Also thanks for the invite. I first thought it was an attempt to lure me into a scam when I saw that dm
So, here we go:
Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?I first heard about it I think in 2011. But I really became interested in it in 2012 (see next reply).
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?I had a friend who was using Silk Road, and he told me about this "new kind of money". This was still in 2011 and I think it was at 1 Dollar, and I thought it might be a little expensive. Then I totally forgot about it, again. In February of 2012, that same friend told me about it, again. I had no interest in Silk Road (never used it or any of its successors), but being a technical person, I dug a bit into it, found bitcoin.de and bought a few BTC for ~3.80€ and set a buy order a bit lower for 100 more BTC (which, by the way, got filled, but I forgot about Bitcoin and never sent the payment).
Later in 2012, television had a report about Bitcoin being at 250 USD (I was like "…hmm, Bitcoin, this sounds familiar. Don't I have this, too? Where only did I buy it... let's try bitcoin.de" and there were my dusty almost 1 year old bitcoins
), and this was when I started really researching it, read the whitepaper, understood its concept and started buying as much as I could.
3. How did you get on the forum?Simple: I was searching for a place with people who had similar interests, and bitcointalk.org showed up on Google.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?Governments. This is a realization I just made recently. For me, Bitcoin / crypto was a great achievement, always. But I never thought it was really meant for "greater purposes". And it was only now that I realized that countries like North Korea and Iran are already using it to at least partially circumvent restrictions imposed on them by the big countries. So I'd say our lives are still too comfortable for Bitcoin to really spread. Will this change? I don't know, and I'm not sure if I want it to.
So, you could say it's governments who prevent the "mass adoption", but will also enable it once the political situation is bad enough for people to move to BTC.
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 it just is what it is. Gambling is something that comes with a tool like cryptocurrencies, and if it's there, already, why not just deal with it. It won't go away if we ignore it, and I think it's a legitimate use of crypto. I'm not a gambler (in the classical sense, see more below).
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 any special education is neccessary. It's more of a personality thing, either you are strong enough to resist the temptations that come with trading or you aren't. I think most who try to sell you trading as some kind of "profession" they need to educate you on are scammers.
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 don't know. A bull run is in the making, so I think the activity will increase, as more users flock to crypto. Other than that, things get more and more international, and many people (including myself) have no problem speaking English, so that could be a reason for decreased use of local boards, too (assuming the international ones don't face this problem).
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?I think it's ok... it is what it is, and theymos made a quite efficient approach to reducing the amount of crap accounts. Good job.
Regarding signature campaigns: I mostly ignore them. It's also an "it is what it is" thing, and I'm free to ignore it if I don't like it. It doesn't hurt me nor the forum. It arose because there was a demand for it, and if it is what people want, why not. I wouldn't wanna be part of a signature campaign, personally.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?I like those who I have in my trust list (which is why they're there). Mostly helpful users who are technically advanced and who are able to educate others.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?Oh, I even have more than three:
- Blinking GIFs in every corner,
- a guestbook,
- a visitors counter,
- a fancy flash menu,
- frames or table layout in the HTML code,
- a sound file which always plays in the background when you open the site,
- auto scrolling in a fixed speed when reading threads
... just kidding, I think it's fine as it is. It is a forum and it works well as such. What I wouldn't do is roll out that new forum software. I've tried it and I don't like it.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?Yes, I actively trade on exchanges. I don't "invest" because I think all of this is mostly gambling anyway (see the mention above: in this regards, I consider myself a gambler), but I do "gamble" sometimes. And with "sometimes", I mean often haha. I don't believe in the ICO concept, because if paid upfront, the developers (or "developers") have no motivation to deliver, anymore. I only buy projects' coins when they're already being actively traded.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?Fails:#1: 2013 or 14: I bought Litecoin at the very top at 45 USD, only to see it go down the drainer right after.
#2: After the 2017 run, I've bought Dash when it went from over 1000 USD to 400 USD, just to sell it at 280 USD. I have lost what some would consider "life changing money" in this dumb trade.
#3: I had hundreds of thousands of RaiBlocks / XRB. Need I say more?
Wins:#1: When Renos, a small altcoin, launched, they gave away all their supply to 1000 users, each getting 30000 (or 3000? not sure, anymore) RNS. At its top, one airdrop was worth well over 3 BTC. This was in 2017, I think.
Right when Renos was trading on a small exchange, I set buy orders as low as 7 sat, because the airdrop concept was new (I think this was the 2nd airdrop I've seen) and I expected people to dump their airdrop for a Dollar or two. So I grabbed a significant share of the total supply for an average price of 21sat. I sold my coins for up to over 3000sat. This was great, and I was impressed over how much money is possible to make from such a tiny project.
#2, also 2017 (or 2016+): Viacoin: started buying at 1500sat, and I've traded it back and forth on its way up, and I had sold my entire bag even before the actual run started. This also made a lot of money.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?Technically, interesting idea and I've played around with it (and sometimes, still am… using Uniswap, Oasis to get leveraged trades decentralizedly etc). But also here, lots of scams and 99% of the projects in that domain are there to rug pull you once enough money is on the table.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?It's a precaution. Sometimes, I'm treating it kinda sloppy, but I have several layers of precaution which go way beyond anonymity. So if my anonymity layer fails, there are still a few more layers to protect me from whatever might happen.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?I don't read crypto books because I think most aren't worth reading. They can't teach me anything I don't know yet or am interested in. Also, I don't like the "I mastered this topic, and now I need to monetize it by writing a book about it" kind of people, hence I won't buy their products.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?1. Bitcoin: buy any dip you find. I'm convinced we'll go to 1-400.000 USD in the next 1.5 years!
2. Ethereum: have a small share in case it outperforms Bitcoin
3. Throw a darts and put in a small percentage. Maybe find a super low cap and use it as a moonshot.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?It will probably be at or around its old ATH, ready to continue its way into the realms of six digits.
15. P.S. (Optional)Don't invest more than you're willing to lose. And for fuck's sake, don't be stupid.
If you follow those two simple rules, everything will be aight.
Edited a few things