Hey fellas, I was asked to do the interview so here goes. I didn't even know about this thread, hopefully you'll find some answers interesting. Seems like a great idea from the OP
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?During the altcoin bubble in 2017. I heard about BTC way before but ignored it and have never even heard of altcoins before. When my friend started to show me his Blockfolio portfolio gaining 10-20% daily of course I was instantly interested, but since I'm a cautious person by nature it took me some time to jump aboard. Since then I've been following the crypto markets daily and it's become a 2nd job.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?Ughh, January 2018. It was ~10k$, I thought I did great by buying then. A month later it dropped to 5k$, so it wasn't really my best call.
I've been steadily buying since, little by little, taking advantage of the dips while playing the long-term game.
3. How did you get on the forum?Pure chance. At the time when we entered the crypto space, airdrops were a thing and I was applying to basically everything. Some had a 'BTT username' field required, I did not even know what it was at the time. So I googled, registered and slept on the account for a while. The forum looked too overwhelming, a million of threads and topics, so I just ignored it. Then, for 1 project I was about to do the translation and I needed to post it in BTT local board, which I did - but pictures could not be uploaded because my account was still a Newbie. Our Local is small and connected, the guys helped me out and I've been writing there since.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?A lot of bad press. When I was a kid, I heard of Bitcoin a few times but always as 'money for druglords and kidnappers'. If someone explained it to me then in a different way, I'd maybe have bought my first BTC for way less than 10k$
Crypto space is also too unregulated for institutional investors, and the platforms that do offer investment in crypto offer it with insanely high fees so it automatically turns new investors down. Investing in crypto and using crypto still requires a lot of time and effort and we know that people tend to choose more convenient and safe payment options.
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 is good that we have gambling projects because a lot of crypto is being used there. It means gambling without trackers, without taxes and a fairer experience. Casinos and betting providers are the leaders of crypto adoption and they are doing a great job with promoting crypto.
Regarding the forum - it's a bit different. There's a lot of merit hunting and shitposting going around, a lot of people are writing basically anything to fulfill quotas and the forum experience would be a bit better if there was a way to reduce sig campaign spams. I'm all for campaigns though - after all, I'm in one and am trying to be a good poster to remain in it - it's a way for people to get their first BTC so the campaigns are definitely a benefit for us all.
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?Time is irrelevant. If you do something 15 minutes per day, it will take much longer than if you commit 3-4 hours daily. In crypto it's especially hard to put a time frame because it all changes so quickly. Even if you took 3 years to learn everything, when DeFi comes you have to learn everything again, so I'd say no - 2-3 years help but it's a constant thing - you simply need to dedicate time every day to be really successful as a crypto investor.
Special education is helpful, I did a lot of trading TA tutorials from great traders such as CryptoCred, Luke Martin, Rand and others.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?I do not really care much about merits and think they are easy enough to get if you want to progress. I'm more of a person that will write in his way and collect merits slowly as they come.
Merit system is flawed though, some local boards have 10x merits to pass around than we do, we are a really active board with 1 merit source so it would take ages (years) to get to Legendary by writing only there. Posts are rewarded with merits, but the difference is that a great post gets 1 merit (2 max) from each user, where instead on other boards it is getting 5+, somewhere even 10 or 20.
I think campaigns are great because they give people a way to get their crypto 'for free' and are a broad representation of someone's posting quality. If you're in a good campaign, I'd probably track you more because I will think 'hmm, this guy's in CM, he's probably deserved that'. It would be good to reduce some of the spam though, there are some campaigns that go for quantity and are not my favorite ones.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?Hard to say, I'm spending 80% of my time in Local. There are a lot of users that are really helpful and I don't want to write specific names - for every question there's always someone knowledgeable ready to help.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?For one, definitely more transparency regarding the bans/requests. We had a 10 page thread fighting to get a member from our Local unbanned, the thread went without a reply from staff for a year or so. We asked for moderator - no reply. Now we're asking for a merit source - no reply. Such behavior is really rude and counterproductive - I'd really like it if somebody just said 'not now', 'no way', 'fuck off', whatever. What hapens now is that we are told 'just be patient' - and why should we have to wait for months for simple things? So, going forward, I'd really like to receive answers to community requests much, much faster and with a lot more transparency.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?I do a bit of both. I trade daily, so most of the time I'm looking at charts looking for good entries. I trade both BTC and altcoins (with both BTC and USD pairs). I also have some long-term bags, tokens from projects I invested in where I don't follow the daily price movement but instead wait for the token to do my expected 2x, 3x, 5x in a longer time period.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?Ooof, not hard at all since it's so recent. I missed most of the DeFi train, I still find it highly unregulated and it does not give me any confidence. But hey, people were making huge money so I decided to invest something as well. I decided to buy SUSHI, and then I saw they will be listed on Binance. Since Uniswap fees were high, I decided to wait and bought it on Binance.
Of course, 2 things happened in parallel - first, SUSHI had an exit scam and price fell drastically and I bought it on Binance so was not eligible for the huge Uniswap airdrop.
That was probably the most painful one, because it's hard to miss that kind of airdrop - especially after losing a good amount of money on a coin flip such as a new DeFi project.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?Well, the idea in itself is really interesting. The problem is the same as anywhere else - the crypto 'elite' will paint it as a fair system for all and will get in early, take huge rewards and just jump ship to another project and continue doing the same. It is currently not a good ecosystem due to infinite number of pump&dump projects, a true DeFi system would be one in which you could lend money and collect fees without having to look every 7 minutes whether you lost it all or not. So, interesting as a concept but still a long road ahead of us for it to be safe and fair to all.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?I don't really believe in anonymity nowadays. I will not write my name and address here, of course, and we should do all we can to limit the amount of data we transmit. But ultimately, the people who want will find a way to collect that info and I will not waste half of my day by using TOR, multiple VPN tools and whatnot to be able to watch some porn without leaving a trail.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?A Complete Guide to Volume Price Analysis by Anna Coulling. It was recommended on EmperorBTC Telegram channel, that guy is a really good tutor so I tend to read things he suggests. It's basically a book that explains correlations between price and volume and is a really helpful method during trading. After reading it' I'm more aware of fakeout moves and can find the right setups before price explodes to the upside. A good book and a great TG channel - I recommend both. 130 pages long though, just so you know what you're getting into.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?Always a hard question because crypto moves so fast. I'll stick with some easy ones, BTC is always at least 30-50% of my portfolio so it's a must. ETH looks good long-term, it started this bull wave with DeFi projects and I'm bullish on it long-term. BNB would be my 3rd one - Binance is a key player in crypto and has a way of always knowing what the community wants. They are constantly adding value to BNB tokens so I feel comfortable holding some for long-term.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?No matter the fact we are reluctant to accept it, crypto is more and more trending in line with the stock market. Long-term I really don't feel that correlation will last, but currently in uncertain times it does and we have to acknowledge it. I believe stocks are in a sort of a bubble and will fall, especially if Biden wins the US elections. Crypto might go with it and crypto market cap will probably fall, but I expect BTC to hold its own and act more in line with gold - so a 15k$ BTC would be something I'd be happy to see.
15. P.S. (Optional)Stay well, invest safely and be patient - we're still early here. Don't expect to get rich tomorrow, learn every day and grow and it will all come together eventually.
Oh yeah, unban RegulusHR and give us a moderator please
Cheers!