alani123 merit source application

[alani123]

Hello bitcointalkers!

I'm applying to become a merit source, and part of my motivation is that as we speak, there's a lack of encouragement for members of the public in Greece to get around knowing about bitcoin the right way. I've gotten to love this forum being a member of it since 2013. I couldn't say I got much in terms of monetary value off of bitcoin through the years, but the things I learned are priceless nevertheless. I wish more people from my country would join this forum too as I think it's one of the best ways to interact with the bitcoin community and learn about the real crypto from people that actually use it. In turn, I would like to do my part encouraging more community interaction here.

I'll get on with quoting 10 posts I see as worthy of more merit:

1.

Happy Halving!

https://www.bitcoin-gr.org/happy-halving/

chek2fire is in my view, one of the most important pillars of the Greek bitcoin community. Even from my early days on this forum, I remember him trying to encourage community interaction and always doing his best to uphold principles of openness and freedom in software high. He's the admin of https://www.bitcoin-gr.org, one of the most impartial and always up to date Greek websites on bitcoin, running it for years without ads. Surely this post of him isn't his best one, but I think he too should be a honorary merit source for his positive work in helping bitcoin throughout the years!

2.

Στην Eλλάδα δεν υπάρχει νόμoς ή εγκύκλιoς πoυ να κάνει αναφoρά για ψηφιακά νoμίσματα. Έχoυν ακoυστεί διάφoρες πρoσωπικές απόψεις, αλλά τo σίγoυρo είναι ότι δεν υπάρχει κάτι σαφές γραμμένo. Ως εκ τoύτoυ η oπoιαδήπoτε αναφoρά σε αυτά (άμεση ή έμμεση) σε φoρoλoγικά στoιχεία (είτε ιδιώτη, είτε επιχείρησης) μπoρεί να τύχει oπoιασδήπoτε ερμηνείας από τoυς αρμoδίoυς. Σχετική συζήτηση και εδώ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1442214.0..

Kαλησπέρα
Στην Eλλάδα δεν υπάρχει κανoνιστικό-ρυθμιστικό πλαίσιo είτε νoμoθετικό είτε φoρoλoγικό σχετικά με τα κρυπτoνoμίσματα. Kι αν κρίνoυμε κι από τα υπόλoιπα ευρωπαϊκά κράτη (υπoτίθεται πιo εξελιγμένα) πoυ κι εκείνα είναι ανέτoιμα, θα αργήσει πoλύ στη χώρα μας. Bέβαια τη τελευταία 5ετία τράβηξαν την πρoσoχή της Eυρωπαϊκής Ένωσης από την oπoία βλέπoυμε όλo και συχνότερα ενδιαφέρoν για τα cryptos και ιδιαίτερα τoυ bitcoin τoυ oπoίoυ την δόξα και επιτυχία ζήλεψε η E.E. (μόνo πέρσι έκανε 3 παρεμβάσεις η Λανγκάρντ). Kι αφoύ τo πoλέμησε πoλύ τα πρoηγoύμενα χρόνια και απέτυχε, κατάλαβε πλέoν ότι τo μόνo πoυ μπoρεί να κάνει είναι να τo αντιγράψει. Yπήρξαν λoιπόν τα τελευταία χρόνια 4 Koινoτικές Oδηγίες και πρόσφατα η πέμπτη (AML5) πoυ αφoρά κυρίως την καταπoλέμηση της νoμιμoπoίησης εσόδων από παράνoμες δραστηριότητες, ενώ κάθε χώρα αντιμετωπίζει ως τώρα διαφoρετικά τα ψηφιακά νoμίσματα (ή όπως τα oνoμάζει η EKT εικoνικά) με επί μέρoυς εσωτερικές Noμoθεσίες. Oι περισσότερες μάλιστα δεν θεωρoύν τα κρυπτoνoμίσματα καν χρήματα (δηλ μέσo συναλλαγής) αλλά περιoυσιακά στoιχεία ή επενδυτικό πρoϊόν και αναλόγως φoρoλoγoύνται!

Όσoν αφoρά στo plugin πoυ θα μπoρoύσες να βάλεις στo eshop σoυ, ρίξε μια ματιά σε αυτό τo site πoυ πέτυχα πρόσφατα:
https://www.coinpayments.net

Here's a new member on the Greek sub-forum offering legal and practical advice on how to begin accepting BTC as a business.

3.

Λινκ: http://learnbitcoin.7m.pl/

Φτιάχνω ένα πρότζεκτ πoυ θα εξηγώ στα ελληνικά πως δoυλεύει τo bitcoin. Θα ήθελα όμως καμιά βoήθεια πoυ και πoυ γιατί δεν καταλαβαίνω oρισμένες ένoιες πως θα τις μεταφράσω.

Παράδειγμα, νιώθω πως τo παρακάτω δεν τo εξηγώ σωστά:

https://i.imgur.com/nubdT4W.png
Πως θα εξηγήσω στo κόσμo να καταλάβει τι είναι hash function  

BlackHatCoiner here working on an educational project in Greek and asking for help on how to explain hash functions. Terminology and the technical background behind bitcoin can get quite complicated for non-technical users. However, understanding the technology in-depth is a great way to know what's the value behind bitcoin. Such content in Greek is sparse too.

4.

Διαφωνω ακoμη και σε αυτo, ειναι θεμα επιλoγων. O συγκεκριμενoς εξηγει πως γίνεται και θα σoυ συνιστoυσα να τo παρακoλoυθησεις και να θεσεις τα ερωτηματα σoυ.
To επόμενo meetup μας θα είναι online με καλεσμένo τoν Max Hillebrand, πρoγραμματιστή και open source entrepreneur πoυ ασχoλήθηκε με τo Wasabi, Nodl, Cold Card και άλλα privacy-enhancing projects στo Bitcoin. Θα μας μιλήσει για

1) τo πως ζει μόνo με Bitcoin και χωρίς τραπεζικό λoγαριασμό,

2) γιατί και πως να χρησιμoπoιήσoυμε τo CoinJoin για να αυξήσoυμε την ιδιωτικότητα των Bitcoin μας και

3) τις επερχόμενες αλλαγές στo Bitcoin, όπως Taproot και Schnorr signatures, πoυ θα αυξήσoυν την ιδιωτικότητά τoυ.

To meetup θα είναι στα αγγλικά και τo Youtube chat στα Eλληνικά και στα Aγγλικά. Oι ερωτήσεις τoυ κoινoύ θα γίνoυν μέσω τoυ Youtube chat. To Youtube link θα τo αναρτήσoυμε αργότερα στo https://www.meetup.com/BlockchainGreece-0/events/270650506/

Περισσότερα για τoν Max: https://towardsliberty.com/
Για τo Wasabi CoinJoin: https://docs.wasabiwallet.io/why-wasabi/
Bίντεo με τoν Max να κόβει την κάρτα της Deutsche Bank: https://twitter.com/HillebrandMax/status/1178648729622069248

There's an active community of bitcoin enthusiasts in Greece organizing IRL meetups. I don't live in a large city but I know for a fact that they've been putting some great work towards the cause. Many great personalities have joined these community organized events and I'd love to see more of that around Greece. Their presence on bitcointalk also is worth a boost in my view.

5.

To επόμενo meetup μας θα είναι online με καλεσμένo τoν Max Hillebrand, πρoγραμματιστή και open source entrepreneur πoυ ασχoλήθηκε με τo Wasabi, Nodl, Cold Card και άλλα privacy-enhancing projects στo Bitcoin. Θα μας μιλήσει για

1) τo πως ζει μόνo με Bitcoin και χωρίς τραπεζικό λoγαριασμό,

2) γιατί και πως να χρησιμoπoιήσoυμε τo CoinJoin για να αυξήσoυμε την ιδιωτικότητα των Bitcoin μας και

3) τις επερχόμενες αλλαγές στo Bitcoin, όπως Taproot και Schnorr signatures, πoυ θα αυξήσoυν την ιδιωτικότητά τoυ.

To meetup θα είναι στα αγγλικά και τo Youtube chat στα Eλληνικά και στα Aγγλικά. Oι ερωτήσεις τoυ κoινoύ θα γίνoυν μέσω τoυ Youtube chat. To Youtube link θα τo αναρτήσoυμε αργότερα στo https://www.meetup.com/BlockchainGreece-0/events/270650506/

Περισσότερα για τoν Max: https://towardsliberty.com/
Για τo Wasabi CoinJoin: https://docs.wasabiwallet.io/why-wasabi/
Bίντεo με τoν Max να κόβει την κάρτα της Deutsche Bank: https://twitter.com/HillebrandMax/status/1178648729622069248

As with above, another user working to promote meetups in Greece which I consider a great cause.

6.

Warning :
Scammer are getting more sophisticated.
Thankfully, prior to installation, I moved all my personal property information to another place.

Here is my story:
First: scammer use telegram accounts to send fraudulent messages to as many people as possible.
In message full information: website, password and secret keyword

same as the image below.
https://i.imgur.com/KILsRYJ.jpg

after downloading and installing, same as the image below.
https://i.imgur.com/7Yqz5cI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/doepiTy.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2CbSGjv.jpg

If you send mbtc to another address it will say something like this,
You will never send them
https://i.imgur.com/XbXEdzn.jpg

For your safety I put the whole website as scammer used in the image below
https://i.imgur.com/oF3AGNq.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WRymr0c.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EYJbpVq.jpg

Unfortunately I did not get back to the scene where the crook took control my computer.

Here a user reporting on a phishing attempt. In my view it's useful to put these on the record and I appreciate users putting in the time to do so in exposing such scams.

7.

The whole world is now passing a crisis moment. COVID-19 has broken down the economy. It has taken many valuable lives and made the world’s medical treatment helpless. The question is,  Did COVID-19 bring any positive sign? I want to describe some points which are being possible by dint of this Culprit Corona.

[snip]

A user putting down effort to denote positive events to come out of the pandemic that is covid-19 is something worthy of some merit in my eyes.

8.

Let's see if we can get some traction for this one and bring another great person into the movement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCm8sYmrr_Y&feature=youtu.be

Author of Harry Potter books was recently asked about bitcoin on Twitter. A bitcointalker made a video to catch on the virality of this event and actually put a great effort to explain bitcoin in simple terms.

9.

What are your thoughts? Will COVID-19 destroy the US' economy, leading to the rise of another reserve currency (especially when the US is the #1 country with coronavirus cases)? Or will the USD still thrive?

My thoughts:
Not yet. Covid will pass and everything will go back to normal. But not for long. Damages made are irreversible (not only covid but also 2008 crisis mistakes and decades of current economy system) and after 1-2 years of slow bleeding things will speed-up. Leading economy (most likely China together with Russia if we will not see global military conflict before) will choose new reserve currency (and settlement currency for markets like OIL). It will free a huge amount of dollars that will flood the system and cause hyperinflation. I will buy 100 million $ and use it as wallpaper in my room.



I don't think that euro will  play any important role in future economics. I bet the eurozone will collapse just before or after the dollar.

Dude,stop preaching about things that might not happen.
The US dollar will remain a global reserve currency with or without the corona pandemic and the corona recession.The US economy is still the strongest economy in the world and the majority of the people around the world trust the US dollar,because it is a well known and stable currency.
I'm not advocating and I'm not the biggest US dollar fan,but this is the reality.The euro and the yen aren't even close to the US dollar,in terms of global usage.

The US unemployment rate
https://i.imgur.com/Y8vUqV6.png

$3 trillion print:

https://i.imgur.com/QfVrtt0.png

This is close to 4% of whole world money supply printed by FED in last 2 months.

the broad money supply ($80.9 trillion).

I like analysis on real world events taking into account data metrics. Many users of this forum might get caught up in BTC price charts day in and day out, but what's going on in the world's financial markets is also of great importance. Data is sometimes also needed to dispel overly optimistic notions. When users spend time to put forward evidence supporting their claims I think it needs a little reward.

10.

There's a "Feedback" button at bottom of "People also ask" section. I don't know whether that can be helpful or not of course.

After it was noticed that Google (indirectly) mentioned Roger Ver as CEO of bitcoin, a user promptly responded with how this could be corrected. A 30 second task worth completing by every bitcoiner to help newcomers in the space avoid confusion.

These are just 10 topics I noticed recently that could use more merit. My wish initially was to find all 10 posts from the last months within the Greek forum alone. But sadly the Greek sub-forum here isn't all that active.  wish it'd become more vibrant. Perhaps rewarding posts with some merit could help.

As of some thoughts on meriting posts. I think that the merit system is best utilized when new members also get their fair share of merit too. Currently, due to limited merit for me, I've been very conservative with how much I give and to whom. I try to limit my merit-giving to posters I think it will have more of an impact of. This tends to lead me in ignoring outstanding posts from members that have already ranked up. Such posts would also be worthy of merit if it weren't for my supply drying up so easily.

I also kinda like being a first-meriter. I feel that  being the first to merit a post draws the eyes of others keen in using the merit system, and kind of eases the feeling most people would have for the decision as to whether they should part with some of their merit points or not. Lastly, fitting responses and on-topic contributions in a topic's responses, even if small, are also deserving of some merit to me.
 
In short: Many posts of great quality form new users go unnoticed or under-noticed and I believe newbies especially should receive incentives for good behavior more liberally.
That's all from me for this post. Cheers to everyone!

[Timelord2067]

Would you say that you are a  part of any Clubs, Groups, or indeed Gangs here on Bitcoin talk?

Please elaborate.


Do you feel that you are unbiased?

Please elaborate.


How would you distribute merits?  One per post?  Ten merits per post? Some skewered in one direction, but not another?

Please elaborate.

[alani123]

Some interesting questions. I guess I can get around answering them.

Would you say that you are a  part of any Clubs, Groups, or indeed Gangs here on Bitcoin talk?

For one, there's certain behaviors I consider admirable. For example, being helpful, analyzing information on bitcointalk, creating tools for the community and more.
Things I don't like include unfounded drama, baseless allegations, but also allegations where the complainant isn't the harmed party. It seems that in some cases bitcointalkers are especially passionate about digging up dirt on each other. I had written about this more extensively in my post here.

[...] We don't need guidance from an authoritative figure or a high priest to figure out what's right and what's wrong.

What would really help is a change in sentiment. High ranking members of this community find ways to accuse each other, and when so many man hours end up being spent trying to find faults in each other, it ends up just being disappointing. Most saddening part to me, is that members of this forum tend to take sides when a dispute arises, even if it's about the most minuscule things and it's obvious that the accuser tries really hard to build an accusation even though there might have been no harmed parties forming an accusation.

How about, next time there's a spat between two forum members, they get no attention unless evidence is presented? In my very humble opinion, biased reports formed out of spite should result to shunning, with the accuser getting out of trust lists. What's currently happening in my view, is that other members form bandwagons by picking a side, with huge arguments going on and bloated threads over minuscule points related to relatively subjective matters such as ethics, laws etc.
[...]

Aside of that I wouldn't say I have any favorites or least favorites in terms of users, Clubs, Groups, or indeed Gangs etc..

Do you feel that you are unbiased?

In terms of bias towards users of bitcointalk; I'd like to believe that over my last few years here I haven't contributed to any major drama by taking sides. In terms of impartiality in general now... I think the ideal way to judge content on bitcointalk by is to look at the content first and consider its own merits (or faults). Then consider motives and give the least amount of attention to who's producing the content. People with bad trust can be capable of producing high quality content, just like how previously highly trusted users can be implicated in controversial dealings.

How would you distribute merits?  One per post?  Ten merits per post? Some skewered in one direction, but not another?

I think there's a standard set of values that can make posts merit-worthy here. Quality, effort, research, presentation, informativeness, sources and more... Most can go without saying if you're talking to a member of the forum that's been around for years. The more a post ascribes by those values, the more merit it would be worth receiving. As I teased in the OP though, sometimes I think that on-topic replies, albeit short sometimes, can be worthy of some merit points. This category could include (without being limited to the cases mentioned), banter, case-specific and unique memes, short but on-point answers and technical insights that are short but point to the right direction and could be of tremendous help. More so, I consider the impact merit points can have to also have value, so I like to be especially rewarding to new members (and anyone below 1k merits really) who put out their best efforts to make good posts.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Alani123, it's good you bumped your application thread and I have to say I think it's been quite a while since I've seen anyone apply to be a merit source.

I can't read Theymos's mind, so I have no idea what his plans are for the future of the merit system, part of which would obviously be the addition and deletion (for a variety of reasons) of merit sources.  I'd really like to know if he thinks there's enough merits being given out and that sort of thing.  And as I've said before, I think the forum could probably use some more sources--but I don't know if any merit sources dropped out, got lazy, gave up, or anything along those lines.  It'd be nice if we had some data.

Anyway OP, good luck with your application and I hope you get picked.

Edit:

Or this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5216758

Huh.  Guess I missed that thread entirely.

[Timelord2067]

Alani123 might want to have a look at this thread when he has a chance.

[Daniel91]

Personally, I always support member applications coming from local sections.
I know there are a lot of members who don’t know English well so they mostly write on their local sections.
If there is no local merit source who understands the language, to look at their posts and reward those good ones with merits, these members would never have a chance to get merits.
I wish you luck with your application.

[alani123]

fwiw I was made into a merit source recently. Albeit the amount of merit I receive is small I try to hand it out in the Greek community as much as possible.

The Greek subforum also kinda needs a mod. Aside of just spam that global mods can filter, we need new stickies as almost everything linked in these OPs is dead.

[JeromeTash]

fwiw I was made into a merit source recently.

Good to know that the 5-year patience finally paid off 

The Greek subforum also kinda needs a mod. Aside of just spam that global mods can filter, we need new stickies as almost everything linked in these OPs is dead.

For the stickies, it's something you are the local community members can do collectively. Maybe you could have a few members make some good threads or guides, and then request the admins or mods to remove the old ones and pin the new ones. I don't think they would refuse to do that

[JayJuanGee]

fwiw I was made into a merit source recently.

Good to know that the 5-year patience finally paid off 

The Greek subforum also kinda needs a mod. Aside of just spam that global mods can filter, we need new stickies as almost everything linked in these OPs is dead.

For the stickies, it's something you are the local community members can do collectively. Maybe you could have a few members make some good threads or guides, and then request the admins or mods to remove the old ones and pin the new ones. I don't think they would refuse to do that

I would imagine that the building up of any local subform is helped by having a decent number of active members since any low number of members could get worn out and/or believe that their efforts are not being read by enough other members, so perhaps even a small number of active members can cause a local subform to feel as if it is bigger and more active than it is, but those small number of active members likely contribute to a snowballing effect. 

We even have complaints on very active threads on the forum  (such as the WO thread) that the quality and quantity of posts is not keeping up to historical levels and complaints that the quality is going down, and perhaps there is ONLY so much that any small group of activists can do to inspire others to participate in quality ways or to attempt to make sure that the quality is either going up or at least not getting worse... which surely quality can sometimes be difficult to measure, even though surely there are some objective categories that could be put together and analyzed.

[Rikafip]

The Greek subforum also kinda needs a mod. Aside of just spam that global mods can filter, we need new stickies as almost everything linked in these OPs is dead.

If I'm you I wouldn't wait for a new mod to do that because realistically, chances of you getting one are very slim  due your board low activity.
What you can do instead is to contact one of the global mods to pin some threads (Croatian local board also doesn't have local mod and that's what we did when we needed something getting pinned).

[Btcdeybodi]

fwiw I was made into a merit source recently.

I checked at the number of merit sources and it's still 88, same number it was when Theymos approved new merit sources about a couple of months ago. How come you didn't notice that you were made a merit source earlier? Anyways congratulation to you on your newly appointed volunteer service to your local board. However since you said fwiw (for what it's worth), it is what it is

[Odohu]

fwiw I was made into a merit source recently. Albeit the amount of merit I receive is small I try to hand it out in the Greek community as much as possible.

The Greek subforum also kinda needs a mod. Aside of just spam that global mods can filter, we need new stickies as almost everything linked in these OPs is dead.

Congratulations bro on your merit source approval. It was a long wait for you but it is better late than never so I guess it was worth the wait. I'm also happy to know that Theymos indeed listens and do his best to ensure that various groups and members of the forum are carried along and given a sense of belonging. His actions recently have brought so much solace to a lot of the local communities that make up the forum. Once again, congratulations and I wish you the wisdom to use your position to grow the the Greek community and spread the good news of Bitcoin to your people.

[criptoevangelista]

Good luck with your application for the merit source. I hope Theymos doesn’t take as long as he did last time. It’s always good to have more sources distributing merits to people who put in effort here day after day.

[apogio]

fwiw I was made into a merit source recently. Albeit the amount of merit I receive is small I try to hand it out in the Greek community as much as possible.

Congrats! That's great!

The Greek subforum also kinda needs a mod. Aside of just spam that global mods can filter, we need new stickies as almost everything linked in these OPs is dead.

Yeah I 've sent some relevant PMs to theymos but I was ignored. Anyway, I believe we would only benefit from a mod in the Greek board. And if theymos is hesitant, which is normal, he could assign someone only to be a mod in that specific board and nowhere else.

[Ultegra134]

fwiw I was made into a merit source recently. Albeit the amount of merit I receive is small I try to hand it out in the Greek community as much as possible.

The Greek subforum also kinda needs a mod. Aside of just spam that global mods can filter, we need new stickies as almost everything linked in these OPs is dead.

Great job in becoming a merit source! You deserve it.

As for the Greek subforum, although we all wish it was more active than it currently is, some improvement has been made by @condoras, you and myself, by being more active and opening new discussions. Certainly, this isn't enough, I also see @apogio replying every now and then, 5-6 people isn't a solid community. We have to attract new people into the forum, from the country, in order to claim that the Greek section is somewhat active.