My 2018 Crypto Plans

Note: This post is NOT intended as investment advice. I do NOT have any kind of inside line to where cryptocurrencies are going to go this year. I just have opinions, which you are free to accept or reject, and other than a referral link to a crypto mining outfit where you can choose from a number of currencies, and my intention to re-post this to Steemit and possibly collect some rewards, I don't expect to directly financially benefit from this post - KN@PPSTER

A brief recap of KN@PPSTER's 2017 crypto experience with future intentions:

- I gave up on BTC, aka Bitcoin Core, aka Wrecked Bitcoin after real Bitcoin became Bitcoin Cash and Wrecked Bitcoin became, well, wrecked (last time I heard the average transaction fee came to something like $15 US, with long wait times; "bubble" doesn't even begin to describe this train wreck).

- I invested what little Bitcoin I had in Ethereum mining at HashFlare (yes, that is an affiliate link -- you can buy mining power for several cryptocurrencies there, and if you do so via my link I get a taste). I've continued to throw $5 and $10 into that on a sort of "mad money" basis. That is, whenever I catch myself thinking about buying something for $5 or $10, and judge that I can afford it, I ask myself whether I'd rather have that thing, or some more hashing power. When the answer is the latter, I go for it. I'm into the low three digits invested now, and unless Ethereum collapses in some catastrophic manner, I expect to turn a profit.

- I've had 0.19 Monero trapped in my Monero wallet for some time, with it telling me I needed 0.3 to send it anywhere. This morning, I tried, and it supposedly sent me Ethereum in an exchange ... but the transaction hasn't hit my wallet yet hit my Ethereum wallet. Since the amount involved is about $70 US, I'm going to be pissed if it just disappears. Although Monero seems to remain the golden crypto for people who want privacy (here's Bloomberg getting the vapors about it), I've decided to stop messing with it.

- I have to say that I am bullish on Steem. When the Steemit site rolled out, I was skeptical of its "by your bootstraps, your writing earns you crypto" model, messed with it a bit, then forgot about it for several months. I went back a few months ago, and without a whole lot of work on my part -- mostly reposting stuff from elsewhere -- the value of my account has grown to more than $100 US. Is it real value? This morning I tested the proposition by selling 2 Steem for Ethereum, and yes, the Ethereum DID hit my wallet ($11.40 US worth). Color me convinced. I'm even mulling the idea of moving this blog off of Blogspot and onto my Steemit presence.

So: At the moment, my three-digit crypto holdings are in Ethereum and Steem, with a few bucks in Bitcoin Cash and a tiny Dash mining contract.

I find Bitcoin Cash and Dash interesting, but my prediction is that Ethereum will replace Bitcoin and its variants as the dominant crypto in 2018. It's not geared so much as a medium of exchange as it is a foundation for investments in enterprises ("Initial Coin Offerings" and pre-buying of goods with digital tokens. I suspect that this year we will see some major enterprises (even Amazon, maybe?) do token sales that allow customers to take a discount on future purchases and the enterprise to take a prospective profit on the rise in Ethereum value. For example, you buy tokens that, in commerce with the seller, are as good as cash of $1 each, but you only pay 90 cents each (in current Ethereum) for them. So when you go back to buy stuff from the merchant, you're getting 10% off. But if Ethereum goes up, the merchant profits on that end.

As for Steem, it's been around for a year-and-a-half or so and it's still trucking along. I know that there are people profiting handsomely from their writing on Steemit. Having just taken my first payout into something other than Steem itself, I think I might be able to as well. What do you think? Should I just move KN@PPSTER to Steemit entirely? Let me know in comments.

Side Note: I've changed my crypto contribution options in the sidebar to reflect my 2018 priorities. If you're want to support my work with some other kind of crypto, I suggest either using ShapeShift to send me Ethereum, or hitting the contact form to ask for an address on the crypto you have in mind.

Don't Move Along, Our F**kups Are Your Problem

Some headlines:

A US customs computer snafu caused major airport delays
US Customs computers outage causes delays for airport travelers
Computer outage leaves international travelers stranded at US airports on New Year's Day

Of course, it wasn't the computer outage that caused the delays. What caused the delays was the decision by customs/immigration bureaucrats to hold everyone up while they enforced bad laws manually instead of saying "OK, computer's down -- to keep things moving, we'll just enforce the full set of bad laws against, say, every sixth or seventh traveler. The rest will just get cursory passport looks and holiday best wishes and be sent on their way."

Some of the stories describe the delays as "service disruptions." They weren't.

"Service" is "[t]he act of serving; the occupation of a servant; the performance of labor for the benefit of another, or at another's command; attendance of an inferior, hired helper, slave, etc., on a superior, employer, master, or the like; also, spiritual obedience and love."

The airport customs bureaucrats' "performance" of labor is not "for the benefit" of travelers. It is security theater and make-work for the purpose of displaying and justifying the authoritah of the state. Those "services" weren't disrupted at all. All that was disrupted was the travel of mere mundanes, who pay not only through the nose for said "services" but are also expected to genuflect and pretend that they're receiving something of value.

Happy New Year!

Yes, I've been mostly gone for the last week. Early on in what most people seem to think of as the "Christmas break" period, I decided to, well, take a break.

Other than short editions of Rational Review News Digest, I relaxed, which frankly I don't do very often. My "time off" this last year has been for political activities, or for travel (mostly related to my father's final illness and death).

I watched movies.

I played online poker (yesterday I played in four tournaments at the Steem Poker League (not an affiliate link) --  took first place in an Omaha tournament and placed in two Texas Hold'em tournaements and crapped out quickly in the third).

I noodled with my musical instruments -- got a shiny new (to me) guitar amplifier for Christmas and enrolled in two Udemy courses (not an affiliate link), one on rockabilly guitar (started that one) and one on harmonica (haven't started yet).

I spent one evening visiting with one of Albert Hofmann's gifts to the world for the first time in a decade.

That kind of thing. It was a nice end to the year, and I expect to re-attack all my usual projects, including this blog and a re-vamped podcast, in 2018.

I hope that 2017 was good to you, and that 2018 is even better. Happy New Year!