I finally pulled the trigger on a speculative token. Opened a Bitshares wallet and deposited some Bitcoin. I must admit for a few minutes I had that sinking feeling in my stomach that I had sent the investment coin to the wrong place.
I had only twice before sent Bitcoin anywhere. I had ignored the advice to send small amounts when first starting out. I wanted my first deposit into BitShares to be of some worth and substantial. At least to my standards of available investment funds. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I want to use this blog to document the whole process of getting in.
For a little background I made my first purchase of Bitcoin mid-September using Coinbase as the exchange. Then another in late September and two more In October. These were fairly easy purchases after creating the Coinbase account and linking it to the bank account. I have had the pleasure of seeing that investment double in value as it sits there in the Coinbase vault and wallet.
With Bitcoin busting through $10K in value some of the advice given from CNNBC professional investors was to take a little off the table as profits. They noticed it dipping a little bit and just advised a conservative strategy. I didn't want to sell the Bitcoin outright for USD to sit in my bank account again where it does nothing. I wanted to use those profits to continue investing in cryptocurrency. With so many out there what's going to be the next big winner?
I've spent the last 2 weeks researching BitShares (BTS). It certainly has had a little bit of a spotty past. As far as I understand its 1.0 platform had some flaw. Early investors suffered some losses as it dipped in value. There was no shortage of disappointment and anger. Reading some the forums looks like it might have some shady characters involved. Even with all that noise I can't shake the gut feeling that this coin could and should go big. Bitshares 2.0 hits the scene with little fanfare around the same time I made my first Bitcoin purchase. Since I am going to take some profits from BTC might as well reinvest in BTS.
Long story short when you buy into Bitshares you don't just buy a coin you buy into your own personal exchange. More than that the platform is a host for new businesses. They even allow for crowdfunding those businesses. That's pretty cool but ultimately I want the coin BTS to be worth a lot more than what I bought into it. In the last month it has climbed steadily from around $0.05 to $0.16. Of course took a dip with market correction the other day. Still seeing it triple in value over that time I figured I better get in. Let's face it that's how Bitcoin started, nice and cheap. Maybe 5 or 10 years down the road this coin reaches $10K, IDK. I am new to crypto-currency but maybe I get lucky and it shows some fantastic returns. Oops I got off topic, let me go back to the process.
I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos how to set up a BitShares wallet. There's quite a few of them out there because these lifetime members are trying to earn referrals onto the platform. Whomever I sign up through gains 80% of the fees I will pay for the life of the account. This doesn't cost me any extra it's just a nice perk for them. As I understand it fees are very minimal ranging to just a couple of cents. So I guess my referral will make for them about a penny and a half for each transaction I make.
Looks like lifetime memberships cost about $225. Going to need a lot of referrals to make up that spend. The real big reason to pay up to be a lifetime member is to get an 80% discount on transaction fees, so I did become a lifetime member. Part of me wants just to support the platform, and a little bit to maybe earn some of those referral fees from people I might bring into the platform. Thinking about it more since I am now a lifetime member paying the discounted fee I guess the referral fee gained by the account that referred me is much smaller now. Oh well, sorry about that... but I will lose the same when people I refer become lifetime members. Here I go again getting off topic about the process. Oh btw: Just in case this blog inspires you to jump in ;) http://bitshares.openledger.info?r=one-more-shot
Anyway I came across a 30 minute documentary where a couple of enthusiastic BitShare supporters made a multi-state trip to meet experts in the field and visit the company headquarters. It is old information but I got to see some of the team doing the project and find out where they're located. Everyone interviewed was enthusiastic about the potential of the coin and platform. It was the kind of real interest that can't be faked for a sales pitch. This information finally gave me the confidence to take a chance on the coin and platform.
Clicking on a referral link opened up the wallet sign up page. Once there I had to decide which type of security I wanted to implement while opening the account. The more secure method ties the account to the browser and computer that it is being created on. The other allows more flexibility for signing in on various computers but it is vulnerable to brute force hack attacks that could try to gain password and account access. I tend to go with higher security when possible but I didn't want to be tied down to just one computer. After learning there is a method to import account access on other computers I chose the more secure method.
When selecting the account name you have to use a - between two words. I forget why that's in place I think it's a security feature. Or maybe it has some reference on account status. I think there was a level of account that could be made with just one word no dash. Anyways I selected my account name and chose a password. They recommend a real long password for better security. And through my research exploring everyone says over and over again and again record that password because if you lose it you're SOL. You will have lost access to your account they cannot recover it for you.
As soon as the account was created they make it mandatory to save a backup of the wallet. This is just downloading a small bin file that can be used to recover the wallet in case of hardware failure or clearing of the memory. This backup bin file is also how to import the account on another computer.
Anyway this 2 minute process actually took me about an hour as I take my time with password creation. Then make multiple records recording the password and the bin file. So now I have my account but it's empty of funds. I'm real tired and want to go to bed but I want to buy some BitShares before the price goes up anymore. I'm looking at a summary page of my account and I see a Bitcoin deposit button. I click it and it gives me the address key where to send the Bitcoin to load the account. Sadly it does not offer me a q code how to make recording that address simple.
Well I figure I'll just access my coinbase account via the computer and use copy and paste to send the Bitcoin. It's been a few days since I accessed coinbase via the computer so I had to go through the process of re-authentication. For whatever reason the confirmation email never arrived. So I could not access my coinbase account on the computer. Luckily I also have access to it via the app on the phone.
I open up the coinbase app and navigate to the Bitcoin wallet where I want to see the send function. All I initially see are buy and sell buttons. Those transactions are linked specifically to my bank account. They're not going to send Bitcoin to my new bitshares wallet account. Then I noticed this little arrow at the top right-hand corner of the screen. That little arrow turned out to be the button I had to click to send to an address. So first I enter the amount. Then it takes a long time typing in the address and checking it to make sure I didn't make any error. Finally I believe I have it properly entered and work up the courage to press send. The funds are instantly out of my coinbase account.
I'm watching my newly created BitShares account for the funds to arrive. Nothing in the first few seconds. That's one of the selling points of bitshares is that transactions happen lightning-quick. They say the average transaction occurs within 5 Seconds. But this really isn't a bitshares transaction this is a Bitcoin transaction which is much slower. One minute passes then two minutes. At around the 5-minute mark I start to get that sinking feeling in my stomach that I sent to the wrong address... oh God ... my money is gone. Trying not to panic I start researching the bitshares site for information that might help me. Just as quiet as a mouse the funds were deposited about 10 minutes later while I was reading various help articles.
I breathe a sigh of relief. Now I've bought my first purchased altcoin (Steem was the first), but it's really so much more. It's going to give me access to start trading other altcoins. I've got so much to learn and how to navigate these menus and learn how to use this platform and the tools on it. If you can't tell I'm really excited.
Still now relieved that the funds securely made it there. I have pulled the trigger and made a speculative purchase. You think this would have been easy for me. Anyone that knows me knows I'm a enthusiastic poker player and I gamble all the time. But this whole world of cryptocurrency is a different kind of beast that I want to figure out.
So much good update status here about BTS.
https://steemit.com/bitshares/@steempower/bitshares-state-of-the-network-28th-november-2017
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