Hello together,
The year is coming to an end and equal to the fact that my activities in the last few months were vanishingly small, I hereby put another post in the year 2021. Before I review a bit in general what has moved me over the last year, there are 2-3 points on our all favorite topic: cryptocurrencies.
IOTA airdrop before the end of the year.
I hold Iota already 4 years, meanwhile it is one of my "oldest" positions in the crypto market. After I refrained (among other things for tax reasons) from selling my Iota in the 2017/2018 peak, I transferred them to my ledger, where they still reside today.
Now, just before Christmas, the good news reached me: more parts of the Iota network are being rolled out, giving holders two airdrops. We are talking about SMR and ASMB. A redditor kindly described very aptly what the benefit of these two tokens is. I may quote him:
"The staking is for two coins SMR and ASMB (you can stake your IOTA for both at the same time and your IOTA is NOT locked while you are staking). SMR is for the separate network called Shimmer which will be used to test new stuff, before it's integrated to IOTA mainnet (like the entirely new OTVFPC consensus). If you are familiar with Kusama - this is something similar, but for IOTA. Shimmer will have smart contracts and full decentralization before IOTA. ASMB will be the coin that will be powering Assembly, which basically is the overall system that will handle smart contracts on the IOTA network. Smart contract validators will have to stake their ASMB and if they misbehave these staked funds can be slashed - which gives ASMB a clear and important utility (helping to secure the smart contracts).
Once Shimmer and Assembly will be live, both SMR and ASMB holders will also be able to stake their coins for 8% APY."
A more in-depth source can also be found here: https://blog.iota.org/iota-shimmer-assembly/
Specifically, this means for me and other Iota holders: the Iota can be transferred to the new Firefly wallet and subsequently staked by means of it. Starting 12/28/21, all staked Iota will receive a proportional share of SMR and ASMB dropped over a 3 month period.
Here is the link to the Firefly wallet: https://firefly.iota.org/
The process itself was self-explanatory, however, it could not be done on my end without technical issues. Therefore, here are two short tips, should you encounter the same problems:
- Ledger does not generate addresses:
a. Solution: Close the IOTA app, rebind Ledger and restart the generation. - Migration stops due to an error without an error code:
a. Solution: Do not run the recovery within Firefly via the "Legacy Variant", but select the Firefly recovery. The migration is then possible via the "Migration" button in the interface. It is recommended to perform a small test migration to exclude irreversible errors.
NEO has switched to NEON3
NEO has undergone a protocol change. All tokens must therefore be migrated to the new protocol. Holders have until mid-2022, to my knowledge, before tokens are lost forever. Simple instructions for migrating tokens on a ledger can be found here: https://medium.com/proof-of-working/ledger-migration-instructions-44b3b7c410e0
Note: The migration costs are comparatively high. I recommend (especially if you still have Shitcoins from 2017) to weigh up which asset migration is worth it.
r/CC's and Hive's common issues & concerns.
One little thing I'd like to note is how often I see parallels between Hive and Reddit's pilot cryptosub. A recent example is an ongoing discussion on the topic of posting with rewards waivers. Here is a link to that effect: https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/rmwg5n/ccip024_proposal_to_allow_post_authors_to_remove/
But now let's get to what I initially announced.
What moved me in 2021?
Corona, of course. Corona has given me home office, ensured that I can avoid unwanted social interactions without seeming like an ass, and given me a way to get my Master's via Zoom Calls without wasting endless hours at some educational institution.
Combined, Corona has saved me over 1,500 hours this year. That includes travel time, idle time at work, and time spent at local educational institutions.
You have to imagine that first. 1,500 hours equals 62.5 full days, or about 2 months. 2 whole months! In the eyes of most people I will have wasted this time, but I have to say: I haven't gambled this much in 10 years. And even if the air is gradually out again, I'm glad to have had a real gamer year.
Otherwise, the Corona issue is really wearing me down. I have great concerns about the current developments in my home country and am honestly only grateful when we can enjoy a meal together without talking about this topic.
Anti-Work Movement
Aided by the home office situation, I've had a lot of time to read. While I've written very little, I've read for many hours each day. Among others here, on Medium, on Reddit and various blogs. In the process, Anti Work got my attention and created in me a picture of a really ugly USA. For me, it is inconceivable what stories the people there have to tell, while another part of this population propagates an American dream that is probably more illusion than attainable reality.
The contrast to German standards in the subject of jobs is simply fierce and shows me that perhaps not everything is completely wrong in Germany after all.
Important decisions
2021 once again confronted me with the annual question: Where do I actually want to go?
To be honest, I still don't have an answer to this question. Of course, if you were to ask me this in a professional context, I would tell you some plausible nonsense. But the truth is, I want to be able to do what I want without worrying about anyone getting on my nerves. Simple and honest? But the truth.
At the same time, I don't see myself alone in the future. After many years with a wonderful lady by my side, I have decided to marry her. Don't tell her, I haven't told her yet, but I know she will be happy and say yes. This realization for me that I really want her and can imagine a long-term life together with her was probably the most wonderful thing about 2021. Before, this thought was a bit of a horror scenario for me, but that is no longer the case.
A product of our own
After Cryptosteel experienced severe supply bottlenecks and eternal delivery times at the beginning of the year due to the Brexit, I developed my own cold key storage with an acquaintance. Admittedly, on the cost side it wasn't necessarily the most worthwhile project and also in terms of time, Cryptosteel was ultimately faster. Nevertheless, I was quite proud after I held our own finished product in my hands for the first time and hit my seed. Unfortunately there are no pictures. If we continue to work on the project and eventually can offer products for sale, they will follow. Whether it comes so far, I can not say at this time. But I can say one thing: This thing is pretty cool.
Cryptohype
As far as crypto goes, this year has been pretty wild. Honestly, too wild for me. I decided at the beginning of the year to wait and see what the end of 2021 would bring and have stayed true to that decision. I couldn't resist putting a few more assets in my pockets here and there. I didn't sell anything, though, and I did so deliberately. In 2017, I literally gave away my profits while trying to chase the latest coin every day. I wanted to learn from this experience and was probably successful at it. Now (with two three exceptions) all crypto holdings on my part are tax-free to sell and in liquid condition, so I will be able to use my opportunity in the new year to take profits. My goals include increasing my bitcoin position, building a stable-coin backup, and cashing out about 10% of my portfolio in euros to redeploy to other assets and possibly invest in shared housing with my soon-to-be wife. If everything will go well, you will see me tripple-down on my Hive and powering them up again. If not, you know I fucked up.
Prospects in the new year
For the new year, I plan to participate more actively in what's going on again, including on Hive, and to post at least weekly. In addition, I would like to deal more intensively with the topic of tracking crypto transactions and evaluate to what extent it is possible for me to offer a service in this direction.
I wish you all happy and hopefully contemplative days. Concentrate on the most important and forget the nonsense around it. All the best & see you soon.