Bitcointalk, located at bitcointalk.org, is recognized as the world’s foremost Internet discussion forum for Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in general.
It was first launched in November 2009 by Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, about a year after they introduced what would later be the world’s most talked about cryptocurrency. While the software and code for Bitcoin, along with its famous 9-page white paper was first shared on a little-known cypherpunk mailing list, and then launched in January 2009, it was on Bitcointalk where it was thoroughly and publicly traded, shared, and discussed.
Here, the exploration and awareness of Bitcoin and blockchain spread beyond the early adopters and ragtag collective of cypherpunks, techies and privacy proponents into mainstream consciousness of regular people.
A piece of Bitcoin and crypto history
The true extent and breadth of participants was there for all to see and for many years, coders and developers brushed shoulders with miners and app creators, talking Bitcoin with traders and speculators and general enthusiasts. Bitcointalk grew by the thousands each week, and was the place where the first ever Bitcoin transaction took place, when a man offered and paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two large pizzas in May 2010.
Many terms and ideas that we come to know as crypto today also originated from this forum. From the popular HODL (a typo of “hold”) that people still swear by today and that continues to inspire all kinds of memes, to the first ever known Bitcoin exchange announcement, to the first mention of the term “shitcoin” — Bitcointalk is a treasure trove of crypto history that proves its far-reaching influence that continues today.
Despite the forum’s main focus on Bitcoin and its rather obvious dislike for altcoins — alternative currency Bitcoiners generally refer to as shitcoins — bitcointalk was a fertile launching ground for a lot of alternative crypto and blockchain projects from 2014 to 2016. In fact, the 2017 crypto boom that led to a further ICO boom in 2018 (when there were 482 ICOs launched every day on average, that’s more than one every 3 minutes!) was almost certainly a result of bitcointalk’s growing popularity, with every ICO getting an Announcement thread on Bitcointalk.
So much so, marketing agencies and promoter groups made Bitcointalk Announcement Threads a first stop and must-have part of any ICO campaign. If you weren’t on Bitcointalk, then you didn’t exist.
As we all know, however, ICOs turned out to be not so good for the industry, with a high percentage of them turning out to be scams — either outright exit scams, or projects that eventually died with their tokens worth virtually nothing.
So is Bitcointalk still relevant and reputable today?
Almost certainly so.
The ICO boom and altcoin hype affected the entire blockchain industry in 2017 and 2018 — and bitcointalk itself has made a lot of effort towards cleaning up the scene. In the past three years, they have outlawed ICO advertising, made stricter requirements on spamming and scamming in the forum, and have implemented better credibility and reputation systems that ensure users in a way self-regulate.
The merit system, which earns points for constructive comments and contributions to the ecosystem, has resulted in a community that has probably some of the best quality content online. The trust system, which rates how trustworthy and credible users are, ensures that scammers and shady users are clearly marked by others.
With 553 million posts in 1.2 million topics made by over 2.8 million members, Bitcointalk is still, by far, the biggest blockchain community on the Internet and the most active. Take into account that there are still thousands of serious members from a diverse community of miners, coders, developers, investors and users, and you’re dealing with a community that isn’t just made out of speculators and shillers — unlike many other types of platforms.
Cryptomarketeer personally recommends Bitcointalk for blockchain brands that see themselves as a reputable and credible project, and includes Bitcointalk management services as part of overall marketing strategy for blockchain companies. So if you have a serious blockchain brand and you do want to be relevant to actual long-term users of crypto (and of Bitcoin, especially), then you’ll want to ensure that you do have an active presence on Bitcointalk.
One Comment
Comments are closed.