Getting Started with Bitcoin: Part 1

Bitcoin

Being a techie guy I figured it was about time I looked into this whole Bitcoin thing. The concept of crypto currency can be tough to initially get your head around and I still do not completely understand it. Here is the overview as I know it.

  1. There is no central source to keep track of who has how much Bitcoin. Instead the whole system is run peer-to-peer.
  2. Bitcoins can be moved around cheaply and maintain a very high level of anonymity since no personal information is required.
  3. Bitcoins are mined by computers and as time goes on, mining get harder and harder and more processing is needed to mine less Bitcoin.
  4. There is only a finite amount of bitcoin that will ever be mined.
  5. You can keep your bitcoin in your wallet with a program on your PC or with a company like Coinbase that holds your bitcoin for you sort of like a bank.

You can think of Bitcoin just as another form of currency like a Canadian Dollar or Japanese Yen. Just like government backed money, Bitcoin is worth whatever people will give you for it, although Bitcoin is still highly volatile. Converting to US currency, right now one bitcoin is worth about $350. A few years ago you could get them for pennies. There are two ways I know of to obtain bitcoin for yourself. You can mine them using a specialized bitcoin miner that might take a year to break even at or you can just buy them through an exchange. I bought mine.

I registered an account with Coinbase and linked my bank account and credit card. The process took a few days to verify and then I made my first purchase. I bought $15 of bitcoin with my bank account and they charged me a $0.15 (1%) fee to do this. The conversion rate from USD to Bitcoin changes constantly, 24-7. The market never closes like Wall Street investments.

Did I say investments? I guess I did and didn’t even mean too. Honestly that is how a lot of people, including me, view this form of money. Like everyone else, I have seen the news about the early bitcoin adopters making millions of dollars by selling their bitcoins near the peak price of $1,240 back in 2013. Since then the price has fallen greatly but not back to a price many would ever call cheap. I will touch on this more in a later post. Let’s get back to the process of using Bitcoin.

Coinbase WalletSo now I have about $15 worth of bitcoin and that came out to 0.04010804 BTC (Bitcoin). To me, this is just a number on a screen. What can I actually do with this newly acquired magic Internet money? You can sell it back for US dollars or you can send it as Bitcoin to another person or company. Let’s talk about how to transfer bitcoin out of Coinbase and over to another external entity. As I said, Coinbase acts like a bank, holding on to your bitcoin for you. They insure it (privately, not through FDIC), keep it safe from hackers, and let you move it around as you wish.

If you don’t want your bitcoin in a bank and would rather control it more directly you can setup your own bitcoin wallet on you computer. There are several options for holding your own bitcoin but I went with Bitcoin Core. It is what is known as a full node. The client must fully synchronize the complete history of Bitcoin transactions worldwide before you have access to quickly send and receive bitcoin. For me, the client took about a day to sync up.

Oh, Canada

A year ago I had never been outside of the country and now I have used my passport twice. I just got back from Toronto, ON Canada. It is so close to the US so the culture is really just like the US except for little subtle differences. The easiest to point out are the different laws in Canada. They don’t have a pointless, outdated embargo with Cuba so cigars and rum from there are available just like anything else. You do have to buy spirits from an LCBO since that is regulated by the government. Their candy variety is different with items like Coffee Crisp, Wunderbar, and Aero.

Canada’s paper money looks way cooler than ours. It is multi-colored, plasticy, partially transparent, and sprinkled with holograms. They also no longer use pennies and all of their $1 and $2 money is in coin form. On our trip the exchange rate was about $1.29 CAN to $1 USD so things looked more expensive than they actually were. Toronto was not a cheap town for sure but it was not terrible at all. As a backward American, my credit card required a signature instead of a pin so they could always tell I was not from there.

Wanting to take every advantage I could while outside the US, Katie and I went to a market across from our AirBnB and I bought some unpasteurized milk to try. It tasted the same, if maybe just a little on the sour side but not enough to affect the taste much.

Toronto did not feel like it has much of its own identity but rather gets its charm by virtue of it having so many cultural neighborhoods within it. We went to one of their Chinatowns (yes, they apparently have like three of them) where there were also some great Mexican places serving things like fresh made churros, chicken avocado salad, and lots of other things I don’t see at the typical tex-mex joints around here.

In an attempt to salvage a modicum of credibility, we decided to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Is is a good size to see in an afternoon and still feel like you covered most of it. In a short time you can see classic art, contemporary art, sculpture, and even boat models on the lower level. There was a bride and photographer roaming around for a wedding that I can only imagine was astronomically expensive and being held after closing time. The gallery had a section on nuclear bombs and tragedies. The green chandler in the photo above is glowing under black-light from actual depleted uranium. Neat!

Overall, we had a great time and the trip was well worth the time. The people were nice, the city was clean, and it was not too busy that you can’t get around. I am sure I will be back at some point, but I can think of a dozen places I have never been that would be worth a go around before I return to Toronto. I can’t wait to see where I go next!

Wizard World Chicago

My first Comic Con! I had to work in Chicago last weekend and my girlfriend was able to tag along with me! The whole weekend was wonderful and Saturday was our day for con activities. There were literally 1000s of people there. Once we finally got the the con, we were taken aback by how much stuff there was there. The majority of the con is vendors selling stuff but they also have programming you can attend. The programming was pretty obscure and I didn’t find much I was interested in. I see all of these videos from San Diego Comic Con and I can see it is on a whole other level from this affair in Chicago.

There is another con in Chicago called C2E2 and from what I can see on the Internet, it is a better option. While I was in Chicago in April this year it was going on and I went to one of the after parties at a bar and had a pretty great time. I will look into that next year.

There was a freeplay arcade setup there and I got to play Altered Beast. I used to play that as a kid at a local watering hole and then on our family SEGA Genesis. That was really cool to relive.

This con had an official after party that we went to and danced our asses off among Jedi’s, starship captains, robots, and superheros. We stayed out late dancing with the nerds brave enough to show up to a dance party and it was well worth the effort.