Place your bets because today I’ll be showing you a bunch of emails I’ve received from companies in the Philippines!

As with my previous entry: I’d like to first say that I am not affiliated with any of the companies I will be mentioning and I do not work for an email service provider. I am just your regular email marketing recipient.

Without further ado, here are some of the things I’ve noticed in 2018:

1. They now use recognizable sender names! (I know right. Only took 6 years.)

My example in 2012 was S&R who used employee names (um, why) and Globe who just used the word “talk” as the sender name.

Sadly, either S&R took me out of their email list or they no longer send emails. Globe on the other hand, fixed this and now uses the appropriate sender name which for their case is “Globe Telecom.”

I also haven’t seen any other Philippine company use unrecognizable sender names.

Looking good so far!

2. Unfortunately, some brands still use image-based emails.

Again, let me repeat to you why it is NOT a good idea to send emails with just images:

• Depending on how big your image file is, it takes a while to load. And if you have email subscribers using their mobile data… in the Philippines… I’ll let you figure that one out.
• If it takes a while for some people to get that image to load up, some subscribers literally won’t even see your email if they have HTML disabled.
• Image-based emails are also NOT responsive. This means that someone on their iPhone will see something different from someone who’s on their 13-inch laptop.
• Your emails won’t be searchable. If you used a hashtag or maybe a promo name that they can reference, they won’t be able to search it in their inboxes.

Here’s an example.

PLDT’s email marketing service recently got compromised. They wanted to tell their users about it (which is nice, don’t get me wrong) but they literally used a SCREENSHOT of their Head of Customer Care’s letter.

On my phone, it looked like a letter for ants. Sure, you can zoom in but that reading experience sucks. Imagine if someone like my dad (who uses the biggest font size possible for everything) had to read this email on their phone.

Don’t even get me started on that very clear and creative “Spam email received” subject line.

Another one is Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. While I am very happy that they send out regular emails to tell their customers about promos and events, they still heavily use lots of images – even for text. What’s interesting is, it looks like they only recently did this. I checked their old newsletters and they weren’t so image-heavy then.

CBTL also likes using hashtags. A customer may want to copy and paste that to use it, but again, they can’t, because it’s an image.

3. Some brands still do WEIRD things.

Exhibit A:

For Father’s Day, SM Supermalls sent out an email with a link to a video that you can send to your dad in an e-card format.

Not sure why they thought people still send e-cards like we’re all still using Hotmail. Looks like they missed this tweet:

instagram is the new hallmark card

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 17, 2018

Nowadays, we can easily tag our dads on Facebook (which I’m sure SM also used). We can also send YouTube or Facebook links to them via iMessage, Viber, Whatsapp, etc.

But who knows, maybe they wanted to reach out to people without any sort of social media presence and who just use email to talk to their family. Personally, I don’t know anyone who fits that description.

Of course, I could just be just speaking for myself. So if you received this email from SM and actually forwarded it to your dad by filling out the form, let me know in the comments section below. Or maybe you’re from SM’s marketing team and this campaign actually had a ton of conversions??? Would love to hear about that also!

P.S. Can we also talk about why SM’s posters still feature Caucasians???

Exhibit B:

BDO asks you to CALL them if you want to unsubscribe from their newsletter. (That and they also use one big chunk of image for all their newsletters.)

I meaaaaaaan.

How does this even work?? How will they confirm that you’re truly the person who’s unsubscribing? Do you just give them your email address over the phone and then the person on the other line logs in to their email service provider dashboard and removes your email address from the list? Or do they forward your request to their Email Unsubs team?

Unfortunately, the Philippines doesn’t have anything like the CAN-SPAM Act in the US. I actually saw this one post by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal saying “spamming is LEGAL in the Philippines.”

You know what you can easily do though?

Mark the email as spam. And you will never see them in your inbox again!

As an email marketer, this is what you want to avoid but they literally left us with no choice. Which is quicker? Pick up the phone and call a bank hotline or mark the email as spam???

Cheesus crust, just add an unsubscribe link! And don’t make us go through 127 steps to unsubscribe successfully either.

Thankfully, I also have a list of who I think are good email marketers!

1. Lowbrow Casual Restaurants

This is the restaurant group behind restaurant successes like Bad Bird, Hole in the Wall, and Wrong Ramen. Aside from the fact that they serve good food (at least I think so), their marketing team is also top-notch.

They’re also smart enough to promote their email newsletter via different means:

• While eating at one of their restaurants, a server once handed me a flyer that promotes their newsletter. You can fill it out and hand it back with your email address in there.
• They promote their newsletter via their social media accounts. They also do promos that are exclusive only to email subscribers.
• They put out good content. This means people actually take the time to read them AND their readers also take the time to talk to their friends about it. Case in point, I had two friends tell me about their emails and how fun they were.

2. Flyweight Boxing Studio

They’re a group boxing studio in BGC that sends out simple but effective marketing emails that not only talk about their ongoing promos but also build their community.

From leaderboards to sales, they’re able to really maximize sending emails. Their email marketing copy is also pretty good – straight to the point. Oh and when you click on their images, they actually lead to the right section of their website. Plus points!

I also am a big fan of their website. You get to learn everything you need to learn about Flyweight if you’re a newbie, and you can buy your package plus book your classes (including your actual boxing bag location) all on their website.

3. Coins.ph

Coins is a mobile payments platform that allows you to send and receive money, pay bills, and even buy cryptocurrencies.

Their emails are also pretty good and they’re a solid example of combining text and images in email marketing.

My only issue with their emails is the unclickable images. As a marketer, you want those images to link back to your website instead of not doing anything. Usually, when I open emails like these, I’d click on the company’s logo or images to lead me to their website just so I can check what’s new with them (aside from whatever they’re emailing me about).

Shameless Plug: If you don’t have a Coins account yet, use my link and get ₱50 free once you verify your account! I don’t work for them, I just have a referral code!

Aaand that wraps up my email marketing update. It’s not comprehensive by all means and is just a look into MY personal inbox. So if you have interesting brand email stories to share, let me know!

The post Philippine Companies and Email Marketing: 6 Years Later appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

(Yes, yes, I know “ATM machine” is automated teller machine machine.)

And yes, Poblacion is where the famous P. Burgos St. can be found.

For the uninitiated, P. Burgos is famous because it is a known red light district. BUT! In case you haven’t been there recently, it’s actually been turning into a hipster spot with fancy coffee shops and cool new restaurants.

The hotel where this bitcoin ATM is located is called Sunette Tower. If you’ve ever heard of A’Toda Madre, it’s in that same hotel.

It opened for business about three years ago in May 2015, making it one of the first bitcoin ATMs in the Philippines. The first one was a “traveling ATM” installed by bitmarket.ph back in 2014. I actually didn’t know these ATMs even existed until I saw posts about it on the Cryptocurrency Philippines Facebook group. When I saw a bunch of people posting selfies at this ATM, I knew I had to check it out.

The hotel isn’t hard to find but if you’re taking an Uber or Grab, you may want to pay close attention as it’s easy to make a wrong turn.

When you get to the hotel, just go straight and then make a left where the elevators are. The guards don’t ask questions; it seems they’re used to people just going straight for the ATM.

This machine allows you to buy two cryptocurrencies: bitcoin and litecoin. You can also withdraw. But for this post, I can only tell you about my litecoin purchase. I’ll write a separate one when I withdraw!

But first: How’s the spread?

I’m going to show you my handy dandy spreadsheet again and compare my purchase with Coinbase‘s as it is the most popular place to buy litecoin in the US. Coinbase is not open to Philippine citizens as of this writing.

Note that the Coinbase fee increases as the amount you’re buying increases. The numbers below are based off my ₱2,000 LTC purchase that I did via the ATM. In USD that is $40 if we use the USD/PHP rate of $1:₱50. The usual Coinbase fee for credit card purchases of $100 and above is 3.8%.

I’m also not sure if this bitcoin ATM charges separate fees as I didn’t see it broken down during my entire process of buying. I’m assuming the fees are already baked in the sell price.

Dat price difference doe! Not bad, right?!

I was actually thinking of buying bitcoin but because I just bought some from coins.ph, I thought I’d switch it up a bit and try litecoin for those wanting to buy.

How to buy litecoin from the bitcoin ATM

The process is pretty straightforward but here’s a quick list of the things you’ll need before you head there:

1. Your phone
   • You’ll need this to verify your identity because they’ll send you a code via your mobile number
   • You will also need this in case you don’t have a printed version of your QR code address
2. Cash that you’ll be depositing to your litecoin account
3. Your litecoin wallet address
4. Presence of mind in case someone robs you – listen – you never know. Don’t bring unnecessary things when you go here. Leave your bling at home. Pretend you’re going to Divisoria.

Step-by-step litecoin purchase process:

I didn’t create a paper wallet from this machine so for this process, I’m going to assume you already know where to send your litecoin.

Step 1:

Select Buy Coins from the main screen.

Step 2:

Type in your mobile number in the Identity Verification screen.

Step 3:

Agree to the Terms and Conditions of Service because what choice do we really have if we want to use this ATM…

Step 4:

Type in the SMS code that was sent to your phone.

Step 5:

Select Litecoin.

Step 6:

You can scan your wallet’s QR code using the scanner on the right hand side of the machine or type in your address manually (error prone!!!).

Step 7:

You can take a screenshot from your phone and then just use that or print the QR code.

Step 8:

If you’re having trouble scanning your wallet or realize you’d rather create a new wallet, you can still do so.

Step 9:

Start cold sweating as you insert your peso bills.

Step 10:

Watch and be fascinated as the amount is registered as LTC on the screen.

Step 11:

Print the receipt. Keep it as your souvenir.

Step 12:

Voila! Wait a couple minutes for your wallet address to be loaded with the same amount of LTC that was printed on your receipt.

Overall thoughts

Buying litecoin from this bitcoin ATM was a pretty smooth experience and the spread is definitely not bad. If you don’t have access to LTC, this has to be your best bet because you won’t have to deal with exchanging your BTC for LTC anymore. You can have it directly as LTC.

My only concern here is safety. I definitely don’t recommend going here by yourself and at night.

I’m not sure if there are other bitcoin ATMs in Manila but so far I’ve only tried this one in Sunette Towers. If you’ve tried other machines, let me know in the comments section!

The post Did you know that there are bitcoin ATMs in Manila? appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

Really though, all you need to do is to fund your Coins.ph account through 7-Eleven, then buy bitcoin right away using that money! And by right away, I mean like… instantly. Because right when you pay at 7-Eleven, that money appears in your Coins.ph account within seconds.

Now that I’ve given my disclaimer for potential haterz, I can now cover essential information you need to know before trying this out.

The spread is pretty steep. Plus there’s a 2% transaction fee.

To give you a better picture of what I’m saying, I painstakingly put together a comparison table of how much BTC I’d get if I bought it from Coinbase, the most popular place to buy bitcoin in the US versus if I bought it from Coins.ph, the most popular place to buy bitcoin in the Philippines.

I’m using the same amount of money: ₱4,590 (because my smart self didn’t just buy a simple round number like ₱5,000) and the USD equivalent of it which is $91.8 with a USD/PHP rate of $1 = ₱50).

For reference, the prices below are based on my purchase date which was on January 2, 2018.

	Coinbase	Coins.ph
Bitcoin Price in USD as seen on their websites’ dashboards	$13,621.95	$14,815
Buy Spread	~$80 (dashboard price vs. actual buy price)	~$1,400 (Coinbase’s actual buy price vs. Coins.ph’s dashboard price)
Transaction Fee	3.84% for credit card buys worth $100 or more (instant)* 2.99% for bank transfer buys (7-10 day delay)*	2% fee for cashing in ₱101 – ₱20,000 via 7-Eleven Flat fee of ₱40 for amounts greater than ₱4,000 via bank transfer (see more info re: Coins.ph fees)
Starting Fiat Amount	$91.8 (₱4,590 in USD)	₱4,590 (₱4,500 + ₱90 for the 2% 7-Eleven fee)
How much BTC you’ll instantly get for $91.8 or ₱4,500 (USD/PHP at 50)	0.00644253 (With a 3.5% Coinbase fee*, your $91.8 is only able to buy $88.30 worth of BTC)	0.00607464 (Your ₱4,590 – technically just ₱4,500 because you gave ₱90 to 7-Eleven – is now just worth ₱4,319 because Coins.ph uses the sell price instead of the buy price after you’ve bought. That’s a ~₱30,000 spread)
Actual bitcoin price you’re getting including fees + spread	$14,249.06 ($91.8 / amount of BTC)	$15,112.00 ($91.8 / amount of BTC)

That’s like going to a currency exchange booth and seeing that your $1,000 is only worth ₱47,000 instead of ₱50,000.

Looking at both Coins.ph and Coinbase’s dashboard prices, you’ll assume the difference is about $1,193. But after all the fees and the buy spread that you don’t see right off the bat, the difference is actually not all that huge. Okay okay, it’s still a lot but at least it’s not over $1,000.

You can pay lower fees if you choose a cash-in method other than 7-Eleven.

I picked 7-Eleven as my method for cashing in because I wanted to be able to convert it to bitcoin immediately. That and my GCash account isn’t really set up yet.

However, if you already have GCash, this is your best option. It gets transferred instantly and only costs ₱40 for transfers worth ₱4,000 or more – unlike the 2% that 7-Eleven tacks on. Again, you can check out Coins.ph’s fees.

If you don’t have GCash but also want to pay the lowest amount of fees, another option is doing a bank transfer via UnionBank. Note that you don’t necessarily need a UnionBank account. You can just use the Cash Deposit option and they’ll give you the info you need (account number, name, account type) to take to UnionBank.

If you’re just about to create your coins.ph account, please use my referral code when signing up so you can get ₱50! I get ₱50, too!

Want to buy bitcoin at a 7-Eleven? Here’s what you’ll need:

1. A Coins.ph account. If you’re cashing in more than ₱2,000 and want to eventually cash out, you’ll need to verify your account. It takes about a day or so to get verified. And yes, it is safe and is only part of their KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) processes.
2. Philippine pesos.
3. Access to a nearby 7-Eleven branch.

Step 1: Using either the Coins.ph website or app, choose your cash-in method.

Pick 7-Eleven. Also, make sure you’re selecting your Peso Wallet and not your BTC wallet. Coins.ph currently doesn’t allow you to buy BTC directly.

Step 2: Add the amount you want to cash in.

Make sure to check how much money will end up in your account if you include the 7-Eleven transaction fee.

Step 3: Print or take a screenshot of the 7-Connect barcode.

You can also just go to your Coins.ph app on your smartphone when you’re at the 7-Eleven branch but to be safe, take a screenshot in case you lose internet connection by the time you get to 7-Eleven. If you forgot to print or take a screenshot and can’t find the barcode, just go to the History section on your Coins.ph app/website dashboard.

Step 4: Go to your favorite 7-Eleven branch within the allotted time.

You only get a certain number of hours to complete your payment after you’re given the barcode. Go past it and your order will be cancelled so make sure to go within the time frame given to you.

Once you’re at the 7-Eleven branch, tell them you’re making a “7-Connect” payment. They will know what this is and will ask for your barcode and scan it.

Step 5: Pay the amount.

You’ll get a receipt. Keep it as your souvenir.

Step 6: Once your money is in your Coins.ph account — which should be there in like a minute, go to your Coins.ph peso wallet and choose “Convert.”

Step 7: Choose the amount you want to convert to bitcoin and voila!

Your pesos is probably worth less now lol.

But don’t worry, you still have the same amount of bitcoin from when you initially converted. It’s just that Coins.ph uses the sell price on your account after you’ve converted your pesos to bitcoin. The value was higher before you converted because they used the buy price. I checked and it looks like the buy/sell spread is around ₱30,000. Ouch.

Hopefully bitcoin rises so your money also grows!

If this story makes you feel any better, I bought my ₱4,590 worth of BTC (including the 7-Eleven fee) last January 2 and as of this writing it is worth ₱4,939.36. It could also be worth a lot less in the coming days.

Other ways of buying bitcoin?

The fees and the spread from Coins make it really expensive to buy bitcoin this way. I’ve read some people say that they’ve made so much money from their initial bitcoin purchase that they don’t really mind this.

But if this is something you’re concerned about, a lot of people have told me that the best option people go for nowadays is through peer-to-peer transactions. Other options I’ve seen people recommend include the bitcoin ATM (which I’ll be writing about soon!), buybitcoin.ph, and Abra.

If you’ve found cheaper ways to buy bitcoin in the Philippines, let me know in the comments section!

*The Coinbase rates change depending on age of account. On their website it says 3.99% but my account, which is a bit older, gets 3.84%. Please note that your transaction fee may be different.

The post I bought bitcoin at a 7-Eleven in Manila and compared how much BTC costs at Coinbase vs. Coins.ph. appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

It felt pretty cool handing out paper wallets instead of ampao or fruit cake. And my friends and fam — bless their hearts… were pretty supportive of what I thought was a brilliant idea.

Look at me spreading bitcoin love! Showing my friends the beautiful cryptocurrency world. Teaching them technology!

NOPE.

It was a rookie mistake.

To my friends and family who received bitcoin from me… I am sorry. Now you shall be forced to #HODL. Or wait until bitcoin gets better.

Why giving bitcoin sucks

Contrary to what my mom thinks, I am faaar from rolling in bitcoin riches. This means the bitcoin “GCs” I was giving away as presents were in the ₱500 – ₱1,000 range. *cue laugh track*

If you’re new to bitcoin, here’s the reason why it sucks:

Should you wish to take your bitcoin out of the paper wallet to either spend or just withdraw it, you’ll find that the transaction fees are INSANE.

For instance, transferring ₱500 from a paper wallet to another wallet will cost you ₱400. LOLWTF. This means your ₱500 will now be down to a whopping ₱100. Who’s the cool gift giver now?!?

The transaction fees change depending on how many bitcoin transactions are being processed. The more transactions there are to process, the more people are willing to pay miners higher fees to prioritize their transactions. I checked again just now and the transaction fee is down to ₱250. So… yay?

[You can actually set your own fees and check current sat/b rates but even at 200 sat/b, the amount I’m transferring won’t even be enough to cover the transaction fee. It’s crazy.]

The only time it will be worth paying the transaction fee is if you’re moving a decent amount of money from one wallet to another. Not for some “cool” gift.

Buuut… it’s the thought that counts. Right?

As I’ve told my friends, at least they can say someone gave them bitcoin for Christmas. And if that thing does go up to $1M by the end of 2020 as John McAfee predicts, then they will own ~$1,000, if it goes to sh**, then they will have… remnants of a coin that once was. A piece of history! A laminated historical artifact! (Yes, I laminated the paper wallets I gave them.)

Were you also given a bitcoin paper wallet?

I know my friends are reading this because I told them to lol. A girl needs readers. But if you’re also lucky enough to have a “creative” (and naive) friend like me, here’s what you can do with your digital ampao:

1. Check your balance online

You can check your wallet’s balance on blockchain.info. In the search bar, you can type your public address (it’s the one that says Load and Verify).

Public Address vs. Private Key

Your public address (load and verify) is basically your “bank account number” which means anyone can deposit money into it. You can give it to someone so they can send you money but this means that someone can also check the transactions within that address.

Your private key (spend) is what you need to withdraw your bitcoin or spend it. Only you should have access to it. Think of your private key as the password or PIN to your bank account.

2. Check your balance via the Blockchain app

You can also download the Blockchain app and add your public address as a “watch-only” address so that the BTC remains in your paper wallet but also allows you to track the value of your BTC. This is the safest route so that your private key remains in your paper wallet. (Or also with your gift giver, if she/he has a copy of it)

Remember, you will only scan the Load and Verify QR code for this one – NOT the “Spend” QR code or your private keys.

1. Download the Blockchain app and create an account.
2. Go to Bitcoin Addresses.
3. Under Imported Addresses, tap on the + sign to add a new address.
4. Scan the “Load and Verify” QR code from your paper wallet.
5. Tap Continue.
6. Voila. Now you have a watch-only address on your Blockchain app!

3. Import your bitcoin

If you only import funds from this wallet to your Blockchain app, your bitcoins will be available in both wallets – the paper wallet AND your Blockchain wallet. This means that if someone gave you the paper wallet, they may also have access to your private keys and could potentially also spend/withdraw your bitcoin.

To import:

1. From the paper wallet address that’s now in your Blockchain app, tap “Scan Private Key.”
2. Scan the “Spend” QR code on your paper wallet.
3. If there’s a BIP38 encryption, type in the passphrase that was given to you. This passphrase keeps your paper wallet more secure because if a thief steals your paper wallet, they won’t be able to “redeem” it even if they have access to your private keys because they won’t know what the passphrase is. Hopefully your gifter gave you this.
4. You’re done!
5. Not really.

4. Transfer your bitcoin

Transferring (or “sweeping”) your bitcoin to another wallet is recommended for security purposes. Even if you trust the person that gave you the paper wallet, what if they made the mistake of printing 10 copies of your paper wallet and a thief gets a hold of them?

BUT, as I’ve explained above, this requires creating a new transaction. Which means transaction fees. Which means you’ll have less money.

If you transfer your bitcoin to your own wallet (mobile, web, or desktop), the paper wallet that was given to you can still be used. It’s just empty for now. (Kind of like my real-world wallet.)

People can still send you bitcoins but now the bitcoin that was initially in the paper wallet will be completely withdrawn and will now be in your wallet that no one else has access to.

To transfer:

1. Tap on “Transfer Funds” from the pop up screen.
2. Add the address you want it transferred to. You can manually type it in or use a QR code.
3. Pay the crazy transaction fee.
4. Be left with an even tinier amount of BTC if you were also given a tiny amount.

Aside from being able to transfer your paper wallet bitcoins to a different wallet other than Blockchain, you can also transfer it to an exchange and sell them for a different coin like ether, litecoin, or ripple. That is of course, if you’re willing to pay them crazydiculous transaction fees.

Hope you guys learned a lesson or two from my Christmas cryptocurrency experience! Happy holidays!

The post I gave bitcoin to my friends for Christmas. It was a terrible idea. appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

 
Before the planner fanatics get their pitchforks out, I’m not saying these notebooks are useless. If your Starbucks planner organizes your life the way no other planner can, then it’s a good purchase!

All I’m sayin’ is… if you had spent roughly the same amount of money plus a few hours of your time, and bought some cryptocurrencies instead…

OK. I’m not going to lie. This whole thing takes a liiiiitle bit of work. At least more work than walking over to a coffee shop and handing over your money to your friendly barista.

But not as much time as walking over to a coffee shop, waiting in line, and handing over your money to a friendly barista eighteen times.

If you’re new to cryptocurrencies, the work that you have to do is to LEARN something new.

Are you thinking it’s risky? Because it literally costs the same amount as a Starbucks planner. You’re not going to go bankrupt. This isn’t a YOLO kind of deal.

It’s more like LAL. As in… live a little. Lol.

But if you think this is all too much work and you’d rather spend your time scrolling through that endless social media feed for hours on end… you can now go back to doing that. (Which btw, according to academic research, may even put you in a bad mood.)

OTHERWISE, welcome to my mini money making adventure!

Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency

Contrary to what my parents think, there are actually over 1,300 other cryptocurrencies out there. These are also known as “altcoins” or coins that are an alternative to bitcoin.

A lot of these altcoins are also waaaay cheaper than bitcoin. We’re talking like $0.13 or ₱6 per coin cheap. Remember, bitcoin started at $0.08 back in 2010. I’m not saying these altcoins will also be worth $20,000 each in the coming years but… who knows.

If you’re wondering why it’s all bitcoin you keep hearing about, it’s because it was the first-ever and biggest cryptocurrency out there.

Anyhoo, today, I shall share with you what I’ve learned about three altcoins! These three are what I bought instead of a Starbucks planner:

1. Steem (STEEM) is a cryptocurrency that users can earn by posting content on a social media platform called Steemit. Everything that a user does on Steemit… every post, every comment, and every like…earns a fraction of Steem currency. As one’s amount of Steem accumulates, it can be cashed out.

2. Lumens (XLM) is the currency for the Stellar network, a payments platform that aims to facilitate cheaper cross-border transactions that settled instantaneously, instead of the typical multi-day wait time.

3. Factom (FCT) aims to provide an unalterable record-keeping system. Businesses, schools, and governments can use Factom to safely store their records and other data so that they cannot be modified, deleted or backdated.

Show me the money

In case you think I’m making crap up, here’s a look at my buy orders from Poloniex:

And as of this writing, here’s how much my $54.80 or ₱2,740 is now worth:

I just made $41 or about ₱2,050! I don’t think I can make that sort of money from a planner.

How I bought my altcoins

I first bought bitcoin (BTC), transferred it to an exchange (Poloniex, Kraken, Bittrex) and then finally bought the altcoins in exchange for my bitcoin.

If you’re creating your first ever cryptocurrency exchange account, it could take anywhere from 1 to 4 days (depending on the exchange’s backlog) to get your account verified. You’ll need to send documents to prove your identity and also take a selfie. Don’t worry, this is safe. It is part of the companies’ KYC and AML processes.

But the value of those coins could also drop!

Yes, they could drop. To even zero.

Fortunately, this is money I’m imagining to have spent on a Starbucks planner. I’m not losing my life savings or leaving bills unpaid to buy cryptocurrencies.

Sure they could end up being worthless, but they could also be worth $1,000 each in a year.

For me, missing out on that Starbucks planner and suffering from Frappuccino FOMO will totally be worth those potential gainz.

The post Instead of a Starbucks planner, I used that money to buy cryptocurrencies. And now I’m up grande. appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

And where each digital cat you own is totally unique and can’t be replicated, taken away from you, or be deleted.

Call me crazy but this whole CryptoKitties business is GENIUS. If you haven’t been keeping up with the news, here’s a rundown of insane facts on this newest internet craze:

• A CryptoKitty was sold for $114,000 or about ₱5.7 million. Yes fam, that is ONE CryptoKitty.
• Anywhere from $6M to $11M (depending on the news source) have so far been spent on this site.
• There are now over 70,000 CryptoKitties.
• All that for a site that launched about THREE weeks ago on November 27, 2017.

Sorry but …what the hell is a CryptoKitty?

Really, a CryptoKitty is just a cat illustration. These cats aren’t even animated for crying out loud. They’re literally illustrations of cats with all sorts of crazy features. That’s it!

Now let me introduce you to the now-famous cat that cost a cool $114,481.

To be fair, it is the first-ever CryptoKitty in the entire universe. But still, for the price of a one-bedroom BGC condo unit?

OK, fine. So what’s so special about them?

These CryptoKitties can be bred, sold, or gifted.

You can also end up breeding rare and fancy cats which can cost a lot of money (or in this case, ether, the cryptocurrency it uses) or breed typical pusakals (stray cats) which won’t sell for more than $4. You can even run a CryptoKitty brothel if you so choose.

The fact that you can sell them is what got me to join this ridiculousness.

Aside from that, you’re also using what could possibly be the future of payments for trading goods or digital assets. When you play CryptoKitties, you’re using the Ethereum blockchain.

This means:

• You’re buying and selling your kitties without a bank (like BPI or Bank of America) or a third-party payment service provider (like PayPal). There are no middlemen. You are literally buying your kitty directly from its owner and vice versa when selling.
• Once you buy and breed your own CryptoKitties, they’re yours and yours alone. So even if the company shuts down, you will still have your cat… or at least the transaction log of it proving that it is in fact, yours.
• You’re using Ethereum (more specifically, ether), the second largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin. (Yes, there are other cryptocurrencies aside from bitcoin.) Here’s a good read on WTF Ethereum is.

What if I want my own CryptoKitty?

1. You have to first have ether or ETH.

So far, this is the only currency that CryptoKitties accepts. If you already have bitcoin, this means you’ll need to go on a cryptocurrency exchange to switch your BTC to ETH.

When I did all of this “experimenting”, ETH was at $453. As of this writing, ETH is now at a ludicrous price of $711 for 1 ETH.

[For US citizens, you can buy ETH via Coinbase. For Philippine citizens, check out this link on how to buy ETH using Coins.ph. Hint: you will have to use an exchange.]

Note that you don’t have to buy a whole ether. You can buy a fraction of an ETH. Most people think you need to buy a whole coin in order to own one. You can just buy $10 worth of it or even $5. Whatever amount you want.

2. You have to use Chrome as your browser and install Metamask.

Metamask is a browser extension that becomes your Ethereum wallet and that also processes your transactions. It is safe but I also do not recommend putting more ether than you need to purchase cat illustrations.

My road to $40 in 10 minutes

After I’ve transferred my ETH to my MetaMask account, I proceeded to spend an hour looking at cat photos. I honestly did not expect this process to take this long but I also wanted to see how cute the other cats are!

Needless to say, that part alone was a pure timesuck.

But first, a roadblock

I ended up hitting a roadblock because my CryptoKitty transactions weren’t going through. I kept getting “Failed” or “Warning” messages on MetaMask.

I tried buying three cats but those transactions were just in limbo. I didn’t own the cats, it just said it was still processing. After two days, the cats would have different owners (not me) and the transactions would eventually say “Failed.”

I learned that the transactions weren’t going through because I wasn’t paying enough in transaction fees. In this case, my “gas price” was set too low.

See when you buy cats, you must also pay a transaction fee.

In the Ethereum world, this transaction fee is determined by how much you set your gas limit and your gas price. The total cost of a transaction fee is the Gas Limit X Gas Price.

I was initially upping my gas limit but keeping my gas price the same. Apparently, you have to up your gas price and leave the gas limit at default.

To keep things simple, you can think of the gas limit like the amount of liters (or gallons) of gas needed to run a car. Basically, the size of a car’s gas tank. You can think of the gas price as the cost per liter (or gallon) of gas. Like what you pay at the gas station.

The higher the transaction fee, the faster your transaction will be processed. The current volume of pending transactions will determine just how much you have to pay. Think of this like Uber’s surge pricing. Except you choose how much surge you want to pay.

If the current gas price says 40, I upped that to 50 or 60 and if I don’t hit any warning messages, then I’m fine. But if I still get the warning messages, I’d bump it up again in increments of 2.

After the 108th attempt, my very own CryptoKitty!

I was at a coffee shop when I saw my first kitty. You have no idea how happy it made me. It was so stupid but awesome at the same time. I wanted to tell the people from the other table, “I just got a CryptoKitty!”

Here, I paid a total of $33.51 for this darned cat. That’s $30.80 for the cat itself (it was 0.068 ETH at the time) and $2.71 (0.006 ETH) for the transaction fee.

Obviously, I had no idea what I was doing. I later found out that this cat isn’t even “rare.” How dare this seller lie to a n00b! And I don’t even know if a virgin cat (cats with no children) should be more expensive either.

Getting my CryptoKitty preggers

Now what? That was my next question. I didn’t have another cat so that I could make them mate and have another kitty. And I didn’t want to buy another cat.

So naturally, I went to the brothel section of CryptoKitties and looked for cats that were “siring.” I paid for the siring fee ($22.65), and yet again, another transaction fee ($3.66). This set me back $26.32.

At this point, I’ve already spent $59.83 on two things on this site. Buying a cat and getting it pregnant. You have to pay for everything up in this piece!

My siring transaction went through without a hitch. Now I just had to wait for my cat to give birth to a new kitty.

In less than 4 hours, I had a brand new cat!

Selling my brand new CryptoKitty

I named it Taylor Kitty and tried to sell it. Don’t forget, I had to pay yet another transaction fee for this one.

You can set the starting price, ending price, and selling duration of your cat – this applies to siring as well. I set mine to 0.09 ETH ($40.77 at the time), 1 day, and with an ending price of 0.01 ETH ($4.53).

After 10 minutes, I received an email from CryptoKitties saying my cat was just bought. At the $40.77 price!

I remember thinking: WTF. Did I just make money?!! (Completely forgetting the fact that I also spent money lol) The ETH was transferred to my account in an instant. The entire process was pretty cool.

At this point, I still haven’t made back the money I spent on buying and breeding cats.

Will I be able to sell more cats? Can I really make money off CryptoKitties?

Find out in my next CryptoKitties installment! Heh.

The post How I made $40 in 10 minutes selling a “CryptoKitty” appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

I didn’t realize I’ve been away from writing for that long but the important thing is, I am now back and determined to stay. Maybe.

There’s so much going on now that I’d like to tell you about. From the dark web to CryptoKitties to interesting marketing-related tidbits… I can’t wait to share them here!

Wayback Machine: My savior and your key to the internet’s past

I actually lost my entire site due to sheer stupidity. Long story short, I let my account on my web host expire. I was sent multiple email notices but because I also switched email addresses, I wasn’t seeing any of them.

By the time I realized it, a year had already passed. I emailed my web hosting provider, desperately asking for help. I didn’t have any sort of backup implemented. I know, I know. They sympathized but said the only thing that is to be said: nope, you’re SOL.

Then a friend asked me if I had checked Wayback Machine. Luckily, my site has been saved a few times. So now my 5-year-old posts are back!

Feel free to look around and get some major throwback feels. E.g. The popularity of group buying sites, Facebook’s “new” timeline feature, and Magnum’s hashtag marketing.

And yes, you can also check Wayback Machine to see your old blogs/websites if you’ve had any.

Unfortunately, it won’t work for closed sites where you’ll need to log in like Multiply or Friendster — which is a relief TBH! Who wants to see their old Friendster profiles and their testimonials??

The post Wayback Machine: The internet DOES remember everything appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

It’s even worse when someone checks back into the “physical world” and introduces a NEW topic based on the virtual message they got and completely ditches what you were previously talking about.

Do you say “Hey that wasn’t what we were talking about!” or just go with the flow and completely forget about it?

I’m not hating on those who do this because I’ve done this countless of times myself. I’ve been both the “ignor-er” and the “ignor-ee.”

Either the person I’m talking to all of a sudden gets a text message or a tweet and I’m left talking to myself or I’m the one checking out of the conversation to do the same.

Is this the new normal now? Or do you still consider this type of behavior rude?

The post Checking Your Phone While Someone is Talking to You – IRL appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

He tells me he can’t remember what happened last night and that he lost his iPhone.

I’m sorry I tell him.

“Maybe next time you should wear a lanyard.”

Half an hour later, Blad sends me a Google Maps link to something.

He says his phone is still turned on, that he tracked it using the Find My iPhone app, that it’s somewhere in Antipolo and the best part: that I should help him find it before the phone’s battery dies.

I laugh at the ridiculousness of this idea. There is no way in hell we can find that.

Blad is Filipino-American but unfortunately can’t speak a lick of Filipino other than “Nasaan yung CR?”

Obviously, I can’t let him try to find it by himself so I decide to help him. I also call another friend, EJ, and ask if he wants to help out. EJ says yes.

We all agree to meet up at the McDonald’s in Katipunan.

We head out excited but also feeling like dumbasses. Blad is sure now, thanks to another friend who was in the cab with him, that he left it there.

On our way to wherever his iPhone is, I ask them about our plan. Turns out we don’t have any.

Maybe we should look for a cab parked there and ask for the driver?

What if it’s a warehouse and it’s a trap and their plan is to kidnap us? Naaah. We have two bowling balls in the trunk which we could use as a projectile. We’re safe.

We finally get to where the iPhone’s location is.

It’s a Saturday morning so no one’s really outside except for someone hanging clothes. We didn’t spot any cabs.

Great. Now what?

EJ comes up with a brilliant idea: let’s knock on all the doors and ask if someone came in at 3AM and found an iPhone!

Sounds time-consuming but we’re already here so sure, let’s do it!

After our 3rd door, we decide that it’s not a brilliant idea after all. Whoever we were asking would just end up asking someone else in the house so this method was too slow.

We go back to the guard house (we entered the subdivision without him noticing us) and ask the guard for help.

Maybe he can show us his log book?

He says he will need to call the president of the subdivision association. We tell both of them the story and how the phone is still turned on and that it’s somewhere nearby.

“Ang galing pala niyan! Hindi talaga pwedeng manakaw!”, exclaims the subdivision president.

He then looks at my iPhone (I signed in using Blad’s account so we can track it there) and says “Pwede pa bang i-zoom yan?”

I zoom it in, he looks at it with squinting eyes and says that’s not their subdivision. The dot is in that area behind it.

We see it from where we’re standing and it’s a shantytown.

The subdivision president insists that it’s safe but that we should go in there with a Barangay Tanod just in case. We figured it’d be a waste of time if we back out now so we soldier on.

A guy comes in riding a bike, he’s our guy says the guard. We follow him into the shantytown area as he goes to another Tanod’s house.

We tell our story again but this time surrounded by 20 other people, half of which are shirtless men. They pass around my phone, talking among themselves how crazy it is that we can track it.

At this point, we were getting slightly scared. What if they start getting mad at us for accusing them?

We look at each other thinking we should probably head back.

Then another shirtless man approaches us.

“Anong hinahanap?”

“iPhone daw brad. Ganito oh.”

“Nasa akin yan.”

In my head I’m like WTH just happened. Blad overhears this and asks me, “Did he just say he doesn’t have it?”

I give him my straight face and tell him to follow the shirtless guy.

The half-naked man goes inside his house. And then comes back outside and shows us a phone.

Turns out he did have it!

Apparently, he was the guy that cleaned the taxi cab where Blad’s phone was left.

The shirtless man explains that he didn’t touch it, didn’t know what to do with it but that if someone looked for it, he’d return it.

We thank him for his honesty.

Lesson Learned… Or Not

From this experience, I can tell you that the Find My iPhone feature actually works.

So if you have an iPhone, make sure you enable it.

It’s not foolproof though. If someone finds your phone and turns it off, you’re SOL.

How do I know this?

Well after we found Blad’s phone, a couple weeks later…

He loses it again.

This time the person turns the device off. We couldn’t track it.

So no, Blad did NOT live happily ever after.

He’s stuck with an Android now.

Should’ve gotten a lanyard.

The post How My Friend Found His iPhone in Antipolo Because of the Find My iPhone App appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.

By that I mean, if Jeff Bezos announced tomorrow that he’s leaving Amazon or that the Smart or even Globe LTE launch isn’t actually happening, none of them would bat an eyelash.

It’s like me finding out about Snooki’s pregnancy. Who’s Snooki? Bahaha.

But yes, I bring this up because this topic seems to have been following me around for a couple of days now.

Last Thursday, I met up with Paul Rivera of Kalibrr (will do a separate post on his team soon) and we were talking about how difficult it is for Filipinos to embrace startups.

Here, you either become a lawyer or a doctor. Okay, so you may have had more options (accountant, engineer) but you know what I mean.

Starting your own business isn’t usually encouraged (unless you come from an entrepreneurial Filipino-Chinese family).

“It’s not stable.”

“How long will that business last?”

“What about your future?”

Then yesterday, I attended Peter Cauton’s Juan Great Leap event and they were basically saying the same thing but this time added things like lack of investors, the startup community being small, the government not being supportive, etc.

This may be obvious to some but seriously, there are times when it becomes so easy to get trapped in this bubble I will call the “TechCrunch bubble” (maybe I read that somewhere, don’t accuse me of plagiarizing!).

It’s when you think everyone and her grandma is using Path or is upset that Twitter is being such a bully because it’s all the tech sites talk about (and your favorite Twitter client is in danger).

At work, we talk about it. On Twitter, we tweet about it. We read it on blogs and tech news sites.

For those who are also in this bubble, it’s easy to forget that the rest of the Philippines doesn’t care what will happen on September 12, much less care about the crazy people working for or on a tech startup.

The post My Friends Don’t Care About Tech. Or Startups. appeared first on A Pensive Peanut.