A bitcoin problem for 2016, too slow transactions in a no patience world.

Everyday that passes we see an global environment that is becoming more and more tech based leaving most to believe the regular currency is a thing of the stone age. As different digital currency and cryto-currency pop up all the time the grand father of them, the bitcoin, faces a new problem which is being too popular.

 Its a lot of technical jargon to explain this so i will break it down for the average person. As bitcoin becomes more popular and the longer it lasts the longer it takes for the transfer of bitcoins from one person to another to happen. This is going to lead to an extreme problem with our modern world wanting things instantly. Ive seen how frustrated people get when they have to wait one minute for their debit card payment to go through, imagine 2 hours or 2 days, most would just give up and snap.

So as the bitcoin network becomes over saturated we can only wait to see how this problem will be addressed or if the bitcoin with be thrown into the cryto grave yard opening a spot for a new generation of currency.

Agora has gone down for the count

The dark net has another great site go dark, Agora market place is down for the count with no sign of rising back up. Not sure which site will take its place but will keep everyone posted.

Coin.mx not very user friendly

In my frustration with buying bitcoins I started trying different sites and exchanges I've never used before. I came across coin.mx and it seemed pretty legit. Had testimonials with the peoples facebook page links, had live chat support and a seemingly simple verification process. I signed up, put my card information in to verify it would work, it said it was accepted and then I put my card information in to do deposit of 55$ because on the site they were advertising that if you deposit 55$ that you will get 5$ free. As soon as I put through the deposit I got an email from my bank saying 72.50$ was taking from my account not 55$. I went back to coin.mx and it showed a message saying I needed to verify my identity with a video of my self holding my I.D, credit card and show both sides. So that made me a bit nervous but I did it, sent it but then I recieved a message that it wasn't accepted because I didn't show the back of the card for long enough. That made me more nervous because the security number is there. A live support chat person popped up and to "assist" me but I told them I want to canel the transaction. After telling them that they persistantly tried to convince me over and over again to try and verify after telling me 3 or 4 times that I wanted to cancel the transaction. After an hour of going through that with the support person they eventually said the transaction was canceled and I should receieve the money back in 3 buisness days, that was on Saturday it is now Wednesday, the money has been added back to my saccount but over all sketchy expeariance.

New found cheap darknet marketplace- Nucleus

I've had plenty of time for probing around the darknet this winter trying to dig up some new interesting stuff. After a bit I noticed that the prices on the Agora market place  (http://agorahooawayyfoe.onion/register/TfnealjBh2) were getting extremely steep so I decided to try and find a cheaper marketplace and found Nucleus marketplace (http://nucleuspf3izq7o6.onion/). It has a much smaller selection of products to choose from but some are up to 50% cheaper then Agora has. I haven't tried a purchase yet but will soon and let you know.

Bitcoins or ShadowCash

Ive been using bitcoins for years and years now but lately it is getting harder to buy bitcoins and stay anonymous. So in my frustration and searching I read about ShadowCash and they claim to be completely anonymous in every way that bitcoins are not. Their claim is that they are the "first true anonymous decentralized cryptocurrency" and that peaked my interest and then that's followed up by ShadowCash saying  "ShadowSend‘s unique zero-knowledge, dual-key stealth address and ring signature protocol enables near-instant, untraceable, unlinkable and trustless transactions."(shadow.cash).  That is incredible really but on top of that there are no fees or sign up and they have an encrypted peer to peer chat service called ShadowChat. As for a good market place to use this cash, they are working on that, it's called shadybay. The images they released of market shows its well laid out with great options and it seems to almost be ready for release. Currently you can only get shadowcash by trading bitcoins for them on exchanges such as bittrex.com.
Check out shadow.cash to check it out.

Hard as a Canadian to buy bitcoins

Yesterday I spent 4 hours trying to buy bitcoins and it was ridiculously frustrating. As a Canadian I know that it is a bit harder to buy bitcoins but 4 hours with no results is a bit far out there.  I know that quickbt.com works good for buying up to 0.2 bitcoins without uploading two pictures of your i.d and a couple pieces of mail, they just want you phone number to send you a confirmation text message and then you purchase through a e-interact transfer. I tried coinmama.com, even uploaded by i.d but they declined it for no apparent reason and with one site i tried they didn't even sell bitcoins to Canadians because each province has different laws and didn't want to make tax agreements with each province. I know they say they want that information for your own security purposes but in reality its from pressure from the government. The government doesn't like that they don't have control over bitcoins and they want to be able to track them as best they can and they are trying to get their ducks in a row so they will be able to come up with a way to do so. I know that BTC ATM's are a good way to buy but in my area of Nova Scotia there isn't any near me so that's out of the question. I hope that someone comes up with a fast quick way for Rural Canadians to buy bitcoins or if anyone knows of a way let me know.

Tor browser still a safe place to use

As many people question the safety of their privacy on the internet more and more are turning to Tor ( the onion router) to maintain that safety but are they really safe?

 The short answer is yes. Despite law enforcements media campaign about so called victories and hackers claim to have compromised the anonymity of tor it is actually still very safe. In interviews tor's main staff reinsure us that those are just scare tactics.

So while using tor just do so safely and cautiously double checking as you go. Play safe my friends.