Can an Old (Entrepreneurial) Dog Learn New Crypto Tricks? Part Three

This old dog goes from nothing to WOW! I then take a trip with my family using Steem Dollars! You'll read about my adventure and how I proved to myself (and maybe you) that Steem dollars are for real! Guess what? If I can do it it so can you!

I'm jacked! So much has happened to me since I joined Steemit two months ago. I’ve found a new hobby which just might turn into a new job! Did I just write job? Actually I hate that word! Let’s just say that I’ve found a continued path to freedom because I love Steeming and I’m starting to succeed. Here's a quick re-cap of what Steemit has helped me to do (despite the fact that this old old dog was born in the 50’s)!

A Summary of this old dog’s progress

• I opened a facebook account in order to join Steemit. Would you believe that I’d never even used it
• I joined Steemit. That was the easy part but the really cool part is that I got paid for doing so!
• I posted my first blog. Writing it was fun and easy because I’m bursting with ideas and experiences. Man, was it exciting to receive up votes and positive comments.

Believe me, it’s a blast seeing the dollar amount accumulate at the bottom of the article. A few nights ago part two of this series started to take off. It was after midnight and I woke up my son and my wife to show them what was happening!

Take a look at my wallet as I prepared for my adventure!

Sure this may not be as impressive as some other wallets are, but remember, I had not put one red cent into Steemit. Only my time and creative effort! I did convert 300 of the Steem Dollars that I had earned into STEEM POWER and now I had almost 900 SD in my account. It was time for me to see if I could actually use them! I didn’t have a clue of how to do so but with the help of this community I was confident that I’d figure it out!

What was my plan and what steps did I need to take?

1. In preparation for converting some of my Steem Dollars into Bitcoin, install a Bitcoin wallet onto my iPhone.
2. Convert some of my Steem Dollars to Bitcoin.
3. Find the closest Bitcoin ATM and make a withdrawal.
4. Buy myself a beer with some of the money I've earned on Steemit! Man that sounded refreshing!

Carrying out the plan with a few twists and turns!

1. The internal Steemit search engine gave me many articles on choosing a wallet. First I tried a few more “sophisticated” ones but decided not to use them. They required a passport or identity card to verify and that sounded a little complicated to me! So I opted for the simple Breadwallet. Perhaps not the Rolls Royce of wallets, but perfect for my immediate purposes. I must add that I am keen to use @kencode’s Smartcoin wallet as soon as I get an android phone! I regularly read @kencode’s blogs. He’s amazing!

2. Another quick search on Steemit gave me many options for converting Steem Dollars to Bitcoin. I chose Blocktrades.us and am I glad that I did. Their website states “Our market engine scans across many market paths over a number of different cryptocurrency exchanges to find the best price for purchasing one cryptocurrency with another one.” That sounded good and I must say that it turned out to be quick, easy and intuitive. Blocktrades.us converted my Steem Dollars to Bitcoin and automatically sent them to my wallet! This was becoming more real all the time! Even my wife was getting on board!

Above left is a screenshot of the conversion that I did at Blocktrades.us. (I did a small trade first and I would suggest that you do the same.) On the right you see the Breadwallet with the funds that I received. (I’m not thrilled with the look of the interface but it does the job.)

3. With my phone wallet now loaded with Bitcoin it was time to turn it into fiat and spend some. I needed to find a Bitcoin ATM in my area. That was a snap using Google.

The closest machine was only about 30 km away but it was a one way machine where you could buy but not sell bitcoin. The closest two way ATM was in Milan but I didn’t feel like visiting such a big city so I opted for the one in St. Gallen. (There was a closer ATM in Luzern but I was conducting my experiment on a Sunday and it was closed!)

Although this was going to be a long drive my wife and son were also excited so we decided to make a day of it. With them at my side we were ready to have a little fun and adventure. As you can see from the pictures below Switzerland is a scenic marvel!

The two way machine pictured above is provided by Bitcoin Suisse AG. Pretty cool isn’t it? I’ll be contacting them to send them this blog and to tell them about Steemit! With our destination now planned it was time to get decked out in Steemit apparel and head out!

We drove through this beautiful countryside and then climbed up the San Bernardino pass. This pass, open only in the summer, climbs to an altitude of 2,066 metres.

Once over the pass we took a coffee break and I did a little Steemit promoting. We then headed off to our final destination.

This is the restaurant that houses the Bitcoin machine

4. It was now time to see if I could get a little cash in my hands and buy a cold one! Once inside the restaurant the waiter asked me if I’d like to order something. I explained that I had no Swiss Francs but only Bitcoin on my cell phone. He knew exactly what to do and lead me to the ATM. What a hilarious situation! The machine was down in the basement tucked sideways between a hot water boiler and a cigarette machine! This just added to the adventure and excitement and had all three of us laughing with joy!

Here is the waiter leading me to the Bitcoin ATM location. And there below is the machine.

I felt like I was somewhere in the underworld! (Next time maybe I will go to the big city!)

Going from Steem Dollars, to Bitcoin wallet, to cash, was a breeze!

It really does work!

With My Steem Dollars Converted to Cash it Was Now Time For my Reward!

The waiter seemed to be as excited as I was!

We each had a drink and then headed off to visit the quaint old city of St. Gallen

An Old (Entrepreneurial) Dog Can Learn New Crypto Tricks!

So there you have it my fellow Steemers. I’ve proved it. An old (entrepreneurial) dog can learn new crypto tricks and so can you! What will I do next? There will be more stories to write and this “Old Dog” will be taking this thing to the next level. However, after we spent the money in St Gallen something happened and I’ve got a confession to make! I’ll let you know all about it in part 4. Please stay tuned and thanks for your support!

All the best!

@kus-knee