Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 26. (Read 30762 times)

Maybe you don’t know that Mastering Bitcoin is publicly available on Github:

https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook

Actually, this is the most updated version!

Hello @zazad! I'm glad that I'm a part of this interview.
Thank you and here's my story.

My answer base on my experience.
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Remembering back then that was in the year 2017 when I was studying in college while working as a crew of a fast-food chain (Jollibee). (Bitcoin at that time was in a bullish trend and very well known in my country), and I was looking for an extra source of income and a good opportunity on the internet to find something where can I earn extra money, until one day, my manager told me and introduced me to this forum(thanks to him). He briefly explained to me how to become a bounty hunter and then he wants me to learn how blockchain technology works and the usage of Bitcoin as well.
To cut my long story short, this was caught my interest in exploring my self on the forum and in crypto, until I've joined airdrop and collecting faucet to sustain my studying because I'm only the one who supported my self until I finished my study in college. Until now I'm still here even though I've my own work because this forum and cryptocurrencies have totally changed my life especially when it comes to financial problems.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
That was in the last quarter of the year 2018 when Bitcoin was dumped too much. I'm planning to hold for a longer time but that wasn't even happening.

3. How did you get on the forum?
The same story on number 1.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

• Unregulated
• Fear to be scam
• Because of scam incidents that recently happened

These are probably the major reason why a slow down in the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. People afraid to be scam and others are lack technical knowledge when it comes to crypto stuff.

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?
If there are more gambling projects who advertised here in the forum it means that it has a good effect on crypto adoption, more gambling users it means more crypto holders. I don't think there is the harm to the development of the forum if everyone worried about the addiction that causes by gambling we have a Gambling discussion that everyone will surely educate and give an idea the possible consequences on gambling effect.

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, this is the length of year in my experience here in the forum. IMO, probably it gives maturity but it doesn't mean it will give a guarantee of no loss upon your investments. As a new investor of crypto, they should have special education to learn even basic information on how to crypto works on how to study the volatility of crypto.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Since the merit system has been applied, spam and farming accounts were totally wiped out. It seems like filtering the forum and toxic members won't survive if they don't put some effort into making a post. Though there are some allegations of merit abuse/buying, basically they won't survive due to the fact that their merit won't generate.
Regarding the signature campaign, as we noticed that some of the managers now asking number of merits as a part of requirements in applying signature campaign. I think merit system and the signature campaign will probably give courage to the users to have truly effort in making a post, good poster is a highly chance of being accepted if there is a signature campaign. They are no harm in the forum, besides they give a good result to our beloved forum.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
[GUIDES] on Bitcointalk. Index thread (until there is a dedicated subforum?) created by @LoyceV. I also bookmarked this for reference and now it's easy for me to find this topic.
Yeah, there are a lot of useful users in the forum but for me, I think the most is @LoyceV among others, followed by DmdrDmdr, Vod, and others(many to mention, most of them are good in technical discussions).

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
This forum is almost perfect and I don't think if there is something to implement. But there is one that I'm thinking if it is possible to change.

MOD(s) or admin(s) are capable to remove the negative feedback from banned users especially of this is a troll or giving negative feedback for no reason.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Nope, I usually want to earn Bitcoin. I don't want to risk my money, sometimes I gamble but only small amount that I can afford.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I can't remember my big profit but in a big loss, I freshly remember.
Last year, I was a fan to gamble until such day I decided to have deposit a big amount that comes from my earning on the signature campaign. I won't name the site, I lost around $300 on that day by simple accidentally pressed the max bet button, and boom! it's a loss, my entire balance was wiped out.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
I don't have much idea on this, but it seems another hype projects that someday it will be faded like what happened to the ICO's projects.
But I'm following of this thread that made by @Ratimov, [BIG LIST] DeFi Projects & Tokens

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Yes, every one of us are concerned about our privacy. So, anonymity a vital necessity to us and protection as well to our selves.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I haven't. But I want to read Andreas M. Antonopoulos's Bitcoin book. But it's too expensive for me.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
When it comes to investments token, I don't want to give advise, I want to do their own research upon picking the right and have potential one. I usually do advise on the Bitcoin investment not on the token.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I'm very optimistic when it comes to the prediction of Bitcoin price, it might be $20k on last quarter of this year. TA? just my assumption.

15. P.S. (Optional)
Let's always encourage newbies by giving good advice, correction is needed but not the way you insulted and be arrogant. High-rank members should guide newbies and give knowledge to them.

Sorry for my English.
Thank you @zazad.
-sheenshane (at your service)

Thanks for the opportunity @zasad!

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I become interested in crypto when I discovered that we can earn money from it by doing some faucets and some other ways such as app giving off cryptocurrency as reward and many more. Of course I didnt know much about it but the idea of earning crypto and exchange it for real fiat was totally gave me a huge interest to learn more about it. Since then, I joined a lot of free airdrop and bounty giveaway and earned some cryptocurrency which feels good.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Totally cant remember about this but since I was earning cryptocurrency from airdrops and bounty before. I have managed to buy some bitcoins and used it for trading purposes.

3. How did you get on the forum?
Through those cryptocurrency giveaway such as airdrop. Yeah my friend told me to register on forum and like he suggested I did. Then thats it. Joined some bounty, airdrop and etc. That was the beginning of my forum life. But I made a wrong start as Ive only see the forum before as some sort of job to earn crypto. I realized that recently when I decided to learn more and study rules and differemt stuff about forum.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Fear, lack of knowledge and uncertainty. Why? Cause there are still dozen of people that afraid to embrace the innovation of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Government play the role as mediator for the crypto community and the outside world but they set a boundary by means of strict regulation and sometime fud that cryptocurrency is such as bullshit invention. Anyways, will eventually reach the point of greater 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?
Im not a regular gambler, but I do enjoyed some of the gambling site I played before such as roobet and fortunejack. I dont see any harm on the forum, as these gambling sites offered an actual application of cryptocurrency to the users who also love gambling. Negative side? Of course its gambling and it can swipe your crypto instantly. The benefit I am thinking is you can enjoy playing while using your crypto in such fashionable way.

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?
Basic knowledge is important especially when you are jumping to crypto investment. 2-3years of experience can make a person matured when it comes to investing. Losing is a very good teacher, like for me, I never repeat some of my obvious mistake when dealing with investment in crypto. Fomo, panic selling these are parameters you need to use well cause if not the market will drained your asset. I didnt received any special education to learn investing, but I do learned on my own how to prepare myself on investing.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
This topic is very common nowadays. But I will give my opinion about this. Actually, I hated the merit system before, cause I never got the chance to rank on full member when I only need is another week of activity. Talking about bad luck, then merit system happened. I was stucked I guess for 2years being a member rank. But later on I realized that what Im doing is not improving my stay on forum since I only used my account for earning crypto through bounty. So I learned and start from scratch, and some people recognized my effort to change that bounty life of mine and now Im a Hero rank and Im proud that I achieved this through forum contributions. Merit system is a good addition to the forum and I can see it how effectively improve the number of quality posters. Talking about signature, I cant say if its really does harm the forum but what does harm the forum is the scam projects that launches signature campaign.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I think this one Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ once you read this, you can avoid so much you shouldnt do in forum.

Most helpful users? I guess too many to mentioned but I drop some of my favorite users whom always I saw actively helping some newbies especially on Beginners and Help section and some on technical discussion board.. LoyceV, filippone, tranthidung, Royse777 coolcryptovator, Vod, pooyah, and HCP, mocaccino, DmdrDmdr and many more.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
- Integration of additional rank above legendary.
- Additional coin accepted aside from bitcoin and grin for copper membership payment.
- Cant think of the third one.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I do both. Trading and investing are my cup of tea.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Loses almost 4k USD on future trading but thats life (able to recover some though). Sometime it rewards your confidence and risk. Regarding profit well thats a secret.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
New, tempting, and cunning. Most of users have mixed opinion about this. But for me its not that bad. Defi ecosystem added a good figure on marketcap, but I cant deny that it becomes a hype that some scammers using now.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
For me yes. Its totally important especially in cryptocurrency. Only did few KYC on exchange, like Binance and some app I need for my withdrawals on our country.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Not fond of reading cryptocurrency books. But I like to read crypto news on the internet.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Polkadot - New ecosystem aside from ethereum network that could be a perfect rival to it.
Avalanche - Like the innovation of them.
Bitcoin- All time king

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Based on its current price point. I think it can go at least 16k$

15. P.S. (Optional)
Always save some space for knowledge and grab it when opportunity comes.

Thanks again @zasad Ive enjoyed this interview.

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

It was back in 2010 when my brother was offered 10k BTC for just $0.1 per coin (INR 4.7 per coin totalling it to 47k INR for 10k BTC as $1 was worth Rs.47 at that time). Our dad refused to buy it as he thought this is some scam, some sort of catchy penny stock sort of thing that will die some day, and he even suggested us to stay away from this and my brother gave up. I, however, stayed calm and kept looking for more information about BTC and the technology behind it. I was amazed how quickly it was gaining a lot of attraction at that time with its price increasing (and even crashing) like crazy. I learned, and learned more till that drastic move came in BTC when it reached $1k and that was the time I decided to start trading it. That was the time I started taking interest specifically in BTC.


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

Ah, as I said before, when the value of BTC spiked above $1k for the first time in 2013, I asked my dad if I could use my salary savings and buy BTC (yes, I was a teenager back then with some savings made through my jobs I did before). He said okay, but if you lose anything in this, I won't be paying you. It was my 1 year savings that I went all in with, around $500. I didn't buy 1 whole BTC but half of it. The reason why I bought it, was to trade Auroracoin which was doing great, but my bad the team didn't complete their airdrop as expected and I lost my savings due to the trade going under immense loss. A noob trade though.


3. How did you get on the forum?

I was learning about BTC slowly, but was getting mad with some improper information and half knowledge, and I was a social beast when Yahoo messenger took place, so met a lot of people online. Due to this feature and the fact that together we succeed, i tried finding a social place where I can get all the answers to my questions, even the most stupid questions. So, in late 2013 when BTC caught my eye again, Bitcointalk came into my eyes as well and I joined it.


4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

My view on this is very different than others, but it's true.
FUD (Fear, uncertainty and doubts) is the main reason behind the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies or anything that has fear attached to it. FUD of losing and FOMO are two things that stop a normal person (in other words, layman) to believe in the future of 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?

Well, good for a gambler, bad for gambling addicts.
Actually, these projects are the backbone of forum because you can't deny the fact that there's a gambler in each of us and we love to earn BTC through these projects, play with them on their websites and whether win or lose, we enjoy gambling unlike others who lose what they can't afford to lose. They are the ones who would feel harmed with this type of advertising.


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?

Experience is the best friend of an investor that helps him/her understand how to go with the trend, follow it and make some winning trades/investments. IMHO, no special education can beat experience of a person.


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

Merit system is something needed from the very beginning of the forum, many users would have never reached Legendary rank (including me to be very honest ). Seriously, it's just like a token of appreciation, a "like" that gives a motivation to us to work more for the community and contribute in a much better way as expectations are bound around us when we start making mature comments. Signature campaigns are the life of this forum TBVH, those who don't like signatures also have the option to stop seeing them by disabling it through the look and layout preferences of the forum. It's a perk for everyone who actually uses their skills and help the community in any way needed, and by the way, I loved a comment from someone who said that the forum would be boring if there were no colors, signatures are those extra colors which make the environment look festive on the forum.


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

Many, seriously many forum topics are extremely helpful and I won't be categorizing anybody due to the fact that everyone is best in some genre, so hats off to every user of this forum (except scammers and spammers). I personally like SteamTyme, LoyceV, the whole Chipmixer team (hehe), DireWolfM14, and most importantly, DarkStar, these users are my personal favorite, but that doesn't mean I don't follow others. I've seen many members who truly dedicate themselves and do whatever it takes to get into the depth and help others and contribute at their very best.


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

Quick moderation - I'm a bit unsatisfied with the moderation and that's because there are least number of moderators against total active users.

Implementation of bots - If they can't hire moderators, I believe some bots should be implemented that, once a post gets reported, these bots should have the ability to determine spam based on some mentioned keywords by a few known spambusters.

Extra security - Add 2FA to the forum's sign in page so to let us increase our account's security a bit more.


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

I trade on exchanges because I highly fear of the fact that if the tokens are either dumped or just not given by the team on time or any time ever and team runs away (scams), I'd lose everything.


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

My biggest profit was in 2018 when all the alts and BTC were doing great, touching sky-high ATHs and we had some Pundi X. But my brother's greed stopped us from selling it on time and the market crashed. He sold it for half the profits we were in, still went ahead and bought MFT and lost everything. That was the biggest loss followed by a biggest profit.


10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

A story that might end soon if the pump-and-dump scene isn't teared apart from it. Otherwise, it's definitely something I'm loving to learn a lot about.


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

It can't be a precaution for me, but a vital necessity because I love my privacy too much that even a few of my friends don't know what's my username on Bitcointalk.


12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

TBH, in all these years, I didn't read any book based on cryptocurrencies because this forum had been enough for all the information needed. What I've read till date - Satoshi's white paper.


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

BZRX, ZRX, BTC.


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

Prediction hmm... I guess I can't really predict this so accurately but to what I see, BTC seems to remain under $14k at the end of 2020. Now, don't ask me why.  


15. P.S. (Optional)

Let us spread love everywhere, we all need it a lot during this pandemic situation.
I know even I use some shitty slangs somewhere in my comments, but that's due to the fact that we're humans and we can become angry on some topics. I'll try to be calm from now onwards. And thanks a ton zasada for the opportunity to present myself in front of the forum.

No, not really.

SexCoin, GoldCoin (for a little while), Bullion (formerly CGB/CXB) TagCoin and GameCoin...  (and did I mention that I've sold all my HODLings of all alt coins at the end of last year?)

Hibernation, Hibernation, OK, defunct, Hibernation.

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No Tokens (as I said in my interview) not ever.

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The privkeys for Wallet Addresses are portable and therefore open to abuse.

This is redundant if you simply use BTC addresses in the place of usernames and sign your messages. Perhaps you've been swayed over the years because of all the altcoin crowd, but tokenization is not necessary for every single thing.

OK, THAT is a valid reason.  

Perhaps if there was a more formalised structure to the Forum people could be held accountable for their actions (more accountability = more secure??) , and as I said, a third party KYC could validate users - issue a token similar to the captcha token a person can use at log in (they'd still have to physically log in).  All the Forum has to loose is the user name and password details as it is already plus token which could be cancelled if there was ever any doubt a user was who they say they are.

Another variant would be use "Twilio Authy" or google similar two factor authentication.

Does anyone really want to have a stain on their account from a hacking attack and then have to chase after those who've left advisory warnings?  We already have a thread for posting your wallet address to recover your account.

It doesn't. The risk of the forum getting hacked again is one of the reasons not to give the forum my personal information.

bitcoin is pseudo anonymous. the forum should be based on the same principle. imo of course.

(further proof the Forum needs to protect itself)


How does the forum and the associated hacking's equate to "prove who you say you are"?

(I almost wrote in me interview about the length of time it took me to come back to the forum post the 2015 attack.  IIRC quickseller gave my UID the thumbs up as being not hacked).

Bitcoin addresses are public. All my Bitcoin-related data projects could have been created by someone else, and I'm pretty sure others are collecting data too. I just publish everything so anyone can use it.

Bitcointalk history of hacks and vandalism.

It's always good to open a dialogue and promote a balanced discussion.  I've given some suggestions with why I see as the (for want of a better term) "pros", what do you see to be the "cons" in establishing even a partial KYC for those of us who are higher up the food-chain?

You feel strongly enough to say you would leave...

Why?

im with LoyceV.. kyc HERE on a BITCOIN forum? like, what?

not only would i leave and not post, i wouldnt even READ it at that point.

sorry for off topic, might be an interesting new thread. i likely wont participate though.

Um that's odd.  My recollection was it was 20 X 0.05 .... In any event, thanks... I wasn't expecting anyone to actually go hunting for the wallet addresses, but it's nice to know what I said can be verified so easily.

Why? I don't know any other internet forum that requires KYC. I would even argue I'm not even "YC", and there's no no way in hell I'll ever go through KYC on any forum. I'm pretty sure at least 90% of the users would disappear, and the remaining few might pay some poor guy to do it on their behalf.