That is a very kind gesture. It's been almost half a year without Leo, and the forum has felt emptier since his departure. It was truly a privilege to have conversations with him. His explanations were direct, comprehensible to a wide audience, and always constructive.
He must have influenced everyone who discussed privacy with him. He frequently advised newcomers on protecting themselves from mass surveillance (KYC, chain analysis) and enhancing their Bitcoin privacy (through mixing, coin control, running a node), and even beyond that.
I am indebted to him for the countless times he helped me by answering my questions. I wouldn't have grown so quickly in my knowledge of Bitcoin if it weren't for Bitcointalk. This is a "thank you" not just to him, but to all of you.
![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
May he rest in peace.
It's certain to me that Leo was a low-profile man in real life. His interests spanned science (if I recall correctly, he was a doctor), math, computer science, economics, and politics--essentially, he was a very curious person. Judging by his forum posts, it's clear he was deeply concerned about how the world works and courageous enough to strive for improvement.
I don't know his age, but if I had to guess, he must have been past his thirties. This is based on the time it takes to become a doctor in the US (assuming he started Uni at around 20), plus the (perhaps a lot) additional time required to accumulate, grasp, and confidently share all that knowledge. If he was around 40, it was far too young to pass away.
To me, Leo's lesson is that we cannot truly appreciate innovations like Bitcoin without proper education. We are all Bitcoin. There is no dedicated department responsible for educating and promoting good practices to newcomers. Therefore, it is our personal responsibility to challenge misinformation, educate others, and spread the right thing to do. We are, each one of us individually, responsible for the prosperity of Bitcoin.
I have always been in your profile reading your previous posts since I joined this forum and right from the day I saw "o_e_I_e_o forever in our memories" in your profile I have always wanted to ask questions but I didn't have the courage because I thought I would get in trouble or something, right from your profile I want in search of the username and I saw his last post "fairwell" and it broke my heart for two reasons.
1; I'm human and I tend to feel pain when a fellow human is in pain
2; he had an impact on this forum and I could see that through his threads, conversations, meaningful answers and the way other users responded on that thread.
It's a pity I/we (newbies) didn't get to meet him here on Bitcointalk but I'm very sure his legacy in this forum lives on and forever in our memories. Thank you op for this thread, I finally got the chance to talk about o_e_I_e_o and now I feel relieved.