Bitcoin is not a currency! 比特币不是钱!

aa

Yesterday I was talking about the hardware wallet investment with my friend. The first one we bought was the legendary Trezor and I shared with them that was my first and only time purchasing something with Bitcoin.

Then I felt something is not right, purchase time should be at half a year ago when Bitcoin price is not this high yet. Quickly search through my inbox to make sure how much I’ve paid for the wallets.

Screenshot_20180114-151010.jpg

Holy shit, 0.1197 BTC for a Trezor multipack! That was priced at USD 286 at that moment including shipping. And 0.11 BTC is around USD 1631 now. In less than 8 months I’ve lost USD 1345 over a purchase. All because there was an option to pay with Bitcoin when I checkout my order, and I thought that was a good idea to actually purchase something with the virtual currency. Real application right?

Since then, I make sure I spend my fiat and keep every bit of my cryptocurrencies. Paid my next bitcoin-acceptable purchase of second wallet Ledger via Visa gladly, never mind the processing fee they charging on me(talking about fee, Bitcoin have the worst fee now).

So the moral of this story is, people don’t like to spend what tends to rise in value, they rather treat it as an investment. Bitcoin is now very much become a store of value instead of what it initially wanted to be as a digital currency.

If you have faith in the cryptocurrencies that you hold, try not to spend it just for the sake of feeling useful. Or you spend it and never look back like the buyer of the 10,000 BTC pizza.


昨天和朋友谈起硬体钱包的事宜,当初刚进入币圈的时候知道这钱包的好处,就联合几个志同道合的朋友入手了一个 Trezor。Trezor 是接受比特币付款的,出于好奇心,那也是我第一次也是唯一一次使用比特币购买东西。

谈着谈着忽然觉得有什么不对劲,购买钱包的时候已经大半年以前了,那时比特币还远远没现在这样值钱啊,赶紧打开邮箱查看当时到底付了多少。

(看图二)

我的妈,一套三件的 Trezor 配套总值 286 美金我当时居然给了 0.1197 BTC !转换成美金即是 1631 元。这就是说,八个月前的一次购物,到现在足足亏损了 1345 美金。一切都是因为当时一颗想使用比特币的心,用比特币买东西好棒棒哦不是吗?

从此以后,我确保可以用现金的时候尽量不用比特币了。在上次购买第二个也接受比特币付款的 Ledger 钱包时也使用了 Visa,传统的高手续费我也付得心甘情愿(话说现在应该没什么手续费是高得过比特币,唉)。

这个故事里我们学到,人们不会喜欢把有升值潜力的东西当作现金花掉,这也是为什么比特币与其成为它本来想成为的货币,到现在却成了保值品。

如果你对现在持有的加密货币有信心,尽量继续持有它们别花掉吧。又或者是毅然把它们花了然后永远不回头看,就像那花了 10,000 比特币买比萨饼的仁兄



This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Bitcoin is not a currency! 比特币不是钱!’

Old and new money 银票和比特币

IMG_20171231_155119.jpg

This is the real bank note or you can use it cash in the old China society. Various of handwriting to indicate the value and multiple stamps from the officials to grant authority to this note.

When I saw this antique in the muzeum it reminds me so much of how our currency have developed. From bank note like this to the fiat currency, then credit cards and here we are in the burst of cryptocurrency.

It is also interesting to see how we moved our trust in the money system. First the people deposit gold or silver into the unincorperated bank and they issue a bank note to act as a bond. And that is a product of trust between the private banks and investor with the value backed by gold inside the vault.

Now we are in the trustless system of cryptocurrency where there is no bank in between the users hence, we don’t have to trust anyone. Absolutely an amazing feeling looking at the old bank note that serve no more purpose than just a antique in a muzeum while realizing I have some Bitcoin in my phone which I can spend everywhere.

In the next 100 years, will the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency like Bitcoin survive? Not sure, but I’m certain that they wouldn’t be able to stick a Bitcoin on the muzeum wall in 2200.


这是古代的银票,是我在参观青州博物馆时看到的。在上面可以看到手写的各种数字和几个盖章表明着这张银票的权威性和价值。当然现在它们不再是银票,随着时代转变已经变成了博物馆上的文物。

古时候人们都是用金银交易,然后钱庄就出现了。人们只需要把金银存放进去代表了权威的钱庄,钱庄发出张债劵,这就算是中国古社会最早最初的现金雏形。从银票开始,人们经历了现金,信用卡,再到现在的虚拟货币。

这过程中可以很有趣的看到货币系统中的信任转换 。银票可以被使用是因为当时人们信任钱庄真的可以保存对应的金银。然后到现代银行也是一样的道理,我们相信存放进去的钱真的是在里面的,需要的时候银行会如数全给回我们,在太平稳定的国家的确如此。

最后就是无需信任的区块链技术上的虚拟货币登场了,我们正在潮流的前端。

看着这张曾经让许多人趋之若鹜的银票,我想起手机里的虚拟货币,心里不禁感概万千,不知一百年后的比特币会是什么下场。但就算它已经成为历史,我想在 2200 年博物馆的墙上也没办法贴上比特币,毕竟不存在啊,呵呵。



This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Old and new money 银票和比特币’

Hail the great Android 安卓万岁

After my expression why Apple products is not my cup of tea, let’s talk more about my favorite OS, the almighty Android.

Million thanks to the friend that introduced me my first pure Android device, the Nexus 4. Guess that was part of the reason I’m so into open-source idea in everything.


Ultimate customization

dd

It’s cool for the manufacturer to guess my preference and design the system for me. Really convenient and thoughtful way to delivering a product. But they can’t always be right in everything. That’s why the room of customization is so important here. You are welcome to offer your best designed system to me and it would be great if I can tweak it a little more the way I like. In Android, you own your phone almost 100% top to bottom.

Change that battery icon, show internet speed at top bar, decide multiple gesture effect on the screen, customize every single buttons on the phone and a lot more. Genuinely adapting a phone to the master himself.

What? Who got the time to waste on stuffs like that? Well, iPhone design for people who don’t value customization that much. In fact, swapping a wallpaper is considered a customization too.

Lots of community support.

h
Source

Amazing power of community project can already been witnessed from various aspects. For example, innovative ideas could be realised through crowdfund ing platform like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, open-source project repositry site Github has been the best birth bed for cool freewares.

Android being one of the largest open-source projects and having probably the most active community, it is capable of generating countless ideas on the improvement and new features for for this mobile operating system.

The ability of gathering community intellegence and effort also bring much edgy functions like the split screen and off screen gesture to real application while no other OS capable of doing so.

Huge community= Rapid development, more support, great ideas, best execution.


至今仍然很感谢带我进入安卓世界的那位朋友,让我也发现原来自己是那么深爱具有开源特性的项目。继上次讨论过为什么不喜欢苹果的专制化之后,来吹一波安卓的伟大吧!

客制化就是唯一核心

大量的客制化选项是安卓最大的特色之一,从改变电池显示图形到每个物理按钮的实际作用,几乎没有一样东西是不能根据个人喜好而改变的。

当然这不是说用安卓就一定要费尽心思去改制一切,原生出产的设置也可以是很棒的,完全不用改变一草一木也可很好的使用。只是在绝佳的原厂设置之下,再容许用户加上个人调整,最适合自己的绝佳手机不就诞生了吗?

强大的社区

任何开源项目背后都有社区团队在支撑,而安卓身为可能是全球最受欢迎最多人参与的开源项目之一,所产生的力量更是不容小觑的。

安卓通过把集思广益最大化的效应实现了一个又一个站在业界前端技术,从早期的黑屏手势功能到后期的同屏双视窗,具有开创性的点子更是不断的被同行们所借鉴。

强大的社区意味着更高频率的开发,更多技术支持,更完善的执行能力。


当然还有很多场外因素巩固我对安卓的支持,比如众多的竞争产生出来的亲民价格。愿这么棒的操作系统继续蓬勃发展下去!



This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Hail the great Android 安卓万岁’

My story to say goodbye to iOS 苹果拜拜

Starting from the Symbian OS from Nokia phone, the first smartphone was the LG Nexus 4. I had a really hard time choosing which Android phone I should go and my Android fanboy friend said that I should really give Nexus series phone a try. Running stock Android like how the should be running without bloatware, ultra smooth, incomparably lightweight. I said why not and that’s how I first got my pure Android experience with the Nexus 4.

Why didn’t consider the Apple? Simple because my student pocket was too shallow for a luxury item like that. This applies to why I use Windows all my life without ever considering the Mac.

Until I’m capable of having wider choices, always wanted to try the famous iOS product I got myself the iPad and iPhone. Top-notch build quality, stable and smooth UI experience, I was once feeling a sense of privilege everytime I use them. Until some problems clashed with my freedom-based mindset:


aa

File sharing with others is a nightmare.

No Bluetooth to non-iOS devices and iTunes is such mess that I suspect it was created just to anti-human. Simple task like sharing a photo with my Android peer the best way is to use third party solution like email or cloud-based service like Dropbox. When I connect the device to the Windows PC via iTunes wanted to backup or retrieve something, I scratched my head throughout the whole process every time. And every other time I attempt something with the iTunes, I will have to start like I was a total beginner as those steps are way too complicated to understand.

I understand Apple wants to force the fan to build Apple ecosystem in their environment. I guess having a full set of iCloud, iPhone, iPad, MacBook could make one’s life really easy. But too bad I’m not a believer in such fanboy fantasy.

File sharing is just a big pain in the arse for iOS.

Rigid and inflexible system flow.

How to activate color invert in iOS and Android? In iOS, Settings > General > Accessibility>Invert Colors 4 steps. While in Android, pull down the toggle panel from the top bar and press invert color, 2 steps. Or you can even set a shortcut on the homescreen where you can press right away.

Maybe you say iOS can do the same using the pull-from-bottom control panel, but that feature is not available until Apple decided to offer it. At least those four steps are what I have to do when I want to have a nice night-reading time inside my bed. Oh yeah, the Night mode isn’t available back then as well.

I wished so bad I can customise and tweak those little things to make my life better that I jailbroken both the iPad and iPhone. Only to find out it doesn’t grant more freedom than the unrooted Android.


dd

The last straw was when I found out the same music file in an App is not available in the other player App. That I have to download an identical song in every music playing App on my iPhone. I’ve decided this is not my thing and I’ve had enough. Live my life happily after going back to the open arms of Android and I never look back.

That’s my firm belief that one should not reject a food without ever trying it. The only thing iPhone impressed me the most was the physical build quality. Stock Android running on an iPhone body could be the best phone in the world.

Next, I shall talk more about Android.


简要:

穷苦的从前让我只能选择使用安卓,后来稍微有能力买得起苹果了就果断入手 iPhone 和 iPad 来拉高格调。果然如传说中的一般高上大,一流的硬件设计和过硬的 iOS 系统都让我每一次使用的时候心里的虚荣感不住骚动,知道麻木之后问题开始浮现:

文件分享简直是噩梦

遇到最笨的设计就是同一首歌曲居然只能在一款播放器里找得到,别的播放器听的话只能再次下载另一份一模一样的歌曲。那还得了?蓝牙分享只认自己人,还有人类的天敌 – iTunes,这款软件根本就是设计出来让人得忧郁症的。每次一次使用即使是为了重复之前做过的动作,都会让人有种从来没用过的新手感觉。用的当儿真的想叫开发员出来,让拳头们好好的和他们交流交流。

死板的系统流程设计

反转颜色这个效果在 iOS 要四个步骤才可以完成,而在安卓只需要两个步骤,甚至可以在主页面设一个快捷键来一键开启功能。结果每天晚上在被窝里就是为了降低光线刺激好好上个网都要不厌其烦的重复繁琐的步骤。别小看那区区四步,对懒人来说那可是很痛苦的。后来为了得到我想要的自由就把设备们都越狱了,却发现得到的自由度还不如还没有 root 的安卓系统。

我主张没吃过的的食物就没资格去说不好吃。这次的经历让我笃定的回到了安卓的怀抱,从此过着幸福快乐的日子。下次再说说安卓吧!



This page is synchronized from the post: ‘My story to say goodbye to iOS 苹果拜拜’

How do I manage my crypto portfolio 币的管理

Cryptocurrency is the biggest portion of my investment portfolio for I’m a rather aggressive investor(speculator?). Thus within the cryptocurrency portfolio, I feel that there is a need to further apply different management to achieve a balance between growth and security.


The secure portion

I have 40% of the total crypto profile belongs to this portion. Secure means the coins under this category are mostly held for the long term. They will mostly stay put in my hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger Nano S, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and so on. For those coins that not yet receive native support from the hardware wallet, I will have them stored in the desktop private wallets, like the Cardano, Bitshare, IOTA, and much more.

I have a spreadsheet managing all the long-term coins. Whatever gets in my private wallets gets onto the list. That spreadsheet serves as a one-stop station that I could review the amount, cost, performance at a glance. And I strongly suggest that all the crypto investors to start doing such accounting for the coin holdings. One should always be able to tell the overall picture of their current investment. No limited to cryptocurrency only but including stocks, property etc.

The growth portion

This is the interesting part. You think that when you 1 BTC already gained value by rising from $1,000 to $15,000? Partially true. Don’t forget we are talking value in the cryptocurrency portfolio, where you should discuss value in BTC equivalent but not fiat Dollar. Your 1 BTC is still 1 BTC. You won’t be earning BTC while holding BTC.

In the growth portion, I reinvest the rest 60% BTC into altcoins by either trading actively on exchanges or involved in the potential ICO that I believe will have a place in the competitive crypto world. So the fund is all laying on the hands of centralized exchanges or ICO developers. I certainly felt uneasy about the security but couldn’t find a better solution. Until decentralized exchange like BTS get more volume and list a huge amount of coins, I will still have to deal with this risk unless I decided to quit trading.

Almost forgot to mention at the same time I do mining coin too, and that is writing on Steemit by proof of brain. Most beneficial mining method ever to earn some cash while actively preventing dementia.


How do you manage your profile?


加密货币已经变成了我最大的投资板块,因为我自认是个激进型的投机投资玩家。在日渐壮大的持有账户下,我有一套管理货币的方案。

稳定部分

这里占了总账面的四成价值。稳定的意思是所有在这分类的币种都属于长期持有。它们全部都存放在私人钱包里。Trezor 和 Ledger 有支持的都被优先选择比如 BTC LTC ETH,没有被硬件钱包支持的都各自放在桌面钱包上比如 ADA BTS IOTA 等。

与此同时我还搞了张电子表格记录所有的长线币种。所有进入私人钱包的币种都会上榜。这一站式的工具对追踪数量,成本和表现有很大的帮助,一打开表格就一目了然。强烈建议所有投资人也应该这样做,对定期的账面总结和反思调整绝对是必备利器。

成长部分

在加密货币的账面里,所有币种就应该用 BTC 来衡量其价值。而持有 1 BTC 尽管从 $1,000 升值到 $15,000,也依然是 1 BTC。成长在这里就是以 BTC 为单位来增加价值。

这里占了我所有币价值的六成。它们主要是流通在各大交易所上进行频密的山寨币短线交易,小部分用于投资有前景的 ICO。所以这类别下的所有资金不是在集中式的平台上就是在 ICO 的发展团队手上。目前这种情况我内心深处其实也是很恐慌的,毕竟*永远不要把币存放在交易所上。无可奈何,除非我不想交易了,又或者是像 BTS 这样的分散式交易所开始成为主流。

差点忘了说我同时也在挖矿增加账面价值,那就是用脑力在 Steemit 上挖矿。目前最佳的挖矿方式,赚钱的同时还可以预防老人痴呆症。


你又有什么管理方法呢?



This page is synchronized from the post: ‘How do I manage my crypto portfolio 币的管理’

TechReview#2 - Ledger Nano S first-time setup walkthrough

After the unboxing of Ledger Nano S, I shall show you the basic setup and overview of this device.

The Walkthrough

1.gif

2.gif.gif)

Ledger does not have an in-built battery and it has to be plugged to a computer in order to power up.

Plug it up with micro-USB cable and you shall see the welcome message telling you that “Pressing both buttons to start“.


IMG_20171214_220222.jpg

Press the corresponding tick button to configure as a new device.


IMG_20171214_220404.jpg

The very first step will be setting up a PIN code which will be used to access your device every time. Press both buttons to proceed.


3 pin.gif

The total digit for the PIN would be four. Left button to decrease the number and right button to increase. Confirm the current number by pressing both buttons, and proceed set the next digit.


4 pin.gif

If you want to undo any mistake and to retype again. Cycle the digit to above 9 or below 0 there will be an Erase button. Pressing both button and the previously entered digit will be removed so that you can insert a new one again.


5 pin confirm.gif

After inserting four digits the fifth digit will be a Tick sign. Confirm and proceed to retype the four-digit PIN again.


IMG_20171214_220819.jpg

The third step I would say is the most crucial step throughout the whole setup process, backup the recovery phrase. This recovery phrase is all you have to own to restore your whole device in case you forgot the PIN that you’ve just set, or lost the physical device. Never reveal this to anyone unless you decided to let them own all of your digital assets inside.


IMG_20171214_221014.jpg

Write down the 24-word of recovery phrase following the sequence on the Recovery Sheet that comes in the box. Use a non-erasable pen to do it and you may want to copy the phrase to another piece of paper just for the sake of redundancy.


IMG_20171214_221332.jpg

After all 24 words have cycled through the final step is to confirm that what you have written down on paper is correct.


IMG_20171214_221413.jpg

The Ledger will prompt you to enter a word at a certain position. For example, it would ask you to Select word #23. Use the button to navigate the options and press both buttons to confirm the answer.
The process will repeat for four times.


IMG_20171214_221457.jpg

You’ve had now gave a PIN to your Ledger and wrote down the recovery phrase. Your device is now ready to use.


Content of the device

6 overview.gif

There are some installed applications inside which is Bitcoin wallet, Ethereum wallet, Fido U2F, and Settings. We will not talk much about the Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet as that should be in another guide.


7 birghtness.gif

In the Settings -> Display -> Brightness, you can adjust the brightness of the device from 1 to 6 degree. The default value is 3.


8 rotate.gif

Settings -> Display -> Rotate to make a 180 degree rotation for the display. You can make use of this feature to decide your buttons at the top or bottom. In this case, if I rotate my default screen then I will have to use the button at the bottom using other fingers like the thumbs. Not bad for having this option for a more personalized experience.


9 invert.gif

You can even set the positive screen for a negative one. Personally I’ prefer the default positive display.


9a auto lock.gif

Inside Settings -> Security -> Auto-lock, you can set a certain timeout period to auto-lock the device just to reduce the chance that you might accidentally leave your device opened while you are away.


9b reset.gif

By doing Settings -> Device -> Reset all you are going to lose everything in the device and do a factory reset to hold nothing, exactly like how it was first created. You will need to provide the PIN to perform this action. Use this with caution.


The Thoughts

  • Ledger Nano S is a wonderful hardware wallet with huge set of features to play with.
  • Solid build quality.
  • Protect your 24-word recovery seed.
  • Remember your PIN.



Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors


This page is synchronized from the post: ‘ TechReview#2 - Ledger Nano S first-time setup walkthrough’

Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×