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.

Ban Rotten Tomatoes?

Rotten Tomatoes gave DC's upcoming movie Suicide Squad a 30% rating. Now this has upset quite a lot of DC fans but one fan, in particular, was so upset by the rating that he decided to start an online petition to shutdown the popular movie reviews website.

Now we all know that the website has given quite a few DC movies a pretty bad rating. Although I personally feel that some of those are not up to the DC standards, the ratings they've received are quite low. Even Batman Vs Superman had got a really bad rating when it had released earlier this year, but it did not anger so many people because the movie had mixed reviews even from fans.



Cut to the present, and you'll see that one person, Abdullah Coldwater, has started an online petition on change.org to ban Rotten Tomatoes. And this has actually been signed by 17,848 people!




Personally I just find the whole idea of people getting angry over movie critics really stupid and I'm not saying this because I critique movies too, but because in this case people haven't really done their research. Rotten Tomatoes is owned by Warner Bros since 2016. If WB wanted they could destroy or stop funding the website, but you can't really blame the website because its users are bad or biased.

 In fact, one person has started a petition asking all those 17,000 people to just calm down but unfortunately this petition is being supported by 8 people.

Hoverboard - Artwork Showcase

I was thinking of making this model a vehicle mod for Unturned.

Software used - Blender 2.76

Fifa 17 - Story Mode?

EA Sports announced some new features of FIFA 17  yesterday at E3, and some of them are just mind - blowing.

  

Story Mode:

Probably the biggest new feature added to the game is story mode. Its considered "the biggest new FIFA mode since Ultimate Team". The story mode is called The Journey and is somewhat a RPG set in the football/FIFA industry. The player takes control of rookie Alex Hunter as he starts his career with a club, that you can choose, alongside his friend/rival Gareth Walker(Does this remind anyone of Ash and Gary from Pokemon?). You can shape Alex's personality - from being an egocentric upstart to a modest team player - and his relations with the manager and teammates.

In addition, the outcome of every match you play can affect the plot. For example, if you get carded, you will have to explain yourself to the manager or if you score the winning goal, you star in a press conference or interview.

I feel that this game mode is the greatly modified version of 'Be a Pro' mode in the older versions of FIFA, where you can create your own character, customise his skills and his physique and choose a club for him.

Frost Bite:
Frostbite is a game engine developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) which was and is used to make all the Battlefield games in the series. The obvious implications are better animations,graphics and lighting but the most important change is that Frostbite is a generic engine that has been used for first person shooters like Battlefield, third person shooters like Mass Effect and for an action-adventure like Mirror's Edge. This is actually going to be useful for the new story mode the game  is going to have. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI):
You might be wondering that since FIFA 17 is developed on a generic engine like Frostbite, its main focus will shift away from football. Well, actually you are wrong! FIFA 17 is going to come out as a balanced game. The AI for teammates and opponents has been totally revamped. Teammates will now stand in position and run diagonally depending on the angle of the ball.They will be much busier on field - signalling and treading in an and out of the 18 yard box.

There are still other modes EA will reveal in the near future, but what I really want to know is whether this story mode will make FIFA 17 like the  Need For Speed story mode - A DISASTER!!

The Jokes On You!

A pack of cards has 2 jokers which usually are of no use, but DC has 3 Jokers in the DC Multiverse
who are going to give a big headache to the Dark Knight.

[Spoiler Alert - Justice League #42 and #50]

It all started when Batman sat on the Mobius Chair , a chair which has all the knowledge and anyone who sits on it can be considered god. He first asked the chair the name of the person who killed his parents, as a confirmatory test. Then, he asked what the Joker's real name was.The chair said something but it was kept a secret to the readers until Justice League #50.

In issue #50, Hal Jordan a.k.a Green Lantern asks Batman what Mobius told him. Here,it is finally revealed that there are three Jokers.
Now it is up to the World's Greatest Detective to find out who they are and whether they had been working together all the time.
Batman uses his Batcomputer and identifies stark differences,not just physically but also mental and behavioral,  between the Joker over a long period of time.We know that differences arise when multiple writers try to shape the same character for decades, but it seems like the current writer is using these differences for his own advantage.


Are the 3 Jokers teaming up?
Possibly not. Joker is somewhat like Baron Zemo from the Marvel Universe(comic and not cinematic), a person who will never keep promises and agrees to team up only to later abandon the team for his own gains.We all know Joker and Harley's relationship, he only uses her to trick and trap Batman.He honestly doesn't even care the slightest about her.Now imagine 3 such Jokers trying to team up!

Who could these possibly be?
I am guessing that each one of them would have a different origin story.One might be Red Hood,a small time crook who, while trying to rob a chemical plant fell into a huge tub filled with chemicals that made his skin pale, hair green and brain super sane.This Red Hood then took the identity of Joker.
Another origin story which is actually a fan theory but still makes perfect sense is that old Bruce Wayne had to go/ was sent back in time to train young Bruce Wayne, basically kill his parents and emotionally scar both young Bruce and himself.Young Bruce will become Batman and Old Bruce becomes the Joker. Full theory here  (no,this is not my theory)

Will Batman be able to find evidence of 3 jokers?
Will they be working together?
What are their origin stories?
These are some of the questions in every reader's mind, we will just have to wait to find the answer.

Steve Rogers A Hydra Agent?

Its been almost 4 days since Marvel released its new Captain America:Steve Rogers comic series.That has also been the same amount of time I have been wondering why Marvel had to create an alternate universe for Steve Rogers and his buddies.
I just want to know what poor Stan Lee thinks of this new story!

Ok, so here is the news.In the first issue of the new comic series, Captain America reveals that he had always been a hydra double agent.In fact, even before getting the Super Soldier Serum, Steve Rogers was already recruited by Hydra because his mother was kept hostage. BAM!! your childhood hero is now going to be Shield's most wanted criminal.

This is not the first time Marvel has turned the good guys into Hydra double agents.
[Spoiler Alert - Read at your own risk! Spoiler from Earth's Mightiest Heroes]
Black Widow was portrayed as a double agent when she stole Dr Bruce Banner's blood sample from Shield Lab and gave it to Hydra.Then, she left Shield and joined Hydra.Almost after half a season later, when Hawkeye was about to kill Natasha, it is revealed that Nick Fury had actually ordered Black Widow to act as a double agent in order to extract information from Hydra and he was the only one who knew about it.I think that makes her a triple agent!

Even Captain America had been portrayed as a bad guy before.
[Spoiler Alert - Read at your own risk! Spoiler from Earth's Mightiest Heroes]
Captain America had been kidnapped by The Skrull empire just after The Avenger's fought in Asgard to defeat Loki and his evil forces.Skrulls had the to ability to shape shift just like the Martians of DC (but that is a completely different multiverse). They could even use all the abilities of a person after doing performing some black magic on that person. The Skrulls chose Captain America because he was the most influential superhero in the world. They used his identity to influence the actions of the Avengers when Earth was attacked by The Kree Empire and also influence public opinion.
Many episodes later, we see Captain America locked up in a Skrull prison along with other significant characters like Susan Storm, Shield and Hydra agents.They eventually manage to escape and save the world from both alien empires, but the public still did not fully trust Captain America.

 

Will this new 'Twist' affect the movies ?
I highly doubt it. The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has always been different from the comics.The people who write the movie scripts are completely different from those who write the comics.

I just hope that this twist is negated with another twist just like in Black Widow's case above because Captain America should always be an idol. He was always an icon of justice even before USA took part in WWII, Cap was punching Hitler in the face.


If you want to know more about this article and my opinions, you can just comment your question. 

What Can You Expect From This Blog?

The primary posts of this blog will be games, cartoons and (superhero) movie reviews.
There may be times where I will post on topics which may seem completely random, but the only reason I would do that is because I really want to voice my opinion on a trending topic.

Well I think I have pretty much covered up everything you can expect from this blog.
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