Hijacking Bitcoin - On the Road to 10,000 Views On YouTube
Hijacking Bitcoin (my video on YouTube) is already at 9,000 views and will probably break 10,000 in just a few more days.
Likes are rising quickly (already at 240), and watch time is performing amazingly well, nearing 1,000 hours!
However, it seems someone used a service or botnet (I’m not sure what that was) to artificially pump the views by thousands. YouTube eventually removed many of these fake views, but the video is still inflated by approximately 3,000 fake views.
I can understand somebody wanted to boost my video this way, but know that it is not helping in the end.
These fake accounts only watched the video for a second, and while the intentions may have been pure they have negatively impacted the video's stats and likely YouTube's algorithm as well.
I understand the desire to see Bitcoin Cash succeed, but there’s a better and more organic approach.
Right now, YouTube's algorithm found my audience and the video is receiving a mix of external and internal views, with decent watch time and a much better click-through rate (CTR).
In ths story, I have some thoughts I’d like to share, and after this, I’ll probably take a break for a while.
Let’s dive in.
On the Road to 10,000 Views
The video took me six weeks to complete, with daily work of 8 to 10 hours. In the end, a few minor mistakes slipped which is inevitable when doing everything alone.
Roger's book is incredible, and I really hope I did a good job to select some of the most engaging parts of it.
Judging by the comments, people seem to enjoy it, and many are actively promoting it, which gives it the potential to go viral.
A year ago, I set out with the idea of creating quality videos about Bitcoin Cash and the history of Bitcoin. I was confident I could produce at least one video that would be favorable to Bitcoin Cash and at the same time, reach 10,000 views.
Well, that's now happening.
Who knows? Maybe it will even reach 15,000 views if people continue watching and sharing it. YouTube is boosting it, others are as well, and I can’t predict how far it might go.
But regardless, I’m just happy to have reached the goal of 10,000 views.
That said, I’ve also been reflecting on the impact of my YouTube content.
Have my videos really made a difference?
Have I helped Bitcoin Cash as much as I hoped?
Hijacking Bitcoin is performing amazingly, but judging by the comments it received, it seems that only few from within the BCH ecosystem watched even the first two minutes.
Support Those Who Don't Even Follow Me?
I can’t help but feel saddened when I see that several people from the BCH ecosystem have never shown interest in supporting me (and others who have been loyal to BCH so far).
AND OF COURSE I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT MONETARY SUPPORT, but simply engagement, interacting on platforms and social media. The simple and free kind of support.
People are trying hard you know? And they expect a like and a follow by those they support, promote their companies and projects.
I don’t know who liked my videos and who did not but it often feels like many don’t care at all.
The fact they never engage with my posts on Twitter, to me it makes it clear they don't follow me or interact anywhere else.
These individuals never followed me on the social media platform where I’m most active, X.com, nor did they follow my previous account, which is now suspended and had close to 10,000 followers.
They never liked or retweeted any of my posts, anywhere, despite my consistent efforts to promote BCH for years.
When there’s a massive effort to counter anti-BCH propaganda, some choose to just ignore.
Sure, you might all be too busy to follow someone who gives most of his free time to Bitcoin Cash and creates content with impact, but do you think I'm not busy?
Most people have a job, and I also work 8 hour shifts.
You can’t really expect any support from people you don’t care enough to follow back or even watch and give a single like on a BCH-related video that is about to hit 10,000 views.
And I don’t even dare to ask for a retweet or for someone to post my YouTube link on Twitter for greater impact. That's far fetched when you don't even care to follow my account.
That’s something you should have thought of, unless, perhaps, you think it’s all foolish, it doesn’t matter, or it doesn’t work, despite all the reach and impact.
It’s disheartening to realize that my work and social interactions seem unimportant to some, despite my years of dedication to BCH.
I have never asked money from anyone, but always said that what is free is more important.
A simple follow or interaction goes a long way.
Completely ignoring those who consistently support BCH feels dismissive and makes people question intentions.
With my previous Twitter account, which had close to 10,000 followers, I followed many people who are involved in BCH one way or another, and they never followed back. Worse, they never even liked a single one of the 15,000 tweets I posted to promote BCH.
It doesn't work that way.
Naturally, I didn’t expect much different when I started a new account a few months ago. So, as expected, even fewer people cared to follow me or engage with my posts this time.
How can you talk about support, unity, community, and strengthening the ecosystem but fail to practice those values?
Donations
I don't ask for donations. I don't ask for money, and I'm not getting paid by anyone.
If people want to tip or donate to my content, they can easily find my tipb.ch link or tip me here on read.cash, but I’m not going to ask anyone to donate.
You can judge by the outcome.
If you liked my content, you can give a thumbs up, a comment, follow my accounts on social media, or, if you feel it’s really worth it and making an impact, leave a tip.
It is great to receive tips and increase my BCH stack, but I’m not a mercenary. I will never run crowdfunding campaigns, and nobody has ever paid me to write about their project.
That said, I want to clarify that I have nothing against crowdfunding.
Some guys are truly exceptional with their Bitcoin Cash content, like the Bitcoin Cash Podcast team (Jeremy and Jett), and Cheap Lightning, who has been a true force for BCH for many years, among others.
For the record, I didn’t ask Roger Ver for anything except his permission to use his script.
I feel it is important to mention this because some people (might) think I made money from it.
The fact is, I haven’t received any donations after creating this video beyond what is visible on read.cash (around $25 in BCH) over the past two months.
To be transparent, the total donations I’ve received since the beginning of the year amount to close to 1.5 BCH and I’m deeply touched and grateful to everyone who believed my work was worth supporting.
Furthermore, I want to give special thanks to @RobHannum on YouTube for his incredibly generous 1 BCH tip after watching my video, The Insane Truth About Bitcoin.
In total, I’ve received less than 1.5 BCH in tips in 2024, which is totally amazing and I have to thank everyone who shared a single green sat with me.
Also, a special thanks to @cashdragon, who has been tipping my last few stories on read.cash and is doing great work to spread BCH on Bastyon.
Crowdfunding is a popular choice, and while I'd love to increase my BCH stake to the hundreds, I can’t commit to delivery deadlines. I already have one job, and taking on a second one would only make matters worse for me.
Mistakes Are Unavoidable
I'm doing all of this work on my own without any help. The video is 1 hour and 35 minutes long, so mistakes are bound to happen.
Now, I’ve been in this space for close to 8 years and have written more than 700 stories on cryptocurrencies, so of course, I know how the name Gavin Andresen is spelled and pronounced.
The name is written correctly ten times later in the video and also spelled correctly in the subtitles.
However, the auto caption feature in the editing software was a pain, as I had to review and correct almost all of the captions. More mistakes slipped through the cracks, like the name Dillon being occasionally spelled as Dylan. My bad, though I had to correct over 200 words from the auto-captions, so some errors inevitably escaped.
TTS spells it that way and I couldn't change it.
Anyway, I’m happy to see people commenting about that, though please know that these mistakes can't be fixed directly on YouTube.
We don't create our videos on YouTube itself, but using video editing apps. We then upload the content to YouTube once we have the final copy.
Honestly, the video is long, making it impossible to superanalyze every little mistake, and I exported it several times to improve the final cut.
After uploading, YouTube only allows trimming certain parts of the video or muting music and that’s about it.
Closing Thoughts
Anyway, I’ve been trying to find a new topic and have written some scripts, but so far, I only come up with mediocre ideas.
I don’t think I’ll ever surpass this video.
I’ve already made a clear case for Bitcoin Cash in several videos, and repeating myself with another generic piece would feel redundant.
The same goes for BTC, I've already created many stories comparing with BCH and explaining the history of Bitcoin.
Roger’s book was so amazing in telling Bitcoin’s story that makes my previous (or any other video) on the topic unnecessary.
My latest full video, The Death of Fiat, was a remake of one of my first videos. The original quality was poor so I improved it a lot, but the story didn't do better.
So, I haven’t started anything new yet and I don't really have anything else to give, at least not right now.
Also the reason I don’t like making promises or asking for funding when I know I will get stuck and underperform.
Work is antithetical to passion.
I highly recommend reading Hijacking Bitcoin by Roger Ver. You can purchase the book here:
I've created an exciting video featuring key moments from the book to help spread the word and captivate audiences! Watch up to 4K:
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👉 LinkTree (my links)
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CashTokens Address: bitcoincash:zr4nz4jv6jtf7q5tul8dy9j58u24pwawxsm0hh8hwz
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Your work is top notch. Do not worry about being repetitive, it is the method to get the message to penetrate the minds of many.
If you are concerned about a fundraiser constraining you to timelines you can try doing one for work completed. So you did the work up-front for the video then you can post it on fundme.cash and ask to be reimbursed by the community. I see nothing wrong with this type of approach.