Zeus: Hello Admin! Nice of you to join me for a chat. What can I call you, surely Admin is bit too impersonal?
Admin: Hi Zeus π I go by many names, but you can call me Xena.
Zeus: Xena as in Warrior Princess Xena??? π
Xena: Indeed. I identify with her. She fights for the injustice and defends the weak. This blog is called Crypto Queen and people ask my why did I not choose some queen as my avatar instead. The truth is I have been writing as Xena for long time and simply didn’t want to chance. So yeah, Xena graduated into a queen and learned about cryptocurrencies π
Zeus: Heh, she is also sexy and fearless warrior. Sounds like you indeed. BTW just to make things clear to the audience, Xena and me, Zeus, know each other in real life. In fact we work together and also hosted various websites together for quite some time.
Xena: Yes indeed. Good old times π I mean you carry a pretty bold pseudonym yourself π
Zeus: It never hurts to have confidence, right? *laughter* So Xena, tell the readers little bit about yourself. What do you do for living? Where do you live? Where are you from?
Xena: *mumbles* Same old, same old *sighs* Well, I have Master is Mathematics and Computer Science. IΒ run my own IT based consultancy company with around 50 employees. We specialize in security and problem analyzing. I also work as a consulting expert for a crypto currency company and 3D printing startup.
Besides that I also trade both bitcoin and alt currencies, give crypto talks and write books about trading and crypto currencies.
Zeus: Where do you live? Where are you from?
I’m a nomad with no real place I call home. Currently I am constantly on the move between the largest European cities. I am a mixed nationalities word citizen, who has lived and worked in 12 different countries.
Zeus: Sounds like the Xena I know and admire. π Always on the move looking for new challenges. You used to run a very successful blog, which name I have agreed not to mention here, with a large following about scams on the Internet and then you suddenly deleted the blog and disappeared. Can you tell me something about your reasons behind this and now starting out with a brand new blog about crypto currencies?
Xena: Running a successful blog is hard work as you know as well. Running a blog about online scams is even harder as besides the investigations, which take their own time, there is also the creative writing itself.
You also get constantly bombarded with trolling, questions, request for making a review of a certain program and requests for helping people to get a refund. You get constantly contacted by admins running scam sites and wanting to pay for a glowing review or marking them as paying and legit. Your server is a constant hacking and DDOS target and you must endure all sorts of threats.
Things kinda got out of hand, I got exhausted and needed a break. I used my energy elsewhere and got my life back in balance.
Zeus: So why did you chose a written blog? Most people are doing video blogs nowadays π
What comes to me choosing written format, I simply prefer this medium for tree reasons. Firstly I hate video blogs myself, it takes so long time to get to the point. I find skipping back and forward in a video to find the bits your are interested in very frustrating! Secondly I believe there is still place on the Internet for written content, not everyone has high speed access which watching the HD videos that Youtube is full of today requires.
Last of my reasons is the fact that it’s easier to stay somewhat anonymous with a written blog, which is rather important for a blog like this one, as opposite to a video blog that exposes you completely.
Zeus: Yeah, I know it can be tough and by the sounds of it you really got more than your share. What made you decide to get started again with a fresh blog? Surely things are not going to be that rosy either this time around?
Xena: True, but my life is on a different track right now. I sleep very little and spend most of my time browsing around on the Internet anyway, I might just as well use my time for something useful. This time around I am also going to make my own website, so I will not be dependent on any other rules than my own π
Besides many of my real life friends want to get involved in trading with crypto currencies and are looking for related information. I want them to have access to reliable information and avoid all the scams out there.
I simply want to help people to invest in cryptocurrencies wisely and I realized that there is actually very little neutral information about cryptocurrencies, especially when it comes to alt currencies and various bitcoin based programs. Most people don’t have the skills to investigate things properly.
Zeus: Your blog has really take offΒ indeed. Why do you think nobody else tried the same?
Xena: Too much work is my guess. My investigations of various programs and services are very thorough, lasting sometimes several weeks or in rare cases even months.
Zeus: You indeed make very little on your website compared to your other adventures. Why do you think it’s important to keep going?
Xena: Honestly because I really hate greedy banks and believe in the opportunities the cryptocurrencies offer. I genuinly want to teach people to use it properly and safely.
Zeus: You have managed to shut down bitcoin scam sites based on your investigations? How exactly did you do this?
Xena: Several hundreds in fact! There are tree ways to accomplish this. One is to starve these websites for new members. Once the new paying members stop joining, the revenue dies, the scam site is unable to make any payments and finally shuts down.
Second, much faster method is contacting the authorities in the country the company is registered in. Most countries have defrauding units and are very interested in throughout investigation. Many of the scam sites have no real company behind them, so using this method is not always possible.
Third and my absolute favorite method is to directly contact the site owner or admin, or sometimes just answer if they contact you first. I engage into conversation and let them know who I am and that I’m on to them. Some get scared, others actually start feeling remorse.
Zeus: Well done! Tell me, do people recover their money once the site is shut down?
Xena: Unfortunately very rarely, although it happens sometimes! In most cases people loose all or most that they have invested in these sites. But at least it prevents others from loosing their savings! Therefore it is important to stop people from joining these sites int he first place..
Zeus: Why do you think people keep on investing in these bitcoin scam websites? They should know better for now.
Xena: Indeed. However easy money will always have it’s attraction. Make no mistake, some of the people who invest in these scam websites do get paid. They have to establish their reputation for payouts, so many of the initial people who invest small amounts will get paid with the high interest, at first.
Some people are aware of this and know exactly what they are doing. They gamble only the amounts of money they can loose and I couldn’t care less about them, each for their own. Others are not so fortunate and actually believe the glowing reviews and get blinded by the possibility of paying of their credit card debts, going for a luxurious holiday or putting some money aside. These are the people I want to protect. I want them to understand that there is no such thing as free money and only invest in real opportunities.
Zeus: What is your favourite affiliate program at the moment? Which investment would you recommend?
Xena: I like the to promote a crypto curency exchange site called Cryptopia and since I also love to gamble, I am part of few bitcoin casinos. You will see ads for all these in my blog. There are also couple of crypto currencyΒ programs that I am currently evaluating, but I am still undecided. Those articles are no doubt going to give me enemies *smirks*
Zeus: Thank you very much for your time Xena and for the fantastic Spanish red wine we shared during this interview. You have taken on quite a challenge starting all over again, but I have no doubt that you will make it! I will get the interview in written form by the end of the week.
Xena: You are very welcome. Hey! Who said I will pay for the wine and all the cheese you ate? You invited me out for this interview, remember? Anyway, I made you an author of CryptoQueen.net, so you are welcome to contribute at any time mate. For the purpose of this blog, all my posts are going to be made by Crypto Quueeen and I have dubbed you the the Crypto King π
Zeus: Heh, thnx sheila, I won’t make you regret that, promise. I’ll pay as always, just because I’m a gentleman. I am sure by publishing this interview in my blog, I will make more than enough to cover all the wine we consumed tonight, your name still carries a punch. Please write me a guest blog sometime soon. I could use the extra traffic *grins*
Xena: *waves the waiter* Can we have some more Rioja please?