Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 27. (Read 30762 times)

See Rules for Serious Discussion and Ivory Tower: anyone can read it, but not everyone can post.

O.k.  Finally, I am caught up in this thread, and I followed through with my personal resolution to read all of the interviews (does not mean that I understood anything that I may or may not have attempted to read... hahahahahaha).

Below are all of my responses to interviews and some other points that have been made in this thread as of the time of this post.  

Hopefully zasad@ does not conclude that I am cluttering this thread too much by making a variety of responses... and surely, after I have read through the interviews up-to-date, I feel a bit more prepared to read future interview responses and perhaps to attempt to get more out of them (as was my previous comment that I believe that it can be more difficult to get the flavor of a written interview, as compared with some kind of live or "in person" interview - and probably I am guilty of boring members to near death too when they try to read through lengthy responses that come from me from time to time).

Probably, too, I am going to tentatively agree with zasad@'s presumption that some advantages could come from a written format - at least in terms of members ability to link and also to customize their response in ways that might not be as easy to accomplish if the interviews were live and oral.


I merited this particular post because I believe that it is good that you are willing to a customized interview, but really, like zasad implied here (and some of his other posts clarifying the interview process), each of us has an ability customize the amount that we answer or do not answer the general, all applicable, questions.

The reality of the matter is that even long time forum members are NOT necessarily going to know other forum members, even if they have an extensive history, so the questions allow each interviewed member to frame the answers in his/her own way, make a spin or be obscure in regards to various responses.

Implicitly you are correct Vod, in regards to some preference that zasad might tailor some of the interview specifically to you and maybe not have too many generic questions.. but even when I was going through my interview responses, I found that I could just mold the answers into the area that I would prefer to discuss.  Another thing could be that if you do the interview with the more generic questions, then some things that you say within your responses (or even some of your lack of responses) could trigger a follow up, even though I have not come across very much followup, beyond merely some very superficial questions to prior interviewees.  


I did NOT know that there was any section of the forum that would be deemed as "ivory tower", which presumes that regular/normie members would not have access to such section of the forum.

Is this true, or merely a figure of speech coming from Quickseller?


hahahaha

Mr. moneybags.    I am sure that you refused to pay any higher than $50k, which would only be reasonable since you only paid me that amount.  



I read yours.. and holy moley!!!!!!!!

        


I understand some of the criticisms of the WO thread, including accusations of circle jerking, both in the sense of merit sharing and also circle jerking in the sense of bitcoin maximalism.   I also understand some of the criticisms of the off-topicness and just getting through a flood volume of posts, especially during periods of relatively higher BTC price volatility...so there may be some ways to get some perusing advantage/utility from Loyce's wall observing perusal tool that he mentioned and linked above.

So, sure perhaps the WO thread is NOT going to be suitable for everyone.  I believe that I am lured to that thread so much because of the combination of the ability to have some common allegiances when it comes to beating upon shitcoins and shitcoiners, to be able to speak and post pretty freely (sure, I am personally part of the volume problem... I admit   ) and just to randomly be able to see what might be going on in the macro-news space, too, without necessarily being off topic - while at the same time just skipping posts that might devolve into off-topic subject matter that is not very appealing to my own personal preferences, and I think with any relatively "open topic" thread there are going to be some ideas that are posted, from time to time, that feel personally repulsive or revolting - but such posts still might generally be tolerated because there seems to be a bit of an anything goes tolerance in that thread, except for unduly pumpening or shillening shitcoins - and even a bit of moderate pumpening of shitcoins tends to be tolerated (probably because even some of the shitcoin pumpening does end up helping to assess some kind of a pulse on what is going on in broader cryptolandia that might also end up having some indirect, and even some times direct, impacts on kingdaddy).

true enough. there is the drama and small talk but thats part of the WO "charm" for want of a better term.. other, less polite terms apply of course but i wont repeat them here.. and yes, you do need to read through a lot of fluff but its worth it imo.

Wait, there are? 🧐


/kappa

I'm waiting for an answer But I hope for a positive result.
I want to interview our crypto women, tell me the candidates?
I went to some of them and got rejected.

Many people ask me: "How do I choose candidates?"
In a random order, don't think that if I contact you later, then you are less interesting.

it will be later

The invaluable information is hidden in between large amounts of small talk. A monthly summary of all important things would be great, as I don't have the time to read all posts.

I made WallObserver.tk if you like scrolling.

I used to visit the wall observer before but I didn't see it as "an invaluable source of the pulse as to where btc is going". Most of the conversations I read  every time I go there were small talks. Maybe I just don't get it yet and I still have a lot of learning to do. I'll be lurking there again.

First and foremost, thanks for confirming through PM that you are choosing respondents randomly. Without which, I wouldn't have consented nor posted my answers here, having noticed that previous interviewees are considered crypto veterans and authorities. My answers might just end up being frowned upon. Anyway, and out of deference, here are my very honest answers:

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

For sure, I had a few fleeting encounters with crypto way back then, but the interest started to grow and more focus was put into it in 2016, around the time when I was working in the Middle East. I was heavily into crypto gambling and investment at that time.

While I was truly enamored of Bitcoin's philosophy, more weight was given to its rising value at the start.

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

It was in 2016 and, frankly speaking, it was all for the sake of money. It all failed, though. I got scammed.

3. How did you get on the forum?

If my memory serves me right, it was from a link in Primedice.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

First, I would refer more to Bitcoin than to other cryptocurrencies. Also, by mass adoption I mean majority of the people around the world use it in their transactions as a currency.

I guess what hinders mass adoption or at least slows it down are the same problems we faced before.

Payment with Bitcoin requires a fee and waiting time. These may not be experienced when you transact with cash and other forms of fiat payment. Furthermore, while Bitcoin is not anymore illegal in so many countries, it is not accepted as a legal tender either. But the primary reason, I believe, is that most don't want to spend a currency whose value is fast increasing over time.

4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?

The development of this forum is not in anyway dependent on the advertising of gambling projects. Unless a significant number of these projects are proven to be scams or unfair and a pattern is somehow created, I don't think the promotion of gambling projects will harm the community.

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

The merit system rests on the subjective interpretations of users as to which or what kind of post is merit-worthy or not. Moreover, a single post which may not be that special at all could actually receive as high a merit as 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 from a single user alone. Also, any user could beg, buy, ask, hunt for merit. Merit circles could also be easily created. Having said these, the number of merits of a user may not actually signify anything, much less his/her capacity to contribute constructive responses to discussions here.

To be honest, this forum would be a lot more quiet if not with signature campaigns. This may not necessarily be bad as it also incentivizes constructive posting.

Do they harm the forum? Not necessarily. There are pros and cons to having them. Surely, however, spams are happening primarily due to signature campaign post requirements.

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

I cannot name a particular topic but, in general, the oldest topics are probably more useful and insightful. Of course, pinned topics are some of the most very useful topics as well.

I also cannot name particular users but I'm pretty sure most of the oldest members of this forum are genuinely drawn into discussions bringing their relevant couple of Sats.

Right now, we can only count with our fingers those users who share their deep knowledge in discussions without a paid signature at the bottom of their posts. I am not saying, of course, that having a paid signature does not make them helpful but perhaps a number of their constructive posts wouldn't have been made were they not after a certain number of posts within a certain period of time. 
 
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

I honestly can hardly think of any. It seems the forum is currently in its best shape. But, well:

• There should be a maximum number of merits that a user can send per post.
• Inspired by Vod's BPIP, I guess the number of posts deleted by mods could also be made public in each user's profile. Somehow this is to easily distinguish a relevant or constructive poster from a mere spammer or troll. As a matter of fact, the number of times a user has been banned for whatever reasons should also be part of his/her public profile.
• Total time logged in should also be made public. I bet there is a huge number of users here who just drop by to make a post, not even read previous posts, and then leave the forum. They're just probably complying with their campaign's posting requirement.

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

Yes, I do trade on exchanges, although much much lesser than before and mostly only during large swings. I also invested in a handful of ICOs before.

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

This definitely won't be a story but I've made a good amount of money during the golden days of ICO. Big losses would include the amounts which got scammed from me when I was a Bitcoin newbie, those losses from my failed trading days, and also when I converted a number of BTC when the price was very very low.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

There are promises of DeFi that would really make the financial world a much better one. For one, DeFi is somehow leveling the playing field, the traditional financial services provided by traditional entities being more prone to discriminate. However, the risks of this new innovation are also worth noting. At this stage, DeFi, especially the individual platforms and apps, could have a lot of points of failure or loopholes which could easily be taken advantage by hackers and other online threats.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Anonymity, just like precaution, is a vital necessity.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Never read a book on crypto, only articles.

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

First and foremost, I'd advise everyone not to treat cryptocurrencies as mere investments.

But since the reality loudly speaks of them as investment opportunities, you better buy Bitcoin. The other two you buy based on their fundamentals. I prefer not to name any.

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

Let's just say around $17,000. This is just a wild guess, of course.

15. P. S.: Some answers are based on what I can only remember. Others are, of course, just honest and humble opinions of a crypto layman.

Wow, this is very very cool, its fun getting to know some of the OG's of bitcointalk. Some of them have very cool story, for reals.

Dude, you have to interview the mods, global mods and the admins. Chances are, most of them will be too busy to apply, but dammit try. I would love to read about them, as I just spend more time reading on this forum than actually posting(fml).

wait..does this mean you're the paparazzi of bitcointalk now?? "Exclusive interview with THE PHARMACIST NEVER SEEN BEFOREE (*NOT CLICKBAIT*)"

Well, I am glad that my "brevity" this time may have helped lessen some amount of anxiety on your end.  Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day to write (or read, for that matter) long-ass posts (whatever that might be?).

I did add two Edits, so far, which hopefully will not materially lengthen my interview too much. 

I was ready for much worse when I read your name.
I could say that, given the 15 questions, you was pretty careful containing your "Wall of Text" attitude.
 

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

In August 2013, I was considering reallocating some of my investments, so I began to research.

My then portfolio was in mostly stock index funds, bonds, real estate and business ventures, and mostly I had built such portfolio over the previous 25 years.  

At the time of my late 2013 research, I was interested in adding a gold-like assets as a dollar hedge and perhaps adding risk, yet I did not like what I was finding regarding gold-like assets in terms of fees and third party control and I felt some terror if I were to actually physically hold gold…  I recall coming across bitcoin at that time, and I bookmarked it as: “Hm.. interesting, get to later”  

In November 2013 I met a guy in his early 20s, and he told me how rich he had become from buying bitcoin in 2012.  He told me that he was getting drugs from silk road and he inadvertently accumulated 25-30 BTC for less than $10 each, and he proclaimed that with the passage of time, he had noticed that BTC had shot up to around $260 each, before correcting to below $100 and then bouncing back above $600 at the time of our conversation.

In some ways, the guy was presenting himself as a kind of investment genius but admitting to a lot of luck.  I thought whether the guy was lucky, genius or some combination, surely he had done well with bitcoin.

I was inspired to open my “get to later” bitcoin folder, and look into bitcoin. I recall reading a few threads and looking at recent price performance and generally figuring out if it had some kind of investment use cases, such as superficially seeming like it might be able to serve as a gold-like investment to hedge against my other various dollar based investments (I may have referred to wikipedia too, for that initial research and ideas about bitcoin).  

If you will look back at the November 2013 charts, you might well notice that even while I was looking into my BTC introduction, the BTC price had nearly doubled within my research week, and that may have caused me unreasonable anxiety.. later more properly identified as FOMO symptoms, perhaps?

I would like to imagine that I had done adequate research into BTC before starting to invest, but when I look back at my notes and consider actual happenings, it appears that I was predisposed toward frontloading into BTC..    Accordingly, I started DCA buying BTC in November 2013, which would have been within about a week after first starting to look into it.

I believe that my idea was that I could get started with a kind of modest BTC DCA and research as I go. In November 2013, I authorized myself a 6-month budget, and by April/May 2014, I ended up extending my budget and DCA authorization for another 6 months bringing me to a year of mostly DCA buying by the end of 2014.

By the end of 2014, I had largely reached my BTC accumulation goal to reallocate about 10% of my investment portfolio into BTC, and by the end of 2014, I largely considered that I had transitioned into “bitcoin addict” status that might be better categorized as bitcoin bagholding?      


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

I purchased my first BTC on the street on November 29, 2013 for $1,500 for 1.2486 bitcoins; yes, $1,201 per corn.  

I made my first BTC purchase based on my predisposition towards sound money ideas, and my quickie research revealing number go up 100x in 1 year in 2013, so even though I expected BTC price to be at a bit of a potential price peak, I still was receptive to its proposition as sound money.

As mentioned, at about the same time as my first purchase, I authorized myself with a budget to begin a 6-month DCA accumulation process.  I also employed a bit of a front-loading technique in order to attempt to get a bit of feeling that I had a decently-sized stake in our beloved king daddy, in case number were to go up while instructing myself to simultaneously continue researching further and prepare in case number were not to go up.

Of course, retrospectively we see that the BTC price ended up going down quite considerably over the next 6 months and also largely, number went down relative to my first purchase for the next three years.  

Sad but true that my first BTC purchase did not become profitable until more than 39 months after purchase (March 1, 2017), and not sustainably profitable until 40.5 months (after April 18, 2017).

There is no real need to feel sorry for the delayed profitability of my first BTC, because as you likely realize, dollar cost averaging tends to have advantages during periods of price go down, since I had continued buying BTC throughout those first 3 years between late 2013 and early 2017, rather than sitting on my hands or whining about number going down.  

Essentially, my ongoing DCA BTC purchases had caused my average price per BTC to lower from $1,201 per corn to around $500 per corn by the end of 2016, and of course with a bit of a larger stashenings of sats..

On the other hand, my having had gotten sim card swapped in early 2017 (a kind of other side of the story) did cause my average price per BTC to raise back up to around $750 per each one accounting for the losses of BTC through the hacking of several of my BTC accounts.


3. How did you get on the forum?

The same guy who introduced me to his silk road BTC profits story in November 2013, told me about the Wall Observer thread in February 2014, describing the WO thread as a troll box thread – which seemed right up my alley.

My subsequent visit to the WO thread around page 4,550, caused me to register a forum account and draft my first WO/forum post on page 4560    

Of course, the WO thread now has 27,156 pages of historical memorabilia, in spite some members engaging in mass deletions or rage deletions from time to time.   I have always been a bit of an “anti-deletion” advocate, if there is such a thing.  

For my first year or two on the forum, I did not venture much outside of the WO thread.


4.1. What is your current strategy for bitcoin?

From late 2013 to late 2014 I was largely in BTC accumulation mode, following a kind of learn as you go front-loading DCA methodology… and I believe that by the end of 2014, I largely met my goal to put 10% of my investment portfolio into BTC.

Since BTC prices largely stayed below my average cost per BTC through 2015 / 2016, I continued a kind of maintenance DCA practice through 2015/ 2016.. and probably somewhat inadvertently I had gotten my investment into BTC somewhere in a supra 13% territory - which I had considered to be a bit “overinvested.”  

Perhaps my thesis of what constitutes being “overinvested” in BTC still holds true today.  I am thinking that there are not really needs to invest more than 10% of an investment portfolio in BTC because bitcoin has such an ongoing asymmetric proposition in terms of if its thesis comes even partly true, investing 10% would still end up causing considerable wealth accumulation because of the nature of what bitcoin is.

I do understand, on the other hand, that anyone who has not really established a somewhat diversified portfolio, may ultimately end up investing way more into bitcoin, as a percentage because they are just getting started out in terms of building their investment portfolio.  So blanket statements sometimes can be difficult to justify in terms of what might be prudent and appropriate for someone in a different timeline situation.

Even though BTC prices rose though 2017, I had decided to only skim off small BTC profits along the way up and NOT to sell large chunks of my BTC nor to significantly reallocate out of BTC – contrary to the guidance of traditional investors….

Part of my rationale to just let my BTC ride through that period has to do with the remainder of my investments being sufficiently enough to sustain me, and my then calculation that my investment timeline in BTC was going to be at least 4 years after that 2017 timeline.

With the 2017 price rise, my BTC allocation got up to 70% of my investment portfolio during the BTC price peak to $19,666 based on BTC price appreciation and dropped back down to 40%-ish during the BIGGEST BTC price drop down to $3,124 in December 2018, and currently, based on recent BTC price rises, I am probably still allocated in the ballpark of 70% BTC allocation, and these numbers continue to be based mostly on BTC’s price appreciation rather than additional investment since I have not been putting much if any significant additional value into BTC since 2017.

In essence since 2017, I had largely transitioned into what I would consider a maintenance dominated BTC strategy rather than a primarily BTC accumulation strategy, even though I will accumulate some additional BTC from time to time mostly from funds already dedicated to BTC.

So, currently such BTC maintenance strategy tends to be skimming small amounts of BTC when the BTC price goes up – an approximate formula that is 1% skimmed for every 10% the BTC price rises, and buying back BTC with the skimmed off proceeds when BTC prices go down…  if they go down.. If BTC prices do not go down, then I just leave those dollars on the table and likely to just withdraw at some later date.. so I do not get worried about NOT being able to buy back BTC lower than the price that I had sold, in the event that the BTC price never again drops sufficiently below my sales price.

Yes.. I agree this whole process of selling on the way up and buying on the way down is a bit of an accounting nightmare..... yet my foundational ideas on my current BTC strategy came from the SSS thread….**  and, I hybridized and personally customized/tailored such SSS strategy, too.

** An ironic thing about the SSS thread is that the OP author is a bit not sane, and even considered quite a scammer, but still the self-help ideas within the thread are still good.


4.2. Can you suggest ways to diversify the risks of falling bitcoin prices?

For me, I have always considered Bitcoin as a relatively long-term investment, and I believe that deciding to long-term invest in any asset whether bitcoin or any other asset remains a combination of financial and psychological commitment.  

Having long-term commitment to an investment, does not mean that that the technique should be blind nor that the technique cannot be adapted because of changes in circumstances or changes in perspective, including feeling a need to get out of the investment if circumstances warrant.  

First principles suggest that long-term investors should NOT be investing more than they can afford to lose, so therefore they should not be feeling desperate about their investment at any time, especially if they are investing into a seemingly highly volatile asset, such as bitcoin.

To me, NOT investing more than you can afford to lose means to make sure that personal cashflow is in order to cover all expenses, including emergency expenses for a minimum of 6 to 18 months.  How many months that any BTC investor projects out cashflow will also depend upon the level of complicated expenses, businesses, and/or support of family… the more complicated and the more variables, the more prudent to project cashflow out on a further timeline in order to attempt to prevent causing your own emergencies from lack of foresight and/or due diligence.

I had tailored my overall bitcoin strategy to my situation by accounting for cashflow, my other investments, my views of bitcoin as compared with other investments, my risk tolerance, timeline and my time available, skills and abilities to plan, strategize and learn along the way  - to tweak plans from time to time, trade if warranted, reallocate and other discretionary adjustments along the way. Figuring out each and every one of the above factors can take a very long time, and can be worked and tweaked along the way, so should not stop anyone from acting while they are tweaking and learning along the way.

When I first got into bitcoin, I considered that I had a one or two year timeline to be my projected minimum time to invest, and of course, a longer timeline would be ok too

These days, the fundamentals of BTC have improved greatly and seem to justify recommending that anyone coming into bitcoin should start with a minimum of a 4-year time-horizon for investing and of course, longer is better, too.


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

Of course, the current merit system does screen out scammers, account farmers and shills.  Maybe not a perfect system, but it does seem to have some screening out efficacies.  I did believe that theymos was going to increase the number of merit sources, but currently, it seems that the number of merit sources are still stuck in the assignment of slightly fewer than 100 merit sources.

I am not opposed to Signature campaigns since they allow members to earn BTC once they reach certain ranks.  Signature allowances are part of the forum’s character and history, and can be beneficial for some forum members, which also seems to be good for incentivizing good posting behaviors.. Accordingly, if some members want to stack some sats through signature campaign participation, there seem to be various safeguards in place.. including members who monitor abusive practices that happen through any system that has financial payouts.


6. The most useful forum topic?

Surely, I continue to like the Wall Observer thread, that touches upon the latest and greatest in bitcoin events and frequently points out if there are other highlights in the forum and if no one is posting about BTC therein, which does happen from time to time, then it will tend faster and easier to scan through the posts therein.


Most helpful users?

I am of the belief that nearly any genuine posting member can be helpful in terms of providing a personal experiential perspectives… and sometimes it takes a while for members to warm up to one another and sometimes members might be meanies and nice  .. but not necessarily both meanies and nice at the same time.  

Seems to me that with the passage of time merit and trust scores do tend to show which members are helpful and genuine – even though trust and merit scores might not be completely correlated to helpfulness..  For example, sometimes members have high merit and trust scores but are not helpful kinds of peeps (perhaps disingenuous kinds of peeps, sometimes).

It can take some time for the helpfulness of new users to be reflected in their merit and trust scores… and surely sometimes, some helpful members are underappreciated and not reflected in their merit and trust scores.

TLDR: helpful members tend to be any member who is genuine.


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

I have grown accustom to the ways of our forum, so it is difficult for me to suggest changes as if there were some defects. In other words, I cannot think of any forum change suggestions at this moment as I type.

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

Through the years, I had traded on at least 10 exchanges at one point or another.. but mostly just small amounts of my BTC in the trading method that I described above in response to question 4.1..   Essentially, I tend to keep less than 15% of my total BTC value on exchanges at any one time.  

Note:  I understand that the amount of value that I might keep on exchanges is and has been more than what other members would suggest to be best practices, so I concede that my way of using BTC and participating in the BTC economy is a bit more of a risky way of using BTC.

Here are the main ones that I used historically:
BTC-e (later WEX and later closed by USG)
Binance
Bitstamp
Bitfinex
Bittrex
Circle (retail purchases - no longer the same thing)
Coinbase Pro
Gemini
LocalBitcoins (not really allowed for face to face cash transactions, which is one of my preferred methods).
Uphold

I understand that there might be some better ways to get BTC and to trade BTC these days, and at some point, I might try out some new exchanges – including trying out some of the decentralized exchanges or lightning based services, to the extent various other ways of participating (including running a node) seem to be growing in the space and/or I have been growing in confidence in them to try out..

Since I got into bitcoin, I have had an overall philosophy that I need to maintain ways to exit my BTC investment if needed, even if I never actually end up employing any of those means to exit.

Edit after I looked through some of the other interviews:  I had missed the investment question, and so far, I am not invested in any bitcoin or crypto projects.

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

I already mentioned my bit of embarrassing sim card swap attack incident in early 2017 that resulted in hacking of my access to several exchange accounts and a loss of quite a bit of BTC.  I found out that hackers can be quite organized, sophisticated and fast.

Of course, there are various safeguards and protections that can be taken to attempt to be more secure, and there are quite a few articles on the topic of security and even on the topic of sim card swapping, which has become quite popular in recent years because of the irreversible nature of bitcoin and other crypto currencies and with quite a few phone carrier loop holes in places like the USA.

I understand that even with lots of sim swaps and hacks, it still can be difficult for guys to actually implement protections that should implement and might be available to them, even when safeguarding information is available.. and certain privacy/information/data leaks do continue to happen to sometimes giving hackers some easier ways to get in…

If given chances, hackers will take the easier ways in if they are available, but of course if they know about some of your details (such as BTC holdings or other personal details) or you seem to engage in some sloppier kinds of lack of OPsec behaviors then you could be helping to make yourself more of a target or they might focus more efforts on you than on others.

So, sure hackers might have tools to get beyond some of the more simple security measures that HODLers might take, but with anything we have balancing concerns too, and there are a large number of ex-BTC HODLers who have securitized themselves out of their coins, so sometimes taking too many safeguards could part some BTC HODLers from their coins because they are overly secure and they lock themselves out of their coins.  Bitcoin is not forgiving in the direction of under security nor in the direction of over security, and there is no one you can call for help if you really lost or forgot how you secured your coins.


10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

To me, Defi seems like an “innovative” way to convert various analogue Ponzi scheme practices into digital algorithm Ponzi scheme practices with fancy terms, such as “smart contracts” and “yield farming” to get folks sucked into likely purposeful complications, but in the end, still just glorified Ponzi scheming scams with little to no underlying value beyond a hopening to attract the next greater sucker.  

Many of us in bitcoin for a long time realize that the similar kinds of accusations are made towards bitcoin, yet we also can recognize that bitcoin is different, even while people still get confused by what differentiations exist between bitcoin and the multitude of innovative complexities in cryptolandia trying to separate normies from their bitcoin through get rich quick aspirations.

I don't tend to get tempted by the various kinds of get-rich-quick ploys whether the shitcoin and ICO craziness of the 2017 period or some of the current hype around complicated smoke and mirror products, such as defi, yield farming, blah, blah, blah.


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Anonymity has been a preferred practice for me.. and largely has been preserved..  

For example, when you and I run into each other on the street, and you proclaim: “hey, you must be JJG…” . I will respond by plausibly denying you.  


12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I don't recall reading any crypto currency books… I know, it sounds sad… or should I say “pathetic?”

As a concession, I have listened to a lot of bitcoin related podcasts over the years, to the extent that listening to podcasts might have me to understand either bitcoin or myself.  Here’s a list of most of them.  


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

Don’t fuck around with shitcoins.  Bitcoin is sufficiently double plus good enough.

Edit after I looked through some of the other interviews:  As I mentioned, my overall BTC approach is to treat it as a long term investment.  I have not come across any shitcoin, token or other crypto project that would rise to the level of worthy of investment or even to get passed my current timeline which is 4 years plus (even if I were to compromise, I cannot think of a shitcoin, token or other crypto project that would get passed a lower threshold 1-year plus investment timeline, in such a way that they are offering anything different from BTC).  If they cannot meet my minimum investment timeline threshold, then I would categorize them as gambling rather than investing.  I only gamble with very small portions of my network (like pocket change kind of plays), so from my perspective, I don't really gamble.

I consider my BTC trading system to be merely attempting to insure BTC price volatility.  One of the most inevitable things in bitcoin is its volatility, and my BTC trading system merely takes advantage of such volatility rather than betting on such near inevitable volatility because I attempt to set my BTC trade orders in such a way that I am emotionally neutral as to which direction the BTC price goes in the short to medium term, so long as in the long term the BTC price goes up (which going up is part of the presumption of long term investing in BTC thesis, anyhow).

I don't say others should not gamble because they can do whatever makes them feel good, but I cannot recommend any technique that I do not think about or employ - and of course the techniques and the considerations for gambling are going to be different from the techniques and considerations for investing.


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

I am thinking that at the end of 2020, bitcoin’s price will be somewhere between $14k and $17,250..
Part of the rationale for my prediction is that the end of the year is only 4 months away and $17,250 seems most plausibly to be the next BTC price resistance point and the last resistance point before getting into the dead man’s zone..

Once bitcoin prices get above $17,250 (when though?) then Bitcoin prices will most easily pass through the deadman’s zone of the previous ATH to be ported into the $23,500 to $30,000 range… but still, the $million question remains, when?  

15. P.S. (Optional)
Seems like I already said more than my fair share.  

Slow death (Hero Member)

Let's start

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

"well I made money from PTC sites in 2014, I remember that at the time I made money on Neobux and Probux (of course I thought they were legitimate businesses), with these two PTC sites I made $ 200 a day, it was excellent... until one day I enter the probox site and see on the forum saying that the Paypal site had frozen the probux account, but the probux administrator assured that he would continue with the site and I will create an account on payza , about 30 days after paypal had frozen probux account the site became a scam, it was a big nightmare for me because i had more than $ 30,000 on the site (i don't remember the exact amount), i only got Neobux which reduced the value of the clicks of the ads and my profit went down a lot, but months later I saw on the Neobux forum that the probox administrator was a serial scammer called Gustavo Gil Peron and had a scammers allied to him one of them was Alexandre Pereira Prazers and two others women I no longer remember the name

Months after the disappointment I had with probux I had to look for other ptc sites, because Neobux's earnings were very small, but all the PTC sites I found on Paypal froze their account and after some time the PTC sites started adding Bitcoin as a means of payment and that's when I went on google and researched bitcoin and discovered this forum, it was in 2016.

Unfortunately when I joined this forum I didn't know anything about DT and much less had any idea that many Bitcoin Double and HYIP sites were ponzi schemes (I know it shows that my stupidity was at an immeasurable level), but man I didn't learn the lesson even though a lot of money was stolen on the PTC sites, I still had faith in people and easily believed in them ... anyway, create Noni account and participate in the Give ways that hyip ponzi sites posted in the gambling section and for that reason I received negative feedback

30 days after I created a NONI account and received negative feedback I went to travel where I suffered a car accident on the way and lost my passwords and then I created this current account and decided to start doing research on scammers so I wouldn't be cheated and stolen money and as i had been stolen by the hashocean also my anger and hate for scammers grew a lot and it was there that i sold my Nvidia 9800GT video card that i played games, sealed my other HD, sold my RAM memories and my 19 inch monitor, i ordered money to my father and I went to buy bitcoins and it was there that I also met bestchange and started using bestchange to buy bitcoin) I don't remember the site that was added to bestchange at the time)... but it took 3 days for them to send bitcoins to my wallet, was exchange payza for bitcoin"

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

"I bought bitcoin in 2016 because I had no other way to make money on the internet, from the research I started to do I realized that PTC Sites were ponzi schemes created by many serial scammers, I realized that I should never invest in Hyip/ponzi and cloud Mining sites, so the best and only option I had was to buy bitcoin and do day trade and Hodl that's why I risked selling my stuff to buy bitcoin"

3. How did you get on the forum?

"paypal campaigned against PTCs sites by closing all accounts on PTCs sites, PTCs sites added bitcoin as a means of payment so I went to investigate what bitcoin was and found this forum and started using bitcoin"

4.1. You have spent a lot of time looking for cheaters on the forum. Is this a hobby or professional interest?

"what happens Is the following:

I lost a lot of money thanks to scammers and as I like to look for new investments when I come across a project that has FAKE TEAM I report or when I see a post from someone who has scam indications I investigate further and report if it is scam"

4.2. Have cheaters tried to take revenge on you for your investigations?

"this guy is the part i didn't even want to remember, two years ago i was investigating a hyip ponzi site in the Investor-based games and found out who was the guy who liked to buy hero member accounts to be able to advertise his double sites, he was an italian programmer, he sent me PM saying: "catch me if you can" and after that I was hacked into my Payza, paypal accounts, started receiving emails with strange threats and even received strange proposals for me to click on the link (I think to steal my passwords)"

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

"Merit system: clearly it is a very failed system, there are thousands of members who go months without even having 1 Merit and the Merit source are more active in some sections like reputation, scam accusations, and  Wall Observer, look at the  Wall Observer that you will understand that this merit system is a big joke.

signature campaigns: signature campaigns are welcome, I was once a signature campaign manager and I realized that it was a very difficult job, currently with this merit system it seems to me that who has won thousands of merits Is what else has priorities for certain managers and then I keep saying that this merit system has failed even in this.

But I don't want to discuss how each manager manages his signature campaign, I respect each person's decision, I just find it regrettable and sad that a place where it is said that a community excludes newbies and junior members.

Newbie, Jr. Member and Member no longer have a chance to participate in signature campaigns (argument: they will spam the forum, but the curious thing is that even old and respected members of this forum one day was Newbies, Member and Jr. Member and yes they have already made a 1 line post only and without any content)

it's difficult to Newbie and Junior receive merits ( even for me it is very difficult to receive merit, I wonder in what century will I become a legendary member  ), I still think that each member of this forum should have 200 or 300 sMerit per month to be able to give merits to everyone "

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

"The most useful forum topic: Forum ranks/positions/badges (What do those shiny coins under my name mean?)


Most helpful users:

@LoyceV

@Vod

members who are committed to exposing scammers

Forum Staff members

and finally @theymos which has the arduous task of keeping this forum running (I just think it should change some things about this Merit system)"

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

"if i were the forum administrator i would change the merit system so that each person had 200 sMerit per month

If I were the forum administrator I would create a group of members to review the feedbacks given by DT members to prevent anyone from leaving negative feedback based on personal opinion without any proof that this person is a scammer, there are many cases where the member receives negative feedback just because he thinks Bitcoin cash  Is real bitcoin, Of course I agree that Bitcoin cash is a big joke without meaning to exist"

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

"I do both"

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

"honestly I don't remember my big win (I had a lot of big profits), but I remember my big loss that was when I bought a shitcoin TPG that a member of the forum created (now I can't remember the name of the member)"

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

"now any shitcoin is using DEFI to take advantage of the wave, like what happened with ICOs, I think what I can say is: "let's take advantage of this wave while it lasts" "

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

"precaution!

if a scammer doesn't like me preventing him from stealing millions of dollars and decides to hire murderers to come and harm me in my country? I have to protect myself"

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

"I no longer remember the title of the book, but it was a book in Portuguese"

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

"Bitcoin

ETH

Chainlink"

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

"In my opinion it will be under $14000"


Thanks to Slow death for the interview!

The end.

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

Around 2011 I was a member of a tech forum and read some posts about making real money (well fiat but I didn’t know the difference at the time) using GPUs. As I was already doing stuff like SETI and Folding@Home I was immediately interested in the tech. I had a couple gaming rigs that sat idle so did the folding thing when not playing (marriage has a habit of cutting into gaming so they sat idle as far as games so they spent a lot of time on those projects). It was only much later when I understood (more or less) the whitepaper and the elegance and simplicity of what Satoshi had created.

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

Not for years after I discovered btc. I mined early on in 2011. To test the system I used my ATI HD4850 to mine, then sent to mtgox, then to dwolla, and then to money in the bank. It was a total game changer.. it actually worked! Money from GPUs (and electricity of course). I took a while to figure out pools, workers, the core wallet and such but I stuck at it after a few false starts. Once I proved this worked (to my wife mainly heh)  I picked up a few more GPUs (mainly HD58xx and 68xx GPUs).

Around 2013 I joined coinbase (mainly to sell) but I did buy a bit. So mostly all my coins came from mining.

3. How did you get on the forum?

I just entered “bitcoin forum” into a search engine. Back then (2011) about the only hit was bitcointalk.

4.1. When did you start mining? Is this a hobby or your main job?


2011. Mainly as an experiment (the Grand Experiment) and as a hobby to subsidize my gaming rigs. A few years later as the price started to rise it was more as a source of income but it was never a business to me. I didn’t have to infrastructure for real mining as a job. And a job.. eeeww. I had enough of jobs, hobbys are my thing, not working.. although work is work. I believe in supporting my family no matter what the job. Shoveling shit, medical, whatever. I do not like handouts. And I never will look down on anyone who works for a living, no matter what the job.

4.2. What is the power consumption of all your devices?  How much does 1 kilowatt of electricity cost?

Its varied. I once had maybe 1800 watts of gear at maybe .12 cents USD at one time (its varied considerable over the years) but I never really kept track. It was part of the hobby and all hobbys cost money. That’s my view anyway and mining was a lot cheaper (and safer!) than many of my other hobbies.

4.3. What is better for mining: ASICs, video cards, FPGA?


Right now? Mainly FPGAs and a few GPUs for when a new coin come up and an algorithm can make use of them.

4.4. 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 gambler. But there is a substantial draw so I suppose it’s a good thing.

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

I think it’s a good thing (full disclosure: im a merit source). It certainly got rid of a lot of farmed accounts and shit posts. Although I’m sure there’s some abuse of that just like anything else. As for sigs, well thats not for me. but i wont look down on those who are serious about it and make good posts.

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


In the beginning I learned the most from the mining topics. Later the technical topics. And the Wall Observer thread is an invaluable source of the pulse as to where btc is going (although its an acquired taste, and bring eye bleach). As for users? Too many to count and im afraid i would leave someone out.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

Bring back that glowing ignore icon. That's about it.

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

I traded for about a year. And while I didn’t lose my shirt I lost enough to convince me I’m not a trader.

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

Profit? Hodling btc of course. Losing? The etherum DAO. And losing via trading but that wasn’t too bad as far as a loss. I got out soon as I realized I sucked at it.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

Never heard of it aside from its being mentioned in this thread. Not interest in it at this time.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

At 1st, back when corn was only a few bucks it wasn’t a real concern. Now? Its more important. But I’m not super paranoid.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Don’t recall, I’ve read a few. None really stand out at this time. My suggestion is read as many as you can.

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

Bitcoin. Full stop.

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

Just pulling a figure out of my *cough*, I’d say 15k

15. P.S. (Optional)

Stay frosty my friends. Bitcoin is the wildest ride ever. Don’t miss out on it.

edit: slight clarification

Well, thanks in advance to: @zasad, who entrusted me to be interviewed.

for the answer.

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

To be precise in 2016, at that time I already knew cryptocurrency from a friend who worked at a gold shop, at that time he was the one who introduced me to crypto called Bitcoin.
Every month I go to the gold shop to deposit half of my salary for investment, that's when I was introduced to cryptocurrency by my friends, At first I was not sure, he showed me the results he invested in crypto, I really saw it, real.
Precisely at the end of 2016, I registered on one of the trading exchanges and I started investing in crypto, running for one year 2017, I saw investment assets on the exchange have increased by 3x, finally I started studying and investing/trading in cryptocurrency until now.

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

At the end of 2016, I bought several cryptos on the exchange, mainly Bitcoin, Ethereum etc.
For investment and very profitable for me.

3. How did you get on the forum?

There are many things that I can get and learn in this forum, this forum is an experience and history that is very valuable for me to save when I retire.

4.1. You have spent a lot of time looking for cheaters on the forum. Is this a hobby or professional interest?

That is the expertise/professional that I learned/have in this forum, the goal is: many companies / people spend money on this forum, in order to succeed, and other users are safe, at ease, away from fraud.
In short: how do you live in one organization, but in it a lot of fraud.
And how do you live in an organization without fraud, the answer is in yourself.

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?

Of course it has a very positive impact on the community in this Bitcointalk forum.
Example: as done by: @Hhampuz and the gambling site Roobet:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=71.0, by giving free bonuses with correct guesses, the community can bring home up to $ hundreds of thousands, obviously benefiting many users / communities in this forum, not to mention if you play and win.

4.3. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

I am not thinking about mass adoption for now, there is something that prevents the mass adoption of crypto if you look at the real field, crypto technology for now tends to lead to the most advanced features of course also triggered with securityvery good, After all, it can be said that crypto users are still certain people who are not 100% of the people understand crypto, this is an element that we are not aware of which prevents the mass adoption of crypto, I think to overcome all that it will take the next few years for the mass adoption of normal crypto.

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

Not damaging, precisely with the Merit system currently being implemented, it's better for the Bitcointalk forums and campaigns, the better.
The merit system is one of the most professional systems I've seen today.

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

The most useful and helpful topics: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/unofficial-list-of-official-bitcointalkorg-rules-guidelines-faq-703657

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

There are many things that can be applied in this forum, one of which is that the forum remains clean from fraud and greedy members, so that the Forum becomes more comfortable and safe for the community or newcomers.

With a safe forum there is no fraud, many companies, investors who want to place advertisements. Investing on the Bitcointalk forum, without having to worry.

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

Yes, I invest and trade cryptocurrency on one of the exchanges.

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

I have experienced a considerable profit against the crypto that I invested in 2017, it was a historic year for me at that time and plus 2018.
I've never experienced loss, hopefully not.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

Many countries are currently discussing Decentralized Finance briefly (DEFI), although currently DeFi is slightly affected by the impact of the pandemic, but I believe DeFi is still the main one who is idolized by many communities and its ecosystem continues to develop from time to time.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

The purpose of Anonymity is nothing but to make me safer while doing everything on the internet, good and bad behavior can happen, I always put precautions first, we don't know what will happen in the future.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

There are three cryptocurrency books that I last read.
1. The Satoshi Book
2. Crypto Age.
3. Mastering Bitcoin.
These three books are my favorite books.

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

Very simple, I didn't forget some of this crypto.
1. Bitcoin.
2. BCD
3. Ethereum.
4. XZC and one more
5. Waves.

Enough of the 5 cryptos, which I have, I have introduced this crypto to my child, the five cryptos are what make me what I am today, home, car, etc.

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

I don't know for sure, but my conviction says $ 25,000.

15. P.S. (Optional)

Purely from myself, experience and honest words.


Regards.
Yoshie.

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Several years ago I watched the activity of a scam company, which was run by a famous Ukrainian businessman. By the beginning of 2017, this company had suspended payments to clients and almost ceased to exist. Nevertheless, fraudsters didn't miss the opportunity to cheat people at last and announced in May 2017 that customers who will deposit 1 bitcoin will be able to withdraw the rest of their money under the accelerated procedure. Of course, this was just a lie and, despite warnings from other people, there were still users who fell for this trick and lost more funds. Until that time I wasn't interested in cryptocurrencies, but after that incident I got the impression that the organizers used bitcoin not only for anonymity, but they were also sure of a strong growth of it's rate in USD terms.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
The first satoshis were sent to me, I didn't buy them.

3. How did you get on the forum?
In September 2017 I've learned that the same persons, whom I was observing earlier, made a new project and it was promoted on Bitcointalk. I wanted to warn more people to beware of this company, so I found myself here. My reviews of this company are available in English and Russian. During the process of exposing the company, I got acquainted with the forum community and began to learn about cryptocurrencies.

4.1. You have spent a lot of time looking for cheaters on the forum. Is this a hobby or professional interest?
For me it is like an exercise in protecting my own personal data, which many people recklessly giving away on the Web in nowadays, leaving a bunch of traces behind. After all, it is not known who and how can use this information in the future.

4.2. Have cheaters tried to take revenge on you for your investigations?
Nothing to be taken seriously. Cheaters cannot create any problems for someone they know nothing about.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
I believe If users lost the ability to monetize their place on the forum, they would not need merit. It would be interesting if the Bitcointalk administrators will take an experiment for couple of weeks and checked how the disabling of all signatures and paid avatars would affect the attendance and content during this period. In my opinion, merit system is crutches, that was implemented due to bounty campaigns and could be replaced by a more indicative voting system [ + | - ].

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I think that it's impossible to reduce the benefits of the entire forum to a single topic.
As for the most helpful users, I think that to determine them objectively, need that each registered forum member, from a certain rank, can vote for or against any post. In my understanding such option would create a more democratic environment in the community and show the diversity of opinions more comprehensively.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. Update the forum. It has long been technically outdated.
2. Disallow multi-accounts, as this is the main reason of spam and cheatings. Give exceptional permission to create another profile only after agreement with admins.
3. Implement a system of penalty points for violation of forum rules (e.g. from 1 to 10). Issue these points to users, depending on the severity of their offence, such as: offtop, low value message, multiposting, necroposting, copy&pasting, trolling, doxing, phishing, etc. Maximum points = temporary or permanent ban.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Not at the moment.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I don't want to go into details, I'll just say that I had a loss of a meaningful amount of money for me in the past, and it has taught me to be more discreet.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Nothing in particular.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
My anonymity is rather a precautionary measure to not leave information traces on the Web unnecessarily. However, I'm of the opinion that it's impossible to remain completely anonymous in the Internet, and with sufficient resources, almost anyone can be found. This view is supported by the scientific research and criminal cases.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
"Digital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin" (2015), by the New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper.
This book tells the story of the bitcoin movement, which has grown from a small group of cypherpunks (who considered the benefits of bitcoin, mainly in terms of anonymity and avoiding from government control) to a global community, which includes very different social segments, that have been attracted by free, secure, fast bitcoin transactions, small commissions, huge hidden potential and other things.
In the course of the story, the author mentioned the Bitcointalk several times: that this forum was created by a Finnish student with the nickname sirius. Also were mentioned two pizzas which were bought for 10,000 bitcoins, message from Hal Finney about his disease, and how US federal agents found the owner of the Silk Road, with the single forum post.
The problems of bitcoin's growth and attempts to regulate it by various state institutions were also raised in the book, as well as the situations with Mt.Gox and Silk Road.
The book briefly tells about the key figures in the bitcoin community, including the Argentine businessman Wences Casares, who learned about bitcoin at the end of 2011. He was one of the main disseminators of information about bitcoin among the business elite in Silicon Valley. Wences believed that bitcoin would become a popular saving asset, just like gold. At the same time, he described the advantages of bitcoin over gold as a more simpler type of debt accounting system, and predicted that the cost of one Bitcoin in the future could rise to half a million $.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I will not advise anything. If some persons are ready to invest money somewhere, then these men should make decision at their own risk.

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

Cheers, that interview took almost 30 minutes so I guess I can relax now. Phew!

If you look at statistics, 2,102,093 are Archived profiles (Ban), 641,790 are not active profiles. A total of 92,373 active profiles as of July 2020.
Source of information:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/caca-bitcointalkorg-5199053

How much of this amount is Alts?

I have already sent about 100 invitations, so far this is the result. I hope that you will not refuse to give an interview.
__
1 post updated with new links

Oh well, here goes!

UserU (Full Member)

A normie unlike the big shots here

Let's start

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

"During the 2017 Bitcoin boom. Prior to that, I invested several hundred dollars in some Bitcoins but I didn't really understood the point of like holding them because back then I didn't gamble or see the potential of crypto and thus, didn't really take things seriously. In fact, I started mining them back in 2011 but I didn't bother to even keep a backup of the wallet and yeah, regret till this day.

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

"Somewhere in 2014 when I thought hey, why not just buy some Bitcoin? It was from a local exchange service which went bust sometime after (receipt still in my email)"

3. How did you get on the forum?

"I Googled on how to setup an command prompt ETH miner and tada, Bitcointalk appeared first"

4. What was the fastest way you lost your Bitcoins?

"Like most (greedy) gamblers, I started to Martingale on Freebitcoin's Multiplier after losing FOUR 1 Satoshi bets on the Multiplier, starting with the fifth bet of 0.001 BTC. In less than 1 minute and 7 nerve-wracking bets later, I was down by 0.127 BTC. In today's price, that's almost 1.5 grand"

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

"Like any other incentives, they're abusable. I've no qualms with the Merit but signature campaigns tend to give off a bad vibe to old-timers because they're often associated with shit posters (the irony when I'm wearing a signature but that's another story ). However I wouldn't say those things harm the forum because Merit is like a stepping stone to sig campaigns and people are free to give them to whoever they please, which I'm fine with.

For sig campaigns, they translate to higher activity on the forum, encourage discussions and also pay a portion of our bills so that's a win-win on both ends. Besides, what's good of a forum if it's dead? Fully capitalize on its potential, like any smart business man would do.

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

Forum ranks/positions/badges (What do those shiny coins under my name mean?)
Very useful since ranking up isn't just about increasing post count.

"There are many users, which I can't list since they are a combination of both newbies and seniors alike, but I'd say the projects of BPIP (Vod) and the Merit thingy (LoyceV) have been sources of useful references all year round. Not to mention those that have supported me to where I am now "

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

1) New software. No more text for ants for us mobile users. Also, notifications when someone quotes you or replies to your topic; the bell.
2) More info on post/ thread removal. Currently it's abusable because some of my legit posts are still removed from time to time without any form of explanation. That person must be very happy hiding behind the keyboard without the need to come forward.
3) Remove the report score. I don't really need to be reminded if my reports are shit or not, it's impossible to score a perfect 100% already

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

"No investment in projects, just for speculation and gambling"

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

"Disregarding #4, I lost quite a sum of my parents' investments during the 2017 Bitcoin boom. Profited well but then re-invested when the crypto winter struck soon after. Waited for over a year before selling them off at a loss, something which I would never forget (again), after informing them and getting rebuked. Loss was close to USD20,000."

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

"Just like Bitcoin, the thing still has a long way to go before mainstream adoption. Bitcoin is a prime example. No regulation, no go."

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

"Precaution. Our details have already been harvested by Big Brother, aka Google so we have to admit some services are made more convenient by learning from our preferences. But of course we don't just go simply revealing our personal addresses or go stir the hornet's nest if we don't want to be doxxed."

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

"Honestly, none. I only read story/ non-fictional books; crypto stuffs are best left on the Internet since things are always evolving. Besides, I buy for the profit "

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

"Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin."

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

"I'm pretty certain we won't see any of those eye-watering prices of 200 grand claimed by the likes of John Advertise for A Fee. Most probably below 20K since 2017 was the only time we saw people, including myself joining the bandwagon before it crashed hard.

kthxbye

Impressive with something like three million registered UID's you've run out of people to interview after just sixteen users.