Dear Community,
Now after a lot of weeks the overdue interview with Frank was finally concluded and is ready for you. If you dont know Frank, he is the driving force behind the BMF and has some influence on the face and direction of Signum (former BURST). Please forgive the long delay, but I guess we both had other stuff to do and thus shifted priorities a bit. Finally you got what was promised. Here is the interview:
Hello Frank! Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Please excuse the two previous missed appointments, which unfortunately I was unable to attend. So I'm all the more pleased that we were able to agree on this interview via Google Doc.
Yes, thanks for the invitation.
I've been in the community for about 4 years, mainly through Telegram. Since then I have also been able to follow your posts there. Your reddit profile is existing for about 3 years now, when did you get to know BURST and when and how did you get involved in the community for the first time?
I had heard of Bitcoin for a long time, but it wasn't until the end of 2017 that I started looking at it more closely. A family member started mining Bitcoin and I couldn't believe that the hardware for it is so expensive and at the same time consumes so much energy. At the beginning of 2018, I started looking for environmentally friendly alternatives in the crypto area and then came across BURST.
Your first reddit post with the headline “Why we have max only 2.200.00.00 BURST coins?” [SIC] from January 9th, 2018 contains your statement that you are new to BURST, so were you still a newcomer at that time?
You mean this entry:
https://www.reddit.com/r/burstcoin/comments/7p8ol5/why_we_have_max_only_22000000_burst_coins/ ?
Yes, that was one of my first questions to the community - and the fee from 1 BURST also seemed much too high to me at the time - fortunately that has already changed. (0.00735). It also seems to me that this question is still relevant.
What do you think of the Max Cap today and is it really necessary to hold it or should it be increased?
Yes, the question has been answered today - we removed the hard cap with the Signum HF. From January 2022 we will have a minimum reward of 100 BURST per block (at 4 minutes). If we relate that to the former cap, we start with an inflation of 06.% pa - which will fall accordingly every year. I think this is a fair approach, as it allows the miners to be rewarded accordingly as well as in the long term and at the same time we will get the "lost" coins with this approach - e.g. through loss of passphrase or death of the owner. I am very happy with the solution.
At that time you apparently also got involved with other coins or were interested in them, why did your commitment end up with BURST?
I can't put it another way, but BURST just caught me. For example, I had looked at XLM at the beginning (still think it's good), but the extensive possibilities that you can do with BURST - on chain - plus the PoC consensus were decisive for me.
Judging by your reddit posts, you started making suggestions for improving BURST early on. You have been a member of the BMF for years. What motivates you to work on BURST?
Yes, I was already very active back then, always looked for possible applications and tried to build up community-driven marketing and development funding. On November 27th, 2018 I founded the BMF. That was the reddit post back then:
https://www.reddit.com/r/burstcoin/comments/a0xuwm/burst_marketing_funds_bmf_join_and_mine_from/
The first big action was on December 23rd, 2018, when we launched the NDS-A. At first I did everything manually (Frank laughs) but today I fully automated the process with the help of Zoh. The Reddit post from back then:
https://www.reddit.com/r/burstcoin/comments/a8xp49/network_distribution_strengthen_award_to_node/
It's super exciting, we'll get to that later. But what exactly motivates you to invest so much time in BURST in addition to your job, family and possibly free time?
Yes, my wife always asks me that, but I just have the feeling that BURST has simply not yet played out its potential and that we actually have an uncut diamond in front of us. I want it to show its full shine - to stay in the picture.
After the PoCC resigned, the community was shocked, but you seemed to be looking ahead in the power vacuum and wanting to take on tasks. What do you think has changed at BURST since the PoCC resigned and the BA (Burst Alliance) took over?
I think we have managed to build a collegial and trusting basis between the active members over the years. We discuss a lot, have an active exchange of ideas and differences of opinion are (almost) always positively discussed. In addition, we have fully concentrated on the expansion and conversion of BURST and today's status with the last HF Signum is better than ever.
Do you think that the same thing that happened to the PoCC can happen to you, that you move too far away from the community and lose your support? If not, why?
Never say never, but we always aim to pick up the community with us. For example, we announced the Signum HF for a long time and documented the adjustments in CIPs and made many optimization runs with the testers. Everyone who actively participates in the community has given us constructive feedback, and that's why the HF is where he is now - 100% accepted by the community. We will continue to do this.
After the resignation of the PoCC, attention was drawn to some new and partly unknown people. Some of them don't seem to be interested in BURST anymore. Was the zenith of BURST 2-4 years ago and BURST is now just dead tech?
We are a community driven blockchain - people come and go. But the most important thing is that there is always a team that takes care of the blockchain, and we have proven that in recent years that we can get it going. And yes, we want to see BURST in the top blockchains again, that's where it belongs.
You took care of the Burstcoin.ist for a while, then you gave the most important medium to another community member. That increases the democracy factor, but shouldn't the central communication organ of the community be in the hands of the most reliable and well-known members?
I have to admit that I couldn't keep up the weekly interval of high quality burstcoin.ist articles. And as you say it is a community news feed so in my opinion it should also be fueled by the community.
How was your reaction when you heard about the BURST delisting at Poloniex, are you still a Poloniex customer?
I thought that was really bad because there wasn't even any hint from them in advance. Sad story - but I'm no longer a customer there either :-)
2020 was a difficult year for BURST, we had problems with the blockchain, there was a suspected fraud in the milieu of a BURST-related platform and then, at the end of the year, the hack of one of the few exchanges that lists BURST. Now, six months later, the BURST / USDc value has risen sharply again. Can that only be attributed to the rapid rise of BTC?
Yes, none of those were nice events in the BURST environment. This is all past to me. The current price of 2 cents is certainly not only related to the increase in BTC. BTC is currently falling even more sharply and we are staying at the same level in USD. No, I think that people have finally understood that sustainability is important. And with the tweet from Elon Musk and our last HF Signum, we certainly hit the current trend.
Do you think that Mr. Musk will be a BURST guru?
We're working on it :-)… it would really be a perfect match.
What lessons can one learn from these past crises as a BMF- or as a community member?
It goes on and on - as long as the people are passionate about it.
I got the impression that you were one of the first BMF members. How did the BMF come about?
I founded the BMF with the idea of creating a positive environment for the community again. In the beginning I opened the BMF Discord as a closed group, I just wanted to have people around us who still had or have a passion and positive attitude for BURST.
What role did the Marketing Fund play for you back then?
The fund itself was or is an important instrument to give active community members something back via bounties or the NDS-A.
How does the work at the BMF or the BA work, how are decisions made and are tasks assigned?
The BMF has a voting channel on its Discord, where everyone can vote for or against activities. Otherwise we are a loose group of active community ambassadors who keep coming up with ideas and putting them up for discussion.
What are your main tasks at the BMF or the BA?
I'm actually a jack of all trades (Frank laughs), but it turned out that we basically merged the BMF and BAT groups informally, since it makes sense that development and marketing should go hand in hand.
To what extent is there an exchange or cooperation between the BAT and the BMF?
We feel like one group.
What are your most important projects for BURST at the moment?
I take care that we get real business on the chain. In addition, we are currently running a round with new stock exchange listings.
BTDEX seems to be a great success, but it is not yet listed on CMC. Would that be important for a broader success of the exchange?
We still have to create the prerequisites here so that we have an API in the sense of CMC, but yes then we can also be displayed there.
Why does it seem so difficult to list BURST on major exchanges?
Currently with the Elon Musk tweet for sustainable chains, we can hardly save ourselves from the request. I guess it just needed this change of mind.
Can you imagine that BURST will work together with other crypto communities, or are there already approaches?
Yes, we already have a cooperation with the BPSAA. We are open to it.
What kind of cooperation is that with the BPSAA?
Different chains support each other in order to become more successful together. https://bpsaa.vision/
Oliver is very active and represents BURST there.
How do you see the future of Burst, like for example real life uses or the profitability of current investments?
I see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel, and I think we're about to get out of this one too. I am very positive.
Can you imagine how you can reach a large number of people with BURST who can neither buy nor mine BURST?
Yes, I think we should focus on a rebranding and a new marketing strategy here. The HF Signum has at least brought us a large number of new miners, which is very nice. Now a few more use cases on the chain and we are marching through.
How can we, as community members, support the marketing activities of the BMF or generally for BURST?
Every activity counts; like writing and talking to people about BURST - that always helps.
Is there an official BURST repo with which people, who are interested in support on social media, can receive graphic and content regarding support?
We currently have a style guide, but it doesn't help in such cases. I think we can do that in the future or the community can pull it off.
What are the most problematic challenges for BURST marketing at the moment? Where are the bottlenecks to reach masses of people with BURST?
I think the current problem is that we have too little funding, we definitely have a disadvantage there.
In the case of Elon Musk, it was probably less the funding than the audience. Many have asked for a new tweet from John McAfee before Mr. Musk became the crypto bellwether. So can you say that celebrity contacts are more important in our community than paying money for listings and stupid advertising on Facebook or Twitter?
It shows that such leading figures have a great influence at the moment. I think we should use this where possible, even if it can be double-edged. In the long run, it will be the users who use a chain like BURST that will be the key to creating real value.
Will we still be able to see paid BURST advertising on social media or specialist portals in the future?
Yes, we are also working on a solution here.
You have 5 sentences to explain to your grandmother what BURST is and why she has to buy / use BURST:
Burstcoin is a technology that lets you send cryptocurrency to anyone, anywhere and powers applications that no one can stop, it's a programmable and sustainable blockchain-solution available worldwide. Burstcoin builds on Bitcoin's innovation, with some key differences, both provide a digital currency without intermediaries like payment providers or banks. But Burstcoin is also programmable, so you can gain access to all kinds of digital assets and use them in ways only limited by your imagination! This also means Burstcoin is capable of a lot more than just digital payments, it's a marketplace of financial services, games and apps that won't ever steal your data or censor you. So start now and give it a try!
Five long sentences :-) (Frank laughs)
That was so important to you that you wrote in English, I think your grandma would be thrilled!
Yea! :-)
We come to the closing questions.
What would you wish from the readers of this interview?
I have no wishes - I hope that some questions for the reader have been answered here and that it has added value for them.
What advice can you give us?
When you're caught on fire for something, go ahead and stick with it. Success comes with the necessary tenacity.
Is there anything else you want to get rid of?
We still have a lot to do with BURST and the Signum HF was just the beginning - I'm looking forward to it :-)
Dear Frank, thank you for your time and this interesting conversation!
Thank you very much, it was an honor.
This interview was conducted by community member Samus Aran with BMF founder and long term community supporter Frank the Tank over a period of several weeks via an open Google Doc document. It concluded on 6/6/21 and was translated from German to English, as the interview was held in German on a wish uttered by the interviewee. The whole interview was given Frank for review before final release. Questions of the community members were gathered by a reddit post and anonymously implemented as best as possible. If you feel like your questions haven’t been heard, you have questions regarding this or past interviews or other complaints, please contact me at Telegram u/Metroid_Prim3. Thanks for reading us!
