Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 27. (Read 29908 times)

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.

I was just kidding, I'll compile it myself and post once I have some free time

Yes, and he still not given me my prize for answering a question about the avatar he was wearing here; http://archive.is/3NE42 


I'm still waiting !   

actmyname (Legendary)

(skip past post)

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

"I think it was around late 2014 or early 2015 that I started hearing about Bitcoin, probably due to some loose news from post-Gox FUD. One of the first things that I tried was a faucet (of course) since we all love exchanging electricity for fractions of pennies, and I wouldn't find Bitcointalk until months later. Even after experimenting with it shortly, I had no desire to tinker with it any more since I only had a very rough understanding of the technology: I knew how to spend Bitcoin, and I loosely knew how blocks were handled and mined. It wouldn't be until far later in the summer of 2015 that I actually decided to look into the technical details of Bitcoin's design. After reading the Developer Guide on Bitcoin.org? I was fascinated."

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

"It wouldn't be until late 2018 that I actually decided to spend fiat for Bitcoin. Most of the coins that I held up until that time were all from services, contests, or sales and profits. I decided that I wanted to buy some more collectibles. Shiny rocks have aroused the curiosity of mankind for ages, and it won't stop even if we digitize our money."

3. How did you get on the forum?

"Honestly, I can't remember the reason I ever joined. I took a huge break from before I decided to actually start posting anything significant."

4.1. You actively participate in the discussion of reputation issues on the forum. In your opinion, is the DT system fair or has flaws?

"Fairness, justice, it's difficult to define these terms so those pedantic peters will have to excuse the lack of rigor when I say, the DT system is unfair, flawed, and absolutely chaotic.

Imagine you are developing a society and you consider the options. Your previous attempt at a government was a small group - a selected council of members hand-picked by yourself. These members were the absolute measure of trust when it came to your society, and thus those that they trusted directly were deemed to have a holy judgment. Those secondary members too became powerful rulers of the society, and you had a three-layered structure for how the average citizen trusted others.

Now, you have changed the system. Rather than self-appointed rulers, you decided to create a popularity system. This system was designed to create a numerical value for the popularity of individuals, to determine if their opinions were worthy to be appointed a new rank. This was weighted by a factor of 1:2. For each point of popularity you gave to someone, they could only give out half back to someone else. To create a parallel to the previous system, you decide to appoint popularity leaders which can generate popularity points to send to others. However, the generated points cannot be directly sent to themselves.

The second part of this is now to determine your new government: The Tribune of the Hundred. It is difficult to shift members onto a new status quo, but you can do it by forcing participation at the risk of being shunned: to have a chance to be elected to the tribune, you have to take part in the trust experiment, by trusting others and being trusted by popular people. You also force these members to remain active on your main platform to generate more activity, and add in a clause that allows you to exclude members so that you can go back to the old system if necessary. It has been 20 months since the start of this government, and you notice that the number of people that are given absolute trust has grown massively. In fact, the old system which allowed you to view a detailed listing of all members in your government has grown in size to such a degree that you fail to load the list. No problem!"

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?

"Gambling as an industry is a net negative. I think anyone who advocates for gambling without being aware of that is being absolutely willfully ignorant. It's a zero-sum game, and it's favored towards the house: it's an incredible form of wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich. I think, though, gamblers are a sticky bunch. They enjoy losing and they enjoy the culture of gambling, which can serve as some consistent traffic - it also does help that the forum gets a lot of ad money from those sites.

But let's not stop at gambling. What about the fact that the forum has an Investor-based games board? It's like saying, 'yeah, but I had to give my kid a chocolate bar or else he wouldn't stop crying!'

Right..."

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

"Merit, no. Signature campaigns, yes. It's obvious, and people can try to equivocate and try to distance themselves from the whole spam front, but if you take a look at most of the forum discussion threads, they are so abhorrent that if you gave a 1.1x return on if a random post was spam or not you would be broke within hours.

The altcoin bounties need to be scrapped. They are a 0-cost way for developers to make a quick dollar and spam up the forum. Seriously."

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

"[EDU] How to spot a scammer (Read this before doing any transactions!)

Why this one in particular? Because the people that need the most help are the ones who don't know how to avoid scams. This covers 90% of cases.

@LoyceV is helpful but his oceans of data threads take up all the space on my screen.
@marlboroza is helpful and meticulous in investigation, but his quote spacing is like that of a child.
@mprep is helpful and one of the most valuable members of Bitcointalk. I think the forum would be significantly worse without their presence. That being said, he banned me once so we clearly have to be arch-enemies for eternity.
@TwitchySeal is helpful but his incredible skill with scam-busting is obviously the development of an obsession which was catalyzed by a childhood event: probably something involving clowns!"

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

"You need to maintain privacy standards on the forum, which I respect theymos for doing. Additionally, the security concerns are valid and preventing those features from being problematic makes sense in their disabling. I miss that stats page, though - you could sleuth out some suspected alts with more circumstantial evidence, keeping track of their activity.

I would make the search function better. The current way it works is at a thread-granular level, meaning that it cannot comb through individual messages within a thread that contain your key words. That's absolutely unacceptable.

Better mod and reporter tools would probably help to curb spam more. After all, the 4 second delay has already impacted my efficiency.

And the Bounties section is going to go."

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

"No. Trading is for gamblers or wealthy people and investing in someone else's business means that you're taking the opportunity cost of not doing exactly what they are."

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

"It's hard to come up with a particular situation, since most of my movements are very shallow - I try to play +ev positions without embracing too much volatility. There have been a few times, however, where my team's card counting equity was 8x that of the statistical expectation for the week. I suppose those would be the big profits. No amounts, sorry "

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

"Possible to function but you need clever engineering to reduce the cost. Not I nor the 99.9% of people in this forum that don't have deep technical knowledge should be inclined to start appraising it."

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

"In a perfect world, anonymity would be no different from reality. In such a world, anonymity would be a vital necessity for society to function. For this world, it is a precaution. However, truly think to yourself whether anonymity being a precaution dictates a situation that is better than it being a necessity."

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

"Mastering Monero."

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

"BTC. XMR. The other coins I have deemed either irrelevant or I have insufficient knowledge of their (hopefully) useful protocols to determine their value."

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

"I am expecting 12600-13800 levels. Fairly optimistic."

15. P.S. (Optional)

"Read and be forcibly pedantic to yourself, but charitable to others. I may have been quite cynical in this one, so I look forward to corrections."

(back to top)

Do you think this party is only for senior members? NO

If you want to give an interview, write to me in PM. You don't even have to write me a PM. If you notice that all questions are the same except for 4. You can come up with questions for number 4 and publish your interview.

I still don't understand why so many people do not want to express their opinion.
I have plans to interview more people, maybe soon the holiday season will end, and there will be more people willing

A new topic in Archival works well.

So many senior members and only 2 Full ones, this thread seems to give off some intimidating aura, eh

Regarding my interview, I liked it so much I am at your disposal for additional questions. I don’t want to clutter the thread, but we can find a nice format (PM to @zasad@,  or Just post on the thread and delete the message when I answer appending the answer in my interview post).

youve found my spirit animal.. well a glonk would be more accurate but i couldnt find an image in a quick search.

sorry for off topic

I am always for freedom of opinion, so there is no problem.
Most people are not public person and it is very dangerous to give any interview in audio format. Modern voice technology allows you to find any person, so I'm unlikely to find anyone who wants to. There are programs that allow you to change your voice, but this will cause even more problems. I can't ask all the questions in one interview, but I don't need to. You can ask any questions in this topic, or in the user project topics.

this without a doubt is an idea that I believe that hundreds of members will not want to participate, but I wonder what it would be like if we had a video conference interview, it would be something very incredible at least we left anonymity and we would know each other better... I imagine that many members would be desperate just to hear this idea

I'm already imagining the scenario:

OP turns on the camera and sees on the other side a mouse and says oh my god, there is a mouse on the computer of member X and member X says: "man it is me, don't be afraid... can we start the interview?" and OP think: "my god, this mouse typing on bitcointalk all the time and has become a reliable member of DT? oh my god Is a lot to deal with... my head is not managing to deal with it"

---

maybe now they realized the size of the hole they were in and are scared, I am still waiting to see more interviews

I agree. Having no back-and-forth conversation makes this more of an announcement, rather than an interview.

Some members can elaborate their answers and articulate them well, but it doesn't mean they'll exhaust all of the queries that people have.

Initially, I really liked the idea of interviews of various bitcoin talk members, but there is something that it a bit sterile about a written interview format.. so I cannot bring myself to read them, even members who I want to get to know better.  

I am thinking that starting a podcast might be a better format... but at least some kind of audio format... ...audio can be a  bit more spontaneous and a bit more tone based, even better if there were some options for voices to be disguised....

I understand that my comments might be coming off as a bit annoying.. but just saying what I am thinking about the likely difficulties that members (besides yours truly, perhaps?) might be having with written interview dynamics.  #justsaying

Image source
To everyone who promised to give an interview, remember, I have not forgotten about you and I am waiting for you!

Thanks @zasad for invite me for the interview.
Coolcryptovator - Self Made Hero Member.  

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
To be honest I noticed bitcoin on 29/05/2016. Are you wondering how recalled the exact date? Then have a small story. At the beginning of 2016, I was looking for "how to earn online", then learn from YouTube about the PTC site. Then first joined was on Paidvert, and from there I noticed payments method bitcoin. Just now I logged in and discover my joining date from there. Although I didn't become interested in there, but I start research from there what is bitcoin. You can say I was stupid at that time, I avoid bitcoin to use on paidvert once I discovered its volatility. Then slowly I start joined a few more similar sites earning dust by using fiat money PM (perfect money). After approx e month, someone invites me to join rev-share, honestly I wasn't aware that time that rev-share just a Ponzi scheme. Believe it or not, I learn the "Ponzi" word after joining this forum. However, I become interested in bitcoin from the rev-share sites, I made deposits using Payza and tried to withdraw in BTC. Because Payza had a dispute option if incase Ponzi run out within 40 days. So if I withdraw in bitcoin then they can't dispute my funds. That's how I become interested in Bitcoin.

2. When and why did you when you buy your first bitcoin?
No, I hadn't bought bitcoin. As I told above, I withdrew bitcoin from rev-share and start using it. Very rarely I buy bitcoin, even can't remember my last buy. You can say bitcoin favor me, once I start using it then I had profited from it. I will describe below since that's related to your other questions. But of course, I won bitcoin in the middle of 2016.

3. How did you get on the forum?
Good question, after the end of rev-share there was a trend of ICO like lending platforms and so on. Since I learned about the rev-share scam, so before buying any ICO token I had to bother to read their social media feedbacks and comments since I wasn't an expert during that time. So you know very well Bitcointalk ANN thread link also attached with social links on the ICO website, so I read also comments from the forum and that's how I found this forum.

4.1. Why did you start working as a bounty manager? Is this a hobby or your main job?
I will be honest about it, some of the forum members inspired me to become a bounty manager. Then I had been trying to get campaigns and got a few small campaigns as well. Most likely some of you may know I have been working abroad (KSA). So I have managed a bounty campaign as a hobby. It's been 14 years since I am working on KSA, and recently I am leaving my jobs due to bad conditions and have a plan to start my own business in my own country. Probably the next week I will be in my home country. So still bounty management will be my hobby or you can say passive income. It was never my main job and it will remain as same. I have some capital which is more than enough to start my own businesses.

4.2. How do you pick out the projects you work with? Do you agree to work for payment in project tokens?
In the beginning, I had contact with the project and convinced to run a campaign on the forum. Few projects contact me as well to run their campaign. If I believe the project is potential at the beginning then I pick the projects to run their campaign. I didn't work for tokens, a brand new token is worthless for me. So, I will not work for worthless token and will work for bitcoin payments.

4.3. Tell us what parameters of candidates do you look at when recruiting them for a signature campaign?
First I notice their posting behavior, earn merits, reputation, and contributions. Spam on the mega thread is an immediate red flag for me because it's just a repeat of other answers. I always try to avoid such as participants who are just made a post to get pay instead of constructive discussions. Usually recruit participants according to projects expectation. For example, gambling sites look for participants who are posting on the gambling section. So I recruit who usually making posts on that appropriate section with the above criteria.

4.4. What is the risk of a bounty manager and what is his responsibility?
Risk is losing reputation if the project turns in to scam. Responsibility is to choose the best project and ensure participant's rewards for the campaign. For the forum, its manager's responsibility to keep the forum spam free, make sure that my participants aren't spamming on the forum and encourage them to make quality discussions.

4.5. Does the forum need to set additional rules for signature campaigns?
I had proposed few guidelines for the bounty campaign/managers although it wasn't only for the Signature campaign.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
It was a real-time decision made by the forum admin about implementing the merit system to prevent spam from the forum. Merits are filtering brilliant users from thousands of spammers. For the merits system, good contributors getting advantages from the Signature campaign which is desirable to me. Merit is encouraging to create quality content on the forum, so it wouldn't harmful for the forum in any sense.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
The most useful topic to me is, [GUIDES] on Bitcointalk. Index thread . Most useful members? Those help others always.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
A) Increase the security system of the user's accounts like 2FA or something similar. B)Add some new moderators where necessary like Beginners & Help boards. C) New ranks who have earned more than 3000 merits.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Did both at a time. But for now, nothing. Holding some shitcoin and waiting to recover.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I have remembered, I had bought some lending ICO token which was approx $100 worth and I sold then after a month for $1800. But lost more on the trading, bought some shitcoin approx 1.4BTC and now become 0.1BTC and that's the reason I am not trading now.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?  
Just now learned about DEFI ecosystem. So, in short answers, DEFI could rule the future financial ecosystem although I am not sure after how many years it will happen.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
For me, you can say vital necessity, because where I am staying (abroad) currently, bitcoin is illegal. In my home country, bitcoin is illegal. So, where anything related bitcoin I have to hide my identity somehow. You can ask, why I have mentioned my current location then? Because I am leaving this country within a week. So I feel there wouldn't be a problem.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Book? Never read.

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

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I am not a good predictor, but the price would be between $10K to $14K. I am not expecting more than $14K at all.

15. P.S. (Optional)
"If you want to be the happiest person in the world, lower your aspirations"

TheBeardedBaby (Legendary)

1.   When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
First time I heard of bitcoin was in 2010, when a friend told me about it, and was joking that we must invest, I should have listened to him. I came into the deep in 2017.

2.   When and why did you when you buy your first bitcoin?
I got my first satoshis in 2013, there was a website trybtc.(something) where people got some bitcoin to try it. Later in 2013 we were mining with a friend but when he tried to sell the btc he got scammed. Lesson learned. As many others in the same situation we just left the crypto field until 2017. This is when I bought my first satoshis, in the summer when the price surged to 3K$.

3.   How did you get on the forum?
After I bought my first satoshis I started reading more about bitcoin, in 2013 we just mined them we did not understand much about it. I end up on the forum while looking for a captcha solving service, I don't remember why I needed that captcha thing. But I fall in love with the forum and all that history hidden in the pages. 

4.   Have you ever overstepped your principles in the forum?
In or out of the forum I’m always being myself and following what I feel is right. Sometimes I see things I don’t like, and I try to oppose, I try to rise a voice and make changes which will benefit others, same with the forum. The forum has a very complicated political kind of structure, which creates parties with different interests and businesses, confronting each other, which generates only a negative effect on the forum, and I don’t like that, but I can’t change it. I really don’t want to participate in any party (maybe I'll move to Switzerland).
Sometimes my understanding does differ with those of the mods, so I got some of my posts deleted as being spam or off-topic. The interpretation of the rules is a funny thing.
 
5.    What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
The merit system was one of the best things that happen to the forum. There were many who had account farms, developing, and selling accounts with bots, which created a ton of spam and the forum was drowning in it. After the merit came in place, those who were worthy posters got a bit ahead of the others. The system did put a break to many newbies coming for “free money”.
This leads to the next question regarding the signature campaigns. As every other thing they also have positive and negative sides. The pros are that many good projects get exposure, the forum traffic is higher and there is some extra income for the regular users.
The cons: Some of the campaign managers don’t do their job properly allowing spammers to join the campaigns and make money for spamming, which drags more of those spammers.
Since there is no better control over the credibility of the projects, sometimes people promote a lot of scam project and many loose their money. Those who get scammed often label the cryptocurrencies as scam, sad story.

6.   The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Every section has its own useful topics, I can think of at least 50 now but it is no need to list them. Many people are making lists of those topics, so no one needs another one 😊. It’s exciting when you find them, tho.
Regarding the users, I personally got help from many nice people during those years, the forum is full of nice and helpful people, it’s amazing. I won’t mention particular users because again I have to create a long list, but you can easily recognize them.
 
7.   3 things you would implement on the forum?
That’s a thought task if you don’t want to cross the forum (Satoshi and admin’s) principles. Let’s try:
- New clear Official Rules.
- Migrating to Epochtalk ASAP
- Create a new rank after Legendary

8.   Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I trade but not so actively as I do not have enough time for that, I open positions once a month or two depending on the BTC price swings.
I do not invest in projects as this takes way more time to research a project than to trade.
 
9.   Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
There are no big profits nor losses, I slowly generate some satoshis, that’s all.

10.   What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
   This is the right way to go, we need to see the current financial system developing, combining it the possibilities of the blockchain will have a very interesting outcome. But what is most important is to keep following the the bitcoin legacy – Be Your Own Bank, have a financial freedom, and control what you actually own.

11.   Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
It’s more precaution, I’m not whale

12.   The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Don’t have time to read crypto books unfortunately, but I love to listen to some of the work of people like Andreas Antonopoulos, for example. Basically, podcasts and YouTube videos.

13.   Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I don’t follow the alt market so I can give only one suggestion - BTC  😊

14.    How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
1 BTC will cost exactly 1 BTC. Fiat are unstable.

15. P.S.
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” G. Michael Hopf

--- thanks @zasad, it was fun.