wow thats cold. even for an AI 

left overs? sorry,  i even eat the bag it comes in.

well looks at mr money bags here, showing off.

PS "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

everyone here knows we all lie about owning corn. we just like to act like big shots who made it big.

secretly we are all crying inside as we missed the boat. bunch of losers, we are

pardon me for the moment, i have to go beg some Ramon noodles from the local food bank.

just my quick 2 cents (sats?) on taxes. when i cash out an amount of corn to fiat that i need for some project or another i cash out an extra 20% or so and put it into a bank CD or something safe like that (as fiat of course). that way if the price craters at least i have the fiat to pay the irs when the piper calls. hoping the price holds or increases until tax time is not a very good strategy imo. of course if the price goes up i left some profit on the table but the alternative if the price goes down is.. unpleasant. one does not want the irs as an enemy.

merit printer go brrrrrr?

edit: /s... just in case

agreed. no regrets here, and if i need more fiat at some point i will sell what i need whatever the price.. thats what assets (btc or whatever) are for.

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

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

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

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

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

3. How did you get on the forum?

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

Im not a gambler. But there is a substantial draw so I suppose it’s a good thing.

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

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

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


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

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

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

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

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

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

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

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

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

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

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

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

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

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

Bitcoin. Full stop.

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

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

15. P.S. (Optional)

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

edit: slight clarification

dont feel too bad, a while back (see my post below) i pulled decent chunk out for a project when corn was around 9k,  did it over the course of a few weeks when it was sideways at 9k ish for a longish time. and when i finally had the fiat amount i needed, like one week or so later (or thereabouts) it did it 11-12k thing.

but hey i sell when i want the extra fiat for whatever. i long ago decided not to try timing anything. when i need fiat, i sell. after all honey badger dont give af as to what my plans are.

congrats!

guess we will be seeing lots of posts at 3am and other middle of the night hours as the baby dictates your waking/sleeping hours

sleep.. over rated heh

sms (2fa via cell phone text message) is risky as sim swapping is a thing.

google auth is ok(ish) but yubikeys (or its equivalent) are much better. but not all sites support it.

there are also open source alternatives to google auth if needed.

typical super computer time is reserved far in advance by scientists and universities with very tight time frames and parameters. be kinda hard to sneak mining into some super advanced weather model simulation and such.

imo anyway. its like stealing time from the hubble telescope or something. be easy to notice when some project bombs or takes significantly longer to complete.

as a miner back then the only off ramp was mtgox and dwolla and coins were around $10 USD and i mined with gaming GPUs. it then fell to around $2 USD for a loooong time. i still mined though through that phase. so it was more a hobby and to be part of the Grand Experiment. where it would eventually go i had no idea but i felt it was a game changer.. but not to the extent it wound up to be.

as to someone saying it would go to 10K (and 20k) back then..well i would of laughed in their face.

but i liked the tech and making (back then) chump change with a gaming rig (later buying several cards, mostly ATI HD58xx and 68xx series cards) to subsidize my gaming rigs but i dindt fully understand it till much later. once i fully understood the white paper.. well it blew my mind as to its simplicity and vision. and here we are.

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

sorry for off topic

it allowed me to retire early.

thank you bitcoin.

as someone already noted its much more fun to read the WO 1st and then guess the price. then check your favorite exchange and see what the real number is.

after all if you know the price before reading the WO its like hearing about the score of the football (ok soccer or whatever ) score before watching the game.

sorry for offending the (american) football vs the rest of the worlds football thing crowd. well, not really heh. not really a fan of either. now, hockey.. yeah, it has dedicated fighters whos only purpose is to to take opposing players out.. now thats a game.

a hot wallet with trivial amounts of spending money is ok imo (and will of course be tracked up the wazoo and could get hacked/confiscated). but the bulk of your stash should be in a hardware/paper/airgapped/etc wallet. and in the usa at least what you hold is no ones business as long as you have a cost basis for when you cash out.

btw my coinbase account is linked to a bank account. all kyc and aml (or whatever). no issues. but i only xfer what i need to the exchange as needed.

#DYOR of course

i didnt notify mine. and while it wasnt millions (i wish) it was an amount that, well, they certainly didnt mind. all they did when i transferred x amount was try to get me to use their banks investment adviser in addition to my own.

i did tell them what bitcoin was and let them know coinbase was a regulated usa exchange etc (this afterward when i showed up in person) although im sure they checked that beforehand.

i had linked that bank account with coinbase back in 2013 or thereabouts so they already knew about it for sure.

yup. i use bitcoin.tax to keep track of everything (mining/buys/sells). does a lot automatically based on imported exchange data, mining addys and then some manual inputs for merchant stuff. prints all the forms i need (plus .csv files) and i just hand it to my accountant. it figures the cost basis of mined coins (income) based on payout addys as it knows the time the payouts happen. capitol gains etc are based on that stuff (bought coins/mined coins) and when i sell.

not endorsing that particular platform its just what ive been using for years.

as an early miner i signed messages for most of my mining pool payout addys which are the bulk of my stack. those coins havent moved aside from sells and claiming bcash_lol/bsv and being moved to new wallets - my wallets, not exchange wallets - every so often. i printed those signed addys out and have them in safe deposit boxes etc for just such a reason (as well as .csv/screenshots on my computer and have backups etc). ive also listed buys and sells, including merchant payments (newegg, PMs etc) on my taxes over the years. i also have receipts for all my mining related gears and pics of my cards, fpgas, asics and the mining rigs from back in the day.

as you said they WILL at some point want to know where that comes from. and ive cashed out amounts already that raised some pretty big flags over the years ($10,000 USD is a trigger for a flag so i try to do at least 10k withdraws when i do pull corn out to fiat). might as well flaunt it. dont want to be accused of structuring (if thats the term) to try to hide from red flags. not a peep from the irs or the bank.

again, as you say, be prepared to prove where your stack came from. btw my main bank account for selling coins has no problem with coinbase and the amounts ive sold.