This crypto market collapse is temporary like all the others

HIVE has lost almost 80% since the jump we had a couple months ago, so now probably isn't a great time to sell for fiat. But after 4.5 years of fulltime posting, commenting, curating, and powering up, I've finally decided to investigate my options for converting HIVE into other cryptos (like Bitcoin). After the multi-market crash we're in now, there will be a recovery, and I want to be positioned before then. This post will walk you through my process of setting up a decentralized pathway to privately convert HIVE into other cryptocurrencies.

HIVE is as cheap as it was back in September, before the move above a dollar and ensuing spike to 3.41 USD.

I've always powered up everything I earned, and never taken any time off, so I've amassed almost 18000 HIVE. It's cheap now, but I do believe a bull market for HIVE is coming, so I've begun to power down. I may be early, but I've never done this before, and ran into issues last time I investigated it. I'd rather be prepared than scrambling to catch up.

I clicked an option I've never used before: "Sell".

At Blocktrades, you can trade up to $1500 worth every day without having to identify yourself (except with a confirmed email address). I used a new/dedicated protonmail account (also free and private).

One the account was activated, I had options for doing trades from HIVE into a few different currencies.

But first, I needed a wallet. You'll have to decide what type of wallet you want, as there are several to choose from. I wanted something for desktop PCs, that isn't too complicated to use, but has powerful options and supports multiple cryptocurrencies. I ended up choosing Atomic. The download and install was easy, nothing required but a password.

I clicked New Wallet.

I was given a 12 digit seed phrase to write down and put into my safe.

From the list of available cryptos, I clicked "Bitcoin" and was taken to this page.

I clicked "Copy" to copy my Bitcoin receiving address to clipboard.

I told Blocktrades I wanted to sell 200 HIVE for BTC.

I pasted my Bitcoin receiving address into the field provided.

I put my Hive blockchain account name (drutter) into the box, and a familiar popup asked me to confirm my password.

It only took a few seconds before the transaction was complete.

A notification prompted me to check my Atomic wallet...

And there it was, 0.0053 BTC in a private wallet, ready to be sent or spent.

No smartphone required, no bank account, no credit card, no government involvement, no corporations, no central exchanges. Just a free private email address, a free private wallet, and a free private currency exchange site.

You can only do $1500 a day this way, but if you're doing amounts where that would take a really long time, that's a nice problem to have. For me, that's not a major bottleneck, especially since I'm doing things in advance of the next bull run.

Feels good

Many of you have already taken these steps, perhaps long ago. Good on you! That's awesome. But for me, I guess I've been a little paralyzed, or was it stubborn? Or maybe both. No need to bore you on the details, but it has been hard for me to get this done.

From a layman's perspective, I'm normally pretty confident with finances, business, and economic stuff. Especially outside the stuffy corporate banking system! But with crypto, I've had a bit of a strange relationship. I discovered it in 2011, before many of you had heard of it, and by 2013 I was correctly predicting Bitcoin prices and trends. No, I never myself invested in it, for philosophical reasons. But like I said, I've earned myself a fair chunk of crypto, so it's time to figure out how to spend it. Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

So it feels good to have set aside an afternoon and made it happen. Now I can move HIVE off the blockchain. That's already something. And I can convert currencies privately and securely and instantly, within my wallet. And I can use Blocktrades privately to move HIVE back to the blockchain, and convert between other cryptos. I suddenly have a bunch of options. Hell, I could even crudely day-trade, if I wanted (I don't).

And it's all quite private and decentralized, two things I think all crypto should be. If it's not private and decentralized, is it really cryto at all? And I don't mean Monero level of privacy. I'm happy enough just being able to move my funds around and save/buy/sell without showing government ID all the time. And I'm completely against smart devices, so anything requiring that (you'd be surprised how many services do) are just completely useless to me.

Conclusion

If you haven't done something like this, I recommend you investigate it. It's not as complicated as you'd think. If you can handle the Hive blockchain, your wallet, and your keys, then you can probably set up a Blocktrades account and a new wallet like Atomic. You will have options you didn't have before, having spent very little time, and no currency.

If you need advanced options, large daily trading volume, or something tailored to smart device users, this might not be for you.

HIVE is down, but will likely find support soon, and I think this will ultimately be a buying opportunity.

DRutter

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta