In my last post, "BitShares Tricks, Affiliates, and Crypto Tips You've Gotta Know!", I assembled a boatload of tips & tricks for using the bitshares decentralized crypto exchange. However, a few questions had remained up in the air, and while I did add some updates in the comments, I felt they were important enough to warrant an additional post.
First of all, regarding the "binary wallet file", 
Any idea why some people may be losing access to their wallets?!
Additional feedback seems to indicate that the bitshares users who were losing access to their accounts were all using the browser-based wallet. However, the problem seems to be mostly likely related to the inadvertent clearing or reset of the browser cache!
If you are using the "Wallet Model", and the browser cache is cleared or becomes corrupted for some reason (either manually or automatically), and you have not backed up your binary wallet file and/or your private keys (and your brain key as well for extra measure), you WILL lose access to your account!
This would, of course, also imply that 
Bottom Line...
Once again, whether you're using the browser app, the desktop app , the "Cloud Account Model", or the "Wallet Model", be sure to back up your binary wallet file (for the "Wallet Model"), your private keys, and your brain key.
If you're looking for a relatively easy and highly secure way to protect your keys and passwords, one terrific open-source option is KeePass. Beware that KeePass doesn't automatically save changes you make, so make sure you hit ctrl+S to save the updated database after adding or changing any keys or passwords! There are some options you can set to do this more automatically, however. To understand more about those options, you can visit this sourceforge thread.
And if you need a solution to further encrypt and protect your key files stored in the cloud or on a USB stick, check out another great open-source project, Cryptomator.
Best Nodes for Optimal Connection to BitShares
Every so often people have some issues connecting to a certain node. Recently, two new full nodes went live in Kansas City, Missouri (URL: wss://kc-us-dex.xeldal.com/ws ) and in Seattle, WA (URL: wss://seattle.bitshares.apasia.tech/ws ) and they're both super-fast low-latency connections. If you're on that side of the globe, definitely give it a try and see if access seems "nippier" for you as well! For more information on these new nodes, check out the following posts:
- New Bitshares API Full-Node in Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- New RPC/Access Node for the Bitshares Community [United States 2/5+Balancer]
Why bitshares again anyway...?
For those who still don't quite understand the benefits and advantages of using a decentralized crypto exchange such as bitshares, this will serve as another example why it is so important. Besides the usual solvency risks involved, many centralized exchanges often have little or no problem allowing you to deposit money with them.
HOWEVER, there's been a rather questionable "growing trend" evolving around "KYC" (Know Your Customer) rules and regulations, in reverse! As soon as you're ready to withdraw some of those funds, "KYC" becomes the perfect excuse as to why some centralized exchanges simply don't have enough information to allow you to retrieve your money. Hmmm... sound a bit like a roach motel?!
And even better, how can they be sure you're not really an American... think about that one!
(anyone else wonder why it's so hard for U.S. citizens from the "Land of the Free", wherever they may live in the world, to use a crypto exchange half-way across the world, where supposedly the U.S. has no jurisdiction?)
For that, we can thank FATCA: "How FATCA is Destroying the World Economy & Americans".
Here's something else many crypto exchange users don't seem to understand. When you send tokens to hold in custody at a centralized exchange, they are no longer YOUR possession. All the tokens are owned and controlled by the exchange, to do with as they please. In fact, they may not even own them anymore themselves (they could have been lost, stolen, embezzled, or even gambled away). For all you know, they sold them long ago for cash and merely hold a reference to your "ownership" on their books. Of course, if at some point they can't make good on their obligations, "bye-bye we sowwy, but have a nice day!" 😁
So, for all intensive purposes, when you have bitcoin at bittrex or poloniex or bitfinex, you might as well call it BittrexBTC, PoloBTC, or FinexBTC. In other words, all are merely "obligations" that you "trust" will eventually be honored when you choose to redeem them for real BTC. This applies to every coin traded at these exchanges.
bitshares has its own version of such tokens. For example, OPEN.BTC is held in custody by openledger. When you send openledger your real STEEM or SBD or BTC, they provide you with OPEN.STEEM, OPEN.SBD, or OPEN.BTC in exchange for it. You trust they will make the reverse exchange when you're ready to withdraw your actual tokens. As such, openledger is a separate entity from bitshares itself.
Even if openledger goes belly-up, bitshares will keep on chugging along. Granted, your OPEN.XXX tokens will be immediately devalued to a fraction of their original perceived value. But your bitshares account, along with your entire portfolio of tokens and assets, still remain your exclusive property, under your exclusive control. And that's a huge difference that many people still don't seem to fully appreciate.
bitshares also offers built-in tokens that simulate real fiat currencies, such as BitUSD, which are collateralized by other bitshares users, also in a completely decentralized fashion. And while all such tokens have their potential issues (ie. SBD now at 14:1 to USD!), I'll tell you right now that I'd rather be holding BitUSD or SBD over tether's USDT (used by bittrex, poloniex, and bitfinex) any day of the week.
And what about that SBD...
Once again this past evening, SBD has made another bit of a run, peaking again around 15:1 USD. From my previous post, I had mentioned about some of the openledger support issues people have had transferring STEEM or SBD between bitshares and STEEMIT. For piece of mind, it's probably best to avoid using openledger for that purpose until those outstanding issues are resolved.
While the internal STEEMIT market is likely the best option for those willing to convert their SBD to STEEM, STEEM was also trading at nearly $3 USD this evening. As such, some people may prefer to simply take some $$$ off the table for now. If transferring to bitshares, using blocktrades.us is probably your best bet. You'll give up around 5% on the exchange to BTS, but you'll be quite certain it'll go through relatively seamlessly. If there's any problem with the exchange, I've heard 
Some of you may have also noticed that the high SBD price has also increased the demand for STEEM, as it is the primary way that users can "print" or "mine" new SBD, and over time arbitrage the pair back into closer line with one another. So it's likely that as long as SBD simply holds these higher price levels, STEEM will slowly creep up in an attempt to somewhat converge with the elevated SBD price. You can see this this dynamic unfolding on a STEEM/SBD chart:
Finally...
If you haven't already, I'd again urge you to check out the bitshares platform as an additional tool and resource for working with your STEEM, SBD, and other crypto "operations". And be sure to keep pumping out those quality posts with 50/50 post rewards (which you can now set for your comments as well) in order to keep taking advantage of the high price of SBD!
If you need a bit of additional help getting started on bitshares, feel free to reach out to me either here or on discord. You can also join the BTS/BeyondBitCoin discord group, where many friendly people are more than happy to try and lend a helping hand. Also, for the best deal make sure you sign up for bitshares via rudex: