Marilynn Dawson's Musings - Counting Pennies

A Blockchain Experiment

Marilynn Dawson's Musings - Counting PenniesSince roughly around mid-February, I stepped away from Facebook to focus on an experiment.  I didn’t know where this was going to take me, but with work being as difficult has it’s been for a couple years now, it didn’t hurt to try to put some hours into something that may or may not pay off in the future.  My books sell in a trickle, no mugs or t-shirts have sold yet although I have a large list to create still, causing my tech support services to still carry the day even though it too tends to be sporadic.

My bookkeeping mentor and I got talking about a relatively new technology that came on the scene back in 2009.  As a certified accountant, she finds the discussion around this technology to be fascinating, and people are writing articles about it in the financial magazines that she reads.

The technology in question, is known as block-chain.  Using this technology, it is possible to have linear blocks of information that are both public yet almost unhackable.  The technician in me uses the word “almost” while most other pundits claim the blockchain as we understand it currently, is unhackable by virtue of how it is formed via hashes and puzzles that need to be solved.

bitcoinSpecial computers and software solve these puzzles and create the hashes, known as blocks, in a fairly visible blockchain known as Bitcoin.  I haven’t heard much talk about this in my own circles of influence, but there is a sizeable and growing online community based around this virtual currency.  This currency even has an exchange rate to bring it into real-world terms and usage.  That exchange rate goes up and down based on the value of a single bitcoin as it is traded throughout the day.  During these past two months, the bitcoin value went from over $1200 USD to $934 USD to back up around $1184 USD earlier this month.  How do I know this? My experiment!

Now there are various ways a person can go about obtaining and using Bitcoin.

1. The easiest and most expensive way is to buy your way in.  Simply go to Coinbase or Localbitcoin, create an account which comes with an associated bitcoin wallet, then head over to the trading area and buy yourself some bitcoin.

bitcoin faucet2. Another way to get into the world of bitcoin is to earn it from what they call “faucets”.  I have written an extensive blog article about THAT which I will post shortly.  This method is not for the faint of heart and requires both a technician’s mindset and a work mindset if you are to do what I did, which was earn $3 USD or 0.003+ BTC in the space of two months. Because of the number of digits following the decimal, earning 0.003 is no small feat in the world of faucet earnings.  Most people in the bitcoin world don’t think this is a wise way to spend your time.  However, I proved to myself that for the poor person, it is a viable way to earn bitcoin in your spare time.

3. The last way and probably what promises to the most long-lasting method to get into the world of bitcoin, is to earn it the same way you earn a living in your own national currency.  I joined a bitcoin forum that has a reputation for being cut-throat, and requiring a thick skin.  While scammers apparently exist on this forum, they are not tolerated for the most part.  With this reputation being well-known, I went there asking about a three-part plan that I began my experiment with in mid-February.  Part 1 as to prove to myself you can earn your way into bitcoin using faucets.  Check that off the list.  Part 2 was to grow your bitcoin until there is enough to reach step 3 which is to test out the debit card offered by Xapo.com.  With so many sites offering investment opportunities, I thought for sure step two was possible.  I tried one investment of 0.001 and lost it a week later when the site folded.  This forum pretty much agreed that BTC investing is not yet a viable way to go and to focus on earning BTC via services I offer.

FACT Computer Services CoTherefore, I have revamped how I do business for FACT Computer Services.  I was thinking about doing this anyway because of the changes Freshbooks went through this spring, but wanting to carry on with my experiment sped up the process.  My website has now been configured so that buying time, asking for help and booking an appointment can all be done right there.  On top of that, people are able to pay using cheque, paypal, e-transfer still, and if they choose, they can now pay with bitcoin as well.

I will be revamping my author site soon too, so that people can buy my books and courses with either cheque, e-transfer, paypal or bitcoin as well.

I am looking forward to hoping to have enough BTC in my xapo account to one day walk into Superstore with their debit card, and walk out with groceries!

I’ll keep you posted!