Jan. 1, 2016- asking "What is Bitcoin?"

got me blanks stares. We're done with that now.

All the drooling this month is causing a snowball affect. Bankers, governments, and people with lots of money are watching the one investment that has seen 3900% rise and is still rising, but they can't just hold out a million paper rectangles and receive Bitcoins.

Awesome and hilarious.

Who says I can't have one? The man with the funny hat!

The Child who hears "No" for the first time. Love it!

They are screaming, kicking, and trying everything.

to get that golden goose Bitcoin. And after all the anti-Bitcoin news, then pro-ETF, then the Futures Market going live, we now have a society that knows what Bitcoin is and that the rich cannot get their hands on (any quantity of) it.

Did I mention that Japan just made Bitcoin legal tender

I'm still on just December 2017

This month all Dash Masternode owners became millionaires.

Still just talking this month.

Nine out of ten ads that pop up are about Bitcoin

No way I am selling the rest till that stops.

On the other hand

My wallets are starting to place ads in my running balance list :(
Ads have also invaded blockchain.info after nearly 10 years of ad-free service.

Wake me up. Please!

I used to be pretty good at sifting sites to find the content (80% ads). I can't deal with ads. I auto block ICO ads the same as I do Youbube ads - just so tired of ads. I automatically click a video link then mute - eyes locked on the skip button. If I really like the channel owner, I just walk out of the room and let him have the view.

I love Steemit - my ad-free environment, so clean and easy on the eyes.

ICO ads? I would love to know more about them all, but that is impossible. I am sticking to the ones that have utility - checking Filecoin today because I really like the idea of IPFS and DTube. There is no time to check them all. If this keeps up, soon there will be no way to generate any interest in any of them - over saturated advertising audiences world wide.

What did you buy with Bitcoin this year?

My son came to visit in 2016. I had not wanted to spend my Bitcoins on flights because it was at $160.00 per BTC - but I gave him the same quantity I would have spent on those tickets last month. I paid him 10BTC for the tickets.

I hope he still has them and didn't buy back into a paper life!

I bought a Lenovo i3 laptop for 1 BTC when it was at $650.00. I also bought the monitor I am using right now the same day and I don't want to calculate its price.

I also keep selling coins to this very day, though rarely Bitcoins, mostly Dash. Some people Shapehift it to Bitcoins but it really doesn't matter. When Bitcoin goes up, Dash and others do as well.

I had enough to become one of those Dash Masternode guys in January of 2017, but I only kept 75% of them during the year.

Edit: at time of post

As I write, Bitcoin has lost $1300 from it's high. Dash has lost about $100 - if I sell 18 Dash ($1800 loss) to buy each Bitcoin ($1300 below its high), do I win? As I said, it was much sweeter when, theoretically, traders sold Bitcoins into alt-coins when it dropped and alt-coin prices rose. Gotta go, I have bitUSD on Openledger. That's the ticket :)

It's not just about Bitcoin

I sold out 369 days ago. Yeah, I still have a few, but transfers are still slow and a bit scary if you are sending more than a couple decimal points. I sold most of what I had when the network slowed, giving us two-week-confirmation times. I tossed it all into Dash and planned to get a Masternode instead of mining. But then I found Steemit.

Bitcoin is the big news maker this month, but the rest have had triumphs. I started long ago by mining on three rigs, but I have only a small fraction of the Bitcoins I had mined. Roughly five percent of the coins I had are still holed up in cold storage. The story gets better as you get away from Bitcoin. There is a lot going on in other markets like Steem, BTS, Dash, ETH and countless others. Though the exchanges are iffy. (see next topic)

Alternative coins have changed during 2017. They used to run opposite the price of Bitcoins, but now they run parallel. It used to be much sweeter, buying low-cost Bitcoin with rocketing Dash and vice versa. I am not sure why it changed, but I posted proof of the fact that they did not move together back when Steem was at 0.05 . Back then alt-coins would drop when Bitcoin went up, making it "alt-coin season." Then Bitcoin would drop and it would be wabbit season - time to buy low Bitcoins with rising alt-coins. That was when I got most of my Steem.

2017 - Exchanges became non-viable

Exchanges have delisted coins with no warning. Steem and SBD have been temporarily unavailable for withdrawal on Poloniex among other things on that site (not safe). The same goes for @shapeshift where Steem has been "temporarily disabled" for nearly a year. I have stopped going there weekly to see if it is working yet. Bittrex just decided to keep people's money until they submit to a strip-search documentation and enhanced documentation test. This reminds me of having to show papers at the borders throughout Europe and the Nazi movies.

It appears that governments have their knees in the ribs of anything that ends in ".com" and trades coins, twisting their arms for that name and address. I feel like none of the exchanges are safe any longer. I never used to put much money in them when I started mining Bitcoin and now I am going back to that same plan. A wallet only game, with the keys in my possession is the way.

Forced to stop using mainstream exchanges, I am back to trading face to face and trying new things. I have heard a lot about Openledger, and I am going to give that a try.

What about life.

I guess if I had to talk about my year, I would be mostly talking about Steemit. This platform and what I have invested here has given me an upgrade to a secure luxury building where my kids can learn to swim. I would have a car but that would mean going up to broadcast level and plugging into the matrix.

I enjoy reading, commenting and voting, but I also get out and just do what I want. I have a lot of pictures on my new phone (better camera) that I need to post. But i really wanted to get the 2017 post out first.

I snapped this one the other day as the top floor which was filled with neighbors and their cameras. It went end to end, but it was impossible to get the entire thing in one shot. The right side was the brightest and shows the double spectrum.

I found the end of the rainbow! It's right over there at the port of "La Boca" on the South-East side of Buenos Aires. I just don' t feel the need to fight traffic to go get the pot of gold.

No need look at the due dates on bills that come in. I just pay them the same day they come. Coinage will not change me and those six-year-old jeans are still the most comfortable. Besides I hate shopping.

Worries still come up - as a renter, I have to move again next month because they sold the apartment out from under me. I will move to another unit in the same building. Still, a lot of work. You know, you can't just hire someone to box and unbox your pendrives, private keys, computers or cash/metals. Sidetrack coming! There may be a pause when I decide on a new place, then have to move.

My two babies will both be in high school come March. I really have had my hands full with two teens in full blown puberty, another not so teen who visits at least once a year from the States. I am blessed!

Joyous Christmas and the best into 2018 to all!

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