Source

IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head (meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)

From the Author

Salutations. I am JaiChai.

And if I haven't had the pleasure to make your acquaintance, it's always nice to meet a fellow Steemian.

(All BlockTrades images are from their website: https://blocktrades.us)

Source

Yesterday was the first time I sent Steem from my wallet to...uhm, well...sh*t, to anywhere!

And although I'd read a little bit and watched a couple videos about the "How To's" of transferring Steem from my Steem wallet, I'd never done it before.

So what prompted me to get off my lazy ass and actually do a transfer now?

The impetus came from another current, pressing issue - a rather distasteful; but nonetheless, significant item on my "To Do/Procrastination" list.

In other words, the successful execution of my first Steem transfer yesterday enabled me to "kill two birds with one stone".

Alright, alright. I know you're probably scratching your head now and thinking, "WTF?"

So, before you wander off, let me explain...

Source

Shopping - The Bane of My Existence

I must confess.

I'm not the most enthusiastic shopper anytime of the year. During the holidays? I'd rather have Nurse Rachett stick a needle in my eye!

Lucky for me, my girlfriend is stressing.

(Wait. That didn't come out right?)

What I mean is that she overspent on the Christmas presents she bought last week. And with more people (relatives) on her list to buy gifts for, she now realizes how grossly she'd underestimated the cost of all the gifts that she wanted to buy.

In short, she's stressing over how she'll look - and what her family will think, if she doesn't deliver the goods like she usually does every year.

(Enter my solution.)

"Honey, I know this Christmas gift thing has got you worried. And I agree. It would really suck (for you) if some people in your family receive gifts; while others don't." I said, hoping she'd see the logic in what I had to say next.

"How 'bout this? Since I don't have your Christmas present yet, why don't I just give you some shopping money as my gift to you this year?"

With a giant smile, rapid fire kisses and a tight bear hug, my girlfriend yelled, "Oh thank you, thank you, Baby! You're so sweet!"

Bingo!

Done deal!

("Who's da Man, now Boo-Oy! Wan'na guess who's gettin' extra special Boom-Boom tonight?!)

Source

Mission (Un)Impossible?

The mission was clear:

Perform my first Steem transfer and do whatever it takes to end up with foreign fiat currency (PHP: Philippine Peso) to serve as a gift to my girlfriend for Christmas.

Translated: No Shopping for Me. Woo-Hoo!

(High-Five me, Bruh!)

And I'm proud to say, "Mission Accomplished".

(It took less than two hours. Imagine that?)

By mid-afternoon, I knew that my Christmas gift (PHP) was in my girlfriend's pretty, little hands.

You know how I could be so sure of that?

Because my girlfriend's cellphone chimed with a deposit notification from her bank.

As I planned and executed (crossing my fingers during the whole process), the Steem that I sent from my wallet landed as Bitcoin in my girlfriend's BTC/PHP online bank account.

With a couple of taps, my girlfriend instantly converted the Bitcoin into the local fiat currency (PHP).

Now her money could be withdrawn from almost any local business; such as banks, ATM's, mall stores, money transfer centers, pawn shops, and even 24/7 convenient stores like "7-11".

Grinning from ear to ear, she went off to go pick up her Christmas money; and of course, immediately thereafter, to the mall with her best friend.

(#HappyShoppingFilipina)

Source

The Chronicles of Steemia

The following is a step-by-step record of how the Steem from my wallet became Bitcoin in my girlfriend's BTC/PHP online bank account.

Source

Three Step Process

A bird's eye view reveals that three steps are required to complete my objective:

• Send Steem from the wallet to an exchange or bridge that accepts Steem deposits

• Convert the Steem into Bitcoin

• Send the Bitcoin from the exchange or bridge to my girlfriend's Bitcoin wallet

Note:

From the list of available exchanges and bridges to send my Steem, I tried three: Open Ledger, Bitshares and Blocktrades.

First, I registered and got an account with Open Ledger. But its gateway was currently down. After checking multiple times, I gave up hoping that their gateway would be fixed (in this lifetime) and moved on to the next option.

As before, I registered and secured another account. This time, it was with Bitshares. The easier and faster registration process had me hoping that things were looking up. But alas, the option to deposit Steem was not even offered! Time to cut and run - again.

"Sweet Buddha on a cracker!" BlockTrades saved the day.

Using Blocktrades, I was able to send Steem, convert it to Bitcoin and send it to my girlfriend's BTC wallet hosted by her BTC/PHP online bank account.

Starting Line: BlockTrades - Signing Up

Above is the BlockTrades landing page at https://blocktrades.us.

Notice that the default Send is "Bitcoin" and the default recieve is "Steem".

Like every other exchange, to use BlockTrades, you must register and secure an account.

If you're not a BlockTrade account holder, click on the "Sign Up" button (upper, right corner of the screen) and do the same routine as making an email account - with less personal questions to answer.

Once you have an account, we start the fun stuff.

Sending, Converting and Transferring

In order for BlockTrades to recieve your Steem, you must change the "Send" (left side) currency from the default "Bitcoin" to "Steem".

Note:

If you don't pay attention, you can easily get confused from the start. So, to reiterate, remember that BlockTrades needs you to send your Steem to it. And that's by ensuring "Steem" is in the "Send" side.

This is done via the drop-down menu of the currency label. To activate the drop-down menu, click on the down arrow.

After choosing "Steem" from the currency drop-down menu, we are now ready to focus on the "Receive" (right side) input.

Choose the correct, desired currency to be received by the end wallet by activating the "Receive" drop-down menu.

In my case, I wanted Bitcoin to be sent to my girlfriend's BTC wallet. So, I made sure the "Receive" currency was Bitcoin.

Using the "Receive" section to send currency to another wallet may feel counterintuitive. For me, it definitely creates a visual/cognitive dissonance.

And IMHO, the best way to prevent confusion is to treat the right "Receive" side as the area pertaining to the "Final Destination" for the currency - the end of the line."

Now go back to the "Send" (left) section and enter the desired number of Steem you wish BlockTrades to get.

The "Receive" (Final Destination) side will automatically convert your Steem value into the estimated Bitcoin value.

If you're still with me so far (not in a catatonic state of dyslexia), we can charge on to the "Your receive address" section.

Just like the amount and currency in the "Receive" section, the "Your receive address" is for the final destination of the currency.

Important Note:

The "Your receive address" is the address of whoever owns the wallet at the end of the chain of these transactions.

Make sure the final currency and the final wallet are compatible. If they are not, a red "address invalid" notification will appear above the input field. Nothing continues until the error is corrected.

If you are sending the final currency (designated in the "Receive" section) to someone other than yourself, DO NOT put the address from any wallet of yours into the "Your receive address" input field (the rectangle under "Your receive address").

Source

Before You Pull the Trigger

Now is a great time to check and recheck all values, currencies and addresses you have entered.

Make sure everything is picture perfect and exactly what you desire.

If so, click on the "Get Deposit Address".

After the "Get Deposit Address" has been clicked, your trade has now been activated.

Think of this as setting up and completing half of a contract. At this point, the BlockTrades portion of the contract is done.

All that's needed now is to complete the other half of the contract. This will require authorization by you to execute the deal (e.g., the right "signature" from you to verify that you are, in fact, the one who setup the contract).

You must provide identical values from the BlockTrades portion of the contract before the actions in the contract will be carried out (fulfilled).

Note:

By requesting the execution of this contract, you agree to all its terms - including the normal fees for BlockTrades and any additional fees imposed by other parties to complete your contract's stated requirements.

Don't be surprised when the Bitcoin amount received at the final destination is $20-$25 less than what you expected. Currently, just to call and record your transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain incurs $12-$27!

To mildly mitigate these conditions and get a better conversion rate (plus a faster confirmation by the Bitcoin blockchain), it's recommended to transfer five times the minimum miner fee.

This basically means: Don't make any transactions below 45 Steem and expect to get a good conversion rate. Additionally, Bitcoin transactions with just the minimum miner fee are SLOW.

In fact, minimum miner fee transactions have been known to take days to confirm.

Stay with me now.

Just hold on.

We're almost done...

Source

Copy, Paste and Verify

The last thing to do is make everything jibe on your wallet's side.

You must copy and paste all of the same values (i.e., the word "blocktrades", the "memo" address - in the "memo" field, and the number of Steem to be taken and converted to Bitcoin) from the BlockTrades portion of the contract and paste them into the appropriate fields of the "Transfer" section found in your Steem wallet.

Source

After performing a few, thorough checks and you are satisfied that all input to both sides of your requested transaction are identical, it's time for you to pull the final trigger - click on the "Submit" button.

Source

That's it. We're Done!

We are finito, finished, completo!

Yeah-Hey!

(You may now do the Happy Dance.)

BlockTrades will do everything from this point on.

They will receive your Steem, convert it to Bitcoin, and send it to the BTC wallet address that you specified.

Source

If You Like to Watch, Clarisse...fuh, fuh, fuh-fuh

If you want to periodically check on the progress of your transaction, keep the BlockTrades browser window open - do not refresh it.

By JaiChai

Source

Many thanks for reading my post. And if you enjoyed it, kindly Upvote, Follow, Comment and Resteem.

Source
"My mind was a terrible thing to waste..."

About the Author

JaiChai has been in the Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency spaces for many years. He is an enigma, regarded by his cohorts as sarcastic, funny, intuitive, but most of all - elusive. He’s known for randomly submitting philosophical and contrarian posts on several diverse forums.

When asked about his vanishing acts, he says, "I’m just somebody who enjoys being nobody because I look like everybody. Besides, time checking things off my 'bucket list’ - sans notoriety - is time well spent.”

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE STEEMIT BLOGGERS ON DISCORD

Animated Banner Created By @zord189 [Creatives]