It’s been 4 years already and it seems I haven’t done nothing at all… With the little time I could spare to work on this blog, I hope I bought a tiny seed of knowledge into your 🧠zz my dear readers 😁🙂😉😋
I will try the best of my abilities to continue the work on the blog !
Untill then dear readers never forget :
Let’s find the courage and strenght, if not for us then for Them… the Future Generations that are to come after us and Go…
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
So you are not a coder but as a non-technical person, you’re always open for simplified technical knowledge about Bitcoin. So, you would like to ask people of very deep knowledge of Bitcoin’s code what you would tell some non-technical people.
What are the most important technical points of Bitcoin, where you would say “it’s really important for Bitcoin and people should know it”. Important would also mean for Bitcoin from a hacking-resistant point and what is making Bitcoin superior against competing Altcoins?
The most important features of Bitcoin are that it’s maintained by the largest community of developers out of all the coins, and consequentially it has the largest test suite and debugging infrastructure.
It makes it really easy to pin-point bugs. I can’t stress enough how important having test cases is for your project, whatever it may be, whether it’s related to crypto or not. It saves you from a lot of future bug-hunting
Its simplicity. Not in the sense of being trivial, but in the sense of having a very focused feature set.
Also the importance if permissionlessness seems to be either ignored or forgotten by a lot of alts out there, whereas it remains a top priority for Bitcoin.
One more thing that sets Bitcoin apart is the immense decentralization – in hashpower, full nodes, development and community. For security, the first two are the most critical.
Most altcoins either don’t have node decentralization or / and they have a flawed consensus mechanism (proof of stake) that simply gives the developers total power over the project.
This allows them to change rules at will, but also allows authorities to press them to do such things. In Bitcoin, that’s simply impossible.
A PoW coin without enough hashpower can be attacked similarly, and as a matter of fact most energy is pumped into Bitcoin PoW, which makes it most secure.
Bitcoin works, it has been working fine for the past 13 years (all its life) and safely too.
* You don’t need any third party (middle man like banks) to send, receive or store your money when you use bitcoin.
* Nobody can restrict who sends you money or to whom you send your money
* You can reach anybody, anywhere at any time in the world.
* The payments can not be reversed like other payment networks which provides a lot of security for merchants
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
The relative value of any two curren- cies—the exchange rate—is determined through their sale and purchase on the global foreign exchange market. If government policy interferes with this market by changing the relative supply or demand of currencies, the exchange rate is managed.
The trilemma of international finance, is a restriction on government policy that follows immediately from the interaction of exchange rates, monetary policy and international capital flows.
Trilemma of International Finance
The trilemma states that any country can have only two of the following:
(1) Unrestricted international capital markets.
(2) A managed exchange rate.
(3) An independent monetary policy.
If the government wants a managed exchange rate but does not want to interfere with international capital flows, it must use monetary policy to accommodate changes in the demand for its currency in order to stabilize the exchange rate.
In the extreme, this would take the form of a currency board arrangement, where the domestic currency is fully backed by a foreign currency (as in the case of Hong Kong).
In such a situation, monetary policy can no longer be used for domestic purposes (it is no longer independent).
If a country wishes to maintain control over monetary policy to reduce domestic unemployment or inflation, for example, it must limit trades of its currency in the international capital market (it no longer has free international capital markets).
A country that chooses to have both unrestricted inter-national capital flows and an independent monetary policy can no longer influence its exchange rate and, therefore, cannot have a managed exchange rate.
Pieters and Vivanco (2016), government attempts to regulate the globally accessible bitcoin markets are generally unsuccessful, and, as shown in Pieters (2016), bitcoin exchange rates tend to reflect the market, not official exchange rates.
Should the flows allowed by bitcoin become big enough, all countries will have, by default, unrestricted international capital markets.
Thus, with bitcoin, (1)unrestricted international capital markets is chosen by default.
Therefore, the only remaining policy choice is between (2)managed exchange rates or (3)independent monetary policy.
If the country chooses (1) and (2), it must use reactive monetary policy to achieve the managed exchange rate.
If the country chooses (1) and (3), it must have a floating exchange rate because it has no remaining tools with which to maintain a managed exchange rate.
Ali et al. (2014), the European Central Bank (2015) and the Bank for International Settlements (2015) all concur that cryptocur- rencies may eventually undermine monetary policy.
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
On January 3rd, 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto published the Genesis Block with the first 50 Bitcoins on Sourceforge. He also left a message on the blockchain at the time, quoting the headline in the British newspaper Times:
On January 3, 2009, the minister was on the verge of bailing out the banks.
Nakamoto started writing the white paper in 2008 and published it in October of that year.
The concept of a decentralized, anonymous, trusted currency emerged after the 2008 financial crisis, which left responsibility for the banks.
Satoshi neither supports the modern banking system nor does he like partial reserve banks.
A partial reserve bank is a bank that takes deposits and issues loans or investments, but only has to reserve a fraction of its liabilities for deposits. Basically, the bank is using money that it doesn’t own.
Satoshi wants to get rid of banks and seedy middlemen whom he believes are corrupt and unreliable. As such, he created a more community-centric digital currency.
13 years later, Bitcoin is still going strong with a market cap of nearly $ 900 billion. It is currently held by billionaires, banks, celebrities, governments, and corporations. This is evidence of how far BTC has come in its brief existence.
The precarious banking situation and economic uncertainty are also in crisis again.
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
If you love working from home, then you should consider starting an internet based business.
One of the businesses that you can easily start at home with a computer and mining rigs is bitcoin mining.
Simply put, bitcoin is a digital currency that operates independently of any country’s central bank. In order to get an updated value of the worth of a bitcoin, you can make use of Google’s currency converter; it is a reliable platform to know the value of bitcoin each time.
If you are interested in mining bitcoin, then you have two options to follow.
You can choose to mine a block of bitcoins from the computer or you can choose to pool.
If you want quick returns on your investment, then joining a pool is your best option because mining a block of bitcoins from your computer may take you a month or more before you get any return on your investment.
Please note that if you join a pool, you will only get smaller payments, but you can be rest assured that you will get them at a regular basis.
Starting a bitcoin mining business can be rewarding but you would have to compete with other well established bitcoin miners on the World Wide Web. The fact that you will be competing with people from all over the globe is enough reason for you to be result oriented and at the same be creative with your bitcoin mining business.
So, if you have done the required online or offline bitcoin mining related courses, then you might want to venture into this business.
Starting a Bitcoin Mining Business – A Complete Guide
Industry Overview
Bitcoin mining in its simplest term is the practice of adding transaction records to Bitcoin’s public ledger of previous transactions or block chain.
This ledger of previous transactions is called the block chain as it is a chain of blocks. The block chain serves to confirm transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place.
As a matter of fact, Bitcoin miners help keep the Bitcoin network secure by approving transactions.
Mining is indeed an important and integral part of Bitcoin that ensures fairness while keeping the Bitcoin network stable, safe and highly secured.
Bitcoin mining as the name implies is similar to the mining of other commodities: it requires deliberate and calculated effort and it slowly makes new currency available at a rate that looks like the rate at which commodities like gold and copper et al are mined from the ground. Mining is also a mechanism used to introduce Bitcoins into the system.
Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that is created and held electronically; it is a cryptocurrency and a digital payment system that is invented by an unknown programmer, or perhaps a group of programmers. No one controls it.
Unlike Dollars, Euros, Pounds and other currencies, bitcoins are not printed, they are produced by people and businesses running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems.
If you want to start mining bitcoin, you would need an online wallet where your bitcoins will be stored.
There are several wallet options available online for bitcoin mining. The rule of thumb to follow before choosing an online wallet for your bitcoin mining is to choose a wallet that will allow you save bitcoins, buy bitcoins, use bitcoins and also accept bitcoins as a means of payment.
The Bitcoin (cryptocurrency and a digital payment system) industry is indeed a large internet based industry and pretty much active in countries such as United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Nigeria, Sweden, Australia, Japan, China, Germany, and Canada et al.
Despite the fact that the bitcoin mining business is still much of a green business, the business will continue to blossom because more and more users will embrace the use of bitcoins in the nearest future.
So, if you have an entrepreneurial mentality and you wish to join a massive technological revolution, you can start your own bitcoin mining business.
The truth is that you can build a bitcoin mining business even if you are not too ICT savvy and have limited capital to invest in software development and infrastructure, as long as you have internet access and you know how to use the internet.
Some of the factors that encourage entrepreneurs to start their own bitcoin mining business could be that the business is easy to set up and the startup capital is indeed affordable; you can actually start your own bitcoin mining business from the comfort of your house.
All you need to do is to create an office somewhere in your house. You don’t necessarily need to see the people you are doing business with since you can transact bitcoin mining business with clients from any part of the world.
Lastly, starting a bitcoin mining business requires professionalism, advanced mathematics skills and a good grasp of how cryptocurrency and the digital payment system works on a global platform.
Besides, you would need to get the required certifications and license and also meet the required standard for such business before you can be allowed to start a bitcoin mining business in the United States.
Starting a Bitcoin Mining Business – Market Research and Feasibility Studies
Demographics and Psychographics
The demographic and psychographic composition of those who require the services of bitcoin miners are not restricted to bitcoin exchange and trading companies and bitcoin traders, people and organizations that make online transactions in your immediate community or state, but it cuts across people on the cyber space who make use of bitcoins from all over the world.
This is so because bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and a digital payment system used basically on the internet hence the leverage to work for people and organization all across the globe.
So, if you are looking towards defining the demographics of your bitcoin mining business, you should make it all encompassing. It should include bitcoin exchange and trading companies and bitcoin traders, programmers, investors, and internet – business oriented people and organizations within and outside the United States.
List of Niche ideas Within the Bitcoin Mining Business That You Can Specialize in
Most bitcoin mining companies tend to operate the general bitcoin mining business that a standard bitcoin mining poll/company is expected to offer, that is why it seems like there are no niche areas in the industry.
But on the other hand, some bitcoin mining company may decide to major in some key areas such as:
Bitcoin cloud mining
Bitcoin cloud hashing
Providing other related bitcoin, cryptocurrency and digital payment system consulting and advisory services
The Level of Competition in the Bitcoin Mining Services Industry
The level of competition in the cryptocurrency and a digital payment system industry does not in any way depend on the location of the business since most people that mine bitcoin can operate from any part of the world and still effectively compete in the bitcoin mining line of business cum cryptocurrency and a digital payment system industry.
When it comes to bitcoin mining, distance is never a barrier when competing for clients especially international clients.
What most clients want is result, hence they are ready to make use of bitcoin miners or bitcoin mining platforms no matter the part of the world they operate from as long as they have good track record and can deliver excellent results when it comes to mining and selling bitcoins to them.
There are several bitcoin miners and bitcoin mining pools scattered all around the United States and in the cyber space.
So, if you choose to start your own bitcoin mining company in the United States, you will definitely meet stiffer competitions not only amongst bitcoin mining companies in the United States, but also all over the globe especially if you choose to specialize in cryptocurrency and digital payment system.
List of Well – Known Brands in the Bitcoin Mining Business
In every industry, there are always brands that perform better or are better regarded by customers and the general public than others. Some of these brands are those that have been in the industry for a long time, while others are best known for the results they deliver.
These are some of the leading bitcoin mining companies (bitcoin mining pools) in the United States of America and also in the globe:
Economic Analysis
As an ICT aspiring entrepreneur who is looking for a business that requires programming and mathematics skills and perhaps minimal startup capital to start, then you can consider starting a bitcoin mining pool.
The cost of running a standard bitcoin mining pool when compared to the turnover you get can be poles apart (this is applicable when you have been able to establish your feet in the industry).
One thing is certain when it comes to the bitcoin mining business and most internet based businesses, you are sure of making profits when you successfully produce results that are measurable.
As a matter of fact, the cost of running the business from start to finish could be restricted to the cost of making phone calls, transportation and internet subscriptions, PR and of course bitcoin mining and hashing hardware and software et al.
Starting Your Bitcoin Mining Company from Scratch vs Buying a Franchise
When it comes to starting a business of this nature, it will pay you to start from the scratch as against buying a franchise.
First and foremost, it is your ability to mine or hash bitcoin that matters not a brand name.
Except you want to join a well-established bitcoin mining pool that fits into your business ideology.
Unfortunately, you can hardly find a franchise of a bitcoin mining pool – company to purchase meaning that if you want to own a bitcoin mining (pool) business, then you must be ready to start from the scratch.
This is so because the business is easy to start if you have the required expertise and it is still pretty much thriving and there are loads of opportunities available to aspiring entrepreneurs that are interested in the industry.
The truth is that it will pay you to start your bitcoin mining company from the scratch. Starting from the scratch will afford you the opportunity to conduct thorough market survey and feasibility studies before choosing a location to launch the business.
Please note that most of the big and successful bitcoin mining companies around started from the scratch and they were able to build a solid business brand.
Possible Threats and Challenges You Will Face When Starting a Bitcoin Mining Business
If you decide to start your own bitcoin mining business today, one of the major challenges you are likely going to face is the presence of well – established bitcoin mining companies who are offering same services that you intend offering. The only way to avoid this challenge is to create your own market.
Some other threats that you are likely going to face as a bitcoin mining company operating in the United States are hosting issues, installation or upkeep troubles, heat, unfavorable government policies, and global economic downturn which usually affects purchasing/spending power. There is hardly anything you can do as regards these threats other than to be optimistic that things will continue to work for your good.
Starting a Bitcoin Mining Business – Legal Matters
Best legal entity to use for this type of business
Generally, you have the options of either choosing a general partnership, limited liability company which is commonly called an LLC, or a sole proprietorship for a business such as a bitcoin mining company.
Ordinarily, general partnership should have been the ideal business structure for a small – scale bitcoin mining business especially if you are just starting out with moderate startup capital.
But people prefer limited liability Company for obvious reasons. As a matter of fact, if your intention is to grow the business and have clients both corporate and individual from all across the United States of America and other countries of the world, then choosing general partnership is not an option for you. Limited Liability Company, LLC will be highly suitable for you.
Setting up an LLC protects you from personal liability. If anything goes wrong in the business, it is only the money that you invested into the limited liability company that will be at risk. It is not so for sole proprietorships and general partnerships. Limited liability companies are simpler and more flexible to operate and you don’t need a board of directors, shareholders meetings and other managerial formalities.
These are some of the factors you should consider before choosing a legal entity for your bitcoin mining (pool) business; limitation of personal liability, ease of transferability, admission of new owners, investors’ expectation and of course taxes.
If you take your time to critically study the various legal entities to use for your bitcoin mining business, you will agree that limited liability company; an LLC is most suitable. You can start this type of business as limited liability company (LLC) and in future convert it to a ‘C’ corporation or an ‘S’ corporation especially when you have the plans of going public.
Catchy Business Name ideas Suitable for a Bitcoin Mining Company
Generally, when it comes to choosing a name for a business, it is expected that you should be creative because whatever name you choose for your business will go a long way to create a perception of what the business represents. Usually it is the norm for people to follow the trend in the industry they intend operating from when naming their business.
Insurance Policies
In the United States and in most countries of the world, you can’t operate a business without having some of the basic insurance policy covers that are required by the industry you want to operate from. So, it is imperative to create a budget for insurance policy covers and perhaps consult an insurance broker to guide you in choosing the best and most appropriate insurance policies for your bitcoin mining business.
Here are some of the basic insurance policy covers that you should consider purchasing if you want to start your own bitcoin mining business in the United States of America:
General insurance
Health insurance
Liability insurance
Workers compensation
Overhead expense disability insurance
Business owner’s policy group insurance
Payment protection insurance
Intellectual Property Protection/Trademark
If you are considering starting your own bitcoin mining business, usually you may not have any need to file for intellectual property protection/trademark. This is so because the nature of the business makes it possible for you to successfully run the business without having any cause to challenge anybody in court for illegally making use of your company’s intellectual properties.
Is Professional Certification Needed to Run a Bitcoin Mining Business?
Apart from the results you produce, professional certification is one of the main reasons why most bitcoin mining companies stand out.
If you want to make an impact in the Bitcoin industry, you should work towards acquiring all the needed certifications in your area of specialization.
Certification validates your competency and shows that you are highly skilled, committed to your career, and up-to-date in this competitive market.
These are some of the certifications you can work towards achieving if you want to run your own bitcoin mining company:
Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP) | Crypto Currency Certification
Blockcerts Certification
Cryptocurrency certification
Ethereum certification
Blockchain professional certification
List of Legal Documents You Need to Run a Bitcoin Mining Company
These are some of the basic legal documents that you are expected to have in place if you want to legally run your own bitcoin mining business in the United States of America:
Certificate of Incorporation
Business License and Certification
Business Plan
Non – disclosure Agreement
Employment Agreement (offer letters)
Operating Agreement for LLCs
Insurance Policy
Contract documents
Online Privacy Policy Document (basically for online payment portal)
Company Bylaws
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
Apostille (for those who intend operating beyond the United States of America)
Financing Your Bitcoin Mining Company
Aside from the amount required to purchase bitcoin mining software and hardware, bitcoins and of course cryptocurrency and other forms of digital payment required to trade with, starting a bitcoin mining business can be cost effective especially if you choose to run the business from your home, share office space with a friend or make use of a virtual office.
Securing a standard office is part of what will consume a large chunk of your startup capital, but if you choose to start the business on a small scale, you may not have the need to go source for fund to finance the business.
When it comes to financing a business, one of the major factors that you should consider is to write a good business plan.
If you have a good and workable business plan document in place, you may not have to labor yourself before convincing your bank, investors and your friends to invest in your business.
Here are some of the options you can explore when sourcing for start – up capital for your bitcoin mining/trading business:
Raising money from personal savings and sale of personal stocks and properties
Sell of shares to interested investors
Pitching your business idea and applying for business grants and seed funding from donor organizations and angel investors
Source for soft loans from your family members and your friends
Choosing a Suitable Location for your Bitcoin Mining Business
Bitcoin mining business and most internet service based type of businesses do not require that you see physically with your clients, hence the location you chose does not necessarily need to be top-notch.
But the fact that you can operate your bitcoin mining business from your home does not mean that location has little influence on the success of a bitcoin mining company.
If you have taken your time to study the bitcoin mining and other internet based businesses, you will realize that they are willing to pay expensive rents in order to stay in an ICT hub; a place with pretty strong internet network and of course a place where ICT activities are at its peak.
It is important to note that a business facility in a good location does not come cheap hence you should be able to allocate enough fund for leasing/renting in your budget.
If you are new to the dynamics of choosing a location for a business such as bitcoin mining business, then you should feel free to talk to a business consultant or a realtor who has a full grasp of the city and perhaps country you intend starting your company.
So, if you are looking for a location for your bitcoin mining company, ensure that it is a place that is located in an ICT hub; a place with pretty strong internet network and of course a place where ICT activities are at its peak.
Of course, you would not want to locate this type of business in the outskirts of town or a place without strong internet network. Your clients should be able to drive down and locate your office with little or no difficulty.
Starting a Bitcoin Mining Business – Technical and Manpower Details
In order to successfully launch a bitcoin mining business, you will definitely need bitcoin mining software apps and hardware such as Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) machines and other cryptocurrency and digital payment system related software apps and wallet.
So also, you will need computers, internet facility, telephone, fax machine and office furniture (chairs, tables, and shelves).
When it comes to choosing between renting and leasing an office space, the size of the bitcoin mining company you want to build, and your entire budget for the business should influence your choice.
If you have enough capital to run a standard bitcoin mining company, then you should consider the option of leasing a facility for your office.
As regards the number of employees that you are expected to kick start the business with, you would need to consider your finance before making the decision.
Averagely, you would need a Chief Executive Officer or President (you can occupy this role), an Admin and Human Resource Manager, Bitcoin Miners and Hashers, Programmers and Software Developers, Business Development Executive/marketing Executive, Customer Service Officer or Front Desk Officer, and Accountant.
Over and above, you would need a minimum of 8 key staff to effectively run a medium scale but standard bitcoin mining company.
Please note that there will be times when you are expected to go out of your way to hire experts to help you handle some high – profile internet based currency consultancy contracts especially from big corporations.
If you are just starting out, you may not have the financial capacity or required business structure to retain all the professionals that are expected to work with you which is why you should make plans to partner with other programmers and software app developers and computer engineers that operates as freelancers.
The Service Delivery Process of a Bitcoin Mining Company
It is the tradition in the cryptocurrency industry for bitcoin miners to help keep the Bitcoin network secure by approving transactions.
The truth is that mining is an important and integral part of Bitcoin that ensures fairness while keeping the Bitcoin network stable, safe and secure.
In the cryptocurrency and other forms of digital payment system industry, bitcoin miners use special software to solve math problems and are issued a certain number of bitcoins in exchange. This provides a smart process of issuing the currency and also creates an incentive for more people to mine.
For instance, when a block is discovered, the miners are rewarded a certain number of bitcoins, which is agreed-upon by everyone in the network.
Currently the reward is 6.25 bitcoins and this value will halve every 210,000 blocks.
Additionally, the bitcoin miner is awarded the fees paid by users sending transactions. The fee is an incentive for the bitcoin miner to include the transaction in their block.
It is important to state that a bitcoin mining (pool) company may decide to improvise or adopt any business process and structure that will guarantee them efficiency and flexibility; the above stated business cum services process is not cast on stone.
Starting a Bitcoin Mining Business – The Marketing Plan
Marketing ideas and strategies
As a bitcoin mining company, you would have to prove your worth over and over again before you can be awarded any bitcoin mining and hashing contracts from corporate clients.
So, if you have plans to start your own bitcoin mining company, it will pay you to first build a successful career in the digital payment system industry.
People and organizations will hire your services to help them handle all their bitcoin mining and hashing needs if they know that they are going to get good returns on their investment.
So, when you are drafting your marketing plans and strategies for your bitcoin mining company, make sure that you create a compelling personal and company profile.
Aside from your qualifications and experience, it is important to clearly state in practical terms what you have been able to achieve in time past as it relates to the cryptocurrency industry and the organizations you have worked for in time past.
This will help boost your chances in the market place when sourcing for bitcoin mining and hashing contracts.
Businesses these days are aware of the power of the internet and which is why they will do all they can to maximize the internet to market their services.
In other words, a larger percentage of your marketing efforts should be directed to internet users.
Here are some of the platforms you can utilize to market your bitcoin mining company:
Introduce your business by sending introductory letters alongside your brochure to all the bitcoin exchange and trading companies and bitcoin traders, programmers, investors, and internet – business oriented people and organizations within and outside the United States
Promptness in bidding for bitcoin mining and hashing contracts from bitcoin exchange and trading companies cum bitcoin traders, programmers, investors, and internet – business oriented people and organizations within and outside the United States
Advertise your business in relevant programming magazines, radio and TV stations (make yourself available for bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency related talk shows and interactive sessions on TV and Radio)
List your business on local directories
Attend international bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency related seminars and business fairs
Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets
Join related associations around you with the main aim of networking and marketing your services; you are likely going to get referrals from such networks
Engage the services of online marketing executives and business developers to carry out direct marketing
Factors That Will Help You Get the Right Product Pricing
Some of the key factors that will help you mine or hash bitcoin in a profitable pricing system is to ensure that you work with highly talented programmers and mathematicians in your bitcoin mining pool.
You should also ensure that you get your bitcoin mining software and hardware at good deal not forgetting to run your maintenance as at when due.
Another strategy that will help you offer your bitcoin mining and hashing services at the right price is to ensure that you cut operational and maintenance cost to the barest minimum, and channel your efforts towards marketing and promoting your brand name.
Aside from the fact that this strategy will help you save cost, it will also help you get the right pricing for your products.
Strategies to Boost Your Bitcoin Mining Brand Awareness and Create Your Corporate Identity
If your intention of starting a bitcoin mining company is to grow the business beyond the city where you are going to be operating from to become a national and international brand, then you must be ready to spend money on promotion and advertisement of your brand.
In promoting your brand and corporate identity, you should leverage on both print and electronic media and also social media (the internet).
As a matter of fact, it is cost effective to use the internet and social media platforms to promote your brands, besides it is pretty much effective and wide reaching.
Another strategy is to sponsor relevant programmer/ICT based programs, TV and radio programs, advertise your business in relevant magazines and newspapers. Below are the platforms you can leverage on to boost your brand and to promote and advertise your business.
Place adverts on ICT magazines and related newspapers, radio and TV stations
Encourage the use of word of mouth publicity from your loyal customers
Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Badoo, Google+ and other platforms to promote your business
Ensure that you position your banners and billboards in strategic positions all around your city
Distribute your fliers and handbills in target areas in and around our neighborhood
Contact bitcoin exchange and trading companies cum bitcoin traders, programmers, investors, and internet – business oriented people and organization within and outside the United States by calling them up and informing them of your organization and the bitcoin mining and hashing services you offer
Advertise your business in your official website and employ strategies that will help you pull traffic to the site
Brand all your official cars and ensure that all your staff members wear your branded shirt or cap at regular intervals.
Did you find this article helpful?
If so, please consider a donation to help the evolution and development of more helpful articles in the future, and show your support for alternative articles.
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
Unlike the communities traditionally associated with the word "anarchy", in a crypto-anarchy the government is not temporarily destroyed but permanently forbidden and permanently unnecessary.
It's a community where the threat of violence is impotent because violence is impossible, and violence is impossible because its participants cannot be linked to their true names or physical locations.
Until now it's not clear, even theoretically, how such a community could operate.
A community is defined by the cooperation of its participants, and efficient cooperation requires a medium of exchange (money) and a way to enforce contracts.
Traditionally these services have been provided by the government or government sponsored institutions and only to legal entities.
In this article I describe a protocol by which these services can be provided to and by untraceable entities.
I will actually describe two protocols. The first one is impractical,because it makes heavy use of a synchronous and unjammable anonymous broadcast channel. However it will motivate the second, more practical protocol.
In both cases I will assume the existence of an untraceable network, where senders and receivers are identified only by digital pseudonyms (i.e. public keys) and every messages is signed by its sender and encrypted to its receiver.
In the first protocol, every participant maintains a (seperate) database of how much money belongs to each pseudonym. These accounts collectively define the ownership of money, and how these accounts are updated is the subject of this protocol.
1. The creation of money. Anyone can create money by broadcasting the solution to a previously unsolved computational problem. The only conditions are that it must be easy to determine how much computing effort it took to solve the problem and the solution must otherwise have no value, either practical or intellectual. The number of monetary units created is equal to the cost of the computing effort in terms of a standard basket of commodities. For example if a problem takes 100 hours to solve on the computer that solves it most economically, and it takes 3 standard baskets to purchase 100 hours of computing time on that computer on the open market, then upon the broadcast of the solution to that problem everyone credits the broadcaster's account by 3 units.
2. The transfer of money. If Alice (owner of pseudonym K_A) wishes to transfer X units of money to Bob (owner of pseudonym K_B), she broadcasts the message "I give X units of money to K_B" signed by K_A.
Upon the broadcast of this message, everyone debits K_A's account by X units and credits K_B's account by X units, unless this would create a negative balance in K_A's account in which case the message is ignored.
3. The effecting of contracts. A valid contract must include a maximum reparation in case of default for each participant party to it. It should also include a party who will perform arbitration should there be a dispute. All parties to a contract including the arbitrator must broadcast their signatures of it before it becomes effective. Upon the broadcast of the contract and all signatures, every participant debits the account of each party by the amount of his maximum reparation and credits a special account identified by a secure hash of the contract by the sum the maximum reparations. The contract becomes effective if the debits succeed for every party without producing a negative balance, otherwise the contract is ignored and the accounts are rolled back. A sample contract might look like this:
K_A agrees to send K_B the solution to problem P before 0:0:0 1/1/2000. K_B agrees to pay K_A 100 MU (monetary units) before 0:0:0 1/1/2000. K_C agrees to perform arbitration in case of dispute. K_A agrees to pay a maximum of 1000 MU in case of default. K_B agrees to pay a maximum of 200 MU in case of default. K_C agrees to pay a maximum of 500 MU in case of default.
4. The conclusion of contracts. If a contract concludes without dispute, each party broadcasts a signed message "The contract with SHA-1 hash H concludes without reparations." or possibly "The contract with SHA-1 hash H concludes with the following reparations: ..." Upon the broadcast of all signatures, every participant credits the account of each party by the amount of his maximum reparation, removes the contract account, then credits or debits the account of each party according to the reparation schedule if there is one.
5. The enforcement of contracts. If the parties to a contract cannot agree on an appropriate conclusion even with the help of the arbitrator, each party broadcasts a suggested reparation/fine schedule and any arguments or evidence in his favor. Each participant makes a determination as to the actual reparations and/or fines, and modifies his accounts accordingly.
In the second protocol, the accounts of who has how much money are kept by a subset of the participants (called servers from now on) instead of everyone. These servers are linked by a Usenet-style broadcast channel.
The format of transaction messages broadcasted on this channel remain the same as in the first protocol, but the affected participants of each transaction should verify that the message has been received and successfully processed by a randomly selected subset of the servers.
Since the servers must be trusted to a degree, some mechanism is needed to keep them honest. Each server is required to deposit a certain amount of money in a special account to be used as potential fines or rewards for proof of misconduct. Also, each server must periodically publish and commit to its current money creation and money ownership databases. Each participant should verify that his own account balances are correct and that the sum of the account balances is not greater than the total amount of money created. This prevents the servers, even in total collusion, from permanently and costlessly expanding the money supply. New servers can also use the published databases to synchronize with existing servers.
The protocol proposed in this article allows untraceable pseudonymous entities to cooperate with each other more efficiently, by providing them with a medium of exchange and a method of enforcing contracts. The protocol can probably be made more efficient and secure, but I hope this is a step toward making crypto-anarchy a practical as well as theoretical possibility.
-------
Appendix A: alternative b-money creation
One of the more problematic parts in the b-money protocol is money creation. This part of the protocol requires that all of the account keepers decide and agree on the cost of particular computations. Unfortunately because computing technology tends to advance rapidly and not always publicly, this information may be unavailable, inaccurate, or outdated, all of which would cause serious problems for the protocol.
So I propose an alternative money creation subprotocol, in which account keepers (everyone in the first protocol, or the servers in the second protocol) instead decide and agree on the amount of b-money to be created each period, with the cost of creating that money determined by an auction. Each money creation period is divided up into four phases, as follows:
1. Planning. The account keepers compute and negotiate with each other to determine an optimal increase in the money supply for the next period.
Whether or not the account keepers can reach a consensus, they each broadcast their money creation quota and any macroeconomic calculations done to support the figures.
2. Bidding. Anyone who wants to create b-money broadcasts a bid in the form of <x, y> where x is the amount of b-money he wants to create, and y is an unsolved problem from a predetermined problem class. Each problem in this class should have a nominal cost (in MIPS-years say) which is publicly agreed on.
3. Computation. After seeing the bids, the ones who placed bids in the bidding phase may now solve the problems in their bids and broadcast the solutions.
4. Money creation. Each account keeper accepts the highest bids (among those who actually broadcasted solutions) in terms of nominal cost per unit of b-money created and credits the bidders' accounts accordingly
Open Source JavaScript Client-Side Bitcoin Wallet Generator
A Bitcoin wallet is as simple as a single pairing of a Bitcoin address with its corresponding Bitcoin private key. Such a wallet has been generated for you in your web browser and is displayed above.
To safeguard this wallet you must print or otherwise record the Bitcoin address and private key. It is important to make a backup copy of the private key and store it in a safe location. This site does not have knowledge of your private key. If you are familiar with PGP you can download this all-in-one HTML page and check that you have an authentic version from the author of this site by matching the SHA256 hash of this HTML with the SHA256 hash available in the signed version history document linked on the footer of this site. If you leave/refresh the site or press the “Generate New Address” button then a new private key will be generated and the previously displayed private key will not be retrievable. Your Bitcoin private key should be kept a secret. Whomever you share the private key with has access to spend all the bitcoins associated with that address. If you print your wallet then store it in a zip lock bag to keep it safe from water. Treat a paper wallet like cash.
Add funds to this wallet by instructing others to send bitcoins to your Bitcoin address.
Check your balance by going to blockchain.info or blockexplorer.com and entering your Bitcoin address.
Spend your bitcoins by going to blockchain.info and sweep the full balance of your private key into your account at their website. You can also spend your funds by downloading one of the popular bitcoin p2p clients and importing your private key to the p2p client wallet. Keep in mind when you import your single key to a bitcoin p2p client and spend funds your key will be bundled with other private keys in the p2p client wallet. When you perform a transaction your change will be sent to another bitcoin address within the p2p client wallet. You must then backup the p2p client wallet and keep it safe as your remaining bitcoins will be stored there. Satoshi advised that one should never delete a wallet.
A successful attack on Bitcoin means attacking Bitcoin’s value.
There might well be a bug that could be exploited to put the network out of commission temporarily, but would soon be fixed and then the network would be up and running shortly thereafter.
To destroy Bitcoin permanently means to end the profit opportunities available with it, and that means either a malicious hashing attack on the network that makes mining impossible or such a malevolent policy against Bitcoin trade that even the black market abandons it.
Both of these require spending resources in proportion to the profits that Bitcoin enables.
In this article, I will discuss three reasons why such an attack is unlikely to succeed: antifragility, subtlety, and attacker defection.
The interplay of these three defenses makes Bitcoin into a kind of wave that rewards those who ride it and drowns those who resist it.
The first of these, antifragility, is exemplified in the fact that malicious hashing is impossible up to a certain fraction of the network.
Below the point that selfish mining becomes possible1 additional hashes per second are almost certainly beneficial because they increase the security of the network.
Any potential attacker, therefore, must weigh in the possibility that he may end up benefiting the network instead of destroying it.
A similar risk accompanies a legal attack on Bitcoin. Bitcoin can adapt to half-hearted attacks. It would move deeper into the black market where it would become permanently strengthened.
Furthermore, a legal attack could be easily corrupted into one that brings as many bitcoins as possible to the government agents instead of one that destroys it (see below).
Bitcoin’s Subtlety
Bitcoin adoption happens one person at a time, and this is true for potential attackers as well as the rest of us.
It takes an entrepreneurial mindset to be able to imagine what Bitcoin could become, given how comparatively small it is now.
It takes time and meditation for people to take Bitcoin seriously because most of its value is in the future.
By the time this happens, Bitcoin has become much more expensive than when they first learned of it.
Thus, Bitcoin is protected from attackers by being initially beyond their understanding.
When Bitcoin was very small, it was very stealthy and was completely unknown to the establishment.
Now they laugh at it, just as it has begun to grow bold.
Of course, we don’t know who really dismisses it and who is deliberately trying to draw attention away from it.
Bitcoin’s Allure
Furthermore, potential attackers are at a disadvantage for another reason.
Bitcoin tends to oppose organizations rather than people.
Even someone who stands to lose from Bitcoin by not reacting to it, such as a banker or government agent, stands to gain a great deal by buying now.
Only the very wealthiest people might reasonably expect to be worse off attempting to buy up as much as possible now than if it were gone. (This could happen if their attempt to buy caused the price to rise too fast relative to their ability to acquire additional bitcoins, to the point that they ultimately had less influence over the future Bitcoin economy than they have over the economy of today.)
Thus, the agency problem with Bitcoin affects bitcoin competitors as well as Bitcoin holders.
Nearly any government agent who begins to see bitcoin as a potential threat must also simultaneously see it as an opportunity.
He, too, can invest in Bitcoin. And why shouldn’t he?
Bitcoin may be a threat to his livelihood, but it may well be making him an offer he can’t refuse.
How can an organization that stands to lose by the adoption of Bitcoin provide its members with a better opportunity for staying loyal than Bitcoin provides for defection?
Even those who might resist the temptation to defect would have to think about the defection of his fellows.
How quickly is adoption happening? Is there time to mount an attack before Bitcoin becomes too powerful? How easily could the resources for such an attack be amassed, given both the ignorance and treachery of the other agents.
If such an attack would be unlikely to succeed, then buying now would be the only intelligent action.
Regardless of whether he liked Bitcoin, it would be futile to continue pursuing a doomed cause.
In the same way that the people cannot easily rebel against the king owing to a lack of coordination on their part, governments cannot rebel against Bitcoin for the same reason.
The government puts the people in a Prisoner’s Dilemma against one another, and Bitcoin does the same to government agents.
Bitcoin is like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Bitcoin attracts inside men to act as covert saboteurs. There have long been predictions from both bitcoiners and naysayers of impending government attacks, but I think there is a possibility that Bitcoin could win without suffering much resistance.
Moreover, although I said above only that any legal bitcoin attack could be perverted, the considerations discussed in this section tend to make such diffusion very likely.
Bitcoin defends itself by being obscure, but once it has attracted someone’s attention, its best interest is for that person to understand the logic presented here. For then he will also understand that his best course is to deny Bitcoin’s threat to his superiors and quietly to become its willing slave.
Right now Bitcoin Core does not follow the proper strategy to protect against selfish mining even at very low hashing rates, but the fix would be extremely easy to implement and would make selfish mining impossible up to 25% of the hash rate. ↩
The TSMC and his men stoled the mighty chip out of it's bed, And bound it on it's pcb plate. The hasrate be ours, and by the hashrate powers, It's where we'll roam!
Yo Ho... All you miners, Hoist the waffels high! Heave ho, traders and profets, Never shall We die !
Some miners have perished and some are alive, Others hold the hashrate high... With the keys to their wallets... And a pool's fee to pay, We lay to Crypto's Creed !
Yo, ho hash together, Hoist the waffels high! Heave, ho, traders and profets, Never shall We die !
Yo, Ho hash together, Hoist the Waffels high! The hashrate be ours, Never shall we die !
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
March 19, 2013, 08:40:02 PM Last edit: March 25, 2013, 08:37:28 PM by Hal
#1
I thought I’d write about the last four years, an eventful time for Bitcoin and me.
For those who don’t know me, I’m Hal Finney. I got my start in crypto working on an early version of PGP, working closely with Phil Zimmermann. When Phil decided to start PGP Corporation, I was one of the first hires. I would work on PGP until my retirement.
At the same time, I got involved with the Cypherpunks. I ran the first cryptographically based anonymous remailer, among other activities.
Fast forward to late 2008 and the announcement of Bitcoin.
I’ve noticed that cryptographic graybeards (I was in my mid 50’s) tend to get cynical. I was more idealistic; I have always loved crypto, the mystery and the paradox of it.
When Satoshi announced Bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, he got a skeptical reception at best. Cryptographers have seen too many grand schemes by clueless noobs. They tend to have a knee jerk reaction.
I was more positive. I had long been interested in cryptographic payment schemes.
Plus I was lucky enough to meet and extensively correspond with both Wei Dai and Nick Szabo, generally acknowledged to have created ideas that would be realized with Bitcoin.
I had made an attempt to create my own proof of work based currency, called RPOW. So I found Bitcoin facinating.
When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away.
I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin.
I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test.
I carried on an email conversation with Satoshi over the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing them.
Today, Satoshi’s true identity has become a mystery. But at the time, I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and sincere.
I’ve had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.
After a few days, bitcoin was running pretty stably, so I left it running.
Those were the days when difficulty was 1, and you could find blocks with a CPU, not even a GPU.
I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off because it made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me.
In retrospect, I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand I was extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning.
It’s one of those glass half full half empty things.
The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value.
I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there.
As the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the coins into an offline wallet, where hopefully they’ll be worth something to my heirs.
Speaking of heirs, I got a surprise in 2009, when I was suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease. I was in the best shape of my life at the start of that year, I’d lost a lot of weight and taken up distance running. I’d run several half marathons, and I was starting to train for a full marathon. I worked my way up to 20+ mile runs, and I thought I was all set. That’s when everything went wrong.
My body began to fail. I slurred my speech, lost strength in my hands, and my legs were slow to recover.
In August, 2009, I was given the diagnosis of ALS, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the famous baseball player who got it.
ALS is a disease that kills moter neurons, which carry signals from the brain to the muscles. It causes first weakness, then gradually increasing paralysis. It is usually fatal in 2 to 5 years.
My symptoms were mild at first and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.
Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial eyetracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair’s position using my eyes.
It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. It’s very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love programming and it gives me goals.
Currently I’m working on something Mike Hearn suggested, using the security features of modern processors, designed to support “Trusted Computing”, to harden Bitcoin wallets. It’s almost ready to release. I just have to do the documentation.
And of course the price gyrations of bitcoins are entertaining to me. I have skin in the game. But I came by my bitcoins through luck, with little credit to me. I lived through the crash of 2011. So I’ve seen it before. Easy come, easy go.
That’s my story. I’m pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest.
My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they’re safe enough. I’m comfortable with my legacy. [edited slightly] “