[Interviews] with Bitcointalk members

[bits4books]

Hi all!

It was really nice to receive an invitation to participate in this project.

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

It was quite a funny story - I was still studying at the faculty of Economics at that time and I had to write a term paper. And instead of choosing some boring topics like the development of debit cards or something else, I decide to write about bitcoin (I didn’t knew a lot about it). I read a couple of articles about it, about cryptocurrencies, and just got the idea to write a script for BTC. As a result, I wrote it and even interested my teacher in this topic so much that we even discussed after the emerging trend in cryptocurrencies and the BTC phenomenon for some time after.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I bought it at the same time when I was writing this work - to understand how it works. And that's when it all started, I think.

3. How did you get on the forum?
I think here I am not much different from others - I found a forum as a place dedicated to cryptocurrencies and first started reading posts in read-only mode, and then I started an account and started participating in discussions as well.
It was something special and like a secret, perhaps. Like a Masson Lodge or magic internet money.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
As for me, it is difficult to understand why we need cryptocurrencies in principle if we already have dollars/euros and a bunch of other smaller currencies. People now (including regular users) look at cryptocurrencies as a means of making a profit, and I do not understand them in this. They all shout that "we need to legalize cryptocurrencies and enter the common market" but they can't explain why they need it - after all, they have the same attitude to coins as to Amazon or Apple shares.
Until we understand why we need cryptocurrency within the community, we will not be able to prove to anyone why it is used by everyone else.

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 believe that there is no good or bad influence. This is the same advertising as another crypto project or defi-garbage, that's all. We are all adults and we all know what a casino is - a place where only one side always wins.

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?
The crypto market, although it has its own specifics, but for the most part it does not differ much from the classic exchange with stocks, bonds and other pieces of paper. I don't think special education is mandatory but it will definitely not be superfluous if you have a desire to get it. This is only a plus and there are definitely no minuses.

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

At the expense of Merit system - I don't see anything wrong. The same likes from social networks are only more valuable for the person receiving merit. We all love approval, don't we?
At the expense of subscription companies - most often all these signatures overlap with "advertising blindness" and I'm not sure that such things work as much as originally intended. But - as for me - this makes the forum a little brighter in terms of the number of colors and, I do not argue, sometimes there are really interesting projects.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I haven't thought about such things, so I can't say - because each topic is useful in its own way for different people. But I can say what the most fun - Politics & Society. I go there myself sometimes, as if on a tour. To a crazy house.
At the expense of the most useful - those people who create topics obviously. After all, they "provoke" others to Express their opinions and create space for interesting disputes.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
I don't have any separate things to implement, but in General it's time to update the forum design to a more modern one. This will attract new users and make the forum more convenient for others (if you approach this issue correctly).

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I just buy what I like and keep it until better times. I'm a little lazy to engage in constant trading. And even if one day all crypto will go to zero I will be able to survive it because I invest the amounts that I do not mind losing.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
The biggest loss is that I didn't buy more btc for $ 1000 (laughs).
I didn't have any super-steep profits, which is why I described it above. I think that I have risen quite well over the years, but I don't see it as something unthinkable and unimaginable.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
All that I have seen at the moment is very bad and this is the same (I would even say - legendary) crypto bubble. Another ICO-style hype. Not only is this another invention of the Bicycle, but it is also very dangerous for beginners. Too many scams there.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
This is a privilege, if I may say so, that the Internet gives me.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I haven't read books about cryptocurrencies - why, if all Twitter is "crypto-Bible"?

13. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
BTC, ETH, EOS - hardly anyone will see something new here.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
More than today - that's for sure!

[1713502868]

1713502868

[1713502868]

1713502868

[1713502868]

1713502868

[1713502868]

1713502868

[mezzaluna]

It would be such an honor to post my opinion in this thread. This answers would come from a 23 yr. old who learned Cryptocurrencies thru friends and the university. Educate me if I have misconceptions. Thank you!

Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
    - I started learning about Cryptocurrencies in my college years. I was on my 3rd year of College studying Electronics Engineering. We first heard about Bitcoin from our classmate and how he is earning money from it. From there on, we became invested to learn it. The reason we are learning Bitcoin that time was purely to gain some financial freedom since it was really hard to earn money if you are a student and if you are also supporting yourself. Learning Bitcoin was really hard at that time since all you have to rely on is your friends but later on, we discovered that one of our professors was also knowledgeable regarding about it. He spent his time teaching us some things to monetize our time wisely using Cryptocurrencies.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
   - I never had the opportunity to buy Bitcoin since for me, I always thought of it that there are ways to gain it without using your own money.

3. How did you get on the forum?
   - The forum was really a gift since it also helped boost my knowledge regarding Cryptocurrencies. We found out that our classmate was doing campaigns in the forum and from there we all created our accounts to engage with the community.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
   - I believe whats preventing mass adoption is that private companies that has proper knowledge about it is scared that the government might abuse it. It can also be possible that the government is not interested in Cryptocurrencies since they have no idea how to control it.

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?
   - That actually depends on how the users view it. If we are talking about some close minded people of the community, they will just focus on the negative effects of gambling projects but if the people lets it run first then talk about the effects later, it might produce better results.

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?
   - Learning about Cryptocurrencies requires time and as time passes by, you are already learning how to invest. Users without special education can still invest since investments are now made easy. So I guess if you are willing to learn it slowly and if you have money, you can take special education but if you have the opportunity to ask other people regarding investments, you can also do that like what we did to our professor.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
   - At first, my friends and I were really devastated because of the Merit system. Some of us were weeks away from a promotion but did not receive that promotion because of the merit system ALTHOUGH I believe the merit system did its deeds to stop creating too much fake/alternate accounts that can join Signature campaigns. It also helped some Newbies to create a name for themselves by proving their worth by posting quality contents. I cannot say that the Merit System is flawed since its still working properly.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
  - The beginners thread was really helpful since that where I learned about Mining, joining Signature Campaigns along with other Bounty campaigns, Exchanges (WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WITHIN THE CRYPTOCURRENCY INDUSTRY), and being a non-toxic member of the community. This is the place to be.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
  - As of now and even when I first joined the forum, there is absolutely nothing I would change since everything is working properly.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
   - Daily trading is still a problem for me so I would just buy some tokens that is expected to blow up and sell them when their prices are boosted.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
   - One of my supposedly BIGGEST profit was Electroneum. Joining that campaign as a Newbie really gave me a lot of ETN but I forgot to sell them instantly and then it turned to my biggest loss which was really sad but at least I got to learn that as a lesson.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
   - N/A

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
   - It is vital since anonymity within the forum is one of the best things but KYC in exchanges are necessary and joining campaigns with KYC are somehow not that necessary since some successful campaigns did not have KYC in the beginning so what is the point of new campaigns having KYC. I just do not get it, probably for stealing identities which everyone should be careful.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
  - None

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
  - Bitcoin, BITCOIN, and more Bitcoin. Hahahaha, its just that I still do not think that within the next two years, some new Cryptocurrency will have the opportunity to surpass Bitcoin so its still Bitcoin for me.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
  - Imo, it can reach $15K

15. P.S. (Optional)

Cheers to everyone! Thank you!

[icopress]

Would you mind expressing your opinion?

It's just that if the publications continues at the same pace, this thread will lose the meaning for which it was really created.
And (in my subjective opinion) it will not differ much from Spam Megathreads.

best regards
icopress

zasad@, thank you for the invitation, I will answer your questions soon.I see that the thread is very actively updated with new interviews, so I want to suggest on the main page to reduce visual stress.
What do you think about organizing lists in three or four columns?

zasad@, thank you for the invitation and sorry for breaking the order of answers (it is more convenient for me to start answering with simple questions).

I would like to add... that the lack of direct conversation is not quite what I imagined, and I think it would be better if the questions were more personalized (at least a few). This is a kind of cult event, and I would like to see more stories from those individuals who are in fact the core of the forum. Exclude the rule, (I would call it a pause) "If you yourself want to give an interview, write to me in PM". But after reading 11 pages of this thread, I was a little moved by the fact that I learned a lot of new from those interviews of those people whom I thought I knew well.

[zasad@]

Unsolicited spam PM asking for information.... no thanks.

Seems like a waste of internet space..

On a forum where some people are serious about privacy, uninvited interrogation of arbitrary users is bound to be unwelcome to somebody.

I myself may agree to be interviewed on condition that it be understood upfront, I will fictionalize answers so as to sow Impersonally Unidentifying Disinformation on the record about how I got into Bitcoin, what books I read, my exact reasons for anonymity, etc., etc.  Or perhaps I will simply answer every question with, “I’m a cat!”  Or it could be that I just don’t feel like being bothered with a bunch of questions.  Being interviewed would not feed my ego; and if I wanted to participate in this kind of thing, I would have social media accounts.


I myself would not issue negative trust feedback for the PM that was sent when I had been inactive and MIA for two months (!), which I politely ignored when I finally found it.  But then, I am not minerjones.  I would not presume to tell minerjones how to make his own decisions, or toss him the canard about the feedback being unrelated to trade risk—much less give him a n00b “how to” lecture with screenshots.  Um, yeah, thanks—I think that he probably knows how to use the trust system.

If you disagree with his feedback, maybe try understanding why he left it, and politely request for him to change it—and if he says no, back off and leave it alone.  I myself think it’s a bit disproportionate; but it’s not unreasonable.  I get why he left the feedback; do you?

And please, do not PM me asking me for explanations of how I decide to spend my merit.  Thank you.

Thank you for your feedback. Could you clarify which of the questions might reveal confidential information?
I took into account your feedback and took some measures:
1. Each user publishes their own interview so that they can delete the information at any time.
2. I warn each user with an additional notification:

"You can choose not to answer questions that you don't like.
If you think  that answering one of the questions may reveal confidential information about you or harm you, do not answer it.
I am not responsible for the information you posted"

What else do I need to do to make sure you don't think badly of me?

[nullius]

Unsolicited spam PM asking for information.... no thanks.

Seems like a waste of internet space..

[...]

I myself would not issue negative trust feedback for the PM that was sent when I had been inactive and MIA for two months (!), which I politely ignored when I finally found it.

[...]

Thank you for your feedback. Could you clarify which of the questions might reveal confidential information?

My neutral feedback is not about the interview PM.

Upon information and belief, you have been asking around about the reason why Lauda left the forum, and/or otherwise seeking information about her beyond what she chose to make public.

Is that correct?

What else do I need to do to make sure you don't think badly of me?

General note:  Anybody who receives any communications from anyone seeking nonpublic information about Lauda is encouraged to contact me.  Thanks.

[Renampun]

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
= I started to be interested in cryptocurrencies in Q3 2017, I was initially interested because I saw the profits my friends got from cryptocurrencies.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
= Q3 2017 because of curiosity and want to get profit from Bullish.

3. How did you get on the forum?
= I entered this forum because it was taught by my friend who first joined here.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
= many are still afraid and do not understand the technology.

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?
= depending on the perceptions of the community who judge. I personally think it has a good 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?
= Special education is important because not everyone who has been in crypto for a long time understands more.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
= the merit and campaign system does not harm the forum, it is the forum's intellectual property.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
= I can't mention one but lots of great topics and lots of helpful members.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
= donation system, giveaway, and non-KYC.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
= I trade on the exchange.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
= my biggest profit was buying Link and my biggest loss was buying BCH when it was $ 3k.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
= very good and definitely very helpful for humans in the future.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
= I am not very idealistic with Anonymous.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
= the last book I read is 'profiting from cryptocurrencies' (Marcus de maria)

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

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
= I think Bitcoin will be in the range $ 15k - $ 16k till the end of the year.

15. P.S. (Optional)
btw, thanks to @zasad and all...

[delfastTions]

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
During the hype in September / October 2013.

 2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
I haven't bought any cryptocurrency at all.  I received minimum payments due to what the Community offered on the forum.  These were small amounts to try using cryptocurrencies.  At that time, it was still possible to write wallet numbers.  And I have accumulated a small amount of coins.
The first coins I tried to use were NXT, I bought my first bitcoin much later.
 
3. How did you get on the forum?
Interested in blockchain technology, I found information on forums on the Internet and the most famous at that time (and even now) was BTT.  And BTT Registered my account

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The opposition of the world banking capital and, accordingly, the policy of states to control income, as well as the difficulty of using cryptocurrencies in the lives of ordinary people

 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?
This ad is somewhat off-topic, but I think it doesn't hurt much, since a lot of gambling is use cryptocurrencies

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?
2-3 years is probably enough, but of course you need to know and understand the basics of investing, that is, special knowledge, maybe the basics, you need to study it, but this is to be a successful investor and not a loser

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
The merit system definitely helps the forum.
 
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
I am interested in many topics.
Ratimov, DrBeer, Peloso and many many others, whose sensible or funny posts I read.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. BTT Global Forum he needs to be more flexible and responsive in creating specific topics, for example those related to defi.  It should be easier to create pinned topics.
2. I don't like the fact that only senior ranks of BTT users participate in signature campaigns.  I would like more participation of novice users.  To do this, it would be worth expanding the ability to post ads in their posts.  
3.Let's all together ask Satoshi to return to the forum (  :)this is a joke).

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Previously, often, now very rarely, I practically do not trade
 
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
There were such transactions when I suffered large losses.  This was for example with NEM, since I was involved in it from the very beginning.  I'm sorry that I sold the whole steak before the time the coin went up a lot.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Interesting and useful financial technology.  
DeFi is a new part of future finance.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution
I'm not too concerned with anonymity

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
"How to DeFi" .  The link to this book also extends to BTT.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I will not advise. I don't have enough information. And I don't want to mislead the Community.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
~ 14000-15000
I'm an optimist???

[zasad@]

Upon information and belief, you have been asking around about the reason why Lauda left the forum, and/or otherwise seeking information about her beyond what she chose to make public.

Is that correct?

No!
Can I see a post where I was interested in information about this user?

Did I understand you correctly that if someone asks me about Lauda, then I should tell the person to write to you?

[Steamtyme]

What else do I need to do to make sure you don't think badly of me?

Nothing. You are doing nothing wrong. Any negative feedback you receive would get sorted in a very similar fashion to the last instance.

Don't worry about what people think, and definitely don't go changing just because someone on the internet thinks you could possibly be infringing on someone's privacy by offering them the chance to answer questions. It's not like you are forcing people into this or combing through post histories to create a profile for individuals against their will.

My advice ignore this feedback. Even the threat of negative doesn't fit with what negative feedback is for. Should you chose to take an unhealthy obsession in Lauda and dedicate your days to trying to find out who they are, it's not against forum rules to seek out information. Are we tagging anyone who researches Satoshi? No.

The worst thing you can do, is change who you are and how you act in an attempt to please everyone.

[nullius]

Upon information and belief, you have been asking around about the reason why Lauda left the forum, and/or otherwise seeking information about her beyond what she chose to make public.

Is that correct?

No!
Can I see a post where I was interested in information about this user?

Can I see where in my post I suggested that you did it in a public post?

To be clear, does your “no” apply only to public posts?

I asked you a straight question.  Straight answers would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Did I understand you correctly that if someone asks me about Lauda, then I should tell the person to write to you?

No.  If anybody is seeking nonpublic confidential information about Lauda, or the so-called “secret” of why she left, etc., then I reasonably want to know about that.  (Neither I, nor anybody else here actually has such information; and anybody who claims to is lying.  But that is not the point.)

Lauda wanted her privacy.  She is not here to address any issues with people prying around into whatever she deemed to be none of your business.  I am here, she was my friend, and I will act on her behalf accordingly.  I have no doubt that if our positions were reversed, she would do the same for me.

For confidential tips, my PGP key is linked in my signature.


In Defence of Privacy

What else do I need to do to make sure you don't think badly of me?

Nothing. You are doing nothing wrong. Any negative feedback you receive would get sorted in a very similar fashion to the last instance.

Don't worry about what people think, and definitely don't go changing just because someone on the internet thinks you could possibly be infringing on someone's privacy by offering them the chance to answer questions. It's not like you are forcing people into this or combing through post histories to create a profile for individuals against their will.

My advice ignore this feedback. Even the threat of negative doesn't fit with what negative feedback is for. Should you chose to take an unhealthy obsession in Lauda and dedicate your days to trying to find out who they are, it's not against forum rules to seek out information. Are we tagging anyone who researches Satoshi? No.

The worst thing you can do, is change who you are and how you act in an attempt to please everyone.

In sum, not only do you not respect privacy, but you are even against anyone who does.

This is a cypherpunk forum, where the reasonable members value freedom and respect privacy.  It was Lauda’s ethos.  It is also one of my own strongest principles.  Although unfortunately, there can be reasons sometimes to seek information about people who did something to deserve that, I would never pry into forum members’ personal lives out of mere curiosity.

By your example:  If Satoshi’s friends expressed a concern for his privacy, then you should respect that, and back the fuck off!

Speculating about Satoshi based on public information is not analogous to my above question.  If somebody was fishing for The Real True Secret Story from people who were more or less close to Satoshi, then that would be a matter of grave concern to me.  Satoshi does NOT deserve that!

I didn’t pry into Lauda’s details, either—even though she was my friend, and she trusted me sufficiently that she probably would have leaked some info to me.  I didn’t ask—not seriously, never; and not at all, besides our long-running joke interrogation over whether she is male or female.  And that is one good reason why she trusted me.  On the flipside, I would have given her my full dox with KYC ID, selfies, and fingerprints if she had asked!  She never asked anything.  Never pried.  Not a curious cat, in that particular aspect.  “Superlatively trustworthy.”

Disrespect for privacy is untrustworthy—both in general, and most specifically on a forum where most of the members want to be more or less anonymous.  Really, Mr “Steamtyme”, do you want people digging around about you?  Do you want for people to “offer the chance to answer questions” (!) about you?  What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.

I am a privacy activist, and I hold my principles consistently.  As for you, if you dislike respect for privacy, I suggest that you stop bugging the forum, and retreat to your true home on Facebook.

[d5000]

I also got this request and I think it's a good idea, so I participate hereby


Questions:
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
Before knowing about Bitcoin I heard actually about Ripple, maybe in 2009 or 2010, when it was still an idea and not a finished protocol (the idea exists since at least 2005). I was interested in it because I often move between two countries and money transfers between both locations are expensive and bureaucratic. Then, in late 2010 or early 2011, I heard also about Bitcoin, and it seemed less complicated and more convincing. In 2011 I installed Bitcoin-qt and got some mBTC from a faucet but then forgot about it again. I actually lost that wallet file (see below).

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
The first (part of a) Bitcoin I bought was in February 2013. It was in the little bubble which extended until April. The original idea was to try out if it was a good idea to use it for remittances. But obviously, due to the evolution of the price in these months, I also wanted to be part of the "FOMO train" or at least not be totally left behind.

3. How did you get on the forum?
I don't remember well. I think I saw a link to it in an open source forum/community where I was active. My first post was about a doubt I had about buying/selling Bitcoin using a Paypal-like service - which is obviously a bad idea ...

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
There are two main reasons:
- Volatility, more precisely: the fear of crashes. Until this isn't fixed, Bitcoin will almost only be used for speculation. Some ideas how it could be possible to fix are Atomic Swap Options and decentralized Bitcoin backing.
- Scalability. We need to support LN, sidechains and every other technology we can get, because otherwise, with only a x3-x4 user explosion, transaction fees would be unsustainably high.

Usability is also a factor but I think this has been largely "fixed" now in many services and wallets. LN however needs to be easier to use. I would like also a good replacement for BIP 70 (Payment Protocol), because some people do not trust Bitcoin addresses due to man-in-the-middle attacks or even due to typing errors (even if this is almost solved because of the address format with checksums).

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 do not have a very thoughtful opinion on that, but I think it can attract a certain public and doesn't do that much harm. As long as gambling projects (like HYIPs) don't advertise themselves as something like a "safe investment". We should not forget that even governments profit from gambling in many countries in the world.

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?
2-3 years should be enough, if it wasn't only shitcoin shilling on Telegram groups

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?
- Merit: I think it was a positive addition. While I'm not sure it reduced spamming (at least it may have reduced the extremely annoying spam we saw in 2017/18), it is imo used as it should be, and does make the forum a bit more meritocratic.
- Signature campaigns: I think they must become more professional. They could be a big opportunity for Bitcointalk, if they could attract good writers to provide content the forum - making it part of the professional content industry. But so far only very few campaigns are managed in a way they don't encourage spamming. I think currently the effect is neutral: It attracts many people and the forum would be smaller without them, but badly managed campaigns still lead to low-quality content in certain sections.

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
Most useful forum topic:
- One good topic for newbies is this one about stuck transactions.
- For advanced users I love filippoones option guide.

Most helpful users? I don't want to give names but there are lots of them - I personally know most from the Spanish and German subforums

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
- Responsive design! I can't believe that in 2020 the forum is still almost not usable on smartphones.
- A personalized stream of watched topic responses. Currently the only thing we have is the watchlist, but it only informs you that "something has changed". Instead I would like to see directly the posts.
- Being able to ignore some entire topics - either manually or automatically based on statistics (e.g. spam megathreads). This is surely a challenge but I can imagine some ways.

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
Very seldom. I traded a little bit in 2013, and did not too bad but it didn't convince me to make a living from it.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
Nothing really interesting. I lost a Bitcoin wallet with an amount of less than half a BTC in 2011 during a HDD crash. But it's very unlikely I would have hodled it until today.

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Currently most of the applications which are advertised as "DeFi" are purely speculative ("from speculators for speculators"), and its use cases are very limited. The only exceptions may be algorithmic stablecoins, but they're still not really mature as we can see with the challenges Dai struggled with.

The best DeFi application is the Lightning Network.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
A undeniable human right.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I actually read only a longer PDF, which is this one in Spanish: http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/74074

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
I don't want to advise a cryptocurrency or token, but I think for the medium-to long term there will be two categories which will prevail and have success.

1) Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which follow a similarly strictly decentralized model. There are actually surprisingly few of this kind. In this (outdated) thread some are named.
2) Security tokens, or tokens which are used strictly to rise funds for a particular business, which may or not be crypto-related. These tokens do not aim to be "the next Bitcoin".

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
10-15K.

[Pmalek]

A few days ago, I received a PM from zasad@ to be interviewed. Caught me by surprise, but of course, I said yes. Here is a little bit about me.
 

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

I became interested in crypto in 2013. Litecoin was one of the first big coins that I started holding. Back in those days, giveaways and freebies were still allowed, so I took part in many giveaways. I did some mining and traded those coins for Litecoin and ultimately for Bitcoin later on.

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

My earliest Bitcoin deals were made thanks to the mining profits I generated and exchanged. The goal was always to use those coins and exchange them when they gained in value for Bitcoin and Litecoin. One such deal earned me over 0.20 BTC. Keep in mind that Bitcoin wasn’t worth much back then, so it wasn't a lot of money. My first actual Bitcoin purchase was on BTC-e.

3. How did you get on the forum?

A discussion on Reddit about Digitalcoin brought me to the ANN thread here on Bitcointalk.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

I don’t think we are close to seeing Bitcoin becoming a significant player in the financial markets, yet. If it happens, sometimes in the next 10 years, I would be happy. A more pessimistic view would be 20-30 years. The populace itself is not ready. The majority of people are OK with the current banking sector. It has been a part of our lives for hundreds of years, and humans have gotten used to the bankers controlling everything. People put their trust in them despite numerous major financial crisis caused by their speculations throughout history.

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 think it is harmful to the community at all. Suppose someone doesn’t want to see gambling ads for moral, religious, or other reasons. In that case, there is an option to disable the ads in the settings. Use it. The companies pay the forum for the ad space. This money can be reinvested into making the forum better and testing and improving the new forum software. It is used for server costs, and mods and admins receive payment from this pool. Whether we like it or not, people want to gamble, always have, and always will. Bitcointalk, being the most popular forum of its kind, is where these companies will go to advertise.

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?

Let’s consider this year alone. Warren Buffet is a well-known investor, but despite his experience, his company Berkshire Hathaway lost almost $50 Billion in Q1 of 2020. That shows that financial markets are hard to predict, even for the best. I have never been interested in carrying out in-depth market analysis, so I am not the right partner to give advice on where and how to invest. I stay away from projects I don’t understand and those that are hyped and advertised aggressively.

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

The merit system succeeded in what it was intended to do. It stopped account farmers from upgrading their accounts with pointless discussions and activity alone. We now have a ranking system to determine post quality. People say that merits aren’t scarce, but I would like to see the sMerit supplies increase. I have often found myself in a situation where I am a few merits short, and I can’t merit the posts I would like. Some people think that Legendary members don’t need any more merits since they are already of the highest rank. But that is not true, since merit is given to the post and not the person behind it. But when I am faced with the same choice whether to award my sMerit to a Legendary or a lower-ranked member, I often find myself in a dilemma. My thoughts about signature campaigns match with what I said about gambling projects and casinos above.

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

Hmm, difficult question. From the top of my head, I remember the two sticky threads in Beginners & Help with tips for newbies and about Bitcoin wallets. Both were written by Lauda. There are many more, but I didn’t want to search before giving my answer. Singling out 1 or 2 users wouldn’t be right. There are many knowledgeable users. I am just going to say that if you want to see quality and knowledge, swing by Development & Technical Discussion and Bitcoin Technical Support. There are other ways one can be helpful. Merit sources are instrumental in terms of ranking up. They have been essential in me ranking up from Hero to Legendary, and I thank them for that.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

If I was in charge, Bitcointalk wouldn’t be a place where scammers and swindlers could stay after it was proven that they have scammed and stolen money. Equal treatment for anyone who breaks the rules. We have witnessed cases of the opposite throughout the years. ICO and bounty campaigns would have to deposit their bounty pool allocation in Bitcoin or an established altcoin with an escrow. This shows good faith and some sort of guarantee that they will honour their promises.

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

I trade on exchanges, but I don’t invest in new projects anymore. My approach in recent years has been to increase my Bitcoin holdings as much as possible.

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

I held a large bag of Digitalcoin for about a year. It is now a dead project. At the time, the coins were valued at around $0.02-0.03 a piece. I sold them at $0.26 and made some great returns. Had I been more patient, I could have doubled my money, but I am still satisfied. I am going to tell a story of a big loss that was luckily prevented and that made me much cautious in the future. I was sending Litecoin from exchange A to exchange B. But I made a mistake and sent the coins to a Bitcoin address of exchange B that had the same format. When I realized what I did, I contacted the support, and after 10 days or so they were able to recover my coins. It could have been a very costly mistake. I guess I was lucky, because today, few exchanges would have bothered to find my coins. 

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

I honestly don’t follow that trend and know very little about the new Defi coins. I am probably one of the rare members who has never used Uniswap. I think it’s a place where new and unsuspecting users can easily get lost and lose large amounts of money fairly quickly.


11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

Both. People don’t value their privacy enough until they lose it, and it becomes too late. I have made my share of mistakes in the past. Luckily and hopefully none of them will come back to haunt me. I am more careful now when I narrowed down my interests. I am no longer a dog looking to get a sniff of everything.


12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

My father started asking me questions about Bitcoin, so I wanted to surprise him by getting him a book about Bitcoin and crypto. There isn’t much available in our local language so I had to look elsewhere. My father knows German, so I got him “Bitcoin für Anfänger”. It is a book about Bitcoin for beginners. He started reading it but lost interest after a while. Turns out that I bought the book for myself and I liked it.

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

Buy Bitcoin! Many other assets can become a costly mistake. The biggest powerhouses in finance will soon enough understand that it makes no sense to fight the adoption. Look at the news about PayPal getting into crypto and Bitcoin. Others will follow.

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

I would rather have Bitcoin reach $15.000 and stay in that region for a while than a replay of the 2017 scenario. So, let’s make it a nice and round 15k.

15. P.S. (Optional)

This isn’t a question but rather praise for coming up with this thread that I find very entertaining and informative. Thanks for making me a part of it.   

[LoyceV]

It's just that if the publications continues at the same pace, this thread will lose the meaning for which it was really created.

I share this concern. I used to read all interviews because I recognized the names, and I'm interested in their story. I'm not really interested to read the story of users who barely earned some Merit. If their other posts aren't worth reading, I'm pretty sure this is a waste of time too. Some of them are already on my ignore list, and they didn't get there for posting interesting stuff.
A very first check would be if users are on BPIP's Most Recognized Top 1000, and even that list has many names I'm not familiar with.

[zasad@]

Can I see where in my post I suggested that you did it in a public post?

To be clear, does your “no” apply only to public posts?

I asked you a straight question.  Straight answers would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Okay, do I understand you correctly that you are asking me a question about my private messages and want me to post my answer in this thread?

If your question sounds like: "Have I looked for nonpublic confidential information about Lauda in private messages?"
My answer is no.

[eddie13]

I was thinking the same thing.. At the beginning I thought this was going to be more exclusive, but now it even contains interviews of spammers now banned for plagiarism..

It's just that if the publications continues at the same pace, this thread will lose the meaning for which it was really created.

I share this concern. I used to read all interviews because I recognized the names, and I'm interested in their story. I'm not really interested to read the story of users who barely earned some Merit. If their other posts aren't worth reading, I'm pretty sure this is a waste of time too. Some of them are already on my ignore list, and they didn't get there for posting interesting stuff.
A very first check would be if users are on BPIP's Most Recognized Top 1000, and even that list has many names I'm not familiar with.

The interviews could atleast be ordered by UID, though not perfect, the chances of smaller UIDs being more worth reading I think would be a lot better than nothing..

And how did Vod get a red inventor tag? What did he invent?
If I do an interview can I request a green “awesomest user” tag or something?

[nullius]

Can I see where in my post I suggested that you did it in a public post?

To be clear, does your “no” apply only to public posts?

I asked you a straight question.  Straight answers would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Okay, do I understand you correctly that you are asking me a question about my private messages and want me to post my answer in this thread?

If your question sounds like: "Have I looked for nonpublic confidential information about Lauda in private messages?"
My answer is no.

Thank you.  I am sure that you will never do such a thing in the future.

Absent further evidence, I have deleted my neutral trust feedback #272075 after saving a copy so that, in all fairness to both of us, anybody who reads this thread can see what we are discussing (and my my reference link) for themselves.  I think that that’s important, because some people are completely misconstruing what I said—including one who even saw fit to create a pointless thread about this, oh, ma gawd.

For the record, I will replace my prior neutral feedback with a neutral note with a neutral, non-accusatory tone, referencing this post.  I do not want to come off in an unintended way on your trust page—although, just as a measure by a common standard around here, my feedback actually had much better evidence than some of the poison-pen “neutral” accusations that suchmoon has unalterably engraved on some people’s trust pages.  To be clear whence I come:  I myself have “yeah, we had a dispute in the past” neutral feedback from forum members whom I respect; I don’t have a problem with it.

For my part, according to my well-known principles, I will continue to dig for information about anybody who is digging for nonpublic information about Lauda.

For confidential tips, my PGP key is linked in my signature.

Now, I was NOT the one who brought this up here.  Get back to your interviews, folks!

I was thinking the same thing.. At the beginning I thought this was going to be more exclusive, but now it even contains interviews of spammers now banned for plagiarism..

I know, right?  It started as such an exclusive club!  The forum’s humblest members did not feel that they were worth joining in. 😹

And how did Vod get a red inventor tag? What did he invent?

Probably BPIP?  I haven’t read the thread.

If I do an interview can I request a green “awesomest user” tag or something?

I call dibs on “Loose Cannon”.  Actually, it should be my forum title.

[zasad@]

nullius
Thank you!

eddie13
I didn't want this project to become a VIP club.
I decided not to publish other people's interviews anymore. I cannot prevent people from posting their interviews here.
The "ignore" button will solve the problem.
I hope Vod will answer your question soon.

[icopress]

I didn't want this project to become a VIP club.
I decided not to publish other people's interviews anymore. I cannot prevent people from posting their interviews here.

This is not at all what I, LoyceV and eddie13 were talking about .... Nobody wants it to be a VIP club, but we want the published interviews to be more valuable.

And the fact that you say that you “have no opportunity to prohibit publications” looks like a shift responsibility to others, (given that your OP is clearly hinting at sending you applications to PM).  And honestly, one simple change will be enough to make future interviews more valuable, (if the questions were more personalized... at least a few).

The "ignore" button will solve the problem.

If I were eddie13, I would take it as sarcasm ... and an offer to ignore the whole thread  

And as I said twice, ^{it seemed to me that you deliberately neglected these proposals ...} You can organize lists in three or four columns and add trust ratings.
You can request images of the trust rating in this thread: LoyceV's Trust score images - request them here (and use in a post/table/BBCode)

LoyceV (Legendary)

[LoyceV]

I cannot prevent people from posting their interviews here.

It's not an interview if they just copy the list without you asking them to do so.

[zasad@]

icopress
I hope that I will be understood correctly.
I can't do everything perfect.
My question is, how many interviews can OP contain?
If I add trust rating to each interview, then I will have problems. I may have to create a new topic.

If I don’t do something, it doesn’t mean that I don’t hear you. I write down your ideas and possibly apply them in further design.