Hello, World!

 Hello, World!

My name is Paul Busch and I am the CEO of Bitswift Decentralized Applications, aka the dude behind bitswift.  I figure this would be the best place to introduce myself and the bitswift network considering the like-minded people hanging out here. 

 A little about me:    

I come from a rather large family of four brothers, my Mom, and my Dad.  My family consists of my beautiful wife, four children (3 boys and 1 girl) and my dog named Atari and a one eyed cat named Pet-Pet.   I named the dog, my daughter named the cat.

 
I grew up in Beamsville, Ontario (Canada) on a peach farm believe it or not.  For those interested, Beamsville resides between Niagara Falls and Toronto.  For those who are extremely interested, here is a map of the area : https://goo.gl/x0yGXC

Growing up on a large fruit farm was great, I was able to experience the best of the outdoors and get a feel for what physical labor was all about.  As a young boy I can recall going to the markets with my dad at 3 am to sell our fresh fruit.  We would spend all day out in the fields picking peaches, all afternoon packing them, and all night selling them.  The market was always the best part, it was fun and action packed, very much like the crypto markets I work around today.  In fact, I can make some direct comparisons between fruit and crypto.. but… more on that later ;)

Early Interests:

 My dad had bought the family computer in the 90s and so my focus changed from farming to technology.  Who wants to stand out in the heat picking peaches all day anyway ?  Growing up on a farm meant my nearest friend was more than a drive away, and without a licence, the computer slowly became my friend.  The machine fascinated me, there were games, and internet, and tons of things to learn.  The cost of  Internet back then was 1$ per hour (dial up), so time was limited online. However, learning the inner workings of the OS and the hardware did not require internet, so I spent my days tinkering with what I could offline.    

I  attribute most of my success as a result of an extreme desire I had to play video games on the computer.  I recall spending the better part of some days playing with the AT command set to try and establish a better dial up connection to my friends place so that our multiplayer games would be that much better.  The new games required new hardware to be installed, new software to be downloaded, new com and irq ports to be configured.  We are talking DOS days here people.  My dad never helped me with any computer related questions I had even though he was more than capable of helping.  Now that I look back I can really appreciate the fact that he forced me to learn everything on my own.  Today video games remain one of my passionate interests, I play mostly OverWatch and Quake Live :)

Education:

School was boring for me.   I never quite understood why I had to learn something I had no interest in learning.  I received below average marks throughout grade school and high school in most of my courses except for those relating to sciences or technology.  It seemed as though the courses that did not challenge or interest me were the ones I did most poorly in.  After high school, my parents were really pushing me to “do something with your life”.  They did not want me sitting around wasting my time, so they suggested that I attend DeVry which was offering a computer programming course.  I guess I wasn't so serious about success at DeVry, as I dropped out in the third semester to pursue.. doing nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfCC19djH8

It wasn't long after doing nothing that my dad said, “Hey, if you are just going to sit around and do nothing - you can work on the farm again!”  Well, no way in hell I was going to do that again.  I had already learned picking peaches in the heat all day sucks.  So, I decided to go back to school on my own terms. I wanted to learn about networking, and it just so happened a school in Toronto was offering a 1 year program strictly on computers and networks.  No math, no English, no extra pickles bs, only computers - alright! That’s my type of school! Sign me up and off we go. 

School was easy at this point.  I had already done everything they were teaching.  Playing computer games hardcore as a kid really paid off for computer school.  I knew about all the hardware and what all the networking terms already meant. I basically felt as though I had already taken the course.  

During this time period, I decided to get my compTIA A+ certificate.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it’s basically a meaningless piece of paper that employers use to verify how good a technicians’ skill set may or may not be.  See here : https://certification.comptia.org/ .  The test was extremely difficult as I found they asked more or less questions that do not apply to real world so much as they do just memorizing to pass the test.  I did pass though, got my A+ and was really happy that now I could go and apply for jobs looking super legit with my A+ certificate and my Computer Network Management Diploma.  

Jobs / Work: 

Aside from farming, I had no real world work experience so I had to start somewhere.  Wendy’s was as good of a place as any.  I flipped burgers for about a year until I got upset with my manager and walked out on my shift.  Long story short, the headset I had to wear was making me hot, the manager insisted I wear it, me... not so much.  I left that manager managing my grill with a line up around the Wendy’s waiting for their patties while I went home to eat some snacks. :) (sorry about that)

It was shortly after that I published an advertisement in the paper for “local computer repair - on site”.  I had a few people call me here and there for their pc problems. The jobs weren’t anything major, but I liked the work. It felt more like fun than work.  While doing this on-site computer repair work I learned that Future Shop was hiring technicians; however,  you needed your A+ certificate to get the job.  Future Shop was Canada’s equivalent of Best Buy until Best Buy came to Canada and bought them.  “Perfect,” I thought, and so applied and began working in the Future Shop with Marty McFly.

Future Shop was great, I was fixing 5-10 pcs a day, I was doing what I knew and having fun.  That is until I was blamed for something I had nothing to do with.  Another employee I worked with had accidently wiped a customer’s data. Somehow, I was to blame.  I knew I was not at fault, and so I was not going to take any more of the accusations and punishment.  I told my manager off, went up to the front of the store, grabbed my precious A+ certificate they had put in a nice frame for me behind the tech office bench and went home in a frump.   

Back on the computer again, this time, searching for jobs.  The thought of picking peaches constantly in my subconscious.  I must find a job.  I did, in a city far away from Beamsville,  in Kingston, Ontario, at the College.  

St. Lawrence College was looking for part time computer professors and I was not ready to teach College but applied anyway.  I think I was about 21 when I received the job at the College.  It was seriously nerve racking at first as I had no formal background in teaching.  Basically, I was given a bunch of textbooks and a course outline and told to teach the course. Everyone in the class I was teaching was older than me, I had no idea what I was doing, and, to top it off, everyone in the class were all Military people in uniform.  Holy shit, what had I got myself into!

 
Somehow, I managed to do alright at the college teaching. To me it was a matter of learning the material the week or so before teaching it.  I read the chapters in the books over and over until I had them basically memorized.  I taught myself the course before teaching the course to the military students.  The students must have liked me and I must have been doing a good job as the college continued to give me more hours and more programs to teach.  I was at the college for roughly 9 years at this point, teaching in four different programs to hundreds of students per day.  I was working full time hours now, but only receiving the part time benefits and I was slowly starting to see what the college was all about.  

I learned that the college was all about profits, not education.  It was a government run business specifically tailored to attract young minds and their parents’ money.  As I slowly became aware that the college was only out to seek profits I became unaligned with the work, and had to make a choice.   I told my boss that they were either going to hire me full time so that I could care for my classes properly, or that I was going to leave.  He replied,  “We do not hire full time anymore.”  Just like all other government work everything had become part time or partial load they called it. I quit, and from what I heard, they hired five part time people to fill my “part time” position.   Luckily for me, I had a plan, I always do.

While working at the College during the part time years I was also working at a local computer shop called Canada Computers.  I held a management position there which allowed me to network with local business owners.  Additionally, I had branched back into doing on-site computer repair in Kingston. Somehow while working at the college I had in parallel built up a client base of local business owners who were all more than happy to call me out to assist them with their technology issues.  Now that the college was done with, and I had something to fall back on (my clients), I decided to put all my efforts into building a successful business technology support business.    

Politics (I will keep it short):

In Canada, we basically have three political parties, Conservative, Liberal, and NDP.  I was not a fan of any of them so I did my research, found the party I most agreed with, and tested out politics.  In 2011 I found myself as a candidate in the elections running for the Freedom Party.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_and_the_Islands_(provincial_electoral_district)   http://www.thewhig.com/2011/09/23/candidates-on-the-fringe
The focal points of Freedom Party are life, liberty and property.  Basically less government control, more control back to the people.  

To be honest, I am not entirely sure it is possible to give control back to the people while people are in control.  I will revisit politics when I am prepared to pitch to Canadians how a decentralized network based on mathematics representing all of the people would make a far better government than a group of people who look good in suits and have individual desires.

Present: 

Today, I am still managing my clients and supporting them with their technology needs.  I mostly help businesses with their servers and networks.  I do some contract work for some bigger names like Mary Browns and Travel Lodge.  The people are great and all, but I must say that I am growing a little tired of being the computer support person.  I have realized that I am the person my clients call when they have problems, and really that's the only time they call me.  No one is ever in a good mood when they have to call me, how can they be when their shit is not working for them and they need it to be productive.  I need a personal change, and I need to follow my dreams.

Crypto:

I got into crypto back in 2011 probably for the same reasons as many others.  Quickly though, I became addicted to the charts, the technology, and the potential it had.  Bitcoin fascinated me, and the technology behind it even more so. I became hyper focused -  a decentralized time stamping machine..how frigging cool is that! I started to live and breath bitcoin and blockchain, so much so that I am banned for talking about bitcoin during dinner with family and even more so that I decided that it would be fun to create a blockchain of my own, bitswift.

Bitswift:  

Company (Bitswift Decentralized Applications Inc.): 

We have a registered Canadian company “Bitswift Decentralized Applications Inc.” which provides the legal framework to hook the real world into the crypto-world, business to business.  The company consists of a decentralized team of individuals who are interested in the success and growth of the crypto-layer of the internet. The company participates in the local chamber of commerce which is all part of the master plan to get the world on crypto.
Company INC Doc: http://imgur.com/LEBongj

Network (bitswift):

The bitswift network is a blockchain network that has been operating since 2014.  The network is currently utilizing proof of stake to secure the network and generate its own crypto-tokens.  The currency units on the bitswift network are called SWIFT and stake at an interest rate of 3%.  Four million SWIFT were initially mined through an X15 algorithm and all 4 million were sent to Bittrex to allow for an ICO distribution at 8000 satoshi per SWIFT.  Currently SWIFT trades mostly on bittrex, if you are interested the market is here: https://bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-SWIFT  

Network related info can be found here: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/swift/#!network

Stakers:

I would like to think we are sort of like AOL, but instead of giving away CD's to everyone to get people on the internet, we are injecting crypto tokens into everyone to get them on the blockchain layer of the internet.  Using pools of company owned SWIFT (our investment into ourselves), we are able to  generate our own crypto-tokens through proof of stake and layer them on top of communities.  This allows the communities to realize the potential of crypto-currency without them even needing to know anything else about it.  Insta users.  

Platforms (swiftstream):

Our platforms are our means of inviting new users into the blockchain ecosystem.  Through our platforms we are able to form communities and provide use cases for the bitswift network.  Our first platform is called swiftstream - www.swiftstream.io. (not yet released) Swiftstream is a self promotion platform built on top of the bitswift blockchain tailored for live streamers.  Streamers and their audiences are rewarded with SWIFT when certain actions take place on live stream.  We believe this greatly enhances audience participation and provides the framework necessary for live stream promotion.

Future:

I can conceptualize a future where humans will be governed by, work within, and paid by a network.   This all becomes even more evident when you realize where virtual reality is heading and that all standard jobs are basically going to be gone very soon.  Anyone who drives car or works fast food can count their jobs goodbye in the near future.   

http://www.businessinsider.com/momentum-machines-burger-robot-2014-8http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3670321/Rise-burger-flipping-machines-Robots-churn-400-burgers-hour-set-work-grill-new-restaurant.html

I believe humans will work inside of networks doing new types of jobs such as playing games, sorting pictures, or posting content, these new jobs won’t fit the standard “norm” for what a job is defined as today.  The world will be a better place as people will be able to participate and connect in whatever reality they choose and earn a living.  There will likely be a trend to move towards a tokenized society where people earn money through participation on a network - pay per participation I like to call it.  Most of these activities will happen inside “virtual” reality, the next reality in my opinion.  I know that paper money can not exist inside of VR, neither will precious rocks. With that said, I have a strong focus to ensure SWIFT exists inside of VR.  
 

Before I sign off,  I would like to thank all the people I look up to and got to know and work with.  I hope I get to meet you all one day, and I hope you all now know me a little bit better now.

Peace and enjoy,

-Paul

CEO Bitswift Decentralized Applications Inc.

bitswift.io

swiftstream.o