Interview with crypto-guru Dr. SmartContract

Dr. Smartcontract, hi! Thanks for taking the time for this interview! We have long been waiting for the opportunity to introduce you to our readers outside the Сrypto Not For Dummies format, where everyone knows you as an expert. And the question right off the bat: how do you like Gagarin News? Do you follow our publications?

– Hello, thank you! Of course, I follow, hit likes, and now I also help you a little with the content!

– Sometimes there is a feeling that you know absolutely everything about crypto. Please tell us how you found out about it, how did you start, and in general what did you do before crypto?

– I first learned about it sometime in 2013, just during the first bull cycle. Some of my friends were already engaged in mining at that time. They profited well on this, hence living on the islands. I bought my first Bitcoins in 2014, quickly spent them on various “goodies” on sites in the “dot onion” sections (in the so-called “sub-internet”), on Silk Road anonymous auctions, and then I dumped this topic for some time.

Somewhere in 2016, I started working in the IT industry, doing sales and marketing. In 2017, I returned to crypto again, bought a couple of mining rigs and started mining Ethereum Classic, Pascal. Did some trading here and there. By that time, I already had a lot of hands-on and theoretical experience - I figured out how and why everything works. Plus, I was working at a development hub at the time, where I saw a boom in blockchain technology requests. Everyone, from drinking soda to loyalty applications, wanted to implement blockchain, and sometimes it was not even clear why. I have advised dozens of projects on tokenomics, go-to-market strategies, concepts, white papers, etc.

In general, I’ve danced krump before getting into crypto ;-)

- In your duo with Mr. Etherman, who has more experience in crypto? You or him?

- It is hard to say. We complement each other quite well, Mr. Etherman is more of a technical specialist, and I am more of a business person. We are different, but this synergy is why you watch our show on YouTube.

– How would you assess the state of today's market? At what stage of development are we, what about mass adoption, how far are we from it?

- I can still assess the state of the market as rather vague. We have been going sideways for a number of months now, and many are even waiting for Bitcoin to fall as low as $10,000 or even lower. Personally, I believe that these falls do not occur on such sentiments. Yes, the US has tightened the printing press a bit, but they have elections soon, so they’ll have to “un-tighten” it, and the markets, willy-nilly, will go up. After all, money should always remain “money”, and somehow you need to overtake inflation, right ?

As for the current situation, I believe that everything that is happening is a complex of circumstances. Also, let's not forget that the market's job is always to get you to sell with a weak hand, so the market will try to convince you that everything is bad, to deceive you.

In terms of mass adoption, I have no doubt that this is inevitable. And I believe that Bitcoin will cost $100,000, and in the next 10-15 years it will be a million, then two, and ten million after that. Therefore, everyone should be more concerned with their strategies. But whatever strategy you have, never sell with a weak hand, be prudent, and of course buy more when you see good prices. And to do so, you always need to keep some amount of $USDT.

– What, in your opinion, is the coolest thing that was invented and implemented in crypto?

- A lot of cool things have been done, it's hard to answer this unequivocally. Bitcoin, in its original form, is cool. EVM is cool too. The whole field of decentralized finance, NFT is cool.

Blockchain games with an in-game economy and tokens - yes, they are still far from the conventional Call of Duties and World of Warcrafts in terms of the development level and production quality. However, sooner or later, some cool game will appear with its own currency, which will be in demand outside the platform, and it will have an impact on the real economy. Even in my youth, people were earning $300-$500 by auctioning some items that were farmed in the gaming worlds. But it was all gray and black schemes. Therefore, if it becomes completely “white” and in-game tokens or NFTs are sold on OpenSea-level marketplaces, it will be very cool.

– "What do you think about The Merge? What are your expectations? Is this a “right” transition or not?"

- I was not able to fully assess the risks, and I have contradicting thoughts about this. On the one hand, of course, it is great that we have finally increased the network bandwidth and, possibly, will reduce the cost of transactions. But this will not happen immediately, you still need to live up to that. On the other hand, with Proof-of-Work, I would like to understand where the cost comes from: this is a Money-Commodity-Money scheme, while with Proof-of-Stake it turns out to be a Money-Money-Money scheme. So I'm still at a loss as to what to make of this.

Yes, of course, I have $ETH on hold. But I also have Bitcoin, and I keep a portion of my reserves in stablecoins. I recommend everyone to do the same when you are not sure about the ongoing events.

- Many are worried that the regulators will “tighten the screws”. Do you think that the authorities have the technical capabilities to stop all the movement that is developing in the crypto sector?

– Central authorities may limit your ability to enter fiat money. Today you can already buy a house for cryptocurrencies, and a number of goods, even though there are limits. Therefore, they can complicate our lives by severing the bridge between virtual and real money.

There is indeed an initiative in the US aimed at linking over-the-counter wallets (i.e. only you have private keys to those) and a person's identity. If it is implemented, there will be whitelists with the state verified wallets, where people will be able to deposit funds from exchanges, which, in turn, implies mandatory KYC verification. Thus, you will always leave a “digital footprint” and your crypto can be tracked.

However, as far as the nature of money goes (i.e., their exchange function according to the principle “my product is your crypto”), if a seller wants to accept Bitcoins from the buyer, then no one can prevent this.

On the other hand, if our crypto community advocates such principles as anonymity and decentralization, then states have CBDCs that simplify control over monetary policy and money emission. They can issue grants with a limited duration, and then simply reset the balance on the corresponding wallet. Or it will not be difficult for them to block funds on users' wallets at the law enforcement request. It is easier to control tax processes. It will be almost impossible to carry out a “shadow” or an unauthorized transaction.

In this sense, CBDCs are no different from conventional banking. But there’s always cash. At least you control it directly.

“I understand that people like you don’t like predictions. But, still, what might be the potential maximum price of Bitcoin?”

- I believe that with about 3 Bitcoins in N years, you will be able to solve any financial problems, and the problems of your next generations for that matter. But, again: this is just a hypothesis that I want to believe.

– Is the market currently bearish?

- I think that the market is just being himself, in its best manifestations. And to say for sure that this is a 100% bear market - no, I can't. We are now moving somewhere to the side, or “sideways”, as the crypto lovers say. Because when you can definitely understand that this is a bear market, then everyone will short, right? And markets don't fall when everyone shorts.

– Are bull runs still linked to Bitcoin halvings? Or will halvings no longer matter?

– I wouldn’t say that bull runs are connected to halvings so much that one could draw a direct parallel between them. Yes, of course, halving is a fundamental mechanism embedded in Bitcoin. But after all, there will definitely come a moment when all Bitcoins will be mined, and miners will profit exclusively from transaction fees.

A much more important factor is the limited supply of Bitcoin, and the ever-growing demand. I think all bull runs happen for this very reason.

– Are there areas of life, economy, politics, or something else where blockchain technologies are not yet used, but seem necessary?

- Yes, a lot actually. These are open registries, registers, real estate, control of supply chains, control over the sale of finished products between factories and the consumer, and so on and so forth. The only problem is that these areas are often associated with the state, which is clumsy when it comes to technology.

In most cases, the state is not interested in pilot projects, they require transparent and ready-to-work solutions. Therefore, unfortunately, the massive use of blockchain in modern life is still very far away.

– HODL is life? Or is trading up your alley?

– The longer I'm in business, the less I trade. You should know that this picture of a man with a laptop trading on a beach while drinking from a coconut is a myth. You will not have normal trading even if you work at some kind of job that is not crypto-related.

Trading needs focus. Plus, it has a toll on your nerves. My trading friends are gray in their 30's. And there were traders who did not live to be 60 years old. Personally, I find it easier to HODL. And in terms of being active, I have my ways.

– What qualities should a crypto investor have in order to meet the minimum conditions for being successful?

– Well, first of all, an investor must have an analytical mindset and knowledge in order to be able to make timely trading decisions and analyze their past experiences. Of course, one will also need a good load of luck.

Well, and most importantly - you always need to have a strategy and stick to it. It is following the strategy that does not allow the investor to sell with a weak hand, and always wait for his price. And the market will always try to get you to do just that - sell with a weak hand.

Another tip is not to play games with margin trading until you understand what to do.

– What percentage of existing cryptocurrencies do you consider outright garbage?

– A large percentage, alas. Let's put it this way: I believe in Bitcoin, plus in blockchain projects that have an EVM where you can issue smart contracts. This may have a use case. And plus exchange tokens. Because they “sell shovels” during the “gold rush”, and people trade 24/7.

And most “cryptoprojects” could do without both blockchain and cryptocurrencies (if you know what I mean).

– Thank you very much for this interview! I know that we and our readers alike will still have questions for you. You provide a lot of useful basic info with Mr. Etherman in the show, but it was very interesting for us to have such a hearty conversation!

I'm here, call me when you need me. Crypto is a huge world that will never fit in one interview.

I wish the readers of Gagarin News to be able to take advantage of both the objective advantages that this topic provides and the unique moment in time when everything begins to develop in front of our eyes. You, as a specialized publication, are doing a good job of popularizing crypto, so I am glad that we are following the same path in a large “Gagarinites” family.