⭐ Merited by LoyceV (8) ,Welsh (6) ,casperBGD (1) ,JayJuanGee (1) ,FatFork (1) ,cryptofrka (1) ,DdmrDdmr (1) ,Trofo (1)
First I have to apologize for taking me three months to finally make this interview, but better late than never 
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
First time I heard about Bitcoin was sometimes in the early 2014 (can't remember exactly) while browsing on the Croatian forum. For some reason I ended up in "Investing" subforum and there I saw it, topic named "Bitcoin". People were arguing whether it's legit or some kind of scam, all the usual stuff, but most importantly it got me interested. Unfortunately all I did really in those few months during my first stint was buying some shitcoins as I naively thought that since I can't afford 1 whole BTC, better focus on some which I can own a lot.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Even though I heard about it years before, I bought my first BTC pretty late, sometime in the summer of 2017, via Coinbase. It always makes me chuckle when I remember how I was contemplating whether it's too late to invest in bitcoin at that moment since price already increased 3-4x in the last few months.
3. How did you get on the forum?
I heard about it in the previously mentioned Croatian forum. I visited forum once or twice, but honestly I preferred more intimate atmosphere there, since I was member for many years before that and knew all people well. Two months later I had to take a break from crypto due real live stuff so I didn't check bitcointalk again up until 2017. Upon my return I checked it a bit, but bitcointalk was simply too hectic for my taste at the time, so yet again I couldn't bother to register and before mentioned Croatian forum fulfilled my need. My 3rd visit to bitcointalk in the summer of 2019 (after month or two of lurking and due lowered activity in Croatian forum) resulted into me finally registering and here I am now.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The way i see it, there are several factors; First you have governments that are making it more complicated than it should be, then you have the fact that an average person is not so interested in being responsible for their own money, he prefers to delegate that to 3rd parties. And in the end, in the current state, question is whether cryptocurrencies are ready for mass adoption. And by adoption I mean using bitcoin primarily for payment, not just as store of value.
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 business is probably at the forefront of crypto adoption, so it's no surprise that we see so many looking for advertisement here. Signature campaigns definitely affect the forum traffic, making it more visible and relevant, but on the other hand that standard requirement that certain amount of posts have to be written in Gambling boards makes them barely readable due amount of mindless spam that you can find there. People are forced to write about sports that they probably never watched in their lives, and it shows.
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?
If you invest in bitcoin and especially if you are using DCA method I don't think that you have to be an expert as historically this method works and if you are into bitcoin for the long run you will profit. Regarding trading, situation there is way more complex and for that you need years of studying, experience and probably a lot of money lost in the process of learning.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
AFAIK, merit system was introduced in order to make account farming much harder than it was before. In that aspect, I think it succeeded. Of course it didn't completely removed account farming, I am pretty sure that some are still managing to do that, but then again, no system is infallible and there will always be some abuse, to certain degree.
Regarding signature campaigns, I think that it's great that people from less developed countries can make a living just by being an active part of this community. It is not without the downside though, as it is responsible for significant portion of spam on the forum. There are more and more campaigns showing up that are paying good and looking for active members, so there is more demand than supply of quality posters and that consequently lowers the bar so even a Hero/Legendary shitposter has a decent chance to get into one. To sum it up, in the end pro's outweigh the con's and I don't think that forum would magically be a better place if signature campaigns are suddenly abolished.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
There are many useful topics and even after more than a year on the forum I still stumble upon great older topics created years ago, but if I have to narrow it down to few that I find most useful, those would be:
You can find the names here, but shout out to all those active in scambusting & spambusting, those that are creating very useful bitcointalk related tools & guides and last but not the least, members of my local board.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. More transparent ban / unban system
2. Trust Feedback visible across all boards
3. Mobile version. I personally don't need it but it would make forum more attractive to new/younger people as fresh blood is always needed.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I did in the past but not anymore. I realized that trading is just not for me and same thing goes for investing in altcoins. I hodl what I have and that's about it.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
As many other noobs, I lost a lot while investing in various altcoins but the one that hurt the most was when I lost almost everything I had due phishing. I still feel stupid every time I remember that, but I learned few things from that loss and maybe some other noob reading this won't repeat my mistakes.
So, few days before Christmas 2017 (iirc it was 23.12) I was waiting for some BTC so I opened blockchain wallet. It was quite a shock to say the least when I saw that instead of 0.1 BTC my balance was 0. Completely shocked I am sending the message to friend can he check my address, but of course only he could do is to confirm that my BTC is indeed gone. Upon checking the address where my BTC went I saw quiet a lot of BTC, and new one kept coming, making me believe it was a work of an experienced scammer.
Mistake I did? Earlier that day for some stupid reason I typed "blockchain.info" into Google instead having it bookmarked, leading me to a phishing page. After few sleepless nights during which I seriously considered to get rid off crypto I had left ( beside BTC I had a little bit of ETH ) and simply forget about all this. But then I said to myself "fuck it, shit happens, move on" and I did. Next day I ordered hardware wallet and here I am still.
That experience is the main reason why I am active in scambusting as I felt how it is to loose basically everything due my own negligence and stupidity.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Not much really. Even though there are some legit projects and ideas, whole market is overrun with so many DeFi scams and shitcoins that at the moment I don't wanna have anything to do with it. Things will get better eventually, but until then I will keep my distance and if I want to gamble with my BTC, I'll rather do it at the casino.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Precaution, but in the real life my closer circle of friends and family know that I am into crypto. I don't bother them with it or trying to talk them into investing, but if someone asks me something crypto related I won't pretend I know nothing in fear of $5wrench attack. Then again, Croatia is generally safe country with low crime rate so maybe I would be more cautious if I lived somewhere else.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I don't read as many books as I used to years ago, but recently I started reading "Internet Of Money" by Andreas Antonopoulos, which is my first Crypto related book.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Since I stopped following altcoin market few years ago when I got rid off them, I can only recommend bitcoin.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I have no idea, and honestly I don't care. I do hope for some bigger correction so I can accumulate more. I did worry a lot in past, thinking about the price and constantly checking but eventually I realized that it doesn't make any sense as I am into this for a long run. To paraphrase the title of a Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, I learned to stop worrying and love Bitcoin
Thank you @zasada@ for a chance to hear forum members POV on various topics.
Cheers!
1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?
First time I heard about Bitcoin was sometimes in the early 2014 (can't remember exactly) while browsing on the Croatian forum. For some reason I ended up in "Investing" subforum and there I saw it, topic named "Bitcoin". People were arguing whether it's legit or some kind of scam, all the usual stuff, but most importantly it got me interested. Unfortunately all I did really in those few months during my first stint was buying some shitcoins as I naively thought that since I can't afford 1 whole BTC, better focus on some which I can own a lot.
2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?
Even though I heard about it years before, I bought my first BTC pretty late, sometime in the summer of 2017, via Coinbase. It always makes me chuckle when I remember how I was contemplating whether it's too late to invest in bitcoin at that moment since price already increased 3-4x in the last few months.
3. How did you get on the forum?
I heard about it in the previously mentioned Croatian forum. I visited forum once or twice, but honestly I preferred more intimate atmosphere there, since I was member for many years before that and knew all people well. Two months later I had to take a break from crypto due real live stuff so I didn't check bitcointalk again up until 2017. Upon my return I checked it a bit, but bitcointalk was simply too hectic for my taste at the time, so yet again I couldn't bother to register and before mentioned Croatian forum fulfilled my need. My 3rd visit to bitcointalk in the summer of 2019 (after month or two of lurking and due lowered activity in Croatian forum) resulted into me finally registering and here I am now.
4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
The way i see it, there are several factors; First you have governments that are making it more complicated than it should be, then you have the fact that an average person is not so interested in being responsible for their own money, he prefers to delegate that to 3rd parties. And in the end, in the current state, question is whether cryptocurrencies are ready for mass adoption. And by adoption I mean using bitcoin primarily for payment, not just as store of value.
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 business is probably at the forefront of crypto adoption, so it's no surprise that we see so many looking for advertisement here. Signature campaigns definitely affect the forum traffic, making it more visible and relevant, but on the other hand that standard requirement that certain amount of posts have to be written in Gambling boards makes them barely readable due amount of mindless spam that you can find there. People are forced to write about sports that they probably never watched in their lives, and it shows.
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?
If you invest in bitcoin and especially if you are using DCA method I don't think that you have to be an expert as historically this method works and if you are into bitcoin for the long run you will profit. Regarding trading, situation there is way more complex and for that you need years of studying, experience and probably a lot of money lost in the process of learning.
5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns? Do they harm the forum?
AFAIK, merit system was introduced in order to make account farming much harder than it was before. In that aspect, I think it succeeded. Of course it didn't completely removed account farming, I am pretty sure that some are still managing to do that, but then again, no system is infallible and there will always be some abuse, to certain degree.
Regarding signature campaigns, I think that it's great that people from less developed countries can make a living just by being an active part of this community. It is not without the downside though, as it is responsible for significant portion of spam on the forum. There are more and more campaigns showing up that are paying good and looking for active members, so there is more demand than supply of quality posters and that consequently lowers the bar so even a Hero/Legendary shitposter has a decent chance to get into one. To sum it up, in the end pro's outweigh the con's and I don't think that forum would magically be a better place if signature campaigns are suddenly abolished.
6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?
There are many useful topics and even after more than a year on the forum I still stumble upon great older topics created years ago, but if I have to narrow it down to few that I find most useful, those would be:
You can find the names here, but shout out to all those active in scambusting & spambusting, those that are creating very useful bitcointalk related tools & guides and last but not the least, members of my local board.
7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?
1. More transparent ban / unban system
2. Trust Feedback visible across all boards
3. Mobile version. I personally don't need it but it would make forum more attractive to new/younger people as fresh blood is always needed.
8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?
I did in the past but not anymore. I realized that trading is just not for me and same thing goes for investing in altcoins. I hodl what I have and that's about it.
9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?
As many other noobs, I lost a lot while investing in various altcoins but the one that hurt the most was when I lost almost everything I had due phishing. I still feel stupid every time I remember that, but I learned few things from that loss and maybe some other noob reading this won't repeat my mistakes.
So, few days before Christmas 2017 (iirc it was 23.12) I was waiting for some BTC so I opened blockchain wallet. It was quite a shock to say the least when I saw that instead of 0.1 BTC my balance was 0. Completely shocked I am sending the message to friend can he check my address, but of course only he could do is to confirm that my BTC is indeed gone. Upon checking the address where my BTC went I saw quiet a lot of BTC, and new one kept coming, making me believe it was a work of an experienced scammer.
Mistake I did? Earlier that day for some stupid reason I typed "blockchain.info" into Google instead having it bookmarked, leading me to a phishing page. After few sleepless nights during which I seriously considered to get rid off crypto I had left ( beside BTC I had a little bit of ETH ) and simply forget about all this. But then I said to myself "fuck it, shit happens, move on" and I did. Next day I ordered hardware wallet and here I am still.
That experience is the main reason why I am active in scambusting as I felt how it is to loose basically everything due my own negligence and stupidity.
10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?
Not much really. Even though there are some legit projects and ideas, whole market is overrun with so many DeFi scams and shitcoins that at the moment I don't wanna have anything to do with it. Things will get better eventually, but until then I will keep my distance and if I want to gamble with my BTC, I'll rather do it at the casino.
11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?
Precaution, but in the real life my closer circle of friends and family know that I am into crypto. I don't bother them with it or trying to talk them into investing, but if someone asks me something crypto related I won't pretend I know nothing in fear of $5wrench attack. Then again, Croatia is generally safe country with low crime rate so maybe I would be more cautious if I lived somewhere else.
12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?
I don't read as many books as I used to years ago, but recently I started reading "Internet Of Money" by Andreas Antonopoulos, which is my first Crypto related book.
13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?
Since I stopped following altcoin market few years ago when I got rid off them, I can only recommend bitcoin.
14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?
I have no idea, and honestly I don't care. I do hope for some bigger correction so I can accumulate more. I did worry a lot in past, thinking about the price and constantly checking but eventually I realized that it doesn't make any sense as I am into this for a long run. To paraphrase the title of a Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, I learned to stop worrying and love Bitcoin
Thank you @zasada@ for a chance to hear forum members POV on various topics.
Cheers!