Cryptocurrency Diaries #4: Too Many Hardforks

Really? More Bitcoin hardforks? It seems like BTC hardforks have just become a money minting strategy for traders and investors in the crypto space. Just two months ago, we had witnessed a hardfork that ended up in the creation of Bitcoin Cash. BCH is doing pretty good, it was priced at around 400-500 USD (on average) so far. Now because of the panic sells, it's gone down 300 USD. If you're unaware of what Bitcoin Cash is and what the hardfork was, I suggest reading my older post.

The new hardforks/splits:

1. Bitcoin Gold- Blockchain split is going to happen on October 25th. The date is speculative because the actual split is supposed to happen at a specific block number and can possibly happen before or after the 25th. I think that this is the most ridiculous hardfork of Bitcoin, it all seems very dodgy. Let me explain, if you take a look at their website (btcgpu.org), which is currently down for reason, there are barely any technical details about the actual currency. The sentences don't make much sense. There is a twitter account for Bitcoin Gold but it doesn't seem reliable. The cover picture of the account has a website link which is currently down but the link in their account description/bio has a different website(claimbitcoin.gold) with barely any technical information about the currency once again. There is no mention of the official website in this one.
2. Bitcoin-2X(B2X) - Split is going to happen sometime in November, official date is yet to be announced. The objective of this split is to create a currency that is faster than Bitcoin by implementing Segregated Witness(SegWit). The faster speeds are achieved by removing signature data and increasing the block size to 2MB. You can consider this similar to when Litecoin implemented SegWit in its own soft fork.

I find that Bitcoin Gold is a bit scammy, you wouldn't want to sell any important/promising altcoins to get Bitcoin just before the split. I, however, had sold some SBD for Bitcoin a few weeks ago so I may get some Bitcoin Gold if Bittrex and Poloniex support the split and the new coin, like they did for Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin-2X is more professional and trustworthy but I don't think that the implementation of SegWit can be entitled to a hard fork and a split into two separate blockchains. I would still hold onto my BTC and possibly get some after I sell any BTCG that I get after Oct 25.

Cryptocurrency Diaries #3: To Panic Or Not

I hadn't bought/sold any significant coins in July, I was instead focusing on steemit and STEEM.

August was a really eventful month for cryptocurrencies, it started off with Bitcoin splitting into two different blockchains. In short, if you had any bitcoin on august 1st in a wallet or exchange you would receive an equal value of a new coin called Bitcoin Cash (BCC or BCH). This was a great opportunity for people to sell their altcoins for BTC and get some free money/coins. 

If you had 1BTC in your wallet, then you were eligible to claim 1 BCC/BCH on August 1st.

Unfortunately, everyone who had altcoins in their portfolio thought the same, therefore increasing the sell pressure on all altcoins. By 27th of July, most altcoins had depreciated far beyond their usual value. That's why I decided not to sell my altcoins so cheap, and not take part in this Blockchain Split. 

It was a tough decision to make, considering how the value of BCC/BCH was between 400-600 USD before the split(these were the estimated values based on some calculations that I am unaware of, these prices that I am stating are from coinmarketcap.com ) Also, the price of 1BTC was looking good at 2800 USD before the split.

I did not completely miss this opportunity since I had some BTC lying around on a few exchanges. These exchanges, deposited the exact amount of BCC/BCH that I was eligible for.

It has been one month since the split happened and Bitcoin Cash is at 600 USD and Bitcoin is at 4700 USD at the time of this blog post. Many altcoins have recovered since last month. Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash and Monero have gone up quite a bit. So, hodling payed off. I'm just sad that Siacoin hasn't completely recovered, but then again that's why I hodl cryptocurrency! 

CryptoCurrency Diary #2 : Diversification & HODLING

Wow can't believe I'm actually on schedule for a series (not really)

In my previous post, I had said that I would talk about an ICO I had invested in. The company is called Exscudo and the coins are called EON coins. I had invested nearly 5 dollars worth of BTC in the ICO and got 18.9 EON (0.9 was the early bird bonus). The ICO ended on 31st May, and at the end of it the devs had announced that they would give away a part of the unsold EON coins to the investors (for free).


Important Purchases:

1. Bought 2045 DOGE at 48 satoshis and kept lending it on Poloniex.
2. Bought 70 SiaCoin (SC) at 220 satoshis.
3. Bought way too much DigiByte (DGB) at various prices.
4. Bought around 30 Ripple (XRP) at 12.5 ksat and 17 ksat.
5. Bought a lot Golem at 15 ksat and 14.5 ksat. 

Note: satoshis/sat refers to 0.00000001 BTC and ksat refers to 1000 satoshis/sat

In the previous month (May), I kept buying different low price coins coin Poloniex and Bittrex. I made an account on Bittrex due to speculations of Poloniex stealing people's coins and withdrawals taking too long. However, I still actively use Poloniex for lending and buying at dips, and this is how I would recommend using Poloniex. There was also rumors of crypto being a bubble when BTC quickly rose from 2100 USD to 2900 USD and quickly fell to 1500 USD, affecting other altcoins on its way down. It was during that time I decided to hodl my altcoins and further diversify.

Hodling is the crypto slang for holding onto something, in this case a cryptocurrency. Through hodling and diversifying I have seen really good profits, for example I had quadrupled on DGB, tripled on SC, and surprisingly doubled on DOGE.

Apart from those techniques, I have also been trying to buy coins at dips on Poloniex. This technique has given me smaller profits in BTC, but it goes against the principle of holding. Buying at dips refers to buying a cryptocurrency when its price falls considerably below its normal price and then later selling at its normal price. This method does involve the risk of the currency not going back to its normal price which may make you want to sell at a loss. Also, the profits received from this method are quite small, unless you invest larger sums of bitcoin.

CryptoCurrency Diary #1 : One Month In + Backstory

This is a new series I plan on writing. I was inspired to start this series due to my new found love for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. Through this new series, I hope my adventures with digital currencies may inspire other people to become a part of this wonderful community. I also hope that the readers of these posts do not make the same mistakes that I had made.

On August 22nd, 2015, I was introduced to the concept of bitcoins after I got 0.02 BTC (in physical form, kind of like a paper wallet) as a prize at a hackathon. Before that, I had only heard of the word bitcoin and had thought of it as some kind of asset like gold or shares (which, by the way is still how I define it). At that time 0.02 BTC was about 4 USD. Due to my lack of knowledge in this field of technology and economics, I never really bothered doing anything with those bitcoins.

It was only when Bitcoin reached ATH (All Time High) towards the end of 2016, did I gain interest in crypto currencies. So started researching about bitcoin and different crypto currencies (altcoins), subscribing to various news websites that are dedicated to digital currencies and assets. For the two months I was researching and following the prices of BTC, ETH, DASH, and XMR on coinmarketcap.com

Around March 2017, I finally took the decision to put my bitcoins in an exchange called poloniex. I had looked at several other exchanges, but I found that this one had a good reputation and community, both of which you should consider as a beginner. Now this is when I made one of my first mistakes, not researching about wallets.It wasn't a blunder or anything serious, rather it was a waste of an account. I had initially installed the Coinbase wallet on my phone, only to realise that it cannot import paper wallets. So then, I made an account on Blockchain.info and imported my paper wallet. I only imported one of the two wallets I had ( 2 X 0.01 BTC paper wallets was my prize). I felt that I should not put all of my bitcoins on one exchange or that I should not even invest all of my bitcoins.

Transactions:
The price of 0.01 BTC around mid - march 2017 was 11 dollars. That was my base price, I knew that I should not go below that when investing in other currencies. My first transaction on poloniex was buying 0.21 ETH for  0.00499 BTC (Price/Share was 0.023). My second transaction was buying 0.05 DASH for 0.004 BTC (Price/Share was 0.08). This was my second mistake. This happened when DASH reached 100 USD (0.1 BTC) for the first time. I think I bought it too late because it was almost 0.05 Price/Share the previous day.
I was hoping DASH would go up in price and decided to hold, but unfortunately it fell sharply to around 0.06 BTC/DASH. So far DASH has not gotten back to the price where I can profit by selling it.

Today's Scenario:
1) I have 0.091 DASH which I usually lend out to earn some interest however, DASH rates had fallen pretty bad and is currently anywhere between 0.003 to 0.007 % per day.
2) I sold all my ETH for 0.088 BTC (almost double the buy price) at 0.042 BTC/ETH. I kinda regret this decision because ETH is ATH at around 0.06 BTC/ETH.
3) I also bought (0.00322 BTC/ETC) and sold (0.00326 BTC/ETC) a small amount of ETC for a small profit because as soon as I bought some, the price fell by 4% and I was scared that I may not get back my investment and did not even wait for a day before making a sell order. Again, I regret not holding because ETC reached ATH at around 0.0044 BTC/ETC.
4) I am currently holding onto Monero and Dogecoin because I think they will go up in a few weeks.
5) BTC is ATH at 1400 USD.
6) I started with my account having 11 USD of BTC, now I have almost 13 USD of BTC and altcoins and I also withdrew 5 USD of BTC to take part in an ICO which I will talk about in my next post.

Steam Now Accepts Indian E-Wallets And Netbanking

This is what I saw as soon as I opened Steam

Just 10 minutes before writing this article, I opened my laptop, opened Steam, and was greeted with the Steam News Window. After skipping the random games that were on hot deals and new releases, I saw this update to the payment methods.

Now you can buy games from the world's largest PC games distributor using our (India's) local payment methods such as netbanking, PayTM, FreeCharge etc. But wait that's not just it, you can also buy games using the Cash On Delivery method! All of theses transactions are going to be handled by Nova Play. Previously, you could only pay using a credit card or from a PayPal account, both of which many Indian consumers did not have.

How does Cash On Delivery work for a digital good?

Well, its not exactly 'On Delivery' because you first have to add an game/DLC to your cart, choose COD as a payment option, give your home address, a person from Nova Play will come to your place to collect the cash. You will then receive the game/DLC in your library within 72 hours and will also be notified by e-mail for the same. Just one small reminder: you can't use old, scrapped notes like the 500 or 1000 to pay for your games.


The new payment options seem to be a test feature and are still under review because I tried to set PayTM as a payment method on my Steam account and this is the message i got:

Concept Design Of Walk-In Burrito - Artwork Showcase

 This is a 3D model of a mexican restaurant. The idea of the restaurant, called Walk-In Burrito, was actually for a group project in school. The 3D model was unnecessary and was not used in the presentation, but hey, it looks good so here it is.

 Before painting and adding the floor

 Final model

 Sorry we're closed for the day

(Also kept the settings if anyone wanted those)

Suicide Squad Review

PROCEED WITH CAUTION - POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Let's start with some negativity, the entire movie was just a bad combination of emotions. They should have stuck with comedy/action, but then there was romance (Harley and Joker) and then there were the tragic stories of El Diablo and Deadshot.

I will definitely watch Suicide Squad once more in theaters just for its soundtracks and the songs, especially the ones used to introduce the bad guys. Some of my favorites are Sucker For Pain, Heathens, Without Me and Bohemian Rhapsody (cover). If there's one thing that sets DC live action movies apart its the soundtracks, for example BvS:Dawn Of Justice.

I just feel a little sad for Slipknot, that guy barely had a backstory and was killed much before the action started. Speaking of screen time, how can we forget Mr J! People on the internet were so quick to judge Jared Leto although he was barely on the screen. The trailers portrayed him to have a major role in the movie but what we got was a witch who was trying to take over the world along with her brother. I just hope we get to see more of Jared Leto's Joker in a few more movies like Justice League part 1 and 2, maybe he'd be a part of the Injustice League.

Post Credit Scene:
Yep, I guess this is the first time DC have a post credit scene in their movie. This scene is basically Bruce Wayne trying to get information from Amanda Waller about her Task Force X project and other meta humans. Towards the end of the scene, Waller reveals that she knows Bruce's super hero identity.

Overall Rating:
Good movie but not really a DC movie. I'd rate it a 7 out of 10.

If you have watched the movie I would highly recommend watching Batman: Assault on Arkham, you could consider it as the animated sequel to Suicide Squad. Its got similar characters and much more of Joker.