By: Phoebe Bandoy
Blockchain Tech Specialist at BUNCH

Founded by Satoshi Nakamoto (also the founder of Bitcoin), Bitcointalk is a public forum where blockchain enthusiasts, developers, and crypto investors discuss topics about Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain in general.

As a crypto community, here is where most ICOs promote their projects and start building their communities.

This document contains the guidelines for using Bitcointalk in promoting blockchain-based projects. The main benefits of being part of this crypto community are the exposure to particular niche audience, traffic, and easy access to the perfect platform for ICO promotion.

Understanding Bitcointalk and How It Works

Bitcointalk.org is a cryptocurrency forum that is one of the major sources of information related to the blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto, the original Bitcoin developer, founded the forum in 2009 where most new cryptocurrencies announce their establishment, important upgrades, and events.

For example, Bitcointalk is Ethereum’s first announcement platform. The public forum is also ICOs’ main announcement platform in which you can find all ICO announcement threads (known as ANN-threads) and majority of them launch their bounty campaigns on Bitcointalk, while all trustworthy ICO listings require hyperlinks to ANN-posts when onboarding the projects.

The forum hosts a lot of different sections having sub-forums and threads covering all the major areas of the cryptocurrency world, including one made specifically for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). 

Thus, it can be said that at the moment, a Bitcointalk account is mandatory. In fact, it is a standard for any project doing or planning to do an Initial Coin Offering.

The domain name bitcointalk.org is owned by Sirius, also known as Martti Malmi, the second Bitcoin developer after Satoshi.

Satoshi Nakamoto has no true identity yet. He's not an active developer anymore but continues to manage the domain names bitcointalk.org and bitcoin.org while the forum is administered by theymos.

It is not known to the public and can be very well not be a single person and can be a group of people posting under the pseudonym. Before Bitcointalk was created, Satoshi used a SourceForge forum for Bitcoin-related discussions but unfortunately, this forum cannot be found anymore.

Bitcointalk has many contributions to the internet culture such as the term “HODL” which means holding a token. It is a method of cryptocurrency investing which is riding steady through the ups and downs. Another one is about a Bitcointalk user who purchased pizza for 10,000 BTC when BTC's value was very low. He paid for pizza worth $30 USD on May 22, 2010. Since then, Bitcoin Pizza Day is commemorated every May 22.

The Features That Made Bitcointalk a Propeller for Altcoins and Crypto Projects

Bitcointalk.org was built using an open source software package called Simple Machine Forum or SMF. The forum’s design and functionality have barely changed from the day it was first published.

The structure of the forum shows the division of different forums such as Bitcoin, Economy, Other, Alternate Cryptocurrencies, and Local. These forums also have sub-forums and topics that are split into smaller boards to cater various topics.

In Bitcointalk forum, community members need to achieve a certain point to rank up. This can happen by posting substantial contents that contribute to the forum.

The point needed to rank up is called "merit" which is awarded to users with quality posts. Rankings don’t just control the posting abilities, but also indicate if the user is truly immersed in the cryptocurrency world.

Members with higher levels have more freedom to undertake more activities such as signature, translation, and other bounty campaigns. To be able to move from one level to another, a combination of activities and merits is necessary.

The ranking and merit systems’ goal is to ensure that high-quality posts are published and to reduce spam in the forum.

As for the membership, a user can opt to pay to lift the restrictions by paying for copper membership. A copper member is allowed to post images and has reduced signature styling restrictions as well as reduced lead time for a post to get published. They can still be banned and has no special treatment. Bitcointalk has a set of community guidelines that should be followed accordingly to avoid being banned in the forum. A member’s reputation in the forum is important and it is based on the feedback given by the other users.

There are instances when a newly registered account may not be able to post due to the reason that the IP address used in registering for the account has evil points. To be able to use the account, the member can opt to pay the necessary amount to lift the restriction. The reason for having an evil IP address is because of having a previously banned account that was linked to it.

Who Writes and (Most Importantly) Reads on Bitcointalk

Bitcointalk users can be anyone who is interested in Bitcoin, blockchain cryptocurrencies, technology, and investing.  Some of them are the brightest minds in crypto space who are also active in the forum, and expert developers, coders, and business owners who mostly operate under pseudonyms. There are also staff and moderators who keep the forum tidy, moderating the chatter and offering technical support to user-posted issues. Thanks to its huge user base (more than 2 million community members), Bitcointalk became a valuable traffic source for everything connected to cryptocurrency.

Also, we can classify the community into different personas. These personas include Bounty Seekers who always hunt for bounties and ask if there are Translation or Signature campaigns, Know It Alls who ask a lot of questions about the project, Newbie Evangelists who always leave complimenting comments and patronize the project, Show Me The Proofs who are always asking for demo and proof that it is a legit project, and Mega Signature Advertisers who advertise their own threads or projects.

Web traffic on Bitcointalk shows around 9 million total visits with 4 pages per visit while its traffic sources come from direct visits, referrals, organic search, and social media. Top referring sites are crypto exchanges while traffic from social media sites come from Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit.