BTC needs to update it's not for people making less than $2 a day narrative
With transaction fees averaging $20 or more lately I started thinking man when I first started working I didn't clear too much more than that in a day. So I just did a bit of research. Current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour so for an 8 hour work day that's $58 before taxes and other deductions. In 2019 there were over a million people making minium wage or less in the US. That meas 1 transaction fee would eat up over a third of a persons wages for a day over a million people not in some third world country but in the US. You might thing that 1 million isn't too bad. OK lets take the $15 an hour minimum wage that's been proposed many times. Around 39 million people make less than that. That means for 39 million people a BTC fee would eat up over 1/6 of their daily income. Keep in mind that these figures don't include people not working so the number is really higher than 39 million.
So that's about 12% of the US workforce that a $20 transaction fee would eat up 1/6 of their daily wage or more. But what about the rest of the world? Well I couldn't find statistics for $15 dollars and hour but some research did turn up that around 82% of the worlds population lives on under $20 a day and 85% under $30 a day. So for 82% of the people in the entire world 1 tx fee would eat up their entire daily wages.
So with this info I say it's time to update that BTC is not for people making less than $2 a day narrative. It should be BTC is not for 85% of the world. Probably over 90% but I'm low balling here. If you needed another reason why BCH and it's low fees are the future here it is.
Wallets Need A Universal Plugin System
With all the new features coming to bitcoin cash and the already existing ones wallets seem to be all over the place with features. Some support SLP, some don't. Some support cashfusion, others don't. How many support flipstarter? Only electron cash still? Toss SmartBCH on top of it and I can see a mess forming. It's already possible to loose SLP tokens due to wallet incompatibility and that is not good.
All this got me thinking. Why not have a standardized plugin system for wallets? I think devs are smart enough to come up with an interface that allows any plugin to work with a wallet. Write a plugin for one wallet it works in all. Could be an SLP plugin, cashfusion plugin or even social media plugin like memo/member or noise cash.
I know there would be a downside to this of security. Bugs could cause issues that might not occur in one wallet but do in another or worse scammers could write plugins to steal coins. I think this could be worked around with a verification system sort of like the hashes used to validate program downloads now. Maybe even store those validation hashes on the blockchain. There would need to be levels of trust. Of course no trust is the lowest. Verified with X number of wallets with a list would be higher trust. Finally verified to work with the wallet you are using would be the highest trust.
I'm sure this would take quite a bit of work and cooperation to get up and running but I think it could have huge benefits. Imagine if people didn't have to wait for cashfusion on bitcoin.com wallet or flipstarter could work with coinbase or btc.com wallet. Possibly more important someone writing a new wallet could instantly have all existing plugins available for use. Could be huge for decentralized systems.
Pornhub & bitcoin or why we need scaling now
Reading r/btc just now about the addition of BCH to the payment options after Visa & Mastercard quit handling payments for Pornhub. That's when it hit me. I wondered how much space payments would take up on the blockchain. Of course I started with the BTC chain since the only thing about the 1 meg limit that is good is that the number 1 makes thing easy to calculate. I went looking for data on the number of subscribers but was unable to find it. I was able to find that there are 22 million registered users (probably more now as usage has shot up due to Covid-19). So lets do some calculations.
Starting with the maximum would mean all 22 million registered users did monthly subscriptions. Eyeballing the average number of BTC transactions per day at around 310k we get 22,000,000 / 310,000 for nearly 70.97 days. That means that if they all tried to subscribe with BTC less than 43% could in a month with no other transactions occurring.
Now that's a bit extreme but it makes a point. So now lets assume only 10% of those 22 million are paid subscribers. Again 10% for simple math. That would eat up around 1/4 of all the block space for a month on the BTC chain. Still a major impact on an already nearly maxed out system.
So what would this do to BCH? Well unless all subscriptions occur on the same day not much. We have plenty of space to handle even all 22 million subscribers in a month. So why do we need scaling now then? It's simple. What happens if 32 or even 16 companies like this decide to use BCH? We are maxed out too. We need to be prepared to handle what the future may hold. A day when Walmart or Amazon decide to use BCH as their primary currency.
Once something like this kicks the adoption can it's going to roll downhill. When it does it's going to snowball. We better be ready or we will end up flattened at the bottom of the hill.
BTC TX fee Could Buy A.........
I see a number of posts on reddit about what a current BTC fee can buy. It's usually something like a big mac, sub, or a beer. That's all and good but it's not what really matters. For most those things are luxury items. So lets take a look at some things more basic. Fees are way up today so to make things easy I'm going with a $5 tx fee.
Searching for info on how many people can be fed a meal with a bag of rice (1 kilogram) I came up with a range of between 10 to 25 people. Next I looked at what that bag of rice costs in different countries. In the US that bag of rice costs just over $4. That means a $5 BTC transaction fee could feed 12 to 31 people one meal. In Nigeria it's just under $2 so double that plus a little so say 25 to 64 people a meal. In India the cost is under $0.75. There a $5 tx fee could feed 67 to 167 people a meal. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/prices_by_country.jsp?itemId=115&displayCurrency=USD
Next lets take potatoes. Harder to find an answer for how much to feed a person a meal with these. Best I can come up with is a kilogram will feed about 4 people a meal. So looking at the potato chart US price is about $2.67, Nigeria $1.70, and India $0.40. So a kilogram of potatoes could feed nearly 8 people a meal in the US, 12 in Nigeria, and over 50 in India. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/prices_by_country.jsp?displayCurrency=USD&itemId=112
Now for all you beer drinkers out there lets check those prices. Going with .5 liter bottles of domestic beer. US shows $2.41 so that $5 fee will get you 2 beers. Nigeria is only $0.76 so a 6 pack with change. India at a $1.78 will get you almost 3. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/prices_by_country.jsp?displayCurrency=USD&itemId=15
So you can see that a high BTC fee could feed several people or buy a couple of beers for a person even in countries with high prices for food and beer. It's not about the luxury items like going out for a burger or beer at the bar. It's about what people in need can use to survive. Also keep in mind the prices aren't what you can actually buy things for. Shopping around I know you can get potatoes for $0.99 for a 3 pound and sometimes even a 5 pound bag. So under a dollar a kilogram.
Little Happy Spooktober for Memo, Member & Read.cash
Well last week I had an idea to make a little image for memo.cash. Just simply the words memo.cash in bone letters. On Saturday (more like early Sunday morning) I decided to give it a try. There are a number of bone fonts out there but I didn't want to take the cheap way out and use them so I did it the hard way. I found 3 individual bone clip arts I liked and use them to make letters. This was the result:
I liked it but as an image it was too wide and well empty. So I started tinkering. I added more and more clip art. It looked good but it needed something more. So then I made a background by blending some landscapes, a night sky, and finally added in something special. At that point I decided why just do memo? So I opened up a second copy of my work and saved it under a new name. Then I changed the text to member.cash. Had to make 2 new letters and move a few things around but most of it was the same. So now I had 2 images. They were nice but still didn't feel quite right. The sky was too empty. So I went back to adding more clip art. Copying it from file to file. Last night I thought I was done but then decided why not do a read.cash one too. I waited though so I wouldn't have to copy new elements to 3 images. I kept at it until just a little bit ago. I lost count of how many layers. Well over 100 though. Then I opened up a third copy and changed the text to read.cash. Only had to make a D and copy the A this time. Rest was just moving it around. After that I decided it needed one more thing. Some text at the top. So I did that and copied it back to the other 2 versions. Here are the final results.
This was all done in paint.net using free (I hope) clip art. Hope you like them.
Garden 2020: September Update
Well September is over and we are in to Spooktober now so time for another update. September was a pretty crappy month for me. I wasn't able to do much in the garden due to swelling in my feet and legs from the infection I got back at the end of August. About all I was able to do was harvest every 3 or 4 days. Cucumbers nearly all died but I managed to keep most of the zucchini alive. Did get some powdery mildew after some rain and humid days. I sprayed for it soon enough that I only lost a few plants. Peppers and tomatoes are doing well. Tomatoes got a little unruly but not like I could tie them much more anyway. Plants had already exceeded the height of the stakes. Watermelon did decent but I lost several to raccoons and lack of rain. They just ripened prematurely and rotted on the vine. Still managed to break my old record for them though. Even managed to get 2 cantaloupes this year.
Here are the totals:
Cucumbers: **July 682, August 551, September 161, Total 1394** Like I said above most of the plants died in late August. The rest really aren't doing well. Few decent cucumbers here and there but nothing like there should have been.
Peppers: **July 3, August 65, September 276, Total 344** A variety of different peppers**.** Cayenne lead the way with 139 followed by Jalapeno/Serrano at 93 and Sweet Banana at 82. Also had 28 Greek Pepperoncini and 4 green. There is at least one more variety out there but I haven't picked any yet. Lots of peppers though.Tomatoes:
**July 0, August 408, September 1457, Total 1865** Most of the tomatoes so far have been grape and cherry varieties. Only 35 larger ones so far. There are some starting to ripen but not many regular/Roma ones germinated. Still thousands on the vines.
Zucchini: **July 75, August 135, September 67 , Total 277** Not as many as the previous months. I did loose a few plants. Still 67 is 1 more than my previous record for an entire year. I thought they were finished twice now. First time I thought they were done I went out and there were another dozen. Second time 7. They look done again but then it rained and they all flowered. If we don't get frost tonight there could be another big batch.
Watermelon: **July 0, August 2, September 14, Total 16** Another record harvest. Old record was 13. Should have had at least another dozen. I have some plans to improve things for next year. Higher fence for starters. A 2 foot high fence with a top was not nearly hight enough. At least 4 foot next year and make sure it's all the way to the ground. Plants were already too spread out when I put the fence in this year so I had to cut some corners where I couldn't reach.
Cantaloupe: **July 0, August 1, September 1, Total 2** Might not be many but it's the first time I've managed to grow them. Well I grew one last year but it got stuck between 2 boards and came out flat and inedible. I lost 5 more. 2 to raccoons, 2 to lack of rain, and one just never got a husk so bugs ate it up. Funny thing is the 2 I did get came up on their own from last years failures. I didn't plant them. Next year I plan on putting in converting some watermelon space so I should have more.
Beets: **July 0, August 9, September 19, Total 28** First time growing these so guess it's not bad. Most I planted in pots. They did better than I initially thought. Now that I know how big they get I can space them better in the pots. Get them started earlier too so I can get 2 harvests. Still a few out there but they haven't popped yet.
That's the harvest so far. Neighbors have been well fed. I'll leave you with a few harvest pics.
Could Amaury Be Collaborating with an Exchange and Faking the Fork?
Something I've been thinking about for awhile now is what happens to all the money people speculate on the ABC chain futures if at the last minute he removes the IFP code and doesn't fork. Well CoinFLEX has the following in it's contract "If the coin does not exist by November 18th, 2020, the contract will be cash settled early at a price of $0." So it appears that if there is no fork then the exchange just keeps the money. https://cdnm.coinflex.com/wp-content/uploads/20200808161011/Governance-Futures-BCH_ABC-December-3.pdf
If the money is kept by the exchange then just put your tinfoil hat on for a minute. What if this whole thing is a stunt by Amaury working with an exchange to split that money? The 8% might not be the end goal but an exit with a lump sum of futures money might be. If he wants out it's possible.
Now even if this isn't the case what is to keep someone else from pulling the same thing on BCH or any other coin? Just what we need another way for scammers to make money off of crypto. There are definitely exchanges out there shady enough to get involved with something like this.
Who Will Retain the BCH Ticker
I keep seeing quite a bit of FUD about the BCH ticker. Here are the simple hard facts.
Exchanges decide what ticker they will assign to a chain.
Right now Binance, Huboi, Bitcoin.com, and OKEx are all signaling support for BCHN with their mining pools. Source https://cash.coin.dance/blocks
CoinEx/ViaBTC has stated they will remain neutral and support both chains Source https://twitter.com/yhaiyang/status/1297377355602653189
Historically exchanges have awarded the ticker to the majority hash chain.
As far as I know no other exchanges have come out with a stance on the possible split. So are the possible scenarios for the ticker?
Other exchanges follow Binance, Huboi, Bitcoin.com and OKEx and the BCHN signaling chain retains BCH.
ABC somehow manages to convince exchanges and they get BCH. This looks very unlikely at this time.
Exchanges create 2 new tickers and no one gets BCH. This is also very unlikely.
A mix. This is the most likely scenario. Majority of exchanges assign BCH to the BCHN signaling chain. Some exchanges create new tickers for both chains.
It's unfortunate but there are exchanges that have interest in harming BCH and will make things confusing. One of these could even assign the BCH ticker to the ABC chain on their exchange for just this reason. What is certain is that at this time nothing is certain. Still the most likely scenario in the event the split happens (and a split isn't even a certainty) is that BCHN signaling chain will retain the BCH ticker.
Garden 2020: End of August Update
Been a few months since the last update. Why? I've been busy with the garden and too tired to do much of anything when I get back inside. Days are getting shorter now and a few days of rain so figured I would do one.
The garden has done pretty well so far this summer. Took a big hit about 3 weeks ago when I got an infection in my leg and couldn't get out to spray for fungus so I lost most of my cucumber plants. Some things did very well this year like those cucumbers. I've more than tripled my yearly record for zucchini already and there is still at least a month to go. Some things didn't do so well though. Radishes grew like crazy but never popped. Strangely I had trouble with green onions this year and I have never had an issue growing those before. Not sure if it's bad seeds or the weather or what. My corn did well up until a storm knocked it over. I tied it back up and salvaged about a dozen plants. Unfortunately the raccoons got the ears of corn right before I picked them. Watermelons are well a mess. Grew like crazy, got outside the chicken wire enclosures, took over my pepper plant enclosure, then lack of rain kind seems to have made several of the watermelons rot on the vine. Raccoons took advantage of several I couldn't put cages around too. Still there are a few doing well. Beginning to really hate raccoons. Tomatoes I got in late but they are really taking off. Some plants are now over 10 feet tall. Seems I ended up with mostly cherry tomato plants. And again the damn raccoons hit the regular tomatoes pretty hard so far. Not even ripe yet and they just knock them off the vine and half eat them. Soon they will be higher up on the vines and out of their reach. Peppers are doing decent except for the ones overrun by the watermelons. Lots of cayenne coming on and the sweet banana pepper plants have been the big producers so far. Makes sense they were the first to germinate and get transplanted. Got a few cantaloupes doing well. The one plant doing the best is one that I didn't plant. Came up on it's own where I dumped pots last year. Of course those pesky raccoons got 2 of those too.
Overall not a bad year. Could have been better but had a few things that caused a late start for a big portion of the garden. Of course the early demise of the cucumber plants. So here are the stats for July & August:
Cucumbers: **July 682, August 551, Total 1233** I don't keep stats on the individual types of each variety. Just too hard to do. So many look alike. 1233 is the total of all of them. Even with the early end to most of the plants I still broke my old record of 1033 set back in 2010.
Peppers: **July 3, August 65, Total 68** Numbers are a bit low due to a few issues so far this year. First most of my seeds were from prior to 2011 and didn't germinate so I had to replant with newer seeds. Second I had a delay in getting the plants into the ground due to needing to remove mulch and landscaping fabric. Tried planting though it last year but the plants didn't do well so I pulled it all out. Third was weather. We had a really late frost this year so that delayed everything. Oh almost forgot individual totals. Sweet Banana leads the way with 45 so far. Jalapeno is up next with 12. All from one plant which unfortunately got broke in a storm. Last so far is cayenne with 11.
Tomatoes: **July 0, August 408, Total 408** Again late getting started. Bad seeds, bad grow bulbs, and the garden needing de-mulched. Of those 408 there were 374 cherry tomatoes and an additional green cherry tomatoes. Only 1 regular tomato with 3 green regular ones. Why green ones? Well simple. They get knocked off the vine or grabbed by accident when picking something else. Nearly all of them have already ripened. BTW cherry includes all small tomato varieties not just cherry. There are cherry, grape, jelly bean, etc.
Zucchini: **July 75, August 135, Total 210** I shattered my old record of 66. Most of these got in late too. So far nearly all the plants are doing extremely well. I've never seen zucchini plants so big. They are producing 7 pound zucchini in 3 days. Little too big. I'm dreading Friday. It's the next day I will be able to pick and there will be some 5 days old. Could have some 10+ pounders.
Other: **Beets 9, Cantaloupe 1, Watermelon 2** All of these were in August. I don't keep stats on some other things like green onions and any herbs.
A decent harvest. If you are wondering what I do with it all nearly all of it has been given away. My Mom eats some of the cucumbers, tomatoes, and the cantaloupe. I made a few jars of pickles. Rest was given away. Neighbors, friends, people walking by. Gave about 50 pounds of cucumbers to the local food bank but can you believe they had a hard time giving them away so they wouldn't take any more. At one point I put a couple of boxes on the hood of my truck with a free cucumber sign. I did manage to give nearly all away. Maybe 50 cucumbers have gone bad so far. I had one zucchini "explode" all over my kitchen floor when I picked it up. Another was about to so 2 of the 210 zucchini went bad. I have 3 zucchini, maybe 50 cucumbers, and a bunch of cheery tomatoes to give away right now.
I'll leave you with some photos of some of the harvests:
First Harvest
Tax Reporting & KYC/AML Implications of the IFP Tax?
I've been thinking about the can of worms the IFP could open up if it were to succeed. Originally I was thinking how governments could coerce programmers to add additional taxes that go straight to them. Say the IRS mandating a 34% tax on all mining revenue to be collected and only returned if you could prove you don't have to pay US taxes. Then I thought of something that may be just as bad. Wouldn't all the 8% IFP tax transactions themselves be taxable events?
Right now miners may be responsible for income tax on the coinbase reward at the time of payout and/or capital gains at the time of sale of the coins. If they need to transfer 8% of that to another entity they may need to report that to their tax authority resulting in another taxable event. Even worse this may make them be classified as money transmitters and responsible for full KYC/AML on that 8%. Where I live it's something like anything over $500 paid to a single person/organization in a year may require KYC. Who controls the address? What people get the money? What countries are they in? Are there sanctions on that country?
Now that last one could be a huge deal. Miner in the US and ABC has an employee in Iran or Venezuela? It may be illegal for you to send that 8% and the only way around that is to not mine that chain. Now imagine sanctions on China. Can of worms opened big time. More like exploded. Did they put any thought into all the regulations/laws this could run afoul of? It seems to me there is quite a bit of research that needs to be done here and I don't see ABC doing it. They will just let it fall on the miners.
Garden 2020: Transplanting Time
Been a few since the last update. Had a few setbacks. Turns out a bunch of seeds I had were just too old and didn't germinate. Also the grow lights I bought that were supposed to be full spectrum apparently aren't as they didn't provide the light needed for seedlings to grow properly. Lost most of my flower seedlings and a bunch of cucumbers because of it. Good news is I had already bought over 100 packs of seeds for next year so I just replanted most of the stuff that didn't come up except for the flowers. Way too late for those.
A quick continuation of the Starting Peppers Take 2: Part 2 from last time. The method does work but as I said above the seeds were bad. I did mange to get some cayenne and seranno peppers from newer seeds along with the ones that had germinated last time. I also planted some more seeds in starer pots outside. Nothing yet but I don't think it's been long enough yet. Hopefully I will have some more seedlings in a few days. https://read.cash/@FUBAR-BDHR/garden-2020-starting-peppers-take-2-part-2-32e95f5a
Now for the good news. Even with the setbacks I managed to get lots of cucumber seedlings. In the last 2 days nearly all of my zucchini seeds have germinated as well. Tomatoes were hit and miss. Some of the old seeds germinated some didn't. Seems they do better with age than the pepper and cucumbers do. Roma's were a total strike out though. Have a few pics of the seedling mayham:
I still have about 7 more flats in the basement that haven't germinated yet. Right now I'm working on getting the garden ready for planting. Ton of stuff to do there. Have some shrubs that need to come out. Might take out part of a hedgerow that has become too ugly and big. The main thing right now holding back any planting is the landscaping fabric and mulch. It has to come out. Already did the area where I plant most of the zucchini plants. I'm doing that stuff in the afternoon and transplanting cucumbers in the evening. Speaking of which in this pic taken yesterday I had 85 cucumber plants transplanted in hanging baskets. Today I'm up to 135.
This year I'm doing 5 plants per pot. I usually only do 4 but most of the cucumbers came up in pots of 2 and 3 so 5 it was. First no seeds germinate then you over plant and almost all do. Still room for probably another dozen pots in that corner and there are other places around the yard to hang even more. I'm also going to plant some other things in smaller hanging baskets I have. Broccoli, onions, basil, etc. Cucumbers don't do well in those pots so might as well try something else.
So I have a bunch of old seeds from 2006-2011. I didn't want to just pitch them so what did I do? When I moved the plants outside I filled the plastic trays they were in with a thin layer of potting mix. Then I just tossed in a couple packets of seeds. Think I have 9 trays with the different pepper seeds I had. Also have 2 with cucumber seeds. If they sprout I will transplant them into starter pots. If they don't well the potting mix will just go into a hanging basket or other flower pot. Nothing wasted. It's only been a few days so no results yet.
So much stuff to do. For once I'd like to get ahead but that never happens. Anyway here's a pic of my gardening buddy. Someone to talk to while I work. He doesn't say much though:
Amazing Evergreen Roots
I have 3 long skinny flower boxes in my back yard. Each one is probably about 4 feet long and 8 inches wide. I used to plant flowers in them until I got bit by something and sidelined from gardening for several years. Well last year I started the garden back up and this year I'm hoping to plant some flowers again if I can find any. The boxes need a good paint job so I decided to empty out the old dirt into the bottom for some large planters. One of the planters had a hemlock shrub sprout in it about 5 years ago. I've left it grow so I decided to transplant it at the same time into another large nursery pot. Well I tried to get a shovel full of dirt out of another container but couldn't get the shovel in. So I went with plan B and just pulled the hemlock out. To my surprise the whole contents of the box came out in one piece.
Turns out nearly all the dirt was gone. It's just a big ball of roots. A really neat ball of roots. Here's a close up.
I thought the top was moss but turns out they are some kind of evergreen too. No clue what kind. They haven't grown any and just stay about that size. Only the green tops were above the top of the pot. Everything under that line used to be Miracle Gro potting mix. I cut this one down to fit into the nursery pot. Not sure what I'm going to do with the other 2 boxes yet. Might have to do some research to see if I can find out what they are. See if they are worth saving or just some kind of evergreen weed. If there even is such a thing.
Hard to believe they were living and in the case of the hemlock growing with almost no dirt in an elevated box so long periods of no water too.
Member/reddit mirror bot possible?
Just read a comment on a post on r/btc that basically said there is no good content on member. That made me wonder how much it would cost to put every post/comment from a handful of reddit subs on member. This part would certainly be possible and shouldn't cost too much. Couple of dollars a day maybe? Most spam would already be filtered out since automodded posts don't make it to the api for bots to pick up or they just show something like removed by automod so easy for a bot to filter.
Then the first issue hit me. What happens when someone replies to a comment on member? Could we get that to show up on reddit? I'm sure it's possible to some extent. Some subs would allow it. Of course r/bitcoin would ban that bot in a second. Probably before it's first comment. That would be the first hurdle to overcome. Next would be replies to replies that don't have parents on reddit due to moderation or censorship. Really nothing that can be done here other than maybe notifying people on member that the above comment was removed on reddit.
Last issue I can think of right now is duplicates. Two types of duplicates. The basic double posts where someone posts the same thing multiple times. In my opinion these should be removed and just one copy mirrored. Second type is where the poster himself posts to both places before the bot can mirror it. This one is a little harder. Maybe a check for a certain percentage of the comment being the same before mirroring.
The real questions are would reddit put measure in to prevent this? and do we have anyone able and willing to code it?
Garden 2020: Starting Peppers Take 2 Part 2
So 4 days ago I started some new pepper seeds using a method I never tried before. Well today I got the initial results. 2 bags containing the seeds between paper towel layers had clearly visible sprouts. https://read.cash/@FUBAR-BDHR/garden-2020-starting-peppers-take-2-22a3ea39
Above you can see a bag containing Greek Pepperoncini seeds taped to my monitor with a white background. Another bag containing Sweet Banana Peppers had even more seeds germinate. Here is that bag opened up:
Now came the fun part of trying to transplant those small things. I got some potting mix ready by putting it in a bucket and adding water to make it wet but not muddy. I used hot water since the mix was outside and it's been really cold. Let it sit a little while while I figured out what I was going to put the pots on and where I was going to put them. When I put the wet mix in the pots I'd guess it was around 80 degrees. Could have been a bit wetter. I'll correct that for the next ones.
Trying to transplant those small things was a real challenge for someone with big hands. I tried using tweezers but the roots are nearly impossible to see on the paper towel. Gave that up and tried gently picking them off with my fingers. Worked OK but I broke one. By the time I was nearly done it occurred to me why take them off the towel at all? That paper will break down pretty quickly. The last 4 or 5 I did I just ripped a small piece of paper towel out with the root and stuck it in the pot. You can see of those on the lower left of the last photo. Half the jars are one type the other half the other type. Thee were more plants than jars so I just put 2 in some pots.
Hopefully they will survive. Next time I will do them all with the paper towel still attached unless they fall off of it. I folded the paper towel back over the remaining ungerminated seeds and put them back in the bags. I checked the rest of the bags but none looked like they had any seedlings yet. The Jalapeno seeds look like some might germinate by tomorrow as a few had dark green spots on the white seeds.
So far I would call it a success. The seeds germinated a day earlier than the 5+ days the packages said it should take. Guess they like my sever cabinet. Hotter peppers take longer so time will tell for the rest of the seeds. Hopefully I will get some Casabella, Jalapeno, and Cayenne peppers at least.
How BTC full blocks drive people from crypto.
Imagine you are in your local bar where you hang out every day after work having a beer or 20 (OK maybe 30 and a few shots). You and a few others are the only thing keeping the lights on. Then one day they hire a new manager. The bring in some entertainment and the place becomes popular. One day you are sitting there and the manager comes over and say hey there is a $20 cover fee now. How would you feel about that?
I've had the above scenario happen 3 times in my life. One place I walked out of never to return. They later went out of business not too long after that. The other 2 the owner wasn't that stupid and well I'm sure the managers got one heck of an ass chewing. Anyway I know how it feels is the point. This is what BTC felt like back in 2017. Us old timers who got into bitcoin for the low fees, fast transaction, bank the unbanked and potential to change the world probably felt the same way when the new Blockstream management decided to turn BTC into a high fee store of value coin that wasn't for the poor. I know it felt similar to me. I also know many people and companies quit using not just BTC but all crypto after that. Some may never return due to the bad taste it left.
This same scenario plays out on BTC every time there is hype about BTC and the price jumps. Influx of not only new investors but people who want to use crypto for purchases. Take the most recent halving hype. What happened? Lots of hype about it. Google searches go up and the price pumps (most of it probably artificial). Then when people try to actually do anything with it the blocks are full, the mempool overflows, fees go up, and it becomes unreliable. Now they realize they have been misled about the utility of BTC then the dumps begin. Do you think those people will come back to BTC or any crypto? Even if they didn't buy BTC they just watched their purchasing power go down by a decent percent.
Unless this cycle can be broken it will continue to happen. Of course each time it does there will be fewer people that haven't been pissed off before who will want to try crypto. People don't want to play the fool twice. Sad but this is what crypto has become all thanks to bad management of one coin.
Garden 2020: Ready for Snow???
So I thought I was going to start getting things moved outside this week. Things started off well with a sale on Miracle Gro potting mix. Placed an order and had them load it so I didn't need to go in the store. Got that all unloaded. and stacked:
Just a few bags. Hopefully some there to get next year started too. It's not all for the garden some of it is for flower baskets. The next day I dug out all my pots and went though them. Had to pitch several and some more need fixing. Few of the hanging ones can't be hung any more but will still work for on the ground.
Seems like a lot of pots but I used to have a lot more. I was only able to buy 3 new ones when I got the potting mix rest were sold out. I did manage to find a greenhouse supply store with some decent pots for cheap so I have 30 more on the way. Lots of cucumbers again this year. Of course the flowers will end up with the new pots since they look better out front. Garden gets the old pots.
So at this point I was all ready to start planting and did plant a few pots with green onions and beets. Then I checked the forecast. Snow. 26 degrees and snow tomorrow night. Good thing I didn't move anything outside yet. Looks like I'm delayed until at least Wednesday. Guess tomorrow I'll reseed pots that didn't germinate.
IFP: What Matters Now
Currently there is a lot of fighting going on about IFP. Some people trying to push agendas and others trying to split the community. I've seen quite a bit of this the last week on /r/btc and it's only getting worse as the upgrade date approaches. So what really matters right now? Mining pool votes:
Currently there are no votes for IFP by any mining pools. Why only mining pools and not miners? Well the nodes cast the votes not the individual miners. Don't get me wrong miners can vote but to do so they either need to change pools or go solo and hope to find a block. So with about a week to go until the upgrade there is zero support for IFP. That's what matters.
So what is all the noise about? Most of it is just people trying to cause a split. Just need to ignore them, downvote them, and move on. The outcome of this is not going to be decided on social media. It's going to be decided by those pools and they have probably already decided.
The only thing we need to watch for as this plays out are pools that start voting for it. If there are we need to know their intentions. Is it a hostile miner? Is it a miner that just didn't configure their software correctly? Watching and trying to correct disinformation is all we can do.
BTC As Only Store of Value Is Little Better Than Centralized Paper Certificates
Simple fact. If it doesn't have use then it's not really much better than any current centralized paper system. Why? Well there are many reasons.
Lets start with how it's stored. If it's stored on an exchange well all you really have is a login to access it that can disappear at any time. The old saying "Not your keys, not your coins". You don't even have a bank or exchange statement showing your balances and account numbers. At least if you have other instruments on an exchange or in a bank they are probably partially if not totally insured if something happens to that institution. If you move it off the exchange into your own wallet then well how do you use it? If it's not meant to be spent you have to go right back though those same centralized exchanges to convert to something that can be used. Same thing you have to do with stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments that already exist.
Well people are going to argue that you control it. Well you might own the keys but you don't have the power to move the coins. If the network is congested it's a crap shoot. Need to sell some BTC to pay the rent? Better pay a damn high fee or hope it doesn't get stuck in the mempool until after your evicted. Then there is where do you convert it to something usable? Again you have centralized exchanges. With full blocks and RBF in play in person doesn't work unless you both want to wait who knows how long for it to confirm. So what about decentralized exchanges? With full blocks they don't work either. Price fluctuates too much. Think your are trading at .1 BTC at $9000? Well by the time it goes though you might only get $850 to pay that $900 rent. Less after fees. At least if I own a $9000 certificate or bond I can trade it for it's face value and know what I'm getting. Stocks not so much but unless it's something with little volume your trade will probable execute faster than a BTC transaction.
Next they will say well just use Lightning Network. Yea right. Still have to wait for that TX to open the channel. Think $900 will ever route? I don't since LN was only designed for transaction under about $40 and even with that it still needs at least 133 meg blocks.
So as a store of value all you can really do with it is buy and sell it. Nearly all of this will need to be done though centralized services. The same type of services that already existed for other financial instruments. When you do this your coins become nothing but numbers in a database. You aren't trading BTC you are trading IOUs. At that point you don't even know if the coins really exist or are just made up numbers being tossed around by programs. No better than any other instrument at this point.
As long as BTC is intended to only be a store of value it has no real security. The security doesn't come from POW. Sure POW secures the blockchain but no matter how much hardware is securing it if you can't get your TX into a block POW means nothing to you. Use secures the coins. If you can't use an exchange to convert your coins you can trade them in person. Even better you can actually use them to buy stuff directly or pay people to do jobs just like cash. You know cash that centralized issued paper. Seems it's more useful than BTC as store of value too.
So without utility what good is BTC as an unreliable store of value that you may not be able to access when you need it? Utility gives value. People will eventually wake up to that fact.
Few features/ideas for read.cash
As I've been using read.cash I've noticed a few things that would be nice to have.
A logo:
I've already mention this in the forum. It would be nice to have an official logo to use for linking from other sites. Even better would be a set of graphics in different sizes with a little info about read cash on them.
Share on Memo/Member:
Have twitter and reddit why not memo and/or member. They both use the same protocol just need a way to determine which the person uses. Already one way on read.cash. Just look at which is linked in the profile.
Scheduling
I tend to write very late at night (or very early in the morning depending on your point of view). It's a terrible time to actually post articles as they get few views at that time. By the time people wake up they have already fallen down in the rankings and shares to them on other sites are buried too. A scheduler would solve this. The schedule button would save the article, ask for a time to publish, and give you where to share the article. Check the sites you want to share on, put your message, and just leave your browser open. Not sure if the shares are possible but it would be a great feature if it is.
Add hashtags to shares
When you share to titter for instance adding whatever tags you chose on your article on read.cash to the tweet would be nice feature.
Garden 2020: Starting Peppers Take 2
No they aren't bags of drugs. Sorry to get your hopes up.
Well so far I've had close to no luck with my pepper seeds germinating. Out of 144 starter pots I've had 5 sweet banana pepper plants germinate and maybe one other plant. It hasn't got it starter leaves yet just half germinated. It could be that it's just not warm enough in the basement but I have successfully germinated peppers the same way before. Some of the seeds might be too old but some were just bought last year. I'm not liking the odds of getting more plants so I decided to try starting a second batch of seeds. I did some research and found another method recommended by Burpee Seeds that I am trying.
This method doesn't use dirt to start the seeds. At lest not in the beginning. Here's what you need:
Pepper seeds
Damp Paper towels
Plastic bags
Marker
I started by gathering the above stuff. First I found the bags. I had a bunch of these little Ziploc snack bags so I tried those. Then I grabbed the seeds and took them to the only available table in my basement: my computer desk. Next I grabbed 3 paper towels (the select a size ones) and wet them. I folded them then took 2 more paper towels and put them around the wet ones which made them all damp but not too wet. Actually turned out to be the exact amount I needed to start 10 different seeds. Finally I found a marker that worked.
First steps were to label the bag and grab the seed packet. Ignore the hand writing I can't read mine either. It's supposed to say habanero. Next I tore one of the towels in half and laid it out flat.
Now for the seeds. Probably more than necessary but having no luck so far I'm erring on the side of caution here. Just spread them out on half of half the paper towel. Careful they might be just seeds but they still have heat so no touching any sensitive areas.
Now fold the towel in half so the seeds are sandwiched in between the 2 layers.
Now the hard part getting the towel in the bag. I've never realized how hard it is to get wet paper to slide on plastic. Real pain to get it in there. Takes some patients. Have to be careful and keep both the bag and towel flat or the seeds will fall out of the towel. When you finally get it in there zip it up. You want to keep the moisture from evaporating.
Repeat for each type of pepper.
Finally put the bags somewhere warm. The site suggested the top of a refrigerator. I had someplace better in mind. This is the top shelf of my server cabinet. Nice and warm in there.
Now it's just a waiting game. I'll start checking them in 5 or 6 days. Once a seed germinates it needs to be put into a starter pot. Hopefully this method will have better results. With my luck it either won't and I will have no hot peppers or it will and the others will all sprout too and I'll have way too many plants.
BTW if you are wondering why that shelf in the cabinets is on a angle it's just not attached. It was a spare shelf. There used to be tape drives on that top shelf but I quit using tape backup and switched to hard drives years ago. Was just a convenient place to stick that shelf when I cleaned up.
TX fees on BTC need to increase by $27.66 to retain current security
There are only 2 ways to make up for the mining revenue loss to a coinbase halving. First is with an increase in the number of transactions per block. Historically this has happened. But with blocksize capped at 1 meg on the BTC chain this will be the first halving where the blocks are already full and there isno room for additional transactions. Those transactions are limited to about 2000 per block on the BTC chain. At current price of approximately $8850 the halving will cut $55312.50 from the coinbase reward. To keep the current miner rewards each of those 2000 transactions would need to pay $27.66 cents more to replace the amount lost to the halving of the coinbase reward. It's simple math.
The other way to retain rewards is for the price of the coin to increase. It has risen from the 2016 halving by over $8000. Some would say that this means there is no need for additional fees as miners have already increased their revenue. I would agree with that with the exception of one major thing. BTC price is down from it's highs and miners invested in equipment all the way up to those highs. They still need to maintain their profit margin or turn off the equipment they invested in expecting returns at those higher prices. Others would say BTC price can just moon and there is no issue. Well we are right back to no room for transactions. Without the ability for people to use it there is no real demand for it to push that price up. Even if there were demand fees would still go up due to the fee market that increase use would cause. It's a loose loose scenario to the users paying the fees.
This will be the first halving without room for growth. Growth is important for a blockchain. The coinbase reward was intended as a temporary incentive for miners that would be offset by growth and the transaction fees from that growth. No growth fees must skyrocket or miners must turn off their equipment or move to other chains. Mining that is left becomes more centralized to places of cheap electricity. Hash rate goes down. The security that shills and trolls love to tout goes down. Centralization increases.
Get that popcorn ready it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. Don't worry about the salt I'm sure plenty will be provided by BTC maximalists.
Gardening: How To Make Your Own Labels
One of the problems I ran into when I first started planting seeds was labeling them. I tried a number of things over the years. First thing I tried was writing the names on popcycle sticks with a marker. Names wore off in no time. So then I bought paint markers. Same thing. Next I bought multi color popcycle sticks. Well those lasted a bit longer but by mid summer the color had worn off. The thing that worked the best was using different color and shape starter pots but that was pretty limiting and once transplanted into bigger pots the info was lost. Tried keeping all the plastic ones from bought flowers but again there were only maybe a dozen to choose from and I had to keep going back to my laptop to see what was what. So I finally decided to try making my own labels.
I got the idea from of all things making menus and other things for the local bar in exchange for free beer. Started off making just paper ones to fit into table top beer ad holders then moved to replacing their old, falling apart menus. Paper menus didn't hold up so I went to an old trick I learned somewhere back in school. Laminating them with clear contact paper. They worked great, lasted longer than the prices did, and got me lots of free beer. So I applied that method to my garden labels.
What you need:
Paper
Printer (optional)
Word Processor (optional)
Roll of clear contact paper or laminator.
Utility knife
Straight edge
Cutting board
First thing you need to do is come up with a layout for your labels. I used a word processor for this since I can't read my own writing anymore. The idea is to make them long enough that they won't fall out of the pots and wide enough to read. I went with text that would fit into half an inch wide strips. Most of the labels are the same font but some with longer names use a smaller font to fit. I also decided to put the name on both sides of the label. If you are using a printer for this hopefully it's double sided. I used to do this kind of stuff on a single sided printer and manually flip the pages. Had to toss a lot of stuff due to it almost never lining up the same way twice. If you don't have a double sided printer just print them on one side. If you don't have a printer just write them. Anyway you get about 20 or 21 on a 8 1/2" x 11" page depending on how small margins your printer will allow. It will take a few tries to get them match up front to back. Half inch margins aren't exactly half an inch on most printers.
Once you have the layout figured out it's time to print and cut them. You can print entire pages of each and have them for multiple years or do many different ones on a page. I did some each way. When you have them printed stack up a few pages, get your cutting board, straight edge, and utility knife and cut them into individual labels. If you have one of those guillotine office paper cutters use it instead. Do not laminate or put clear contact on them first. Why? If you do then cut them water will seep through the cut sides and into the paper making them unreadable as the year goes on.
Now take and cut 2 lengths of clear contact. The length won't match the paper size so pick what you are comfortable working with. Just make both the same. Now lay one piece of contact paper down on a flat surface clear side down. Peel the backing off so the sticky side is up. Carefully lay the strips down on the contact paper at least a quarter inch apart. The contact paper roll I used was 24" wide so I cut about a 16" wide piece and divided it in half. This allowed for a half inch extra contact paper on the top and bottom of each strip. So you should have a half an inch of contact paper on the top and bottom and at least an 1/8" on each side of the strip after they are cut. I say at least 1/8" because if there was one thing I could have done differently I would have left more room for the contact paper to adhere to itself. Once you have them all arranged on the contact paper peel the other sheet and very carefully place it on top. Start at one short side and slowly lay the paper down smoothing out any air as you go. This is pretty much a one shot deal so don't mess up. Of course it you have an actual laminator then lucky you. I never used one but it has to be easier.
Once the whole sandwich is together you want to use something to press it firmly. Rolling pin would work well. I think I used a beer bottle. Just want to make sure the contact paper adheres well to itself and try to roll out any creases. Then get that cutting board, utility knife and straight edge again. This time it's best to cut them one sheet at a time.
You now have some labels that should last at least the year. Just store them in something where they can be flat. I made the mistake of putting rubber bands around mine and sticking them in a jar so they kind of curl up now. They were made over 10 years ago so not too bad. A bit flimsy since I used regular paper. A bit heavier paper would help with the curling but all I had was regular and fancy card stock and the card stock was too expensive for this.
Gardening: How To Make Your Own Starter Pots
It seems like you can never have enough starter pots around (except when it's not planting season and they are taking up space). In addition to saving all the ones that come with bought plants I started making my own. It's something real easy to do and they are basically free from recycled trash.
What you need:
Drill (cordless preferred)
Drill bit about 1/4" to 3/8"
Spray paint (cheap)
Suitable plastic container
Start by saving some containers. Not just any containers though you need ones with a few characteristics. First is size. While you can use small things they become a real pain since they are easy to knock over. Something 3" or more in diameter is preferred. Old butter and margarine containers work well. Next is material. You don't want plastic that is too hard and brittle. It will break when you try to drill it. Pill bottles would be an example. You also don't want something too thin as it won't hold up. A cut in half pop bottle for instance. While it may work depending on shape it won't last more than one use. Third is shape. You need ones that either have straight sides or are wider at the top. If they have any kind of ridges they need to run vertically and all the way to the top. If there is any wider spot lower in the container the dirt will stick when you try to remove the plants. Whatever you choose you will want to wash them and if they have any paper labels remove them the best you can.
Once you have some containers saved up it's time to turn them into starer pots. All you need for this is a drill and drill bit. Piece of scrap wood might be useful to drill into if the container bends easily. The size of the drill bit doesn't matter much. It just needs to be big enough to allow water to drain while small enough to not let dirt out easily. Roughly 1/4" for smaller containers and 3/8" for bigger ones. You want to drill 3 or 4 holes around the side near the bottom of the container. Not all the way at the bottom. How far up depends on the size of the container. Small containers 1/4" bigger ones 1/2" or anywhere in between. You want the pot to drain but still hold a bit of water.
When you have those all drilled it's time for painting. Why paint them? Well seedlings don't like certain colors like white and most light colors. The reflectivity burns up the leaves. You want something darker. Black and dark green are good choices. Tomato plants like red but do well in black too. I used to go with different colors but now just go with black since it's still under $1 a can. Now you don't need to paint all containers. If they are already a darker color then you can use it. Really wouldn't need to paint that small country crock container but I might paint the bigger one because of the white on it. You also don't need to pain the bottom or all of the inside. Just about the tope half an inch of the inside although painting that will cover most of the inside with over spray anyway.
That's it just store them until you are ready to plant and then add dirt and seeds. I've done this with all sorts of containers over the years. Mostly those 2 sizes you see in the photo but I have a bunch of elliptical butter containers somewhere too. I've even used pop bottles with the top cut off in a pinch. Those didn't work too well. In addition to the sharp tops from cutting the plants tended to stick tot he bottom of the bottles. Had to cut them open to get them out. Being clear they worked fine for starting the seeds just a pain to transplant. Containers that stack are better for storing but I love those jars since they are very durable.
Gardening: How To Get Good Soil
It seems like compost piles became all the rage to getting good soil for your garden. Well I tried that a few years back and have to say it's a real pain in the butt. You have odors, bugs, and need to stir it. Not only that but it takes up valuable planting space. So as we head into planting season I thought I would share the good old fashioned way that resulted in my good garden soil.
Basically it's an old fashioned way of composting. It's slow. Probably even slower than regular composting. It doesn't really take up any space long term though. Only for a few days to a week. So how do you do it? Well apparently the first step is to find a grand kid that likes to dig holes. That's how I learned this from my Grandmother. I was the child labor. I swear I wold have dug to China if they would have left me with the shovel long enough. That's not what you want though. A hole 2 to 3 feet is plenty deep. Usually went down until I hit clay and then another 6 to 12 inches. Pull out any big rocks you hit. So how big? Well that depends on 2 things: How much room you have and how much stuff you have to put in it.
So now that you have a hole dug what do you do with it? Well you fill it up with any organic yard waste you have. Flower clippings, weeds, leaves, even grass clippings. Stay away from bigger shrub clippings and sticks as those take way too long to break down. What you have will vary with the time of the year. Fill that hole to the top. Stamp it down and fill it again. When you have it decently packed the next step is to fill the hole with water. Do this about 2 times then start covering it back up with the dirt you dug out. Yes you will have more dirt than seems to fit and that is a good thing. Just pile what you can on top, let it soak in, rinse, repeat. Whatever extra dirt is left mound up around and spread extra to low spots around the garden. The pile of dirt will sink into the hole as the material breaks down. It will go down pretty fast in the first couple of weeks.
That's all there is to it. Basically you are composting but under ground. No smell, no extra bugs flying around, no pile, and except for the time the hole is open no wasted space. If you want to fill it up over time just toss a thin layer of dirt over the material each time you add more. When you are done just remember where you did it and do another spot in the garden next time. You will have stuff breaking down and fertilizing your garden for years if not decades to come.
Garden 2020: Well That Escalated Quickly
About a month ago I started getting ready to plant some seeds. Original plan was to start some cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and watermelon plants form seeds in the basement shower that isn't used. Well with the whole covid-19 thing going on those plans changed. No way I was going to make trips to greenhouses to buy flowers so those got added to the list too. Luckily I have a bunch of seeds as you can see from the above picture. https://read.cash/@FUBAR-BDHR/and-so-it-begins-garden-2020-2892bf1b
First thing I decided to do was to move the new seed starter trays out of the shower since they hold water. Original plan was to move them to the laundry area but they eventually ended up on the basement kitchen counter. Yes I have a kitchen in my basement. My grandmother liked her old kitchen so well she had it moved to the basement when she remodeled. So I have lots of counter space. Next I went outside and dug out some of my starter trays and pots. Started off with about 10 trays and 105 4" square pots. Cleaning the trays was easy. Set them on the tables in the shower and well showered them off. Pots were a bit more labor intensive. First I knocked all the loose dirt off of them outside. Then I washed each one in hot water in the utility sink in the laundry area. Enough to get most of the dirt off and make sure there were no insect eggs.
So in a matter of a day the project went from 5 trays in my shower to 15 trays spread out over the shower, kitchen counter and laundry area. Then I sat down and sorted all my seeds to see what I had. Divided them into categories and alphabetized them. Added them all to my gardening log and quickly realized that I needed more pots. So round 2 of cleaning starter pots commenced. Grabbed all my round 4" pots, any starter trays that looked like they held water, and the rest of my 4" square pots. Washed all those the same way. While I was washing them I was doing some calculations and quickly came to the realization that if I wanted to do flowers I needed more. To cut to the chase 3 more rounds of grabbing every tray and starter insert for them and washing them all. On top of that I had some old plastic jars in the garage that I made into pots and never used that I grabbed as well.
So in under a week the project took over the laundry area, most of the kitchen counters, kitchen table and another card table. I am now in the middle of planting 17 types of flower seeds, 24 varieties of cucumbers, 10 types of peppers, 10 types of tomatoes, broccoli, cantaloupe, lima beans, watermelon, zucchini, and ever a pumpkin. I'll also be starting some beets, carrots, cilantro, basil, green and regular onions, and radishes outside. Going to be a challenge to get all this into my backyard garden. It will take every inch of space and then some.
Here is what the shower layout became. It's full of cucumbers and tomatoes. The color is off due to the grow bulb.
The card table is covered with flowers and cucumbers. Some have already germinated. More since these pics were taken 2 days ago.
Kitchen table has lima beans, sunflowers, and a pumpkin pot. Rest of the pots are for cucumbers. Most of those got planted today.
Kitchen counters have a variety of things. Cucumbers, peppers, flowers, and zucchini. The rest of those were planted yesterday and today.
If you are wondering what the pots are sitting on some are on the lids of the starter trays, others are on tote lids. I have a lot of lidless totes right now. When I move them outside in a couple of weeks I'll just shower the lids off, let them dry, and put them back where they go.
Finally my laundry area. Good thing I don't need to do any laundry for awhile. The washing machine has flowers on it. The sink I have been using to dump the potting mix into to fill the pots. When I'm done those large round pots in the sink will be filled an sitting on top of the sink. Those will have zucchini, watermelons
I haven't made too big of a mess yet. Nothing a quick wipe off with some Windex and paper towels or sweeper and mop won't fix. Sinks and shower are self cleaning. One almost mess. One of the trays that are supposed to hold water leaked. Made a bit of a muddy mess by the card table but nothing hard to clean up. Fixed that tray and another with some silicon and a garbage bag.
I have about half a day of planting to go then I need to put up the rest of the grow lights. If they ever get here. Amazon being slow on me.
Here is a list of what I am planting. The ones with a - in front of them are done:
Flowers:
-Daisy
-Echinacea
-Forget-me-not
-Hollyhock
-Lavendar
-Marigolds
-Morning Glory
-Nasturtium
-Pansy
-Petunia
-Poppy california
-Poppy oriental
-Portulaca
-Scabiosa
-Snapdragon
-Sunflower
-Zinnia
Cucumbers:
-Armenian
-Boston Pickeling
-Burpless beauty
-Bush Champion
-Celebrity
-Cross Country
-Double Yield
-Garden Sweet
-Lemon
-Little Delicious
-Lungo Della Cina
-Marketmore 76
-Mici
-Muncher
-National pickeling
-Pickelbush
-Pick a bushel
-Poinsett 76
-Spacemaster
-Straight 8
-Sumter
-Talladega
Tasty Green
Tendergreen
Peppers:
-Anneheim
-Casabella
-Cayenne
-Corni di Toro
-Greek Pepperoncini
-Habanero
-Jalapeno
-Poinsetta
-Serrano
-Sweet Banana
Tomato:
-Beefsteak
-Big Boy
-Brandywine
-Jelly Bean
-Jet Star
-Juliet (grape)
-Red Cherry
-Roma
-Snack Attack
-Super Sweet 100
-Basil
Beet
Broccoli
-Cantaloupe
Carrots
Cilantro
Green onion
-Lima Beans
Onions
-Pumpkin
Radish
Watermelon
Zucchini
And here is the current layout. Layout isn't quite complete and is subject to change a bit for anything not planted yet.:
384 small 8 48 flats
1 flat pansy
1 flat
32 petunia
16 zinnia
1 flat zinnia
1 flat
20 zinnia
28 Nasturtium
1 flat Scabiosa
1 flat Portulaca
1/2 flat Echinacea
1/2 flat snapdragon
1/3 flat Hollyhock
1/3 morning glory
1/3 flat poppy california
24 2 large 1 flat
12 zucchini
12 canalope
192 4 medium square 6 flats of 32
tomatoes
1 flat
Super sweet 100
Red cherrry
1 flat
beefsteak
big boy
roma
1 flat
brandywine
snack attack
1 flat
jelly bean
juilette
cucumbers
1 flat
12 taladaga
20 muncher
1 flat
19 sumpter
13 Pick a bushel
72 3 medium 2 flats of 36
1 flat Poppy oriental
1 flat Lavendar
75 big 5 flats of 15
cucumbers
1 flat spacemaster
1 flat pickelbush
1 flat bush champion
1 flat stright 8
1 flat double yield
10 big 5 each of 2 tote lids
cucumbers
1 lid armenian
1 lid lemon
40 big 4 flats of 10
cucumbers
2 flat national pickeling
1 flat celebrity
1 flat cross country
5 10x round no flats
cucumbers
1 flat marketmore 76
1 flat poinsette 76
1 flat garden sweet
1 flat boston pickeling
1 flat burpless beauty
360 5 peat pods of 72
2 flat peppers
4 rows casabella
3 rows cayenne
3 rows jalapeno
3 rows serrano
1 row corro de torro
2 rows x 5 all others
2 flats merigolds
1 flat
half daisy
half Forget-me-not
flat of 23 11 big single, 8 large 2x4, 1 small 4
cucumbers
1 small mici
8 large Lungo Della Cina
11 big tendergreen
3 big round black watermellon mix
3 big round watermellon mix
5 big round pots watermellon
1 big round pot pumpkin
6 small round broccoli
6 small round broccoli
7 jars sunflower
3 rice pudding lima beans
8 big round sun soy zucchini
1 jar tomato jet star
1 jar little delicous
10 jars lima beans
4 jars mici
4 jars taladega
? jars tasty green
Yes it seems like a lot and probably is too much. They are old seeds though so better to over plant and have some plants to give away then not have any germinate. Any potting mix from ungerminated seeds won't go to waste. I'll just put it in the bottom of hanging baskets with flowers and cucumbers.
Oh and here is one creature that is already waiting on the garden:
Haven't seen a rabbit in years. Too many feral cats around. But on my way to get a bag of potting mix there he (or she) was. Big one too. I'll just protect the seedlings and let him eat the weeds.
And So It Begins.... Garden 2020
Last of my Amazon order finally arrived so I figured it was time to start setting up. Previously I used my laundry area to do my planting but that is overrun with boxes from my ebay selling days. I came up with a new plan for starting plants this year. I have a shower in the basement that I've only used once. My original plan was to put a folding table in there but that fell through when the table folded in the wrong direction making it too long. I went though a few other ideas like chairs and 2x4 boards or saw horses but well I need the saw horses for other stuff and didn't want to get the chairs wet. So I brought in a 3 table set off my patio. They fit rather well. A bit shorter than my back would have liked but it will work. Easy to clean them off since well it's a shower.
I have most of the stuff I need left over from previous years. What I did need (or well couldn't find) were some starter trays. I know I have trays and where they are but I couldn't find my refills for them. Turned out the trays with the peat pods were about the same price as the refills for them so I just got the trays too. These will be for starting pepper and tomato plants. I have plenty of starter pots to start most things including tomato plants but pepper plants don't like to start in regular potting soil. So I use these little peat pods for starting them. They also save a lot of room for starting tomato plants but it does mean you need to transplant into bigger pots or get them in the ground early. Anyway I bought 4 trays. If I have extra plants I'll give them away.
I also bought 2 grow bulbs. I have 2 fluorescent ones in the laundry area but no way to put them in the shower. I have a couple of work lights that clamp on to just about anything small enough so I bought these bulbs to go in those. I'll put one in the shower and one over another table where I will be starting my cucumbers. Keep the fluorescent ones in the laundry area. I can still put some boards over the sink and start some seeds there too.
So what will I be planting this year? Well the main goal is cucumbers for my Mom. So lots of cucumber plants. A variety of tomatoes from cherry to grape to beefsteaks and sizes in between. Zucchinis fro my Mom's friend. Baby watermelons with hopefully some seedless ones. Trying cantaloupes again too. Then there is the small stuff like green onions, radishes, carrots, maybe some herbs like oregano. Maybe some new stuff. Think I have some other seeds like beets and lima beans. Plenty of stuff to feed the neighborhood again.
I think it's still too early to start seeds. Wait until next month. Not too early to be getting ready though. Just hope I don't need to use that shower for the next couple of months.
Could IFP Make Mining BCH Illegal In Some Countries?
We all know most governments hate things they can't control. They also hate privacy. So I started thinking. Governments have blacklisted address for other things like sanctions. Transact with those addresses and you are breaking the law. So lets say IFP does activate. What happens if there is a whitelist address that gets blacklisted by say the US government? It could make any miner mining BCH a criminal.
Now you might think this is far fetched but is it really? I can think of one perfect example of where this might happen: Cashfusion. I'm sure governments just love the idea of not being able to track coins because of this tech. Let's say the project gets whitelisted. US government decides the developers have committed a crime just like they did with other coin mixing services. They blacklist anyone dealing with known Cashfusion addresses. Boom anyone mining BCH could be committing a crime. If they are using a pool they might not even be aware they are doing it.
The IFP opens up so many cans of worms.
Bad Actors v Miners IFP Opens An Attack
We all know that BCH is under constant attack. There are at least 3 types of people mining BCH.
Honest miners - Mining for profit and to support the chain
Profit seekers - Don't care what they mine and switch to make a profit
Bad actors - Only mine to support other chains (BSV) and to look for attack openings
Now so far the first group along with part of the second group has been able to thwart any attack from the bad actors. This would continue to be true except for one thing: The Halving. Since BCH halving should occur weeks before the BTC halving rewards for mining BCH will be cut virtually in half. Miners then have incentive to mine the BTC chain until it's halving. With the reduced hash bad actors who want to force a chain split may be able to do it. Other miners would have to give up profit in order to defend. The bad actors could move more hash to the network during the activation period in order to force a split. They could even rent hash like they did during the BCH/BSV split. BTC miners who hate BCH (Slush, BitFury) could even throw hash into the IFP side.
Seems to me that the voting for IFP will fall right in the period between the BCH and BTC halving. It's a perfect storm brewing. IFP has become an opening for an attack and should be pulled immediately.
About that whitelist in the IFP
So I've been thinking about the whitelist. I haven't looked at the code nor do I plan to. From what I've read the whitelist is controlled by ABC. But is it really? Mining pools used to run their own custom builds based off of core. If they still do that with BCH then what keeps them from just pointing the whitelist elsewhere or if it's hard coded edit it in the code to whatever they want? Couldn't they just change their version to point right back to an address they own bypassing the 5% tax? Change if from going to ABC to BU or some other implementation?
Hopefully some developer knows the answer to this.
3 Ways Companies Can Support Devs
With all this mining tax and bringing in new developer talk the last couple of weeks it got me thinking. First was the funding of the developers via the IFP tax. I'm totally against this. Here's a big reason why which I commented on reddit yesterday: https://redd.it/f4q4fz
Here's one I just thought of. If this tax goes in it shows that BCH can be taxed. Why not an infrastructure tax for nodes? Why not an adoption tax for people/groups spreading adoption? Why not a foundation tax for bitcoin cash foundation? Why not a collection/distribution tax for an agency to do all the above? We can call this one the BCHIRS.
Any tax also shows governments how they can tax crypto. Add an 18% tax on every tx going to a world money organization. All it would take is governments putting enough pressure on mining pools to run that tax code.
Go ahead open up Pandora's tax return.....
So what are my solutions to the developer funding? The first one is simple and not really a new idea: Miners hire developers. This is the way it was in the past. Mining pools had their own developers and probably still do. They didn't run any node version that they could download. They made their own forks of the repos and modified the code to work for them. So why can't they just hire or contract developers today? They don't need a tax for this. IF they are willing to pay 5% or 12.5% of block rewards then why not just set that money aside for salaries for developers?
Now lets take that a step farther and get all the burden off of miners. Any big player in the crypto space should do this. Exchanges and payment processors come to mind. Companies like Coinbase and Bitpay should be making a lot more than miners do so they should support development too. Spread the funding around.
The second one builds off of the first idea. Instead of hiring developers they could sponsor them. A developer wants funding he puts a proposal out for what he's going to work on and asks for a sponsorship to do it. This could work together with hiring. Not everyone does this work full time. Few full time developers getting salaries/contract payments from various companies and many part time developers getting sponsorships.
The third idea builds on the need for new, talented developers. It's something businesses have been doing to get new people for a long time: Scholarships. Not sure if scholarship is the correct term but it's the idea. Maybe grants or work studies would be more fitting but I'm going with scholarship. Companies, groups, and even individuals setting up scholarship funds for blockchain developers is a simple way to get future talent interested in and working on bitcoin cash. They Scholarships could come with a condition that a certain amount of work be put into development in the bitcoin cash ecosystem. Whether that be on the node implementations themselves or other software like wallets it's a way to get new talent working on BCH.
Funding doesn't need to be complex. Sometimes the old, simple ways work the best. The hard part is just promoting the ideas to get businesses interested. Imagine the good press for an SLP token that's a scholarship.....
That's my to bits.
@FUBAR-BDHR
