A conversation with Pedro Macosta about his journey into the world of Cryptocurrency and how it was born from a Facebook group.


A Cryptocurrency that contributes towards charity.

Somewhat of a taboo, the concept of Cryptocurrencies is both topical and controversial. However, our global take as a society on a scenario where we all use a multitude of virtual currencies to buy goods and services up to this point is now questionable. The rise of Bitcoins popularity has impacted the world profoundly as we now see more and more retailers considering other payment methods. 

Due diligence is always the order of the day. There are always two sides to the story; pardon the pun. On the one hand, there is an interest in something we don’t know much about. But, on the other hand, there is little media coverage to make an informed decision. 

I managed to catch up with Pedro Macosta. We talk about his journey of cryptocurrency discovery, his take on expectations and how his creation of BUZABA is giving back to society in a unique way. 

The beginning of my journey

How did it all begin?

Well, it started with covid 19 and the first lockdown. I was at home without a job and had nothing to do watching the same news repeatedly on how terrible the virus was, how it was spreading and the misery it was causing. I noted that the Pandemic had impacted stocks and shares. I’d been following the stock market since 1990 when I came to the UK and later was involved with the buying and selling of shares as a small investor. 

I’ve witnessed a few crashes; the dot com bubble burst and later the 2008 financial crisis. I felt that now was the opportunity to buy low and hopefully make some good returns, so I started a Facebook stocks and shares group. The primary purpose was to share my personal experience of the stock market and my bought shares.

BUYING SHARES

These days you can buy shares with an app on your phone; however, in the early ’90s, when I started dipping my toes in the stock market, I had to go to a phone box and call a moody broker who would make sarcastic comments as I would buy £500.00 worth of shares. On more than one occasion, if one of his big clients would call, he would put the phone down and deal with them rather than me. I would overhear the conversation and the talk of thousands here and thousands there; it was like he wanted to humiliate me. Then, a few days later, a share certificate would arrive at home. Things are certainly different now when we buy without the middleman.

FLIP MAGAZINE

The Facebook Group
FACEBOOK GROUP

I started this Facebook group, and people began to ask me questions and follow me; I was buying all the small pharma stocks that did research and medical trials, and it paid off big time. They doubled, tripled and even rose to 20 times the original value. Jumping on the covid19 research bandwagon was the main reason for this phenomenon. So many people who bought the shares I purchased made a lot of money and couldn’t thank me enough as the group grew and grew.

Cryptocurrency

How did you evolve into Cryptocurrency?

What happened was quite funny; more and more discussions were taking place in the group about Bitcoin and cryptos. Still, some people didn’t like it, causing many arguments and conflicts and even people wanting to meet for a punch up. It was crazy and difficult to moderate a group like that, I could see Facebook deleting the group for bullying and swearing, so I decided to start a new group just for crypto. 

The Crypto Group

The Crypto group was an instant success, and I had the idea to start our own Cryptocurrency that would be a decentralised cryptocurrency run by the community. The idea became a project, and the project became a movement. So now here we are with two Facebook groups dedicated to BUZABA, one community group with 240 thousand members. Then we have another smaller one, the members group of over 800 people who are the founding members of BUZABA, and everyone is counting the days they can buy BUZABA on the exchange. 

It’s funny because there are so many of the coins out there that you can already buy; when you go to their Facebook pages, they only have 150 members, we have 240 thousand in our Facebook group with over 800 founding members, and we don’t have a coin yet. 

Also, we have a lot of Americans on board, and they are vital because they take things to the next level. The Americans make it happen; we dream it, but they make it happen, and that’s why I love America.

Origins

Did it all start on Facebook?

Yes, we met on Facebook; BUZABA was born on Facebook. We now have a website www.BUZABA.com and a considerable following. We are a formidable force, and I can say there are some very good and genuine people in this movement.

 I wanted BUZABA to give to charity because I believe we can make this a better world for those who have nothing when others have so much. I’m lucky I found people who have the same feelings about charity and good causes. So I made it clear that giving to charity is the pillar, the backbone of BUZABA. Everyone will be able to buy at 0.000000001 and see their coin go up in value, but the charity will benefit as well. It’s all out of my hands now, I work on the website and the whitepaper and keep an eye on the Facebook groups, and the project managers do their thing. BUZABA is the real people’s crypto because of the seven wallets crypto vaults for charity.

WEBSITE

The Seven Wallets

What are the seven wallets?

The seven wallets crypto vaults are the backbone of BUZABA and are very important to the community. They are the whole principle, the ethos of BUZABA and the backbone of BUZABA. As I mentioned, we have great people who want BUZABA to help those who need it most in this world. To best explain the seven wallets crypto vaults, I will quote from our website.

A black image with the name of this article; Buzaba in yellow text.
The 7 Wallets

The 7 Wallets crypto vaults and coin allocation for Charity is based on understanding the cold wallet concept. The most concise description of a cold wallet is a wallet that is not connected to the internet and therefore stands a far lesser risk of being compromised. These wallets can also be referred to as offline wallets or hardware wallets. 

According to media reports, a new on-chain analysis from Whale Alert says Bitcoin’s anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto mined an estimated 1,125,150 Bitcoins. The first price increase occurred in 2010 when the value of a single Bitcoin jumped from around $0.0008 to $0.08. At today’s Bitcoin price, the cold wallet with over one million Bitcoins is expected to be worth a mind-boggling amount of billions USD.

Cold wallet principle

Borrowing on Satoshi Nakamoto’s cold wallet principle, the founding members discussed the creation of 7 cold wallets holding BUZABA coins that will go up in value as investors buy BUZABA on the exchanges, and those coins will be solely allocated for charities with the founding fathers intent on agreeing how many BUZABA coins should be distributed to each wallet.

Each wallet will be assigned a Guardian whose purpose will be to set the tone and direction of the wallet. All seven wallets focus on crypto vaults dedicated to charity and good causes. These will be held in an independent trust with the passwords being held in another trust; that way, two separate entities and no transfer will do any drops or transfers can be made unless there’s an agreement on how much will be transferred and to whom by both independent trusts.

Charity

Why is a charity so important to you?

Well, because I know how it feels to be hungry, I know how it feels to go to bed on an empty stomach, and I know how it feels to have nothing but the clothes on your body when you have to run away from the country you were born in. I was born in Mozambique, an ex Portuguese colony just like the colonies the British had similar to Kenya and so on throughout the world. 

A better world

When I was four, my parents had to abandon everything and leave Mozambique because my father was part of the military regime, in this case, the Portuguese army in the country. As the forces were fighting for independence, the army had to get out. Because my father was an officer and part of the secret police, my parents had to run when the freedom fighters were at the gate. 

So I’ve seen things that you wouldn’t believe even if I had a witness here with me. But anyway, this is not for now. My point is that charity is significant to me, and I’m so lucky we have many members who believe we can give to the needy and make this a better world. More than a charity, BUZABA is about people power and making this a better world. There are people from all walks of life in our BUZABA community, from accountants, nurses, homemakers, retired judges, builders… it’s a real people’s coin.

Time

How long does it take to do a cryptocurrency?

It can take weeks to a few hours; it depends on what you want and the technology behind the coin. Crypto with its own blockchain and a dedicated app takes longer to make than one of these meme coins with dogs and bunnies that you see everywhere. 

Voting

We have a problem because we have a large community, everything has to be discussed and voted on, so it takes longer to agree. Still, we all agree on one thing. We want to be on an extensive exchange like Coinbase, a NASDAQ listed company with an excellent reputation. We also have a lot of Americans, and they want to be able to buy BUZABA easily. 

Unfortunately, setting up the infrastructure to launch a currency is time-consuming; I participate in several Whatsapp groups, so we try not to bring the discussion and disagreements into the Facebook arena and the open air. However, we are almost ready, and it’s all a question of getting BUZABA on the exchange now.

Preference

What do you say to the people who didn’t like cryptos in your first stocks and shares Facebook group?

I say nothing; I also say nothing to friends and family and people at work. I know this might sound strange to you, but there is no point in telling them anything because they wouldn’t understand the concept of Bitcoin and cryptos. 

They don’t know what a blockchain or an ECR2 token are. They don’t know what a digital wallet or a cold wallet are, POS Proof of Stake or POW Proof of Work, a centralised exchange or decentralised exchange, or rug pulls and whales in crypto. 

There’s just no point in talking to them because the first thing they will say is; it’s a scam, “it’s all a scam”. So unless someone knows the basics and bothers to look up the jargon, there’s no point engaging in conversation. 

A jargon-free website

That is why I created a jargon-free website, and a different website to all the dark, jargon-filled crypto sites out there www.BUZABA.com is clear, crisp, packed with pictures and all about the people, not about how rich or how quick you can become a millionaire. 

Yes, of course, I want people to buy BUZABA and make money in the process, but I also want many people who have nothing to benefit from what we are doing.

The Future

How do you see Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin in the near future?

In my humble opinion, and I’m just a small businessman with a tiny business in Covent Garden whose business still hasn’t recovered from the Pandemic, in the future, we will only have a few cryptocurrencies from the 10,000 out there at the moment. When I say a few, I mean a handful. A lot of cryptos and tokens will simply disappear and be forgotten. 

Many people have already lost their money in what we call in the crypto world; rug pulls, they still have the coins they bought at a loss, but the founders already sold and are long gone. As for Bitcoin, in my opinion, Bitcoin won’t go to the levels some people say it will, simply because as people learn more about the crypto world, they will understand the negative impact Bitcoin has on the environment. 

Explaining Bitcoin

Bitcoin is like a car from the ’40s and ’50s they are heavy and consume a lot of petrol, and the new cryptos coming up now are like the cars of today; they are faster, more economical, and the electric vehicles are even better. So, bitcoin is like an old car, it takes you from A to B, but it drinks a hell of a lot while the new cryptos are 100 times faster, make 200 transactions per second, and use hardly any energy. 

Because of that people will go for the new. I compare cryptos to the beginning of home internet in the mid-’90s; the internet was the same price as a phone call. It was slow and crashed all the time; people said the computer was just an expensive toy that would fade away. 

People also said they would never buy online, and newspapers advised never to pay online, or you would lose all your money; I also remember people saying that Facebook would die, I see a lot of similarities with cryptos, just like a lot of the early websites that went bust, many cryptos have already died, but the genuine ones such as BUZABA, will stay forever and change this world for a better one.

*The Networking magazine does not independently endorse the use of Cryptocurrencies. You should apply due diligence and research with all financial investments as your money is at risk. Investments can produce losses and returns, and that should be noted. Our interview was purely to discuss the perspective of someone who can offer an account of their personal experience with Cryptocurrency.