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.
Jimmy Song is a Bitcoin educator, developer and entrepreneur and is a veteran in the space.
Name: Jimmy Song
Country: USA
How do people know you?
Blogs, YouTube vids, my course and my book Programming Bitcoin
How long have you been into Bitcoin?
8 years
Best Bitcoin experience?
Earning BTC for writing some code.
Worst Bitcoin experience?
Top would be getting scammed. I bought an Alitin 2BTC coin back in 2014. They kept the private keys and of course got hacked. No idea if it was internal or external hacking, but sucks, nonetheless.
A close second is buying stuff (beef jerky and a sewing machine) and then watching the price go up.
What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat?
Lack of developers. This stuff’s not easy, but thankfully, the incentives are such that more are coming in every day.
What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks?
Good dividend to those that can code! It’s just people trying to print their own money or be their own central bank.
What are you optimistic about in this space?
Every “negative” event seems to bring more antifragility into Bitcoin. I love that survival strengthens Bitcoin each time.
Biggest regret during the last bull market?
Nothing, really. I enjoyed it.
What have you learned during the current bear market?
Bear markets make true believers.
What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market?
BAB/BSV
What do you think helped trigger the current bear market?
Too much supply, not enough demand. Too many people bought without knowing anything and were just gambling.
What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment?
Long-term, not much. Short-term, it’ll teach people to not gamble.
How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network?
It’s still developing. Lots of technical improvements on the way that will make it even better. UX needs improvement and it just requires more entrepreneurs playing with it.
What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin?
That’s the killer app. Store of value that isn’t inflated away or controlled by a central regime.
What are you thoughts on alt-coins?
Mostly uninteresting as money, but might be interesting technically. Most aren’t even that, though.
Do you hold any? If not, why?
I might have some residual somewhere, but I’ve mostly gotten rid of them. I don’t hold them because I don’t believe in their future success. At least not at the level of Bitcoin.
What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt-coins will have on their future?
Not much. There will always be people trying to print money. It’s really the market that needs to wise up, and I’m not convinced that’s happening too soon.
Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization?
A matter of when, not if. Just might take a long time.
What Bitcoin startups are you excited about?
Lvl.co is one I advise because they have a better fee system (it’s an exchange). Crypto Advance is taking hardware security seriously and the main tech guy is a former student (https://cryptoadvance.io/pages/product)
What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why?
The ones searching for Bitcoin 2.0 or are convinced they found it. They’ve mostly learned a hard lesson this past year or so.
What “crypto influencer” do you think get it right and why?
The maximalist crowd gets most of it right. They know what sound money is and why Bitcoin is valuable.
What’s it going to take for this bear market to turn around?
Time. We need a lot of the malinvestments into altcoins and ICOs to be cleared out first.
How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback?
Very. Long-term, the supply is fixed and demand will go up. It’s a matter of being patient.
Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin?
Invest long-term, not short-term.
Best tips for storing Bitcoin?
Still trying to figure that out. For most people, a hardware wallet is probably good enough.
Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space.
Noded. Twitter. Bitcoin Magazine.
Any last words of wisdom?
Focus on making good long-term decisions and you’ll be fine. Doing something against what you believe for short-term gain is what leads to ruin.