When a gentleman so kindly asks, it's my pleasure to answer
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Some time during 2013, i was casually playing World of Tanks with one of my friends, when he casually just brought a question into the conversation: "Hey, have you heard about bitcoin mining".
My first reaction was "stfu and play the game, we're losing..." but after churning it in my head a couple of days, i started looking around and basically we begun our crypto journey.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Believe it or not, my 1st and only bitcoin purchase was at the beginning of 2017, and it was in the amount of 30 euro.
3. How did you get on the forum?
Me and aforementioned friend started looking into bitcoin mining, and sure enough, SEO gods brought us here. Mind you it was a MUCH different story back then. Back then it was a race between miners, every new coin had a "release" date and you were waiting to wee hours of the night just so you can mine those first few blocks before the difficulty was too hard, and sell them on the 1st altcoin graveyard that would list them.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
IMHO 2 simple things, education and trust. People trust in the all mighty green, to them, crypto is intangible, risky and just "too high tech" to grasp. Well most of the people anyway. There's just too much news about "hackers this, and hackers that" that many will just not risk it. Then there's scams, for which many of the newcomers are likely to fall for, and cross crypto out for good.
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 one way it finances the forum (paid ads, raises interest, etc..), in other way it creates mass spam. But this is from campaign to campaign, from user to user, it's wrong to generalize. Signature campaigns, for example, can be structured to be less spammy with higher outreach, but not every manager is capable or willing to do it. Clear separation can be seem between BTC paid campaigns, and altcoin paid campaigns.
For some reason, many people don't see crypto as money, and will be easily persuaded to gamble it. I'm not immune to this, i've lost hundreds of dollars on games and similar things in crypto, yet if someone offers me to go to a real mortar&brick casino, i'll refuse. Why? Because i don't wanna lose money
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?
Honestly, no. Even 10 might not be enough for some people. Experience and education will only help you do some reasoning and deduction, but it will not guarantee anything. Then again, it all depends on your definition of "succesfully invest". Does it mean you make profit, or the project is a success? Because you can make a profit without project being a success, and vice versa. Most of the successfull investors are people with years upon years of experience, and even then they make mistakes.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
Ah merits... Honestly, i don't think there is a perfect system with or without them. Did it stop spam? No. Did it stop account farming? Somewhat. Did it stop bounty abuse? No.
I've seen amazing posts not receiving a single merit just because it was in a wrong board, and then again i've seen some at best mediocre posts getting merits just because of who posted it.
I know meriting isn't monitored or anything like that (basically you can give it to anyone you want, for no reason whatsover), but on the other hand, it's an unwritten rule that the more merit you have/have earned, better your chances of being recognized or accepted in some signature campaigns. Do merits harm the forum? Not really, but it has sparked many people to open topics which i personally don't find at all interesting, and bump them almost daily in hopes of getting merit for them.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
If i had to choose just one, that would have to be (for historical reasons mentioned above) "Claymore's Dual Ethereum AMD+NVIDIA GPU Miner". I've recently sold my rig due to limited amount of space in the house, but up until then, i would read that topic day and night, spent countless hours tweaking my GPU's and what not.
As for the most helpful user... that would have to be Cyrus. I know this sounds like brown-nosing, but he helped me recover my account in 2017 when it was somehow "hacked". As for other users, many out there.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1.Email validation on registration.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
As a matter of fact I do. Both of these things. I'm part of a small private telegram group where we discuss trades and projects. Some are good at TA, some are good at scam busing, some have access to VC's to get private deals. All in all good synergy. For now, outcome has been very positive financially.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Gentleman doesn't kiss and tell, haha. But in short, there have been several projects that paid off bigtime after 1-2 years. As for loses, yeah there were some, but those were long shots and it was small amounts of money, few hundred bucks.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I love defi, and i love the idea of defi. To think you can leverage your digital asset to gain some instant liquidity, without having some bank clerk anal probing you. It's awesome. However, i think we're a long way from fully being there. As i expect all these food-tokens might implode soon.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
It's a necessity. Money makes people do stupid things. That's why people with the most crypto are quiet, in shadows. I have a friend who had a lapse of judgement, and bought a lambo in 2018. His neighbors noticed that from an old dingy dodge he went straight to a yellow lambo, and "things" started to happen. 5 attempts on his life later, he had to move to a guarded compound.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
The Book of Satoshi
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I'm bullish on ZIL, ADA and DOT. Especially DOT.
TBH i'm more into passive income than one-time investments. But that's a different story.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I expect it to go as high as 15k. There's no TA behind this answer, just my hopes and expectations.
15. P.S. (Optional)What's up doc?
I wanted to know the Hhampuz interview from the start. Is he willing to interview here? haha he's an important person in this forum and so successful in managing the best managers.
