent infringement after I told them we wouldn't be buying any more of their commercial streaming product).
In finance there are many comparable examples, where rent seekers cut a fee out of everyone elses business without really adding any value. Their mere presence harms your personal freedom and privacy and prevents many valid forms of commerce from existing. Central banks manage currencies in ways that aren't in your personal best interests. Instead of patents their lock in is achieved through banking and AML rules, government imposed currencies, and a whole lot of inertia: In codecs you get forced into using formats you might not want to use by network effects, but for money those effects are much stronger. The biggest difference though is that instead of being a billion dollar scam there are a few more zeros in the figure for finance.
I hope Bitcoin can someday be even as successful as Opus. In that world, people may not even know that they're using Bitcoin -- but it's there, as an alternative or in the backend of their activities amplifying their freedom and keeping the old centralised alternatives on their toes. But to get there it has to be good enough and the properties that make it valuable have to be protected. Opus might still have been widely used but wouldn't have improved people's freedom if it had been stuffed full of restrictively licensed patents at the last minute. Likewise, Bitcoin that became paypal 2.0 might still be popular but it would be a waste of time. And unlike codecs, the nature of money means that there may be no near term second chance if Bitcoin fails: Switching codecs doesn't have a big cost, but if the money you're using fails you're going to be extremely shy about adopting some other new alternative.
Obviously privacy is a big area where Bitcoin needs improvement and I've tried to come up with fancy technology to improve the situation, but it's always a balancing act. Privacy is the one area where if Bitcoin doesn't get better at it ... it might leave the world a worse off place than if Bitcoin hadn't existed. The worst case for Bitcoin privacy is pretty bad. There has been a lot of progress but more is needed.
4.2.What was the main reason for founding Blockstream?
Back when that effort started there wasn't any "blockchain" industry. There were a lot of people who wanted to spend more time working on Bitcoin but they had existing well paid jobs. Bitcoin had become valuable enough that in theory early Bitcoiners could just fund themselves-- but instead of earning a good paycheck and using it to BUY bitcoin, you'd have to SELL bitcoin. Not exactly the most appealing move to someone who really believes in it.
People had tried doing donations but they weren't very sustainable, and often ended up with the donors thinking they owned you in a way that even employers wouldn't (and early orgs like Bitcoin foundation were full of kinda sketchy folks).
At the same time there is just a ton of transitional work needed to bridge the rest of the world onto Bitcoin-- and plenty of interesting technologies from Bitcoin that could be applied to traditional systems to make them more bitcoin like: more secure, more private, more accountable.
During the development of Opus I made a bit of money on the side for myself developing a bespoke station-to-transmitter links system used (perhaps still used) by a really big Canadian radio station to hook up all their remote transmitter stations across Canada. Having cool open technology is one thing, but there are plenty of businesses that will pay to help integrate it for their use.
So I hoped that we could create a company to build that bridge tech and providing way for long time Bitcoin developers to spend a lot of their time working on Bitcoin, while also helping to prepare the world for a more Bitcoin centric future.
Why did you leave Blockstream and why did you decide to devote yourself to developing protocols for Bitcoin?
Shortly after starting blockstream a huge amount of "blockchain" hype began which you'd think would be good, but it undermined our ability to set the agenda around the kinds of technology we wanted to work on (or at least my ability to set it from within Blockstream). Basically even big firm and their brother wanted to talk to us (good!) but they were mostly pre-spun up on borderline pointless applications of technology, or even outright scams. Simultaneously, in the Bitcoin space the mere existence of blockstream was highly weaponized and created a constant campaign of harassment-- against developers in general, against blockstream, and against me personally. Getting death threats is just not fun. I wasn't sure if getting out would really fix the situation at all, but at least if I felt tired of it I could unplug and ignore it for a month without letting anyone down.
The Bcash spinoff (and later futures on the ill-fated 'S2X' split) gave me a way to cash out without diminishing my long term bitcoin holdings much. Blockstream had also worked out pretty well for me financially-- everyone there was (and I assume still is) partially paid with a fixed amount of Bitcoin the company pre-purchases at hire time and bitcoin had increased by something like a factor of 45 while I was there. In short, I didn't need any more money and I figured I could have more fun not working there. It was also clear that blockstream could continue on fine without me and there were several other orgs funding developers by that point-- so to the extent that I got involved to create a place to fund my colleagues to work on Bitcoin my work was done.
I hear that they made some changes after I left that I think I would have enjoyed working there more, but I don't regret leaving at all.
4.4.What future do you think bitcoin will have?
I think Bitcoin is here to stay. What form it'll take in our lives is still an open question-- will people be using it more directly or will it take on more of a role as a high powered industrial money used to transport value across borders, across time, and protect people's freedom? Will humans be the most frequent users of it, or will machines?
Most people couldn't have imagined the world using anything like Bitcoin as recently as ten years ago-- even though Bitcoin already existed. Twenty years ago the question wouldn't even had made sense to most people. I think it would be presumptuous for us to guess too much about how the future will use Bitcoin. I don't know what the future will look like but I'm confident that there will be Bitcoin in it.
4.5.What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Above all: Time. If you successfully convince someone that Bitcoin could become the defacto world currency, they'll quickly do the math and realise that this would result in an unfathomable wealth transfer. This, naturally, seems unrealistic so they then conclude that it can't happen because the consequences will be too dire. As time goes on Bitcoin value flows through the economy, the price goes up, and the amount of wealth transfer remaining becomes less extreme and the whole idea seems a little more credible. More people adopt it, wash/rinse/repeat.
Overnight world domination is physically and economically impossible and that's fine because it if it did happen over night it would be highly disruptive and probably get a lot of people killed.
Beyond general adoption specific uses have their own impediments. Computers are far too insecure, software is too buggy, we haven't solved the self-custody risk problems, and in the US the tax treatment is pretty good for long term hodl but pretty bad for use for small payments: You have to report cap gains/losses on every purchase, which is a utter reporting nightmare. There aren't any fundamental impediments to solving these problems-- they'll just take time.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I like the merit system but I suppose I should since I have among the highest merit on the forum.
I thing signature campaigns are toxic and end up attached to a lot of spam/low value posts that really harm the forum. But it isn't clear to me that we'd be better off without them: Without the signatures the spam would probably still happen, based on links inside the spam or just shilling scamcoins by name-- the signatures ads are just a path of least resistance. ... and at least they make the spam more identifiable.
In the subforums I moderate if there is a post which is pretty worthless and maybe spam-- if there is no signature campaign it'll usually get the benefit of doubt. If there is... bye bye.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I think it's hard to say. I feel like the forum these days isn't living up to its potential because it's not a place that new people show up as much... and a lot of the long time expert contributors have given up on it.
Basically any interesting discussion that give people with expertise a reason to show up here and mix with the newbies is a really useful topic.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
As you're probably aware there is a long standing forum rewrite that has been ongoing. The work there contains about a zillion new ideas, many of which I thought were pretty interesting at the time. Probably nothing I could suggest is as interesting or important as getting that done.
One thing I've really hurt for the lack of is the ability to ban specific users from specific subforums and threads. By design BCT is extremely open and permissive, but sometimes someone who contributes usefully in one subforum just constantly makes a nuisance of themselves in other discussions. Sure, readers can ignore people they don't like, but it's difficult to coordinate that so in practice people can continually derail threads repeating the same boring crap over and over again. Experts can pick and choose where they spend their time and they don't usually enjoy wasting it in places where the conversation is derailed by the same idiots over and over again.
Many of these disruptive folks end up getting banned forum wide, but it takes a long time-- and in the mean time a lot of valuable posters just give up and go elsewhere. If we could thread and subforum scope bans we could better balance the ability of everyone to participate with people's freedom to not have every discussion get disrupted.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I trade options on Bitcoin at LedgerX with a portion of my stash. Most of my trading could be characterised as selling moon insurance (deep out of the money calls) and crash insurance (deep out of the money puts). For the most part, the activity hedges my substantial Bitcoin exposure-- and it more than covers all of my living expenses which gives me peace of mind. I've averaged a ~20%/yr return on investment (not including Bitcoin's gain in value, of course) since I opened the account in December 2017.
I think more people trading Bitcoin should be interested in options: They can be used to better reflect the kinds of opinions people have about Bitcoin's price and can be shaped to better match people's risk tolerance. For people who want more risk options (esp physically delivered ones like LedgerX) can be a lot safer than the leveraged Bitcoin products traded elsewhere. They can also be more tax efficient.
Of course any kind of trading activity has risks, including custody risks on top of the volatility ones. I don't think anyone should be trading with all of their coins.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
For me the biggest "profit" is all the damn fork coins and spinoffs. I find it extremely ironic that the very people that relentlessly attacked and harassed me for *years* went on to make me more money than anything else (other than owning Bitcoin in the first place) by a wide margin.
Most people know that BCH traded at over 0.2 BTC/BCH (and also hit $4k in fiat terms), but the S2X futures also traded at >0.2 (and heavily between 0.1 and 0.2). This means that well timed sells could have got you 20% of your Bitcoin holdings _each_. Bitgold, BitcoinDiamond, Sbitcoin, BitcoinX -- each was small but combined with decent timing they also added up to another 20%.
So you could receive 50%-70% of your Bitcoin stash over again from these things (depending on timing and if you compounded them), with no risk to your Bitcoin position other than the risk of making some screw-up handling your keys. ... And I pretty much did and did so at near (thus far) ATH Bitcoin prices.
A lot of people don't realize how profitable the forks were, especially with well timed trades and the patience and technical expertise to go through and dump them. I owe a lot of thanks to the community on the #bitcoin-forks IRC channel for helping gather and disseminate good information all the forks at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.
I hated dealing with them, hated their disruption, hated their bad incentives, hated reading their crappy source code, hated the abuse from their promoters. But the profits would make even a ferengi blush.
As far as losses go-- I bought some goxcoins, mostly at 20% off face though some at higher prices. Mark lied to my (virtual) face about the causes of his issues, I computed the upper bound losses from malleability and thought the goxcoins were a pretty good deal. Oh well-- that's what you get for believing a Bitcoin Foundation founder. Depending on how you account for it and when the insolvency pays out this might be a small loss (percentage wise). Given the same info I would have gladly done it again. In practice having coins held up in the gox insolvency discouraged me from selling any in the $200-$3000 price range, so it arguably was a big gain too... Either way I have no regrets.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Most of it is midway between pointless and an outright scam. Some of the BTC 'distributed custody' systems are essentially give one side a free option on the BTC/ETH exchange rate (basically: at most they lose some ETH if they steal the Bitcoin they're holding-- but this is irrelevant if the ETH price has crashed enough relative to Bitcoin). Some are auto-zhoutongers that will crush participants due to volatility with behaviour they don't understand: Their users are picking up pennies in front of a steam roller and have no idea. Others are just HYIP with a layer of technobabble obfuscation on top. When these things go tits up I hope they don't create contagion that depresses the Bitcoin price, but if that does happen-- it'll recover eventually and I'll be buying the cheap coins along the way.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I'm not anonymous. Being anonymous and having a persistent identity is extremely hard, maybe impossible. Plus you run the risk that you think you're anonymous but then your identity gets leaked and you're not prepared for it.
I think it's critically important that people be able to communicate anonymously, but right now I think no one really knows how to have a strongly anonymous persistent identity.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I've never read a cryptocurrency book. I doubt many will ever be as good as drinking from the firehose of mailing lists, bitcointalk, irc, etc.
Now, if you want to talk about books with cryptocurrency in them-- I read a lot of science fiction (a flatter rendering of the shelves that might be easier to read). Non-fiction is useful if you someone's idea of how it is or how it was, but ideas about how it might be are best found in fiction where authors aren't stuck with telling the truth (or at least pretending to...). "Shadow Flock" a short story in Instantiation by Greg Egan was a fun read and clearly Bitcoin inspired. "Neptune's Brood" by Charles Stross is an obviously somewhat Bitcoin inspired novel which I enjoyed.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Other than Bitcoin I don't think there is a lot of cause to own anything else "crypto" unless you have a specific need. On BCT I think more people need to be preached to about the value of diversifying into non-cryptocurrency assets and managing their risk.
There are many possible futures and I think the best advice is to take each credible, if unlikely, future seriously and think about what decisions you can make today which you would or wouldn't regret making. I think it's better to minimise regret across the various possibilities rather than seek the greatest benefit in the situation you hope for best. It can even be good to invest *against* what you hope and think will happen, so that at least you get the consolation of a pay off if your expectations turn out wrong.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I believe that for sufficiently liquid assets the current market price is almost always the best generally available estimate of the near term future market price-- it's not perfect or even good, but that doesn't mean that anyone knows better. In any situation where I felt differently, I would be trading to profit from the difference and move the price closer to the truth-- and not posting about it here.
Don't believe anyone who is extremely confident about future prices of any speculative asset. They're fools at best, scammers at worse. If we knew what the future price would be it would already be there.
But I can tell you that due to good risk management and policy-driven unemotional trading that I will be perfectly content with the price, whatever it is.
Cheers,
Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Some time prior to Aug 2004-- since that was >16 years ago, I can't say for sure before then but at least by Aug 2004 I was using Hal's RPOW system and talking to him about it, and I have those emails.
I was particularly interested in natively online money that didn't depend on traditional banks. Like many other people I'd been screwed by paypal randomly freezing my account, and I wanted there to be some kind of electronic money that you could use to pay for resources on distributed services like P2P file sharing that would probably get shut down by banks.
Reading "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson may have been a factor in my interest, but was also I long time follower of the various cipherpunky mailing-lists where these sorts of things were discussed-- along with a lot of libertarian and hard money philosophy. I'm old enough that computer hacking in the unauthorised access sense was made illegal in my lifetime and in my youth we got access to the Internet like real men: by sneaking in and running gopher over a shell at 2400 baud and we liked it that way. I was long interested in cryptography, -- somewhere I think I have a PGP key that I created in 1993 and long since lost the passphrase too -- I bet if I dug it up I could factor its public key now. I contributed some to some open source crypto protocols, for example the automatic establishment part of the OTR protocol came from me.
On the RPOW side, among other things I wrote to Hal to propose adding what we'd now call "smart contracting" to RPOW-- basically making it so that transfers were conditional on programmed rules specified by the payer. It seemed to me that it wasn't good enough to have money that operated without state authorities if you had to use state authorities to resolve disputes... we needed money where users could resolve disputes mechanically without trusting a third party or needing state agency to enforce their agreement. I was really happy to see these concepts in Bitcoin, clearly it was an idea whos time had come. If we want automated systems to be able to act autonomously we need money that doesn't depend on constant human intervention.
Beyond submitting bug reports and some ideas, I put in a bit of effort advocating RPOW (e.g. suggesting anonymous remailers could use it.). Hal tried to get me to write a GUI for RPOW but like him I'm really not a big fan of GUI programming. Ultimately RPOW kinda petered out without seeing much use, in fact: I don't believe I've ever spoke to anyone else who used it, other than Hal.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
A long time after I obtained my first Bitcoin. Like a lot of early participants my first Bitcoin was mined. When I first started the software there was only a windows version, so I ran it in wine and pretty much instantly forgot about it. Like RPOW there were no users and so it wasn't that exciting-- though I became aware of it pretty early, I'd missed the white paper until the end of 2010 and so I had kind of assumed it was a less secure distributed version of RPOW-- an exciting novelty, but not likely to be world changing.
In Dec 2010 or so I had some GPUs that had been given to me as part of a job-- I'd been paid to crack some cryptosystem used to control licensing on wimax radios and had written some software for doing that. I don't game so I didn't have anything to do with the GPUs and went searching for something to use them on. This was right around the time that GPU based Bitcoin mining started so there was a lot of discussion related to that and I ran into Bitcoin again. It seemed to have caught a lot more attention than RPOW ever did so I looked into it again and I found the whitepaper. As soon as I read it I was hooked: this was something that could actually work.
In addition to my GPUs I had a 160 core opteron cluster that I'd been using to develop the Opus audio codec, so its idle time also went to mining. Not too long after I read the entire source code (it wasn't very big at the time) and started contributing on the technical side.
I did also eventually buy Bitcoin for fiat but that wasn't until late 2011 after some crashes took the price from a high of ~$30 down to something like $3.5. At the time exchanging Bitcoin for fiat was a huge PITA and required dealing with sketchy exchanges and payment processors or risking getting ripped off and having your paypal account banned. Until I started maxing out my power I preferred to spend money on hardware/power to mine.
Probably the best moral equivalent for me to first buying Bitcoin is the first time I bought computer hardware with no other purpose than Bitcoin. In May 2011 I bought a ATI 5870 GPU for $150 from someone on craigslist. I met the seller in person and I have a vivid memory of my hands shaking as I handed over the money, feeling like I was mugging the guy and afraid he was going to cancel the trade.
A 5870 did about 350MH/s (about the same order of magnitude as my whole cluster, I think) and at the time the difficulty was about 100k, so that GPU would have produced about 3.2 BTC per day and would pay for itself super quick.
I lived in northern Virginia and had really inexpensive power-- something like $0.055/KWH. I went on to fill my basement with GPUs and had quite an adventure convincing random staff at AMD distributors to go search their warehouse for extra cases of GPUs as they all sold out due to mining demand. After the crash in 2011 my hashrate kept going up. At two points I was >1% of the network hashrate personally (once during the GPU era, and again after ASICs were a thing). My house was heated entirely by mining, in the winter you could see where the power lines were buried because it melted the snow there first. I had the police show up poking around, I think because either my power usage or due to unlawful use of FLIR had them thinking I had a grow op.
I wish I had pictures of my setup. I screwed 1x2" boards to the walls and then screwed the GPUs directly to them. Motherboards were attached to the GPUs with pci extension cables. Motherboards and PSUs were hung of the gpus (and walls in the case of the PSU) with zip ties. "Look Ma! No case required!". Everything running at 240v to maximise psu efficiency. I used 6 gpus to a board and wired the serial port of each board to the reset pins of the board next to it, so if the kernel hung I could restart the machines remotely.
The cheap consumer GPUs really weren't made for extended heavy usage. Fans would fail all the time and start making an awful noise. I'd get up in the middle of the night to fix them-- I hated dealing with it but wanted the Bitcoins more. For years after I suffered the mild traumatic effect of waking up thinking I heard a failing fan and hoping out of bed to go fix it.
My big GPU farm came to an end when I went to work for Mozilla and moved to California where power isn't so cheap... around that time though GPU based litecoin mining had started and I was able to RMA all my GPUs then sold them all for more than I paid for them! (this wasn't the end of my mining ... as real ASIC miners came not too long after)
3. How did you get on the forum?
My first interaction with the Bitcoin community was on IRC and email, but a lot of the discussion back then was on the forum. Personally, I never really liked web forums (though I eventually warmed up to BCT) but this was the obvious place to be.
Fun fact: I think after Theymos (of course) and Hostfat I am the third longest tenured still active moderator.
4.1.I heard that you have been one of the most active Bitcoin developers since 2011. What did you see important in this project and why did you decide to work in it?
I've only ever been most active in terms of talking to people, including non-developers. When it comes to actually writing software I'm not especially productive, my contributions are usually related to protocol design, incentives, review, system effects.. stuff like that.
Early on in Bitcoin's life it was clear that while in one sense the system was complete there was still a tremendous amount of work required to make it usable (esp while preserving its awesome properties). My first big and lasting contribution was probably the public address derivation (which was later standardised by BIP32): I'd talked to the FSF about taking Bitcoin donations and there was a desire to use a separate address per donation for invoicing purposes but it wouldn't be good to have the private keys on the webserver. So I came up with a cryptographic way of generating new Bitcoin addresses online while keeping the private keys offline. Somewhat ironically that original purpose is still not well covered by software today.
Prior to working on Bitcoin one of my big open source efforts was working on patent unencumbered audio codecs. I worked on the Ogg Vorbis audio codec and the Opus audio codec among other things. Codecs are a basically a billion dollar per year scam: Standards compatibility forces people to use various codecs and then patent holders extract money from every device and service that sends media over the internet while legally threatening inventors that come up with better stuff. To the limited extent that the patents are valid at all the value they provide over the alternatives is negligible, but you're forced to pay because of compatibility. Those costs are an unearned tax and a drag on innovation everywhere online (even in places where the patents aren't enforceable). The licensing discriminates against various business models (like open source) and people's personal freedom too. But just by giving people a credible alternative the playing field is made more fair: When Vorbis was published MP3 licensing fees halved pretty much over night, so its mere existence benefited people who never even used it. Vorbis only reached moderate adoption but today virtually every one of you has used Opus-- it's the mandatory codec for web based video conferencing and it's been shipped to literally billions of users.
So with codecs I was able to take some rocket sciency math and engineering stuff that I'm good at and enjoy and use it to make a tremendous benefit to the world. --- my interest in codecs freedom has it's own fun origin story (in short: I added VBR support to one of the earliest MP3 encoders, deployed it at my job, and had a vendor imply that they might get me sued/fired due to patent infringement after I told them we wouldn't be buying any more of their commercial streaming product).
In finance there are many comparable examples, where rent seekers cut a fee out of everyone elses business without really adding any value. Their mere presence harms your personal freedom and privacy and prevents many valid forms of commerce from existing. Central banks manage currencies in ways that aren't in your personal best interests. Instead of patents their lock in is achieved through banking and AML rules, government imposed currencies, and a whole lot of inertia: In codecs you get forced into using formats you might not want to use by network effects, but for money those effects are much stronger. The biggest difference though is that instead of being a billion dollar scam there are a few more zeros in the figure for finance.
I hope Bitcoin can someday be even as successful as Opus. In that world, people may not even know that they're using Bitcoin -- but it's there, as an alternative or in the backend of their activities amplifying their freedom and keeping the old centralised alternatives on their toes. But to get there it has to be good enough and the properties that make it valuable have to be protected. Opus might still have been widely used but wouldn't have improved people's freedom if it had been stuffed full of restrictively licensed patents at the last minute. Likewise, Bitcoin that became paypal 2.0 might still be popular but it would be a waste of time. And unlike codecs, the nature of money means that there may be no near term second chance if Bitcoin fails: Switching codecs doesn't have a big cost, but if the money you're using fails you're going to be extremely shy about adopting some other new alternative.
Obviously privacy is a big area where Bitcoin needs improvement and I've tried to come up with fancy technology to improve the situation, but it's always a balancing act. Privacy is the one area where if Bitcoin doesn't get better at it ... it might leave the world a worse off place than if Bitcoin hadn't existed. The worst case for Bitcoin privacy is pretty bad. There has been a lot of progress but more is needed.
4.2.What was the main reason for founding Blockstream?
Back when that effort started there wasn't any "blockchain" industry. There were a lot of people who wanted to spend more time working on Bitcoin but they had existing well paid jobs. Bitcoin had become valuable enough that in theory early Bitcoiners could just fund themselves-- but instead of earning a good paycheck and using it to BUY bitcoin, you'd have to SELL bitcoin. Not exactly the most appealing move to someone who really believes in it.
People had tried doing donations but they weren't very sustainable, and often ended up with the donors thinking they owned you in a way that even employers wouldn't (and early orgs like Bitcoin foundation were full of kinda sketchy folks).
At the same time there is just a ton of transitional work needed to bridge the rest of the world onto Bitcoin-- and plenty of interesting technologies from Bitcoin that could be applied to traditional systems to make them more bitcoin like: more secure, more private, more accountable.
During the development of Opus I made a bit of money on the side for myself developing a bespoke station-to-transmitter links system used (perhaps still used) by a really big Canadian radio station to hook up all their remote transmitter stations across Canada. Having cool open technology is one thing, but there are plenty of businesses that will pay to help integrate it for their use.
So I hoped that we could create a company to build that bridge tech and providing way for long time Bitcoin developers to spend a lot of their time working on Bitcoin, while also helping to prepare the world for a more Bitcoin centric future.
Why did you leave Blockstream and why did you decide to devote yourself to developing protocols for Bitcoin?
Shortly after starting blockstream a huge amount of "blockchain" hype began which you'd think would be good, but it undermined our ability to set the agenda around the kinds of technology we wanted to work on (or at least my ability to set it from within Blockstream). Basically even big firm and their brother wanted to talk to us (good!) but they were mostly pre-spun up on borderline pointless applications of technology, or even outright scams. Simultaneously, in the Bitcoin space the mere existence of blockstream was highly weaponized and created a constant campaign of harassment-- against developers in general, against blockstream, and against me personally. Getting death threats is just not fun. I wasn't sure if getting out would really fix the situation at all, but at least if I felt tired of it I could unplug and ignore it for a month without letting anyone down.
The Bcash spinoff (and later futures on the ill-fated 'S2X' split) gave me a way to cash out without diminishing my long term bitcoin holdings much. Blockstream had also worked out pretty well for me financially-- everyone there was (and I assume still is) partially paid with a fixed amount of Bitcoin the company pre-purchases at hire time and bitcoin had increased by something like a factor of 45 while I was there. In short, I didn't need any more money and I figured I could have more fun not working there. It was also clear that blockstream could continue on fine without me and there were several other orgs funding developers by that point-- so to the extent that I got involved to create a place to fund my colleagues to work on Bitcoin my work was done.
I hear that they made some changes after I left that I think I would have enjoyed working there more, but I don't regret leaving at all.
4.4.What future do you think bitcoin will have?
I think Bitcoin is here to stay. What form it'll take in our lives is still an open question-- will people be using it more directly or will it take on more of a role as a high powered industrial money used to transport value across borders, across time, and protect people's freedom? Will humans be the most frequent users of it, or will machines?
Most people couldn't have imagined the world using anything like Bitcoin as recently as ten years ago-- even though Bitcoin already existed. Twenty years ago the question wouldn't even had made sense to most people. I think it would be presumptuous for us to guess too much about how the future will use Bitcoin. I don't know what the future will look like but I'm confident that there will be Bitcoin in it.
4.5.What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Above all: Time. If you successfully convince someone that Bitcoin could become the defacto world currency, they'll quickly do the math and realise that this would result in an unfathomable wealth transfer. This, naturally, seems unrealistic so they then conclude that it can't happen because the consequences will be too dire. As time goes on Bitcoin value flows through the economy, the price goes up, and the amount of wealth transfer remaining becomes less extreme and the whole idea seems a little more credible. More people adopt it, wash/rinse/repeat.
Overnight world domination is physically and economically impossible and that's fine because it if it did happen over night it would be highly disruptive and probably get a lot of people killed.
Beyond general adoption specific uses have their own impediments. Computers are far too insecure, software is too buggy, we haven't solved the self-custody risk problems, and in the US the tax treatment is pretty good for long term hodl but pretty bad for use for small payments: You have to report cap gains/losses on every purchase, which is a utter reporting nightmare. There aren't any fundamental impediments to solving these problems-- they'll just take time.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I like the merit system but I suppose I should since I have among the highest merit on the forum.
I thing signature campaigns are toxic and end up attached to a lot of spam/low value posts that really harm the forum. But it isn't clear to me that we'd be better off without them: Without the signatures the spam would probably still happen, based on links inside the spam or just shilling scamcoins by name-- the signatures ads are just a path of least resistance. ... and at least they make the spam more identifiable.
In the subforums I moderate if there is a post which is pretty worthless and maybe spam-- if there is no signature campaign it'll usually get the benefit of doubt. If there is... bye bye.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I think it's hard to say. I feel like the forum these days isn't living up to its potential because it's not a place that new people show up as much... and a lot of the long time expert contributors have given up on it.
Basically any interesting discussion that give people with expertise a reason to show up here and mix with the newbies is a really useful topic.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
As you're probably aware there is a long standing forum rewrite that has been ongoing. The work there contains about a zillion new ideas, many of which I thought were pretty interesting at the time. Probably nothing I could suggest is as interesting or important as getting that done.
One thing I've really hurt for the lack of is the ability to ban specific users from specific subforums and threads. By design BCT is extremely open and permissive, but sometimes someone who contributes usefully in one subforum just constantly makes a nuisance of themselves in other discussions. Sure, readers can ignore people they don't like, but it's difficult to coordinate that so in practice people can continually derail threads repeating the same boring crap over and over again. Experts can pick and choose where they spend their time and they don't usually enjoy wasting it in places where the conversation is derailed by the same idiots over and over again.
Many of these disruptive folks end up getting banned forum wide, but it takes a long time-- and in the mean time a lot of valuable posters just give up and go elsewhere. If we could thread and subforum scope bans we could better balance the ability of everyone to participate with people's freedom to not have every discussion get disrupted.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I trade options on Bitcoin at LedgerX with a portion of my stash. Most of my trading could be characterised as selling moon insurance (deep out of the money calls) and crash insurance (deep out of the money puts). For the most part, the activity hedges my substantial Bitcoin exposure-- and it more than covers all of my living expenses which gives me peace of mind. I've averaged a ~20%/yr return on investment (not including Bitcoin's gain in value, of course) since I opened the account in December 2017.
I think more people trading Bitcoin should be interested in options: They can be used to better reflect the kinds of opinions people have about Bitcoin's price and can be shaped to better match people's risk tolerance. For people who want more risk options (esp physically delivered ones like LedgerX) can be a lot safer than the leveraged Bitcoin products traded elsewhere. They can also be more tax efficient.
Of course any kind of trading activity has risks, including custody risks on top of the volatility ones. I don't think anyone should be trading with all of their coins.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
For me the biggest "profit" is all the damn fork coins and spinoffs. I find it extremely ironic that the very people that relentlessly attacked and harassed me for *years* went on to make me more money than anything else (other than owning Bitcoin in the first place) by a wide margin.
Most people know that BCH traded at over 0.2 BTC/BCH (and also hit $4k in fiat terms), but the S2X futures also traded at >0.2 (and heavily between 0.1 and 0.2). This means that well timed sells could have got you 20% of your Bitcoin holdings _each_. Bitgold, BitcoinDiamond, Sbitcoin, BitcoinX -- each was small but combined with decent timing they also added up to another 20%.
So you could receive 50%-70% of your Bitcoin stash over again from these things (depending on timing and if you compounded them), with no risk to your Bitcoin position other than the risk of making some screw-up handling your keys. ... And I pretty much did and did so at near (thus far) ATH Bitcoin prices.
A lot of people don't realize how profitable the forks were, especially with well timed trades and the patience and technical expertise to go through and dump them. I owe a lot of thanks to the community on the #bitcoin-forks IRC channel for helping gather and disseminate good information all the forks at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.
I hated dealing with them, hated their disruption, hated their bad incentives, hated reading their crappy source code, hated the abuse from their promoters. But the profits would make even a ferengi blush.
As far as losses go-- I bought some goxcoins, mostly at 20% off face though some at higher prices. Mark lied to my (virtual) face about the causes of his issues, I computed the upper bound losses from malleability and thought the goxcoins were a pretty good deal. Oh well-- that's what you get for believing a Bitcoin Foundation founder.
Depending on how you account for it and when the insolvency pays out this might be a small loss (percentage wise). Given the same info I would have gladly done it again. In practice having coins held up in the gox insolvency discouraged me from selling any in the $200-$3000 price range, so it arguably was a big gain too... Either way I have no regrets.10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Most of it is midway between pointless and an outright scam. Some of the BTC 'distributed custody' systems are essentially give one side a free option on the BTC/ETH exchange rate (basically: at most they lose some ETH if they steal the Bitcoin they're holding-- but this is irrelevant if the ETH price has crashed enough relative to Bitcoin). Some are auto-zhoutongers that will crush participants due to volatility with behaviour they don't understand: Their users are picking up pennies in front of a steam roller and have no idea. Others are just HYIP with a layer of technobabble obfuscation on top. When these things go tits up I hope they don't create contagion that depresses the Bitcoin price, but if that does happen-- it'll recover eventually and I'll be buying the cheap coins along the way.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I'm not anonymous. Being anonymous and having a persistent identity is extremely hard, maybe impossible. Plus you run the risk that you think you're anonymous but then your identity gets leaked and you're not prepared for it.
I think it's critically important that people be able to communicate anonymously, but right now I think no one really knows how to have a strongly anonymous persistent identity.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I've never read a cryptocurrency book. I doubt many will ever be as good as drinking from the firehose of mailing lists, bitcointalk, irc, etc.
Now, if you want to talk about books with cryptocurrency in them-- I read a lot of science fiction (a flatter rendering of the shelves that might be easier to read). Non-fiction is useful if you someone's idea of how it is or how it was, but ideas about how it might be are best found in fiction where authors aren't stuck with telling the truth (or at least pretending to...). "Shadow Flock" a short story in Instantiation by Greg Egan was a fun read and clearly Bitcoin inspired. "Neptune's Brood" by Charles Stross is an obviously somewhat Bitcoin inspired novel which I enjoyed.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Other than Bitcoin I don't think there is a lot of cause to own anything else "crypto" unless you have a specific need. On BCT I think more people need to be preached to about the value of diversifying into non-cryptocurrency assets and managing their risk.
There are many possible futures and I think the best advice is to take each credible, if unlikely, future seriously and think about what decisions you can make today which you would or wouldn't regret making. I think it's better to minimise regret across the various possibilities rather than seek the greatest benefit in the situation you hope for best. It can even be good to invest *against* what you hope and think will happen, so that at least you get the consolation of a pay off if your expectations turn out wrong.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I believe that for sufficiently liquid assets the current market price is almost always the best generally available estimate of the near term future market price-- it's not perfect or even good, but that doesn't mean that anyone knows better. In any situation where I felt differently, I would be trading to profit from the difference and move the price closer to the truth-- and not posting about it here.
Don't believe anyone who is extremely confident about future prices of any speculative asset. They're fools at best, scammers at worse. If we knew what the future price would be it would already be there.
But I can tell you that due to good risk management and policy-driven unemotional trading that I will be perfectly content with the price, whatever it is.
Cheers,
I had a dream to implement an interesting project on the forum, unite the participants, cheer people up and collect a lot of useful information in one topic .. It took more than 4 months.
The project is not closed, I will continue to invite new participants.
Now I want to announce the start of the contest for the best interview. I am asking you to vote.
Thanks to BestChange for sponsoring this competition.
Please vote in this thread
[Vote 2020] Best Bitcointalk Interview
This topic is self-moderated, all posts in which your vote is not indicated will be deleted.
Voters can also receive an award. Please be active.
Please lead a discussion in this thread
(Discussion) Best Bitcointalk Interview
The project is not closed, I will continue to invite new participants.
Now I want to announce the start of the contest for the best interview. I am asking you to vote.
Thanks to BestChange for sponsoring this competition.
Please vote in this thread
[Vote 2020] Best Bitcointalk Interview
This topic is self-moderated, all posts in which your vote is not indicated will be deleted.
Voters can also receive an award. Please be active.
Please lead a discussion in this thread
(Discussion) Best Bitcointalk Interview
It's been good reading some of these later posts from people I don't ordinarily see much of in the Forum. I have to laugh now given I cautiously said bitcoin would be about <$14,000 and now people are forcasting it'll reach >$ 25,000 in just under five week's time. (If that does happen I'll win a small bag over at a certain gambling site). 
On the note of the forecast, I did forecast 15-16 and it surely did bit my forecast as at the value now although, it seems to be experiencing a little correction but, I don't see it going below $17k. I never knew the usefulness of those forecast until now and for a fact, it did help in trades. My biggest guess now is that, it would be correcting and tend to stabilize through now and the next month but, by January-february, another boom should be expected. Let's keep watch.Possibly, everyone could go back to editing their predictions during the new year.
Thanks for the links - I even received a PM overnight from @icopress for yet another site: https://www.stuffbydavid.com/textcolorizer - so Kudos to everyone for taking the time to reply.
Timelord2067 was here.
Timelord2067 was here.
how to do those coulourful signatures
Just Google for a BBCode color generator.Yes right.
I use these one, because there are a huge collection of color combinations on the website. And a "random color-mixer:
ᗌ Text Color Fader - Works with Email, Forum Posts, Web Pages, and more ᗏ
Sorry for the Offtopic zasad@!
how to do those coulourful signatures
Just Google for a BBCode color generator.
It's been good reading some of these later posts from people I don't ordinarily see much of in the Forum. I have to laugh now given I cautiously said bitcoin would be about <$14,000 and now people are forcasting it'll reach >$ 25,000 in just under five week's time. (If that does happen I'll win a small bag over at a certain gambling site).
Thanks to the OP @zasad@ for keeping this popular thread going (and @SiNeReiNZzz , you;ll have to tell me how to do those coulourful signatures of yours)
Thanks to the OP @zasad@ for keeping this popular thread going (and @SiNeReiNZzz , you;ll have to tell me how to do those coulourful signatures of yours)
Hey zasad@,
You had already sent me a PM in October. with the request for an interview.
Really sorry for the delay, now I finally made it, and here it is:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
As far as I remember, this should have been in early 2013. It was definitely an article on the Internet about Bitcoin. I found it very interesting at the time.
But due to a lack of free time and because of the completion of my diploma, I unfortunately did not pursue the topic further...
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
In the year 2014 at a price around 400€ per Bitcoin.
I have read some articles again, and this time I started to deal with it also from a technical point of view to understand Bitcoin and Blockchain.
3. How did you get on the forum?
That was to my research on Bitcoin at the Beginning of the year 2014 and the fact that Satoshi was active here, until his disappearance from the scene.
Some interesting information can be found in his posts...
In the beginning it was really only for research purposes, but I also came across Shitcoins, which were still based almost entirely on Bitcoin!
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Shitcoins and Shit-Tokens! (@qwk and @1miau)
And with many people the fear of new things. Of the unknown... And because in the early days Bitcoin was also known as the currency of the criminals.
But I think we are now on the right way.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Oh well, I really don't see it so bad.
If we didn't advertise it here, it would still be visible elsewhere.
But what I find important is to remind people that the bank always wins in the end. And you should only play with money, which you can also lose if necessary...
Exactly the same with investments... they are also only another form of gambling...
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
An investor does not need education. An investor needs a certain comprehension and must be willing to read a lot.
In combination with a lucky hand, one investor can be a good investor after 3 months of experience, the other ones only after 3 years and some of them never...
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
Well, since I haven't been active for a long time, I only got to know the Merit System about half a year ago.
I cannot complain, I have collected over 400 Merit since I have been active again. And that as said in half a year!
I also think it is true that if you post good posts in the forum and help other users, it is no problem to earn merit.
Sometimes it could be a few more for certain posts...
Many things have changed, not only the Meritsystem what is new...
In the meantime there is even a bearded baby here (@TheBeardedBaby):
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
The most useful topic or users is not be clearly identified for me. Because many people do their part to make the forum better.
Otherwise of course i say the F.A.Q. in the meta section.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1.- Make it more usable for smartphones
2.- Add missing subboards for some local areas
3.- More special forum-bagdes
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I don't trade much on stock exchanges anymore, only to restructure my portfolio a little bit from time to time...
I have not invested in projects since the ICO-Boom in 2017!
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
2017 was the big time for ICOs.
Among other projects, I invested in Waves, Lisk, Wings Token and some others. With Waves and Lisk I made good profits some time after the start.
I also invested in Tezos, but I prefer to wait a little longer with sell it. There could be something interesting out of it...
To be honest, I have not had a great loss until today...
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I don't know what to think about it. I know it's a big topic right now, but so were ICOs in his day.
I don't think it can have any substance for permanent survival on the current scale. And this bubble, just like all the others, will burst soon.
Nevertheless, I think that the one or other certainly make good money with it.
I prefer to stay with Bitcoin and 2-3 other coins, where I see a future.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Thank God it is not a survival requirement for me.
But a good precaution that everyone should take as far as they can!
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Unfortunately I haven't read a book about cryptocurrency yet, but I read many current blogs and news about cryptocurrencies.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Basically I do not make any recommendations. However, I can say what my favorites are.
Of course Bitcoin, then Tezos and Ethereum.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I think around 20.000€.
15. P.S.:
This topic was really a awesome idea. Thanks for that!
Best Regards and have a nice Day
SiNeReiNZzz
You had already sent me a PM in October. with the request for an interview.
Really sorry for the delay, now I finally made it, and here it is
:1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
As far as I remember, this should have been in early 2013. It was definitely an article on the Internet about Bitcoin. I found it very interesting at the time.
But due to a lack of free time and because of the completion of my diploma, I unfortunately did not pursue the topic further...
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
In the year 2014 at a price around 400€ per Bitcoin.
I have read some articles again, and this time I started to deal with it also from a technical point of view to understand Bitcoin and Blockchain.
3. How did you get on the forum?
That was to my research on Bitcoin at the Beginning of the year 2014 and the fact that Satoshi was active here, until his disappearance from the scene.
Some interesting information can be found in his posts...
In the beginning it was really only for research purposes, but I also came across Shitcoins, which were still based almost entirely on Bitcoin!
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Shitcoins and Shit-Tokens! (@qwk and @1miau)
And with many people the fear of new things. Of the unknown... And because in the early days Bitcoin was also known as the currency of the criminals.
But I think we are now on the right way.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Oh well, I really don't see it so bad.
If we didn't advertise it here, it would still be visible elsewhere.
But what I find important is to remind people that the bank always wins in the end. And you should only play with money, which you can also lose if necessary...
Exactly the same with investments... they are also only another form of gambling...
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
An investor does not need education. An investor needs a certain comprehension and must be willing to read a lot.
In combination with a lucky hand, one investor can be a good investor after 3 months of experience, the other ones only after 3 years and some of them never...
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
Well, since I haven't been active for a long time, I only got to know the Merit System about half a year ago.
I cannot complain, I have collected over 400 Merit since I have been active again. And that as said in half a year!
I also think it is true that if you post good posts in the forum and help other users, it is no problem to earn merit.
Sometimes it could be a few more for certain posts...
Many things have changed, not only the Meritsystem what is new...
In the meantime there is even a bearded baby here (@TheBeardedBaby)
:6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
The most useful topic or users is not be clearly identified for me. Because many people do their part to make the forum better.
Otherwise of course i say the F.A.Q. in the meta section.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1.- Make it more usable for smartphones
2.- Add missing subboards for some local areas
3.- More special forum-bagdes
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I don't trade much on stock exchanges anymore, only to restructure my portfolio a little bit from time to time...
I have not invested in projects since the ICO-Boom in 2017!
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
2017 was the big time for ICOs.
Among other projects, I invested in Waves, Lisk, Wings Token and some others. With Waves and Lisk I made good profits some time after the start.
I also invested in Tezos, but I prefer to wait a little longer with sell it. There could be something interesting out of it...
To be honest, I have not had a great loss until today...
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I don't know what to think about it. I know it's a big topic right now, but so were ICOs in his day.
I don't think it can have any substance for permanent survival on the current scale. And this bubble, just like all the others, will burst soon.
Nevertheless, I think that the one or other certainly make good money with it.
I prefer to stay with Bitcoin and 2-3 other coins, where I see a future.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Thank God it is not a survival requirement for me.
But a good precaution that everyone should take as far as they can!
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Unfortunately I haven't read a book about cryptocurrency yet, but I read many current blogs and news about cryptocurrencies.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Basically I do not make any recommendations. However, I can say what my favorites are.
Of course Bitcoin, then Tezos and Ethereum.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I think around 20.000€.
15. P.S.:
This topic was really a awesome idea. Thanks for that!
Best Regards and have a nice Day
SiNeReiNZzz
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I am interested in cryptocurrency starting in 2016 because some of my friends recommended, cryptocurrency is a digital currency technology that will have a good future in my opinion.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I bought my first Bitcoin too in 2016 and tried to trade bitcoin. Bitcoin back then wasn't as hype as it is today.
3. How did you get on the forum?
I entered this forum because of my friend's invitation and then introduced about cryptocurrency and bitcoin.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrency is the regulatory issues it provides. because not all governments provide good and pro regulation of cryptocurrency.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
I think mass advertising of gambling projects is common in this forum and does not harm the community. If there are pros and cons it is common.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency also does not guarantee successful investing in cryptocurrency. As cryptocurrency activists we must also learn about how to invest properly and can be profitable. Receiving special education is also a better way to get to know more specifics about cryptocurrency.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
The merit system is a system that really helps forums avoid cloning accounts or farming accounts. Since the merit system was implemented, it is not easy for new accounts to get high rankings. Need good post quality. For signature campaigns also influenced by the merit system, signature campaigns are now followed by members who really contribute and have good posts in this forum.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
All the topics in this forum are useful and provide us with new knowledge. Answer all our questions. What we want to look for is in this forum. The most helpful of them are @LoyceV, @DdmrDdmr @Coolcryptovator @cabalism13 @tk808 and many more that I can't mention one by one.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. Bitcointalk App for Mobile
2. Better security system
3. Like button on posts
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I did both. Trade on an exchange and make a few investments in a project it really recommends.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
in my 2017 i have several altcoins among which are XLM and ETH and at that time all altcoin prices went up and reached ATH. I managed to sell it at the highest price. For some disadvantages I have experienced mostly in trading and some scam projects.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
The DEFI ecosystem is a new ecosystem that allows people to get loans by guaranteeing their crypto assets. The DEFI ecosystem is a get-rich-quick-lose scheme because when the price goes up it starts from hundreds to thousands of percent and vice versa.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Anonymity is a vital necessity to keep private information about ourselves private in forums so that it is not exposed by many people.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I have never read any cryptocurrency books, I only study online from one website to another and also watch some videos on YouTube. Most of my cryptocurrency knowledge comes from this forum.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin, ETH, BNB
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
$ 20,000 is likely to be achieved and currently bitcoin is still struggling to achieve it and will make a new history with the new ATH.
15. P.S. (Optional)
Stay healthy during the pandemic and hold your bitcoin before a new ATH is reached. moment is a bitcoin party
I am interested in cryptocurrency starting in 2016 because some of my friends recommended, cryptocurrency is a digital currency technology that will have a good future in my opinion.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I bought my first Bitcoin too in 2016 and tried to trade bitcoin. Bitcoin back then wasn't as hype as it is today.
3. How did you get on the forum?
I entered this forum because of my friend's invitation and then introduced about cryptocurrency and bitcoin.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrency is the regulatory issues it provides. because not all governments provide good and pro regulation of cryptocurrency.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
I think mass advertising of gambling projects is common in this forum and does not harm the community. If there are pros and cons it is common.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency also does not guarantee successful investing in cryptocurrency. As cryptocurrency activists we must also learn about how to invest properly and can be profitable. Receiving special education is also a better way to get to know more specifics about cryptocurrency.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
The merit system is a system that really helps forums avoid cloning accounts or farming accounts. Since the merit system was implemented, it is not easy for new accounts to get high rankings. Need good post quality. For signature campaigns also influenced by the merit system, signature campaigns are now followed by members who really contribute and have good posts in this forum.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
All the topics in this forum are useful and provide us with new knowledge. Answer all our questions. What we want to look for is in this forum. The most helpful of them are @LoyceV, @DdmrDdmr @Coolcryptovator @cabalism13 @tk808 and many more that I can't mention one by one.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. Bitcointalk App for Mobile
2. Better security system
3. Like button on posts
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I did both. Trade on an exchange and make a few investments in a project it really recommends.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
in my 2017 i have several altcoins among which are XLM and ETH and at that time all altcoin prices went up and reached ATH. I managed to sell it at the highest price. For some disadvantages I have experienced mostly in trading and some scam projects.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
The DEFI ecosystem is a new ecosystem that allows people to get loans by guaranteeing their crypto assets. The DEFI ecosystem is a get-rich-quick-lose scheme because when the price goes up it starts from hundreds to thousands of percent and vice versa.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Anonymity is a vital necessity to keep private information about ourselves private in forums so that it is not exposed by many people.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I have never read any cryptocurrency books, I only study online from one website to another and also watch some videos on YouTube. Most of my cryptocurrency knowledge comes from this forum.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin, ETH, BNB
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
$ 20,000 is likely to be achieved and currently bitcoin is still struggling to achieve it and will make a new history with the new ATH.
15. P.S. (Optional)
Stay healthy during the pandemic and hold your bitcoin before a new ATH is reached. moment is a bitcoin party
Until now i had the time to answer the questions, but is nice to be part of it, thanks for the invitation zasad
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
2014... i was searching for a way to make money online and I found it
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Never, I had never bought bitcoins, I like to earn them with my work and see them as an extra income.
3. How did you get on the forum?
I see in a casino someone mention the forum, I take a look and see a thread where a guy was offering money if someone helps him to fix his server, in the moment I create my account, make a post and after some time the job was done and I receive the payment. That's how I get in the forum and you can see in my post history.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The mass adoption of bitcoin is prevented for the transactions confirmation time, if we have 2500 transactions in a block every 10 minutes how do you want that 1% of the world population send a transaction in the next 10 min? And the adoption of altcoins is prevented by ignorance.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Casinos, Mixers, Exchanges, and any kind of service should have an opportunity to be advertised on the forum. I think this is the best place to promote a crypto-project.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive
3 years on the business shows how risky it is... Some people buy at $19k 3 years ago and had to wait that time until they recover... but some people buy this year at $10k and now they almost double up. Even if you have experience in cryptos trading we learn things news each month.
4.4. I see a decrease in activity in many local boards. What do you think needs to be done to develop activity in local boards?
I think we need a better SEO structure for local sections and already posted my initiative on the meta section:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/search-engine-optimization-for-local-boards-5170503
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I don't think they harm the forum, both of them are a way to force the users to post quality and that makes for the forum a good quality site.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
The welcome by satoshi... and theymos as the most helpful user.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.28
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
-Like/Dislike.
-Embed Videos.
-Cryptos Wallet.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Yes. I do both.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Some months ago I hit x9999 on a casino for a 0.1btc profit in my first 3 bets on that day... The fun fact is that the day before that I spend 0.1 chasing that multiplier
So, there it is, a story with a big profit and a big loss.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I'm not trying to be anonymous, I have nothing to hide.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Mastering Monero by Serhack, is a book that all should read, you can get it free or for a donation:
https://masteringmonero.com/
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
1.-Bitcoin
2.-ETH
3.-Clamcoin
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Maybe $25k, with the hot news we had this year I don't know how high the moon rocket will go.
15. P.S. (Optional)
As I always say, this forum is a great opportunity to make business... I see it as the money forum where people are talking about money while trying to make more money while trying to spend their money. so, just ride the right wave.
Thanks again for the invitation and good luck to all!
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
2014... i was searching for a way to make money online and I found it
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Never, I had never bought bitcoins, I like to earn them with my work and see them as an extra income.
3. How did you get on the forum?
I see in a casino someone mention the forum, I take a look and see a thread where a guy was offering money if someone helps him to fix his server, in the moment I create my account, make a post and after some time the job was done and I receive the payment. That's how I get in the forum and you can see in my post history.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The mass adoption of bitcoin is prevented for the transactions confirmation time, if we have 2500 transactions in a block every 10 minutes how do you want that 1% of the world population send a transaction in the next 10 min? And the adoption of altcoins is prevented by ignorance.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Casinos, Mixers, Exchanges, and any kind of service should have an opportunity to be advertised on the forum. I think this is the best place to promote a crypto-project.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive
3 years on the business shows how risky it is... Some people buy at $19k 3 years ago and had to wait that time until they recover... but some people buy this year at $10k and now they almost double up. Even if you have experience in cryptos trading we learn things news each month.
4.4. I see a decrease in activity in many local boards. What do you think needs to be done to develop activity in local boards?
I think we need a better SEO structure for local sections and already posted my initiative on the meta section:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/search-engine-optimization-for-local-boards-5170503
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I don't think they harm the forum, both of them are a way to force the users to post quality and that makes for the forum a good quality site.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
The welcome by satoshi... and theymos as the most helpful user.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.28
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
-Like/Dislike.
-Embed Videos.
-Cryptos Wallet.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Yes. I do both.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Some months ago I hit x9999 on a casino for a 0.1btc profit in my first 3 bets on that day... The fun fact is that the day before that I spend 0.1 chasing that multiplier
So, there it is, a story with a big profit and a big loss.11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I'm not trying to be anonymous, I have nothing to hide.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Mastering Monero by Serhack, is a book that all should read, you can get it free or for a donation:
https://masteringmonero.com/
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
1.-Bitcoin
2.-ETH
3.-Clamcoin
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Maybe $25k, with the hot news we had this year I don't know how high the moon rocket will go.
15. P.S. (Optional)
As I always say, this forum is a great opportunity to make business... I see it as the money forum where people are talking about money while trying to make more money while trying to spend their money. so, just ride the right wave.
Thanks again for the invitation and good luck to all!
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Sometime in the early days of 2019. I never believed that I'd join cryptocurrency. My friend sent me a link on WhatsApp and I was like... 'Nah, I don't so such thing'. Actually, it was because I never knew what he was talking about and I never took time to look into it. Bounties brought me into cryptocurrency but, the prior thing Now is the features of the decentralization. I'm glad I know bitcoin.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Never did. And that's because ain't nobody goina collect bitcoin. You'll still have to convert back to fiat for monetary usage.
3. How did you get on the forum?
From my answer in question 1, I knew this forum from a friend who was trying to make me know what bitcoin was/is.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Two things I'd like to point our, firstly, the fact that some people see it as a scam (since it isn't physical money). Secondly, people are changing the use of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is now seen as an investment (buy low, sell high) by everyone. Someone met me about a month ago and told me how he invested in bitcoin and that he now wants to sell it. I thought for a while and realized that if everyone agrees to see bitcoin as a currency too, real time users will troop in too. Not just these 'investors'
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
No matter how long you spend in the crypto sphere, you sure can't be perfect. Some people like me are smart enough to understand everything in months. So, for some people, even a year is enough. A long term investor doesn't need to go for some special training. If they can see the potential, and have enough funds, they're good to go. However, short term investors may need to be taught how to study the market.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
The only disadvantage I see is that people post some unnecessary stuff because of it. But there are some people who post credible stuffs and replies (whether they've got signature or not). So, 80% no and 20% yes.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Most helpful users - I'd mention mk4 and DdmrDdmr. These two seem to have a sense of understanding and I believe they are quite helpful to the forum. The others I may not remember.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I love this question! 😅
Firstly! I don't like the UI of this forum so I'd update it so it looks smart.
Secondly, I'll create a mobile app version of the forum.
Thirdly, I'd occasionally hold bitcoin contests on the bitcoin discussion area.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Yea, I trade on binance and I've invested in some projects. One of the projects is hybrix.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
For all my time of trading, I've never had "big" profit of loss. It's just normal. One of the losses was when I invested in a scam project (about a month ago). It didn't really hurt me tho. About $40 or so. That's the biggest I've lost. I guess Lady Luck's got my back.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
It is a vital necessity. Trust me, people could treat you differently if they knew who you were.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Never read a cryptocurrency book. I hope to read a fiction book about cryptocurrency tho.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I'd say HY(hybrix) , I don't really know which else to mention as I do not want to mention random names.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
A new ATH if not, then it will reach $20k. I started saying this from when it was 16k and I'm more confident about it based on the present price.
15. P.S. (Optional)
If only bitcoin transaction fee (for a 1 min transaction) was low, a lot of people will make payments using bitcoin. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sometime in the early days of 2019. I never believed that I'd join cryptocurrency. My friend sent me a link on WhatsApp and I was like... 'Nah, I don't so such thing'. Actually, it was because I never knew what he was talking about and I never took time to look into it. Bounties brought me into cryptocurrency but, the prior thing Now is the features of the decentralization. I'm glad I know bitcoin.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Never did. And that's because ain't nobody goina collect bitcoin. You'll still have to convert back to fiat for monetary usage.
3. How did you get on the forum?
From my answer in question 1, I knew this forum from a friend who was trying to make me know what bitcoin was/is.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Two things I'd like to point our, firstly, the fact that some people see it as a scam (since it isn't physical money). Secondly, people are changing the use of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is now seen as an investment (buy low, sell high) by everyone. Someone met me about a month ago and told me how he invested in bitcoin and that he now wants to sell it. I thought for a while and realized that if everyone agrees to see bitcoin as a currency too, real time users will troop in too. Not just these 'investors'
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
No matter how long you spend in the crypto sphere, you sure can't be perfect. Some people like me are smart enough to understand everything in months. So, for some people, even a year is enough. A long term investor doesn't need to go for some special training. If they can see the potential, and have enough funds, they're good to go. However, short term investors may need to be taught how to study the market.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
The only disadvantage I see is that people post some unnecessary stuff because of it. But there are some people who post credible stuffs and replies (whether they've got signature or not). So, 80% no and 20% yes.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Most helpful users - I'd mention mk4 and DdmrDdmr. These two seem to have a sense of understanding and I believe they are quite helpful to the forum. The others I may not remember.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I love this question! 😅
Firstly! I don't like the UI of this forum so I'd update it so it looks smart.
Secondly, I'll create a mobile app version of the forum.
Thirdly, I'd occasionally hold bitcoin contests on the bitcoin discussion area.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Yea, I trade on binance and I've invested in some projects. One of the projects is hybrix.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
For all my time of trading, I've never had "big" profit of loss. It's just normal. One of the losses was when I invested in a scam project (about a month ago). It didn't really hurt me tho. About $40 or so. That's the biggest I've lost. I guess Lady Luck's got my back.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
It is a vital necessity. Trust me, people could treat you differently if they knew who you were.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Never read a cryptocurrency book. I hope to read a fiction book about cryptocurrency tho.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I'd say HY(hybrix) , I don't really know which else to mention as I do not want to mention random names.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
A new ATH if not, then it will reach $20k. I started saying this from when it was 16k and I'm more confident about it based on the present price.
15. P.S. (Optional)
If only bitcoin transaction fee (for a 1 min transaction) was low, a lot of people will make payments using bitcoin. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks zasad@
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I am interested in Bitcoin, mostly. I made already too many mistakes when I tried to diversify in altcoins a while ago. I heard of Bitcoin from a friend in 2012 and I rapidly dismissed it. Then, in 2014, when connecting the dots about how money works and how bitcoins fixed the fiat currency plague, I started devouring everything btc.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I no longer have my ebay account but maybe I bought 0.5 btc on ebay in 2014.
3. How did you get on the forum?
It was the only good bitcoin knowledge resource in 2014, I was researching about mining, the impact of bitcoin on the economy and the rest of it. This is such a great place: I wish this guide by LoyceV could have been available back then https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guides-on-bitcointalk-index-thread-until-there-is-a-dedicated-subforum-4928968
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
I don’t care about cryptocurrencies, it should be clear by now. By the way, nothing will prevent the mass adoption of bitcoin.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Let’s not be naïve here: the forum runs on ads (mostly from gambling sources). We are adults and we should be able to discern what are the positive and negative impacts of this.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
It’s not about time, it’s about passion and dedication. I’ve seen noobs getting better than some legends here in less than a year. 😉
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I have no opinion on this. I don’t care about merits and such. I am here for long-term glory: being able to tell my kids I saw bitcoin before others.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I trade only fiat into btc, that’s it. My altcoin madness is long gone.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Lost big on a few dice sites, that’s enough. 😊 And scammed once https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.21401828
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Bitcoin is the only decentralized finance around.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I believe it is both: do no harm, be kind and give a hand to others. These are my rules and I hope others will respect my integrity.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
The Bitcoin Standard by S. Ammous
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin, BTC and BTC
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Too much
15. P.S. (Optional)
Donate some corn when you can
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15806332
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I am interested in Bitcoin, mostly. I made already too many mistakes when I tried to diversify in altcoins a while ago. I heard of Bitcoin from a friend in 2012 and I rapidly dismissed it. Then, in 2014, when connecting the dots about how money works and how bitcoins fixed the fiat currency plague, I started devouring everything btc.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I no longer have my ebay account but maybe I bought 0.5 btc on ebay in 2014.
3. How did you get on the forum?
It was the only good bitcoin knowledge resource in 2014, I was researching about mining, the impact of bitcoin on the economy and the rest of it. This is such a great place: I wish this guide by LoyceV could have been available back then https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guides-on-bitcointalk-index-thread-until-there-is-a-dedicated-subforum-4928968
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
I don’t care about cryptocurrencies, it should be clear by now. By the way, nothing will prevent the mass adoption of bitcoin.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Let’s not be naïve here: the forum runs on ads (mostly from gambling sources). We are adults and we should be able to discern what are the positive and negative impacts of this.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
It’s not about time, it’s about passion and dedication. I’ve seen noobs getting better than some legends here in less than a year. 😉
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I have no opinion on this. I don’t care about merits and such. I am here for long-term glory: being able to tell my kids I saw bitcoin before others.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I trade only fiat into btc, that’s it. My altcoin madness is long gone.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Lost big on a few dice sites, that’s enough. 😊 And scammed once https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.21401828
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Bitcoin is the only decentralized finance around.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I believe it is both: do no harm, be kind and give a hand to others. These are my rules and I hope others will respect my integrity.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
The Bitcoin Standard by S. Ammous
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin, BTC and BTC
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Too much
15. P.S. (Optional)
Donate some corn when you can
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15806332
Thanks zasad@ for the interview invitation!
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
My interest started with bitcoin in early 2013 when I discovered that I could make money by mining with my computer's GPU. My computer was sitting idle most of the day, so the idea of making some extra money with it appealed to me. I enjoyed computers and technology, so bitcoin was a natural fit for me as it involved both of those interests.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I don't recall ever purchasing bitcoins, I only acquired them through mining and selling products/services. Mining and faucets were the sources of my earliest earnings.
3. How did you get on the forum?
Forums are a great way to share knowledge and expand your knowledge. I was interested in learning more about mining so joining the forum was a natural progression.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Excellent question, I'll interpret mass adoption as "being widely used and an alternative to other payment methods" and focus specifically on bitcoin. I think one of the biggest roadblocks to mainstream usage is the convenience other payment methods offer.
Credit cards offer instant verification of transaction success and transaction reversals, two features bitcoin doesn't. Near-instant payment verification has been demonstrated by other cryptocurrencies, but I think we still need to solve the problem of reversable transactions while maintaining a decentralized network. Once cryptocurrencies offer the same features and guarantees of traditional payment methods, I think mass adoption will come naturally. In the meantime, I don't think people are willing to give up the conveniences offered by non-crypto payment methods.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
I'll focus on official forum advertising for this question. I think ads are a good way to cover the costs of running the website, but it would be great if the ads weren't all for gambling sites. Gambling can cause people to get desperate, and Bitcointalk has seen more than it's fair share of scams over the years.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
I don't think a formal special education is required to understand what you're investing in and how it works. However, it does take time and patience to learn how bitcoin works. I've been familiar with bitcoin for a number of years but there are still black-box parts of the protocol.
4.4. You have not been active on the forum recently. What happened? Why do such experienced users forget about the forum?
You're right, it's been over three years (!) since I actively posted. What happened? Priorities changed and I became busy with other interests. Although I'm still interested in bitcoin, my area of interest has changed from mining to how the bitcoin protocol works under the hood. I really enjoyed the days when GPUs could earn reasonable money mining bitcoin, or when ASICs first came out and we were amazed by how efficient they were. I'm sure most people who GPU mined could tell you a story or two about janky mining setups - things like that made mining so enjoyable. These days it seems tough for an average Joe to make money mining, a few big players have captured the mining market with efficient and high-hashrate ASICs. That's to be expected when there's money to be made, but it's a shame that what got me into bitcoin is no longer feasible for people like me.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
The merit system seems like a good addition. Before merit was introduced, time and time again we'd see accounts "rise the ranks" by making garbage posts, only to be sold later on to be used for signature campaign income. I'm hopeful the merit system cleaned up some of this spam, although I haven't been active enough lately to decide for myself.
As for signature campaigns, I think they can benefit everyone if managed correctly. I ran the Rollin.io signature campaign for quite some time, and managed applications with a bit of an iron first. I like to think the Rollin.io signature campaign was an example of a well-managed campaign where everybody won: Rollin.io received publicity, participants received fair pays, and the forum wasn't being polluted with spam posts.
As for signature campaigns in general, they're a bit of an unusual concept. I haven't seen them on other forums before, and I'm not sure they'd be welcome additions to other forums. I think the desire for personal gain associated with bitcoin makes it an easier sell on a forum like this.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Most helpful topic is a tough one, so I'll choose a section instead. Development & Technical Discussion has lots of great resources for learning about bitcoin's internals.
As for most helpful users, there are a few I can think of. LoyceV seems like a great asset to the forum. I've traded and talked with Blazed a number of times, he seems like a good guy. BiPolarBob made the forum interesting for a number of months with his giveaways (looks like his account has since been hacked?).
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I think I'd revisit the policies on doxxing. Admittedly, I've been involved in a couple of the witchhunts on this forum that resulted in a dox, but I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the risks. Releasing an inaccurate dox can hurt an innocent person's reputation. Thinking of the dox threads I've followed, nothing came of the dox even years after the fact. Nobody got their money back, and nobody heard from the scammer again. Doxxing seems like a bit of a wild-west technique and I'm not convinced it helps recover funds. With bitcoin, I think we need to accept that if we've been scammed, we're not getting that money back.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I've done both. I did a bit of trading on Cryptsy back in the day, and I had invested in a couple shares of bASIC-Mining. Neither of those ventures ended well.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I remember when bitcoin hit $1000 for the first time in late 2013. I had started mining in April of that year and decided to cash out by buying some computer hardware. I suppose that could be considered a big loss too, if I had kept those coins and sold them when the price peaked in 2017 I would've done a lot better. Hindsight is 20/20.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I think replacing middlemen with smart contracts is exciting, I could see this type of system helping to mitigate the 'transaction reversal' problem I mentioned in 4.1 if it's straightforward for everyday users.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
As soon as you buy or sell a physical good the other party knows who you are. I've bought and sold a lot of goods on this forum so it's just a precaution.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I haven't read any crypto books, but I find the Bitcoin wiki to be an excellent reference.
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
My interest started with bitcoin in early 2013 when I discovered that I could make money by mining with my computer's GPU. My computer was sitting idle most of the day, so the idea of making some extra money with it appealed to me. I enjoyed computers and technology, so bitcoin was a natural fit for me as it involved both of those interests.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I don't recall ever purchasing bitcoins, I only acquired them through mining and selling products/services. Mining and faucets were the sources of my earliest earnings.
3. How did you get on the forum?
Forums are a great way to share knowledge and expand your knowledge. I was interested in learning more about mining so joining the forum was a natural progression.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Excellent question, I'll interpret mass adoption as "being widely used and an alternative to other payment methods" and focus specifically on bitcoin. I think one of the biggest roadblocks to mainstream usage is the convenience other payment methods offer.
Credit cards offer instant verification of transaction success and transaction reversals, two features bitcoin doesn't. Near-instant payment verification has been demonstrated by other cryptocurrencies, but I think we still need to solve the problem of reversable transactions while maintaining a decentralized network. Once cryptocurrencies offer the same features and guarantees of traditional payment methods, I think mass adoption will come naturally. In the meantime, I don't think people are willing to give up the conveniences offered by non-crypto payment methods.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
I'll focus on official forum advertising for this question. I think ads are a good way to cover the costs of running the website, but it would be great if the ads weren't all for gambling sites. Gambling can cause people to get desperate, and Bitcointalk has seen more than it's fair share of scams over the years.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
I don't think a formal special education is required to understand what you're investing in and how it works. However, it does take time and patience to learn how bitcoin works. I've been familiar with bitcoin for a number of years but there are still black-box parts of the protocol.
4.4. You have not been active on the forum recently. What happened? Why do such experienced users forget about the forum?
You're right, it's been over three years (!) since I actively posted. What happened? Priorities changed and I became busy with other interests. Although I'm still interested in bitcoin, my area of interest has changed from mining to how the bitcoin protocol works under the hood. I really enjoyed the days when GPUs could earn reasonable money mining bitcoin, or when ASICs first came out and we were amazed by how efficient they were. I'm sure most people who GPU mined could tell you a story or two about janky mining setups - things like that made mining so enjoyable. These days it seems tough for an average Joe to make money mining, a few big players have captured the mining market with efficient and high-hashrate ASICs. That's to be expected when there's money to be made, but it's a shame that what got me into bitcoin is no longer feasible for people like me.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
The merit system seems like a good addition. Before merit was introduced, time and time again we'd see accounts "rise the ranks" by making garbage posts, only to be sold later on to be used for signature campaign income. I'm hopeful the merit system cleaned up some of this spam, although I haven't been active enough lately to decide for myself.
As for signature campaigns, I think they can benefit everyone if managed correctly. I ran the Rollin.io signature campaign for quite some time, and managed applications with a bit of an iron first. I like to think the Rollin.io signature campaign was an example of a well-managed campaign where everybody won: Rollin.io received publicity, participants received fair pays, and the forum wasn't being polluted with spam posts.
As for signature campaigns in general, they're a bit of an unusual concept. I haven't seen them on other forums before, and I'm not sure they'd be welcome additions to other forums. I think the desire for personal gain associated with bitcoin makes it an easier sell on a forum like this.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Most helpful topic is a tough one, so I'll choose a section instead. Development & Technical Discussion has lots of great resources for learning about bitcoin's internals.
As for most helpful users, there are a few I can think of. LoyceV seems like a great asset to the forum. I've traded and talked with Blazed a number of times, he seems like a good guy. BiPolarBob made the forum interesting for a number of months with his giveaways (looks like his account has since been hacked?).
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I think I'd revisit the policies on doxxing. Admittedly, I've been involved in a couple of the witchhunts on this forum that resulted in a dox, but I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the risks. Releasing an inaccurate dox can hurt an innocent person's reputation. Thinking of the dox threads I've followed, nothing came of the dox even years after the fact. Nobody got their money back, and nobody heard from the scammer again. Doxxing seems like a bit of a wild-west technique and I'm not convinced it helps recover funds. With bitcoin, I think we need to accept that if we've been scammed, we're not getting that money back.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I've done both. I did a bit of trading on Cryptsy back in the day, and I had invested in a couple shares of bASIC-Mining. Neither of those ventures ended well.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I remember when bitcoin hit $1000 for the first time in late 2013. I had started mining in April of that year and decided to cash out by buying some computer hardware. I suppose that could be considered a big loss too, if I had kept those coins and sold them when the price peaked in 2017 I would've done a lot better. Hindsight is 20/20.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I think replacing middlemen with smart contracts is exciting, I could see this type of system helping to mitigate the 'transaction reversal' problem I mentioned in 4.1 if it's straightforward for everyday users.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
As soon as you buy or sell a physical good the other party knows who you are. I've bought and sold a lot of goods on this forum so it's just a precaution.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I haven't read any crypto books, but I find the Bitcoin wiki to be an excellent reference.
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
precisely in 2016 when the family's economic situation was very difficult, and I didn't have a job. and I have to take care of my two younger siblings, at that time I told a friend who contributed to my life about my situation at that time. at that time he explained about crypto and invited me to work on a bounty project. slowly I followed various projects and at that time I got my first salary at that time enough to eat, and I am very grateful. and I get more and more active in doing each job, and a little bit buying altcoins, in early 2017 I was depressed because our parents' house was going to be foreclosed, at that time I could only pray. to be precise, my prayer was granted at that time maybe because of the prayers of my parents. at that time bitcoin and other altcoins went up fantastically. and at that time I could prove that I could pay all my parents' debts and finance my own marriage. And until now I have always believed that behind adversity there must be a way, and God will always help us.
precisely in 2016 when the family's economic situation was very difficult, and I didn't have a job. and I have to take care of my two younger siblings, at that time I told a friend who contributed to my life about my situation at that time. at that time he explained about crypto and invited me to work on a bounty project. slowly I followed various projects and at that time I got my first salary at that time enough to eat, and I am very grateful. and I get more and more active in doing each job, and a little bit buying altcoins, in early 2017 I was depressed because our parents' house was going to be foreclosed, at that time I could only pray. to be precise, my prayer was granted at that time maybe because of the prayers of my parents. at that time bitcoin and other altcoins went up fantastically. and at that time I could prove that I could pay all my parents' debts and finance my own marriage. And until now I have always believed that behind adversity there must be a way, and God will always help us.
Though, what else happened and at that time?
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
precisely in 2016 when the family's economic situation was very difficult, and I didn't have a job. and I have to take care of my two younger siblings, at that time I told a friend who contributed to my life about my situation at that time. at that time he explained about crypto and invited me to work on a bounty project. slowly I followed various projects and at that time I got my first salary at that time enough to eat, and I am very grateful. and I get more and more active in doing each job, and a little bit buying altcoins, in early 2017 I was depressed because our parents' house was going to be foreclosed, at that time I could only pray. to be precise, my prayer was granted at that time maybe because of the prayers of my parents. at that time bitcoin and other altcoins went up fantastically. and at that time I could prove that I could pay all my parents' debts and finance my own marriage. And until now I have always believed that behind adversity there must be a way, and God will always help us.
precisely in 2016 when the family's economic situation was very difficult, and I didn't have a job. and I have to take care of my two younger siblings, at that time I told a friend who contributed to my life about my situation at that time. at that time he explained about crypto and invited me to work on a bounty project. slowly I followed various projects and at that time I got my first salary at that time enough to eat, and I am very grateful. and I get more and more active in doing each job, and a little bit buying altcoins, in early 2017 I was depressed because our parents' house was going to be foreclosed, at that time I could only pray. to be precise, my prayer was granted at that time maybe because of the prayers of my parents. at that time bitcoin and other altcoins went up fantastically. and at that time I could prove that I could pay all my parents' debts and finance my own marriage. And until now I have always believed that behind adversity there must be a way, and God will always help us.
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Back in 2016, my friend introduce me into cryptocurrency and this forum. Frankly saying I got in cryptocurrency because I'm in search for online income because back then I was a broke kid wanting to have my own money to buy my own things.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I didn't buy any bitcoin until my first bounty pays off here in the forum. But after I learned trading I then invested my own money into bitcoins and starting trading with it.
3. How did you get on the forum?
My friend introduced me here, to be real he introduce me for the earnings here in the forum. But in the long run I value my learnings more that I learn here from the forum.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The scams I think. Because of the people who uses bitcoin in dark and scam ways, people and the government sees bitcoin as a negative entity not wanting people to use it totally. Many people are staying away from bitcoin because of the scam news here and there where bitcoin is included.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
For most people I think advertising gambling projects isn't a harm at all. This can be a harm for different person, yes gambling is addictive but if you have self control you can stay away from getting addicted for sure.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
2-3 years is still short I guess. As for me I always ask some people whos been in the game for a long time. Some advices from the ones who really know the system is what a investor need to become succesful.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
For merit and signature campaigns, they didn't harm the forum that's for sure, instead it made the forum healthier because users are able to post good and meaningful replies/threads after the merit system is established.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Everything here in this forum is helpful in many different ways. You can always find answers to what you are asking here because most of them are already posted in a thread and answered by hundreds of users.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. An mobile application is first for me since I'm with my phone most of the time and the forum doesn't have mobile view on phone browsers it'll be much easier to navigate in phone.
2. I think an enhancement in servers maybe? because there are some times that forum gets down and I'm unable to access it, I don't know if its my internet or the forum.
There are just 2 things that I want to implement here in the forum.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I mainly trade on exchanges but I rarely invest in projects, because I have a bad history from investing in projects.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
A big loss of me is my wallet getting hacked. I lost about 6-8 bitcoins that time back in 2016. The saddest part about it is bitcoins price isn't that high that time and when bitcoin reaches $20k that's when it hit me really hard the mental stress thinking I lost like more than $100k
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Some of them are decent I think, some are not.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Privacy is important for everyone so I think its a vital necessity. We need to protect our own identity for our safety ofcourse.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
The bitcoin revolution by Alex Tapscott, Don Tapscott. Haven't finish it yet I'm just a few page in the book.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
For me, Bitcoin Ethereum and XRP will be good investment for the next 1-2 years.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I want to see bitcoin beat its previous ATH by the end of 2020 and rise even more in 2021.
Back in 2016, my friend introduce me into cryptocurrency and this forum. Frankly saying I got in cryptocurrency because I'm in search for online income because back then I was a broke kid wanting to have my own money to buy my own things.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I didn't buy any bitcoin until my first bounty pays off here in the forum. But after I learned trading I then invested my own money into bitcoins and starting trading with it.
3. How did you get on the forum?
My friend introduced me here, to be real he introduce me for the earnings here in the forum. But in the long run I value my learnings more that I learn here from the forum.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The scams I think. Because of the people who uses bitcoin in dark and scam ways, people and the government sees bitcoin as a negative entity not wanting people to use it totally. Many people are staying away from bitcoin because of the scam news here and there where bitcoin is included.
4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
For most people I think advertising gambling projects isn't a harm at all. This can be a harm for different person, yes gambling is addictive but if you have self control you can stay away from getting addicted for sure.
4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
2-3 years is still short I guess. As for me I always ask some people whos been in the game for a long time. Some advices from the ones who really know the system is what a investor need to become succesful.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
For merit and signature campaigns, they didn't harm the forum that's for sure, instead it made the forum healthier because users are able to post good and meaningful replies/threads after the merit system is established.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Everything here in this forum is helpful in many different ways. You can always find answers to what you are asking here because most of them are already posted in a thread and answered by hundreds of users.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. An mobile application is first for me since I'm with my phone most of the time and the forum doesn't have mobile view on phone browsers it'll be much easier to navigate in phone.
2. I think an enhancement in servers maybe? because there are some times that forum gets down and I'm unable to access it, I don't know if its my internet or the forum.
There are just 2 things that I want to implement here in the forum.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I mainly trade on exchanges but I rarely invest in projects, because I have a bad history from investing in projects.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
A big loss of me is my wallet getting hacked. I lost about 6-8 bitcoins that time back in 2016. The saddest part about it is bitcoins price isn't that high that time and when bitcoin reaches $20k that's when it hit me really hard the mental stress thinking I lost like more than $100k
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Some of them are decent I think, some are not.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Privacy is important for everyone so I think its a vital necessity. We need to protect our own identity for our safety ofcourse.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
The bitcoin revolution by Alex Tapscott, Don Tapscott. Haven't finish it yet I'm just a few page in the book.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
For me, Bitcoin Ethereum and XRP will be good investment for the next 1-2 years.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I want to see bitcoin beat its previous ATH by the end of 2020 and rise even more in 2021.
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