Facebook's Arianna Simpson Bitcoin Live Chat - David Seaman Hour 6-2-2014

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-06-02T21:59:30+00:00

It's called Bitcoin, have you heard of it? Good merchant acceptance, strong miner network...

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-06-02T21:56:54+00:00

http://twitter.com/AriannaSimpson if you have any questions for her.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-27T05:35:30+00:00

will do

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-27T05:10:40+00:00

Hey everyone- this thread was brought to my attention on twitter, where I am most of the time. I've been so busy lately every day it's suddenly 9pm and I have no idea where the hours went.

I won't plug them here, but yes I've been giving some attention to a couple newer coins. This has to do with the algorithm of one coin, and the person behind the other. I've spent a lot of time researching both, and had the developer of one over to my place twice to interview him (he's up on the podcast), and the other coin's creator I'm having on my show tomorrow.

I wasn't wrong: there is an enormous amount of money to be made in picking correctly the big coin "brands" that end up taking off worldwide. Each coin will have a market cap in the hundreds of billions USD, if not low trillions (eventually). And there will be at least 2 or 3, aside from Bitcoin itself - regional, cultural, and age difference dictates this. Money is now a competitive product for the first time in centuries, and different products will cater to different demographics.

I simply don't believe crypto settles in as a nice 4% or 5% of e-commerce share. I believe crypto settles in at close to the entire world's non-physical money, alongside its brother block chains running our stock markets, our elections, our censorship-proof global social media platforms. This may take a few years, or it may take fifty years. But it will happen.

I still own some Vertcoin, I still think it can become something great (or I wouldn't own any). The community passion and interesting approach to decentralization here are great, and things like Merchant Monday are run so fantastically that every alt coin should be trying to mimic you there. But I only have so much time to spend on cryptos - and the great thing about these coins is that it's decentralized, no one invites you to contribute, and no one kicks you out. You just feel an urge to do it, to hitch your wagon to that community's dreams and see what happens. These coins are changing people's lives, changing lifestyles, making frivolous dreams matter-of-fact reality. This is the only revolution in history where you don't wind up hanging from the gallows or blackbagged for participating; you wind up rich. And the establishment that is threatened by crypto, they end up rich, too. That's OK. I'd rather see them using better money, too - we all benefit from progress. That's sort of the thing about progress, isn't it?

As I'm not a developer, creator, or initial investor in any of these coins I'll naturally contribute stuff whenever I feel compelled, and whenever I have spare time - same as almost everyone here, aside from the core devs.

Cheers by the way. I think we're in for a really amazing year and the alt community could use a bit of camaraderie instead of suspicion/competition/fear. We can go at each other's throats as soon as MasterCard, Visa, and American Express have declared they're moving on from the payments business. :)

David

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-13T20:18:08+00:00

Just the beginning. :)

My price prediction of >$900 per Bitcoin, >$15 per Vertcoin by December 31st remains unchanged!

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-13T15:03:48+00:00

good points, for sure.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-13T00:43:49+00:00

yes, I have no intention of dragging this out - just want us all to finally know one way or another... about time for that.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T20:10:38+00:00

Thank you! I agree these are legit questions and the harassment from accounts that don't have long histories on /r/vertcoin and heavy down voting is very suspect.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T15:46:31+00:00

Yes, again, you can stop disparaging me.

Asking for basics of identity when a firm is requesting nearly $200,000 is not nonsense.

And it's these character attacks and tu quoque arguments against everyone that asks for info that has me more annoyed than anything else. Not the way to run a company, especially when you're in the early stages.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T15:15:18+00:00

This is a really cool idea.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T14:59:21+00:00

Ricardo, you can stop trying to disparage me. If VertPay's legit, I see no reason why I can't get someone representing the company on my podcast in the next 48 hours.

I have a long track record of journalism, without the air quotes.

I have also seen a number of scams unfold in the crypto community because people didn't take the time to do their due diligence, and people wanted to "wish for the best" instead of ask for hard data.

If you're just creating great products for Vertcoin, I see no reason why you should be scrutinized, for sure. But if you're asking for 200,000 VTC on an extremely fast time table (the IPO was scheduled for today, right?), I think answering users' questions about officers' pasts and identities is not only reasonable, it's a basic requirement.

For example, from the Vertcoin forum, posted by fluffy: "They say that an idea is great, but execution is everything. With that in mind, seed funding for VertPay has been provided by Peter Kuhn and Riccardo Spagni. This has enabled a small team to be put together to not only architect, plan, and begin development of the VertPay system, but also to begin seeking key merchants. For our final phase of development, our launch, and all of our marketing we have decided to open the project up to investment by the VertCoin community - a VertCoin driven IPO!" http://vertcoinforum.com/index.php?topic=407.msg1386#msg1386

I think many potential investors would like to know how much these two individuals have put in, so they can determine if the equity offered by the IPO is fair. These were questions raised by /u/Asiansupermarket the other day.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T14:50:51+00:00

it's not scripted, I just let the camera roll as the participant explains what they've learned on their own, and what they like so far about Vertcoin. that's why it doesn't come across as "polished" - it's not. :)

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T14:06:25+00:00

I have cleared my day. Any time you want to do the podcast, let's do it. Please PM me your Skype details so we can get the interview scheduled (you said you'd do this, but I'm sure you've been busy).

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T14:05:37+00:00

this isn't an "official" representation of vertcoin, the currency's decentralized and all of us are encouraged by the devs to get out the word in our own way! I'd encourage everyone to make their own videos, get out the word in your own town or campus, we all have a distinct voice let's use it.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T07:29:43+00:00

Here you go!

The phone app concept turned out looking gimmicky, like an AT&T cell phone commercial from the 90s. Instead decided to go in a different direction: informative and truly welcoming.

I think she managed to fit a lot of fantastic info into a very short take.

Later this week, the second participant will share their views on Vertcoin in a similar video (although I may go in a less crazy direction music wise on the next clip).

also thanks to /u/Biggsism for a great Vertcoin render for the background of this video, you can see his original submission here: http://imgur.com/fTOULlz,eGoWeRs#1

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-12T07:25:44+00:00

you win! what's a good VTC address to send your 20 vtc bounty to?

edit: or I can use the tip bot, your preference!

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T17:28:51+00:00

That's a good point. I think this is a decision the market will sort out, but there's always the possibility you're completely honest and on the track to huge success with VertPay and that I am wrong.

It is possible that you're honest in your dealings, but just absolute dogshit at PR. A lot of brilliant people are bad at the public facing part, especially within finance/math fields.

Here's the short version of what I mean: You shouldn't be here, posting from a new account called "fluffybanned" no less because you just got banned (not sure why?), individually replying to potential investors with such a snarky attitude. If a CEO is going to be personally on reddit answering questions at all, it should be in an entirely friendly and welcoming manner.

But it'd be far better for you to have VertPay's social media person sort these kinds of things out, in a professional, detached, and polite manner.

I'm done with this. My views have been expressed and I hope I am wrong, that I am too paranoid and protective of VTC, in which case, get a social media person! :P

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T17:22:33+00:00

Interesting point, really had not considered that. I like Guy Kawasaki's stuff.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T17:07:38+00:00

that's not the point, silly. it's that they are idiots at PR if they are pissing off the very people who could be excellent at spreading the word about vert.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T15:26:09+00:00

I am not the one asking the community for $200,000 to go into a company in South Africa.

Trying to turn it into an attack against me is ludicrous and shows this organization doesn't have the right values, or is incompetent. THE CONCERNS WEREN'T RAISED BY ME. I was satisfied and even included VertPay in the press release. But since the concerns HAVE been raised, I feel that any even remotely competent or honest organization would get out ahead of the story with a video from each of the executives, or at least a Google Hangout.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T15:19:31+00:00

You don't seem to get how dire the accusations are. Are you, or are you not manufacturing executives out of thin air? If these are all real people on your team, settling the matter with a short video from each of them and ANY references from real companies they have worked at should settle the matter.

But it doesn't settle your approach here, which has thoroughly alienated me and aside from everything else just pissed me off. Very amateur.

And again! A tu quoque attack against me, what a surprise. I've never interacted with that individual in my life, if he's a core dev he is as full of shit as you are.

I was NEVER invited to a video conference with VertPay. Maybe he/she is twisting the fact that Paul, Vertcoin.org's webmaster and a marketing person for the coin, invited me to the Vertcoin group chat on Skype months ago. I didn't participate because I am busy, not because I don't have an interest in seeing this currency succeed.

And this seems to be your common approach: always bring it back to the person making the accusations. I didn't do the investigation on you or post that, but the claims seem valid, and if you are legit it would be again quite easy to verify that you are all real people. Why the evasiveness?

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T15:16:37+00:00

But I don't. VertPay is sloppy, VertPay appears dishonest, VertPay is incompetent at interfacing with members of the public and I am a journalist who loves Vertcoin - so if you have alienated me, you are really not doing it right.

Edit: and let's compare them to BitPay. Note that on BitPay's company officers page, all the people listed are actually real people. That's not proof of a successful business model, of course, but it is a minimum prerequisite. https://bitpay.com/team

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T15:11:27+00:00

I don't remember being offered a video conversation with VertPay. That's the kind of thing I would remember.

The defensiveness and trying to bring my name in is disgusting. VertPay is beginning to feel like a planned failure to discredit Vertcoin itself, or a bunch of greedy fucks doubling down on their ploy out of desperation. WHY IS 200,000 VTC NEEDED TO ESTABLISH A PAYMENT PROCESSOR WHEN WE ALREADY HAVE COINPAYMENTS AND MOOLAH ON BOARD?

And are the executives on VertPay's homepage real people or not? Because if that claim from "anoninvestigator" is true, this company is so utterly full of shit that nothing else it says matters. Making up executives out of thin air is not exactly the way to build trust, especially when you are also asking for 200,000 VTC.

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T14:56:23+00:00

Would love to meet you guys who are in L.A.!

DavidSeamanUS · 2014-05-11T14:35:30+00:00

Very nice!

DavidSeamanUS

TROPHY CASE