The Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries are a series of interviews featuring various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each interviewee was carefully selected and asked the same group of questions. The main goal was to provide the world with a collection of commentary and opinions on the state of the current Bitcoin and crypto market. Some of the names you will recognize while others don’t wish for the limelight but have great insight and experience we all can learn from.
These interviews are raw and unfiltered with no agenda other than giving each individual their opportunity to speak their mind. If you like what you see, please share with your friends. If something offends you, you should probably X out and find another crypto fluff piece that gives you warm fuzzies.
Vortex is a long time Bitcoiner and founder of @cryptocastnet. Most people know him from his successful podcast The Bitcoin News Show.
Name: Vortex
Country: USA
How do people know you?
I’m known usually for one of three things, my twitter account, my youtube show/channel and for my involvement with promoting the UASF.
How long have you been into Bitcoin?
I first got into bitcoin in 2012, started investing around 2013, started commenting on bitcoin in 2014 on coindesk, then started commenting on it on twitter in 2015 and in that same year started my youtube show The Bitcoin News Show on The World Crypto Network youtube channel in the fall of 2015, and finally started my own youtube channel about Bitcoin last year in 2018.
Best Bitcoin experience?
Meeting bitcoiners in real life.
Worst Bitcoin experience?
Meeting bitcoiners in real life. No just kidding. The most stressful experience was by far the UASF in 2017.
What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat?
Governments and central banks.
What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks?
Experimentation is great, through this experimentation we learned bitcoin forks are just alt-coins and bitcoin doesn’t compete with alt coins.
What are you optimistic about in this space?
The privacy tech being used in the space such as Lightning and Coinjoining.
Biggest regret during the last bull market?
Getting too cocky.
What have you learned during the current bear market?
The most interesting thing for me is to see old bitcoiners go and new bitcoiners come to take their place, most cases for the better.
What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market?
Kevin Pham. No just kidding. I think it’s not such a fail, as I don’t often look at the negative, if I do it’s only to reveal the positive that is always there, and for me it’s that people are realizing more and more that bitcoin doesn’t compete with alt coins.
What do you think helped trigger the current bear market?
It was a pretty natural correction. It’s hilarious to see some people blame the futures and options market, they had very very little liquidity. It was healthy and natural correction. Speaking in TA terms we should have never gotten much higher than 7k but of course bitcoin is the only truly free market so it will over correct in both directions. Bitcoin continues to repeat the same patterns it always has, now with greater and greater value attached to each of the 21 million coins.
What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment?
None. At least none to those with an actual understanding of risk and an investment horizon of longer than 3–5 years.
How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network?
It’s going amazing. To be honest I never thought it would move this fast. Solving problems one by one. Gaining traction one CEO of a major social media company at a time.
What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin?
People seem to have forgotten what the term saving means in this age of easy money and endless Q.E. My thoughts are as they always are, save what you can and only spend what you must. The rest goes from practicality to philosophy.
What are you thoughts on alt-coins?
It’s kind of like asking a Gold Bug what he thinks about penny stocks. There is some interesting things happening that may or may not come to serve various market needs. Personally I’m here to steal the fire from the Gods, to change the way we think about money itself, to provide an option outside the only financial system we’ve been forced to use for over a millenia that has enslaved, slaughtered and starved millions of people. These are the end days. This is where humanity chooses enslavement or freedom.
Do you hold any? If not, why?
Well after that last ridiculous answer does it really matter? But seriously. I do not give financial advice and I’ve only ever advised people to buy and hold bitcoin.
What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt-coins will have on their future?
Not much.
Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization?
It’s inevitable. The only variable is time. We can debate that variable at length.
What Bitcoin startups are you excited about?
Well I’m excited about projects and technology, not companies so much. Things like Cyphernode from BullBitcoin, NBitcoin from Nicolas Dorier, Lightning Loop from Lightning Labs, Schnorr signatures are all examples of just some of the amazing technologies I’m super excited about. Some projects I’m excited about are BTCPay server which is an open source payment processor for merchants, Wassabi wallet from Adam Fiscor which uses coinjoining by default, Samurai wallet which is implementing a bunch of interesting privacy features at the transaction layer, Zap wallet from Jack Mallers which is a beautiful lightning wallet which has merchant features in beta right now, really there’s just too much to list here. Bitcoin is booming.
What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why?
I hate this word with the burning of a 1000 suns. I won’t comment much on people I’d prefer to comment on ideas.
What “crypto influencer” do you think get it right and why?
See above.
What’s it going to take for this bear market to turn around?
Time.
How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback?
Bitcoin is simply repeating its natural cycles. This is a healthy pull back and still 4x what we were in January of 2017. Bitcoin essentially creates a never ending cup and handle pattern on the charts when you zoom out on the log chart. This is 5th abstraction of money, the first digital monetary system born on the internet outside of the state, and the best form of money humanity has ever seen. Every 50 years or so global monetary policy shifts dramatically but only suffers its effects decades later. With endless Q.E., negative interest rates, and the endless corruption, it’s simply a matter of time before the market truly discovers bitcoin, and discover it, it will.
Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin?
Do your own research, put in the time, but make sure it’s proportionate to your investment. If you only put in $100, then only do $100 worth of research.
Best tips for storing Bitcoin?
Hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger, but I like to recommend the Cold Card wallet for those interested in preserving their financial sovereignty .
Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space.
Too many to name but if you go to the Crypto Cast Network youtube channel you’ll see we have a list of featured channels there. And if you go to my twitter account you’ll see my public Bitcoin list of people to follow.
Any last words of wisdom?
We are in very interesting times. A time of revolution, a time of hyper personalization, a time of misinformation. We now live in an age when you can believe whatever you want and have it re-enforced and reflected back to you exactly how you want it. Take care to do the hard work it takes to discover the truth. In an information age the ability to find signal over noise is paramount, it will be the only way you succeed.