St Louis Steemit Bitcoin Happy Hour . Meetup #2

jacobts (65)in #life • 6 years ago (edited)

Steemit, Bitcoin, Beer Specials, and Improvisers. Not a bad way to share a Thursday Night.

Thursday Night is "Harold Night" at The Improv Shop. People braved the cold for drink specials, hot meals, and sweet bits at the cozy brownstone building located in The Grove District of St Louis. Most people showed up simply to enjoy the improvised comedy shows. But a near the end of the bar and pinball machine, a half a dozen crypto curious creatives gathered around my janky tablet to talk steemit, bitcoin, and blockchain in general.

First of all I want to say Thank You to everyone who attended. You are making this journey all the more worthwhile, because no road is worth going alone. Even if I somehow picked the right coin or finally figured out how to make the right trade or for some reason suddenly became a steemit whale, it would not have the same meaning if I could not share success with friends. Even when I get back to LA, have a home and a car, and mornings to write screenplays and evenings to do improv, I still value this connection to family and friends above anything else. So thank you to all those who attended and to all those who will attend, welcome!

Our Second Weekly Happy Hour was very loose and fun as we asked each other questions and got to know each other better. The week before was a smaller gathering, but equally as interesting as I got to know Scott Gresham, a local improviser and techy extraordinaire. For Steemit members, especially those who have visited Steemspeak, Scott reminds me Nate and Inertia. He has a genuine passion for computers and technology. He understands the technical aspects of blockchain's capabilities far better than I ever will. And he dropped some interesting nuggets of knowledge that helped me better understand the value of this new technology in general.

"It is very hard to duplicate a stone tablet with the internet, and blockchain is able to do that." Scott said. "The idea that the information is there, and will always be there, is extremely valuable." I am paraphrasing a little bit, but I tried to write that down as soon as he said it. In regards to steemit, there is a variety of information. And all of it has value. Some of it is as simple as plans and strategies to improve one's financial wealth. Some of it is insightful information for technology or business. Some of it is shares the arts, intimate moments in life, or personal opinions. I personally appreciate the variety that one can find here on this platform. And the same can be said for blockchain as we continue to see a variety of projects explode onto the scene.

This past Thursday we were joined by simple investors, musicians, and another local fellow who works in technology. We discussed bitcoin in general. We talked about some Alts. I strongly suggested @Steemit. We touched on Bittrex, Poloniex, GDax, and Coinbase. And we got to know each other better in general over $4 Craft Beer Drafts and Healthy Dinner Dishes. I should mention that the Improv Shop has a full Kitchen whose head chef has worked up the road for the private club at the Fabulous Fox Theater. Jodi is amazing. Our bartender, John is one of the coolest. And I suppose it didn't matter what we talked about, we all had a good time before heading into the theaters to watch the 8 O'Clock Improv Comedy Shows.

I am already looking forward to next week's Meetup! It will be our third consecutive week and I am planning a little more structure. We will still be meeting at 6pm for casual hellos. But then at 6:30 I am going to do a few demonstrations. I will be showing people how to set up their steemit account, coinbase account, how to link coinbase to gdax, and setting up a bittrex account.

For next week
-Steemit
-Coinbase
-GDax
-Bittrex

For those who were in attendance, and for those who will be attending next week, I will be covering those topics because there were a lot of questions that related to those topics.

Common Questions
Q: How do I stay in touch with Bitcoin and Altcoins?
A: Steemit.

Q: How can I easily get cryptocurrency?
A: Steemit.

Q: Where can I get some of those other Altcoins that I hear about?
A: Bittrex.

Q: How do I buy those Altcoins?
A: Coinbase. Then, you can use those funds to buy other coins like steem, dash, bitshares on bittrex.

Q: How do I just get Bitcoin?
A: Coinbase : https://goo.gl/6tU1Nc

Q: What about Litecoin and Ethereum?
A: You can buy those on Coinbase as well.

Q: How do I manage my risk and those price swings?
A: GDax is automatically connected to Coinbase. One can manage one's assets on Coinbase within GDax. So if Bitcoin or Litecoin is at All Time Highs (ATH), and you want to lock in the profit for a while, you can park it's value in US Dollars and then jump back in if price falls.

Q: How do I spend Bitcoin?
A: Coinbase. Coinbase can connect to your bank account, your debit card, or you can order a SHIFT CARD, which is basically a Debit Card for your Coinbase Account.

Q: The Price is crazy. Is it too late? Is it over?
A: No. It will only go up at this point. Bitcoin is being adopted by Billion Dollar Wall Street and Chicago Financial Markets and is going mainstream in Futures and Options trading. There's more to say here, but blockchain is not going anywhere. And your Coinbase Account is FDIC insured.

Q: How do I keep track of prices and news?
A: Steemit.com will connect you to many bloggers. A simple google search into the topic you are interested in will often work. But also coinmarketcap.com is a good place to see what coins are most popular. Be careful of some "Blockchain News" sites because some of that news is technically paid advertising. I should know, I have ghost written articles for some coins and seen my own writing cited in regards to price pumps. LOL

Q: What about my crypto friends who tell me to look at other Altcoins etc...?
A: Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has their favorites. I also like OpenLedger and am a big fan of steem. But others might like a different blockchain. I'm just sharing what I have learned. And we can all work together to help each other. One can not say the same for a faceless Trillion Dollar Financial Institution that just wants to sign you up and collect fees. Together, Improvisers, Strong!

Q: Urban Chestnut or Schlafly Beer?
A: Tough call. I love them both!

Q: What is Jake Schneider's background?
A: I'm sharing my journey on Steemit. But I'm just an Improv Hobo riding the Make 'em Up rails of life back to the Reckoning. I love Improv, I love Family, and as I share what I learn about steemit and bitcoin, I am planning for a future where I can balance all three in a healthy wealthy way that can also help others.

So next week! If you are near St Louis, Please Be Welcome to Join Us! I look forward to meeting new Steemers. I look forward to meeting more Improvisers! We all look forward to helping each other out.

Shout out to Kansas City's Blockchain Guru, @stellabelle. If you are on the other side of the great state of Missouri, by all means stay in touch with that lovely goddess. She has been a great help to many. A shout out to @papa-pepper who has also been an inspiring helpful person to myself and others on steemit. Also, I believe it's his Birthday Weekend just now so, Happy Birthday Papa P! I'm looking forward to seeing @sykochica here in St Louis, so shout out to that awesome soul who I was lucky enough to hang out with in KC months ago. Thank yous to @virtualgrowth who has always been there and might just find a way to stop by St Louis soon. And much respect and appreciation to Austin's own @richardcrill who's Austin Meetup was a big inspiration for setting up this St Louis gathering. He's also been a helpful aficionado in this alt coin journey. There are many others that new members should look up and @steemspeak is a good place to meet people on line. Always gotta respect The Viking. But for those of you who want to meet in person, we all look forward to seeing you soon in St Louis. :)

Wishing you all the very best,