Well, in Slothcoin and Torum that is. And currently that is not worth much in real fiat currency. But it is one thing I can scratch from the bucket-list, becoming a multi-millionair. Currently though I'm not really involved in crypto fiat valuta projects actively anymore. My actual profession is that of graphical designer in sign and advertising, my brand OalDamster. And I live with my family in the north-east cost of the Netherlands, Europe.
Municipality of Oldambt, the city of Winschoten. About 40.000 inhabitants, so a relative small community. Not a place where crypto fiat valuta really has taken off yet. Many people here, myself included, are quite sceptical about the blockchain technology. Allthough I was very interested from the first time I noticed the mentioning of the term BiTCoin, somewhere in 2009. Had one of the first wallets, based on wxwidgets, but deinstalled it pretty soon after. Never bothered to mine, or get some BTC back then. Yes, I know, if I had only, back then... But I was never good at speculating, or any money related stuff for that matter. Break even and when possible keep something safe for the future.
Besides my advertising and sign interest I do some programming now and then. Not hard boiled nerd stuff, but geeky related. Love Open Source, got rid off Windho$e about two years ago completely and moved to GNU Linux. And it was a breeze to compile sourcode, so I started to look into some BiTCoin offspring code. My favorite algo, uptil then, was SHA3-keccak, so when I got into the NXT monetary system I used that one for mining TORUM. This 'coin' on the NXT blockchain was inspired by a prosporous town that disappeared under the waves in the year 1509. It now resides somewhere on the bottom of the Dollard inland see / bay. (Of the 15,09 trillion TORUM available, about 600 million have been mined so far.)
Allready had been going through several BiTCoin based code. And actually mined some SHA3 based ones. Until I came across Slothcoin and it seemed that there was not much activity in the community at that time. But I liked it so much, that I wanted to see if I could get it kick-started again. SLOTH could be exchanged at Cryptopia and it had SHA3 mining. So I started to dive into the sourcecode. And I do not 'C' that well, to me that programming language is almost cryptographic in itself. But given enough time, even pigs will fly. It became a community project and got it's release on all major platforms. With a facelift and a story, and mining changed a bit, so it would give 4321 SLOTH for every block found until the year 2020. All the payouts I did was in SLOTH that I had mined myself. And even traded some for LiTeCoin. (That is in millions at a time by the way...)
The young Sluke, as the mascotte is called, is still going Sloth by the way. And sometimes when mining seems to have gotten stuck, I pull it back out of the high difficulty. Mining with only a few MH/s. It is one of those cute coins that still can be solo mined by processor power only, from within the wallet. Not always though, but even on so called low-end machines you can still get some SLOTH, for years to come. Or you can mine at the UNOMP pool if solo gets to difficult.
With Slothcoin and Torum I have become a selfmade millionair, in SLOTH and TORUM that is, off course, but it is a kind of fun to say. And after all, it is all about a mindset. Because while exploring the world of the blockchain tech I found out that it almost has become a religion. Much seems to be based on a belief system and that still seems to make me a sceptic. So much even that I pulled the plug on developement of the next project that I had on my mind: the Mundo. Truly I'm convinced by math and logic that blockchains can not grow for ever and that blocks have limits in the amount of transactions it can handle. These are real world challenges, that have not been solved by adding even more chains, or building upon excisting ones.
Ethereum struck me even more considering these limits. Specially by putting even more into the so called blockchain of data. Slowing things down with just-in-time scripting, so even more high end hardware will be needed? But one thing that made me step back and stand in awe is the whole irony that comes with it. Open source becoming a platform for chaining humanity into patents, contracts, copyrights and what not? And the bigger the blockchains get, the more resources they need to continue, so peer to peer becomes centralisation. Were I thought that the plan was to keep the big players out, to stop the banking system from destroying our economy over and over, it seems they are actually taking the digital one over by brutal force. Now, that mimics just the analogue current economy ruled by banks, multinationals and governments.
So, I was a sceptic and am now convinced this is just the same old system in a new jacket. And the only thing left for the non-believer, is to speculate with it for as long as it can be done. But remember, never put more in than you are willing to lose, it is still a gamble, after all. Will the blockchain survive? The current one is allready moving towards the old powers that be, getting more centralized by the day. Only the little Sloth and mighty Torum still get my support, but only for the fun of it.
For the future some kind of crypto fiat valuta is needed that 'the system' is pushed out off completely. Rulled out even in some way. And do not keep record of every bleeding transaction, for goodness sake! That is something of 'the system', all we need is to know how much we can exchange. And maybe we can start by working towards equal value for everybody too . We have to get rid off the creation of money through debt and further devaluation caused by interest. The currnet money system controled by private banks, being supported for doing so by multinationals and governments. And until that time all BiTCoin, Ethereum, Lisk and what not, are just more of the same old same old.
In the meanwhile I'll remain a sceptic, because logic, math and knowledge tell me to do so.
Peace on earth and all well being,
OalDamster
