Musings on my first steps along the crypto road.
I've always had an interest in technology and computers. For years I've known mildly of the crypto-world through reading about bitcoin, however, it always remained a curiosity for me. After the first big boom for BTC I thought "this is great! Good for them, too bad I didn't jump in as well." Those first few years were just the foundation blocks of something that's the way of the future: block-chain technology.
Now, instead of looking at other people's "vacation photos" or enjoying a tour by helicopter of the island, my level of interest has increased and I'm ready to join the fray. This has really been encouraged by my discovery of Steemit as well. As I've mentioned before, I'll say again: I have no illusions of getting rich by buying some crypto or making thousands while posting on Steemit. This isn't a 'get rich' thing for me; I'm here to enjoy the community and have a home for my own original content. So while I'm getting Part 2 of Galdor's story finished up for publishing, I thought I'd take a moment to post my thoughts and experience so far trying to get into the crypto-world.
CC0 license public domain image.
A bump in the road
Things have started out great. I've enjoyed getting to know the community on Steemit, reading old posts from before I got here. There's a lot of very useful information to be found and I've been soaking it up like a sponge. I've decided to use some of my 'fun money' (discretionary USD) to finally buy some crytpo. I created a BitShares account on @lukestokes recommendation (who I've been incredibly grateful for in his informative posts and engagement with commenters. He's received my first ever vote for witness), and in all my research have come to love the idea of a decentralized exchange totally held up by block-chain. Then the whole China scare came about and I thought, "convenient timing! Isn't that nice." I was getting in anyways, but how much better when there's a dip because of a scare.
In the tab to deposit fiat money in BitShares I followed the directions, put in all the information to link a USD account for transfers, and I waited... and waited. Hmm, that dip's going away. Bummer. Waited..... an email! Verified! Excellent, I'm ready. Now in BitShares there's a button to deposit. I type my amount. A dialogue box, "click here for deposit instructions". I click here ... nothing. I thought linking my fiat account would enable transferring, but I guess not. I Googled, searched Steem, joined BitShares discord channel, the support forums. I wasn't finding the answer. With a click and drag of the here button I discovered it's a PDF document with account info. Well, I'm a little burned out, thought I could get my USD transferred into my wallet today. Not sure what I do with this CCDEK (OpenLedger) account info. Go to my bank to transfer the funds with this info? Why did I need to link my account then?
Many of you are far, far ahead of me on the crypto road and Steemit is an intelligent community. I'd love any comments of help to make the connection I seem to be missing. We learn new things from others who are willing to share their knowledge. I've got a flat tire here on the side of the crypto road. I'll get it changed, but if someone pulls over to help, you'd have my gratitude and I'll be back on the road a lot sooner.
CC0 license public domain image.
The other side of the crypto-coin
I enjoy building computers and messing with software. A while back I purchased one of those little ZBox PCs and have had fun messing with Linux on it, making it also serve as a little media PC connected to the family TV. I learned Linux using a USB distribution. I built my first PC in college. I've recently been thinking to do something with my now-years-old tower I built for games back when Oblivion came out, currently not being used for anything. I understand mining bitcoin is a pastime but there's so many more out there to mine (currently it seems Monero is the profitable one). For cheap, I could just use the motherboard, RAM, CPU, PSU, HDD that I already have, pop a pair of Nvidia 1060s in there and see how she flies. Again, I'm not looking to strike a huge vein, just something that will cover its cost and give me crypto to play with and exchange (into BTS, Steem).
I've done a lot of research and would like to do this for fun; to learn more about block-chains and cryptos by going hands on. But I'd be foolish if I didn't tap the knowledge available here. I'm not looking for someone to hold my hand, just an open forum to share advice. For example, I've also considered an alternative and would love to hear some experienced opinions. Instead of slapping a couple modern GPUs in my old tower for mining (I hear PCI bus speed doesn't matter, which would be good since my P5ND2 is PCI-e 1x. DDR2 RAM also, hah!) should I focus on a new build not so focused on GPU power that could help support the Steemit block-chain? I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, etc etc. There are GREAT art sites like DeviantArt, but I haven't created an account there. I've been waiting, and chose Steemit. It feels like the right place for me: it fits my interests (block-chain) and you're not just paid for your content, but community is encouraged by letting the users determine what content is promoted and how much it's paid. I'm excited about Steemit and would like to give back, so if I have an opportunity here to set myself up to do that in some way I'd love to hear about it. I'm currently leaning to the simple (AKA easy) 'get a couple GPUs' option, and that's why I'd like to hear from you.
Closing comments
I've mentioned that I'll strive to use original content in all my posts, however, this one being blog in nature I just used a couple of public domain images. I was going to finish the art for Galdor's next chapter today, but a bit of time was sucked up trying to resolve this BitShares transfer conundrum. Part 2 is still on schedule for this weekend, I just wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and reach out to the Steemit community. Thanks for any help offered and keep being awesome.
you've chosen a great place to start with bitshares. transfers can be a hassle. From where we are, we convert bank into BTC on a local exchange, and then transfer the BTC to OpenLedger/BitShares (preference is yours) to convert to BTS or STEEM or whatever
Thanks for the reply! I've come to a similar conclusion today. I'm going to use a larger (centralized) exchange to deal with my fiat, I think I'm going with Kraken, then I'll use BitShares for all my trading between coins. I also read elsewhere that BitShares' fiat IOU can be difficult to sell sometimes, so it just seems like the transition from my USD will be easier handled elsewhere.
Great post! It's on my TODO list to try and deposit fiat directly with OpenLedger's CCDEK, but I haven't done it yet. Mostly, when getting my fiat in, I go with easy stuff like GDax (CoinBase) to buy ETH or BTC and then just transfer to the exchange I want to use.
As for mining, I don't really recommend it as it's often a zero-sum game. (You can read my story here). Once the hardware requirements increase (ASICs, etc) your investment becomes a sunk cost. Also, there's currently no mining in Steemit. The witnesses create blocks through a delegated proof of stake algorithm and unless you want to "run for office" in a sense and campaign for witness votes, it's not really worth bothering with.
Thanks for commenting Luke and linking your mining story. Gotta say, I empathized with all the emotions you went through and had a good laugh in your writing. Well shared tale.
This clarifies things a bit, as you put it "running for office". I knew that Steem cannot be mined but didn't know if I could support the Steemit structure somehow without being a top witness. As I've been learning: not so much (other than being an active part of the community, curating good content, and voting for witnesses).
As for mining, I suppose it would be true that once the current coin of choice (Monero) got difficult enough to make my hardware obsolete, the requirements for new mining prospects would be nearly as high, leaving me with a pair of GPUs that wouldn't be offering much. Heck, for that matter, might as well take the money I would buy the GPUs with and put it into Steem, BTC, or BTS. One thing I'm guessing mining calculators don't take into account with your estimated monthly net profit is the increased difficulty over time. I can imagine that monthly net will quickly decrease.
Thanks again Luke, much appreciated. I've enjoyed following you and learning from your articles.
This! So many examples exist of people who should have just bought the currency directly if they wanted to maximize their profits.
Some calculators do account for difficultly, but they are all assumptions. I have a butterfly labs miner upstairs, and it's essentially a paper weight at these difficultly levels. Few would have imagined that.