Bitcoin Links and Information

This page is work in progress as I find more information.

BitCoin

I have found myself recently reading allot about BitCoins, though I have not wanted to invest my own money
into them. I have been taking a few minuets each night to click on a few links to make a small amount, though one day the small amount may be a large amount. See below for my full list of the BitCoins sites I like if you already know what they are and do not want to continue reading.


Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency first described in a 2008 paper by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, who called it an anonymous, peer-to-peer, electronic payments system. Bitcoin creation and transfer is based on an open source encryption protocol and is not managed by any central authority. The creation of new bitcoins is automated and may be accomplished by servers, called bitcoin miners that run on an internet-based network and confirm bitcoin transactions by adding codes to a decentralized log, which is updated and archived periodically. Each bitcoin is subdivided into 100 million smaller units called satoshis, defined by eight decimal places.

Bitcoins can be transferred through a computer or smartphone without an intermediate financial institution. Interested parties can authenticate the ownership of bitcoin balances by using dedicated servers (the bitcoin miners) to authenticate the bitcoin transaction log using a public-key encryption scheme. Each 10-minute portion or "block" of the transaction log also allows for a predetermined number of new bitcoins to be awarded to miners based on computational data added to the log and confirmed by other miners. The creation of a new bitcoin is thus a special case of a transaction in which the new bitcoin deemed issued in exchange for solving a computationally intensive encryption problem. The number of newly created bitcoins per period depends on how long the network has been running. Currently, 25 new bitcoins are generated with every 10-minute block. This will be halved to 12.5 BTC during the year 2017 and halved continuously every 4 years after until a hard limit of 21 million bitcoins is reached during the year 2140.

More Information

BitCoin.org - Full description on what bitcoins are and the details behind the.

Mt .Gox - A bitcoin exchange much like the NYSE, TSX, or NASDAQ but for bitcoins. See the current exchange rates and you can also store your wallet here.

BitCoin Charts - Shows the current price for bitcoins from different exchanges around the world.

BitCoin Wallets

Your Bitcoin wallet is what allows you to transact with the world. It gives you ownership of Bitcoin addresses that you can use to receive coins from other users, and then lets you send those coins onwards. Just like email, you can receive Bitcoins when you are offline and all wallets are compatible with each other.

Software Wallets

Software wallets are installed on your computer. They give you complete control of your wallet. You are responsible for doing backups and protecting your money.

1. BitCoin-QT:  

Mobile Wallets

Mobile wallets allow you to bring Bitcoin with you in your pocket. You can exchange coins easily and pay in physical stores by scanning a QR code or using NFC "tap to pay".

1. Bitcoin Wallet - Android:

Web Wallets

Web wallets allow you to use Bitcoin anywhere with less effort to protect your wallet. However, you must choose your web wallet service with care as they host your bitcoins.

1. BlockChain: 

BitCoin Sites

Coin Visitor - This is the one I like the most. It allows for you to answer a simple image captcha every 10 seconds  to gain bitcoins and every so often you will get a prize.

BitVisitor - 5 minuet viewing of a page to get bit coins. 

Daily Bitcoins - Once every hour and you have to answer a captcha 

Happy collecting!

All Systems Go... Epic Journey Month 3.5

Last night I got the go ahead from my physiotherapist to resume or I should say to "test" my knee out at hockey which I plan on doing this Sunday. For the last week I have been doing light workouts at home to try and get strength back in my knee.

These workouts included:

• Exercise Ball: Lying on the floor with legs on the ball then lifting my body off of the floor by pushing down on the ball;
• Exercise Bands: Attaching the band to a door or something than moving my leg in different directions (positions) and holding;
• Balance Box: Try to stand on the box to keep it level;
• Squats: This is self explanatory;
• Sit-ups: This is self explanatory;
• Push-ups: This is self explanatory;

These are not much of exercises but it has helped me put strength back into my knee and legs as my knee is not giving out now and it does not feel so tight. I will continue with a couple of more days of home exercising and one more day of physio before giving hockey a go on Sunday. Than hopefully fully back to Epic Fitness on Monday to keep this journey going.

Epic Journey Month 3 or is it a Epic Disappointment ?

So this is now my third post of my road to better health and fitness and to document my path there from my gym visit perspective. But I think this month has been more of a disappointment than a journey.

During the end of January and the first week of February we took a winter trip to Florida to get away from the cold of Ottawa this time of year but also to visit my parents since they live in Florida six months of the year. Its a great way to break up the winter and make spring seem like its arriving quicker when you return. As with all or at least most vacations that I go on I tend to gain a few pounds from the lack of exercise and the gain of food eating and beer drinking and this time was no different since I went back up to about 195lbs after it was all done.

But during my visit I did purchase a neat new scale, the Withings wi-fi scale. This scale will weigh up to eight different people and keep track of their body weight, lean mass, fat mass and BMI. It will also send that data securely over wi-fi to each persons account so they can keep track of their weight loss progress. It gives you a nice little graph of your progress and you can set goals to where you want to be. You can also share the data with your doctor, trainer, friends or even on your website. I have posted one of the many sharable widgets below.

You may be reading this and wondering where the disappointment of this month is, well here it is. We got back from Florida on Saturday the 9th of February and had a nice relaxing night. I was planning on going to hockey on Sunday and right back at the gym Monday morning. I headed off to hockey the next night only to go hard into the net and hear a snap from my knee and I went down like a ton of feathers. I knew this sound all too well and I knew it wasn't good and I was finished for the rest of the game. After icing it that night, it still did not feel the best the next day so I visited the doctor and got confirmation to my suspicions that it was a torn meniscus in my left knee.

Even though I have been unable up to this point to go to the gym I have still been doing light exercises at home that has been given to me by my physiotherapist and continuing to eat healthy and I have been able to get back to my pre-vacation weight of 189lbs. But as of tonight after my physio appointment I have been given the green light to resume light carido exercising so now I must look forward to the upcoming month of March to get fully back into the gym, back on track, to heal my knee back to normal and to back to my goal of getting back into shape.