"If it's not a currency, it is nothing else"

That's Mark Edge (quote from memory, but I think I got it right) talking about the Bitcoin/Segwit/2x controversy on last night's Free Talk Live. Mark and Ian Freeman did their weekend broadcasts from the Texas Bitcoin Conference.

Mark's statement refers back to Saturday night's show, on which John Sacco defended the current track of Bitcoin, asserting that Bitcoin will never be able to scale up to handle the volume of e.g. Visa and that we might as well just accept that it's going to become and remain a low-transaction-volume, high-transaction-fee "settlement layer" and store of value.

Of course, Mark is saying exactly what I've been saying for some time as well. If Bitcoin is not an increasingly going concern as a cryptocurrency that normal people can buy normal things at normal places with, where's the real value in a large network of expensive graphics processors tossing around bits as "proof of work?"

Let's talk about scaling.

When I was in high school, I worked at a gas station. My guess is that 95% of customers paid cash for their gas.

When one of the 5% pulled out a credit card, I in turn pulled out a bulky analog machine, stuck the credit card on it, filled out two slips of paper (one original, the other one a copy made with a piece of carbon paper between the two slips) with the transaction details by hand with a pen, put the paper on top of the card, slid the machine (KA-CHUNK) to make an impression of the physical card, then went in the back room where I punched the transaction information into a little terminal that took over the phone line (MODEM NOISE) for about two minutes and then let me know whether or not the card was any good.

32 years later, most people use credit or debit cards for most transactions in most stores. There's little or no interaction required by store personnel. See the total, slide the card, hit OK (enter PIN if it's a debit transaction), wait a few seconds, done.

I wonder how many transactions per day Visa handles now versus in 1985?

Better computers, better networks, cheaper bandwidth, cheaper storage ... the wheels may come off Moore's Law at some point, but there doesn't seem to be any particular reason why the Bitcoin network can't scale up well into the future instead of pulling over to the side of the road like it has an empty gas tank and four flat tires as soon as it starts getting popular and its network starts getting congested. Increase the block size and keep on truckin'.

Which, of course, is what Bitcoin Cash is doing, just as envisioned in Satoshi Nakamoto's inaugural white paper. And that's why Bitcoin Cash is "real" Bitcoin and the impostor still calling itself "Bitcoin" and forking off into Segwit, 2x, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Silver, Bitcoin WTF is well on its way to becoming a has-been altcoin.

I do wish that my cloud mining service of choice, HashFlare.io (yes, that's a referral link -- buy some hashrate -- you can get in for single-digit USD, and use code Halloween holiday code HF17HLWN10ALL for 10% off!), would hurry up and start offering Bitcoin Cash mining. It hasn't yet, so for the nonce I'm mining Ethereum and Dash.

Personal Cryptocurrency Update

I had high hopes for Bitcoin Cash, but after one spike it seems to have settled/flattened in value -- and, more importantly, to not be getting a lot of adoption as a medium of exchange. It seems that places that are spoken of as "accepting" it mostly really just accept Old Bitcoin -- in order to spend your Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at those places, you have to use e.g. ShapeShift.io to convert/deposit it as Old Bitcoin (BTC), which defeats the whole purpose. You still get the Old Bitcoin fees. You still get the Old Bitcoin confirmation wait times. And you pay a fee to convert them as well.

What I want out of a cryptocurrency is something that I can use to buy a soda and hot dog at a convenience store in roughly the same time it would take to use a debit card, and with lower transaction costs. That utility, of course, lying atop some measure of anonymity and resistance to state seizure.

Maybe I'll get that at some point -- I'm keeping my eyes on e.g. Dash, ZCash, Monero and so forth to see if there's a breakout crypto that gains enough user adoption, merchant acceptance, etc. to move in that direction.

But with regard to Bitcoin Cash, I'm definitely out of "holding my breath" mode. I just converted my tiny (mid-double-digit in US dollars) holdings to Bitcoin (at a loss due to fees, of course) and spent all but a few cents worth on a 1-year Ether mining contract at HashFlare (yes, that is a referral link).

Why HashFlare, and why Ether?

HashFlare: I looked at several cloud mining services, read a few reviews, etc., and HashFlare looked like a reasonably reputable, not fly-by-night outfit. Also, unlike most pool/cloud mining outfits, HashFlare lets you buy lower amounts of "hash rate" so that you don't have to jump in at a minimum mid-three-figures like some places require. In fact, you can get in for a couple of bucks.

Ether: I might have stuck with Bitcoin Cash, but mining that was not one of HashFlare's offerings. I am skeptical of Bitcoin's future. The big players seem to be reneging on the "2x" part of the "Segwit 2x" agreement. There's another hard fork coming and it looks like Old Bitcoin is going to continue refusing to get back to the idea of being a usable cryptocurrency on the "common man's medium of exchange" front.

I thought about going with Monero (especially since I have a bit in a wallet that's just a little too small to move OUT of the wallet), but since I'm doing something that's "fire and forget" for a year, I decided to go with the second biggest cryptocurrency by market cap and hope that a year from now it will have returned more in actual market value than I put into it. Maybe by then the real players will have been winnowed down and there will be a real "common man's medium of exchange" winner that I can convert to and use to, you know, BUY STUFF.

Self Steem

I ain't got much. Steem for myself, that is. No, that's not an affiliate link. At least I don't think it is. If you join, you get some "Steem Power" to get you started -- see below -- but I don't think I get anything just for bringing you.

Steem is a cryptocurrency, supposedly with the third largest market cap of any cryptocurrency, behind Bitcoin and Ether, even though it's very new.

The gimmick is that this cryptocurrency is linked to a Reddit-style social network/blogging venue where people are rewarde in it for writing content (if the content becomes popular) and for curating content (deciding what's popular).

I'm a combination of interested, skeptical and confused. I've posted a few things over there, but they haven't been well-regarded enough to produce noticeable accrual of any of the three token types of the cryptocurrency ("Steem,"  "Steem Power,"  or "Steem Dollars").

Greatest idea ever? Valueless scam? Something in between? Discuss, please, especially if you know whereof you speak and/or are very good at communicating the details in basic English to those of us who don't get it (I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that said population encompasses more than just me).

Remember When I Said I'd Start Accepting Ethereum Real Soon Now?

It's finally Real Soon Now.

Ethereum Address: 0x8a530a15Eb7Ec721012F974C9Da2F7e4663D51C3

Ethereum QR:

Informational addendum, an hour or so later:

In order to get into Ether, I used two tools I learned about from the guys at Free Talk Live:

First, the Jaxx wallet. I had been using the Blockchain.info wallet, which is fine for Bitcoin, but Jaxx handles Bitcoin, Ether, and DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) tokens. So I moved my tiny, tiny Bitcoin balance over to Jaxx and then ...

... used Shapeshift to exchange the BTC for Ether.

Easy, peasy. Jaxx and Shapeshift are both really cool. My one, minor, complaint:

I keep hearing on FTL that Jaxx now features "Shapeshift integration," which I understand to mean that I can just exchange BTC/Ether/DAO directly from Jaxx. Damned if I can find that "integration" on either instance of my Jaxx  wallet (Android and ChromeOS), though. And since I installed both instances this morning, after many days of hearing about that "integration," I presumably have the latest versions. I think I'm reasonably intelligent, and I can usually find may way around an app, so if the "integration" is there it is probably not obvious to most users. Just sayin' ...

And another addendum, a few minutes after that:

To use Shapeshift directly from Jaxx, look for the little gray fox-thingie-looking icon next to the "spendable" amount of a cryptocurrency and press that icon. it opens up the Shapeshift interface. Cool. But I had to dig into a FAQ to find that out.

A Quick Cryptocurrency Update

Well, Mt. Gox appears to be gone. And of course the usual suspects are out in force,  screaming that Bitcoin is a scam and quacking about "the need for regulation" of cryptocurrencies.

Two initial thoughts on that last part:

• Cryptocurrencies as such -- at least of the Bitcoin variety -- can't be government-regulated, because there's no central authority involved which can be seized, sued or arrested. Specific entities using Bitcoin might be regulatable ... if they decide to allow themselves to be regulated.
  
• Mt. Gox in particular is an existence proof that attempts to regulate aren't going to be helpful. Mt. Gox was one of the first, if not the first, to "voluntarily" start requiring government-issued IDs for cash withdrawals and so forth, in an attempt to ingratiate itself with the US and other governments.

So:

Q: Who lost Bitcoins and/or cash in the Mt. Gox shutdown?

A: Anyone who had an account balance there. For example, me -- I had a few thousandths of a Bitcoin in my account at the time things went south.

Q: Who had to lose Bitcoins and/or cash in the Mt. Gox shutdown?

A: Nobody. While it may be convenient to leave your Bitcoins in an online wallet hosted by an exchange (like Mt. Gox) or an online store (like Silk Road), you don't have to do that (and the history of cryptocurrencies so far says it's a bad idea). You can transfer them to an offline wallet in your possession -- on your hard drive, a USB drive, whatever -- any time you like.

Word to the wise: Don't keep substantial cryptocurrency balances online. Only keep the balances you are actually working with online. When you have a significant stack, or when you don't expect to be using the stuff any time soon, move it to an offline wallet. Then if the exchange falls down and goes boom, it doesn't do so while holding your money.

The old "donate Bitcoin" button here at KN@PPSTER was linked to my Mt. Gox account. That button is gone. I've created two new cryptocurrency "tip jar" buttons (top of the right sidebar, just like the old one) linked to an account at BTC-e.

Now you can tip me in Bitcoin or Litecoin, courtesy of coinwidget. And I hope you will, even if it's just a tiny amount, so that I can test those buttons :)