In this post I wanted to tell a little story about my first steps into the crypto world.
It all started with the Brave browser. A friend told me. "Try this Browser! It has a better security concept than Firefox." I was surprised. Ok my beloved Firefox comes usually equipped with a strong no-script setting, two ad-blockers and a "kill every cookie and website settings" policy. Combined with a "never save any names or password" routine from myself. It’s ok for me if websites don't work as expected. So this Browser should have a better concept? I was skeptical, but the more I read about their anti fingerprint strategy I decided to gave it a try. With that I learned about BAT, my first crypto currency.
With Brave came BAT and finally uphold. My curiosity was awake. I asked myself: Whats all about this? There I made my way to Publish0x. Here I found really helpful articles about different topics at the crypto world. At this time BAT and Hydro were the tipping currencies. The first tips came in BAT. Yay I know what to do with that! Then my first Hydro appeared... Ok what should I do with that? More to read! While the research I found a important rule: "If it's not your key then it's not your crypto... It can be operated and you could not do anything against it... That's why you don't store your crypto on trading platforms!” Sounds reasonable, but trading platform? Do I use one? Uphold! That feels bad in two ways!
Since I planned to use it as a storage for my BAT and it's not compliant to the rule above, therefore not a good Idea. While reading about such rules I recognized that some BAT appeared in uphold too. Ok now I have a problem, I thought and on top, there are more actions appeared, requiring my attention!
Publish0x announced to remove Hydro. Two problems now? But the announcement calmed me down. It will be changed to DAI. This was good news for me: They convert it for me, so only one current problem: I need to find a Storage for my BAT and whatever is coming in future.
Ah there are wallets... Different kinds, different security aspects and levels, so wich to choose? More to read! My conclusion was: A hardware wallet sounds really good, but yet, since crypto is a beginning hobby for me it's too expensive (I owned about two BAT). A Software wallet is good, but could be compromised by malware which could infect your computer while every day use. Well ok that sounds familiar. I switched from Windows to Linux since Windows 10 was announced due to a similar concern.
At this time I helped a friend to setup his new computer. I got the older but still good Hardware as a thank you. So I took the decision to go with a software wallet on a linux based machine, which is only used for that purpose. I decided to go with a Exodus wallet. It was easy to handle and, yay, I got my own keys and wrote a backup of them on paper. Problem one solved, so lets try it! On Publish0x there are some BAT to withdraw. I entered there the target address, check it with casesensitivity three times and click on ‘request withdrawal’. A warning appeared: Do not withdrawal directly to a trading platform... I read their warnings twice. (Thanks for the helpful texts). Ok my target is a, relatively wide spread, software wallet therefore it should not be a problem. It's online and ready to receive.
At this time I did not realize that its not necessary that my wallet computer is online. I clicked withdraw... Success, but oh, it will checked by someone. In my opinion a good thing but how will it work? What if my computer is offline? Are the BATs then flying away...? I have to read more! But maybe I can solve the Uphold problem now. I logged in, changed to the 'send to' page, check the address three times... Checked that my computer is still online... click on send... Ah, fine, here is the value now zero! Success? Whats happening on the other side?... Nothing... Panic! What did I do wrong? Check the address again... it's correct. Do I have to contact the support? Then I saw the pending sign... Calm down, drache! It may need some time, like banks here need about two days to add a number to another. But may be Publish0x have a answer (later I found it there too) ... I quickly searched for my cellphone... After I opened Publish0x on the cellphone and typed in some words in the search, a window appeared on my computer. The BATs arrived in my Wallet! I got a litte more relaxed. One week later the BAT from Publish0x arrived without being online. Great!
The time was going by and I saw that Publish0x has more topics to offer. So I decided to write my first own article ever. It was easier than I thought. It worked out well and was (and is) fun.
Then Loopring appeared... Well my wallet don't support that... I have to look for a new one. May be not a bad idea since when one Software is down I could use another. Atomic Wallet suits my criteria and was recommended by Publish0x. It was nearly the same positive experience as with the exodus wallet.
Some weeks later I read about fighting diseases by providing CPU Power: ‘Folding at home’. That sounds good in my ears, since the covid lockdown had begun to annoy me a little. To prove that the project is not a scam I visited the website of our local university. There I found positive Information about the project. So I read more than one tutorial to setup this. One of the best I found was at the Banano site.
They are two different projects, but Banano are payed as a kind of faucet for done folding projects! Great, I could help and learn more about the crypto world! I opened a Banano wallet and started to fold. Soon I got some Banano (BAN). Then I joined the Banano discord server. It was a lot of fun.
Not much later I ordered my first thing ever with the use of a crypto currency. A collection of Banano stickers for my laptop. As they arrived I really was excited. A great experience.
With Banano I read about Nano. For me it's currently a theoretical gateway to the rest of the crypto world. But as like the most crypto currencies I have seen yet, I like to hold it, excuse me hodl it.
Now the year is over and it was not a bad time for me in crypto terms. I learned much and now know there are nice people out there who write good articles that could help me. And hopefully I could provide some helpful answers or, at least, provide a nice reading time.
Thank you all at Publish0x and Banano! I am looking forward to the current year!
Below you could find links to the projects I mentioned in my post. Some are affiliate links of me.
