Topic: [Interviews] with Bitcointalk members - page 9. (Read 30584 times)

Thank you all for participating.

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@zasad@ First i would love to thank you for the invitation

Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
it was 5 year back , i was interesting in collecting money on the internet and i remember ptc sites was the easiest option at that time , you cant collect much money but its still a way , sometimes you got lucky and sites paid for you and the other time you got nothing for your wasted time and effort , i remember my cousin told me about a new better way to earn money far a way from PTC sites and better earning , he told me about bitcoin and whats is it and what contain bitcoin is satoshi , so i start collecting satoshi from the facuets , i remember bitcoin price was around 1000$ there and we didnt know that  years later bitcoin gonna hit 20 k $ so i didnt hold the bitcoin that i have earned , i sold most of it to enjoy the earning i made

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

later when bitcoin cross 10 k $ in 2017 i was trading already with the money i collected from the faucets but its never enough so i decided to buy some bitcoin in order to make bigger profit and thats what happened when bitcoin hit 20 k $ .

3. How did you get on the forum?
when bitcoin name was spreading the internet and especially search engines in 2017 , bitcoin talk forum also was doing the same and i get on in the forum in that year too .

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

The manipulations that occur in crypto in my opinion are the main reason for not adopting crypto ,many large institutions are afraid to invest in an unknown and unrecognized field such as crypto, despite the expected profits will be very huge but at the same time the losses that can occur in a short time are also great.
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?
Actually I'm not interested about gambling but i visit the section from time to time and i can see that the members there are very active and this cant be bad on the forum or the community beside lot of gambling sites are sponsoring the signature campaign in bounty section , so its a good thing after all

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
i believe most of the traders here or the investors didnt learn about the crypto in school , so yeah you need to learn the basics of course by reading books about the field and watching courses but also the experience is requested , without applying the information you have learned in the market you will never move a step forward
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
i think that  merit sources in the forum are wise enough to not trough merits point randomly , you need to work hard to get a merit point and rank up in the forum so if all members are doing enough effort , this will be a good thing for the forum and this is exactly what happening so the signature or the merit system is good thing if members here knew how to use it in the right way .

6. The most useful forum topic?

Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ .

i think every new member to the forum is blind and without these topics you cant find the right way to action in the forum , you will be lost making spamming posts and looking for merits only , you will end up banned from the forum in most cases , this is my personal opinion .
Most helpful users?

i came back to the forum lately so i have exactly a huge picture about the active and the most helpful members in the forum so i will be neutral this time , maybe i will edit this part later when i get use to the forum
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
Thank you for this question, it helps me and other member speak out what they want to add in this forum.
1. i dont know if that possible but i will try to work more on the forum theme , there is lot of features that i would love to add to make it more simple easy to use


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

i dont have the time to search of follow the projects so its not a wise move to invest your money in a project that you wont follow , so i do the easy option by trading in exchanges
i believe that you can make a good profit if you know the basice of trading and techincal anaylsis

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

in 2017 i invested in ZCL coin , i made a profit of 1500 $ in 20 days but i was kinda greedy hoping i can earn more and didnt withdrawal the profit , later the coin dumps and i lost 1500$ + half of my capital in bitcoin crush 20 k $ , so i got the big profit and the big loss in the same time lol  
PS : dont be like me

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
i still dont know much about that system but i do researches in every chance i got

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

I believe in something, the more you are under the shadows the higher your level of safety and you can work comfortably so if you find a chance to stay anonymousjust dont waste it
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
i dont remember the correct name but i remember it was about Japanese candles , but i watch Udemy courses from time to time now .

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

1. Bitcoin
2. Ethereum
3. Binance coin

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

only few days for the end of 2020 , i think if bitcoin didnt make a move around 20 December , we gonna be below 20 k $ in 2021 for sure



Last and not least : always do what you love no matter what the result gonna be , just do it

Good afternoon, thanks for having an opportunity to be part of this Q and A.

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

I started way back in 2013 when I was about to graduate from college. I learned about crypto from my little brother who collects free crypto through faucets and plays gambling during that time. I slowly made my research about it and made my first investment for as low as $10.

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

Well, my first investment started as to how the most newbie would invest, I would watch the price closely from time to time and would panic buy and sell until I realize I am not yet that prepared for the market volatility.

3. How did you get on the forum?

After my first investment which didn't work out. I stopped for a few years and focused on my real-time job. My brother who first introduced crypto to me stayed active and learned about this forum and introduced it to me as well. I found a lot of new people and made new friends here. This place is where my crypto knowledge grew a lot and this is where I stay most of my free time.

4.1. What prevents the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

In my own opinion, a few things have to occur for crypto to be massively adopted. First, Government acceptance, if crypto will be accepted fully by the government it can easily reach people and might even be utilized in our daily transactions and activities. Second, market volatility has to be some how lessen,  which I know is way too far from reality since the market is driven by supply and demand. Lastly, as long as crypto is being viewed as an investment tool and not as a medium of exchange it will not serve its purpose as a currency.



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

I don't see any harm in it on the forum, cryptocurrency had been a different avenue for gambling. Gambling is a big industry and I think it will be a big part of crypto. I am not against the forum advertising different gambling platforms. If it helps the forum and its users as well as those who are involved in the gambling business here in this forum it's a win-win situation.

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?

I believe the learning process is a continuous process, cryptocurrency is continuously growing and there is a lot to learn in crypto. I have been here in crypto for a few years and I believe that my knowledge about it is not enough.


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

It doesn't harm the forum, it controlled abusive users who are making an endless alternate account to spam the forum. However, in my point of view, merit is not distributed fairly to some users. Some users have a lot of merit with no substantial posts and some users deserve merit who don't even receive any merit at all.


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

There are a lot of useful forum topics and users here. So, I wouldn't make any pick here.


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

There is nothing more to add in this forum since most admin in this forum is doing their best to implement existing rules and to come up with a new rule that will benefit the forum and its users as a whole.


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

I seldom trade, I am more on investing since I am not well versed in Technical analysis. I invest in old projects to avoid risks.

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

Most of my biggest profit was from this forum which came from bounties. I also invest my savings from my realtime job, so far the best one I made was when I bought BTC when it went down to it's lowest last bear market and I am still holding in to it up until now.

My biggest loss was when I was new here, I was left in a project for HODLING for too long. This experience hit me real hard where I lost almost $2000 for not taking my profit while I can. Well, this is a good lesson for me though.


10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

For me it's almost the same as ICO and IEO which is more about hype. The number of developers making money out if it is increasing, soon DeFi projects will be out of phase same way as ICO and IEO did, due to number of scam.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Most people enjoy anonymity in crypto, for me it isn't a vital necessity. I guess for me it is more of precaution. The virtual world is a dangerous place to deal with, one mistake once your identity is revealed, the amount of money you are dealing with and other information, it can put your life in a risk. Imagine the amount of money that is in crypto, and the amount of whales we have especially those early investors. For security purposes it's best for those whales to be anonymous.


12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I don't have luxury of time to read books. So, I roam around the forum to read interesting topics and ideas instead or watch documentaries.

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

Well, I would stick to BTC, ETH, and XRP. This had been 3 of my favorite crypto since this had brought most of my income.

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

It's been a crazy first part of December, Bitcoin price had crazily gone up in a few weeks and now we are experiencing a massive correction. There are still a few weeks left before the year ends so anything can happen, but I am looking somewhere near 20k$ price.

15. P.S.

Thank you for letting me answer these questions. I know I wasn't able to give good answers to some of the questions but I tried to answer them as honestly and to the best of my knowledge as I can. Have a great day everyone.

One of the last, but not least Thank you OP for caring to share my opinions. Although with a bit delay, here are my answers:

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

During 2014 or 2015 I think that I first heard about Bitcoin. And during winter of 2015 I actually started to get my hands on Bitcoin. To be more precise, I found a faucet (then others) and I kept using them until I earned from them about 0,1 BTC (it was actually a bit more than that... maybe 0,11 or 0,12). Without knowing too much back then about what Bitcoin really meant, I was thinking in perspective to save some for the pension, although my retirement would be decades after that point. I felt somehow its huge potential and I told myself that it would be a good idea to hodl some for many years. So I can say that at first I was interested in hodling BTC, feeling it would be a great decision.

Later, when I understood its crypto-anarchic and libertarian backgrounds, it became my credo!

A joke says that if you come to Romania you should turn your clock back with 50 years. That's because here all things happen later than in the rest of the world. In part, due to the fact that we started to open our eyes to the real world only after Ceausescu was taken down, in December 1989. So until then many things were unheard of inside Romania; and after, many were heard about way later after the rest of the world knew about them.

In part, this included everything related to computers. In the years before 1990, while the world was using Commodore, Amiga or ZX Spectrum, Ceausescu ordered to Romanian engineers to create a Romanian computer. Its name was HC (Home Computer) and a number, representing its year. For example, HC 86, HC 88 etc. It was a computer built entirely inside a keyboard, using as interface audio cassettes (tapes) or (for a few lucky users) Floppy Disk Drives. Thanks to my mother, I received (I think) in 1990 a HC 91 (they were issued in a year with the number of the next year - i.e., HC 90 was launched in 1989, HC 91 was launched in 1990 etc.). As I had no dedicated monitor, I used the old grayscale TV from our house as a monitor -- until it broke. Then my mother bought another grayscale TV -- which got broke as well lol (there were harsh times and only years after 1990 Romanian people started to have color TVs; cable television arrived here in 1996, but not many afforded it). Furthermore, my HC it was also equipped with a Floppy Disk Drive! Unlike my friend living two floors below my apartment, which, using his HC equipped with audio tapes he was loading games in ~15-20 minutes, mine was loading games from Floppy Disk in 10-20 seconds! It was awesome!

However, a few years before I had my hands on a HC for the first time. It was a HC 86 and I started using it at school, learning also my first lines of programming. HC computers were using BASIC programming language as their main interface with the user. When you turned on the computer it was displaying the BASIC interface (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code).

My inner nature made me attracted to computers. A few years later I received my first PC: it was a 3x86 with 8 MB RAM! I was so happy! All of my studies were in computer science, starting with high school, then an intermediary school (which is optional) between high school and university, then university and finally, a Master degree in computer science.

While I was in high school, the reputable German Chip magazine was brought to Romania, in 1993 or so. For years, I was asking monthly at the newspaper kiosk if the new Chip edition arrived. I was fascinated by reading all the news from computers world! We did not have Internet at home back then, as it was available only at institutions and a few Internet-cafes. The first years of home Internet were in 1996-1998 or so, when we were using dial-up modems. Chip was eventually discontinued in Romania, in 2013, which was a great loss for me, feeling that I lost a close friend. Although by then I had regular and high speed access to the Internet from home, I still felt like losing a friend (as a side note, another company brought in 2015 a brand new edition of Chip magazine (they must have bough license from the German magazine) and I can say that I have at home all the numbers of the new Chip ).

During time, I finished my studies, got a job and started living a life as an adult. But something bothered me a lot: the fact that someone knew all I was doing with my money - to be more precise, the govern and the banks. I was also bothered that we had to pay the govern or to other third-parties the earnings from our honest work and I felt it was wise to not offer my personal information to anyone, unless I was forced by the situation. Without having read (yet) anything written by Tim May, I was against the oppression coerced by governs, banks and other third-parties.

I can say that I had an inner mindset of a libertarian and an anarchist without even knowing these terms.

Although I was passionate by computers and also by reading (I read thousands of books so far), unfortunately, the technology discoveries regarding privacy remained unknown to me until a few years ago.

But when I finally found out about crypto-anarchy, I believe I thought something like Wei Dai: "I am fascinated by Tim May's crypto-anarchy. Unlike the communities traditionally associated with the word "anarchy", in a crypto-anarchy the government is not temporarily destroyed but permanently forbidden and permanently unnecessary. It's a community where the threat of violence is impotent because violence is impossible, and violence is impossible because its participants cannot be linked to their true names or physical locations".

Coming back to Bitcoin, as you can see, my previous life was somehow tangent to Bitcoin, meaning I was already passionate by computers and I had a strong libertarian and anarchic ideology (without realizing that!). When I first heard about Bitcoin, I thought it would represent a wise investment for the far future. But later, when I truly understood its libertarian and crypto-anarchic backgrounds, I told myself that it was that thing I was after my entire life!

Actually, I was so convinced, that I started to dedicate a lot of time of my life for spreading Satoshi and Cypherpunks' word to the world. In part, I did that even more after I launched one of the few Romanian crypto-related websites.

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

To be honest, I never bought any BTC (nor other cryptocurrency). I didn't want to contribute anyhow to the benefit of centralized exchanges, in case I would have bought from them, but also I felt buying was not the right way of obtaining BTC. I did not want to help centralized exchanges to centralize something which was meant to be decentralized. Satoshi offered his creation for free, to the entire world. He didn't say it is to be bought, but to be used as money, instead of the actual fiat money. So I always thought (and I still do) that Bitcoin was meant to be obtained by the ways available at its very beginnings: by mining it, as a payment for a job or as a payment for a trade (that is a trade involving goods, not the "trading" used now by so many "experts", meaning to place buy/sell orders at an exchange).

As a consequence, I obtained all my BTC through these practices. As I wrote above, I obtained my first 1M satoshis from a faucet, back in 2015 and 2016, but after that I mined for a while, then I started to be paid with BTC for my services.


3. How did you get on the forum?

After I started to be attracted by Bitcoin (imagining its future value and thinking to have some after a few decades), the next thing was to learn its technology (meaning also before understanding its crypto-anarchic ideology). As a "computer guy" I was fascinated about new technology, be it a new generation of GPUs, CPUs or, in this case, a brand new discovery.

So I started reading as much as I could about Bitcoin. That was happening in 2016. Step by step I learned about Blockchain technology, about the existence of other cryptocurrencies and I was amazed how they were functioning. Then I started to look for more in-depth details and I was writing on Google "how Bitcoin [...]?" / "how... that?". Some links led me to the forum. I found it so useful, that my future searches contained also the "BitcoinTalk" key word: "how... that BitcoinTalk", in order to ensure that I'll receive some answers from the forum.

However, I did not create an account back then. From a point in my life I decided, for having more privacy, to delete any possible account I had on a website, unless it was very important for me to have it. This also included to not create new accounts (of course, unless they were very necessary for me). However, a year later (in 2017) I created my account on BitcoinTalk. I still not used it until October 2019. But I created it. I felt like engaging in some technical discussion but I didn't do it. However, since the end of 2019 I told myself that I'd like to learn even more about Bitcoin that I knew by then, and for doing that I had to engage in discussions here. Besides, it was also a way for me to spread even more Satoshi's word, maybe to new users of the forum or even to some older ones. And this also determined me to use the forum, although my account was created since 2017.


4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

I think there are 3 big obstacles here.

i. First of all, many, way too many, did not hear yet about Bitcoin. All the bitcoiners should must do all in their powers to raise awareness about Satoshi's words to the ones not knowing yet. If this would happen then the knowledge about Bitcoin would spread in a mathematical progression. Imagine that I am explaining Bitcoin to 3 individuals. And each of those 3 explain it to other 3 individuals and so on. But as long as so many bitcoiners keep it for theirselves, this will be a huge hurdle for the rest of the people to hear about Bitcoin.

ii. Excepting those which never heard about Bitcoin, there are some which heard about it, but have no idea what it is. Among those, a part is curious and tries to understand what it is. But another part is lazy or has no information sources. For the latter, the actual bitcoiners should also do their best to explain Bitcoin to them. If they would understand it, then Satoshi's creation would become even more adopted.

iii. Last, but not least, are the ones which heard about Bitcoin, understood that it is a form of money, but their knowledge stops there. They have no idea about the libertarianism and crypto-anarchism involved with Bitcoin; they have no idea that this invention can save their lives; they don't even imagine there is a real way to render governs and banks as irrelevant, thus not being oppressed anymore. If more people would understand they can have their freedom and liberty with the help of Bitcoin, then its mass adoption would propagate worldwide. Because everybody would ask: "Why would I pay to a stranger (the govern) a share of the earnings I made from my honest work? Did the stranger work together with me? Why would I pay to a third-party a share of the earnings I made from my honest work? Why can't I benefit entirely and feed my family from my honest work?"

Unfortunately, these people won't find out too soon about the freedom and liberty brought by Bitcoin. This is because way too few bitcoiners understand these things. And if even the bitcoiners don't know these, how could they ever teach others about how to obtain freedom and liberty?! And all these happen only because most of the bitcoiners are driven by greed, not by understanding the true meaning of Bitcoin. Satoshi gave it for free, for people to set theirselves free, but people took his invention and tried to use it as a form of getting rich. Satoshi placed the power back in people's hands, as it always should have been, but many people rejected the power and offered it back to the State, acting like herds of sheeps, for enforcing State's tiranny and corruption. Most likely, at least of 50% of the readers of this interview have no idea about what I'm talking about here, and this is sad.

What we have to do though -- we, the ones truly understanding what Bitcoin was created for -- is to teach others how it can help them be free. There is no use to try to teach those which already use it only for greedy purposes, as those will never change their view. But there is a hope, a small hope, for all the other ones, if they are taught right...


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 itself is not positive for anything, so not for the forum as well. It is a vice and, as other vices, it is harmful. Imagine that you want to protect your children from vices and toxic activities. You want to keep them safe from drugs, smoking, bad entourage, gambling, from places where they can learn to steal, to talk bad and so on. Now ask yourself that: why don't you also keep yourself safe from vices?. Are you less human than a child? No. Then why would you protect a child and not also yourself?!

As an adult, you may think of yourself that you can allow yourself inside a vice, because you know when to say stop. Unfortunately, this is not true. This is why hospitals are full of junkies, rehabs are full of drunkies, prisons are full of thieves etc. Nobody is perfect, indeed. We are all humans and we are meant to make wrong decisions. But we should try, as much as possible, to avoid vices. Gambling is a very addictive vice. Many individuals are seeking professional help for this addiction. Therefore, how can a gambling project be something positive?!


4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?

As I stated above, Bitcoin was not meant for investing money in it, but to replace the actual fiat system. Most of those placing money in cryptocurrency are doing it for greed, for trying to become richer, instead of free. As a consequence of being driven by greed, it is very possible to lose. Usually, more than you earned until that point. A professional (and successful) trader, in my opinion (speaking also about the traders playing at big stock exchanges, such as NYSE, for example) is usually an individual well educated, which spent years in school where he was taught finances. I don't know how many years are needed in another country for finishing a faculty and a Master, but in Romania it takes 5 years (in some cases 6 years). So an educated trader would at least have 5-6 years of learning in school. Furthermore, after starting to do this job in the real world, s/he would need other years of activity for becoming professional and successful. Imagine it's like any other domain: you study it in school then you get a job. In how much time can you say you master your domain? In 1 year? No way. In 2-3 years? No way; maybe after this time you can say you have some seniority. But master of your domain you can say that you became - realistically speaking - at least after 5 years. So 5 years of study plus 5 years of practice may suffice for becoming a successful investor. Otherwise, if you just want to call yourself an investor (not a successful one), you can do it even after 1 day. You can do that even if you are an illiterate.


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

i. Merit system is a very good addition of the forum, for limiting spam, but also for helping those which deserve appreciation to obtain it. It is also complementary to the Marketplace Trust system. And both systems work together for something envisioned by Tim May decades ago: "Reputations will be of central importance, far more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. These developments will alter completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.".

theymos' implementations were solid strong decisions for helping users build a reputation based on merits and trust. Of course, the systems are not perfect and may fail from time to time, but the general outcome is a positive one.

ii. Signature campaigns can be also considered as an act of generosity offered by theymos. Practically, he allowed -- furthermore, he helped -- so many users to earn their bread using the forum. Many are living in poor countries, and their earnings from signature campaigns may mean the difference between having a meal and starving. In part, this can be also true for the campaign managers. And as a whole, for the campaigns owners, although I doubt they would starve in case they wouldn't advert their companies inside the forum through ad banners or signature campaigns.

So first of all, I see these campaigns as a generous movement of theymos, helping a lot of users. Second of all, I see it as an overall benefit for all parties involved - the users, the managers and the owners.

Unfortunately though, the campaigns participants are not all acting with good faith. Similar to the rest of the world, many are driven by greed. And again: when you are driven by greed, you make mistakes. This is why so many participants spam with useless posts, forgetting that if those campaigns would not exist, many would live more difficult lives. Instead of appreciating the chance theymos gave them, and act with good faith (meaning to offer back good contributions), some challenge the system, trying to obtain more and more money by posting more and more junk content. They forget that they are not working inside a mine, inside a quarry; that they don't have to perform a hard work, staying in the heat of the sun or in the frost of the winter. They forget that they do a job inside a forum, and all they can (and are asked to) do is simply writing words. Of course, writing something useful.

Maybe a solution for all the spam determined by signature campaigns would be that all managers to ban from their campaigns all users posting low quality content, all those which didn't earn a certain amount of merit for a fixed period of time (for the previous week or month, as example) and, at large, to be more strict with the content written by the participants (meaning to not count the junk posts at all). This way, if more and more spammers would be banned from campaigns, they would have no other interest to spam the forum and the spam would reduce dramatically.


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

It is hard to answer to this question, as there are some very useful topics and members and I wouldn't want to get in the situation to forget mentioning some names.

However, many useful topics are listed inside this topic created by 1miau (the topic itself being a very useful one): List of Bitcointalk stats.

Regarding users though, I won't make nominations, for avoiding to forget mentioning someone and regret it afterwards, in case I would remember later that I should have nominated also that user.


7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

I would reduce (remove) the merits of those which received airdropped merits but didn't earn even 1 merit since then (this is something I suggested in the past).

I would implement some common sense rules for the signature campaigns (which is something I also suggested in the past).

Last, but not least, I would increase the difficulty of the ranking up system (again, something I already suggested.

If I may, I'd suggest also a fourth change (also mentioned by me in the past): to have a board dedicated to historical and educational topics.


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

No, as I already explained. Exchanges act as long arms of the govern and only try to centralize Bitcoin, which was born to be decentralized. By investing in projects I assume you mean investing in crypto projects (new coins, tokens etc.). Why would I invest in a project if I have Bitcoin? Why would anyone invest in a project if Satoshi gave Bitcoin for free to the entire world to use? Bitcoin is right there here and it is free to use it! Just do it!


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

Fortunately for me, I don't have any personal story of a big loss. I never traded, I kept safe my private keys and I was careful with my earnings. But I heard many sad stories of individuals which lost a lot, maybe their life savings. I tried to learn from all those sad stories and to avoid repeating such mistakes. So far I managed to do it.

Regarding a big profit, I can say something, but with different words. I didn't have a big profit, but I earned big! With Bitcoin, I can say that I earned my freedom and liberty, which should be something granted to any newborn but, unfortunately, things don't happen this way in life. This is my greatest earning since I first heard about Bitcoin: I have the power in my hands and I am a free man!


10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

Most likely, it is a new generation of scam, similar to the "old school" ICOs or to the classic Ponzi schemes. Usually, reinventing the wheel is unnecessary. When someone tries though, why would he ask for money? It's his attempt to reinvent the wheel, so it isn't anybody else's duty to pay him money for his attempt.

So again: Satoshi offered Bitcoin to the entire world. For free. As a consequence, you are free to use it. Alternatively, you are also free to risk your life savings by investing your money in white unicorns or in other well garnished inventions which are designed only to lure you, to take your money (in some cases to steal the money from you) only for the benefit of the creator.

I'd advise all to read first the story of Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi prior spending money on any new forms of finances.


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

It is desirable, recommended, but not vital per se. You can keep living although your identity is exposed. But of course, if this can be avoided, it is better to keep your privacy, your anonymity, as much as possible. If you like to govern yourself and not to be governed by a central authority, if you like to simply slam the door of your house in the face of any eavesdropper, if you like to just have the right to say "No!", then you must preserve your privacy.

Your personal information - your name, for example - is a special gift you received when you were born. Don't reveal it publicly, for example at exchanges saying they're giving you 25$ in a token if you complete the KYC process. Keep your gift just for you! Remember, it's personal!


12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

This question brings me sadness, seeing so few users reading books. If I'm not mistaken, out of 221 interviews, only 68 (including me) mentioned they read some books. This means that only 30%. Of course, maybe some lied about reading so the percentage is even lower. Answers like (spelling errors belong to the original answers) "I dont read books. Like NONE." or "Sorry, I don't have that much patience to read a complete book." or "Who reads books these days? you have the internet LOL.", all these ideas are pathetic. Especially the last one - "you have the internet LOL.". LOL, you should start the sentence with a capital letter, but you couldn't learn this as you didn't ready any book!  And LOL, the fact that you have Internet is no excuse for not reading a book. LOL, there is nothing funny about that.

Books enlighten us as individuals and teach us so many precious things!

Even more sad is that those saying they are not reading did not mean they are not reading crypto-related books, but they don't read books at all!

A quote of Ray Bradbury says “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”. – So much truth with just a few words! We need to cultivate our spirits, our minds and for doing these we need to read books. Otherwise we'll all become a bunch of illiterates, underclassmen - similar to andulolika or hacker1001101001 - spending all of our time on Internet and on a smart phone, without having any idea about who were Hänsel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood, Hercule Poirot, Achilles, Zeus and many other fictional (or real) heroes.

I remember that when I was in school I read a lot of books. My mother had (still has) a huge collection of books at home and I read most of them. I was also borrowing books from the school's library. I even had a subscription at a library from the neighborhood! I could never feel like I had enough of reading. I always wanted more and more. Indeed, when I was a child, living in a communist Romania meant also that it was nothing else to do. We, as children, were going to school, were playing outside and when we went back at home we were doing homeworks or reading. Even as an adult there wasn't too much to do excepting normal choirs. We had television for a few hours per day; not all the citizen had a TV; movies were broadcasted once or twice per week (usually Saturday and Sunday). So, in those times, you could work (as an adult), play (as a child) or read. We didn't have smart phones (most didn't have any phone, actually), PCs, computer games, Netflix, cinemas, color TV sets etc. So in a way people used to live in a healthier way. Oppressed, but healthier. Children now are playing FIFA on their PCs; back then they were running outside, playing football, hide and seek or any other game requiring a physical activity. Adults did the same - they were working (meaning physical activity) instead of talking on WhatsApp all day long as they do now. And, while taking a break, they were reading...

Time has passed and adult duties didn't allow me to read so much anymore, but I'm still doing it. I told myself to read daily at least 20 pages from a foreign book and even more if the book is written in Romanian.

Excepting the healthy thing that reading is, it can also help you induce this passion to your children. If you are a parent, you must know that you are the model of your child. What s/he sees you doing is what s/he is doing, starting from the youngest age. And a child seeing his parent constantly reading will embrace this passion which, in the future will help him have a vast culture, be an educated individual and have a large general knowledge about many subjects. Don't underestimate the influence you have over a child. Seeing you reading will determine the child to read too, and this will represent a huge benefit for his future!

Coming back to the question from the interview, I read a very interesting book, which helped me a lot in understanding the libertarian and crypto-anarchic nature of Bitcoin and also in understanding how it can help people be free: Wendy McElroy's The Satoshi Revolution. Actually, I also recommended it to my wife and mother and both read it. I was so impressed by that book that I asked the author if she allows me to translate it in Romanian. She agreed, being also happy for seeing her book raised such interest from me. And, since then, Gazeta Bitcoin is the only Romanian entity which translated this book in Romanian.

Excepting this one, while I researched a lot about Cypherpunks, I found out about two books with references to them, both written by Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, the lattest's title being inspired by Tim May's Cyphernomicon. I enjoyed a lot reading both of them. Sadly, looking over all the interviews, I saw only one user saying he read Snow Crash (cr1776) and jut two which read Cryptonomicon (gmaxwell and fr4nkthetank).

At least for gmaxwell and fr4nkthetank I'd like to say that Neal Stephenson wrote a few more books as a sequel for Cryptonomicon. A first part is the so-called Baroque Cycle containing three books: Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World. As a note, each of these books contain itself three other books (for example, Quicksilver contains these books: Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds and Odalisque). And all have about 900 pages, similar to Cryptonomicon. After Baroque Cycle, the author wrote also the following books as sequel: Reamde and Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. Practically, this means about 8000 pages reading. So far, I almost finished Quicksilver and I am eager to read the other books as well.

Excepting the books related to Cypherpunks, I also can recommend some fictional books which are must read for any bitcoiner:

- Vernor Vinge's True Names, which, if read in hard copy, will give you the opportunity to read some very important essays about privacy and cryptography, included in the huge preface (about 187 pages long). The most important of these essays is Tim May's True Nyms and Crypto Anarchy, which can't be found anywhere on the Internet. I believe this essay was written especially for prefacing the book True Names, thus there are low chances to find it on the Internet.

- Orwell's 1984, a book which inspired also the Cypherpunks' work, as its action became a reality.

- two books written by Julian Assange: Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet and Underground. These books require no other description but, as a issue of note, the lattest costed initially 400$(!!!).

- and one book about Assange: Andrew Fowler's The Most Dangerous Man In The World: The Inside Story On Julian Assange And WikiLeaks. Again, just by reading its title, I believe this book doesn't need any other description.

Still at the part with education about Bitcoin and cryptocurreny, I'd also like to suggest some online courses offered by Coursera: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies. The courses are free and they are presented by professors at Princeton University.

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

I believe mostly in Bitcoin, therefore, excepting it, I can't make too many suggestions. Excepting BTC though, I would only recommend a coin which was created for full anonymity, such as Monero.

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

I never understood why people keep debating about BTC's price. I even wrote a topic about this subject: Why people debate so much about BTC value?. 1 BTC will always value 1 BTC and that's it... I don't see any relevance of speculating about its price compared to USD, GBP, EUR or any other fiat currency. I'm sorry, I really don't see the relevance.


15. P.S. (Optional)

I did not answer to this interview for merits, nor for being voted in a contest. If I would have done it for that, I would have presented my interview a long time ago, when zasad@ initially invited me (that was on October 20th), not now. Mostly, I did it thinking that some people would like to hear more from me. But also, I did it hoping that the ideas shared here would help some individuals to understand more about Bitcoin. And, why not, maybe to determine some to start reading again. I proposed myself a while ago to read constantly, even at least 20 pages from a book in a day. I encourage you all to read books. It is the only way you can develop your knowledge, your culture and your wisdom!

Let's start

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

Difficult question, its more cause of a close friend (today close friend, that time just a person).... But the, at that time 21y old boy I learned to know because of poker playing, talked to me and showed me the way of only playing HU online poker for BTC, a whole new world which he crushed and won all days-months-years long at. Now I was a poker player as well and we played at online home games etc, he introduced the way to play for BTC and pay each other in BTC, who won could choose to keep and "HODL" their coins or to sell for FIAT... My starting point for BTC poker was around 300-350-ish EURO value a coin.

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

My first BTC's and mostly my BTC's came all from poker winnings I think 2014-2015 somewhere..., But some with spare FIAT along the way as well, sold some to live and so on, I have a balanced way of HODLing and spending... When I have a BTC income because of winning then X% goes to cold storage, X% to the poker playing roll and X% goes to spend/life etc

3. How did you get on the forum?

This same friend introduced me to the forum, I played for corn and he advocated me to keep and HODL them, I didn't knew anything of it, so he helped me all the way and explained me all the fundamentals and all the things why to keep my BTC's... He showed me many interesting links etc

He also showed me the Wall Observer which he said, you will enjoy this page for good laughs, good meme's etc and also good insights of some smart bitcoiners.... Im' a bit of a computer n00b, so he gave me the direct link to the WO which I thought was the whole forum  , spend a year on the WO before I knew there was more as the WO itself ... (first lurked some months, then made an account)

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

IMveryHO I think its just all a bit of flawed to search some real preventing reasons, its just a new, very new market where buy and demand are the main factors... more and more people are getting interested, user account keeps increasing and adoption is just following in a healthy way...

Maybe the first adoption worldwide was prevented a bit cause of people whom doesn't belief that a digital payment system could be scarce or just didn't had the fundamentals which BTC does have... Little bit of oldtimers or non-believers who still says with BTC you have nothing in your hand (those people just need to see first will buy later)

But actually mas adoption is just organically growing as we speak....

4.2. What is the best way to make money on the crypto market?

Depends too much on personal situation, a person with a net income of a normal working person or someone who already has a lot of FIAT to invest etc....
In my personal situation I would say gain a specific skill to earn BTC with, mine was poker playing... Then just keep HODLing the BTC's and ride the waves...

working people I would say first of all when they are new in the market, just buy with a portion BTC with the monthly savings, fixed day every month, fixed FIAT amount, no matter what the BTC price is at that time.         (THANK ME LATER)

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?

I just think you must understand that the current monetary, central banking, government system is wrong, inflation, money debasement etc..
Then you must realise how can I protect my wealth best, my way of living etc...
Try to look for alternatives and if BTC is something you have read about, then it should gained intrest if you understand to previous words I wrote, then IMO if you are able to buy and store safe then anyone can buy right away and learn along the way. I would buy faster as learning tbh, learning is a very long proces but if one believes and understand a few key fundaments then I would say just buy and DYOR along the way.

4.4. If I gave you $ 100,000 now, where would you invest it?

In the world of Crypto, I would just say BTC, especially if its money from a friend or some one I know ...

 
^
The friend whom introduced me into BTC has a fund for wider public and this is how he's portfolio looks like, Alt's change a lot but as you can see BTC is always the main %'s as it should be

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

I don't have ever had a signature campaign, but a lot of them spamming the place of-course, thats maybe why I love the WO so much, they have no business there, a real committed  BTC poster wouldn't care and would just want to discus and write good content but I think sig campaign don't count in the WO so they don't post there... In some ways a lot of them harm the forum, making alt accounts to have more sigs and more spamming ability etc ...

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

There are a lot of good helpers, I just gonna say my personal helpers along the way, because of my first year forum spending was only in the WO its mainly the active members from over there...

LFC_bitcoin, Boblawblaw, last of the V8's, xhomerx10, where probably my first real big helpers, a lot of them all of them where extremely kind to me they all saw I was a n00b with big intrest and I got a lot of love from out of there, later on in collectibles I also had massive help from that community, also people like LoyceV where later on always accesible for a question and help, theymos was as well...

But I got some very special help from the WO-community, also have met a lot of them IRL and some became just real friends ...

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

This isn't my best section to discuss, I would say some more source-merits 

A hat for everyone, as long its an xhomerx10 original?

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

I do not trade myself, have bought some alts in the past etc Last bullrun I made some and lost some...But as today I just buy (or play for) and HODL

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

My biggest profit is just been that I was very succesfull in poker winning + HODLlongterm = a double win

First of all the income is a winning and its a winning investment over time as well

My biggest loss is my boating accident last year where I lost it all and had to start from scratch ...

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

ICO 2.0?? Just a network with 100's of millions in it to get ripped apart someday ...

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

I'm not anonymous to those I know... But i'm just a normal guy so i'm just a bit of anonymous because everyone in here is I guess.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

The bitcoin standard, haven't read to many of them, got my golden boy to explain me which I wanna know 

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

If I personally advice some then its -Bitcoin (three times) I wouldn't wanna be the cause of people losing money cause they follow some dumb alt where I invest only a fraction of my net worth in ...

I don't advice alts because people can be dumb and just go ALL-IN in some dumb coins...

So I only advice BTC

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

We are already there, but in this year I have cried out ATH many times, then again I always do in previous years as well, I'm just to bullish only my timing was still a surprise. This year I got it very right, I'm the BTC-GuRu now ??

15. P.S. (Optional)

Don't understand this question....

Cheers anyway

You should check out the one by Dan Treccia which is back on Amazon now:  Satoshi’s Secret Coins. 

Thanks zasad@ for this initiative.  

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

First time I heard about bitcoin it was on 2011. I was reading some news on my laptop.
Wikileaks was accepting bitcoin and not cash or credit card/paypal. 
I made a quick search on eBay and I realize this wasn’t really easy/profitable mine bitcoin and I decide to left everything out.

After that on October 2013. II was so curious because… I asking to myself the top question.
What is bitcoin?
How it’s possible that some one was accepting “internet money” likewise any other form of payment?

I decide to read more about and I find satoshi white paper ^{(note during these years I was working in University as Researcher so I was very aware about publication etc etc…)}
After finishing my read I was … literally shocked!
Check my other topic in Italian section where I describe my “reaction” 
After that day I decide to learn more and more about bitcoin and the culture behind. 
I think it was a good choice despite I have no economic or computational background bitcoin has opened a gate of knowledge.

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

I get my firsts bitcoin cents in Oct. 2013 after reading white paper . 
I buy it just because it was something that was growing, and I am bullish since the first day that I learn about it. (“Why everybody are not talking about it?” This was my first idea about bitcoin).



3. How did you get on the forum?
Sincerely I didn’t remember . I guess that some of my friend from another forum suggest me to join since here there were some interesting discussion.


4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
There are several factors. First of all bitcoin isn’t simple. because by nature it’s something TOTALLY NEW.

I think that a number of paradigma have been introduced.  As if to say, the blockchain is immutable. Or there are more bitcoin addresses than grains of sand etc etc etc.  Like has been invented something totally innovative like "the wheel" or the internet.

Another factor that slows down this adoption is the way it is treated in the mass media. Equivalent to scammers' money or something that allows you to easily lose your money. It is almost discounted that nobody wants to invest in such a speculative product (see monstrous swings for classic markets) and that it is used by nerds / drug sellers ... and what's more, it's complicated!
What I noticed in the past is that there were very few resources in Italian (my mother tongue) so it never surprised me that non-native speakers in English didn't use bitcoin.




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

I prefer to specify it for those who do not know me ... I am a sport gambler.
Probably an "atypical" bettor (it also happens that I didn't play a single bet for YEARS) and fortunately I have never had the habit of gambling (trying to play as much as possible rationally). I believe that it has a positive effect because the gambling industry linked to bitcoin has created a new kind of market.
In the past, projects like “directbet.eu” or "secondstrade.com" have been something unique and innovative that have truly revolutionized the gambling sector.
In addition, I believe that the blockchain can guarantee a concept of fairness that so far could not literally exist without.
Unfortunately, I am aware of how many people lose a LOT of money while betting. But they are users who would have continued to bet in the real world in any case. It doesn't matter whether they use bitcoin or not, the problem isn't directly related to bitcoin.

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
This is a sore point. Because in these 7 years of following the industry and attending forums and various meetups I have seen people invest intelligently after a few days of reading about these topics. Others, on the other hand, reasoning in a "classic" way have made bad choices. Generally I think we need to understand WELL what we are talking about. Not only from a technical point of view but also from a sociological point of view. I always advise against investing in altcoins except for a few cases (which can be counted on the fingers of one hand). Most of my wallet is made up of bitcoins. Over the years I have received crypto between airdrop bounty and gift collaborations (even some “speculative” investments) but I would never have approve the choice of a novice user to bet “HARD” on bitcoins.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
The Merit system has reduced abuse and limited spammers. I am a strong supporter of the sign. campaigns.
Think about it for a moment ... why should we waste time writing the same things over and over again, or maybe providing time-consuming insight? It is right that there is an incentive (even if minimal) and a kind of gratification. Too bad there are one of spammers as we have seen in the past (from copy pastes, to OTs etc etc). Our only defense is to report and place negative trusts on these users to make sure the plague is minimized.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
There are a lot of useful forum topic. I think that shorena's post below it is one of the best starting point.
How to sign a message

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I think we can make the difference. Likewise some charitable promotion.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Unfortunately I have not much time so I can just follow forum and few coins/project.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I Didn’t remember any big profit that has really made a difference. 
I have won some prizes with bitcoin betting, I consider this a good profit.
About “big loss”, I have payed in the past a taxi ride up to 5K euro (nowadays value).

I have spent a lot in tx fees but I am very happy about that because I given my support to the protocol


10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

This is another kind of innovation. I like the idea behind. But I think greedy people are searching just another speculation (or worst another way to scam people.


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
We are living in a world were you can be killed for a bunch of euro. I mean some users of the community know me in person (just check my trust). But if not required I will never say in real life “Hi this is bitbollo”

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Mastering bitcoin. However I don’t read so many books, I spend most of my bitcoin-time reading forum, technical analysis, white paper, bitcoin news.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I am always bullish on bitcoin.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
It’s very hard to predict. It’s a fast pace environment, price are changing daily! 
 Plus I don’t like people that give their value like guessing or playing a game.

But I have an insight... 1 btc = 1 btc even by the end of the year

15. P.S. (Optional)
Apologize me for posting this interview only today. I have already prepared some weeks ago but never finalized.
Thanks again zasad@

Someone asked me off thread about books, so I added a link to a somewhat old gigantic picture of my main library to my interview in the section about books. Might be of idle amusement to people who enjoyed my interview.

Questions:

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

I was bored and going to set up a game server again (Lost Gonzo BBS) and pay probably (5 towers) $60 in electricity per month for this free game server.
I found out about Bitcoin in 2013 and thought what the hell, bought the KNC Jupiter BTC Miner for $5,131.80 with shipping from Sweden and paid for the
1/2 with the Game Server set aside money and the other half with Game of Sword original (BOOK) real swords from the 'lucky' start of HBO series. The
book versions were designed by GRR Martin and had a signed certificate...needless to say... the timing was great...and I figured 'maybe' I'd pay it off
in 6 months and pay no electricity for the hobby and maybe get 4-6 months of free house utilities paid off the miner before it became a 'brick'. Also, figured,
it was big at my buy, this kinda thing would take off in micro-loans and help micro-banking in India, etc. It is good to be 'bored' in 2013 it seems.

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

I learned about Bitcoin on April 13th, 2013, or 3 days before the World Observer thread here on Bitcointalk. In, summer of 2014 out of blue refunded by BFL found out later it was 1 week before SEC
shut them down and got the other 1/2 back by a fluke of luck. I assume I was only one of a dozen to get $$$ back in that they were trying to put off
the SEC shutting them down. The SEC took the assets and sold the works eventually and only fined the 3 owners like $30,000.00 total. So BFL
should not have bothered on refunds indeed for that week. I think they paid more out that week in refunds, scared of the SEC than they had to pay in fines.
They walked with all that Bitcoin and let the BFL corporation proper take the fall. It was pretty sad and I was very, very, as a 'clueless' newbie indeed, very
lucky. So, cooling heels till like July? 2013 I broke down and ordered a KNC Jupiter Miner for $5,131.80 to basically mine to break even on the (i thought)
BFL rip off of 2013. That was a wise move as you will see below...along with my BFL dumb luck refund.

3. How did you get on the forum?

A google search on Bitcoin and 3 days later ordered a mess of BFL equipment. Drank deep the newbie kool-aid I did. But soooooo dumb and lucky!

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

At first, say the first 5 years, early adoption, steep learning curve.
Now you can buy it on PayPal, etc.
The main cycles of BTC adoption, IMHO, as it
also relates to price goes along the following now:
All-Time-High is hit, (ATH) and the masses are aware of it again (11 years and it still is not dead they gasp!) then FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) on the usually massive pump..then the powers that be, traditional money/banking/govt/etc...go whoah? WTF! and get a bit 'scared' and then do like in 2014 t
the IRS regulations 10 days before taxes due in April 2014 and/or other FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Dismay). So we can see the cycle as of this post now today and current
ATH then and the FOMO now and now recently a few days ago the FUD (new crypto regulations incoming on USA crypto exchanges and your hosted wallets).
So ATH/FOMO/FUD has been the pattern for the last 11 years going on 12 years for Bitcoin.
This will continue until either traditional money interests/govt/corporations/wealthy current no-coiners wanting to get on board, get on board or they somehow kill BTC.
Myself, they are getting on board but just using the pattern of ATH, FOMO, FUD to drive the price down when they get scared they are missing out on cheap
Bitcoin..thus why not use FUD and buy on the side? Rinse/Wash/Repeat? Again, IMHO.

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?

Not really, they deal mostly with altcoins I think or $1 to $1 Stablecoins to get around USD in that they used to do that but some sites now banned on that.
I know little but my guess are little effect.

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?

I used to have miner skills. Big Data Hall Miner Skils. Now I'm like an AirShip Captain with 7 years' experience but now no more Dirigibles. Much like mining, I have the skills but all crypto mining of any coin has moved to 2c-4c electric and big overseas data farms now and costs big bucks now. My captain of the skies miner skills are
now obsolete, like making buggies, buggy whips, and airships and bi-planes.
So education means little and mining education also means zilch...so now I tell newbies to sell
crap they don't need out of the attic or estate sales or rummage sales for BTC dust in case it pumps to 100k BTC. Attic Mining I call it. Sell stuff in the attic you otherwise
would die with before maybe the next pump like in the past BTC has done ..10x or 16x, the value in last decade, etc.
The long-term HODL such BTC for 5 to 10 years from now. This is the only newbie strategy that works now IMHO. HODL is the key. Not education.
A stress-free way to have fun and buy BTC. Again, as having big data hall machines, at least in the USA, that ship has sailed. No longer trading BTC for miners.
Now get what BTC dust you can (risk-free way above or not...sell useless crap) and HODL. If I'd had done this in 2013 I'd have 200 BTC easy.

4.4. What are the main ideas of bitcoin maximalism do you think are good and what ideas do you disagree with?

Disagree on $100k coin in next couple of years due to Real Life Issues/wife/family/maybe older age...will all add pressure to sell some of your BTC if you are
say one of the 2800 or so folks with more than 1,000 BTC. So it will get there. But with the recession the pandemic and such other RLI, I just don't see it coming till say 2-3 years from now...$100k coin that is. As far as HODL and don't sell for 5-10  years I agree with them.

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

People get too bent on signature stuff, it is just like a billboard selling Ads..not my business...I have a signature campaign and have used many. Some back
in the day paid 1/2 BTC a month. As to merit...I use it occasionally. I'd like to see donations for more classes than just Copper to show support
for bitcointalk.org...I did get a copper just to show some support. They could expand that IMHO, maybe applies such to charity.

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

The World Observer Thread by far will lead to other threads. A good google search of say a miner, IRS rules, or whatever with bitcointalk.org
will usually point you to a thread on your topic of interest.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

a) More options for donation to support bitcointalk.org based say charity or something besides copper to show appreciation.
b) BTC Price Ticker on the main page.
c) A section under Mining that allows you to post on both BTC miners and Altcoin Miners..currently any altcoin miners are buried under altcoins.
this should have more exposure in most people mined and do mine altcoins to flip to Bitcoin. Just saying.

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

Did ICO's before they were banned. Did LISK wait too long to dump though? Such is dubious, projects/coins, however, can show 7 sats on say an exchange, but
with exchanges no longer purging dead coins, when you look at some projects and millions of their dubious coins for sale on the exchange with
only $60.00 sold in 8 months. Well, that is a LOT of folks ahead of you don't ya know. So dead coins never die, just newbie traps now. Check out FJC or Fujicoin,
I have 10 million of them. An exchange says it is worth say $1.2k last I looked, with 80 million for sale on various exchanges with a volume of $6 bucks
a month, well I'm gonna frame the paper wallet and put it in the bathroom. I have little or nothing invested in such but maybe $80 in electric mining
the stuff before the bottom fell out. Bitcoin Cash ABC or BCHA may be the most recent monthly version of this with a 51% attack ...looks great on paper
with what I got of legacy BTC wallet on the fork...but I don't know anybody that can sell the stuff at exchange prices.

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

See above I stated such on BFL above. I did at one time look at the ETH ICO back in the day at 1 BTC got me 999 ETH when ICOs were legal. My newbie
self thought it was a scam. I have lots, and lots, of missed boats I did not manage to take in hindsight since 2013, etc.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

Utterly confused...jumped in at Uniswap sale at the beginning and bought in at like $4k at $9...spent the day trying to figure out DEFI coins and uni swap in particular
got scared ..dumped it back to Coinbase Pro..took a $250 loss..last I looked it was trading at $3.34 or some such. So now leery of DEFI and still confused.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Too old to matter a google search from 2013 everyone would tell you what they had in BTC when it was $150 on September 18th, 2013. When on Bitcointalk
since 3 days before Wall Observer started on bitcointalk.org...(see the first post in Wall Observer Thread BTC was like $63 bucks)
too easy to do a google search on anybody to find at least the coin they had in the old days. Moot question. Was too many coins at too little $$$.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

I forget, something on kindle in 2014 on GPU mining I think?

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

Bitcoin I'd say. If you are expecting the other altcoins to go up in relation to bitcoin staying crypto gold why risk it?
I am keeping some sh*tcoins from back in the day leftover from mining in case they pump or something stupid if I sold them.
But probably you'd be OK with BTC/LTC/ETH. Also with current IRS rules to state sold/buy etc on your USA tax forms. I plan
on just buying some BTC dust off/on and simply checking box yes I own crypto. No longer now that out of mining have to get
into the whole deductions and cap gains etc...so since 2019 have not sold sh*t. Will just HODL for the next 10 years whatever the
hell I have in altcoin/shitcoin/bitcoin etc. Adding only to BTC dust as we go along selling stuff on eBay etc.

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

I think with the FUD of the Trump Administration dumping out new regulations in Bitcoin (among many other hundreds) just to mess with
Biden Administration the last ATH of $19,850.11 we just had will be ATH for this year. It usually goes ATH, FOMO, FUD. We are
in the FUD stage with regulations of supposed 'clarity' coming out. Likely 'unworkable' and likely to keep BTC price sideways in winter pandemic for 3-5 months till adults resolve this regulation dump about BTC along with 100s of others. Thus I see a dump
in price to $13k this winter and sideways till next ATH with the above Trump dump of clarity regulations addressed..probably next
Fall of 2021 I see another pump to an ATH when such is resolved, and the pandemic is resolved (knock wood) and maybe some
economic uptick. Also, inflation may start about then to promote upward BTC price. This is my guess. $13k BTC and then ATH
next Fall of 2021 after all the above drama calms somewhat. Again, I know zip, but you asked.

15. P.S. (Optional)

There are usually only two choices in Bitcoin. HODL or BUY. Especially now that home and small/mid-sized data hall mining is dead. IMHO.
I've never had an issue with either of these 'long-term'. But remember this is 'speculation'. There are powers that be that would love to ban bitcoin. Where that may not be possible, they can use FUD (Fear/Uncertainty/Dismay) to slap the price down though, and have done
this often in the past. So the only way to win is to HODL what you have and BUY what you can on the dips. It may be more boring than
mining and trading and DEFI etc. But that seems to be the smart thing to do in the future. Where I am on BTC/Crypto now in 2020.

Brad

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

Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
That was year 2015. I started earning online on facebook investment (Im a noob so I thought its a legit way to earn but I end up as victim of scam). It happened that we need a bitcoin wallet in order to receive our payout so I made one. At first the investment is paying but as time goes by, worst situation happen leaving us hanging if we can get back what we've lost. This time I became interested and pay attention to bitcoin due to price volatility, then I started to gain knowledge about it.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Like other newbies I tried faucets, specially that time its quite popular. But I cant save acceptable amount to start investing so I bought a worth $5 bitcoin using our local wallet (coins.ph), same year 2015.

3. How did you get on the forum?
A friend introduced this forum to me. That time he is a bounty hunter, but currently he is not active here anymore because he chose to work abroad for his family.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Lack of knowledge. Some people are not into it because of misinformation that they watched on news. Media can easily influence those who dont have deep understanding about this technology. If someone is interested to educate himself about cryptos then there's always way. Its just that we cant force anyone to do so.

4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Well most signature campaigns nowadays are gambling, it can help the community specially the quality poster to earn. It has a positive effect because these gambling sites are accepting different cryptoccurencies in their platform and its a good thing for awareness of other users even they're not here and just a gambler.

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
I think experience is the best teacher so there's no need (atleast for me) to receive a special education just to understand how it works. As long as you're not lazy to do a research then you're good to go.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Its a good thing in general for the forum. After the merit implementation, spams were reduced because one has to make a quality post in order to get a merit and join a signature campaign. Most of these campaigns are now requiring a certain merit to be able to become qualified.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
There are many topics that are useful, same goes for helpful users and some of them are already well known here.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
Maybe to highlight a member of the month with his contribution in the forum.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I do trade on exchange particularly on kuCoin.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
My big profit is last bullrun 2017. As we all know bitcoin is really high that time and I take advantage the opportunity to profit. I spend my earnings renovating our house and expand our small family business.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Well like the past projects that passed by, there's good and bad. So if you want to engage yourself in defi its better to do an extensive research.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
In crypto yes. That's what I like about it.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I dont read cryptocurrency book. I prefer to read an article or anything related to what I want to know.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Bitcoin, eth and xrp. These are the established coins that I trust.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I think $18k.

15. P.S. (Optional)
Dont be discourage if you lose your money in scam projects, instead use it as motivation to be better next time.

Sorry for my bad english.

I love it!   No one will be anonymous in a few years when Quantum Computers crack 128 bits.  Yes, Quantum Encryption will protect current data, but all the copies of your old private documents that have NOT been updated are now viewable by everyone.   That, or society collapses and bitcoins are worthless. 

It's better to be open and not have to worry about getting caught in contradictions later.   

Note:  Do not reply to this post - only reply to interviews.   I don't want to hijack the thread. 

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Probably around 2017? It was when I had my first kid and was pretty much jobless.
My wife wanted to settle in the country side and so we did.
Being in a province, job openings are scarce and the only way I find it easy enough to earn money is through online jobs.
I first worked as a VA (virtual assistant) with a client who accidentally is pretty much interested in Bitcoin.
He always talks about how great and awesome bitcoin is. That made me quite interested in Bitcoin, so I researched it, learned a few, and pretty much still learning up until this very day.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Buy? Nope. I earned it. LMAO

3. How did you get on the forum?
Through the power of mighty google.

4.1. Why did you start working as a bounty manager? Is this a hobby or your main job?
Out of necessity. I wanted to earn more cryptocurrencies. Whether it's Bitcoin or any token.
Also, no, this is not my main job. I have an 8-hour job at an insurance company now.

4.2. How do you pick out the projects you work with? Do you agree to work for payment in project tokens?
I usually just bump my service thread here on this forum and whoever is interested in acquiring my management service, they pm me.
If they pass my requirements, prerequisites and we agree to both of our terms and conditions, then I might work with them.
If not and I don't like the project/company or even the way they respond, I simply refer them to someone else.
I usually asked to be paid only in Bitcoin.

4.3. Tell us what parameters of candidates do you look at when recruiting them for a signature campaign?
I guess anybody who can follow the forum and bounty campaign rules.
Preferably someone who is not gonna be a headache.
I am known for being very strict with the rules I laid out for every campaign under my management.
Some participants even hate me for it. LOL

4.4. What is the risk of a bounty manager and what is his responsibility?
I think the biggest risk is being used as a front for a scam project/company without you even knowing it.
Sure, there might be red flags on a scammy project/company that is wanting to run a bounty campaign but there are also times that they are so believable that even bounty managers wouldn't even notice it.
Fortunately, some bounty hunters also help out in notifying the bounty managers of such red flags.
As for the responsibilities; I always find securing the bounty payments is the bounty manager's utmost responsibility. Only he/she can guarantee it since basically, he/she is the middleman between the bounty participants and the project team. Without securing the bounty payments, the participants would have a huge risk of wasting their time and effort on participating in such bounty campaigns and could risk the bounty manager's own reputation within the forum.
This is the very reason I always opt for having the bounty pool funds to have an escrow.

4.5. Does the forum need to set additional rules for signature campaigns?
I don't think so. We already have plenty of reputable bounty managers in this forum (yahoo/hhampuz/etc) who are keen and strict with the rules they've created and I think they're doing a pretty good job at it. Leave the bounty/signature campaigns to the BM's. Less hassle for the forum admins/mods.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Harm? I don't think so. These two help the forum in their own way. One prevents high-ranked alternate account farming while the other encourages projects or companies to sought out Bitcointalk for a chance of bringing more awareness to their project/company which in turn boosts the popularity of the forum. New users tend to flock to this forum to earn through signature campaigns as well. More users, bigger community.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Topic? For newbies: Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ
Users? The only user I know who would not hesitate to help anybody without even asking anything in return is long been inactive. Blake_Last

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I run my own gaming forum before so I would love to see more themes, layout, and designs for the entire forum. For short, more aesthetics. Also, a proper mobile version.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I don't trade. No luck with that. But, I do invest in various projects.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
No thanks. It will only make my heart ache. ROFL

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Interesting and quite astonishing to follow. Lots of scammy projects nowadays tho, so everyone should be very careful.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Not really. I'm an open book 'cause I find it really hard to be anonymous. I don't think I would be able to do so even if I try it. (That's the laziness part of me talking   )

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I don't read books. I just search the internet for whatever peak my interest. :p

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

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Probably 25k+

15. P.S. (Optional)
Took me long enough to answer and even post this interview. Thanks zasad@ for letting me take part in this.

Thx zasad@  It was nice to remember some moments and to think about others

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
It was 2012. I saw what mining is. It was LTC. It looked so silly that i decided to forget it. The next time it was in February 2017 and still continious.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
First BTC exchange was in April 2017, but it was about 0.01 BTC. First 1BTC I`ve got at Feb, 2018

3. How did you get on the forum?
I was searching information about mining. At 2-3 main forums i read that time i foten saw "bittalk", "bct" and some others. Find what is it and it became my main forum

4.1. When did you start mining? Is this a hobby or your main job?
April 2017. Firstly it was a hobby, some money for pleasure. 3-4 months later it took so much time and effort, that i can say it became a work. But even now it isn`t my main job.

4.2. What is the power consumption of all your devices? How much does 1 kilowatt of electricity cost?
I cant say anything about power consumtion Costs different, it depends on the site with the equipment. Right now it is from 0 to $0.06

4.3. What is better for mining: ASICs, video cards, FPGA?
I cant answer correct this question. It depends on a large number of conditions: noise, electricity cost, power limit, site, money that you are ready to spend. For me - only video cards.

4.4.How to properly dispose of the mined cryptocurrency (how much to hold, how much to sell)?
There is now one answer at this question. In 2017 i sold everything to reclainm investment. Later i tried to trade, to hold, to invest... It depends on your own situation. In 2018 i had enough money from my main job and i sold only as much as i needed to pay electricity bills. In 2019 i sold about 90%, in 2020 i decided to upgrade all eqiupment, so, i`m selling again most of mined cryptocurrency. Someone another can say - that the best choice was to buy BTC all that time and he is right too.

4.5.They say that mining is a constant sense of risk (the rate will fall, the lights will be turned off, the equipment will burn out), is it so?
Yes, it is. Mining is a job, that can give you good profit only if you work hard. And it has some risk certainly. Sometimes you are driving at night to site fo a hundred km, sometimes your power supply explodes, sometimes you forgot to pay internet bill. Different situations, different problems you have to decide.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
As for me, merit system helps forum. Before it was really difficult to find useful information among bots "shitposting"

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Most useful sections for me - Altcoin Discussion, Mining. I cant name onlt 1 or 2 most helpful users. The most helpful user all the time for me was markiz73 but he had been banned.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I`m not so active forum user to implement it. It opportunities are enough for me.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Mostly trade. Mostly unsuccessfully I invested about 3-4 times, only 1 time it was great success.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Pundi X. NPXC. I was searching for one of my first signature bounties. Firstly i decided to participate only in bounty programm, but later i bought some tokens. And in April 2018 was huge pump and i most of it tokens. Nowadays it near scam projects but i have a bit of their tokens just in case.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Mostly is`t like masternodes. The main part of them looks like scam. Less than 5% trying to decide some problems.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Precaution. I know that if someone serious needs to find you - he will find. There is now real anonymity in our world. Just try not to attract attention.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
How to DeFi

15. P.S. (Optional)
Remember, that if you want to get real profit with cryptocurrencies - it must be a job/bussiness. If it`s just a game for you - be ready to loose all your money.

I was incredibly busy with exams recently and I just remembered about this PM. Sorryy!

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
I think it was in the early 2014s. Bitcoin was featured on my news, just a short segment, nothing in depth at all. Curiosity got the better of me so I spent the whole night researching about Bitcoin and accidentally stumbled upon this forum. I realised that it was a good way for me to buy stuff online (I couldn't get a debit card as I didn't fulfill the age requirement) and I got hooked onto it after reading through the whitepaper. It was a good thing though, it is probably the catalyst for me to pursue a degree in computing right now .

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
IIRC, it was around 2015. Well, I have always wanted to own my first Bitcoin. I got fractions of it previously by selling my stuff online and trying the various faucets (wasn't that worth my time). A Bitcoin ATM came to my country and it didn't require KYC verification. So I traveled 1 hour to the ATM and purchased my first Bitcoin. I was pretty excited at that time and I actually used my paper wallet for that.

3. How did you get on the forum?
I was googling it. Luck has it, was the 4th link after bitcoin.org.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Volatility and government regulations. I think the government is the greatest hurdle after it's volatility. The main problem with cryptos in general is that they aren't backed by anything and is a rather novel technology. The general population is probably fairly skeptical about this entire concept, why would they take their time to research about blockchain and stuff right? The volatility obviously doesn't help with the situation, having your net worth getting wiped by 1k in a few seconds is certainly not fun. Government regulations is probably next and it's probably about the difficulty to regulate it and the problem with tax evasion and stuff. Not good for Bitcoin but that's what the government has to prioritize.

4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
Well, I don't think there can be a positive effect. It's gambling after all and mathematically the house would always win, combined with the negative stigma associated with it. I see gambling ads all the time and I don't think having them on a forum is necessarily bad, as long as it's not endorsed explicitly.

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
It's enough. I don't see Bitcoin as a viable investment though, more like a speculative asset. You just have to accept that the 1k that you've invested in Bitcoin can become 0 in the next second. Once you have that mindset in mind, you're ready to invest.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
I think I was one of the earlier supporters of the merit system and regularly rebuked those who were trying to argue against it. The main thing that is affected by the merit system is the rank and it honestly doesn't matter. Its a forum for discussions and I don't think having a lower rank undermines the message that one is putting across. Signature campaign wise, well it does bring more traffic to the site but I'm not sure how beneficial it is. I do see loads of interesting discussion and the same goes the other way.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I don't have any topics in mind but in terms of a subsection it's probably Development & Technical. I think LoyceV and TryNinja has contributed immensely to the forum, I love the sites that they have created.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
2FA, mobile site (it's so annoying to type on my phone) and probably autolocking topics (I really can't wrap my head around some topics which obviously only needs one reply and has 11 pages worth of rubbish)

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Nope. I don't see a point, not an educated trader and I don't have interest in most of the projects (unless they offer something innovative)

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Biggest profit and loss was when I bought at 8k and sold at 10k.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
No opinion. I was pretty busy recently and I haven't had the time to scrutinize it.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Necessity. I would prefer those who know my real life identity to keep it a secret for personal reasons.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
Mastering Bitcoin. I think it's probably the only book you need to know the inner workings of the system.

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

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
One month away but I sure hope it'll be stable at 20k at least.

zasad@ asked for an interview some time ago, hope it's not too late 

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

I was looking for some online work, and google search led me to the Services board on this forum, after that I started checking other boards and quickly became interested in Bitcoin. This happened in 2016, and prior to that I already had 2 interactions with crypto, but sadly they didn't develop into a deeper interest. I claimed 0.005 BTC ($96 today!) from a faucet back in 2012, and later in 2014 I used those coins to buy some DOGE, that I left on exchange which later pulled an exit scam.

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

Shortly after I joined this forum, I bought a small amount of BTC, because in early 2016 the rally was already starting, so it seemed like a good investment.

3. How did you get on the forum?

Read answer 1.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

The fact that to average joe, cryptos aren't really a revolution. It's just digital payments, that were available for a long time, the fact that it's done without middlemen doesn't mean much to them - people usually don't view central authorities as inherently wrong.

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

I think its neutral.

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?

You don't need experience or special education to make a good investment choice, you just need to learn some basics of cryptography and computer science. With that, you'll see that 99.999% if crypto is worthless.

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

Merit system helped to keep shitposting in check, but low-paying, especially ICO, signature campaigns caused a lot of harm in the past. These days I see much less worthless spam.

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

Can't think of a single topic, but the Beginners & Help board has some really good guides. o_e_l_e_o, LoyceV, mocacinno, DdmrDdmr, pooya87 quickly come to mind, but this forum has a lot of helpful users.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

Live post preview as you write a post, upvotes/downvotes for posts, native quote and merit notifications.

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

I trade with tiny amounts purely as a hobby.

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

I invested 0.01 BTC in XRP in 2017, and a few months later it grew to 0.110 BTC. I sold it back to BTC and shortly stopped messing with alts after that. My biggest loss is buying some XMR at 0.016 BTC, failing to sell at its ATH of 0.033 BTC. I sold half of it at a loss, and hodl the rest still, hoping for a bullish XMR market.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

Seems like it's a scam ecosystem, just like ICO was. I don't see a world where DeFi poses a real competition to the traditional finance.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Well, I don't have any enemies here or outside of this forum, so it's more of a precaution, I guess.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Princeton's "Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technology". Really great book for beginners.

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

Bitcoin and nothing more.

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

$24,000

Yeah, it was a great read.  I wrote other core devs to post here but nothing yet.  Maybe cause most of them blocked me.  :/

Thanks for hinting me on gmaxwells post, and the kind words of course. I wouldn't have read his post without this mention. Very interesting to get such a detailed insight from someone much more than just an early Bitcoiner… thanks for taking the time to write this @gmaxwell!

Especially interesting to read that he contributed to stuff I actually remember using a long time ago. 👍👍

It was such an amazing wall of text, you're right.  
But surely, one of the best interviews I've ever read. Quite informative reading, and I think everybody should read it.

---

@o_solo_miner I think we are supposed to vote in this topic: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5294957

Thank you zasad@ for all the Interviews!

I read it from time to time and are allways suprised about some "untold storys".
My favorits are philipma1957 and from the german comunity allyouracid.

But what impressed me the most was gmaxwells interview.

keep going with this series.

Thanks for giving me privileges to partake in bitcointalk interview despite that I have been pm longtime now please pardon my delay zasad@

Question
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Shall during my congratulations post I state it very clear which happens to be my discovery data or analysis of bitcoin in my post
- I noticed what is bitcoin in year 2015,
- And developed passion in bitcoin 2017/2018.
- And discovered the existence of bitcointalk forum in Twitter in year 2019. So before all these, I know about cryptocurrency since 2015 but I never knew about bitcoin till 2015 but fully 2018, and that period it happens to be obvious to me, I really like bitcoin because it's a decentralized currency which no one can determine it's control  or increment except it's marketcap, another reason I like cryptocurrency generally is because it has higher security format than fiat currency.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I created Bitcoin wallet June 2018, and purchase bitcoin through my colleague who educate me concerning cryptocurrency especially bitcoin, which till date i can any coin.

3. How did you get on the forum?
The information of Bitcointalk.org community is real information and i noticed what is Bitcointalk through social media especially, Twitter and Facebook, and immediately i saw the platform, I did hesitate to register because of the passion I have for crypto.

4.1.You have recently registered on the forum, what are your plans for the next year?
Yeah, I have things I feel is positive such as to make impact in forum that will bear my image, such as invention of app,
And also make a positive research concerning cryptocurrency to enable me to move forward to the community.

4.2. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
It's because people in society mindset is that bitcoin is a scam, so it's only reason I find that prevent people not adopt cryptocurrency at early stage 2010 and 2014 but now it's obvious that many people is adopting cryptocurrency since they have found out how legitimate crypto is especially bitcoin.


4.3. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?
From my perspective, it's really obvious that advertising gambling project really make the community proactive and also educate people on how to advertise other products with excemption of gambling, no harm.

4.4. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?
We all know that no one is encyclopedia of knowledge, in every business someone need to undergoes steps to achieve his goals, so for someone to be successful in cryptocurrency I thinks it have to do with trading and investment, within interval of 3 years it will propagates if follows precautions properly.


5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
Shall I did meet when forum was regulating merit system but since I join bitcointalk forum I noticed merit is one of things that keep forum active and everyone is ready to research in order to earn merit in case if they will be introduction or adoption of new merit system after the rank of legendary, in aspect of signature campaign, merit is good to justify any user that wants to partake in any signature campaign, I think it's credible using merit system.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Congratulation topics.  The most helpful users is, @CryptopreneurBrainboss  @fillippone  @DdmrDdmr

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1.positive things such as introducing App that will capture all PMS even though deleted pms from inbox and outbox
2. Implementation of merit and demerits system in the forum.
3.implementation of special board for giveaway merit only.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Investing give more profit than trading, trading need more efforts to be monitoring market, so I really invest to save time.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
I never notice loss via my investment, I purchase btc when it was $90,000 and store it in my wallet.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Bitcoin is a government of it own and it can't deprived decentralized.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
To ensure that all the necessary information needed to elevate the community is intact and also put into practice for betterment of tomorrow, because It's obvious that legacy created by human doesn't depart when the person departure.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I have not study or read any textbook discussing cryptocurrency especially bitcoin.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
1.BTC = bitcoin
2.ETH = ethereum
3.LTC = litecoin.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
Based on existence acceleration of bitcoin currently in price, I think bitcoin will get to $20,000 directly to the end of year, because bitcoin increments is speeding up two - two - weeks interval.

15. P.S. (Optional)
Irrespective of challenges what ever we decide shall surely come to accomplished if we give it attention to it, btc always render happiness to people that have it, think big and start small to achieve yours.