Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 24. (Read 30762 times)

This same question was brought up by Ratimov a month ago (see below), and I was thinking about the question - and I believe that it is totally unnecessary for the interviewer to answer the same questions as he is posing towards his various guests.

So, in some sense, maybe later down the road, he might want to answer the various questions - but interviewers tend to be the ones seeking the information from others.


Of course, there could be a way to get some of us others to attempt to assist in the interviewing of various bitcoin talk forum members, but so far, I have not contacted the regular folks with whom I interact and/or asked them to participate in this thread.

I suppose if we proclaim that there really is no interviewer, then the interview process would have the potential of becoming more decentralized and merely there becomes a desire to get forum members to answer the same questions - but in some other way, interviews will tend to be more tailored towards the interviewee... like the area of (or subject matter) expertise of the interviewee.

Great interviews will tend to have a lot more individually tailored questions, and at the interviewers discretion, some standard questions might be asked - however, i do tend to appreciate the interviewers who might ask the same questions of various interviewees, but they phrase their questions in such a way that the audience might not even realize that the same question is being asked... (perhaps a bit more difficult to accomplish when the questions are written and presented in advance).

You might be overthinking it, or maybe I'm "underthinking". It looks to me that if you search for this fragment:


You'll get quotes and links and will not double-count the auto-links (where the post ID is repeated inside the "a" tag).

Edit: wrong link

Agreed - I can't think of any specific questions to ask, but perhaps now really is the time for @zasad@ to step up to the microphone. 

I think it's time for zasad@ to answer the same questions he is asking around, don't you guys think so?
We would love to hear your story too, bro.
You should have been the first one to answer but better late than never, right?

Maybe I'm so glad to have this interview @zazad. Though it takes time for me but it was my pleasure to answer this.

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1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I’ve been in the forum since last 2016 but it was not a great year for me nor I have an interest in this. I’m still a newbie during that time, totally empty, no knowledge about crypto at all. But I was trying to fill my emptiness and start searching such a thing early 2017 especially when hearing more about Bitcoin, about cryptocurrency, and the growing market adoption. It was then the year that I was focusing on crypto after losing my job. Thas is very interesting to see and hear people talking about crypto, I was a part of this, and might make myself proud of it.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I can’t remember buying Bitcoin. All I have is coming from the signature campaign, some from Bounty rewards traded to Bitcoin and partly, coming from airdrops (2017).

3. How did you get on the forum?
Someone told me about this online, he gives me the link and read it.  At first, I don’t want to believe him nor to trust people online especially when talking about investment, easy money, quick returns. No, it was crazy to believe, but I was wrong and to find out that this forum (from where I belong now) is not only talking about money, a forum that will enlighten us our understanding toward crypto and knows its role in the community.
 
4.1. What prevents the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
*Doubts
*High risk
*Internet connection
*Government supports

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?
*Positive results- it helps to massive cryptocurrency adoption. Gamblers will be prepared using Bitcoin as they can easily make an easy transfer without getting notified by anyone. They keep themselves anonymously.
*Negative Results- addiction. The only thing that we are afraid of once we are out of control into ourselves.

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 know that not all have guts when talking about investing crypto, but I believe 1-year experience is good enough to evaluate ourselves if we are ready to take the risk.  But of course, it won’t certainly work that easily that is why it needs more experience, actually trading, knowing more about crypto. These things will help it to work perfectly.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Merit system makes every poster enhance their posting habit just to get some and make the forum itself very informative than before.  This also how CM manage to choose participants for signature campaigns (gonna be a sort of competition). However, the Merit system could somewhat be abused by anyone just to rank-up but soon it runs out and gets nothing if they will never change.

Hard work, effort and spend more time creating a useful topic are the ticket for us to have some.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
There’s a lot but I only have to pick a few as I believe that others have already picked them too.
Beginners & Help is a very helpful place to visit especially for newcomers as what I did before.
LoyceV's Beginners guide to correct use of the Trust
Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ  mprep


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I have only one…
*New project regulations. This helps to minimize scam/fake projects.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I’d never invested in any project. I do trading quite sometimes in Bittrex before but I then stop after joining Binance.  Actually, I’m just an average trader, I have an office job so I can only make trades when I have free time.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Trading is not really a place for me. I’d often lose than having gains but I was enjoying while learning some strategies that might help me in the future once I have enough time in this field.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I’m not saying that this Defi system has a negative result but I was then given a warning for newcomers to be more careful in choosing a project. I know that not all of them are fake projects but for sure not all of them will sustain the market competition and keep on the momentum as they have now.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
I considered this as a vital thing. Crypto investment had money involved, it is much important to keep our identity hidden to other people especially for scammers.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
To be honest, I’d never read one. Only  I’ve got information from YouTube, Online search, it was an easy pick and lots of entertainment than reading books.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and EOS. I believe that we know them already, they are considered as promising coins this time and much more promising in the future.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
This year is not really a good year for Bitcoin. The market never looks so promising but I was then positive and hopeful to see it at $15k.

15. P.S. (Optional)

I do recall a few of my known alts investigations containing connections via twitter (but rarely Facebook) - for a while there were a number of twitter handles that had changed hands on a few occasions.

There's still passing references to twitter in the known alts thread (but very rarely Facebook)

Am honored zasad@ for this opportunity And also excited.

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1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, but I heard about Bitcoin first it was only when I got interested in Bitcoin I knew about cryptocurrency, which was 2017, from a total stranger who latter became a friend we sat together in a bus and I could see he was Reading an article with a heading about Bitcoin I had always been curious about Bitcoin so I ceased the opportunity to ask him about it and he obliged the rest is history.

2. When and why did you buy your first Bitcoin?
After I must have learnt about Bitcoin I wanted to take it to the next level and my tutor gave me the nod to open an exchange, yeah I was really skeptical when I saw it required some personal details while registering, It was late 2017 that I bought my first Bitcoin well it was actually a test run to see if the exchange works so i bought little amount of Bitcoin from my bank. I was really excited at that time seeing Bitcoin in my wallet, it felt good lol

3. How did you get on the forum?
I got on the forum because of my curiosity, I wasn't contended just having a Bitcoin wallet and exchange for some years it was getting boring, wanted to know more, so I went in search for answers and better explanation on Bitcoin, I can't remember the particular source but during a session of this forum was mention in the lecture so I took the next step.

4.1 what prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
There should be reasons hindering cryptocurrency mass adoption but that which is on my mind is CRYPTOCURRENCY MISCONCEPTION/MISINTERPRETATION. Many people are lost in the wilderness when it comes to understanding cryptocurrency and easy pass it out, and cryptocurrency scammers are not helping matters, Internet scam also made people shivery/reluctant about cryptocurrency misinterpreting it for just another scam. If they can distinguish what cryptocurrencies are from what they thought, adoption would go up.

4.2 how do you think mass advertising of gambling project has a postive effect on the forum or harm to the community?
Well it is a win for the gambling world and those interested in gambling if the advertised gambling project is fair/true. But scam project will always be of harm to the community, the forum is built/patterned to accommodate your choice of preference so if gambling is not it for a user they can skip.

4.3 How do you consider weather 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successful invest or does an investor need special education?
One can't tell the tales of war without being in the war front or experiencing it first hand, experience is a special education its goes after reading and learning, but there is a wise experience and unwise experience, just because you keep investing foolishly for couple of years Can make you experience. Experience is a blend of it all fails,success,work,learning.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and Signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I think the merit system is exciting and interesting one that promote/instigate good work. Although there are mormous/backlash/bitterness from people, oh well such is life. Signature campaigns are a good thing when handled/controlled by good CM's

6. Most useful forum topic? Most helpful user?
For me I like reading pinned topic/thread first when new to a board -newbies should do that more- in those topic contains useful information/answers other than that useful topic is continuous and is not subjectory.
There are a lot of helpful users on the forum but on my short list would be Ddmr Ddmr, CryptopreneurBrainboss, loyce v, Hhampuz, upgrade00

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
The forum has a good balanced equilibrium and thing might just upset that balance, for now its thumbs up to the forum for me.

8. Do you trade on exchange or invest in project?
Well I have neither done any of the two, am not ruling them out but so far I haven't done any.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
My big profit was using my curiosity about Bitcoin to find this forum that's my game changer

10. What do you think about the De-fi ecosystem?
My interests drops on altcoins or altcoins accommodating project/topics, so I haven't done research on De-fi ecosystem.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Its a mix of both for me for personal security reasons but it can be relaxed at some instance or time it depends.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

HOW BITCOIN CHANGED MY LIFE by GAIUS CHIBUEZE and African writer and Bitcoin enthusias an interesting book bringing wisdom from an African view

13. Advice 3 cryptocurrencies/token for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Oh well my list is
1. Bitcoin, 2. Bitcoin, 3. Bitcoin yeah this is the most realistic approach to investment than any token/altcoin, the rest/any other advice is subjected to personal research

14. How much would Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
My heart wants a million dollars badly lol, I think Bitcoin will cost no more than 15k dollars by the end of 2020.

15. PS optional
Enjoy the little beginning savoring every moment, while you keep breathing keep learning.

Exactly. There were a lot of those. Check patrol (and it's already far under the ICO-peak).

Wait how is this possible? I've never seen a twitter/facebook post except if it's a bounty hunter or a wall observer poster. On average it may be 11 links per post, but there may be posts that have 1000 links in them. You must have made a mistake, because I think it's far from reality 11 links per post.

I tried to quickly do this, but distinguishing between links and quotes where links can have a different description than just the URL made this much more work than I'm willing to spend on this.

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While I'm at it, there's another thing I was curious about: how many times are "twitter.com" and "facebook.com" mentioned on Bitcointalk? I searched the first 53,360,000 posts (my oldposts archive):

• twitter.com: 120,307,526 occurrences
• facebook.com: 98,045,880 occurrences

This includes up to 50% double counting when the HTML shows the same description as the link itself.
It doesn't included posts that were deleted, maybe even years before I scraped the posts.

It's also interesting to visualize the number of social media links per million posts:

At the peak, those 2 websites were mentioned on average 11 times per post. And it would probably have been more if no posts would have been deleted.

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Early 2011 I was waiting for a downtown Guardian Angels patrol, and I glanced at an article in PC MAGAZINE.  It said run this and in a few mins you'll have 50 coins.  I ran it, got 50 coins almost instantly, thought "cool", waited a few mins for the next 50 and had to leave.   Forgot about it until I had a contract in Fort McMurray for a few years and I earned most of my coins on a R9 290X with free power and AC. 

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Never! 

3. How did you get on the forum?
As the technical lead on a small 800 man project left me a lot of free time, I designed guildminers, one of the first mining sites to break down earnings to the atomic level, and share them equally with all members.  I joined this forum using my real name, with stars in my eyes, but I soon realized I could not rely on others to be successful (meaning the miners moving back and forth for the best profit), and my partner and I spilt ways.

4. You created BPIP and the first rankings on this forum.  What made you do that?
I ran a large pay-to website in the late 90s.  Having direct access to the database let me know who the players were.  I knew that information on this forum would help many so  I decided to parse and build it myself.   I was just a beginner in C#, coming from a no-class VB world and no real experience with IDEs or their many addons!  On top of that I had to relearn hardware and networking.  It was a wonder it all worked at first until I started adding too many things too fast. 

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Advertising has a place, but a user should not force ads on others.  Signatures should be better controlled, given as a reward or taken away for infractions.  If a person can earn money by posting, and they are hungry, they will spam if they have nothing to contribute.  Merit is awesome, although earning a single merit is too easy.  Personally, I could not handle 100 new sMerit a day lol - Theymos had more faith in me than I did.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
The topic would have to be my loan collateral post.  I think it was the most referenced post ever, but LoyceV would have to confirm.  bpip.org has all the records now.   Besides the obvious bpip angels, loycev, owlcatz, jackg, Jet Cash, lauda, TP for sure. Unfortunately I've forgotten dozens of others, but I have all the messages to review! I spent too many years fighting scams and not paying attention to the newbies reaching puberty. 

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
ONE - Activity should decay on any new forum rank - allow people to specialize in certain areas.  Trust can be relevant to their area, reducing abuse.
TWO - Get rid of email addresses.  Signing an address might be too complex for most crypto pigeons - maybe use a third party service for private authentication.
THREE - Make the DT lottery provably fair; remove the potential centralization of DT1 trust.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I prefer to make my way on guaranteed income.  You've seen I break down transactions and make them public.   BPIP proved there was value in that information - I now invest in advanced aggregation of crypto data.  Reliable trends and "big data" of the proper attributes will train private AI advisors on buys or sells in a market limited only by train time and the amount of input we have.  Once we identify these true leaders, I'll start to invest with them.   75% of my project time is going towards clubcrypto, 20% building free tools the club will need for automation and 5% spent on research.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
My biggest loss was buying a used video card from my guildminers partner, and bitcoin was around $10 at the time.  35 bitcoins gone and the fan died a week later.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I'm taking it one step further, introducing "cryptobutes" and "NFCT"s.  The current DEFI (gaming) system with random/made-up attributes may be an online fad, but blockchain backed attributes are better futureproofed.  (Until you remove all human control, people will scam.)

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
In my career I never ran from bullies.  I've had so many death threats and in the end, they are all cowards.  Because I only stop people from scamming, and don't scam others, no one has ever followed through on murdering me for pointing a finger at them.   The internet has allowed offers of anonymous murder by proxy, but anyone who ever agrees to such crimes are usually undercover law enforcement.   I am situationally aware, but I don't worry if people know my name or where I live.   I keep a cough in my throat at all times that sounds just like Covid, and I can pull a mask down with my good hand in milliseconds.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
HA!  The last book I read completely was Go-Boy! by Roger Caron, around 1981.  I think that book scared me straight into the honest man I became.   Bought my first computer in 1983, and besides programming books, why waste time reading when I have can have the pre-packaged understanding delivered as I drive or fly?  If I want to use my imagination I'll lucid dream.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
ONE:  NFCTs - Non-fungible crypto tokens increase digital scarcity since cryptobutes cannot be created at will.   Digital ownership and interoperability across the regular NFT network will encourage unique collectibles and gaming.
TWO:  Whatever China creates  :/
THREE:  Chaincode technology - the blockchain comparison to chaincode is similar to http compared to https. The big dollars will be spent on professional infrastructure that can instantly scale and adapt. 

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Give me a couple months, and I'll have clubcrypto.live give you a machine learned guess.    Crypto will surge if there is anarchy, but bitcoin will be hedl and a new blockchain, focused on small internal pods, will be used until order and utilities are more reliable.  Your ownership in these blockchains might depend on how many bitcoin you had or it may depend on how much you can physically do.  Of course, it all depends on how large this second wave is.

Thanks zasad@ for inviting me to join the interview.

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

In 2015, a friend of mine introduced me to Bitcoin. He did a messenger group then added me to that group. There were many more newcomers to that group. But then I didn't show much interest in learning about Bitcoin in detail. The main reason for this was that I was more busy in my studies then. As a result, my friend got angry and removed me from the group.

Then again in 2016 I had a discussion with my friend about Bitcoin again and this time I decided to know the details about Bitcoin. Because then it seemed to me that I had made a mistake before, not knowing about Bitcoin completely. My friend added me to his group and I have learned a lot from reading their discussions about cryptocurrency and blockchain since after rejoining his group, and because of his constant support, I became interested in cryptocurrency.

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

When I got a fairly good idea about Bitcoin after joining my friend's group, I felt like I was missing an opportunity! Right now I should buy some $ s bitcoin. I had no money since I was a student, and my family did not help me to invest in Bitcoin. They thought that investing in Bitcoin meant that money would never be returned! (Although now their thinking has changed.) After much effort, I borrowed some money from my sister, friends and bought about $500 bitcoin. And what happened to me after that was like a dream. Because I was able to increase my capital to a good amount by using this bitcoin properly.

3. How did you get on the forum?

I join in many trading groups and in those groups discussed various projects as in other trading groups do. One day I was searching for some information about a project, I found a link to an Ann thread and brought it to this forum. I probably found that link on Twitter. I have been following this forum since 2018 just to see the ann thread, I didn't really understand at that time how big this community is. I used BitcoinTalk as a way to find information about projects without create an account. I finally joined the community in April 2019.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Lack of knowledge about cryptocurrency makes people think cryptocurrency is only used for illegal purposes. This kind of negative news is intentionally spread by some people which is seen every day in the crypto market. They promote the bad aspects of cryptocurrency more than the good aspects. I think this type of negative news prevents 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?

Advertising has two aspects, positive and negative. Gambling websites now try to take advantage of cryptocurrencies, making it very easy for them to scam players. Scamming players with attractive ads is nothing new.

And the positive side is that the forum is making profit through advertising. Advertisers compete to place ads on forums. Those for whom these ads are given, are already skilled or addicted to 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?

It depends on the person, not everyone has the same talent. What one person can learn in one month, another person will not be able to learn in one year. So it is difficult to give a specific time here, because everyone chooses to acquire knowledge on their own. Experience is needed at every step, special education is not needed if you have the right experience.

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

The merit system is a good system. As a result of merit, members have turned their attention to quality posts. Especially new members post quality to rank up themselves, besides they have no other way. This has greatly reduced the rate of spamming.

The signature campaign keeps the members active. Companies run signature campaigns to spread their project. There is nothing harmful here.

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

It would not be right to give specific topics. The Beginners and Help section helped me a lot, I got all the guides from Beginners and Help when I joined the forum. So this board is very useful to me.

There are a lot of members here who always come forward to help others, so this list will be much bigger. It is very difficult to name a specific member.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

It seems to me that everything is fine. Time will tell if more needs to be implement anything.  

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

I like both. But now more interested in trading. Investing in a project is very risky.

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

Profit Loss is a regular thing in trading. As a trader, I do not calculate my profit or loss after every trade. But I remember losing $1000 in one trade in one day.  

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

It will only be used to create hype in the market and pump the market. Other than that I didn’t get anything special.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

It is difficult to maintain our anonymity in the internet world. KYC is required to use some services.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Not too interested in reading books. If I need to know anything, I take the help of internet.

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

• BTC
• ETH
• LINK

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

>$13000

15. P.S. (Optional)

Control your own greed and stay away from scammers. Because scammers always want to use your greed to scam.

Hello.
I want to interview you. I hope for your consent.

Sure and I am honored to answer this interview.

Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
It was late in 2015 when my friend from the computer science department in my school(I was an IT  student) first introduced Bitcoin to me. Then after a couple of months, there was a local group who are creating a cryptocurrency (I forgot how It was called only thing I could remember is "One coin") and was looking for crowd funding and I was there for the seminar, they have discussed blockchain technology and Bitcoin, and that's where I began to become interested in cryptocurrency.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
It wasn't actually me who bought my first Bitcoin, it was my friend using my money and that's around $5.

3. How did you get on the forum?
My curiosity and interest lead me here. I was just reading some reviews and suggestions about different altcoins in the internet when I stumbled upon this community. Which I found out in a few hours later that this community was created by Satoshi himself.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The lack of use as a currency to purchase some goods and service in the market. As I've noticed a lot of people were actually using Bitcoin and alts as a store of value.

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?
Well, I think there's no harm in the community with the number of gambling projects competing to attract their clients as long the gambling project's team behind is provably fair, honest, and doesn't perform tricks to steal their client's 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?

IMO, there's no special education needed. Everything can be learned in the internet, we only need enough time to study and research, and yes experience plays a huge role on whether you're investing or trading cryptocurrency.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
The merit system enhanced the posting quality of each individual, specially those who loves participating in the signature campaigns, thus challenging and encouraging us to reach higher ranks. Therefore, merit system does absolutely no harm in the forum.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I found a lot of useful topic and helpful users specially in the beginners and guide section, and they're too many too mention. Mostly, reputable members contributes the most helpful topic in the forum.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I can't think of any as I believe the forum works fine with the current system.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I partly trade before in an exchange, but everything is very different today as my day job demands most of my time to give me spare time to concentrate on trading.
I rarely invest into new projects.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Well, big losses usually came from a bad decisions in trading right? That's the same as me when I got to overwhelmed even though I don't have enough knowledge on how to use different kinds of market analysis. So, a $500 loss is considered a huge loss for me.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I dont have much interest in DeFi ecosystem, but I think it does only make enough market hype than the feature itself.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
In my case, It's necessity than precaution since I don't have huge amount of crypto stored in a cold wallet and I don't see any threat to me.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I'm not a fan of reading books, I only read a few lines in the internet when I have a spare time.

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

BTC
ETH
XRP

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Around $15,000. I somehow lost hope on $20,000 by the end of 2020 lol who knows .

Thank you for this set of questions @Zasad. I do enjoyed answering this interview and I did reminisced the past when I was just starting out to engage into cryptocurrency.

Thanks @Zasad for giving me the PM and inviting me to join the interview here. Best wishes for everyone.   

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

I wanna give all credits to one of my client who discussed with me about bitcoin and requested me to create a bitcoin wallet in 2014. During that time bitcoin price was nearly 500$ and he wants to send my payments through bitcoin but i didn't accept his proposal that time. I got surprised after few weeks when i checked its price and it was 700$+ just in few month. I shared this matter with one of my friend (Professional Trader) and got lots of information about bitcoin and its use. He suggest me to take clients regular payment through bitcoin payment method and its safer enough. At that time due to other payment method's pending and banking related issues i set my mind to take some of my payments in bitcoin. Couple of weeks later crypto currency trading looks profitable to me and joined the world of crypto traders. 
 
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?

I got my first bitcoin from my client as payment for my freelancing work. I can't say the exact date of that payment but maybe it was in 2014. My biggest purchase was in 2015 during price drop and i purchased nearly 8 bitcoin at that time. Still i can remember the day when i shared about my bitcoin investment with my dad and after hearing it he told me that he will gonna stop giving my educational expenses. Few weeks later my dad forced me to sell all the coin because someone suggested him that "Bitcoin is a scam". Although he realized its potentiality later and invested too. 

My Grandfather was the only person who secretly supported me to hold my bitcoin's. My grandfather was a banker and still i can remember some of his predictions about digital currency.
 
3. How did you get on the forum?

After starting crypto trading i have joined so many social media groups for getting news about cryptocurrency and in mid 2016 one social media post took my attention where the guy explained how he got scammed by a bitcoin doubler. During checking his posts comment area i found the link of bitcointalk and made a short visit. It was the first time i heard about bitcointalk but due to personal workload at that time it was hard for me to manage free time to explore more about it. Few days later i found some gigs on some freelancing marketplaces which were bitcointalk bounty and official ANN related. 

At last after following this forum users activity, features and acceptability i took my decision to join the community and created my account in mid 2018.
      
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

You can't ignore the power of ancient banking system and its control over global economy. Worldwide banking organisations are not ready to accept the use of bitcoin and its rapid growth warmly. Honestly bitcoin overall development credits goes to its community who are getting connected with BTC family from different countries. Even people are using bitcoin after getting restrictions from their local government. Some middle earning countries have not sufficient technological support in this field and they think if they accept bitcoin legally in their areas then it will help drug dealers, money launders, arm dealers and criminals to make their transactions easily but unfortunately they are not justifying its positive sides. So, IMO its need more time to create  trusts among more people and hopefully modern world people feel its necessity soon.
 
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 am not seeing any problem here and if i am not wrong then lots users are choosing their gambling destination by following these advertisements. For me through mass advertising gambling platforms are making competition among them and bringing new offers to attract professional gamblers to their platform.

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?

Personally I always suggest our community users to enrich their knowledge vault about the specific field before taking the final step. Its same for cryptocurrency investment. I think its not important how many years you spent to gather experiences where it actually depends on users capability of learning and thrust of knowledge.
 
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?

No, I don't think any of them have put bad impacts on forum.

After the implementation of merit system entire community got the opportunity of supporting best users. Like same through signature campaigns crypto oriented platforms are getting the opportunity to spread their names and due to this reason they are giving priorities to bitcointalk and its users.
 
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?

There is so many useful topic in forum but to get informations about forum rules and proper guidelines you can visit this one, Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ.

I don't want to mention most helpful user's name because its not gonna be a short list. All i can say that forum is full with helpful users and they always make their responses when its necessary.
   
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

Time will say what need to be implemented or not and i don't think my personal opinion will make a big difference here. After that i will like to see any kinda strict rules against "scammers".

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

Yeap,,,I have interest in both but percentage level is always higher towards trading.

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

As a trader its hard to remember the losses or profits when you are facing both  in a regular basis. But i passed my golden days in 2017 when BTC broke all past price record.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I think scammers are taking more advantages than real project owners and very soon people will change their mind about it.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

I wanna keep this answer open for creator of bitcoin "Satoshi Nakamoto" because he is the person who  have already showed us its necessity.  

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I can't remember the name exactly but it was blockchain related. Have plan to collect some crypto related books before making the next tour.

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

• BTC
• ETH
• TRX

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

At the end of the year Bitcoin's price will be around 16500$ - 17500$ or little higher but real drama will start when it will touch the milestone of 20k.

15. P.S. (Optional)

Don't forget that scammer's are always ready to steal your money. Stay alert, stay safe.

I don't want to change the interface of 1 post yet and add a table.
If someone wants to make any other interface or selection, he can do it in this thread. I will post a link to his work in the OP.

I am glad to help you, always but I don't understand what you're mentioning about table update here. With the format I gave you, you can update the table by yourself. Additionally, I can not update your OP. So what's your point here?

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So I'd like to skip it.

Because when I built up the table, I thought it can help you to update your OP. It makes less sense to post updated tables inside the thread. It will be covered by many interviews. You can think issue will be solved with links in OP but another problem is it will cause multi-updating posts (just for tables) that are unnecessary.

Thanks for the opportunity zasad@! Awesome initiative. I feel like I'm in a news TV show being interviewed, lol.

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1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
- It was around late 2016 when I started to read things about Bitcoin. Being in a third-world country, it was probably not impressive for the majority during the early times. However, I believe that if I have encountered it earlier, I would still be interested in it as well because of what it offers for the world.

I became interested in cryptocurrencies because of what it offers to the world. Imagine sending money quickly from Asia to America with just a click. I was amazed already. Additionally, stumbling upon Bitcointalk while researching about Bitcoin is a blessing already.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
- Around the time, I discovered it as well, 2016. I was still a student back then, and I remember asking my sister for money to buy a particular service in BTCT. It was well spent and successful. If I had a job back then, I would have bought more. That is what we all say, right? Lol.

3. How did you get on the forum? 
- I stumbled upon the forum from another forum. There is a board there with posts for referrals, and I saw something related to cryptocurrencies. I researched first what that is and what I could do with it. The best reference that I stumbled upon is Bitcointalk.

4.1 What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies? 
- Lack of knowledge of cryptocurrencies and the first impression “it’s used for scams” by people who spread negative news around crypto.

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?
- For the forum, it is a positive effect in profit way, I guess. A lot of ads are being shown in the forum that is related to gambling. They bid for it. If you are talking about the members, there might be some people who are addicted to gambling. They can be trying to stay away from it and get tempted from these ads. I hope 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?
- Receive special education in cryptocurrencies? If you are probably going to be a developer, probably yes, but if not, no need. There are a lot of successful people who raw experience and possibly did not undergo a “special education.” There are a lot of references in which one person can study anything related to crypto, one of which is BTCT.

5.  What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
- I like the Merit System and the signature campaign. I do not know why you are connecting it since it is both different things. One is for the forum; one is for the members. In general, I do not believe it harms the forum.

For the merit system, it improved the total quality. It prevented account abusers from creating accounts and ranking up just by posting quickly. It is up to the actual newbies on how they could receive merit. They could do that by contributing essential information to the forum.

For the signature campaign, it increases the activity of members and the forum. If the signature campaign manager is restricting spammers, it is a positive thing.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
- I listed some of the topics that I have on my watchlist. I included it in my watchlist because I believe that it might be helpful to have easy access to these topics about what I could be currently doing at the moment. Maybe a post by a newbie asking questions related to this stuff, I will link these to them, etc. Everyone is helpful

[GUIDES] on Bitcointalk. Index thread (until there is a dedicated subforum?) by LoyceV
[Guide] Reporting effectively by Welsh
[Guide]How to detect rule-breakers.Techniques and tips. by TheBeardedBaby
TMAN'S guide to getting merit. by TMAN
LoyceV's Beginners guide to correct use of the Trust system by LoyceV
Overview of Bitcointalk Signature-Ad Campaigns by Mitchell
[General] How to earn Bitcoins by Lauda
Ninjastic.space - BitcoinTalk Post/Address archive + API by TryNinja

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
- It depends on what the forum needs, and right now, I believe everything is okay.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
- Yes, I trade 24/7 with Gunbot. For the investment of projects, not really. The last time I tried investing in one, I lost money. It’s better to invest in tools like Gunbot to help you with trading.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
- Recently, I managed to get my balance of $1800 to $3000 and withdrawn it. For my most significant loss, I got liquidated many times. I would not say how much anymore. Lol.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
- I think it is another hype that is focused on fundraising again, just like ICO and IEO. I have not dealt with it and researched it.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
- It is a vital necessity to be preserved, but sometimes you must do KYC, and you cannot prevent that if you want to use a certain service.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
- I have not had the time to read any crypto-related books but mostly trading books. My recent one is Trading in the Zone: Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline, and a Winning Attitude by Mark Douglas

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

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
- $18000 hopefully. We could all just hope.

15. P.S.
- Trade 24/7 with Gunbot. Anyone interested in it can PM me.

broken english has nothing to do with it
i just cant answer ( some reasons )  most of this questions

Thank you to zasad@ for reaching out to me. I appreciate the effort and I hope I'll be a little interesting to keep readers awake, at least up to the half way point...

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

I do not remember the exact month but it was sometime around early 2018, I definitely missed the bull run and the price of Bitcoin was on its way down at the time.
The reason I joined was 'curiosity'. I overhead a discussion about cryptocurrency related stuffs (the term was absolutely alien to me at the time). I picked interest and did more research on it, the deeper I went in the more my interest grew.

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

Full disclosure, I am not one for buying, I'm very frugal when it comes to investing and prefer to earn it when I can. I think the first time I bought bitcoins was when I was repaying a loan I took from @DarkStar_ I actually got a very good deal on the loan, as Bitcoin's market value crashed close to the time I wanted to effect the purchase. This made me fancy myself as a trader for a while and I actually took up courses on it and stocked on trading material, I still nurture the ambition and would like to be an active trader someday.

3. How did you get on the forum?

When I fell into the cryptocurrency rabbit hole this forum was recommended to me by an acquaintance as a good source for crypto knowledge and also a way to earn (more of the latter actually). On finding the forum I discovered the repository of knowledge it contained and I have been hooked ever since.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

There are a couple of factors I can name, such as;
• Scalability limitations
• Price volatility
• Legality in various regions
• [Lack of] Availability of smart devices (more felt in EMDEs)
However, the most important one I think is the reluctancy of individuals to take responsibility of their assets and actually be their own bank. People have gotten used to relying on third parties whenever they can and since we went from storing stuffs in our back yard to keeping it in a bank's vault, it has become a norm that would be difficult to break on a global level.

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 the particular reason why gambling platforms were singled out with the variety of sectors promoted on the forum. I don't think it has a pronounced positive or negative effect. Advertised sites are not endorsed by the forum and does not really affect its growth. I actually enjoy the freedom the forum offers to users, regardless of their motive of registering; promoting a website, running a campaign, organizing an ICO, etcetera.
What really concerns me is, how a bull run would lead to a large influx of new members including potential scammers/spammers

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?

Firstly, I don't think an investor needs any form of special classes, imagining it, I'm painting the picture of a class with multiple slides of various cryptocurrencies showing alternately on a screen. In my opinion, Someone should only invest in what they are actually interested in, special education cannot grow genuine interest. This may be a bad strategy as it limits your portfolio.
I also wouldn't say 2-3 years is a threshold to determine an experienced investor. Some could get their eureka moment, when the whole technology makes sense to them, within a week or a month of learning about bitcoin (or whatever currency they were researching on), some would not get it even after a year and are likely to cut their losses at the glimpse of a crash - Time doesn't build investors; investors are revealed with time.
Experience however increases your resolve. Having gone through multiple market cycles one would be less moved by small changes in charts. After three years an investor should have built up more stoic and more knowledge.

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

The merit system has definitely had a positive impact on the forum. Major changes like the launch of merits and the enhanced newbie restriction has helped to rid the forum of spam and account farms to a reasonable extent.
Signature campaigns offer a means for users to get an extra buck for doing what they love doing, why not? It would harm the forum if users saw it as the purpose of opening an account rather than as an added perk, without the merit system it would have been quite chaotic. With the merit system, it is tolerable.
It could also be an incentive keeping high quality users very active.

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

• I earlier wrote that, 'this is a repository of knowledge', it is impossible to single out one post/topic as the most useful as there are so many of those.
• Every user interested in genuinely contributing positively makes this cut.


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

I should prefix by saying the forum is being run quite well at the moment and there is very little that can be improved. But, if I'm to pick;

• Firstly, there is an idea I have always wanted to experiment. I've never liked the layout of signatures in message pages, I don't mind them in general discussion threads, as I actually wear one, but I don't like such advertisements in private messages. Understanably, not all signatures are promotions, but I can do without them while chatting with a fellow member.
An Avatar would be enough to give a user their unique persona (some are promotions, but are less prominent than signatures)
• Secondly, I will implement 2FA. Very recently a bitcointalk user was hacked, bringing account security to the fore, and while one may have to slip up for a hacker to take over their account, it would be much more difficult if profiles were 2FA protected.
• Lastly, a default dark theme layout would be nice  

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

I am very frugal and do neither of this.

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

Retrospectively, my biggest loss or regret is not finding out about bitcoin much earlier than I did.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I have glossed over a few articles about it, and so far have not seen anything that actually caught my eye. For now, I don't hold any opinion on it

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

I am somewhere in the middle. I am not obsessed with maintaining my anonymity but would much rather be and to this end I will take (to a reasonable extent) precautions to maintain that privacy.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Shamefully I'm yet to read any yet, although I've skinned through "Mastering Bitcoin" a couple of times looking for something specific. I mostly learn by reading consice write-ups or listening and watching pod casts or YouTube videos, anything that gets me the exact information quicker

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

Bitcoin, Bitcoin and Bitcoin. I do not know nearly enough of any other cryptocurrency to recommend it as an investment.

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

*Looks into my crystal ball* between $14,000 - $18,000

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15. P.S.

It costs nothing to be nice. As a newbie on the forum I received guidance and support from more established members who made my journey much more productive. This attitude made the bitcointalk much more welcoming to me - The forum is only as strong as the community behind it.
Looking to the future; Bitcoin is a technology that would transcend generations and this forum should still exist 10,50,100+ years from now as a reliable and efficient community to support the growth of the network.

Regards.

I fully support your proposal.
But on condition that you fill in the table. I will post a link to your table in 1 post.

I do not want to sort the members by rank, merit, reputation or other criteria. I value freedom of speech and any user can express their opinion here.

You don't even need to ask permission for this, just copy the questions and post the answers to them.
A link to each interview will definitely be in 1 post.

tranthidung,  are you ready to constantly update your table?

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Thank you to all participants, 1 post updated with new links.