I'm OgNasty, Treasurer at bitcointalk.org. Ask me anything!

[OgNasty]

Hi Everyone,

I'm OgNasty, a treasurer at bitcointalk.org. I am perhaps more well known as a popular Bitcoin escrow provider and founder of the NastyMining community project. I also mint unique silver Bitcoin wallets and have published Bitcoin related apps for iOS & Windows.

I stumbled upon Bitcoin in early 2011 & decided to become a user in June of that year. I have mined throughout the evolution from CPU/GPU/FPGA/ASIC and have experienced first hand many of the highs and lows throughout Bitcoin's existence. In the past, I've shared some of my views with CrytpoCoinsNews & BitScan.

I'm looking forward to responding to any questions you have, and appreciate the opportunity Roger Ver has provided me to participate in this AMA. Now ask me anything!

[jdebunt]

Guess I'll be the first to ask something then

Seeing as how you are involved in some of the most important aspects of Bitcoin - escrowing and running a mining pool - have you seen an increase, decrease, or stalemate in these markets during 2015?

If (not) so, what do you think the reason is?

[OgNasty]

Seeing as how you are involved in some of the most important aspects of Bitcoin - escrowing and running a mining pool - have you seen an increase, decrease, or stalemate in these markets during 2015?

If (not) so, what do you think the reason is?

Thanks for your question jdebunt. I'm a supporter of P2Pool and lately as miners consolidate more and more to large farms mining with large pools, we are seeing longer round times, and discouraged miners. While it is easy to see that the mining market continues to increase, what is not so easy to see is that home miners are going away, and miners are consolidating to low power areas in the hands of few. I see no reason to suspect this trend won't continue, or even increase as manufacturers move to catering only to their largest customers.

Acting as an escrow agent perhaps gives me more insight into this phenomenon. When I first started providing escrow services for transactions, it was mainly individual users buying small goods and trying new vendors. Nowadays it seems that I am constantly dealing with the same few individuals that are buying a great deal of mining equipment on the forums. It is concerning just how much centralization is happening before our very eyes.

[helloworld]

While it is easy to see that the mining market continues to increase, what is not so easy to see is that home miners are going away, and miners are consolidating to low power areas in the hands of few. I see no reason to suspect this trend won't continue, or even increase as manufacturers move to catering only to their largest customers.

Acting as an escrow agent perhaps gives me more insight into this phenomenon. When I first started providing escrow services for transactions, it was mainly individual users buying small goods and trying new vendors. Nowadays it seems that I am constantly dealing with the same few individuals that are buying a great deal of mining equipment on the forums. It is concerning just how much centralization is happening before our very eyes.

Are you planning to offer escrow services on this forum or are you doing it on a standalone website?

Also, Have you considered that mining "centralization" is a natural byproduct of economies of scale?

"decentralization" is often used as some kind of buzzword nowadays, but it's seldom defined.

Currently, development is almost fully centralized under Blockstream, I find this a lot more worrying than the consolidation of mining.

In my opinion, true decentralization (eg: every user is a miner/node) is impossible with a valuable unit of account. Not to mention that a small fraction of people would want to bother with it in the first place.

[OgNasty]

Are you planning to offer escrow services on this forum or are you doing it on a standalone website?

Also, Have you considered that mining "centralization" is a natural byproduct of economies of scale?

"decentralization" is often used as some kind of buzzword nowadays, but it's seldom defined.

Currently, development is almost fully centralized under Blockstream, I find this a lot more worrying than the consolidation of mining.

In my opinion, true decentralization (eg: every user is a miner/node) is impossible with a valuable unit of account. Not to mention that a small fraction of people would want to bother with it in the first place.

I'm willing to offer services on this forum. I just need to make sure all my same checks and balances apply.

I know centralization has in the past been a byproduct of economies of scale. However, I think that Bitcoin has the potential to fight this. Things like Bitmain's R1 or the work being done by 21.co offer the idea that individuals could unite their strength in numbers as a great decentralization tool. I think it is important to keep things decentralized in order to keep big money or teams of individuals from being able to buy or fearmonger their way into the game and start making the rules.

I am not a supporter of Blockstream, nor am I a supporter of XT. I am not worried about them.

I don't think everyone needs to be a node to be decentralized. The true power of Bitcoin lies in it's mining network. That is why you hear Wall Street money talking about the "blockchain" and not Bitcoin. That is why they want to use whatever means they can to get control of it. That is why we are seeing the current development struggle that we are. Fear cannot dictate the way forward.

[helloworld]

I am not a supporter of Blockstream, nor am I a supporter of XT. I am not worried about them.

That is why they want to use whatever means they can to get control of it. That is why we are seeing the current development struggle that we are. Fear cannot dictate the way forward.

Why would you worry about a transparent, open source proposition (XT)?

XT is about showing that the ecosystem could bypass anyone to progress, (including Mike Hearn).

I think the many misconceptions about XT/Hearn is the product of misinformation and FUD spread on the main censored and manipulated forums. I would recommend fact checking for yourself again.

I disagree on many things you mentioned, although it's not the place to discuss it. I hope that you'll participate on this forum in the future and good luck with your endeavors.

[OgNasty]

I find this a lot more worrying than the consolidation of mining.

I am not a supporter of Blockstream, nor am I a supporter of XT. I am not worried about them.

Why would you worry about a transparent, open source proposition (XT)?

I wouldn't. It has nothing to do with me. You seem very passionate about it though. Thank you for your questions.

[jwinterm]

So are you in charge of the money for the million dollar forum update?

If so:
Is it actually a million dollars (or more)?
How much money has been spent so far?
Is there any progress?
Is this even still a thing?
Was a bunch of money spent and nothing to show for it?

Just curious mostly what the status is and how much has been spent on it so far. It came to mind in the context of the new forums launching (here and bitco.in one) with fancy new social media features etc.

[nakedbitcoins]

So are you in charge of the money for the million dollar forum update?

If so:
Is it actually a million dollars (or more)?
How much money has been spent so far?
Is there any progress?
Is this even still a thing?
Was a bunch of money spent and nothing to show for it?

Just curious mostly what the status is and how much has been spent on it so far. It came to mind in the context of the new forums launching (here and bitco.in one) with fancy new social media features etc.

My questions have to do with these above also. Thanks for doing this AMA!

[OgNasty]

So are you in charge of the money for the million dollar forum update?

No. It would be more accurate to say that I secure some of the money that didn't go towards the forum update. I haven't followed their development much to be honest. I enjoy the forum as it currently exists.

[naypalm]

Greetings OgNasty,

Over the years have you noticed a significant increase or decrease of donators to the bitcointalk forum? Has the "Donator/VIP" price gone up or down with the price of BTC? What is the most exciting thing you've done for the Bitcointalk forum?

Also, I and many others are big fans of your NastyFans seats and silver wallets. What made you decide on such a unique sub-market and minting endeavor? Any new products or ideas on the horizon?

Thanks!

[OgNasty]

Greetings OgNasty,

Over the years have you noticed a significant increase or decrease of donators to the bitcointalk forum? Has the "Donator/VIP" price gone up or down with the price of BTC? What is the most exciting thing you've done for the Bitcointalk forum?

Also, I and many others are big fans of your NastyFans seats and silver wallets. What made you decide on such a unique sub-market and minting endeavor? Any new products or ideas on the horizon?

Thanks!

I haven't noticed any significant growth in the donators list in a long time. The price is pegged at 10 BTC to be a donator and 50 BTC to be a VIP. I think just being an active participant on the Bitcointalk forum is exciting in itself. The most significant thing I've done for the forum is definitely the safeguarding of hundreds of BTC.

I am a fan of trading securities. My background is in finance. I was initially attracted to Bitcoin because I liked the idea that I could easily trade securities around the clock with people from around the world. After seeing that a majority of the options were at best poorly run, I thought about offering an alternative. I've also always been a fan of silver and one of my first communications when I got into Bitcoin was with Gavin about the possibility of me releasing a silver coin. He said some things to me at the time which made a lot of sense. He was against the idea of a silver coin that had no real attachment to Bitcoin value. After seeing Casascius' creation, I thought it would give me the opportunity to use my project to create a unique and next level physical stock certificate type vehicle that had no costs of any kind. I do have a new product idea on the horizon, which will be more of a custom physical wallet, and less tied to the "Nasty" brand.

[nonnakip]

Hello OgNasty,

I know you are big fan of philosophy of Bitcoin. How much of your real world transactions are in Bitcoin? Maybe you could provide a percentage or ratio vs. fiat.

Do you believe that people should hold Bitcoins for the long term? Or do you encourage spending Bitcoins as much as possible to support Bitcoin economy?

Is mining easier now than early days with first generation ASIC's?

Do you expect home miners to be viable in longer term (10 years)?

What are your thoughts on new forum.bitcoin.com? Do you expect your fans to transition here from bitcointalk.org? Or must they follow both?

Thank you for participating in this AMA!

[OgNasty]

Hello OgNasty,

I know you are big fan of philosophy of Bitcoin. How much of your real world transactions are in Bitcoin? Maybe you could provide a percentage or ratio vs. fiat.

Do you believe that people should hold Bitcoins for the long term? Or do you encourage spending Bitcoins as much as possible to support Bitcoin economy?

Is mining easier now than early days with first generation ASIC's?

Do you expect home miners to be viable in longer term (10 years)?

What are your thoughts on new forum.bitcoin.com? Do you expect your fans to transition here from bitcointalk.org? Or must they follow both?

Thank you for participating in this AMA!

I use Bitcoin for as many of my purchases as I can in my daily life. All of my food, clothing, & a large majority of my entertainment is paid in Bitcoin. The rest of my expenses that I am unable to pay in Bitcoin, I convert BTC to USD as needed in order to pay. I have been doing this for quite some time now.

I think people should hold bitcoins if they want to own them. Owning bitcoins is surely better than not owning bitcoins. I would encourage people to spend only what they want and are able to, but to use Bitcoin if at all possible when doing their spending.

Mining is easier now in the sense that hardware has been refined to more or less include everything you need. In the early days you had more customization options with software and airflow was a custom solution. Now you just need to worry about the included solution, which means dealing with lots of noise and heat. I definitely miss the days of slapping water blocks on GPUs and overclocking them to the limit.

I believe home mining will always be viable. If Bitcoin is successful, people will probably be mining them on their solar powered cellular phones one day.

forum.bitcoin.com is still in it's early days. It is that reason I believe I haven't had the same level of interaction here. I don't expect my "fans" to transition here from bitcointalk.org or to follow both. I always try to make information available through all outlets possible, but the home base for NastyMining will always be the OP.

[cryptorebel]

Seeing as how you are involved in some of the most important aspects of Bitcoin - escrowing and running a mining pool - have you seen an increase, decrease, or stalemate in these markets during 2015?

If (not) so, what do you think the reason is?

Thanks for your question jdebunt. I'm a supporter of P2Pool and lately as miners consolidate more and more to large farms mining with large pools, we are seeing longer round times, and discouraged miners. While it is easy to see that the mining market continues to increase, what is not so easy to see is that home miners are going away, and miners are consolidating to low power areas in the hands of few. I see no reason to suspect this trend won't continue, or even increase as manufacturers move to catering only to their largest customers.

Acting as an escrow agent perhaps gives me more insight into this phenomenon. When I first started providing escrow services for transactions, it was mainly individual users buying small goods and trying new vendors. Nowadays it seems that I am constantly dealing with the same few individuals that are buying a great deal of mining equipment on the forums. It is concerning just how much centralization is happening before our very eyes.

Welcome OgNasty and thanks for doing this AMA. Centralization is indeed concerning, but also if we look at some of Satoshi's quotes he seemed to indicate that over time we would have to accept some centralization as the network got very big. For example he said that the configuration for large scale would be few full nodes and they would be run on server farms: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic ... 69#msg6269

I just hope that we will have enough decentralization to keep the network honest as things progress. Sometimes I think people do not realize that centralization/decentralization exists in many shades of grey and is not just a black and white thing. This has led to a lot of turmoil in the current blocksize/XT debate.

What is your opinion on blocksize. If you think it should be raised, what kind of urgency do you think there is?

As a bitcoiner, I am concerned about Anonymity/fungibility. What is your opinion on that issue and what do you think about changing the Bitcoin protocol to provide confidential transactions or other privacy enhanced features? Do you think that politics will get in the way of such changes?

As an escrow agent what role has Multi-sig played, and has that role been increasing more recently?

Thanks again for doing the AMA and welcome to this forum. I hope this place will grow and get some good respectful discussion and debate happening.

[OgNasty]

What is your opinion on blocksize. If you think it should be raised, what kind of urgency do you think there is?

As a bitcoiner, I am concerned about Anonymity/fungibility. What is your opinion on that issue and what do you think about changing the Bitcoin protocol to provide confidential transactions or other privacy enhanced features? Do you think that politics will get in the way of such changes?

As an escrow agent what role has Multi-sig played, and has that role been increasing more recently?

Thanks again for doing the AMA and welcome to this forum. I hope this place will grow and get some good respectful discussion and debate happening.

I think the block size should be raised. I don't think it is an urgent issue and I definitely don't think it should be used as an excuse to hand the world's most powerful computing network to an altcoin. It isn't like there is a great deal of code to be written or regulatory hoops to jump through. There are simply egos that need to be checked on both sides of the debate. I think it is a good thing for Bitcoin that the developers are butting heads, but extremely bad for everyone when people walk away from the table. It will be humbling for those that walk away, and destructive to what remains.

I'm not concerned about anonymity/fungibility. I think Bitcoin allows those who put in the effort to remain anonymous while obscuring the lines enough for the rest of us to be satisfied. I also think that Bitcoin's success is because it is a great idea. Any attempts at compromising it's fungibility will most likely be met with long debates that cost those in favor of it their public admiration.

Multi-sig has played a non-role in my experience. While businesses and other large entities probably rely on it, I've found that the more people you include and the more you complicate a situation, the more complications arise. Simplicity is sometimes best, especially when dealing with trades between individuals.

You're welcome. I also hope that this place continues to grow and provides another outlet for meaningful Bitcoin discussion.

[rogerver]

Thank you so much for participating here, and for being supportive of Bitcoin for so long!

As a long time user of BitcoinTalk, what suggestions do you have for making this forum more useful?
What services, topics, additions would you like to see?

[OgNasty]

Thank you so much for participating here, and for being supportive of Bitcoin for so long!

As a long time user of BitcoinTalk, what suggestions do you have for making this forum more useful?
What services, topics, additions would you like to see?

Thank you for organizing this Roger, and for all you do to promote Bitcoin!

This forum appears to tout an image of non-censorship. I think that continuing to provide that atmosphere will be beneficial for separating the experience between here and other Bitcoin forums. As far as services, topics, additions... One suggestion I had for Bitcointalk was for a Bitcoin-only goods section. A place where you find things like Casascius Coins, without having to dig through computer parts or gift card sales threads.

I like how a user's Bitcoin address is prominently displayed next to their name. Perhaps it might be cool if there were stats that displayed along with it, such as the length an address has been active, or maybe some kind of rating based on their activity or total received amount. Some sort of integrated tipping method might also be fun because this is a Bitcoin forum.

[imaginary_username]

In terms of centralization of decisions, once anything (not just Bitcoin) gets popular enough it will face a dilemma: most users don't really care either way as long as it's kinda tolerable. It's how representative democracy was born anyway, but having a select few people make all the decisions turn out to be very corruptible, and especially so when it comes to money.

On the other hand, Bitcoin puts the power to decide back into the hands of users/miners... but we face the same problem again. Most users of Bitcoin have barely any knowledge about how the blockchain works, and even miners (surprisingly big ones - see Marshall Long's AMA) would rather take no risk and do nothing than adopt decisions that will move the ecosystem forward. This is not just wrt blocksize either, soft fork problems in the past has shown how even the most agreeable change can fall apart as inertia takes over, and hoards of apathetic people holds power they don't care enough to use.

Do you think ossification of the program and protocol is inevitable, or some sort of centralized decision body (Core team, industry panel, committee, whatever) is necessary? If the latter is unnecessary, what is the path forward? If the latter is necessary, how can we prevent it from being corrupted?

[OgNasty]

Do you think ossification of the program and protocol is inevitable, or some sort of centralized decision body (Core team, industry panel, committee, whatever) is necessary? If the latter is unnecessary, what is the path forward? If the latter is necessary, how can we prevent it from being corrupted?

No.

I like to think that Bitcoin is above any one person or organization and any unilateral attempt to gain control over it should not be supported. The current voting methods in place seem fine to me. Large companies should not be able to incentivize developers to act as they see fit instead of investing the resources into gaining their share of the mining network to be able to vote on decisions like the rest of us. Having money or influence alone does not give you the right to guide the future of finance. I understand that is what people have been used to for the last 200+ years, but this is the type of culture people flocked to Bitcoin to fight.

As for how we fight it, the community simply needs not support anyone who wishes to take control of the Bitcoin mining network. Someone who doesn't understand that people don't want to support this type of behavior might look upon non-supporters as, "hoards of apathetic people" but I would rather call them loyalists.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Hi OgNasty,

why isnt Theymos also controlling all the money? I guess that wouldnt make a big change.

/s


Do you see a problem that he controlls all major news sites?



LCG


(Anyway: Welcome )

[OgNasty]

why isnt Theymos also controlling all the money? I guess that wouldnt make a big change.

Do you see a problem that he controlls all major news sites?

In this post theymos says, "I am holding too much money for the forum. This is contrary to the forum's otherwise decentralized structure."

I think it is a bit of a stretch to say that theymos controls all major news sites.

[LiteCoinGuy]

why isnt Theymos also controlling all the money? I guess that wouldnt make a big change.

Do you see a problem that he controlls all major news sites?

In this post theymos says, "I am holding too much money for the forum. This is contrary to the forum's otherwise decentralized structure."

I think it is a bit of a stretch to say that theymos controls all major news sites.

Bitcointalk
Reddit
Bitcoin.org

....

Why do you think it is a bit of a stretch to say that?


When Theymos says:

"I am holding too much money for the forum. This is contrary to the forum's otherwise decentralized structure"

sounds like a joke to me

[stingers]

Nice to see you here. Just remembered that my friend just told me that he never got the silver coins that he bought from you(lol must have been lost in the way).

As you've had a good experience in mining thing, do you think it can still be possible to generate profit from large scale mining, and which location on earth is suited the best for that purpose? And tell the best mining hardware you think that is there in the current market.

Thanks

[OgNasty]

Nice to see you here. Just remembered that my friend just told me that he never got the silver coins that he bought from you(lol must have been lost in the way).

As you've had a good experience in mining thing, do you think it can still be possible to generate profit from large scale mining, and which location on earth is suited the best for that purpose? And tell the best mining hardware you think that is there in the current market.

Thanks

I've shipped literally thousands of silver coins over the last 4 years. I don't believe a single package ever didn't reach it's destination, but if what your friend says is true, it has to be the result of never following up with the purchase. I typically send with signature confirmation, so most likely someone signed for the package, or I would have gotten it back. At the very least, if I were notified I would have done the research and tracked down what happened.

According to Spondoolies' latest financial projection, it is most definitely believed that it is still possible to generate a profit from large scale mining. I'm not very familiar with global electrical rates, but if I were to try and launch a large scale mining operation, I would do so in Washington. The best hardware available is a tricky question as the best miners I'm aware of aren't available to the public. If you were talking about large scale operations, I would say the SP50 certainly looks to be the best choice at the moment. If you are a home miner, it seems the current debate is between the Antminer S7 and the Avalon 6. I don't know enough about the Avalon 6 yet, but if it has similar underclocking traits as it's predecessor, it could be a formidable competitor to the S7.

[CoinPoint]

Hi,

More related to the forum than to your other businesses.
Can you share some information about the forum user, like how many are bitcoin holders and how many are wannbees, which are the most relevant countries among your forums visits and what are the hottest topics.

Thanks

[OgNasty]

Hi,

More related to the forum than to your other businesses.
Can you share some information about the forum user, like how many are bitcoin holders and how many are wannbees, which are the most relevant countries among your forums visits and what are the hottest topics.

Thanks

I wouldn't have any information on bitcointalk users that isn't publicly available.

[stingers]

Nice to see you here. Just remembered that my friend just told me that he never got the silver coins that he bought from you(lol must have been lost in the way).

As you've had a good experience in mining thing, do you think it can still be possible to generate profit from large scale mining, and which location on earth is suited the best for that purpose? And tell the best mining hardware you think that is there in the current market.

Thanks

I've shipped literally thousands of silver coins over the last 4 years. I don't believe a single package ever didn't reach it's destination, but if what your friend says is true, it has to be the result of never following up with the purchase. I typically send with signature confirmation, so most likely someone signed for the package, or I would have gotten it back. At the very least, if I were notified I would have done the research and tracked down what happened.

According to Spondoolies' latest financial projection, it is most definitely believed that it is still possible to generate a profit from large scale mining. I'm not very familiar with global electrical rates, but if I were to try and launch a large scale mining operation, I would do so in Washington. The best hardware available is a tricky question as the best miners I'm aware of aren't available to the public. If you were talking about large scale operations, I would say the SP50 certainly looks to be the best choice at the moment. If you are a home miner, it seems the current debate is between the Antminer S7 and the Avalon 6. I don't know enough about the Avalon 6 yet, but if it has similar underclocking traits as it's predecessor, it could be a formidable competitor to the S7.

First of all thanks for that answer.

And, neither my friend nor I accused you of messing up with the coins. We are confident enough that you must have shipped the coins on time. We think that it must be our postman or something who must have messed up with them. Also, my friend didn't care to contact you about the lost coins. So it wasn't your mistake at all.

Regards
Stingers

[QS-]

I am somewhat surprised that no one has asked anything about this yet.

Can you describe the process you use to create your NastyFans physical bitcoins? As well as the process of engraving the entire Bitcoin address on each and every coin that you mint? I won one of your silver 1oz coins in an auction from you several months ago, and I have to admit that it is a very nice coin.

I have noticed that you (somewhat) recently started selling 2 oz gold highlighted (gild?) preorder coins. What are your plans as far as additional designs for your NastyFans physical coins?

You had sold me an ungraded casacius tenth that was later sent to ANACS and came back as MS68. Not long after that a large number of casascius coins were showing up for sale that were graded MS68, MS69 and even MS70. I have also noticed that graded casascius coins have generally been declining in price as of recently. What are your thought on this new wave of higher grades showing up? Do you have any of your casascius coins graded, and if so have you sent any of them in for regrading?

[hr][hr]
This is somewhat off topic from my above, questions.

You mentioned above that you both do not support XT and that you support larger block sizes. What is your opinion on BIP101? on BIP100?

Do you see any harm in raising the max block size earlier then might be necessary?

[Smartie]

Hi OgNasty

Would you say most donations came from early adopters or are there no way to determine that?

What does the boss say, about you doing a AMA on a rival forum?

Interesting discussion, many thanks.