Cryptocurrency

A few articles about cryptocurrency.

Mostly as protection against hyper-inflation, crypto is something all preppers should own.

NOTE: Do not get suckered into the "Make $xx,xxx in 7 days with Bitcoin" scams. They are truely scams. They claim that by "mining" crypto, you can make a lot of money when each block gets paid out. This is semi-truthful. Block rewards are paid, and are a lot of money. I am writing this on 25 July 2022, and today's reward is $137,080. What they are not telling you is that there are tens of thousands of computers mining, and the block payout is only given to one computer each block. It's basically a lottery.

Making money by mining usually involves joining a mining pool. Everyone pools their money to buy miner computers... dozens, or even hundreds of machines, all working away. This increases the odds that one of your machines will get the reward. But it also means the payout is shared among all the people in the pool. If there's 1000 people in your pool, you'd get $137.08

Look at it logically. If investing $100 could turn into $1000 in a week... why do they need you? If I could do this, I would take $100 of my own money, and next week I'd have $1000. The following week my $1000 would be $10,000. After three weeks, I'd have $100,000, and after 4 weeks I'd be at a million. After 5 weeks I'd have ten million dollars!

Do you really think I'd need your $100 if I was really making returns like those?

You can make a lot of money investing in crypto. But you do it slowly and surely. Put a few dollars in every paycheck. Have patience. The prices will go up. The prices will go down. Keep putting in your few dollars each week. Over time, your investment should continue to grow (I'm not guaranteeing anything). Over the long term, investments typically double each year. Just buy, and hold.

The typical investment strategy is "buy low, sell high". Great advice, but when is low, and when is high? If you had a crsytal ball, hey, what are you prepping for? You can see the future and make sure you are always in a safe place. Without the crystal ball, trying to time the market is very risky. You may get it right a few times, but sooner or later you will get it wrong, and then you will lose big! Just buy and hold.

Useful Websites

There are thousands of websites dealing with Crypto currencies. Here are some of the more useful ones.

Binance's Glossary of Crypto Terms - https://academy.binance.com/en/glossary

An excellent, up-to-date glossary of all the terms for Crypto.

CoinGecko - https://www.coingecko.com/en

Up to the minute crypto prices for the top 100 crypto, with trends (1 hour, 24 hour, 7 day), 24 hour volume of transfers, market cap, and last 7 days graph.

BlockChain - https://www.blockchain.com

Wallet, Exchange services, and blockchain explorer.

  • Wallet for holding your crypto online.
  • Exchange to buy & sell crypto (although I use Binance).
  • The Explorer allows you to enter any address and see the balance and history of that address.

EtherScan - https://etherscan.io/

"The Ethereum Blockchain Explorer". Very similar to Blockchain allowing you to explore the Ethereum blockchain.

Real Vision - https://www.realvision.com/crypto

Free online video channel for everything Crypto

Exchanges

To buy and sell Crypto you must have an account on an Exchange.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

Mt. Gox was a bitcoin exchange based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Launched in July 2010, by 2013 and into 2014 it was handling over 70% of all bitcoin (BTC) transactions worldwide, as the largest bitcoin intermediary and the world's leading bitcoin exchange.

In February 2014, Mt. Gox suspended trading, closed its website and exchange service, and filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. In April 2014, the company began liquidation proceedings.

Mt. Gox announced that approximately 850,000 bitcoins belonging to customers and the company were missing and likely stolen, an amount valued at more than $450 million at the time. Although 200,000 bitcoins have since been "found", the reasons for the disappearance - theft, fraud, mismanagement, or a combination of these - were initially unclear. New evidence presented in April 2015 by Tokyo security company WizSec led them to conclude that "most or all of the missing bitcoins were stolen straight out of the Mt. Gox hot cryptocurrency wallet over time, beginning in late 2011."

The exchange will allow you to submit money from your bank or credit card, and use that to purchase crypto. You can then keep the crypto on the exchange so that you can sell it again, but exchanges have been hacked and it can be risky. See the story of Mt Gox to the right. Best practises are to transfer it to a wallet.

Wallets

Storing Bitcoin & Crypto

Exchanges are businesses that buy and sell crypto currencies. Opening an account usually involves providing proof of your identity. Most of the big exchanges are safe places to buy & sell crypto, and can transfer your native fiat currency from and to your bank account. Exchanges have a drawback in that there are plenty of people trying to hack them, as they have a lot of money. As such, keeping money there increases your risk.

Hot wallets are places to hold your crypto currency. They allow you to receive money, send money, and view your current balances. Usually installed on your computer, mobile phone, or a tablet, they are secure against hacking, but you have to be cautious that your devide is not stolen or hacked.

Paper wallets are a type of cold wallet. Printed out on paper they have your public address and your private key. These are some of the most secure forms of storage, as long as the paper is not lost or stolen.

There are also USB based cold wallets that are very secure.

Mycelium

There are many hot wallets available. My preference is Mycelium. It is available on Android and iPhone, and can hold Bitcoin and Ether.

Here is a simple 10 minute video on Bitcoin Basics: How To Set Up Mycelium Wallet & Live Transaction Demo.

Here is how to move money from a paper wallet (also called "sweeping") into Mycelium, or to send it to someone else - Sweeping a Bitcoin Paper Wallet with Mycelium Phone Wallet app.

YouTube

Videos to watch

  1. How to get started with Bitcoin (2021 updated) by 99bitcoins - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTUqcwoj4X8
  2. How To Set Up Mycelium Wallet & Live Transaction Demo by Bitcoin Basics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udMvZvMXyHE
  3. Bitcoin Is The Start Of A New Paradigm Shift. We're Still Early | Michael Saylor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMmJwCpnkA0

 

Channels to subscribe to

There are some great YouTube channels dealing with Crytpo-currencies. Below is a list of the ones I have found most useful. If you find others that you think are great, let me know.

Altcoin Daily

This channel focuses on news and events in the crypto world. They explain things quite well, though you may need some knowledge of crypto and financing to understand everything. Worth checking out.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbLhGKVY-bJPcawebgtNfbw

99bitcoins

This channel discusses crypto in simple, easy to understand terms. They have a large selection of short, 2 minute videos, each focused on one single topic.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQQ_fGcMDxlKre3SEqEWrLA

 

Security

Crypto-Currency versus Fiat Currency (Dollars, Euros, Pounds) versus Gold

Previously we discussed that money is anything people are willing to exchange, and that value comes from scarcity.

Fiat Currencies

Fiat currency is the least scarce. Any government can print as much money as they like. When this happens too much you get runaway inflation, or hyperinflation. This is currently happening in Venezuela. In the past this happened in Germany in the 1920s, Zimbabwe in the 2000's, and the United States during the Civil War. There's a good article about it here https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-hyperinflation-definition-causes-and-examples-3306097