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Computing Technology

Playing with Bitcoin

Blockchain and Bitcoin are still way too complex for mainstream adoption.
Here are some links I’ve had to use over the past weeks to manage a few simple transactions.
(Don’t trust these links – rather visit the sites directly – there’s a lot of mischief in this space)

https://blockchain.info – Bitcoin wallets, status, API
Note – not easy to get the private keys to one’s wallet, had to go through a BIP39 mnemonic conversion from https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39
More on blockchain.info private key management here: https://bl4nkcode.info/bitcoin/how_to_export_blockchain_wallet_private_key#bip39-standalone.html

Don’t underpay your Bitcoin transfer fees – you’ll get your money stuck for eternity.
https://support.21.co/bitcoin/transactions-and-fees/what-happens-when-a-fee-is-too-low
Check the current fee levels here: https://bitcoinfees.21.co/
If your coin does get stuck, luckily there’s CPP – Child Pays for Parent – perform a child transaction with one of the outputs (hopefully you have leftover coin to work with) and bump up the fee to the total satoshis per byte that it should have been for all your stuck transactions in that chain – Blockchain.info will give you each transaction size in bytes and you’ll need to multiply it out.

https://pool.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator/ – Bitcoin transaction accelerator (free), uhm, whatever.

BitAddress has paper wallet options.

https://blockexplorer.com/ Blockexplorer, among other features, will give you details on how fast blocks are completing, which should give a rough idea of the state of mining.

https://coinb.in/ Coinbin is the coolest – a javascript based in-browser wallet and manual transacting system.
If you can use this tool effectively you probably understand blockchain. It’s not for those who are careless with security or those who don’t want to perform very manual bitcoin transactions. They also offer a wallet, but best be careful you don’t make a mistake.

https://coinmarketcap.com/ – What are the total values of each of these currencies? Hint: a lot smaller than the values of the dotcom giants.

Bitcoin Cash
https://bcc-wallet.btc.com A Bitcoin Cash wallet. Very rudimentary, but does the job for this alt currency.

http://blockdozer.com/insight/status Blockdozer for insights into Bitcoin Cash addresses, blocks and transactions.

https://www.bitfinex.com/stats Bitfinex cryptocurrency data and charts

https://www.blocktrail.com/BCC Bitcoin Cash blockchain and block insights, including visibility to the test networks.

http://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-claim-bitcoin-cash-bcc-using-the-electron-cash-wallet Get your Bitcoin Cash

Other
https://chain.com/ – Roll your own blockchain…

https://www.rootproject.co/ – An Ethereum based project, let’s see if their noble plan works…

Convert between cryptocurrencies at: https://www.shapeshift.io and https://changelly.com

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