SifuPhil
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
As you may or may not know, I have "gotten into" alternate currencies lately.
Also known as "cryptocurrency" and being composed of hundreds of varieties of "coin", but most known for its leading example, Bitcoin, it is a young and mysterious - and oft times frustrating - world.
I am currently working as a writer for a site that pays in one of the varieties, known as "Devcoin". It is a relatively new coin within the field - 4 years old, as opposed to Bitcoin's much more aged 6 years.
But it is what I am paid with, so I can't complain.
But there is a process involved in turning that Devcoin into the far more usable US dollar. You would think you could just go to a bank and trade in your - oh, no, wait - banks don't want anything to do with cryptocurrencies. So first you have to essentially become your own bank, by downloading a program known as a "wallet" that will be used to store your Devcoins.
Sounds simple, right?
Well, theoretically it is, but there are several versions of this particular wallet available (did I mention that each of the hundreds of cryptocoins have their OWN specific wallet? Oh, yeah!), and like much of the rest of the Net you have to do your due diligence in figuring out which one is sufficiently protected from hackers, else your little pile of virtual gold will not be there one sunny morning.
Okay, got the wallet. A kind soul on one of the coin forums sent me a few Devcoins to make sure it worked, and I promptly sent them back. The value of the coins in total was approximately $0.03 - Rothschilds, watch out!
During the course of my writing work I began to accumulate a respectable amount of coin rather quickly, and it was time to start thinking about cashing out. Ho-HO! I found that there were dozens of exchanges for cryptocoins, but only a few that handled Devcoins, and none of those would exchange Devcoin to dollars directly - first you had to convert to Bitcoins.
So began my now-infamous hunt for a smart phone that would allow me to prove that I am who I say I am. Yes - I'm talking about something called "two-stage confirmation", wherein not only do you have to log-in to the exchange but also have to have a smart phone that receives the text message they immediately send, which contains a 6 or 7-digit number that you must then enter on the site within 15 seconds.
I hear they're doing amazing things in the field of rat acrobatics these days ...
I've also, on at least one exchange site, use what is called a "QR Reader", which is an application on my phone which reads those little black-and-white boxes that you often see on the Net -
You hold your phone up to your laptop screen for a second or two, and that smart little phone speed-reads that piece of modern art, storing it in its memory. You then go BACK to the exchange and send a picture of that code to the website.
I think a TSA full-cavity body search would be easier.
But, okay, I finally get in. I send my Devcoins to the exchange and ask for Bitcoins, but nothing happens. I wait - still nothing happens. I wait some more. I feed SnagglePuss and stop Tigger from humping him while he eats. Still nothing.
Turns out, you have to wait for "confirmation" of your deposit, which can take anywhere from 10 minutes to (in my case) an hour.
An hour passes, I see that the exchange has blessedly accepted my Devcoins. I submit them for an exchange into Bitcoins, but first I have to enter 20 minutes worth of info like PayPal addresses and bank accounts and ... hey, what happened to the "anonymous factor" that Bitcoin is so famous for?!? So much for THAT idea.
But they grant me the exchange and my new Bitcoins go into my online wallet, from which I must immediately transfer them to my OFF-line wallet, for the sake of security - turns out that online wallets are very susceptible to theft. Another half-hour figuring out how to do this, along with more passwords, codes and confirmations. I'm beginning to feel like Maxwell Smart trying to get into Control Headquarters.
Yay! I finally have Bitcoins in my off-line wallet! I sit there for a while, sipping celebratory coffee and crooning softly to my baby Bits. But I can't afford to become TOO attached to them, for I know I have to put them up for adoption on yet ANOTHER exchange.
The horror ... the horror ...
There are a few exchanges now where I can cash out my Bitcoins, and I choose two - one that takes a week or so to credit them to my bank account (actually a virtual bank account!) and one that deposits my cash into PayPal, but which involves selling my Bitcoins to a stranger somewhere in the United States.
In for a penny, in for a pound, says I, so for my first cash-out I choose a stranger. One with a good reputation rating, true, but still a stranger. The site takes my Bitcoins and holds them in escrow, does the same with the stranger's cash, and when we're both satisfied that we aren't trying to rip each other off the site releases the escrow. It worked like magic the first time - surprise, surprise! - and I saw my PayPal account swell up with my new-found cash.
The next cash-out I used the site that took a week to credit my bank account, and my fingernails were chewed to the quick hoping that my money hadn't just disappeared in the aether. It didn't, and a week later my bank account swelled to even more ridiculous proportions.
During this roller-coaster ride I've experienced smooth and fast downhill runs, but also terrifying turns and bumps. I took up the hobby of investing in other cryptocoins and was there when my investment in both Dopecoin and Potcoin (two coins that, as you may surmise, are designed to help the legal cannabis industry) lost 75% of its value within minutes, only to stay at that point and fall asleep like a narcoleptic on a tropical isle.
If you are bored with life, if you need a stimulating new hobby, or if you are just masochistic, I highly recommend becoming involved in the fastest-growing sport of them all - Bitcoin!
Also known as "cryptocurrency" and being composed of hundreds of varieties of "coin", but most known for its leading example, Bitcoin, it is a young and mysterious - and oft times frustrating - world.
I am currently working as a writer for a site that pays in one of the varieties, known as "Devcoin". It is a relatively new coin within the field - 4 years old, as opposed to Bitcoin's much more aged 6 years.
But it is what I am paid with, so I can't complain.But there is a process involved in turning that Devcoin into the far more usable US dollar. You would think you could just go to a bank and trade in your - oh, no, wait - banks don't want anything to do with cryptocurrencies. So first you have to essentially become your own bank, by downloading a program known as a "wallet" that will be used to store your Devcoins.
Sounds simple, right?
Well, theoretically it is, but there are several versions of this particular wallet available (did I mention that each of the hundreds of cryptocoins have their OWN specific wallet? Oh, yeah!), and like much of the rest of the Net you have to do your due diligence in figuring out which one is sufficiently protected from hackers, else your little pile of virtual gold will not be there one sunny morning.
Okay, got the wallet. A kind soul on one of the coin forums sent me a few Devcoins to make sure it worked, and I promptly sent them back. The value of the coins in total was approximately $0.03 - Rothschilds, watch out!
During the course of my writing work I began to accumulate a respectable amount of coin rather quickly, and it was time to start thinking about cashing out. Ho-HO! I found that there were dozens of exchanges for cryptocoins, but only a few that handled Devcoins, and none of those would exchange Devcoin to dollars directly - first you had to convert to Bitcoins.
So began my now-infamous hunt for a smart phone that would allow me to prove that I am who I say I am. Yes - I'm talking about something called "two-stage confirmation", wherein not only do you have to log-in to the exchange but also have to have a smart phone that receives the text message they immediately send, which contains a 6 or 7-digit number that you must then enter on the site within 15 seconds.
I hear they're doing amazing things in the field of rat acrobatics these days ...
I've also, on at least one exchange site, use what is called a "QR Reader", which is an application on my phone which reads those little black-and-white boxes that you often see on the Net -
You hold your phone up to your laptop screen for a second or two, and that smart little phone speed-reads that piece of modern art, storing it in its memory. You then go BACK to the exchange and send a picture of that code to the website.
I think a TSA full-cavity body search would be easier.
But, okay, I finally get in. I send my Devcoins to the exchange and ask for Bitcoins, but nothing happens. I wait - still nothing happens. I wait some more. I feed SnagglePuss and stop Tigger from humping him while he eats. Still nothing.
Turns out, you have to wait for "confirmation" of your deposit, which can take anywhere from 10 minutes to (in my case) an hour.
An hour passes, I see that the exchange has blessedly accepted my Devcoins. I submit them for an exchange into Bitcoins, but first I have to enter 20 minutes worth of info like PayPal addresses and bank accounts and ... hey, what happened to the "anonymous factor" that Bitcoin is so famous for?!? So much for THAT idea.
But they grant me the exchange and my new Bitcoins go into my online wallet, from which I must immediately transfer them to my OFF-line wallet, for the sake of security - turns out that online wallets are very susceptible to theft. Another half-hour figuring out how to do this, along with more passwords, codes and confirmations. I'm beginning to feel like Maxwell Smart trying to get into Control Headquarters.
Yay! I finally have Bitcoins in my off-line wallet! I sit there for a while, sipping celebratory coffee and crooning softly to my baby Bits. But I can't afford to become TOO attached to them, for I know I have to put them up for adoption on yet ANOTHER exchange.
The horror ... the horror ...
There are a few exchanges now where I can cash out my Bitcoins, and I choose two - one that takes a week or so to credit them to my bank account (actually a virtual bank account!) and one that deposits my cash into PayPal, but which involves selling my Bitcoins to a stranger somewhere in the United States.
In for a penny, in for a pound, says I, so for my first cash-out I choose a stranger. One with a good reputation rating, true, but still a stranger. The site takes my Bitcoins and holds them in escrow, does the same with the stranger's cash, and when we're both satisfied that we aren't trying to rip each other off the site releases the escrow. It worked like magic the first time - surprise, surprise! - and I saw my PayPal account swell up with my new-found cash.
The next cash-out I used the site that took a week to credit my bank account, and my fingernails were chewed to the quick hoping that my money hadn't just disappeared in the aether. It didn't, and a week later my bank account swelled to even more ridiculous proportions.
During this roller-coaster ride I've experienced smooth and fast downhill runs, but also terrifying turns and bumps. I took up the hobby of investing in other cryptocoins and was there when my investment in both Dopecoin and Potcoin (two coins that, as you may surmise, are designed to help the legal cannabis industry) lost 75% of its value within minutes, only to stay at that point and fall asleep like a narcoleptic on a tropical isle.
If you are bored with life, if you need a stimulating new hobby, or if you are just masochistic, I highly recommend becoming involved in the fastest-growing sport of them all - Bitcoin!
