Tales From The Crypto #1: Interview with @htooms
I am launching a new series called "Tales from the crypto". We all know how crazy and exciting crypto and the crypto world can be. My goal with this series is to capture people's personal experiences with crypto and how it impacted their life.
For the inaugural Tales From The Crypto I have a fantastic interview with @htooms.
Enjoy!
@htooms is a Steemit Whale who hosts #takemyvotes, which gives minnows a chance to win whale voting power for a night.
1: What attracted you to Steemit/ why did you get involved?
I was attracted to Steemit via many many twitter posts that said '--Steemit"
The blogs I opened looked strange, that is to say, no advertising!
2: Why did you decide to invest your money in Steemit?
The experiment. When they started flagging the small user in order to 'teach' whales not to upvote with large percentage votes. I thought, "Well that is all backwards. They could make a code not allowing whales with 400m vests or more to place 100% votes."
Whales could still use all their voting power. The would just have to vote on 400 to 600 blog posts at 5% each rather than plopping down one $200.00 vote on each blog. That kind of voting drains the reward pool and kills all curation rewards for 90% of the other users on Steemit.
I now routinely watch for those who were downvoted / flagged by @smooth, then place 100% votes back on the those users' blogs that were robbed of their rewards.
3: What is #takemyvotes and why are you running this initiative?
I found that I alone cannot undo all the flags. This account was created to bring some positive energy to the platform. If I can give away my mouse clicks for a night and stop one person from leaving due to frustration, it's worth it.
#takemyvotes is something that was going to come to Steemit in the hard fork anyway. I just brought it a couple of weeks early.
4:How has cryptocurrency impacted your life?
Crypto allowed me to retire in my mid forties.
I was in on crypto from the very beginning. I mined $6 worth of coins per day - those same coins translate to $2,500 per day now. Back then my friends laughed at me for paying $1000 per month in electricity to earn $180 per month worth of bitcoins ($75,000 today). Now my friends understand that they are still working all day every day, and I am playing.
When the news media was at Charlie Shrem's bar in NY asking him about bitcoin, I was being interviewed by a few small newspapers. Then when Charlie was thrown in jail for once having touched bitcoins that were later used for drugs, I decided to go low-profile. I don't need the notoriety.
5:What developments in crypto and block chain are you most excited about?
What I am least excited about is that every media company or start up claims to have something new that is on "The Blockchain" which is misleading at best. There is no blockchain in that context. It's all a lie.
That is like saying, "I will put you one Airforce One" when all I have is a 1965 Cessna
"The Blockchain" is Bitcoin and it is full enough with Bitcoin transactions - no company is putting anything on THAT blockchain. If they have "A Blockchain", it is not worth anything without global adoption and participation. These same entities likely have no machines mining their blockchain - they are hyping their blockchain when it doesn't exist yet.
There are other blockchains which are in development ie; Litecoin, Dash, and Steem. They are nowhere near as large as Bitcoin's blockchain, but they are getting there and some are much more developed related to speed and efficiency than the Bitcoin blockchain is.
When you hear "Get your stake in Blockchain" - disregard it. A blockchain is a patch of dirt. If it is in Malibu, it's valuable. If it's in the ghetto, not so much.
What is exciting. Dash for its governance and marketing model. Bitchute for its decentralization of a video platform (youtube must die for their censorship). I am an avid trader and the coins that are trading over 1000btc in volume per day are the ones that are worth looking into.
6:What piece of advice would you give to new Steemit users?
Come up with something original and continue posting until you get noticed. Play to your strengths. If you can, invest some money. There are people who are successful on their posts alone, but as the platform gets more crowded, that will become more difficult. It takes effort as does youtube and twitter (where you do it all for free). You become popular when you are a real person who is really entertaining, the one with fresh new ideas and content.
New users tend to try filling the page with something so they can get a post out, then cross their fingers for votes. The biggest mistakes new users make are:
Titles like "My bad day" "My rose garden" which are like high school reports.
Poorly written or wordy paragraphs that are not proof read before posting will not succeed in the long run.
Attempts to copy what another user is doing.
Making a game. Even games take time to develop well. Constant work.
The download
What is your favorite cryptocurrency?
I made it big with Bitcoin but I am disappointed in the recent lack of funcionality (slow confirmations). Now there is Dash which made me as many dollars as Bitcoin has. If Steem gets included in the shapeshift.io list, I may steer my clients into steem for free, fast, interactions. The main restriction is that all need to spend into bitcoin in the end. Currently, I sell them Dash, they transact with others in Dash, then when they need to buy something on-line, it's a Bitcoin QR they see. My clients pay cash for crypto. I refuse to sit for two hours with the client's money in my lap waiting for my Bitcoin transfer to arrive so we can shake hands and go our separate ways.
What is your favorite wallet?
For PC
I prefer the core wallets (for security and private key access)
I use Electrum for speed, no waiting to update the blockchain. It's open source, private, has clean code.
For my phone, I use Coinomi which allows me to go into my Dash wallet, scan a Bitcoin address, hit send and seamlessly send from any crypto to any other crypto without thinking about it. Beautiful.
What is your favorite Crypto app/ service?
Shapeshift as mentioned above.
Localbitcoins.com provides the best service for all countries and brings more new crypto users per capita than any other. Second (for exchanges) is Coinbase which is the only U.S. based company of its sort that has managed to survive in the acid which is American law.
I also use a service that allows me to pay my bills with Bitcoin, or even order a wad of paper currency delivered to my door next morning. However, their horrible business ethic causes me only to mention them without naming them.
Do you trade crypto? If so, what is your favorite exchange?
I prefer not to place crypto-currency on any website. I got my coins off of MtGox before it failed. I got my coins out of Bitstamp and Bitfinex before they were compromised too. Depositing money on any website is pushing your luck.
My favorite was Bitfinex until they asked me to verify my identity - at which time they lost me as an investor. I am against government intervention into peoples lives.
I currently use Poloniex, though I would use Bittrex just as soon. I keep my holdings under 10,000 as it would take five days to withdraw my funds if something were to happen. Ten days for $20,000, etc.
What is your favorite steemit blog?
That is a hard one. I discover new favorites daily. Fifty percent of my day is spent on Steemit. I actually read the blogs and vote on them myself, except for when I am loaning out my SP to #takemyvotes winners.
Anyone can go to steemstats.com and put my name in the upper left. You will instantly see what I am voting on and how much money I have kicked their way based on what each has posted.
If you could change one thing on steemit what would it be?
I would stop the indiscriminate flagging of really good blogs by several whales. They feel they are raising the reward pool for everyone, which is true, but they are punishing the wrong users who are not part of the problem.
To fix it, we must, hard-code a limit to prevent any whale from putting more than $3 on one post.
Yes, I have rebutted all whale arguments to the contrary.
Steem price prediction year 2020!
Steem is priced in Bitcoin. Therefore, it is a relative thing. Bitcoin has been volatile.
The price in dollars, is a triple back flip from the exchange prices. Plus the dollar is in decline.
My gut? $30+ Steem if the team does not knee-jerk the Steemit economy over and over.
If you became a crypto-millionaire what is the first thing you would buy?
I am all set. I don't want anything else. I have found debt free economic freedom. That is plenty for one life-time.
I would like to thanks @htooms for this interview, be sure to follow his blog and participate in #takemyvotes.
I hope you enjoyed #talesfromthecrypto!
If you have ideas for questions you would like me to add to the "Download" leave them in the comments below.
If you have suggestions for people you would like to see interviewed let me know that as well.
Please resteem if you want to see more of these interviews!
Follow my blog @digicrypt if you are interested in cryptocurrency, cryptology or blockchain.
DASH: XgQ9NBonMoCPKhF37agY4W8zk7gwQFnwGV
Ether: XE04RO3I0QA5UKB31OZK4O3CK3TOT03R4TM
That was very informative! The more I get to know of @htooms the more I feel like his heart is in the right place and the more I like him. Thanks for being a stand up guy @htooms ! Also I like your price prediction for steem there at the end! ;)
I am sure that prediction will make a lot of people happy ;)
Fantastic interview! I have to say that I agree with many of @htooms' point of views and suggestions, for example to hard-code the maximal limit of how much impact a single vote can have, so that flagging of good articles will stop. I also like his freedom-loving attitude and rejection of too much governmental interference into private life. The reply I like most is this one though: "I am all set. I don't want anything else. I have found debt free economic freedom. That is plenty for one life-time." Thumps up!
Is there something I disagree with? Not really, just that for me steemit is not only a "cash machine", but also a place to share things which mean something to me, or also personal experiences. That means I understand his reasoning by dissuading (new users only?) to write about "My bad day" or "My rose garden", but if I just feel to share things like that, I think steemit can be a good place to do it ...
Thanks! Thanks for your thoughts and feedback!
Very interesting interview. I learned a lot about @htooms and I congratulate him on his success!
Yeah he has a very interesting story
That's a great interview and @htooms sounds like a real interesting guy! Well done for keeping the low profile and I am glad you have found your way to steemit!
I hope your price prediction is right! :0)
Yeah I am very thankful for him taking the time to give very thoughtful responses.
and yes....I also hope that price prediction is right :)
You asked some great questions. It was very in depth!
Thanks!
Hi @digicrypt, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Thanks! Awesome I will check that out!
Yes!!! @digicrypt this is so awesome. Exactly what I've been looking for, just great insight from people deep in the cryptocurrency scene.
This guy is living my dream - a peaceful life of financial independence through cryptocurrency. Thanks for helping him share his story.
Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it! Living your dream and mine! lol
Thanks for the resteem, I really appreciate you helping to get this series going!
You got it :-D
Love the name of the series! :D
Thanks :) I had a great name just needed and interview to go with it ;) Thanks for the resteem, really appreciate that!
This is a fantastic interview! I hope you keep this up. @htooms is one of the Steemit whales I find most interesting, so it was a lot of fun to read his replies. I have to admit, though, that I disagree with his recommendation to hardcode limit whale upvotes to only $3.00 per post, although I do recognize that would be fairer than what's happening now with certain whales deliberately downvoting after upvoting whales they consider to be too much or too concentrated. Personally, when I achieve whalehood I want to be able to vote full strength on whatever posts I want to, including my own. That is one of the reasons why I am starting to keep a paper trail about how I use my full strength votes now, which is (on a day I use all 40) 10 votes for me, 15 votes for anything I like by other people, and 15 votes for small minnows (and by that I mean accounts with less than 2,000 SP per SteemWhales). What I want to accomplish is that when I do become a whale (mostly through buying in I believe) then when I decide to drop $100 on one post by using my full strength vote, I want to be able to show that I'm not doing anything differently than what I've always done. If what I do is fair now, I think it should be fair then too. Why should I (or my voting power) be treated any differently based on the amount of SP in my wallet? My SP is not what makes me me.
Thanks! Yeah I hope to try and do this series either once a month or bi weekly, depends on if people are interested in being interviewed. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in the community as Steemit progresses, I still haven't made up my mind on the best approach to a few different things in regards to Steemit, including voting.
The thing with the voting for me is that 40 votes a day is a lot if you're not using bots, which I don't. I wouldn't have time to break my votes down to fractions to get more of them. It would be really frustrating if I still could only manage 40 or fewer votes a day, but then I had all this SP that was never used to influence because my votes were limited to a set dollar amount. I think what I would do, if that kind of limitation was worked into the code, is I'd just start a new account (once additional SP no longer added to the monetary value of my upvote), dump more SP into that second account, then program a bot to have that account upvote exactly everything my original account upvoted. Then I'd do that with a third account, and so forth. In the end, after much hassle, the influence would be the same. So I truly hope it doesn't come to that. Instead, it's good to try to persuade the whales to make a point to voluntarily spread their votes around in whatever way seems right to them, but not force them to do it a particular way. Those who feel strongly enough about it will figure out a workaround. Once again, great article, and looking forward to more.
Excellent work dear friend @digicrypt, this was a great interview, the questions were very interesting as well as the answers, certainly Mr. @htooms is a very professional person.
Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed the interview!
Really liked this interview you did with htooms. I enjoy reading the background stories of early investors. Followed and looking forward to more interviews
Thank you. I am personally very fascinated with the whole crypto world and culture, I just hope to be able to capture that story.