Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 12. (Read 30584 times)

I Don’t Steal.  And When the merit system atarted They had a formula where some legendariess got thousabds of merits.  Now go change your tampon cause soon I’m Gonna elevate to legendary extraordinaire. 


Ahd BTW, I’m just getting started maxing out the Pro bitcoin SV guys.  Don’t blink. 

Although I am not really following this thread, I noticed this by happenstance:


Liar.  As of this writing, you have a total of 339 earned merits.  You should be stuck at Sr. Member rank.  You are a fake “Legendary”.

You are correct that there should be a separation between idiots who spent years actively shitposting before the introduction of the merit system, and special people such as myself.  (All of my merit is earned, yes; and it took me less than 310 total days of actually active posting with the merit system to sail past 2000 earned merits.)

Now, somehow, you must have obtained merit source status.  According to BPIP, you have sent 3464 merits (!)—including 16+24+3+7+7+7+1+7+7 = 79 merits that you have sent to the “Bitcoin SV” account, which is alleged actually to be a korner alt.  That would be 46.6% of your earned sMerit—if you had neither cheap “Legendary” grandfathered merit, nor the source merits that absolutely should not have made available to you.


Why do I suspect that you may be my secret fan, and you may be stealing from me?  

---

I am sorry that I somehow missed that before.

Kk, I’ll do your Q&A for free so you may gain much better insight. 


1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Almost a decade ago.  Saw the game for what it was and the potential to make billions off selling an old truck. 

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Days after I found out about btc even tho i thought it was gonna die.  Used all my BTC to buy the real coins that will survive and moon after the crypto apocalypse most likely late next year. 

3. How did you get on the forum?
Ran into a random guy on yahoo finance where I was trading stocks and he said this was the number 1 place for crypto. 

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?.
Too complex for the dummy 90%.  Too insecure.  Too much theft and lost wallets with no recourse.  No ease of use at the promised low costs and instant txs.  Next year all that changes, muppets.   

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?
It shows the lack of character and imagination in bitcoin leadership.  That’s why the titanic will soon take the rats down with it.

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?
Investors are born not made.  You need time to hone your Skills and discern the many lies from the hidden truth but no seminar or education gives you that.  That comes from above.  Call it intuition if you want. 

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?
Telegram is much more instant and simple with more features.  But Bitcointalk will always be the coal mine.  I’ll always enjoy coming down to see how the plebs are chasing the best lie and hyped coin.   

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Merit system is great.  Post good content and you get merit.  Before every clown posting all day became a legendary.  Sorry, that’s special place for special people, such as myself.  In fact we have too many legendarios now, we need one more level of separation.  Soon. 

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Riddle thread.  Soon all muppets will read it but a bit too late.  Most helpful users:  hmmm, Tough one, some good users here but I’d say it’s probably my socks and I.  True story.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1) I NEED a unique special ranking.  2)  none of my posts should be censored or deleted.  C)  Sell me part ownership in Bitcointalk so we can make it great again.  Too many natives are on telegram and we need the hoard back.   

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Coins are projects which trade on exchanges.  So yes. 

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Hundreds of K $ of paper profits off just a few hundred $ or a few grand investment.  This is The last chance for 1,000x++ returns.  Next year will be the biggest run but probably the biggest crash too.  Too bad you’re all in the 10x coins.  Not bad for mediocrity minded people. 

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Haven’t looked at it enough to give a decent answer. 

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I’ve never been anonymous, cause I don’t care.  Bring it!!!

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Read?  Books?  Wut?  I just write them in my head.  Wait, I did buy and read Dan Treccia’s Satoshi’s Secret Coins. 

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Tired of giving out straight names for years upon deaf years.  Just know the first will be last and the last will be first.  Kosher? 

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
End of 2020 we should see minimum $20-$21k which will get the media FOMO machine pumping it to $50k+ soon after.  Start dumping soon after that cause super bad Attacks and crashing Will be imminent. 

15. P.S. (Optional)
I just really wanna be a multi tres comas and I feel i earned it so it WILL happen. 


You people don’t deserve me,


- Tres Comas Vlad

Hello zasad@,

I'm happy to be part of the forum interview you created


Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I was interested in cryptocurrency back in the year 2015 but I don't totally see it as an investment then and I only see it as something I can try out maybe something good will come out of it.
 
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I bought my first Bitcoin in December 2015 through zapo.

3. How did you get on the forum?
I found this forum doing some reseach about Satoshi and I find out that he created this forum and I decide to join.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrencies investors see crypto as an asset than a currency, the government having a negative thought about crypto and the crypto community believes about centralized companies that want to join the crypto scheme.

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?
Mass advertisement of gambling gives the forum the sign to be well known in the gambling sphere and it also creates some sort of competition between gambling sites. However, this is a sign that a lot of gambling sites believe cryptocurrency is the future and the way to make a profit through their business.

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?
Something someone is doing for 2-3 years is enough to have good experience in it but sometimes the level of individual understanding plays the big roles cause someone who's a guru in C++ can easily understand cryptocurrency than someone who's into it for years.
 
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
The current merit does no harm to the forum and it only makes user that make a reasonable contribution to the forum rank up.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I believe the most useful topic of the forum is usually found in the project development, mining, technical support and meta aspect of the forum. The most helpful users I could think of right now are TryNinja, LoyceV, Vod, Coding Enthusiast etc.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
Moderation of scam especially in the bounty setting and permaban of newbies accounts that spam the bounty with high ranking profile information.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Ever since 2017 I never invest in any new project but I do trade on exchange sometime cause I'm too lazy to be a day trader lol.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
My big profit was through Komodo and my big loss was selling my AR coin last year when it was $0.5.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
There's too much hype surrounding the Defi ecosystem and I hope those that invest in it sell now before it too late because when the market correction happens a lot of Defi project will be dead.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
My anonymity is very vital to me and it good that Theymos also respect that cause liberation was the reason why 97% of us decide to join the crypto scheme.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Honestly, I never read one

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I only believe Bitcoin, ETH and BNB to be a reasonable investment for the 2years.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
No one can predict that but if the market maintains this current trend we may see a new ATH before the end of this year.

15. P.S. (Optional)
Thank you for the questions.

Thank you for providing me the opportunity to write about something which I would love to share with the community.

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
In early 2014 days, I have been wandering the internet and found a giveaway launched by coinbase, they were giving away free BTC by just joining, After joining that I searched more about it and found about this forum and after spending some time on this forum I started liking it and also it turns out to be a nice earning source. This is all how I became interested in this Ferrari (crypto)

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Never, I was good at luck, within 2 years in the crypto industry I made much, That I never felt the need of buying them.

3. How did you get on the forum?
In your first question, I gave the answer about how I came across this forum. I am really happy to be part of this community. And very happy that I have joined this forum that early.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
There are always pros and cons to everything in the world. People at the start of every new thing are always reluctant to adopt it. If we talk about the early days of the human race, people use to trade things to buy necessary items, After that coins took over people started using the coins to buy those items, and many people oppose it. Similar after coins paper money came in and many people opposed that too, and after paper money plastic cards came in and the same things happen to it, In my country, people still are reluctant to use the plastic card. And now is the era of digital currency, I think as it is in the early stages it will be adopted but it will take time.
I am reading that digital currency can be used to fund terrorists, money laundering and etc. My question is how terrorists are funded nowadays? How money is laundered these days? These are just excuses which all will vanish after 10-20 years.

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?
In my opinion, if someone wants to gamble, he/she will gamble, there are no advertising factors involved. But Yes! If someone wants to gamble why not advertise about different gambling sites so that both parties can benefit.

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?
Both factors involved, To be expert in something one needs both experience and education about that field.

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?
It might be due to the merit system, Where I believe more merit sources are required so people again started taking an interest in making quality content.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Big No. I have seen many forums, after some period their activity started going down, and eventually they vanish, as it’s human nature that he loses interest in something where he isn’t getting anything in return. Pleasure is for time and where the money is involved, how one can refuse?

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Since when the merit system is introduced most people started posting many useful topics and they become very useful.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
Nill

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I used to invest in projects but since most of the projects are a scam, I started trading on exchanges.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
There are many but there is one which I use to tell most. Once I had an opportunity to trade coins which just jumped from 0.3$ to 6$, But due to some reasons, I thought it will go to 10$, and didn’t trade it. But it started going down and down, and I loses hope and exchanged them at 0.2$. If I trade them @6$ I could have made $0.8m. But whom to blame :p

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Another way to make money. As IEO era is also at its verge of end.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Precaution.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Never read any.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I always suggest the top 10.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
2020 is ending soon and I think it will be ~$14k

15. P.S. (Optional)
I love being part of this great community. And more power to the digital era.

Thanks for the invitation, found time to answer questions.

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?

It was way back in 2011, on the distributed computing forum, someone wrote about Bitcoin mining. But then there was still little information, and I did not try.
And after 2 years, I still started to mining cryptocurrency.
because I attracted the opportunity to earn money and it was new, I wanted to figure it out more.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?

I did not buy bitcoins with fiat. There have been exchanges of altcoins for bitcoins.

3. How did you get on the forum?

The forum was quite famous in those years; search engines easily found it. Other crypto forums have also linked to this forum.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Everything has its time. This is still a young technology. After some time, the mass use of cryptocurrencies will come.

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?

Difficult to answer, I don't play games.

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?

There should be a vocation and understanding of investment processes. Not everyone is able to invest wisely. Just as not everyone can be a surgeon, musician, poet.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?

The current merit system isn't perfect, but it is needed, and it encourages forum members to post quality content.
Signature campaigns are needed, but when they take everyone in a row and force them to write dozens of messages a week, this is harmful. Everything should be wise and in temperance.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?

I am at a loss to answer.But lately I became interested in a coin with an unusual history - Gapcoin. And these two users did a lot to develop this coin. BitcoinFX, gjhiggins .

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

An up and down button would have been nice.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?

I am not a trader, I am rather a miner, I also hold masternodes.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?

Masternode coins have brought in a lot of profits and losses. The price of many coins went down and I didn't sell most of the coins. Now the price is unlikely to be that high.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

It reminds me of a social experiment - when a previously dead idea generates a wave of scams. The very idea of a defi is stillborn and has no practical use or
application other than using fraudulent actions to take possession of users' money. The defi tokens themselves are a dummy, I hope and believe that the
defi scam will soon pass and give way to real technologies, not dummy scams.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Everyone has the right to anonymity. Yes. it is a necessity.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Popper N. - Digital gold. Bitcoin's Incredible History - 2016

Singh Simon. The book of ciphers: the secret history of ciphers and their decryption

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?

Definitely number one is Bitcoin. Ethereum looks good, especially in light of the upcoming transition to phase 2.0. I would also pay attention to PIVX,
they have a strong team and many interesting releases for ease of use and anonymity.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?

$13-15k

15. P.S.

Remember that in cryptocurrency - your keys are your coins, keep them safe and make regular backups.

Questions:                                                                                          
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?                                      
I jokingly learned the basics about crypto back in 2013 when we learned we could use our computers on campus to mine (but never did). Then actually learned and became part of the environment in 2014 after learning from a friend about Bitcoin.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?                                                      
I bought my first bitcoin from the same friend that taught me about it. I helped him out by buying it OTC.

3. How did you get on the forum?                                                                    
I think I stumbled across it from google.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?                                                
Some others have mentioned this, but due to the overwhelming amount of choice we'll likely not see crypto in mass adoption anytime soon. Probably about 99% of cryptos are shitcoins, while the ones that have been around a while and have been tried and tested. There are probably some great projects pushing great ideas, but it's just that we'll be swarmed with cash grabs every time.

4.2. When did you start collecting physical coins - bitcoins?                                        
I started collecting back in 2014. One of my first purchases was for a casascius 0.1 coin with milk spots on it.

4.3. What is the rarest and most expensive collectible coin?                                        
The rarest coin would be the Casascius 1,000BTC 1oz. gold coin loaded. Based on https://casascius.uberbills.com/ only three have not been peeled yet, while two have.
There are other awesome rares like the Casascius 1,000BTC bar, which has two loaded out of the original sixteen loaded bars.

4.4. Please tell us about the market for collectible crypto coins? Is the market increasing?        
It's been increasing since I joined around 2014. Although unfortunately it has had bad actors releasing coins then sweeping the funds later, but has ironed out in the last three years I'd say. We've had more reputable companies come in, and small projects start up. Such projects like BTC China and Denarium are some of the larger companies playing. Then we have many reputable and trusted members, like Polymerbit, Minerjones, Bitcoinpenny and many other veterans of the collectible community that have done their own projects and releases (sorry if I missed anyone, you're all awesome tho). Collectible art has also taken off too, and has grown the environment a large chunk as well.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?  
As an older member of the forum, I get to be at a crazy advantage over newer members by already being in the legendary status. So here's my take, the merit system does try and cut down on signature campaign spam, which was a large problem back 2015-2016 I think. Nowadays I'm not as active to see what's going on, but as long as members are posting useful information I feel that signature campaigns are alright. But in reality, signature campaigns push members to make more posts and post quality goes down.

Overall, signature campaigns are great in moderation and the merit system is a great idea, but may need some more tweaks.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?                                                  
Since I'm primarily a collectibles guy, the most useful topics are those documenting previous collectible releases (there are so many), and those that document trusted people and untrusted people. Most senior members and legendary members in that section are very helpful and want to push an even better environment. Whether that help be from assisting with trades as a middleman (the almighty mantis shipping), to those that want to help members with information and learning.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?                                                        
I cannot answer this, since I'm not a very active member on the forums anymore.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?                                                  
I used to. Then figured out hey most of these side projects are pump and dumps and stick to BTC, LTC and XMR.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?                                                  
Honestly have way more loss stories from pump and dump coins, haven't had any big profits tho. I sold BTC before the whole 2017 runup to buy a car thinking I could just buy back in a couple months later. We'll likely never see those $900 days for BTC again.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?                                                      
Haven't looked into it at all, but based on the definition it sounds like more ethereum congestion. I do think having a decentralized exchange is a great idea for privacy, and smart contracts do have a use. But many ethereum projects I've seen seem to be just cash grabs. There are many pointless tokens just marketed in different ways, and will probably die off in 6 months.

Hopefully the system is cleaned up and more useful projects appear.


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?                                              
Anonymity is vital anymore. With as much data tracking that is done today, we have to create our own privacy. If you're fortunate enough to live in a place that practices GDPR, it's a godsend knowing that you can sort of delete your footprint. Now it won't delete everything, but it'll clean it up.

Also as someone within the technology field, it is amazing how much tracking we do on people. Whether it's targeted ads, internet provider logging, geo tagging, just the amount of aggregate data for a single individual is insane. Honestly, that just needs to stop, but it's always been a trade privacy for convenience (and profits for the company).


12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?                                                          
Coin Making Guide: From Sketch to Strike
A comprehensive guide to designing and manufacturing coins, medals and bars.
by Jonathan Frammingham


13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?                          
These probably won't make as much money as other random currencies/tokens, but I solely believe in these three:
BTC: the gold standard of crypto
LTC: the silver (also speedier) standard of crypto
XMR: the more private standard of crypto


14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?                                                  
Who knows, but could repeat December 2017 hitting $18-20k. I'd bet it'll stay between $11-19k however.

15. P.S. (Optional)                                                                                  

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?

In July 2011, I was researching alternative currencies and found out about Bitcoin (among others).

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?

I bought a small amount late in 2011 in order to pay for some Casascius coins. Bitcoins were about $4 at the time.

3. How did you get on the forum?

I started reading Bitcointalk in 2011, but I didn't join and start posting until July 2012.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

I believe that adoption has been hindered by its lack of usability and its lack of strong use-cases, but those will lessen with more adoption.

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 that if Bitcoin is seen as useful for gambling, the effect will be positive for Bitcoin and this site.

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?

People are better off if they only invest in things they understand. Investing in something you don't understand is no better than gambling. The level of your understanding should determine the amount of your investment.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?

I believe that signature campaigns are bad for the forum. They encourage people to post in order to make money rather than to learn or be helpful. I think the merit system has helped, though I think the ultimate solution is to remove the incentive for signature campaigns.

6. The most useful forum topic?

I mostly read posts in Bitcoin Discussion, Legal, Press, Development & Technical Discussion, Economics, Beginners & Help, and Serious Discussion.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
Better formatting (tables, cough cough) and better search.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?

I don't trade much. Trading is difficult to do profitably and its not worth my time and effort -- I already have a job.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?

I lost some that I invested in mining farms.
I lost some bitcions when I thought I could outsmart people investing in Pirate's ponzi scheme.
I lost the small amount that I was too lazy to withdraw from Cryptsy.
On the other hand, I sold some at $18,000 and bought it all back at $4000.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I think it has potential, but right now it is in a big bubble. People are going to get rekt when the exuberance wears off, the scams fall apart, and token prices return to rationality.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

It is mostly a precaution, but when there there is no benefit to being identified, I try to be anonymous.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I'm reading The Bitcoin Standard right now.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero. But more importantly, I would advise against investing in any coin or token that has no real purpose or is not valued for what it is intended. That means avoid all of the D-Fi "governance" tokens, and avoid any project that is just a promise or a pyramid scheme.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?

I have no idea, and I don't really care, actually. I mostly hope for more adoption.

No comments.

Considering the radical cultural shifts needed for becoming a smart bitcoin investor, I think the need for improving and developing knowledge and skills in the field is not ever ending.

Merit system is fine and works relatively well. I think signature campaigns need improvement in terms of being overseen by mods not to be used for advertising shady/suspicious items.

Lots of topics out there but I personally always learn a lot from @Achow and @Maxwell (putting aside his rush rhetoric and conservatism).  

I'm going to publish a very crucial development project very soon and I suppose the most important part of the discussions will go through this forum

As of trading in exchanges, I tried it once and for a while years ago, but generally speaking, I've almost zero interest in trading bitcoin.
As of investing in projects, like ICOs etc. as a matter of fact I've been investing on my own project which can be summarized as finding a way out of mining centralization in bitcoin.

I lost a few coins in the embarrassing scam carried out by Bittrex  which seized many users' assets in the name of KYC!

I don't like the whole idea of Universal Turing Machine and smart contracts which Ethereum is built around them and most importantly I hate that Ethereum is a "project" rather than an established crypto ecosystem. So, even if DeFi is going to hold any water, Ethereum is the wrong platform, Buterine and Ethereum Foundation are serious threats to DeFi agenda.

I'm not paranoid neither I care about anonymity that much but I believe in virtual identities as being an independent entity who live o their own and should be kept alive and not confused/mixed by our real identity. It is why I barely use platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

I have never read one to be honest. I prefer papers and research material.

No comments.

No comments.

Thank you op, for contacting and having me here. Actually I have something to add:
I'm deeply concerned about what I've bolded above about mass adoption of bitcoin and I think I'm on the verge of proposing/developing something useful in this regard that helps bitcoin in tackling the infamous pooling pressure flaw. I need help, lots of help in this regard and readers interested in the subject are more than welcome to contact me.

Cheers,

Questions:

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
August 2017. Hype was starting the bull run. My contacts started to talk about crypto and I saw it on TV. Started to follow a few guys on twitter. Around same time I made a login to Bitcointalk because I could see it was a good place to learn.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I am not that interested in bitcoin. I like to be a part of projects, learn and make things myself. I am probably what most people call a shitcoiner. Why? Because I like to get involved. I tried to get tasks for BTC, LTC etc – but to many good people there already. With new projects I can get some very cool tasks.

3. How did you get on the forum?
Was searching for some things and ended on bitcointalk almost every time. So made an account.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Gas price for many things and because a database is so much faster. But crypto have some things that is fantastic when you get started. So maybe someday.

4.2. When did you start collecting physical coins - bitcoins?
December 2017 I bought my first collectibles.

4.3. What is the rarest and most expensive collectible coin?
My most expensive crypto collectible is an NFT. I have a pre fork 0.1 BTC as my best BTC physical. My problem is I always need money because I have to many children 😉

4.4. Please tell us about the market for collectible crypto coins? Is the market increasing?
It was bigger during the last bull run. Follow BTC price. Soon it will come again full speed.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
It don’t matter for me. It only mattered in the beginning when some people did not want to trade with me because I was low ranking. Never a problem anymore. Small world and have traded with most here already.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
MinerJones, krogothmanhattan, vizique and many other from the collectible section have been very friendly to me. I like the show off posts in Collectible section.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
NFTs, crypto games and more respect for shitcoins (they help to grow crypto world)

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I earn my crypto helping. Have no money to invest.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Made a ref link where someone bought 50BTC value on it. CraZy to see that.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Zero-sum game where all think they can earn. But like the ones that use game/NFTs to run it.
Uniswap etc will probably soon get into problems because of money laundering. But hope they survive. Easy and fast to use.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
For me personally anonymity don’t matter. I always tell who I am.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
ENJ (games) – think it could take off
ETH – Vitalik is a Hero 😉
BTC – sure bet
ELET – because I then get rich

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
22k$

Questions I got from @zasad:


My answers, and notice that I skipped answering some of them

1. Probably sometime in 2017 because I read some articles on internet.
3. I was looking to learn more about Bitcoin and mining crypto and found Bitcointalk forum.
4.1. Governments and lack of research.
4.2. Gambling projects had positive effect on bitcontalk forum community.
4.3. People need to learn more about Bitcoin every day without time limit.
5. Merit system and signature campaigns are contributing the forum, but they are not perfect and can be improved.
6. There are many useful topics, and most helpful users are all OG's that are still active reporting spam and helping new members.
7. New moderator for Croatian local board, more sections for Croatian local board, more transparent system for ban/unban
8. I don't trade very much.
10. Most of defi is pump&dump scam.
11. Anonymity is important for me.
12. I haven't read any cryptocurrency book
13. Bitcoin x3.
14. ATH, but dyor.
15. Thank you

I have to name a previous antecedent to understand why I did not get involved with cryptocurrencies before.

Well my psychologist recommended it to me like this.
__
For professional and recreational reasons I was related at the beginning of the 21st century with two important wallets Neteller and Skrill, so the use of electronic payment alternatives was important to me at the beginning of the century. the kyc, its commissions among other situations were not simply an alternative to saying no, it was what there was yes or yes.

The years passed and in 2010-2011 I do not remember well someone related to the world of poker in a live tournament he speak me about bitcoin, I did what many idiots do today, I do not like being pejorative, but how I include myself, it is not necessary to apologize, in short I ignored it.

There was even always the "sounds," "noise," but now that I think about it in my memory, it did not sound like bitcoin, it did not sound like crypto as I understand it today, it was just like knowing that there was another form of payment and nothing more, well the sound died away.

They would spend +/- 6 years, incredible! and a teenage niece told me about a cryptographic project related to creating content where she was having a lot of success, she likes photography, and it was turning out very well to her, I think she was making more money than me ...
Anyway, he tells me about Dash, ethereum and ends with "the price is governed by bitcoin" boom! (They know about that Marvel character that is activated with a word, something similar happened).

At that very moment it was really my genesis in action with the crypto world.

---

I don't remember, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that the first crypto currency I got was not bitcoin.

---

I already knew the forum, everyone who gets involved with cryptocurrencies sooner or later will get here, in my case it was crypto poker.

---

The idiots.
e.g. What I mention in Q1.

---

The forum should be an example of adoption in every way, allowing campaigns is a good example of this.

I think that the community should be participatory in any project that is started in the forum before criticizing it, because before any project can harm the forum, the community can do it.

---

Success is not measured by experience, this helps, but success is quantitative but has a qualitative brilliance associated with it that can be wrong.

I assure you that in the cryptographic world, there are people who have been successful with an investment, but have never had experience.

So it is a bit of everything, but the main thing is to have capital, a capital management under well-established criteria can bring you success.

Finally there is something that develops over time and is the "instinct" or the talent "flourishes".
This is achieved with a lot of practice and theory, especially it is useful for those who do not have much investment capital.

---

Everything that is done for the benefit of the community is positive.
The forum community must always have their opinions in favor and against any implementation, it is a forum, discussing is the soul of a forum.

Anyway nor the merits or signature campaigns can harm the forum.

---

I can't give you one, there are many. Bis.

---

-Official ambassadors.
-The forum must be an organization that certifies projects.
- An espresso machine for when you get to legendary. if possible Power Matic-ccino 9000.

---

The trade is inevitable, in my case it is for speculative purposes
Invest in projects?  bitcoin covers everything in that regard. BTW I don't have a lot of money to invest.

---

... big loss?  Q1.

---

Thanks to them, people can realize how big bitcoin is.
It may not convince many, but the first among thousands It is a good signal.

DEFI ecosystem? the above so as not to go into technical, economic details that would greatly extend my answer.

---

Anonymity is a right, security is associated with it even without being anonymous.

---

The "Blue Forum" 

---

Go to the answer Q1 then go to Q4.3 and if you are interested in more information read question 10.

---

It is good to have left so much time to answer this interview because it brings me closer to a value that allows me to be more accurate in how difficult to forecast, $ 16,001

---

15. P.S. (Optional)
Better late than never, better to give some answers than never.
I'm sure that in some upcoming campaign we will have to include our post number from this thread, or maybe those who do not use the web address in their profile include their interview there. 

G.B./Ty zasad@

Interviews are done only with cash upfront.  Preferably before btc hits $50k+ then pulls a titanic with all the rats onboard.  And that list is way too long to be important.  Plus it’s missing the ones who have the answers.  Fun read tho. 

Thank you for playing!

Thank you zasad@ for inviting me!

In 2013. My friend explained bitcoin to me but I barely trusted it because I was just scammed by a ponzi project at that time. Then since I love betting on sportsbook, he introduced me Directbet, the most popular bitcoin sportsbook site back then. I was very amazed on how efficient and easy to use bitcoin is, and even I could spend it on other stuffs beside gambling. I realized bitcoin is a future and here we are. This good friend is a user too here on this forum. Thanks a lot mate!

In 2013 and for gambling of course But it's just fraction of it, not whole bitcoin

It's introduced by same friend. He said I could open my design service here and you could also earn money by posting. I was like "really? How can you get paid by posting?". Then I signed up and DaDice was my first campaign which at that time they were the biggest signature campaign. I still remember I got paid 0.1btc weekly and since then I joined few campaigns until I decide to focus only on my service as a graphic designer here and irl.

Negative news about bitcoin spread by media like using bitcoin to buy drugs or illegal weapons. Though it's normal for people to hate something they have no idea about.

From my perspective, gambling is one of the main reasons why people want to know more about bitcoin. With cryptocurrency, people could use it anonymously without getting traced by anyone. But still you have to bet responsibly and must be mature enough for that, or it would harm no one but yourself.

The most important point when you get into investment is, you must know what you are investing at. Every profit comes with its risk. But imo experience is worthier than education. Getting both would be much better tho.

The system successfully reduces the number of spamming, and I saw so many good quality threads. But tbh I feel the forum is bit less fun now lol, because mostly users trying so hard to make very long posts. You can just state your point with simple and short text but yeah, probably you won't get paid with that post.

Reputation as there are always many dramas going on there, but yeah I rarely visit that board nowadays. Meta is useful too. Regarding most helpful users, in my early time on this forum as a newbie, Mitchell and Lauda helped me a lot. For signature design, I learned a lot from medUSA's designs and he is my role model. I also got helped by QS, shorena, and theymos for sure. I thought theymos, as an admin, won't bothered to reply your message but that's totally wrong. I always got replied every time I pm'ed him, even though I was a low rank and sometimes it took 1-2 days to get a reply. Yahoo62278 also helps me many times and I know him well since 2015. Hhampuz is very helpful too and I like his personality. Damn I have so many names in mind, sorry guys can't mention all of you. Ah let me mention one more name (I promise this is the last name), BiPolarBob. Where ever you are right now BPB, I wish the best for you! Your generosity won't be forgotten.

- Perhaps bring back the animated avatar and limited to personal use only.
- Dark mode lol (sounds cool but seems it will affect the look of signature design)
- Increasing the characters limit for signature design (to 8000 maybe? )

I save most of my earnings in bitcoin and few alts, and will cash it out when I need money.

I once won 1 btc in signature design contest held by Yobit (https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/new-yobit-sig-design-contest-1-place-1-btc-2-05-btc-3-025-btc-1402351) few years ago. If I knew the btc price will be this high I would just hodl it. My biggest loss is when I invested on a project which I lost nearly 50k usd. I wont explain it more as it still hurts and this is the main reason why I stop investing on some projects. I tell you guys, there is no better investment plan than hodling bitcoin.

Not really into DeFi tbh, but it's quite popular lately.

Both for me.

I have some books about bitcoin in my native language.

Bitcoin for sure. But personally I have eth and xlm in very small portion.

Uhm, $18,000?

Thanks once again zasad@ for this awesome project. It makes me know more about other users on this forum. And I feel like I'm one of the cool kids now lol. If any of you guys need some design, feel free to visit my thread here https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/jayce-designs-logo-avatar-signature-banner-etc-1142066. I wish all of you stay healthy and be ready for 2021! Bitcoin to the moon!

Thanks for the invite.  Interesting to see some of these.

Questions and answers:

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Sunday, July 11, 2010 in the evening. I read the white paper and realized that (despite what people who either hadn’t read the paper or hadn’t understood it said) bitcoin was an important step and was useful as it related to the Byzantine Generals Problem.  There were a bunch of idiots around (and still are) making ridiculous arguments like “I’ll just duplicate my hard drive and have double the coins.”  “Bitcoin will fail.”

The biggest interest is that bitcoin takes power from the statist authoritarians and keep people free.  Bitcoin gives people the power over the products of their own lives. You make money by spending the hours of your life to earn it and you should control it.  You aren’t at the mercy of someone who wants power over you.   Did you live in Cyprus when there are capital controls and have bitcoin?  Screw the politicians, and leave.  Live in Venezuela and need to flee the authoritarians?  With bitcoins, no problem.  With everything else, they’ll probably steal/confiscate it at the border.  Stuck in Hong Kong with the communists restricting freedom?  Use bitcoin to get your assets out before they are stolen.  Or at least convert some assets into bitcoin so they aren’t locked down like other assets in China.  Tools like bitcoin protect liberty from people who are willing to sacrifice you to their own “needs.”  Protect yourself from nonsense like that: buy some bitcoin.  South Korea has capital controls, lots of places do.  Protect yourself.

Anyone who will vote their own liberty away is bad enough, but voting everyone else’s away for their own greed is worse. What does it say about their character and their lack of caring for their family, let alone other people, to do that?  Not much, but there are a surprising number of people who want someone else to pay for their choices.  Bitcoin can help now, but as adoption increases, more so.

Bailouts for banks mean bailouts for people - depositors, shareholders, employees etc.  Do you want to be forced into bailing out someone else's bad choices or should you have the freedom to decide for yourself who you help?  Bitcoin gives you the power and responsibility to decide how you want to respond.  Someone can't just come in and give your "account" a "haircut" or inflate the value away (a hidden tax on everyone).  Follow the money, who is helped by the polices.

The article on slashdot on July 11, 2010 exposed a lot of people to bitcoin, lots of people had the chance to be involved.  Lots of people missed it. I ran the 0.3.x version for a very long time.


2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I didn’t.  I just started mining around July 2010.  Actually, I take that back, I think I bought a few hundred dollars worth in 2019 to pay someone since it was easier than accessing cold storage.

3. How did you get on the forum?
I found it on google in July/August 2010 and I had been reading the forum for more than a year before finally registering.  I was getting 3 more new GPU cards going and thought I might have some questions about it.  Turns out, I got things set and it took a while until I actually joined in the conversation.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
- Ease of use.  
- Lack of US ETF to enable more investment directly from a brokerage account.
- Lack of full anonymity.  
- Security of computer and mobile operating systems.  When you have OSs that are insecure, will people be willing to trust that their coins are secure?  Everything - backup included - needs to be end-to-end encrypted using on device keys so that a hack somewhere doesn’t open everyone’s devices up.  Have a private key on your device?  At least there is another layer of encryption if it is encrypted on-device.  Of course, that messes up the plans of those who want to control everyone and everything in the world since they can’t crack them (yet).  If your bitcoins are on your computer and you get a virus, you may be screwed.  Ditto on your mobile device.  In many ways the irreversibility of bitcoin is a great thing except if your computer is insecure.  All the CPU manufacturers have had serious bugs, all the OS venders have too.  Device security is critical.

Remember that any politician or bureaucrat who is trying to sell you on a backdoor, does not have your interests at heart.  They have one goal: power.  Don’t buy the siren song of backdoors being necessary. Backdoors in hardware or software are evil.  They may be put their with good intentions, but they will be compromised, it is a just a question of when and then anyone who relies on them for security (bitcoin or otherwise) will be screwed.  

- Uncensorability.  Do you want Facebook, Twitter, Google, PayPal or anyone else to be able to freeze your assets because you don’t toe the politically correct, authoritarian line?  Do you want to be “cancel cultured” if you don’t bow down to the mob?  Bitcoin helps you keep your freedom.  Do you want them to control your money?  


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 just ignore the ads, and don’t gamble since I know the odds are always in the house’s favor - unless you are counting cards and there is no CSM.  Unless you *are* the house, gambling is a fools errand.  Does it harm the forum?  In the sense of getting a lot of nonsense, low content, high noise posts, yes it does harm it.  If people get involved for the ads and then truly get involved after seeing the benefits, then it is a positive.  I don’t know the ratio of the number of people who just spam post and then leave vs the ones who stay for real reasons.

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?

Five minutes, maybe 60 minutes, experience is enough time to invest.  Go to someplace (coinbase, square, many other places) and buy some.  Don’t sell.  Anyone who has done that at any point with the exception of a few weeks at the end of 2017 has done quite well.  If you are trading, well, there is a huge amount of luck there and you are just trying to out smart hundreds of other people to sell before a drop and know when the bottom is in.  Trading isn’t investing.  Some people will do well, a lot won’t.  One needs to not be afraid to cut losses (if any).  This isn't rocket science that requires a lot of education or experience.

I also love (sarcasm) how some people term buying and holding “hoarding”.  That is a nonsense term that people use to add a negative connotation to people who believe in bitcoin and were/are willing to take a risk.  What is the real agenda of people who say it is “hoarding”?  Probably to weaken bitcoin.  Ditto for bitcoin “expiring after X years of not moving” and then being “redistributed.”  A bunch of nonsense by statist toadies who want to weaken bitcoin to increase their own power.  

A nice thing about an ETF or private wealth coming in is that it isn't traders, but investors so they are in for the long haul, not minutes, hours, days, or weeks. It provides more stability to the fiat price, less volatility and better price discovery.  And more demand, obviously.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Signature campaigns are fine. Do they add much?  Not really.  Does anyone pay attention to them?  With all the scams that have happened in the past, I am skeptical of anything that is sig advertised.  The Merit system is okay, I don’t pay much attention to it.


6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I always like the technical and development sections and read those, but don’t do much replying in there recently (e.g. the last 3-4 years) - too much other stuff going on.  Kids and the like.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
On the forum?  Not much.  I haven’t given it much thought.  Perhaps a way to be truly anonymous given the hacks of the database over the years - e.g. no email address needed.  Of course, that cat is out of the bag now.  

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
No.  I’ll invest time in projects.  I invest in my own projects.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Start mining in 2010.  Don’t sell.  Cool story bro.  There isn’t much to tell though.  If I’d had a crystal ball, I would’ve sold everything in December 2017 and repurchased in March 2020. Or just delivered a pizza. (Funny story there, but that's for another time).  Of course, no one knows the future.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
The more legitimate projects and the more use cases, the better.  This is a nice use.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Anonymity is always a good thing.  It protects freedom of speech, it protects people from bad actors, and it is critical to the future success of the world.  Not just bitcoin, or cryptocurrency, but the freedom of the world.

Just ask Thomas Paine, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Patrick Henry and others about the importance of free, anonymous speech.  Anyone who believes that anonymity is unimportant or shouldn’t be permitted wants to stop people from speaking freely in order to stop criticism of things.  Anyone who believes that people should not be able to fund others who are speaking anonymous, also wants to stop criticism of themselves and stop freedom of speech in the world.  Anyone who thinks that “hate speech” is real intends to stop all speech they don’t like.  Subjective definitions like that are useful for totalitarians to control people.

Anonymity for money is just as important.  Anonymous speech is useless without an audience or without the ability to get the message out.  Consequently one of the most important areas in bitcoin is true anonymity of transactions. The powerful governments and entities (like Facebook, Google and others) won’t like it because of “think of the children”, “terrorism”, and other tropes.  

Anyone who is against anonymity wants control.  Control of you and everyone else.  Control over what you say, to whom you say it, and everyone else who sees it.  They want you to self-censor.  Just ask anyone who won’t toe the line on Twitter how that works.  Do you want to have your money banned, shadow-banned, or censored so no one else can get it/see it?

Without the freedom to be anonymous and uncensored, you can't be free.



12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I haven’t unless you count things like Snow Crash which isn’t technically cryptocurrency related. Much of the stuff is just so basic that it isn't worth the time.
 I’ll read very technical stuff on the engineering and programming side of things, but cryptocurrencies in general? Not a lot.  Projects built on top of bitcoin are important for their uncensorability and decentralization.  Both built on top of the bitcoin coin, and using forks of the bitcoin codebase.  e.g. things like Twister. So I’ll look at them and their code and documentation.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin.  Everything else is quite derivative.  Ethereum is about the only interesting one, but it is very centralized in many ways, is (from what I’ve seen) much more difficult to get a node up and synched, and consequently not in the same league as bitcoin.

The huge value of the bitcoin ecosystem helps to provide the security of the network.  It is a virtuous circle.  None of the alts have that.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?


Perhaps a better question is what will be the cost to you and your family if you DO NOT have some bitcoin as an inflation hedge, insurance against bad governments and the like.  What will the opportunity cost be for not having some even in relatively normal circumstances. What would the opportunity cost be of being in a Cyprus, Venezuela, or Hong Kong-like situation wishing you had owned some to protect yourself?  So what will not owning bitcoin cost you at the end of 2020 and onwards?

As far as the fiat price in US dollars will be between 0 and 1,000,000. :-)  Everything else is just a guess, there are so many variables.  Given the uses of bitcoin to protect one’s assets from statist authoritarians (fascist, socialist, communist, totalitarian etc), given the uses of bitcoin to facilitate commerce (e.g. cross border, or gambling - as I said, I don’t do it, but lots of people exercise their freedom to do so), given the smart contract features, given the inflation protection, and given all the other proposed uses, the future looks bright. Will an ETF happen before then?  Probably not.  (Will one happen in the next 4 years (given the potential now much more statist president), probably not - but who knows.)

With the resurgence of statist authoritarians around the world, more people will realize the advantages of owning bitcoin.  Will many more realize the need in the next 2 months?  Some, but who knows how many.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it just takes a step at a time to get there.  Voting away freedom one step at a time isn't any worse than doing it all at once.  It is merely a slower trip.  Everyone should protect some of their assets.  Be on the right side of history and protect yourself, your family, and your freedom.  Bitcoin is an off ramp on the road to hell where you can protect yourself from the arbitrary whims of the statists.

Remember that “free" bread for one means slavery for someone else.  All the people wanting the "free" bread don't realize that they're going to be the ones providing the bread for someone large number of others - at the point of a gun while the politicians in the centralized capitals take their vig. They think they're only going to be receiving it. And that is bad enough that they believe their needs entitle them to use the force of government to take it from someone else, but voting everyone else into that immoral view is worse. Disposing of the hours and minutes of someone else's life merely because they "need" something (a cell phone or whatever) is evil. What's worse is that the people who don't (or aren't able to) think about it trumpet a socialist/communist type platform as something virtuous, not something evil and immoral. It isn't charity if it's at the point of a gun and it isn't moral or charitable if it's somebody else's money.   Bitcoin stops people from taking your money.  Obviously you pay taxes, but a Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Chavez, Castro, Mao, Xi, Hitler, won’t be able to come in and take your assets if you leave the country.  And with anonymity, won’t know you have them.

So the value of bitcoin depends on the value that many individuals put on the hours and minutes of their lives and the degree to which they intend to protect themselves from people who want to take the products of their lives.  Long answer: no one knows the price, but over longer periods - years - the trend is very likely much higher.


15. P.S. (Optional) - since there was no question, I wrote what I wanted
10 years ago, I would’ve been quite clear that bitcoin was an experiment and could fail.  That is still true today, but it has a decade under its belt and is much less likely to fail.  The future for bitcoin in particular, and even crypto in general, is bright.  Not the scam coins and others that offer little value.  Concentrated mining right now is one worry, particularly in a communist regime.  Just ask Hong Kong how being under the thumb of a communist regime is working out.  Just ask the people of Taiwan how it is to live in fear of China.  How many time over the last 10+ years now have people said things like “Bitcoin will never hit $1.  Bitcoin will never maintain dollar parity.  Bitcoin will never hit $10 or $100 or $1000 or $20000.”  Too many to count.  The doubters have been proven wrong for more than a decade.  The people who understood the import of the project and were willing to wait have been greatly rewarded.

My main concerns and areas that are critical right now are:
- Concentration - mining concentration is a fear.
- Hash rate decrease - unlikely to happen, but you never know if miners are concentrated and a government tries to take them down.
- Freedom - bitcoin and similar decentralized, pseudonymous projects are critical to protect everyone from statists.  This is why bitcoin and its ilk are so important.
- Responsibility:  How many people keep their phones or computers updated?  Lots do not and you end up with infections on your PC and mobile device.  Then you end up with people saying “bitcoin is not secure” when the device itself is hacked.  Ditto for when exchanges get hacked or when there are exit scams.  People always look to blame someone else.  Bitcoin requires responsibility since there isn’t a credit card company to call and say “my card is stolen.”  

Bitcoin isn’t perfect, but is reasonably uncensorable (mining concentration is the worry there).  Anonymity isn’t great, but great strides are being made in that direction.  Lightning and similar projects, all are helping.


p.p.s.  Just from personal curiosity,  I’d like to hear from two people although it seems very unlikely they are around:
Atlas - from a long time ago, long ago banned for a lot of reasons - I think all discussed here and elsewhere online.  Hopefully he matured, got his act together, and didn’t sell his bitcoin.  (Started this thread:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12156.4620 ).
Zeroday - hasn’t been on in years.  I’d be interested in hearing how he has recovered from the Cyprus fiasco ( https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/zeroday-83045 ).  He protected himself and got himself away from the control freaks.


A quote worth remembering: “There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."  

Bitcoin puts you in charge of who you give "bounties, donations and benefits" to.



Cheers.



* Slashdot article:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/bitcoin-releases-version-03

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?

September 2012 a fellow worker informed me about bitcoin, I read the whitepaper and got very interested. Few months later I joined this forum to get more info, read stories and so on about Bitcoin.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?

I started mining bitcoin in 2013, in 2015 I bought my first Bitcoin on an exchange. Why? just to find out how it works.

3. How did you get on the forum?

Thru the internet.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

People don't know about it, don't trust it, still believe in banks and it's too technical or difficult to use for noobs.

4.2. When did you start collecting physical coins - bitcoins?

September 2013 I bought my first collectable coin: Antana - Satoshi Nakamoto

4.3. What is the rarest and most expensive collectible coin?

The ones that does excist? or the one I own? The coin I most cherish/like is the NastyFans 1oz .9999 FINE GOLD "BITCOIN" BINARY ROUND

4.4. Please tell us about the market for collectible crypto coins? Is the market increasing?

Nope, about the same people that buy and sell coins at the forum here. Sometimes a newbie comes around collecting coins.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?

I think it's fine, I don't pay much attention to it.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?

There are many uselful topics and helpful users, I guess everybody has his/her own favorite.

Personally I like jstefanop great guy who designed his own miner to bring mining to your home.

Also Ognasty for starting Nastyfans and creating awesome coins/tokens.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

Don't know any

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?

Yes, some trading but nothing much.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?

Big loss: bought a lot of collectable coins and stuff paying with Bitcoin, better did not do that and HODL the BTC  

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

It's crap.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Not really

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

None

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?

Nothing to advise, always do your own research.

My personal "crazy" bets: CasinoCoin CSC , TOMOchain , V-ID VIDT
more like 3 to 4 years to moon

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?

$18211.70

15. P.S. (Optional)

I am kind of proud I did a project making our own Yiazo miner. Financially it was not a success, not the right time to sell them and no way to compete with Chinese companies. Lessons learned but awesome work with people who like cryptomining. It was developed by Dutch designers/developers and manufactured in the Netherlands.

Yea, I get your point. I'm just saying that these people could be friends who joined this platform to earn from it (bounty purpose). Simply don't add their interview links. But if you're doing this, do it because they didn't pm you first and get an approval. Not because they are not members (they are members after all).

Almost all of Assam Kingsley's posts begin with:
PROOF OF REGISTRATION   

Preshie has the same + bounty reports:)
Emma Theo the same.
Incarts the same.

I will not add links to their interviews in 1 post.

I did an insight in those accounts, they were created long before now. Also, they made the comments with hours interval. So, I don't think it's farming. Maybe one of them found this thread and share it to his friends or something. That's by the way. Thanks for the thread tho. I think I should drop my answers one of these days.

This is pretty cool project by zasad@. Here goes mine...

Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I became aware of Bitcoin in 2011 or 2012, and tried to mine with a shitty laptop for a few hours then gave up. I really became engaged at the end of 2013 when I became aware of Dogecoin, and mined some with shitty laptops and joined some channels on freenode IRC.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I started buying some BTC in early 2014 on Coinbase because I was attracted to the permissionless nature of it.

3. How did you get on the forum?
After realizing my shitty laptops were shitty I bought a bunch of GPUs and started mining all sorts of crapola in early 2014, and this was the place to find out about the latest and greatest crapola.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Nothing. It's happening. You can buy Bitcoin in Cashapp and Paypal apps.

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 don't think it has a major effect one way or another.

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?
If you stick with Bitcoin you only need 2-3 weeks of experience I think.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
The merit system is a nice feature to provide some more user feedback. It would be really neat if bitcointalk could add some kind of native token that rewards the most merited users that was tradeable as well, along the lines of what reddit is doing with MOONs and BRICKs in the /r/cryptocurrency and /r/fortnitebr subreddits, respectively. Obviously they wouldn't do it on the Ethereum blockchain, but maybe on [rgb or something](https://rgb-org.github.io/).

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
In the beginning the most useful topics for me were the altcoin ANN section where I could find new coins to mine. Nowadays it is probably in the Collectibles section where I like to check out what's for sale.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

• Merit as a tradeable asset as mentioned above
• The option to buy a premium membership that removed all sigs
• Blackjack and hookers?

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Yes.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I have been involved with Monero in some respect since almost the beginning. It has paid off financially but it has also introduced me to a lot of very smart folks and put me through some experiences that I never would have been through otherwise. The real profits are the friends we make along the way.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I think it's overhyped over the summer, but probably going to stick around and grow over the long term. Honestly, Bitcoin is DeFi in my opinion, and stuff like this is a pretty cool example of it:
https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-lightning-network-payment-channel-liquidity

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
No, I'm not anonymous. You can figure out who I am if you really care.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Neuromancer?

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
20200

15. P.S. (Optional)
If you've been blessed with a stash of Bitcoin, please consider donating some to MAGIC grants to support students attending university that have an interest in cryptocurrency:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5284103
https://www.magicgrants.org/