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!
"
(don't shoot me, I was curious how he managed to fool so many prominent members of the community)
Plus I don’t like people that give their value like guessing or playing a game.
