Newfie wrote:Here is an old question of mine.
Lets say you have a spare $100,000 laying around. You do not want to keep it in cash, you want it to be useful in a collapse situation. So it needs to be portable and of sufficient intrinsic worth that it will not loose value AND it needs to be divisible into small units, so that you can buy a loaf if bread with it.
Real estate is a great investment, not portable or divisible. Gold is portable but hard to wack off $5 worth. I have no clue about bitcoin divisibility, I suspect you sell it, convert it to cash.
I find this a difficult question. The only thing I can think of that works would be either junk silver or ammo. 22LR would work reasonably well but is heavy. And for me traveling internationally it is often illegal.
Other thoughts appreciated.
Guys I haven't forgot about your questions, but I was trying to figure out a way to simplify it, yet give a holistic type of answer. I was also pretty busy in the garden and watching the political clown show going on. Sorry.
My Bitcoin is taking off like a rocket along with the crypto market cap.
https://coinmarketcap.com/Today, I am listening to a podcast about a privacy coin called Pirate Chain. So I did a little Pre-search on the coin symbol ARRR (clever huh)?
On their website, there is a beginners guide which is well written and well organized to answer most of your questions.
https://pirate.black/beginners-guideIn order to understand how bitcoin works, you need to first understand how blockchain works, then you need to understand how bitcoin uses blockchain. The link above gives you the basics in a 15 minute read. Then goes on to explain their privacy coin and how it fits in. Believe me, it's a much better explanation than I could give.
Here are some excerpts:
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is literally just a chain of blocks, but not in the traditional sense of those words. When we say the words “block” and “chain” in this context, we are actually talking about digital information (the “block”) stored in a public database (the “chain”).
“Blocks” on the blockchain are made up of digital pieces of information. Specifically, they have three parts:
1. Blocks store information about transactions like the date, time, and dollar amount of your most recent purchases, transfer of funds to another person, etc.
2. Blocks store information about who is participating in transactions. A block for a purchase would record your name along with who you sent it to. Instead of using your actual name, your purchase is recorded without any identifying information using a unique “digital signature,” sort of like a username.
3. Blocks store information that distinguishes them from other blocks. Much like you and I have names to distinguish us from one another, each block stores a unique code called a “hash” that allows us to tell it apart from every other block. Let’s say you send a friend $100, and an hour later, you send them another $100. Even though the details of your new transaction would look nearly identical to your earlier purchase, we can still tell the blocks apart because of their unique codes.
Blockchain vs. Bitcoin
The goal of blockchain is to allow digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited. That concept can be difficult to wrap our heads around without seeing the technology in action, so let’s take a look at how the earliest application of blockchain technology actually works.
Blockchain technology was first outlined in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, two researchers who wanted to implement a system where document timestamps could not be tampered with. But it wasn’t until almost two decades later, with the launch of Bitcoin in January 2009, that blockchain had its first real-world application.
The Bitcoin protocol is built on the blockchain. In a research paper introducing the digital currency, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto referred to it as “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.”
Here’s how it works:
You have all these people, all over the world, who have Bitcoin. According to a 2017 study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the number may be as many as 5.9 million. Let’s say one of those 5.9 million people wants to spend their Bitcoin on groceries. This is where the blockchain comes in.
When it comes to printed money, the use of printed currency is regulated and verified by a central authority, usually a bank or government — but Bitcoin is not controlled by anyone. Instead, transactions made in Bitcoin are verified by a network of computers.
When one person pays another for goods using Bitcoin, computers on the Bitcoin network race to verify the transaction. In order to do so, users run a program on their computers and try to solve a complex mathematical problem, called a “hash.” When a computer solves the problem by “hashing” a block, its algorithmic work will have also verified the block’s transactions. The completed transaction is publicly recorded and stored as a block on the blockchain, at which point it becomes unalterable. In the case of Bitcoin, and most other blockchains, computers that successfully verify blocks are rewarded for their labor with cryptocurrency. (For a more detailed explanation of verification, see: What is Bitcoin Mining?)
Although transactions are publicly recorded on the blockchain, user data is not — or, at least not in full. In order to conduct transactions on the Bitcoin network, participants must run a program called a “wallet.” Each wallet consists of two unique and distinct cryptographic keys: a public key and a private key. The public key is the location where transactions are deposited to and withdrawn from. This is also the key that appears on the blockchain ledger as the user’s digital signature.
Even if a user receives a payment in Bitcoins to their public key, they will not be able to withdraw them with the private counterpart. A user’s public key is a shortened version of their private key, created through a complicated mathematical algorithm. However, due to the complexity of this equation, it is almost impossible to reverse the process and generate a private key from a public key. For this reason, blockchain technology is considered confidential.
How Bitcoin Works
Bitcoin is the first successful digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments by using a blockchain. The independent individuals and companies who own the governing computing power and participate in the Bitcoin network, also known as “miners,” are motivated by rewards (the release of new bitcoin) and transaction fees paid in bitcoin. These miners can be thought of as the decentralized authority enforcing the credibility of the Bitcoin network. New bitcoin is being released to the miners at a fixed, but periodically declining rate, such that the total supply of bitcoins approaches 21 million. One bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places (100 millionths of one bitcoin), and this smallest unit is referred to as a Satoshi. If necessary, and if the participating miners accept the change, Bitcoin could eventually be made divisible to even more decimal places.
Bitcoin mining is the process through which bitcoins are released to come into circulation. Basically, it involves solving a computationally difficult puzzle to discover a new block, which is added to the blockchain and receiving a reward in the form of a few bitcoins. The block reward was 50 new bitcoins in 2009; it decreases every four years. As more and more bitcoins are created, the difficulty of the mining process – that is, the amount of computing power involved – increases. The mining difficulty began at 1.0 with Bitcoin’s debut back in 2009; at the end of the year, it was only 1.18. As of February 2019, the mining difficulty is over 6.06 billion. Once, an ordinary desktop computer sufficed for the mining process; now, to combat the difficulty level, miners must use faster hardware like Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC).
Receiving Bitcoins As a Form of Payment
Bitcoins can be accepted as a means of payment for products sold or services provided. If you have a brick and mortar store, just display a sign saying “Bitcoin Accepted Here” and many of your customers may well take you up on it; the transactions can be handled with the requisite hardware terminal or wallet address through QR codes and touch screen apps. An online business can easily accept bitcoins by just adding this payment option to the others it offers, like credit cards, PayPal, etc. Online payments will require a Bitcoin merchant tool (an external processor like Coinbase, CryptoCurrencyCheckout or a variety of website plugins).
Privacy and Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a great store of value, but it’s privacy features leaves a lot to be desired. Although your public address for your Bitcoin wallet may seem like random numbers and letters in a list of millions of other Bitcoin wallets, it is far from anonymous and private. Think of it like a bank account without a name attached. All of your transactions are recorded; amounts, dates, times, etc. Thus, your entire history is easily shown for the world to see. It has been proven that in most cases, government agencies can easily find out what wallet belongs to which person by a variety of methods they use. Bitcoin is no longer like dealing in cash, which is untraceable when given from person to person in a private setting. This is where anonymous currencies like Pirate Chain come in.
There is more in the link and well worth the read. My initial take on Pirate Chain is it seems VERY PROMISING, and at $0.10 a coin you could play around with it at very little cost.
Newf, to answer your questions. If you and the seller/store keeper have wallets, you can make transactions as small as .00000001 Bitcoin which is about twelve cents today.
I may open a thread on Pirate chain if it pans out.