Comments

Episode-2130- Cryptocurrency – Understanding the Current State of Affairs — 74 Comments

  1. Jack:

     

    Not sure if this means anything or not on your end but when I visit your site Google Chrome now says  Not secure in the browser bar next to your web address

    Shannon

    • Sigh the site is more secure then ever but due to how word press works the images are not encrypted.  So Crome sees some elements secure and others not, of course the images pose no security risk to anyone.

      This is because my admins are working on improving security on the site and have added a new layer of it.  That new layer created the conflict with images.  They are working on fixing that.

  2. Jack,

    I just started the episode on my way to work and have not finished it yet. Very much looking forward to it.

    I did want to comment on your reluctance to do an all crypto show. I very much understand because until the workshop, I was one of the listeners who would roll their eyes at all the crypto talk but I listened anyway. And thank goodness I did. I have a hard head. My mom always told me that.

    But I realized after finally getting on board and having the experience putting my first 20.00 into bitcoin how “revolutionary” this movement actually is. I had to actually experience it to “get it”.

    Back to your reluctance…Because this technology is revolutionary and can literally change the way we live, and buy things, and invest and will affect the way we live (in good times and in bad), it is your obligation to keep talking about this with my fellow hard headed listeners. Obviously you don’t want to turn them off and the show is awesome for its diversity. But this movement does fit with the topic.

    TSP is a revolutionary podcast for revolutionaries, visionaries, and folks that want to live a different kind of life than the one prescribed to us by our failing government. Cryptocurrencies and the the blockchain are tools just like a rifle or a garden that we can use (or not use) to exercise our freedom as we see fit. And that’s the point here, right?

     

     

  3. Im using crypto as a way to focus my 15yo Son on emerging technology (other than video games).  He has a Jaxx wallet and now when he does work for me at home, I pay him in crypto.  Much easier on me since I can send him correct amount in 20 seconds and he is motivated to finish the job quickly to catch any uptick in coin value!

    He now understands the difference between inflation and deflation and where Money’s value comes from. Won’t get that lesson at Govt. School.

    Our next project is mining with minergate. Very excited about participating in a TSP Pool!  Great idea!

     

  4. I’ve created an account multiple times on Coinbase over the last 6 months.  Every time I provide my personal info, get verified, and every time I am denied the ability to make buys or sells.  I give them every bit of info they request, I’ve also contacted them through customer support multiple times and only get a canned response but nothing changes.  I’ve not had any problem using the Gemini exchange.  It is easy to use too.  However, I would like to use Coinbase since they accept credit cards as a means for depositing funds.  BTW, I’m not a criminal, I don’t have a criminal record, and I’m a citizen of USA.  Also BTW, I’ve found that Bitcoin and Ether usually trades a little less on Gemini compared to Coinbase.

    • Do they deny you for a reason such as in what state you live?
      In my experience, you can do $400/wk in credit card purchases and $2500/wk. in bank drafts with basically no verification.

      • I’m in Louisiana.  Don’t know why that would be a problem.  Honestly I don’t NEED Coinbase but I’d like to have another EASY exchange to move USD into and out of.  Kracken is a possiblity but it’s not so user friendly unless I take the time to learn.  Right now I haven’t had any big issues with Gemini and you can direct deposit straight from most large banks, or wire transfer.

        • I use the Abra app. ACH transfers from your bank take 2 days. Though I haven’t used it to move fiat out, only in, but I suspect it’s a similar timeframe. Also, there is no fee. I believe Coinbase charges a fee, and it takes about 7 days for ACH transfers. You can buy direct with a card at Coinbase but the fee is 4 or 5%. I don’t fund Coinbase out of my bank anymore. I add to Abra(no fee), convert to Bitcoin or Etherium(no fee), then send to either Coinbase/GDAX or wherever else. Abra is the fastest, cheapest way I have found to get fiat into crypto.

           

          Link for Abra

           

          Join me in using Abra to send & receive money. Download the app and have a look! http://goabra.com/join

           

          This is not an affiliate link. Hope this helps.

        • So I’m going to revise what I said, sort of. I just transferred bitcoin I had in Abra to Coinbase, so I can move it to GDAX. Because of the cost of transaction fees right now-mine was $26- this is not currently as cost effective as it has been in the past. It is faster than depositing directly to Coinbase, but more costly.

           

          If you you want to simply go from fiat to bitcoin or etherium, it’s free and fast.

  5. Great show Jack.

    I have a newer resource for Crypto Currency Newbies who want a walk through (one bite at a time) from the basics to trading.  I highly recommend people check out the Bitcoin 90 Day Challenge series from Bitesized Bitcoin on youtube: https://youtu.be/ZW5YQW3Y5bY?t=49 (episode 1).  The team did a great job on the series and created a community to answer questions and allow for topic of interest based discussions (https://thebitcoin.pub).

     

    Smart Contracts (software developer’s perspective):

    Definition of Smart Contracts: A way of automating money programmatically.

    Example use cases: Eliminate third party for Escrow based services:

    * Realestate purchase escrow

    * Will or Trust Services

    * Trustless peer to peer commerce systems

    * multi-signature cryptocurrency wallets.

     

    Nerd Notes: There are many projects that support smart contracts.  Any blockchain based crypto currency can support off chain smart contract development (including Bitcoin).

    Ethereum was the first to support on-chain smart contracts, where the code (Solidity) executes and data referenced are all on-chain.  The difficulty of developing well for this system is high.

    There are currently many gotchya’s with the development and execution as well as a larger attack footprint.  This is why we have seen many projects compromised this last year.  However, necessity is producing better checks and balances, such as third party auditing and improvements to development tools / testing methods.

    I also run a local crypto-currency and blockchain group in my area and would be happy to take a stab at answering questions or providing resources if needed.

    • just fyi

       

      if Jack pays 10$ in bitcoin with bitcoin at 19k, that is

       
      0.00052632 bitcoin
       

      According to my BTC wallet, the optimal transaction fe is .0008 ($15) and change, and the minimal fee is .0007 ($14) and change.

       

      It will cost Jack more than $24 dollars to send you $10, and you will never be able to send this amount anywhere, unless you get more bitcoin.

       

      Food for thought. Pick ethereum or litecoin, or Dash.

  6. Jack, Great show! I am listening to it again…and taking notes this go around. First off, thanks for doing it all in one place. Great to ask on Facebook for questions before the show. Great marketing idea (I might do that for my podcast as well)!

    I got into coinbase before the show based on your previous recommendations. Authentication was a pain as the bank kept killing the transactions! Got that worked out and the exchange was flawless. Highly recommended even if you have to “fight” through the security. (Does give a sense of security)

    Opened a Jaxx wallet and am going through figuring that out.

    Great tip on the DASH School youtube videos.

    The TSP pool is a great idea. We need to start a sign up list just to gauge interest.

    Keep up the great work.

  7. Jack –

    You asked for someone to timestamp the show. Here it is:

    What is Crypto Currency / Crypto Intro: 14:18

    Disclaimer: 20:08

    1 – What the hell is Litecoin? – 21:50

    2 – Hints or tips to start accepting crypto for a small business / Is Swarm City an easy option? – 28:12

    3 – Is it possible for a newbie to create an anonymous wallet and how? – 31:36

    4 – How to do it anonymously / Why the IRS is going after Coinbase? – 36:31

    5 – How do we safeguard against another Mt. Gox type theft? – 41:24

    6 – Other than being a pure currency, how is crypto being used? Smart Contrancts/Use Case? – 43:51

    7 – How can I move away from coinbase as a means of exchanging crypto to fiat and back? – 52:09

    8 – Can bitcoin get past it’s high fees and long transaction times? – 55:49

    9 – Do planned bitcoin forks reduce bitcoins future potential value more than the bitcoin cash fork did or is this a good thing? – 1:03:07

    10 – With the new threshold for IRS reporting, will a deposit and a crypto purchase be counted double? – 1:09:25

    11 – With the skyrocketing price of bitcoin and others, what is the correct play for those of us that have procrastinated in entering crypto? – 1:16:32

    12 – Other than Bitcoin what are the 3 big crypto currencies and why? – 1:23:20

    13 – Could you analyze crypto like a stock? How would you do so? – 1:35:50

    14 – Can you tell us about Aeon and more on why you like and reccommend it? – 1:39:44

    15 – Power consumption of bitcoin mining? – 1:53:28

    16 – Why do you see different prices across different outlets/exchanges? – 1:54:25

    17 – Is it too late to get into mining lesser know coins? Is this price jump a bubble that will pop or a sustained price that allows opportunities of lesser known coins? – 1:58:34

    18 – What are some introductory practical crypto resources to point interested family members to? – 2:06:13

    19 – How many different currencies to hold in order to diversify? – 2:08:39

    20 – What is the best place for news in regard to crypto currencies – 2:10:43

    21 – Explain crypto cash – 2:18:15

  8. G’day,I’m guessing you got a bunch of these via email, but I thought I’d post this in the comments section as well…What is Lite Coin? 21:52Hints & Tips for setting up crypto for small businesses 28:13Is it possible for a newbie to make an anonymous wallet and how? 31:37Tether Hacked?  34:54Where  & how can I learn about a wallet?  36:22How do we do it anonymously? 36:32“THEY’RE AFTER COIN BASE CUSTOMERS!” *sigh* 37:20How do we safeguard against a Mt. Gox type theft? 41:23Besides being a currency, how else is crypto being used? 43:51What alternatives are there to Bit Coin for exchanging between fiat & crypto currencies?  52:09Can BitCoin get past its high fees and long transaction times? 55:49Do planned BitCoin forks reduce its future potential value more that the BitCoin Cash, or is this a good thing? J:03:06Will the new threshhold for reporting IRS going forward after Coin Base $20k ruling 2013/15, would a deposit and a crypto purchase can be counted double? 1:09:24With the sky rocketing price of BitCoin and others, what is the correct play for those of us that procrastinate entering into Crypto? 1:16:35What are 3 big Crypto currencies besides BitCoin and why? 1:23:21Could you analyse it like a stock, how do you do so? 1:35:51Aeon and more on why you like it? 1:39:46Aeon Mining Pool Offer 1:49:20Is it too late to get into the question of power consumption of BitCoin? 1:53:29Want to know why you see different prices on different outlets? 1:54:28Is it too late to get onto mining lesser known coins? 1:58:35Do you think the current price jump is a bubble? 1:59:37What are some introductory practical resources for interested family members? 2:06:12How many different currencies to hold to diversify? 2:08:41Explain crypto cash? 2:18:16Thank you for a great show 🙂

  9. Keep the crypto shows and topics coming, Jack.  Like many, I heard about bitcoin years ago, but just couldn’t wrap my head around it.  I’m still learning, but after listening to you talk about it several times, and doing a lot of research on my own, I felt comfortable enough to buy my first bit in January of this year.  Glad I did.  

    One question about Jaxx:   I sent $10 worth of bitcoin to my Jaxx wallet today (first time trying it).   That was 8 hours ago and it’s still pending.  Is that normal?  Also, on coinbase it shows that my fee to move $10 in bitcoin was 0.00085751 BTC, which came out to $14.34.  I’m still trying to figure out what I did wrong there. Any help would be appreciated.

    • I had the exact same issue and it turned out it had to do with the version of windows i was using on that computer. I linked the wallet with my jaxx cell wallet and it showed just fine. Hope that helps. 

      • Thanks, JMAC.  Here is what I did:  I used the coinbase app and jaxx wallet app on my phone to make the transaction. I opened the Jaxx wallet and copied my BTC address. Then I opened the coinbase app, clicked on the paper airplane icon to send, typed in $10, pasted my BTC address that I got from the Jaxx wallet and hit send.

        So, at 9:30PM last night the transaction finally went through (over 9 hrs).  My $10 in bitcoin is now in my Jaxx wallet. But dog gone, a $14 network fee to send $10 in BTC! I wish it would have told me on the coinbase app what the fee was going to be before sending.  I’m guessing that fee was so high due to a high volume of network activity.

        • BTC especially off of Coinbase is really slow right now and the fees there are damn high.

           

          Best to buy litecoin for playing with fast as hell, almost no fees.  You can always shapeshift it to BTC in jaxx for far less then sending it from Coinbase.

    • One thing about transferring coins, is that depending on the service you may need to wait for a certain number of “confirmations” before the transaction goes through.  Basically that is when people verify where the coins are and where they are going.  Some people have waited hours for this so don’t be alarmed if it takes longer than you expected.  You can track the progress of a transaction at https://blockchain.info/

       

      Also, if you send anything out of Coinbase, it’s best to send it to GDAX (free) then transfer from there.

  10. You mentioned you switched to CLI miner for AEON.  It doesn’t appear the minergate cli miner supports AEON.  What cli miner are did you switch to that gave you the increase in H/s vs the minergate gui?

    Thanks!

    • No I said I tried, it worked with monero and I did get better hashes, but it didn’t work for Aeon as you said.  Don’t worry the CryptoSwarm is coming soon.

  11. Darnit!!
    I’ve sent money to Jaxx wallet – initially it was in there, however, the next time I opened it is showing nothing.
    I’ve disabled the firewall, reset the cache, looked for it on the blockchain… I can’t find it!!!
    All it does now is sit on the initialising … …. …. without coming to a decision.
    I would so appreciate some help right now!
    Erin 🙂

     

  12. Oh, I found it on the blockchain this time, just not in Jaxx, and all of a sudden $2.82 has turned up in a different wallet address, when I just installed Jaxx on my phone – same date as my first transaction.

     

  13. Multi part question – Hardware wallet vs jaxx wallet vs exchanges

    Ive been moving my crypto around a lot and the ShapeShift fees(in jaxx wallet) are getting out of hand (2-4% on normal setting) just moving from eth to btc for example.  As my $$$ in crypto goes up, I want it more secure in my hardware wallet but Jaxx is so damn simple.  Paying $20-$30 to move from one coin to another, and then more to go from software wallet to hardware seems to be a bit crazy.  Once in my hardware wallet I know I can shapeshift directly but I’ve heard of crazy fees and issues from hardware wallet side too.  Just curious to hear more about your crypto ‘workflow’.  I.e.  small portion for trading in Jaxx with most on hardware wallet?  Are you directly using GDAX or other exchanges as I’ve heard that minimizes the fees, but storing on exchanges is a bit more risky.  How do you balance risk / fees and can you give us a ‘day in the life’ of crypto trading workflow that works for you.

    thanks for all you do

  14. For mining aeon and monero I have found xmr-stak (https://github.com/fireice-uk/xmr-stak)to be the best Download is here https://github.com/fireice-uk/xmr-stak/releases. Its an all in one miner as it will mine with CPU or GPU and do aeon (CryptoNight-Lite) or monero (CryptoNight). It also will analyze the CPU’s and GPU’s on your system and create a settings file on first launch. The files are CPU.txt and GPU.txt for the GPU and CPU settings. then there is a general configuration file named config.txt. This is also created on first launch based on questions you are prompted to answer.

    If you are mining aeon you need to set up a wallet first so you can input your wallet address in xmr-stak. I have only run the miner on Linux but if anyone is interested I could do instructions on running it on Windows as well as setting up an aeon wallet. The aeon wallet is command line only and requires the daemon/ a full node meaning a copy of the aeon blockchain is stored on your computer. As of 12/8 the blockchain file was 4.7 GB. I have also found if riunning an aeon wallet version 0.9.13.0 is better than 0.9.14.0.

    I misspoke about having to run a blockchain node. You can use a public node with your aeon wallet

  15.   Hey Jack. Great show today. I listen to it to her three times and we referred it to a number of friends. I was wondering if you have any information on mining Zcash.  Just last night I set my PC to mine zcash. I had slow speed’s due to only CPU usage. I’m having trouble getting my graphics card To do the mining for me.Could you refer a link to what site you’re using and what pool are you using? I appreciate everything you do and keep up the great work.

    • All my zcash mining is doing by Ben at CryptoGulch. I am a novice miner at best, I am using the Minergate GUI to do most mining. They do have zcash as an option for machines with GPUs. You can just click the banner on this site that says minergate. If you are on a phone some of the banners may be pushed down the screen so scroll down to find it.

  16. Hey Jack, I know you are a fan of minergate, but just wanted to bring something to your attention. I found this when I was looking at a list of monero pools. http://moneropools.com/ , about half way down the list of pools is minergate and it mentions possible share skimming.

    Not sure if the claims that minergate is skimming shares is unfounded or not, but thought you might want to find out more. By the way loved the show.

     

     

    • Less a fan and more I tolerate them for ease of use. There is no doubt you get lower hash rates from their GUI but I am not sure if they are stealing it or it is just what happens when you make software like that. I say this because I downloaded their command line miner, and when I used it for Monero my hashes were like 25% higher. Consider that its the same miner in reality, same pool, etc. So I think it is just an inefficiency in the GUI because I am sure they would steal it always not just via the GUI. Problem is you can’t mine Aeon with their command line miner, I have no idea why but when you try it crashes. Works great for monero though.

      Anyway Ben and I are working on something cool for people that want to mine at home. The Crypto Swarm is coming.

  17. Jack, Vin Armani uses Coinpayments to accept crypto on his site.

     

    After your fall workshop, I also implemented it on my HollerRoast site. It was fairly easy to link to my woocommerce shopping cart and now I can easily accept crytp to crypto transactions.

    The only downside is that your purchaser pays the transaction fee. There may be a setting somewhere to change this – I have not looked.

    Finally, if you overpay for your purchase through the coinpayments system, it automagically emails you a link to claim your overpayment pack which I think is awesome.

    We are, or course, happy to help people deploy coinpayments on their wordpress sites 😀

    Good show,

    Nicole Sauce

  18. Hey Jack! I loved the show. I really love to hear your thoughts on these things to make sure that I don’t do something stupid! 😉

    I have been investing in cryptocurrency now for over a year and been active on steemit.com for a few months (btw, you should post your shows over there! It’s awesome once you find a few interesting people to follow! anyway…) I just wanted to share a couple thoughts I had.

    Bitcoin fees. You probably know this but in case anyone doesn’t understand I think it’s important to realize that your bitcoin fee is a flat fee not a percentage. Whether you are sending 1 BTC or .0001 BTC the fee will be the same. This is a problem for a few of my wallets because if I wanted to move the bitcoin the fee would be a large percentage of balance. Also, the lower your fee, the longer it will take for your transaction to go through. The miners take the transactions with the highest fees first and with bitcoin having almost 2 days worth of backlogged transactions, your transaction might never go through if you don’t have a high enough fee.

    If I want to send someone anything less than $100 it really isn’t worth paying the fee. This is a problem.

    Segwit. I was really excited about segwit until I realized what it did to bitcoin. I won’t go into the details but basically it makes it ok for transactions not to be verified. This allows the minors to verify them a different way. This allows for almost double the transaction capacity but also opens up many vulnerabilities, for example, we now have to trust the minors to not cheat. I tried to simplify it but if you want more info check out this post. https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@modprobe/i-looked-into-segwit-and-here-s-what-i-saw

    Bitcoin Cash (BCH). This is basically the same as the above point. BCH isn’t simply a knock off of bitcoin, it is people realizing how bad Segwit is and saying we don’t want bitcoin to die that way. It also has proven that we don’t need segwit to scale. I don’t know if it will be able to compete with dash or any other altcoin, but it will definitely give BTC a run for it’s money. The reason they didn’t just make a new coin is:

    1. The brand of Bitcoin is important and BCH is closer to how bitcoin was intended to run anyway.

    2. The infrastructure for BTC is already widely available and it is extremely easy to switch to BCH (which many people have already done). This gives them an advantage over other altcoins.

    Anyway, sorry for the long post. Just thought I’d throw in my 2 cents from the research I’ve been doing.

    Thanks again! I’m a new member of the MSB and really enjoying it. I also just bought my first $100 of silver with bitcoin from JM bullion! (unfortunately the discount is only for $500 or more)

    Keep up the good work!

  19. Where do we sign up to start mining aeon in the pool, you mentioned this at about 1:50 and then stopped talking abt it at abt 1:58

  20. I’m in for the TSP AEON mining swarm!  I am mining ZENCash now but happy to switch.

    Great show.  No such thing as too much crypto show content.  or permaculture for that matter.  crypto represents the best chance for freedom in our lifetime.

    Thanks Jack!

     

    • Its going to be a while, it won’t just be Aeon, Ben and I are working on something really cool.  The concept will be a private club sort of thing, with very simple tutorials of setting up various miners.  We turn the entire swarm on what ever is best for a given time and move on.

      We pick out the best to mine at the time with CPU and GPU both.  Aeon just happens to be great to mine on CPU right now, best I have found anyway.

  21. I have been trying to buy bitcoin for the last week on Coinbase and it is not working.  Says there is too much volume and I can not upload my driver’s ID, and that I should check back in a few hours.  It has not changed.  Others experiencing this? Not sure what is wrong.

    I went to Gemini and it needed my photo ID, SS #, etc. to get signed up. Is this normal? Is Gemini as secure and solid as Coinbase to put money through?  Thanks!

  22. Hi, what are your thoughts on taxes?  I hear you must pay tax on crypto to crypto trades… that’s an accounting nitemare.  are people going to actually do it?

    • I think mostly no they won’t do it, and it will be difficult to enforce until they come up with a more clear and reasonable way to do this. It will be very easy for them to force companies like coinbase into reporting but how do you do this to shapeshift where they don’t even know who you are and you are shifting two totally private currencies.

  23. As of today, Bitcoin Cash is now on Coinbase. It was trading for less than $1,500 per BCH less than a week ago. As I type, it topped out at nearly $8,500 on CB. A $6,300 jump today alone.  It’s kind of interesting when you look at the hourly timeline.  At 7:20 PM the price was $3,100.  At 7:21 PM it jumped to $5,200. Two minutes later it hit $8,499, and that’s where it stopped because Coinbase has temporary disabled sales and purchases of BCH.

    • There was something way fucked up in coin base on the bitcoin cash price, it is fixed now, I almost sold the little bit I had in there but I don’t think the order would have went though anyway.

      Bitcoin cash traded on the market for about 3K the entire time Coinbase had it listed at over 8K.

      Translation is it was not real, but the question is did Coinbase take it in the pants during this mistake or not?

      Frankly I almost sent all by Bitcoin cash to Coinbase to sell it, then wait for it to be fixed and buy it back but I didn’t do it. My guess is it would not have actually traded.

      • Ah ok, that makes sense. I tried to sell some at $8k but CB wasn’t allowing sales. I wonder too if some people sold at that price before they caught the error.

  24. Hi,

    First time posting.

    Maybe I’m missing something somewhere or simply didn’t hear or read this question answered specifically, but how can someone trade from one crypto to another without trading out to US Dollars (and therefore being responsible for capital gains)? I noted on Coinbase references to GDAX, but don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned anywhere. Anyhow, apologies if this is obvious or has been answered but would appreciate if someone could fill me in on that.

    Thank you!

    • Well first the new tax bill says you can’t say swap from litecoin to bitcoin and call it like for like any longer so even that would create a capital gain or loss that you are supposed to pay on. Until this new bill came out that was highly subject to interpretation.

      Now on the other part of the question of how to go from crypto to crypto, many exchanges only do that and don’t touch fiat, which keeps them out of the “money handler” business and subject to almost no regs. In Bittrix they will let you trade in Bitcoin, Ether or Some US Dollar pegged Crypto’s like Tether. So if you have litecoin and wanted to say sell some and buy zcash, you can’t just do that, you can sell it for Bitcoin, Ether or Tether and then use that to buy Zcash.

      Again dot gov says you must pay taxes on that but it is all but impossible to track it for now. I guess they could do the same thing they did with Coinbase with US based exchanges like Bittrix at some point and seek customer records.

      But there are also other ways, take the Jaxx wallet with Shapeshift on board. You can go strait from say Litecoin to Zcash with very low fees and Jaxx nor Shapeshift could tell Dot gov about it even if they wanted to, you can install Jaxx with nothing but an email address on any phone, PC, etc. Your limits there are the cryptos Jaxx chooses to support.

      But I am just learning about this https://wavesplatform.com/ it seems like an almost unlimited decentralized exchange with a roll your own wallet. Meaning once you get your crypto into private curriencies like zcash, monero, aeon, zencash, etc, it is pretty much game over for anyone knowing what you do with it.

      The challenge is and always has been getting into crypto from fiat, it is why in the future I think miners are going to own the world, at least for a time.

    • Hey Modern Survival, thank you for the response and info. Will do a bit more research based on your response, but seems the takeaway is that to trade crypto to crypto (at least as far as the primary currencies), you need an exchange. I thought that’s what Coinbase was, but perhaps not since they offer GDAX, so I guess that was where the confusion started.

      You’ve specifically mentioned Bittrix so I’ll start looking into that. Is that the exchange you and people here on TSP are recommending? Any others worth looking into it?

      In any case, I’ve watched the first 4 episodes of Dash School and am listening to and re-listening to the various Podcasts Jack’s done on the subject. Despite being fairly technically oriented (Have been scripting in PHP for many years and tons of experience in Web Dev), I have to admit, I’m still struggling a bit to wrap my head around this. But then again, as Jack’s mentioned quite a few times, my brain also sometimes struggles processing (accepting?) the how our monetary system and the economy works.

      Thanks for the information, appreciate it!

    • Gdax is an exchange owned by Coinbase.  If you have a Coinbase account, then you have a Gdax account.  BTW, Coinbase charges very high fees for crypto purchases from USD and to send crypto.   It’s cheaper to wire the money directly from your bank account into Gdax (if you’re doing a fairly large transaction like, say $5000).  If your crypto is in Coinbase and you want to send it anywhere, the fees are high.  You’re better off transferring the crypt from Coinbase to Gdax, and then wherever you want.

      And under the new law every exchange of coin is considered a taxable event.  which is simply insane.

       

  25. Is there any worry to having MinerGate running on our main household  computer?

    I have MinerGate running on a few old desktops and laptops that were outdated and laying around.  They’re performing okay with very modest hashrates which is ok since I’m approaching this as a hobbyist.  I have been reluctant to use the main iMac we have in the house for fear of bogging it down or opening it up to security vulnerabilities.  It is very tempting though since my wife leaves it on all the time in sleep mode so she can just hop on it.  Any basis for my worries or can I safely add it to my mining bank?

     

  26. Where Can I learn to set up the command line mining? I am running Minergate GUI now. I believe I am tech savvy enough to set up command line if I was told how.

  27. Damn you, Jack.

    Because of this episode I finally got on the crypto train (I’ve mined with Minergate before but that’s it).  I’m setup with Coinbase and promptly moved everything to GDAX to avoid the high fees.

    There is so much to learn but thanks for answering all these questions in one episode.

  28. Can you include in your follow up episode how to deal with the new law for 2018 that we are to be taxed every time we use one currency to buy another. I think this might slow down the trading but also legitimize crypto currency. I am not making any trades until I understand this.

    • I’d say buy Waves, because people are just going to move trading to totally private platforms.

  29. I just looked back at the date of the Dash interview with Amanda B Johnson.  The day of the interview you could have purchased a masternode (1000 dash) for $186,000.  Today that masternode has a cost of a million dollars+.  And it provides approximately 200 dash in income per year.  That’s about $200,000 per year.  Simply amazing.

    Oh…and if you had bought your Dash masternode in early January, you could have gotten it for less than $12,000!!!

  30. I have researched Crypto pretty obsessively since listening to this show.  Incredible and eye opening.  I also invested a little to learn the process through Coinbase and via a Jaxx wallet.   I am concerned that for those investing and “shapeshifting” “legal” money, the IRS will soon create enforcement divisions to hunt down suspected tax evaders.

    Federal prosecutors may consider many crypto traders to be engaged in structuring and even money laundering in the case of individuals running marijuana money through the crypto system.

    The unregulated crypto system seems to be a potential haven for criminality, tax evasion, and other means of moving funds contrary to state and federal law.

    See this article on the tax implications of crypto trading on a crypto-friendly website: https://coinivore.com/2017/12/28/u-s-tax-cryptocurrency-traders-exchanges-countries-prepare-regulations/

    Despite my skepticism, I can see the genius of the blockchain computer science revolution.   The new tool just seems to be used in a way that is blatantly illegal by many.

     

     

     

     

    • No what they are going to have to do it completely legitimatize the space and convince people to use platforms that will allow them to have reporting and conventional taxation.  (think Etrade).

      To make this work at some point they are going to have to say, basically, we don’t care about the past, only the present and future, it is the only way to cause the money they want to tax to surface.

      Make any task force you want, you are not going to track down people doing business and trading in private coins and the entire industry is moving that way, platforms are being built to make non private into private.

      Waves for instance allows you to build your own personal exchange in an app inside chrome.  That is just one example.  These guys are fucking around with 20K transactions in 2014 in two currencies right now, that is the best then can do with one centralized exchange.

      The technology is too complex, let me be clear you can target an individual and find out enough to get them if they are doing trading, etc.  But finding 10s of thousands, or hundreds of thousands doing it with 99 different technologies with a blend of public and private block chains, not doable.  At some point, the lure of getting the easy money will out weigh the hope of getting the hard.

      If they go with a legitimization policy there are millions that will gladly pay tax, just like the millions that gladly pay tax on cash right now.  The IRS doesn’t have a cash business task force, it isn’t worth the effort, too many pay tax on cash receipts already and they simply go after what they find in audits, etc.

      Think about this, one reason so many businesses pay tax on cash business is they need to show cash flow to have a line of credit, justify the price of a business when they sell it, keep enough cash flow to make pay roll, etc.

      This all occurs because cash is legitimate, government accepts it for what it is. Do the same with crypto and tax dollars will roll into the State. In the end they know this.

  31. Can anyone recommend, or at least explain, where/how to get into XRP (since it’s not on Coinbase)?  Currently, I have positions in BTC, LTC, ETH, and BTG (used Coinbase and Trezor hardware wallet) and would like to speculate short term in some Ripple, ideally trading all or half-hour the BTG position for Ripple.  Thanks for any help.

    • Tons of exchanges offer it, I use Bittrex. https://bittrex.com/ you can open an account there and send yourself some bitcoin or ether and use it to buy XRP or any of hundreds of alts.

  32. Thanks! It’s nice to have some affirmation on some decent ones and/or where I can actually open up an account within a reasonable time frame. Bittrex is not accepting new customers right now due to volume and I’ve been waiting over 3 weeks for bitstamp to verify my documents for my account setup.  Meanwhile Ripple has tripled.  Guess I’ll try Kraken.  Thanks again, I’m very new to the podcast but I’m really enjoying it!

    • Yea that sucks, how about this, does changely support it? If so you could buy say litecoin in coinbase and use changely to shift it. Not sure if they support it. One issue is a dedicated xrp wallet locks down 20 xrp, so that may be why wallet vendors tend not to support it, though the scuttlebut is jaxx is going to add it, as will coinbase. Driving the price right now is the rumor (can’t stress rumor enough, and I think it is fake) that Amazon will take it as payments. I am holding a lot of xrp I bought under 35 cents.

      Check out waves, I have not yet but it runs inside chrome, you are basically supposed to be able to set up your own private exchange with it. It is ends up being a solution, let me know.

  33. Hey, Jack! This episode was awesome. I listened to it twice and learned a ton from it. Thanks for putting it out there.

    I’ve been trying to get my hands on a Bitmain Antminer S9 since early December, but can’t find a reputable reseller (assuming one exists). Ebay prices have come down a bit, but they’re still steeper than I’m comfortable with. Do you have any thoughts on a trusted reseller?

  34. One question that I am really looking to get answered:  What is the best location that people have found for step by step instructions on things like how to get your Bitcoin Gold or Cash in a wallet now that the forks are done?  Also, how to move any currency between those different platforms?

    Thanks for all the good coverage of the Crypto world.

     

  35. I have a trezor hardware wallet and they provided instructions how to get the BTG on their website where you view the contents of the trezor.  The BTG is now on my treasure Hardware wallet and I would just need to find an exchange that deals in BTG and transfer it to the exchange to shapeshift or sell.  Not sure if that would help you out or not.

  36. Many of you wonder how to get into crypto. I always tell people to buy a little every paycheck. Just enough not to hurt you and you won’t worry that you lost money. I have never regretted buying crypto. I have never regretter buying with crypto. I have never regretted giving crypto to friends. I only regretted selling my crypto for fiat. Treat crypto as money or a utility and crypto will treat you right. Just dip your toes in and you wont be disappointed.

    For trading crypto I would use https://wallet.crypto-bridge.org It is a decentralized exchange for cryptocurrency, not fiat.

    I use purse.io to make most of my purchases but now that I’m in Acapulco the anarchist community mainly trades in Bitcoin Cash and it is pretty easy to use here.(It functions better than Bitcoin is why they use it here.)

    My new favorite cryptocurrency is SmartCash. I aware of the recent problems and it is being fixed. SmartCash has been supporting anarchist events around the world. They have been working hard to banking the unbanked. Big things are going to happen for this currency.

    I hope my comments are helpful to you all.

  37. Living in Wyoming they have stopped coinbase from letting us buy cypto. Is there a different service that will let the people from the states blocking it that one could use to buy cypto then get transferred to your wallet?