Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 13. (Read 30584 times)

Thanks for inviting me to participate in your thread.
Here are my replies to your interview:

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I needed to buy a GPU with a lot of power for a video and design server, but in the search results of the browser strange words began to appear that I had never heard and were not related to my search, pools, rig, bitcoin, hashrate.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
If I remember well in the middle of 2017 when BTC was looking for a bottom at 3,700 / 3,800 and everyone gave it up for dead, I started reading and contrasting any article in different media that talked about Bitcoin, including Bitcointalk, then I saw how almost everything in life that the original is always number 1.

3. How did you get on the forum?
First without being registered, looking for GPU information, I read a lot in the forum, then I registered in 2017 and I was inactive for a long time until 1 / Dec / 2018 that by chance I met the Wall Observer thread and it all started there, all the thread is BTC and I liked that, but I also noticed that most of the Wall Observer members were wearing hats and I wanted one, authentic xhomerx10 hat, although I signed up in 2017, very little activity and 0 merits, it was impossible, but I had the lucky to receive several tips from Last of the V8s bitserve JayJuanGee and DdmrDdmr in my local section on how I had to do it to increase my rank, the only way was to contribute and participate in the forum.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
I am convinced that if Bitcoin had gone its own way we would be talking about a high adoption percentage at the moment, the copies, altcoins, shitcoins, scams, have not helped the early adoption of Bitcoin at all, this has caused a delay. and fear of people who do not know Bitcoin, but now there is little left, just make it a little easier for people to buy and sell Bitcoin naturally and without danger of losing their coins, today people are used to doing anything with the smartphone and it has to be fast, secure and instantaneous, that's what they want.

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?
Any well-managed campaign can benefit the community and Bitcoin.

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?
You should always be advised by someone who knows the cryptocurrency market or invest many hours to get to know it but, as in the traditional stock market, until you lose you will not learn.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
- Merit: Today I see it well, otherwise this forum would be unmanageable due to the amount of spam that there would be, the Merit system forces, among other things, to publish content with a minimum of quality, those who make an effort gain recognition, credibility and more merit.
- Signatures: You have to live with them, for various reasons.
- Damage the forum? They only damage the forum when they litter a thread with useless replies.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
The most useful topic: certainly for me Wall Observer, here is the hard core of Bitcoin, Hodlers and Bulls constantly reporting.
Most useful users, this question I suppose could have a very broad answer, but I will answer it in order of priority, I will include 3:
- satoshi
- Hal Finney
- theymos
The forum in general, whatever section you visit, you always find interesting topics from useful users, difficult to name them all.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1 I like how it is, I would not change anything except at the time of registration, I would not let a single post be published without first reading the forum rules.
2 We must work on the SEO positioning of the local sections, we are losing thousands and thousands of visits and possible new members.
3 It takes a bitcointalk own initiative with seminars, guides, courses and live broadcasts as is being done in the Bitcoin media ecosystem, but we do nothing, someone would have to update the twitter account daily and have a YouTube channel to broadcast live events. Bitcoin was born here and the people who will never come to the forum but one day will buy Bitcoin, they have to know, all the media in the sector talk and write about Bitcoin but there is rarely a link to Bitcointalk and this is not fair. There is enough educational material on the forum to carry out such an initiative and spread the recognition that Bitcointalk deserves.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
No, I try to buy and not sell, although sometimes life forces you to make decisions that you did not have foreseen.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
The best advice: Hodler

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
The new ICO?...

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I think privacy is important, maintaining a correct OPSEC grade is necessary.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I recommend, Bitcoin Whitepaper and all the publications of satoshi and Hal Finney among others, in general look for the threads and read the old comments of the forum you will be surprised.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Easy: There is no choice here, Bitcoin.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
We will probably close the year around 14,000 or 15,000 if we go up it will be for some cause external to Bitcoin, the current situation is quite confusing around the world and we are living with a pandemic, although the markets can go in any direction.
I would settle for a stability in the price of Bitcoin in the coming months.

15. P.S. (Optional)
A special thanks, to the people in charge of keeping the forum clean of junk accounts and to the scam hunters.

These are my answers. Thanks for letting me participate in this wonderful interview!

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I became interested in cryptocurrency when I'm a student, around 2017. I started at faucets and BTC giveaways 'cause I don't have enough money to invest in it. The reason why I became interested is because of the profit, I saw potential in it as I studied blockchain as one of the applications of programming.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I didn't earn it, I get it through an exchange of alternative coin. It's the time I started to be a bounty hunter and earn profit by doing campaign tasks.

3. How did you get on the forum?
It was recommended on google as I searched more about cryptocurrency and found some threads that talk about bitcoin in the forum. I also have known that I can earn some cryptocurrency in this forum, which is wrong because it results in wrongdoings in the forum.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Most people still don't have access to the internet that's why it's difficult to implement mass adoption in a country. Here in my country, there are always ISPs service errors, I think it'll be a flaw if we adopt the use of crypto in every payment system. Also, many people still doubt the potential of bitcoin, they are very unsure of its capabilities and still not trust it due to scams that involve 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?
The one who benefits here is the company itself, it'll help them to increase the users of their gambling platform while the forum increases their members daily, since valuable information and feedback about different gambling platforms are in here.

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 enough tho, even 1 year of experience can already successfully invest in crypto.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
No, it doesn't harm the forum. Actually, it helps a lot in the forum to avoid spammers in the group. The merit systems were also applied in such campaigns, they require now merits to be able to participate and earn money. The current signature campaigns in btc are well-handed by some of our campaign managers here, and I know that they're trying to do their best to avoid problems.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Newbie guide I guess? There are a bunch of beginners who don't read newbie guides and keep doing the wrong thing in the forum. They ended up being a shitposter or spammer of the forum.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
Moderators, Campaign Managers and Scam busters. They're the ones who spent a lot of time making the forum better.

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

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Big profit is when I particpated an alt campaign, I read their whitepaper and the intention and goal was really good. I spent a lot of time there and invested, after that, the price pumped.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
New-gen was really great.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Of course but it is still hard to trust on the internet, anyone can identify you if they have the ability to do it.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I don't usually read books or e-books but the last time I read and learn more about cryptocurrency is when I tried Coursera and other learning platforms.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Of course, bitcoin, ethereum and the last is idk, there are many potential coins out there but it's not guaranteed that it will give profit soon.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Hoping for $21k, new ATH please! That's why I keep hodling my coins.

This is quite interesting, thanks for reaching out.

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
2013.  Some trader at work was into bitcoin.  I started mining and learned a lot.  I got into it because I liked the people, the idea, the tech, it just all fit.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I never really did buy it, mined it in 2013.

3. How did you get on the forum?
I was new to mining and looking for new coins and knowledge.  Led me right here.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
There is already mass recognition of Bitcoin which is very good.  Adoption takes time, a lot of people don't use the internet to pay their bills still.

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 in general is maybe negative.  I have no problem with gambling although I do not gamble myself.  Just dont see the point.

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 a long time, its enough. 

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
I don't think they do but things change all the time, thats good.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Altcoin mining section.  And most helpful users on that subject would be those in Philipma's threads.  Thats whats most useful to *me* anyways.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
probably tipping people easily

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

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Had a signature campaign for DeepOnion since the 2nd week for the airdrops.  I can't explain it but it turned out to be my best "investment".

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I think its great.  But at the same time I think its not so great.  I like mostly the new ideas, liquidity pools and how it sets the coin price.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
It unfortunately is but it is not a vital necessity to participate.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Dont remember but i'll plug some books i liked such as Mastering Bitcoin and The Internet of Money. I liked cryptonomicon also.  I enjoyed Crypto and Codebreakers also (but these are not about cryptocurrency).  I like books.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin.  Ethereum is probably going to pump once a new popular thing based on it takes off.  The third one is one we haven't discovered yet so keep looking and creating.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
55000$

Optional thought:
Bitcoin for me is more about economic freedom.  For all.

Interesting thread.  Thanks for the invite.

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

In 2013 if i recall correctly. At that time, bitcoin was relatively low in price and it could be mined on cex.io.  not sure what attracted me to it other than pure speculation, but at some point, the gigahertz i bought on cex.io were offset by the drop in bitcoin price and i got out completely.

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

In 2013, i think for pure speculation.  I can't recall where i even heard of it.

3. How did you get on the forum?

To be able to trade collectibles for crypto.  Often one can buy at a lower price and make gains in fiat.  Folks wanting to get into icos at a good price will take a loss i think.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Volatility for sure and complexity.  We all have likely loss funds due to forgetting/misplacing private keys or scams.  the general public won't accept this kind of risk.

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?

No comment. gambling inherently risky alone. combined with risks above makes it doubly so.

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 depends on if you are with a proven operation or a budding one.  at this point in crypto, there are proven ones.  but if a new one, it will take that long to gain traction as they are late to the party.

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

i like merit system. i'm not aware of signature campaign.

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

The sticky notes.  All new users should read those thoroughly.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

No comment. i like it as is.

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

Yes. Quite often

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

Loss a few times buying without escrow agent. always use escrow for unknown sellers.  No big profits.  Maybe just 2x or 3x on small things like baseball cards.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

It is what scares banks most.  peer-to-peer lending, exchanging.  May be the next big thing for a long time.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

If you are on the internet, anyone can identify you if they want.  I've seen users here report break-ins to their homes, so try not to keep expensive items at home.  use a P.O. box for deliveries.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

If it is in a book, it is likely outdated.  There may not even be a defi book yet. Google will learn your interests after a while and send you the headlines you like.

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

Celsicus - Great CEO and business model designed for increased growth, Divi - Easy to setup masternodes and early in project development, Bitcoin - Institutional investors going in now, so this pump we are seeing is the real deal.

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

$19,000

15. P.S. (Optional)

thank you zasad@ for the invitation and the opportunity to exchange some experiences, opinions and thoughts here.
I have already read some interviews from members i know and they were very interesting and good. As i am not an English native speaker, I apologize for my insufficiencies, but i hope and think that you still can understand my answers. So let's finally start 

When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
For crypto circumstances very late in the beginning of 2017 I started to explore crypto currencies. Frustrated by system-relevant banks failures, which privatized profits for years and then let us taxpayers pay for their "gambling" losses (crash 2009). And the more I read about it, the more frustrated I became (CumCum and CumEx) and realized that the whole financial system is exploited by bad actors. Another reason was the fact that I couldn't even buy an apartment for my family in the city where we live (100qm 600k EUR and more, just crazy...) with the money I saved over decades. So I looked around for alternative “investment” opportunities and came across the great blog "Der Altcoinspekulant" from our worldcoiner from the forum. I read there about IOTA (wink qwk) and other projects like Tezos, Byteball etc. It seemed to be the possibility to get a financial independence maybe to break out of the "hamster wheel" after all.

When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
On 31th January 2017 i bought my first BTC. BTC was around $1,000 USD. And the main reason was to buy with some BTC-parts IOTA at Yassins Slack Exchange.

How did you get on the forum?
Via the blog from "Der Altcoinspekulant" and google

4.1 What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
nothing, if it is a national/central crypto currency. We will see that the upcoming 3 years... Well, perhaps nevertheless only a national one, we saw that even Telegram didn't make it   

Currencies bring great power and responsibility, so states will try to hold on to them. Without hyperinflations they will succeed for a long time, but in some states like Venezuela and others, decentralized Cyrpto currencies will be introduced, why? Because you can buy them with your smartphone or computer "simply over the Internet".

Decentralized crypto-currencies lack transparency, simplicity of operation, risk of total loss through own or external fault. Also purposes and scalability remain questionable and problematic for most projects out there.
So what am I doing here anyway? 
We are still in an early phase, in which projects come and go, one hype after the another, 2017 ICOs, 2020 DEFI, 2025 GOOFY, no wait, this will then surely be a Disney NFT. Back to the question... Projects, and here I include BTC as well, where whales manipulate the market or noone knows who is holding major parts of them or the origin/supply of the coins/tokens is unclear, will have to continue to fight for mass introduction/adoption until an appropriate distribution and transparency is achieved. I think in the upcomming 3 years will be many projekts with use cases that will get there adoption in niches or regions, but only as utilities and not as currencies.

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?
Gambling is a niche like many others. Everywhere there are good and bad providers/actors. As long as the forum does not exclusively stand for gambling projects, I don't see a problem there.

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?
That depends. On the one hand, you can invest in BTC for the long-term without a lot of experience, but if you want to deal with all other shitcoins and hypes, 2-3 years of experience alone may not be enough.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
I was very skeptical about the merit system in the beginning, but after all i think it was good for the forum.

The signature campaigns are as good and bad as their projects and campaign managers. quality instead of quantity.

The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
For me as a German the tax thread, Taxes are such a pain ;-) I read somewhere that 80% of the literature about taxes worldwide is written in German
Since I'm only in the German subs I can only tell for there. And there it's simply the culture and manners that I appreciate very much. Folks are very helpful and mostly respectful with each other, also we some very technical and experienced users there.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1st I think a contemporary technology update would be appropriate.
2nd F2A would be great, but I'm afraid that it would increase the administrative effort for loss and recovery.


8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
In 2017 I traded far too much. The tax office was very happy with me in 2018 and even 2019.
I was also caught by the ICO FOMO train in 2017, I put my trading profits directly into ICO projects again. I have to mention that I have no idea about trading, but in 2017 you couldn't do anything wrong because just everything went up.

Today I don't trade at all anymore and for the last two years I only put some money into Avalance. How many I sit on shitcoin bags and wait and hope to get rid of them to trade them in BTC and FIAT.
Unfortunately I still have a miserable portfolio balance and hardly any BTC, which I hope to change soon, at least 50% BTC is my goal here.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Nothing spectacular here from me...
I had some painful ICO total losses, but the biggest position i had to pay were still taxes for 2017 and 2018 Concerning wins: it remains to be seen if and which projects will bring the biggest wins, at the moment it is too early for that. from most projects i pulled my invest out so far. Or in other words: the profit lies within the purchase.

10. what do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
doomed to failure, at least in this early phase. Towards the end of the ICO bubble, people became careful, there were checklists to see who was behind the project and the team, and DEFI is now completely undoing that. It has never been easier to collect funds anonymously and then make an exit scam. You don't even need a website, whitepaper or anything else like that anymore, you create a Twitter, Telegram and Discord channel, raise awareness, promise crazy APYs and let poeple deposit their money (greed eats brains) and then make a rug pull.

And what should be clear to everyone is that even etablished DEFI system will only be tolerated by state regulators if the transactions of the users are traceable for them.

11. is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
in the end both

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
actually so far no specific crypto currency book. Apart from many whitepapers, theories and opinions, the last book I read about the financial market situation was by Weik and Friedrich "Der Crash ist die Lösung" from 2015, maybe i should read the actual book "Der größte Crash aller Zeiten" from 2019 as well, and that was even without Corona 
But in the interviews here I have seen some books that I should really actually read.

13. Recommend 3 crypto currencies/tokens for investments in the next 1-2 years?
i can't give any advise here DYOR, cryptos are very high risk and volatile. Only "invest" what you can loose without ruining yourself and maybe your family. don't get greedy and be patient.

i think the best bet is still BTC (risk/reward ratio)
Beside that my biggest hopes in my portfolio are IOTA, XTZ and AVAX. i may miss ETH, but i can live with that.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
hmm in 7 weeks... Wait, I need to see what my crystal ball says...
around 25k USD


Thank you for your time 

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

My journey in cryptocurrency began in 2018 during my final year in school. I witnessed the feasibility of the cliché "Cryptocurrency can make you rich" when cryptocurrency changed the fortunes of my then lodge-mate. This inspired me greatly, although i haven't been as fortunate as he was, i believe its a gradual process and once i persist, i will certainly get there.


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

I purchased my first Bitcoin in the same year 2018, when i used the Luno wallet app to purchase a sum after i learnt about the bullish run that had just occurred in late 2017


3. How didou get on the forum?

Same friend whom i watched as cryptocurrency changed his fortunes introduced me to the Bitcointalk forum


4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
I think every innovation requires a little bit of time to attain mass adoption. I believe currently, Bitcoin may be restrained from reaching that stage cause of factors such as  accesibilty; some people perhaps think who needs Bitcoin when fiat currency perfoms their transactions?.  Other factors might be fear of insecurilty or getting their funds exposed to hackers and scammers.
 


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 for one is not against gambling project, and i dont think it poses any form of harm to the community


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 think experience plays a crucial role for investors to succeed. However it doesn't end there; you need patience, persistence, trial and error; and a stroke of luck. However, investors would be doing themselves a lot good to receive formal training as this could save them from taking uncalculated risks.


5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  
Do they harm the forum?
Spamming does more harm to the forum and i believe the current merit system and signature campaign curbs spamming. Rewarding valid opinions too is encouraging as this will encourage positive posting.



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

Plenty insightful topics exist on the forum, and depending on what users want, they can always find the suitable topics to join. For the most helpful users, i can't think of any right now.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

If i had the might, i would moderate altcoin sections better and implement more ways to check the validity of bounties that make the bounty section and more approaches to curb spamming

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

I do more of arbitrage trading


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

I had my biggest profit with AEN token which i sold making huge profits. However the next day it looked more like a loss as it appreciated five times more than the price the previous day

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

i'm a fan of the DeFi movement, decentralization and open-source minimizes overall costs and improves security


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

I would tag it a precaution to protect ones identity

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I have never read a cryptocurrency book, however i read lots of articles online to inform myself and stay abreast on recent developments

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

Bitcoin for me is the best to invest in. However, you should make your research, beware of the risk involved in investing and follow your instincts

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
It is hard to predict, but judging from the recent bull run, i think it will at least equal the all time high of $20,000 before the year ends


15. I am an ardent bounty hunter and article writing mainly is my flair

Even without any invitation, i could understand (and even appreciate) someone come and presents himself but ... these accounts will be easy to link together as 'farming' ones by the way (and some here are good farmers hunters  ).

Lol, I didn't write an invitation to these members 
No comments..

Is the account farming season back ?  


As soon as cryptos are going up again same thing occurs...

I am willing to believe and accept with pleasure that a newbie may want to introduce himself here but ... 4 in a row in a few minutes

Please stop taking people for morons guys  

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I can't remember exactly the time but I think it was the year 2018,and I think the word" DIGITAL CURRENCY" was hat moved me in to cryptocurrencies .

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
         I haven't bought any bitcoin yet .


3. How did you get on the forum?
          A friend saw my anxiousness and introduced me to the forum

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
      They are some factors that those not all the mass adoption but I think they influencial of all factor is trust , if you don't trust something u can't  give it a try,.lost of people have been scam through the name Bitcoin .they Masses just need trust to adopt it.


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 really have much ideas on 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?
 I don't think an investor needs a special education of any from most especially having been into crypto for 2-3 years,the investor just needs enlightenment of the project he or she is investing in.


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

I don't think so the merit system in the forum is actually  encouraging because it makes people strive to get some merits.the signature campaigns are not quite encouraging because sometimes the pay is not something to write home about even with the level demarcation.

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

I would go with the Bitcoin discussion forum , because it help give out information and helps share our knowledge about Bitcoin.


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

I think a specific page to report scam projects and community
 A notification bar or forum for updates of bounties
 

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
          Honestly speaking I don't invest in projects, I trade

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

            I think there was one project I dedicated my more time to than any other , if I could remember well we were told to pay a specific about of eth ,as I paid the eth ,I discovered it was all a scam and I think that my biggest loss in crypto

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
          I am new in crypto ,I have come across this word a couple of times but I don't really understand it,so I can't make comments about it

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

      I think I will go with precaution at the moment

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

           I haven't seen a crypto book before and this the first time am hearing about a book about crypto.

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

      U never know they one's that pumps up next
But I will go with
Tron
Etherum
Dodge coin

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

        $20k or even more with they rate it's pumping

15. P.S. (Optional)

Answer here

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

  I became interested in cryptos the moment I heard of it and that was early this year. And because I saw the benefits in crypto so I decide to give it a try; And I have not regretted since then.

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

I have never purchased Bitcoin before still looking forward to that.

3. How did you get on the forum?

Early this year I heard some people discussing about cryptos then I listen to them went home did my research and found out that this forum(Bitcointalk) was the most known Bitcoin site, I was anxious to know more so I decided to sign up

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
I think it's because of the usability is a legitimate concern, the real barriers holding back mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies are fear (mainly due to volatility) and confusion (mainly due to crypto's steep learning curve).

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?

Gambling as we all know is a game of chance, you are not certain if you will meet the jackpot
But if by doing this will promote and help people know more about bitcoin and other crypto currencies then am ok.

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?

2-3years of experience In crypto currency is more than enough for a person to invest but it depends on the type of person. Some people  listen to people without knowing the real truth behind the thing. The will say cryptocurrency is SCAM and the easily believe. What am trying to say is that the is SCAM every where so before you invest in any project or any cryptocurrency you have to do your research.

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

The merit system and signature campaigns does not harm the system in any way
But the issue of having a rank (jnr member, member e.t.c) before you can participate in the signature campaign is not favourable at all. Chances should also be given to the Newbies

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

To be sincere I haven't gone through most of the topics here but the one I think that is useful is the one that talks about human freedom

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
For me right now the fourm is ok

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Yes I trade on exchanges but I have not yet invested in any project

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
There was a time I wanted to purchase some Etherum but I couldn't I took it as a big loss

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

The DEFI ecosystem is like an extension of Bitcoin block chain

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

I prefer to keep this private

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

The edge of cryptocurrency

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

Bitcoin, litecoin, dodge

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

I think it will be between the range of $15000-$16000

15. P.S. (Optional)

Thank you for this opportunity to share my experience
Thank you.

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

OK, I learnt about cryptocurrency from a friend who is into bounty hunting and management. At first when he explain cryptocurrency to me, I never understood. So when i started writing article for new cryptocurrency project, that when I fully understood.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I haven't bought bitcoin before.

3. How did you get on the forum?
My quest to know more about cryptocurrency landed me here. I was introduced by a friend and I have learnt a lot from this forum.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
To me firstly, I would say the government refusal to accept cryptocurrency  and secondly not everyone knows about cryptocurrency. My parents and some friends never knew until I told them about it.

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?
Gambling is a way of earning money and many people are involved in it. Most gambling project are now using cryptocurrency that is good news. If people get to know about such project that would lead to increase adoption of cryptocurrency. So I think it has a positive effect on the forum.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
It is good source of influence, very helpful and useful. As a newbie, I regard information from those with high merit very importantly.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I can't say, because all are useful. But as bounty hunter I would say Altcoins discussion.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
For now, the forum is OK to me.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Yes, I certainly do from reward as a bounty hunter.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
During the onset of Covid-19, I was planing to buy bitcoin but I didn't. To me that was a big loss.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
The DEFI ecosystem is meant to revolutionize the financial ecosystem.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I prefer my privacy, so it is a vital necessity.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I don't read cryptocurrency books. I get my information online or from whitepaper.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I advise investing in Bitcoin, Tron and INVZN.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
My guess is about $2000.

15. P.S. (Optional)
Thank you for this opportunity to share my experience in the cryptocurrency world and this forum.

First I would like to thank the OP! of this thread for this wonderful interactive opportunity to learn and discover more about our different experiences with bitcoins and cryptocurrencies as a whole. I would love to advice others to learn and avoid the mistakes presented by our different members in the system before us

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

That should be about 2 years ago, when I google-searched on how to make money online. Cryptocurrencies popped up on my screen, there and then I began making research about the coins in order to know what I getting involved in.

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

After my little research, I decided to invest in BTCitcoin making a purchase of about $25 which didn't last long in my wallets because I sold them out as soon as the price rose.


3. How did you get on the forum?

Well, after trying to make a difference in educating people around me on cryptocurrencies. My colleague told me about this forum where I can learn and educate other members about bitcoins and crypto currencies as a whole.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

The Xenophobic fear in individuals prevent them from making positive change in their lives. Cryptocurrencies has it's flaws and risks as well as various advantages to be chosen over other forms of online cash.
People just need to be brought to the light and be shown the various advantages of it.


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?

Looking at the present gaming system, gambling is said to be a game of chance and also one of the top means of attracting individuals. The gambling board on the forum attracts people to the forum and by doing so, more informative users are recruited. On the other hand, this may attract scammers that may lead our new members down a wrong path.


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?

Crypto currency is generally SCAM  and should be invested in after making your research and at your own risk. Although, I must say bitcoin is exempted from the above because has been in the system long enough to gain trust from traders.

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

Well with the little time I've been here, this signature campaigns provide remarkable opportunity to enable users make informative and educational post and comments getting paid on a weekly/monthly basis as a result of their hard work. This type of opportunity makes members buckle up by reducing the number of spam posts they make and  wants to be at the top of the chart (I wish to be there someday   )

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

I haven't come across my most most useful topics yet but I sure as hell want to be like this users someday  
Ratimov  
LoyceV

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

I trade short term alt coins sometimes or I can just purchase and hold either BTC or ETH for a longer time.

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

There was a time when I was too trusting of anyone I ever came across, and cause me a lot. I tried trusting Escrow services to be sincere only to get scammed. Ever since then I have tried to recover all I had lost to them. And I would advice other users to stay clear from this so called escrow services, because they can't safely assure you of your cash.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I can't really say much about them only that when everyone praises a particular thing for a long time, it is doomed to fail (please correct me if I'm wrong on this).

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

I don't usually enjoy pubic display so I guess anonymity works for me. Even the famous Satoshi Nakamoto continues to keep his identity hidden till date.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Don't really read books, I just learn from experience/mistakes of others.

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

Bitcoin will continually grow no matter the conditions so if you decide to hold some coins i'd advice that hold BTCTC and ETH  

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

My guess should be over $16,000

15. P.S. (Optional)

You do not need a rough beginning to be successful, you can avoid all that by learning from the mistakes and experience from those in the system before you. Quote by... The Author

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

It was summer 2013, before the big pump to 1000.
I was just curious about this new technology, as I always am, but I wish I came earlier.

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

Never bought any.

3. How did you get on the forum?

Back then, it was simply the most popular one.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

There is still a usage barrier, and complications linked to buying and using bitcoin. This is slowly changing and progressing: I think it's only a matter of time before all transactions will be done using some for of cryptocurrency.
The question is, will it stay decentralised and free like bitcoin? Or will we end up using banks like before? I have no answer yet.

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?

Some people will always gamble and waste their money. If, by doing this, they help crypto by making volumes or advertising projects, then why not?

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?

Investing in crypto was, and still is, like gambling for the most people, so I would not say it needs a special education.
In the end, with traditional investments you can hope to get some percent per year, with crypto you can do the same in a few days or even hours, how can that be secure enough for everyone to try? Not even for anyone with experience, I would say.

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

I've always invested my time and knowledge in crypto projects, I've been involved in many coins through the years. The most important is Cryptonite (XCN).

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

I can say I've been too confident in some projects a few times. This made me lose some money.
The reason that happened was because I was involved in the project and I thought it was good, the team was great and so on.
Unfortunately that is not enough to be successful in crypto.
This is one of the reasons it is still a very risky business.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I think it's one of the logical extensions of the original bitcoin/blockchain idea and is here to stay.
But, I don't think the current profits will. It will probably go down and stay more stable.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

You never know.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I read a few books but always found out it's much more interesting to read through forums, code, stuff.
You really need to read the code to understand how it works. Code rulez as of today.

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

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptonite.

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

My guess is 20k$, but it may well be much more.

15. P.S. (Optional)

When you bow deeply to the universe, it bows back; when you call out the name of God, it echoes inside you.

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I was aware of Bitcoin since the beginning, it followed my belief in anarchy and freedom and human rights. However I only really got involved later in 2013 and eventually came up with the idea for BitHalo to make unbreakable contracts which I felt would be perfect for an anarchy system as it eliminates the middle man and makes theft impossible in day to day contracts. Then I had made the worlds first crypto contracting software months later. I long believed that Bitcoin even though it was good, would not be a tool of freedom if humans were unable to defeat the media. However two party escrow gave people a way for honest people to succeed so that's when I got started, taught myself to code and the rest is history and can be found all over the internet.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
When I knew about Bitcoin in 2011 I wanted to buy but my friend said it was all on forums and I would have to do it person to person or to mine so I sort of forgot about it for a while until I took an interest again seeing it on TOR. Then I got some small amount of Bitcoin and saw it boom and didn't want to miss the boat so I invested in Litecoin in 2013 and made a good amount from almost nothing and then took an interest in the altcoin and Bitcoin industry as a whole.

3. How did you get on the forum?
It was the only forum I was aware of. I think just investing and I made a profile.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Governments run the news/propaganda and have guns and thus can influence adoption. Humans are creatures of habit and are unaware of the heart of the problems in society. So currently many of the barriers are abstract. If people desire for alternatives and digital assets that may one day power everything from stocks to real estate to currencies, then they may take an interest gradually when it truly meets those needs. However in the meantime there is an education barrier and a subversive/competitive barrier. What's nice though is it has become a true alternative to failing currencies.

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 doesn't harm anyone. A person who gambles makes that decision of their own free will and if society tries to protect idiots from themselves by forcefully removing their options then that in of itself is foolish. It's completely neutral. If someone doesn't want to gamble they won't take an interest.

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?
Like anything, there is no magic number. "How many miles can a man walk?"... an unanswerable question. If a person is smart, they will invest in projects that work hard with blood sweat and tears and not reward scumbags. It's better to invest in something you actually believe and lose than to invest in a scumbag and win. Once people realize that, the projects of the highest value can succeed. And besides, the probability of gaining is a million times higher when you aren't investing in vaporware. Bitcoin succeeded because of its code.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Signature campaigns help incentivize people to engage. They will do it regardless of weather or not the forum endorses it. May as well make it transparent and let them participate.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Any topic that promotes human freedoms, kind users that are on a quest for truth.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
For the mods to not use this forum as a honeypot. To decentralize the forum completely so it doesn't turn into a facebook or a google. To organize the information more so people can engage with a variety of topics that aren't always about self-indulgence.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I only really trade year long or multi-year long positions. So if I invest in projects it's extremely rare that it's speculative. Also I don't reward vaporware.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
After I was asked to develop BitBay, it was actually a hit job to hurt my reputation as some government shills wanted me out of crypto because BitHalo was a powerful/disruptive tool of the early days of crypto even though it was not polished. So I told the investors I would stay despite the attacks we had suffered and I would code the promises made by the founders. They asked me to rebrand/change the name of the project but I said we should not because success is the best revenge and it would be that much sweeter. So I stayed and worked hard and released the worlds first decentralized markets(2015), improved the contracts and the project went from having zero volume and a couple hundred grand marketcap to being worth about a half a billion in 2017 making most of the investors millions. It was one of the best comeback stories in crypto and was spiritually fulfilling. I didn't quite cash out much though so it's back to work for now. So it's been a wild ride to say the least.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
It's good to inspire new financial products and increase stability without relying on centralized garbage like Tether. However it may cause a lending bubble and also a sort of mob mentality to move from project to project like vultures. So it's enough to kick off a project, but projects need to replace stocks and have true producing assets like dividends and real estate to keep people invested. In other words, projects should offer things beyond the basics of a crypto project or else it's just an empty shell for trading.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Yes, however most of the time I'm hiding in plain sight... hahahaha. Bitcoin is all about valuing our need to privacy and transparency at the same time.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Haven't read any of the books, just learn through experience.

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

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Anywhere from 13 to 17 thousand? If you want to know the future, just wait and see. The best investment strategy is to invest in your own vitality and your own abilities.

15. P.S. (Optional)
Peace

Thanks for the invitation, zasad@.  Your message caused me no inconvenience.  On the contrary, I have been away from bitcointalk for a while, and your interview gives me a good pretext to show up again.  However, posting outside WO makes me a bit giddy.

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

Individual rights and privacy have always interested me, so I happened to read the occasional snippet about bitcoin quite early.  It might have been when I was looking into installing some form of PGP on a Windows system, I'm not sure.  But I didn't go deeper for at least a year, maybe more.

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

Later on.

3. How did you get on the forum?

I used a browser.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Nothing prevents it.  Sure, there are factors that are delaying it.  First off, I'd say inconvenience of use and legal uncertainty.

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 know enough about it to have an informed opinion.

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?

As long as the investment is buy-and-hold some bitcoin, 2-3 years are overkill.  Buy-and-hodl, on the other hand, takes quite a bit longer.

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

I think it's a good thing.  Spam has received a serious blow, and account farming has become nearly useless.

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

The Wall Observer is a great catch all.  I get most of my answers there anyway.  Specific users?  I think it depends from the help one needs.

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

Exchanges, occasionally.  I don't like the recent KYC turn of things, though.  Never invested in projects yet.

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

Well, somewhat big loss: I lost nearly all my bitcoins the first year or so.  It was the Wild West back then, and an exchange owner exit scammed us all.  Yes, yes, I know: not your keys, not your coins.  Well, we all gotta learn don't we.

Biggest profit: hodling, which includes replacing any coins I spend.  I've never regretted a single replacement; quite the opposite.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I'm not much into the Eth ecosystem, but I'll believe it's as good as they say only when it gives us a real decentralized exchange with on- and offramps for fiat.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Just a fond precaution at the moment.  Hoping it becomes a vital necessity ASAP.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I haven't read a whole book on cryptocurrencies yet, but I've sampled Ammous and Antonopoulos.  I'm waiting for a well researched, intelligent contrarian book - a small one preferably.  Now that would be a read!

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

Off the top of my head: bitcoin, btc and xbt.

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

15851.5 USD, +/- 3.55% error margin.  Confirmed from the best SOMA data, because science.

Hi,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for reaching out to me. Although i have been an active member in the forum, i mostly post in the Portuguese subforum, where i am well known to the community and used to spread technical knowledge about bitcoin and cryptos in general. So thank you again for giving the Portuguese speaking community to take part in the series of interviews.

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

I always had an interest in cryptography. In 1999 i had already studied all i could get from the books we were able to import in brazil or find on local libraries, and also followed any cryptography discussion groups I could find on usenet or mailing lists. But there was nothing professionally for me in it, so I distanced myself from cryptography, only reading once in a while some other news or article about it in tech sites and forums. In 2010 I read an article (i think it was on slashdot) about this new cryptographic protocol capable of implementing a fully functioning trustless digital currency called Bitcoin. I even shared the article in Google Reader (which was my social network of choice at the time) and followed some discussions and news about it. I downloaded the source code, managed to compile it, and ran it for a few minutes. The damn thing was using all my CPU and my laptop fans started to "scream", so i just turned it off and finished by giving up on it.

Then, a few years later, in 2012, my brother who lived abroad came home for the holidays, and while we were catching up before dinner he asked me:
- Do you remember Bitcoin, the cryptographic currency you talked to me about a few years ago? There's this friend of mine who is mining it and he is buying some machines that specialize in mining it.

I had to confess i didn't remember talking about it, and went back to google to find more about it (that's when i found this forum, btw). His friend sent me some links and i ended up buying my first ASIC: a Sapphire Block Erupter that took so long to arrive by mail that when i got hold of it it wasn't profitable anymore. I started then using my GPU to mine (still profitable at the time), and studied about mining and GPU programming. And that's when bitcoin finally grew into me!

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

It was in the early days of 2013. Bought about 20 dollars worth of it just to figure out how to do it. I used some exchange that sold second life coins (VirWoX i think it was, couldn't find anything from the time that confirmed it). It was the only way to buy bitcoins with a credit card i could find at the time. I had to buy second life coins, wait for a few days and then buy bitcoin with those coins. In the and, with all the fees and spread, i ended up with less than 15 USD worth of coins. But i took it as a lesson: read the small print and pay attention to hiden fees!

Later that year i bought 100 dollars worth of bitcoin to buy a new batch of block erupters. This time i had a friend living abroad who collected them and brought them to me, so i got them fast enough to barely make a profit. I have them still hanging somewhere around here.

3. How did you get on the forum?

Well, that was during my quest about bitcoin mining (see question 1). Most information about bitcoin and sales of bitcoin mining equipment was done through the forum. So that's where i ended up.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

I used to talk at bitcoin events and meetups in brazil, and in 2018 in an event in Rio de Janeiro, someone asked me a similar question. My answer was similar to this: Well, those of us who grew up in Brazil during the 1990s, and saw the "debut" of the internet, will remember that the government had several "digital inclusion" programs. You probably had similar initiatives in other parts of the world. They aimed to bring as much people online as they could. They had tax benefits for companies with internet presence, and municipalities would give tax breaks to internet companies that create jobs in their cities. Schools would buy computers and give "internet classes" to kids and adults alike. There was even a Ministry position created just for that: Ministry of digital inclusion.

The results were an utterly failure. Older people didn't know how to use it. Poor people had very little access to a computer outside of schools. School computers would stand gathering dust because no one new how to operate them. Internet kept being a "niche" product for the middle-class youth.

But then, in 2007, some tech CEO from Cupertino, using a black T-shirt and jeans, announced a new product: the iPhone. It was not the first smartphone. Also not the first touch screen device. Not the first pocket internet device either. But it was nonetheless a revolution. In less than 5 years the iPhone and it's successors did what the Brazilian government had tried for 13 years without success: made the internet present in every home, every business in the country.

And that's what we need: an "iPhone" like technology (not necessarily a device) that will start the revolution. I am no Steve Jobs, so i can't predict what it will look like, but there will be a product that transforms cryptocurrencies from a niche technology into something so essential people can't live without it.

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 goes both ways. Gambling is a big an lucrative industry. Having them using cryptocurrencies is a great incentive for adoption. OTH, many countries make gambling illegal, and it is usually associated with mobsters and gangsters in those countries. So having people learn about cryptocurrencies for evading the laws of their country is not very good for their image. In the forum, i think gambling is already well segregated into their proper subforums. This in some way prevents excessive spamming by gamblers and gambling companies. The only advertising that goes beyond the subforum borders are the "signature campaigns". Having participated in several myself, we have so many advertisement on the internet today that my brain is already well trained to ignore them most of the time. OTH, when i am in a campaign, i have an incentive to do many posts, and try to answer as many people i can. So i see them as a mostly positive influence to me, but i know it is a pretty personal view.

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 have now 9 years of experience and still can't invest successfully. Knowledge is not enough, you need to have it in you. Some people have it easier than others. Some are just luckier, I don't know. I ended up broke every single time i tried to apply my knowledge to invest in crypto. So i mostly just use it on my day to day and save part of it (HODL) for the future.

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

Oh, i already answered part of it in 4.2. So i guess I'll just repeat it: It is personal, but for me, signature campaigns are good influence. About merits, I've seen several users being hacked and losing their accounts because they had the required status to enter campaigns. And for some unknown guy from Brazil to claim back his account or even give it some negative trust was almost impossible. So the merit system solved that problem for us, underdogs of the community. After the merit system went online I haven't heard of accounts being stolen, at least not in the Brazilian/Portuguese community.

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

That's a hard one. I keep mostly to the local forum, and know almost no one outside it. When i started in the Portuguese subforum, the guys that most helped me where @algorista and @adriano. Adriano is still the moderator for the Portuguese subforum. @algorista lost some money to a failed project some years ago and mostly disappeared from the forum after that.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

Mostly nerdy things that only i would need, like "latex" formulas and easier linking to other posts. Being able to easily quote external sites would also be nice. Oh, and footnotes. I love footnotes!

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

I did invest in several local projects in brasil. We had an educational coin called "Dilmacoin" that i maintained for several years (until it became easier to create tokens than maintain a coin with it's proper blockchain). I usually help either with money or with work to charities and crowdfunds created by the Brazilian community.

I also lost lots of money trying to trade or invest in all kinds of things. That's not for me. I'm a tech guy, finance is not my thing.

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

Well, my biggest profit was also my biggest loss. In 2013 I specialized in optimizing GPU miners for several new coins. most of them never became profitable. But then in 2014 i developed a miner for DASH (called Darkcoin at the time) that was 40% faster than the previous ones. My "mistake" was using a GPL licensed miner as base for my work. So i couldn't sell it and had to publish the code. In a few weeks, most miners were already operating using my code. I still made about 30 BTC worth of Darkcoin at the time. The big loss was: i didn't believe in Darkcoin and sold it immediately, and since than it's price increased 100 fold at it's highest. I could have 3000 BTC now instead of only 30. How's that for a loss?

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I see DEFI as a "buzzword" for things that are neither new nor revolutionary. It's mostly a hype. But the good thing about hypes is that they incentivize the building of helper technologies and products for building DEFI products. Those technologies will outlast the hype and will help increase the technological pool available for future developments. It also  helps do popularize the use of cryptocurrencies. Many will try to surf the DEFI wave and create crappy products. Those products will diem but the technological improvements used to build them will last and help evolve the next step in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and maybe some day, to technological dominance.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

For several years my anonymity (or pseudonymity) was an essential part of my internet persona. But then Facebook tricked me into revealing my real identity and now it became too easy to associate my pseudonym with my real identity. But for all purposes, i do really value my anonymity, and try to preserve it whenever possible. Maybe just out of social awkwardness, maybe as a political principle. Not really sure.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

That's a hard one. I think i never read a cryptocurrency book. Most of my information comes from this forum and other online sources. I really learned a lot from the bitcoin wiki too. When i need information about a specific technology or coin i just go the the specific forum or website of their project.

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

Bitcoin, Bitcoin and Bitcoin. One should also take a look at bitcoin!

Now, really, other than bitcoin the only projects i invested that had some success were Ethereum and Decred. I still believe in the Decred project and think that much will come from the project in the next few months.

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

My guess is it wont fall bellow 12K before the end of the year. An optimistic scenario will have it valuating 1000 USD/month for the next 2 months and reach 16K before Dec 31. But that's just guess. Trading is not really my thing.

15. P.S. (Optional)

I'll use this space to thank you again for opening this space to people from local and non-english speaking communities. Thanks again for reaching out to me and asking for this interview.

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

I've witnessed, devoted, created, lead, innovated and shared, I've virtually done everything in a righteous manner, all specific to alt-coins. I've been on these forums for over 5 years, with brief hiatus periods in-between. In total, I've invested 94days in total logged in specifically for altcoins only (some afk ofc), but that should give some indication on my enthusiasm and dedication towards altcoins.

This all begun back in 2013, during the silk-road incident and first Bitcoin climb to 1100-1200 usd, i was amazed. My memory has slipped on how i was introduced to Bitcointalk, but i believe it was through an exterior money-making forum, where Goldcoin was being promoted. Through my time on these forums, I've never strayed away from one core concept, community. Community is everything central to these forums and often I've gone to great lengths to support that community: calling out scams, sharing my wisdom (more recently), and analyzing coins to a greater extent. My intent has always been simple, to help new members gain the insight and wisdom on what crypto-currency truly is, where it's been and where it's potentially going.

The reason for alt-coins is simple, it's dynamic and much more in-depth than Bitcoin. Not only are you exposed to one particular blockchain, but you're proactively analyzing the progress of Bitcoin through the lens of broader audiences. Watching the evolution of crypto-currency and being apart of that evolution was the greatest gift that has not stopped giving.

I consider myself a very-well versed, an expert on altcoins. Not necessarily with technical, but with virtually all other aspects that incorporates them. I consistently learn, educate myself and share that knowledge with others and have advised, lead countless crypto start-ups to success through CTE Advisor, my company that assists virtually any stage cryptocurrency grow and succeed on the highest levels.


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

In late 2013 (or very early 2014), I took out 2 loans for $400 and purchased NXT. I did not purchase my first Bitcoin directly until maybe 2016-ish, before the major bull-run in 2017.


3. How did you get on the forum?

It's hard to exactly recall how I ended up on Bitcointalk in 2013, but at the time I was researching money-making methods online. I was on a random forum and there was a thread about Goldcoin and they linked back to Bitcointalk. I knew about Bitcointalk since about mid-2013, but didn’t get directly involved until Bitcoin started making significant headlines with the Silk-road incident.


4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Ease-of-access and trust. The first is steadily becoming a non-issue, but trust in a cryptocurrency will take years, if not decades more to cross. It will begin with Bitcoin and Ethereum, no other alt-coin has a chance to see any mass-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’m not going to comment directly on gambling and cryptocurrency to a full-extent, but gambling is heavily inter-linked with cryptocurrency. This is the dark-side of crypto that few rarely will ever talk about and that’s gambling with investments or by conventional means.


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 doesn’t mean or tell anyone a whole lot. I can spend a total of 1 hour per year in cryptocurrency, for 2 or 3 years and claim that I have “2-3 years of experience.” There are many individuals who like to stretch the truth in their experiences in crypto.

An investor does not need to receive special education to invest, but there’s definitely a tremendous barrier to understanding what the hell you’re actually doing in this industry. There are many who know exactly what they are doing, but the vast majority do not.

From a regulatory standpoint, it makes perfect sense to require crypto investors to have some sort of certification or license to invest in start-ups. This is the POV from myself being in the United States.


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

As a merit source for the altcoin sections, I’m not a fan of the system but I know why it exists. There is tremendous spam in the alt-coin sections still and it makes it very difficult to understand who’s actually giving their valid opinion or who’s just spamming the forum with other individual’s comments.

Often, I find the same statements or very similar statements being spread by multiple users, across various topics, over many months.

Signature campaigns should be restricted to full-members. I would personally remove them, but Bitcointalk would lose a tremendous amount of traffic.


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

There are many, you just have to seek them out. I can’t think of any single one on the top of my head, because the threads I seek differ from the vast majority of BTT users in the alt-coin section.


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

- Profile stats
- Better moderation of altcoin sections
- Major clean-up of the bounty system

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

Not anymore. I run my own business that’s very successful. I assist several cryptocurrency teams with the core fundamentals, growth of communities and overall strategy to succeed.


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

NEM Airdrop. Enough said.


10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

It’s terrible, almost as bad as any gambling crypto. Crypto as a whole has taken a major step backwards with the DeFi boom and thankfully it was very short-lived until the next alt-coin boom occurs. But there’s a lot of money to be made if you know what you’re doing.


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Anonymity is becoming a necessity, but currently it’s a precaution


12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I’ve never read a cryptocurrency book. But I’m currently reading The Critique of Practical Reason by Emmanuel Kant.


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

Do not listen to anyone’s investment choices or what to trade/invest ever. You’ll lose almost every time.


14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I do not speculate on any crypto prices.


15. P.S. (Optional)

"Invest in Your Knowledge."


I’m one of the top leading experts for alt-coins and cryptocurrency. I’m always here to assist individuals and continue to do what I do best, assisting quality projects and making them succeed. Learn more at: CTE Advisor - Crypto Strategists & Growth Marketers | My Telegram: @tk808

I forgot the exact date and year, maybe it's around 2013/2014, why?
In the beginning, in the past I kept looking for ways to earn income through the online world, until finally my friend told me about bitcoin and then I continued to explore it and until now I stay here, while my friend who introduced me to bitcoin is no longer active in the cryptocurrency world.

Maybe it was in 2015/2016 the first time I bought bitcoin and I bought bitcoin not only for investment, because I also use it for gambling.

Because there is an invitation from a friend.

Due to differences in regulations in each country.

Gambling is a big industry and I don't think it hurts the community because the gambling advertisements themselves are placed on the right market.

How high your experience in cryptocurrency still does not guarantee you will be successful in investing, because we don't know what he did during those 2-3 years or how many years they were in the cryptocurrency circle. Because if they don't explore how to invest properly, the length of time you have been in cryptocurrency, it will still not be easy for you to successfully invest in cryptocurrency. So, special education or not depends, because if an investor has the desire to be successful, then of course he will continue to learn from the many available sources.

That's fine, it's just that those who trade merits are of course harm forums.

I guess it depends, because every user has different needs.

I think it has been regulated by the higher ups in this forum, so it is inappropriate for me to organize or implement anything else on this forum.

Both I do, but for now I'm only focused on holding a few coins for investment.

Big profits and losses only occur in gambling and for investing and trading, I don't consider it a big gain and loss. Maybe just want to give advice to be careful and always control yourself in all things.

I didn't really follow it, maybe it will get better or another surprise later, I can't say it's bad either because the development so far looks fine.

No more anonymity.

I forgot the name of the book, but it's a book about cryptocurrency trading.

There's nothing else to suggest, because Bitcoin remains a priority.

$15k - $20k