It was a pretty cool app, v1.0 was about 60% done in January 2015. Then I got the idea for Tree Tribe and went hardcore down that path.

By March, I realized I hadn’t written a line of code for my app in a few weeks, so I took that as a sign to go down a new path – my first physical product business.

It’s been quite a ride! I’ve made some cool stuff, helped plant over 400,000 trees, and made a lot of great connections with customers, collaborators, and team members all around the world.

The Code Bug

Tree Tribe is doing well (doubled our annual growth from 2017 to 2018) but over the last year I’ve had an insatiable itch to get back into programming.

I love the depth of programming required in building apps. I miss it!

I’ve also been hard at work creating more automated systems to free time. One of my favorite pursuits the last 2 years.

Writing

I’ve also been writing a lot this year. Mostly on the Speed Boostr blog, and every couple of days in my journal.

I want to write more here, and I have some other writing projects I want to pursue (book, dream blog, and like 3 or 4 more ideas)… but I’m maxed right now, so that’s going to have to wait.

Coding is a lot like writing… let it IS writing. But on a deeper level, you’re creating something, expressing your style (both through the way you write/structure code, and the product the public sees), and with both you start with a single character that eventually turns into a piece of art.

Apps in the pipeline

The apps I’m building right now help my current businesses, I figure that’s the best way right now to raise all tides right?

I just finished building a Shopify app in Rails to help automate our order process with Tree Tribe.

I’ll probably launch that public once I clean up the design and add some more features.

I have another app I’m building on Rails (Ruby is my new fav language btw), it’s another B2B app that automates a process that currently has to be done manual for a lot of people, so that’s cool.

Future Apps

Once I get these 2 apps launched and monetizing, I can see myself building a “fun” app. I mean, B2B apps are fun if you’re in the B, and fun to build! But if you’re not either of those they’re booooooooring.

We’ll see happens, for now I got my head down hustlin day and night on biz and code. Mad scientist style holed up in my apartment haha good times!

I’m still balancing 2 businesses aside from app dev so probably gona take some time… let’s see

The post Back to App Dev appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

Goals are Good

To me goals are the keystone for success in area of your life. I have daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, quarterly goals, and yearly goals.

I create positive habits to achieve these goals.

I don’t think too much about multi-year goals because my life changes so drastically based on my ideas…also I prefer to live more in the present and know that as long as I’m doing things I like and setting goals, my future will continue being a fun adventure.

Goals

1. Get outta the grind
2. Publish 52 blog posts
3. Build and launch 4 apps
4. Launch 12 new products
5. Master the muscle up
6. Create 1 new song

Goal 1 is the key goal for the year.

Goals 2,3,4 will help achieve the key goal.

Goals 5 and 6 are non-business, a reminder to myself to get back into a better work/life balance this year.

1. GET OUTTA THE GRIND

I want to take myself out of day to day operations on both my businesses, with a solid income, so I can choose what I want to do on any given day.

Usually that means coding or writing… but sometimes it means goofing off all day, or taking a few days off for a nature adventure.

2. PUBLISH 52 BLOG POSTS

I’m going to sharpen my writing skills by publishing on a weekly basis. I don’t write much here, but have committed to launching a weekly blog post on the Speed Boostr blog, which has the added benefit of already being monetized.

It’s more fun to write when you’re getting paid for it

3. BUILD AND LAUNCH 4 APPS

I have about 6 strong ideas right now for B2B apps and am trying to build/launch 1 per quarter. The first one is actually launching next week, it will land here: analyze.speedboostr.com

Since starting Tree Tribe in 2015, coding / app development took a back seat… but last year I really started missing it, so now I’m back in the game!

The thing I like about B2B apps is that if you provide a clear solution that generates a positive ROI, getting customers/users is easy. The goal with my first app is to automate a chunk of my business. The goal of the apps following are to generate monthly recurring income on autopilot.

4. LAUNCH 12 NEW PRODUCTS FOR TREE TRIBE

I’m the founder of Tree Tribe, but as we’ve evolved I’ve decided to channel my energy more into products and content, and have stepped away from daily operations (lucky for me I have an awesome partner Chris that is well suited to take this over).

In a product business, you need products! We have great products right now, but just not that many.

My goal with this goal is to exponentially scale our business.

5. MASTER THE MUSCLE UP

I got big into calisthenics last year, and treat it as my main sport right now.

It’s fun to try mastering new moves because you also build strength and discipline along the way.

Muscle ups are hard!

Right now I can do a jumping muscle up on a 2 meter bar, but that obviously doesn’t count… just where I’m at in my progression.

Business has me hustling in the trenches so I can’t go to the gym every day… but I shoot for at least 4 times per week.

6. CREATE 1 GOOD SONG

The past 4 years have been an insane entrepreneurial grind!

Business pretty much took over my life – took priority over relationships, hobbies, learning new skills that weren’t related to business.

This year is different! I’m working hard AF on automation for my businesses, with the goal of freeing more time for personal hobbies.

Creating music is the new main hobby.

*Funny observation 6 weeks into the new year: I have Ableton Live and a midi keyboard – the tools for the trade… but haven’t barely fired it up yet because I’ve been working so much haha! Currently failing at this goal.

The post 2019 Goals appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

That owl is you. Set goals and achieve them with laser focus.

I had a goal to write more this year, and I have (just not much here). But also I just came here and see I haven’t written since July.

I wrote that July post in Germany, that was 5 countries (and 1 life changing music festival) ago!

The point of Joe’s Ideas is a place for me to share ideas, journal adventures, practice writing, and create a place I can look back on later and smile with nostalgia.

Haha! I meeeeeeean that would be fun to write full time buuuuuuuuuut …. FOCUS, grasshopper.

Back to the focus – I haven’t written because I’ve been laser focused on achieving my primary biz goals. Tree Tribe is having a great year of growth, and I have some big ideas to mash the pedal to the floor and accelerate / capitalize on that growth.

I’ve also been working on scaling a side project that can help fund Tree Tribe’s growth.

I have a tendency to work on too many projects at the same time (3 businesses right now). This has always been my way, but it’s also starting to feel like kind of a drag. And here I am, coming back to my recurring theme of trying to narrow my focus and cut loose on some other projects/gigs.

I’m in the hustle, in the zone, and each project enhances my knowledge and wisdom, so I can’t complain. Creatively I’d like to work on more projects (like turning my dreams into stories), but the current mantra must persist… Focus.

So here I am, writing a note to self: Yo, it’s ok to let some projects slide for awhile… prioritize and level up first to achieve the freedom you’ve been grinding for the past 3 years.

FOCUS

The post Focus appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

Morning coffee at the beach

Taco Tuesday

Living 1 block from the beach

Swimming and surfing whenever I feel like it

Ganja in my garden

Best herb on Earth!

Barbecues with friends

My Cali friends

Beach cruisers

Ocean Beach vibes

Camping

Solo backpacking trips in the forests

Adventures up the entire west coast

Being in my 20’s haha! I’m cool with where I’m at but the 20’s are pretty niiiiiiiiice

Beach bonfires with friends

Having 7 different musical instruments in my house, jam sessions with friends

Having a home

Having a bookshelf with a load of books that I walk past every day

My 100+ plants

Having a backyard

Sunsets over the pacific ocean

Hippie Steve’s yard

Running on the beach

Riding bicycle all over the place

Damn do I need to go spend a summer in San Diego?

Or am I just feeling lonely because I don’t speak the language here?

Hmmm, tough to say haha but a trip to San Diego always a good idea! [goes to check flights]

Current location: Apolda, Germany

The post Things I Miss About Living in California appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

Basic things like getting a haircut turn into adventures. Or landing in a new airport/city, and trying to decipher squiggly lines to figure out where you’re going.

My biggest experiences with this are China and Germany. In China nobody spoke English except my Chinese colleagues.

In Germany, I’ve had 3 levels of experience: Berlin (most people spoke English), Nürnberg (some people spoke English), and Apolda (nobody speaks English).

I’m currently in Apolda, Germany, on a 5 week solo business retreat. Pretty much I put myself in a small rural town with no distractions and work day and night, every day. Straight huuuuuuustlin’.

Buying Vegetables

Today I was at the grocery store and man, just trying to buy vegetables is a challenge. So they have you weight em on a machine and put your own sticker, that’s fairly standard. There’s a computer in the produce area where you put your fruit/veg down and hit the icon on the touchscreen.

Well, there’s not an icon for everything, then it’s like hmmmm. So you gotta find an employee and try to google translate whats up.

I was getting some lemons and they weren’t on there, I gathered that you just take em to the register. I tagged my red onions, ginger, and tomatoes, then dropped a hand of bananas in my basket.

I said “ich sprechen kein deutsch” (I don’t speak German), then she points at a sticker and I’m like ahhh. Turns out you need a sticker for the bananas too.

Ok then, I grab the bananas and start speed walking back to produce section, clownishly holding up the line. I get about 15 feet and she’s like “hey hey hey” and points next to her… haha there’s a tagging machine right by the register. Smart. Very smart.

Side note: In Thailand when you don’t have your veggies tagged the cashier walks all the way back and does it herself, and you’re left standing in line while people looking at you like, dude.

Now people in line are looking at me like who’s this doof bout to take 5 minutes to walk across the (huge) store to tag some ‘nanners.

I mean, that’s not so bad, stuff like this just happens enough while traveling that I start to be like yup here we are again. Things that seem automatic to the locals just blows over your mind and you’re left looking like an idiot.

You get more intuitive as you experience more countries, but without speaking the language that one’s always throwin’ up snafus left and right.

Let’s All Travel

Being the idiot traveler really makes you appreciate being able to communicate. It also makes you want to help other people in your home country or anywhere you know they’re foreign, when you see someone struggling if you’ve been that struggler before it’s like dude I got you, let me help you out.

Language is Fun

If I had the free time I’d love to learn a bunch of languages, or at the least practice and learn a few hours every day in the country I’m in.

Right now biz building has a grip on me but I can see some point in the future when things are on autopilot, traveling and learning like 5 languages solid. I speak English and Spanish well right now. I’d like to learn Chinese, Portuguese, maybe German, and maybe Japanese.

It’s ok to be the “I have no idea what I’m doing” dog/person

Hasta la proxima!

July 10th Update

Ok I just had to come back here and share this, because it will be funny to read (for me) some point later…

So I’m at the grocery getting my usual – 4 Franziskaner weisse, 2 Bayreuther hefe-weisse, 1 Guinness, and a bushel of radishes… I’m in line at checkout and put my beers on the conveyor belt. There’s 2 people ahead of me.

As soon as my beers get within arms reach of the red haired cashier (she knows me as the dumb foreigner that speaks no German by now), she starts aggressively putting each of them on their sides haha. In her mind I can imagine her like “that’s not how they go!”… or whatever I don’t know.

I helped her and followed suit on the last 2 of 7 beers, so now they’re all laying on their side like passed out college kids, but hey at least there’s not chance a jolt in the belt will topple a beer

It gets to me and she does the standard polite “hallo” like nothing happened haha.

Maybe nothing happened, but I get a kick out of it anyway.

The post I Have No Idea What I’m Doing – Travel Edition appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

It’s spring and the sun’s shining bright, clear blue skies and good vibes… time for an outdoors workout!

Exercising outside is awesome. I travel often and found the best solution for finding new gyms in new cities is to just go for a run and find a good park with plenty of trees.

I created this workout today for a good full body pump and to break a big sweat.

The Cycle

1. Tree pullups (max)
2. Pushups (75% max)
3. Run

That’s 1 set.

Load up a good playlist and repeat each set for the duration of one song. So when the next song starts, you find a tree and do pullups, superset with pushups, then run.

Take a walking rest after 4 sets, then hit up another cycle. Do 15 cycles. Haha jk but 2 or 3 should be pretty good if your intensity is high.

Tree Pullups

Find a strong branch and do pullups – the fatter the branch the more challenging. Switch up your grips and choose different types of trees if possible.

Pushups

Do about 75% of your max and stop before total fatigue on your working sets. Then on your last set for each cycle, max out until you collapse in the grass.

Running

Right after pushups, jump up and quick sprint to start your run, then bring it to a good stride pace and switch it up here and there with some sprint bursts. I like to sprint when I come across a hill or an open section.

Cool Down and Grounding

A cool bonus to working out in nature is chilling out in the grass after your workout.

Take your shoes/socks off and get some good stretches in. Do a little yoga if you want. Breathe deeply and enjoy the accomplishment of a good workout.

What is Grounding?

Grounding is basically connecting to the Earth with skin to ground contact. Pretty simple concept but if you live in a city you might go weeks or months without touching the Earth with your bare feet.

It feels good – you know the feeling when you plant your feet in the sand or feel the grass on your soles. It also harmonizes your energy with the Earth and can reduce stress and inflammation, make you smile, and contribute to overall good health.

Grounding is natural. In an increasingly unnatural world, it’s important to remember where we came from and add more natural activities to our lives.

If you want to get more into the science of grounding, this article has a case study and additional resources.

Take a Hike! (or a run)

Give this workout a try, I bet it makes you smile and feel suuuuuuper good… especially during the post-workout buzz while you’re connecting with the Earth and thinking about how happy your body feels in this state.

The post Today’s Gym: Burgess Park, London appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

You ever feel like you’re super disciplined and consistent – like not even leaving the house for days, just straight grindin’ – but then sometimes you find yourself slipping out of the routine and wonder what the hell happened?

Btw I’m not talking about not writing a blog post here for 3 months hah!

I got out of routine lately and thought about why.

I’m in a work heavy phase right now, so I usually wake up around 7 and work until 1 or 2, then hit the gym or bike ride for a mid day break, then eat and get back to the grind, then try and shut the laptop before 10 so I can have some chill time and get a full night’s sleep.

Well this past week I started staying up later and sleeping in little more (or forcing to wake up early and tired), started taking extended mid day breaks, and instead of hitting the gym every day, I would sometimes chill and watch some comedy, go walk for some food, or listen to podcasts. Not bad ways to take a break from work, but I found they often broke my rhythm, plus the lack of sleep got me craving bullshit food instead of my regular healthy regime.

It was still a productive week, but I wasn’t producing at my max. I set high goals that require me producing at my max, so this bugged me a bit.

Just hearing this phrase shook me out of it though and reminded me to stay disciplined and allow the compound effect of daily consistency bring better results in energy, health, and smashin’ biz tasks.

Crazy how just hearing the right phrase can alter your trajectory instantly.

BE DISCIPLINED! BE CONSISTENT!

^^^ That’s a reminder to myself, a mantra.

Give it a try, say it to yourself every morning when you wake up. Good things happen when you apply discipline and consistency.

The post Discipline and Consistency appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

Cheers to 2018 being your best year ever!

• Form new positive habits
• Create a priority goal and put it where you will see it every day
• Sleep more, laugh more, eat more plants
• Spread positive energy
• Recognize negative energy, acknowledge it, but don’t feed it or share it
• Be optimistic
• Create and launch often
• Do more pullups and pushups
• Stretch every day
• Be the person your dog thinks you are (haha love this quote!)
• Surround yourself with house plants
• Value time
• Plant some trees
• Create a solid morning routine and start every day with a win
• Smile and be friendly
• Enjoy the adventure!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, WISHING YOU THE BEST OF SUCCESS AND THE STRENGTH TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS!

The post 2018 – Your Best Year Ever appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

Crypto currency = an innovative decentralized digital currency based on cryptography and blockchain technology to verify transactions, create and control supply, and secure transactions. Bitcoin was the first, and most popular, but there are hundreds of alternate crypto currencies.

They’re also called Coins. I like to call them Coinz.

I think it’s awesome, it’s the future, and it’s fun… so I made a 3 part post:

1. Intro to crypto currency
2. Step by step guide how to get in the game
3. Additional resources and ideas

If you just want to get some quick Bitcoin, you can buy it securely on Coinbase. If you want to catch more details, and see how to trade for alt coins, continue on.

Some definitions

Cryptography – The use of mathematical theory and computer science for encoding and decoding of information. Creates a foundational high level of security for crypto currency.

Alt coin – Short for “alternate coin”. Refers to crypto currencies other than Bitcoin.

ICO – Initial Coin Offering. Like an IPO, but for digital crypto coins.

The crypto coaster – the crazy ups and downs in value of crypto currencies (see screenshots above)

Crypto boner – when you get super into crypto currency and spend hours researching, checking graphs, and basically nerding out on the technology. Everyone goes through this phase at some point.

Exchange – a marketplace to buy and sell crypto currencies.

Blockchain – a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that records every transaction, across multiple computers, so every transaction and holding can be verified without corruption.

Mining – Computers solving complex problems to unlock/generate new coins for the miner. This is how the currency is generated (rather than printing money).

Ethereum – The 2nd most popular crypto currency, Ethereum is also a platform that allows developers to build applications on it’s network, opening up a world of cool possibilities. For example, what if you owned an electric car, and you stopped at a stoplight – under the road are chargers, and while you’re stopped, your car is also recharging, automatically exchanging charge for Ethereum. So you never have to stop at a charging station. That’s where this technology could be headed.

What Is Bitcoin?

Check this video for quick explanation:

A Brief History of Bitcoin

Shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, Bitcoin was created and launched in 2009 by an anonymous genius going by Satoshi Nakamoto. The tech was released open source, and has since been improved and inspired the many alt coins that followed.

It’s estimated Satoshi mined a million plus Bitcoins in the early days when it was worth nothing, and today Bitcoin is trading at over $15k / coin. Still, nobody knows who this person (or group) is… legend.

2011 Bitcoin started gaining some steam and by 2012 over 1,000 merchants were accepting Bitcoin.

2012 Coinbase, a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing digital currency, was founded. It is now a major starting point for buying Bitcoin.

In early 2013 Bitcoin was worth about $100. It continues growing, being recognized as a currency, and becoming more cool to have some.

2014 Mt. Gox was the largest exchange for Bitcoin in the world. It got hacked and 850,000 bitcoins went missing daaaaaaaamn. Good to know that little snippet – don’t keep all your coins in 1 exchange.

Things chill for awhile, and value-wise Bitcoin doesn’t see any exponential increases until 2017, when it just starts poppin off! Alt coins and ICO’s are sprouting up left and right.

And here we are at the end of 2017, with Bitcoin and crypto currencies getting a major influx of interest and action, so much that exchanges can’t keep up and occasionally limit new users. As more people continue paddling into this wave, we should see rising values and more practical applications being use. Maintream adoption could open the doors for some cool technologies!

My Crypto Story

I heard about it a few years ago but never took the time to dive in – big mistake. I also had friends talking about Ethereum (a popular platform and coin) being the future… when it was worth a dollar. Now it’s worth over $800 per coin niiiiiiiiiiize.

I started with $100 into Coinbase the first week of May, got a little taste, learned and researched, then threw in a few hundred more. I only invested $700 total, but it has turned into over 6 G’s 7 months later and it feels like the rush is charging up again.

I think Ethereum has some great long term potential, so that was one of the first I bought in at, when it was about $90. I thought I missed out because a month earlier it was worth $10, but now it’s almost 10x’d on me again, so investment-wise I’m stoked that.

I’ve been building multiple businesses this year so with a lack of time and money, I just got in on some coins I believed in and kept it in the backburner. Obviously wish I would have invested more hah! (ROI scenarios coming further down)

There were ups and downs of course, but with the recent rush it’s got my fire stoked again!

It’s Not All About The Money

Appreciating assets are great, but this technology is also cool and it feels like the early 90’s when the Internet starting coming around, it was a cool new thing that we didn’t understand much, but started to see nuggets of potential, and then the avalanche hits and you realize THIS IS BIG!

It could be the big innovation breakout this decade – Internet blew up in the 90’s, smart phones blew up in 2000’s, 2010’s we’re seeing this new currency come up and take over, with some insane potential to shake up the entire world financial system.

This used to be the internet (dial up modems haha):

^^^ This is about where crypto currency is even though Bitcoin was born in 2009, it’s still niche and fairly early in adoption.

What I Like About Crypto Currency

• No banks or credit cards needed – especially nice if you do international business and get nailed with constant transfer fees
• It’s fast! You don’t have to wait days for transfers. Instead, it takes minutes (well, depending on the coin now)
• New technology is fun and interesting to get into, and while initially it may be overwhelming, once you get a grasp you can see the brilliance of this system
• It’s decentralized – meaning essentially no one controls it. Transactions and holdings are verifiable on the blockchain, like a collective verification system and 1 single entity controlling it.
• Anonymity – there are different levels depending on the coin, but a general principle is that encrypted transactions are handle via long chains of characters, rather than name, address, etc like credit cards or wires.
• It’s a new promising technology that hasn’t hit mass adoption yet.

Challenges with Bitcoin and other crypto currencies

• It needs mass adoption to function as a common currency.
• Mining uses tooooons of electricity. There are alt coins working to solve this issue, but still so much mining is done by huge computer farms that.
• Bitcoin has recently become a bummer to use because of high transaction fees. Luckily there are plenty of other options.
• Security. The technology is secure, but with no 3rd party regulations, you are responsible for your own money (which is one of the benefits too)

Practical Examples Why It’s Better

Scenario 1 International Transactions. I’ve worked exclusively online the last 3 years, and part time for a few years before that. PayPal is the most popular medium for transacting with freelancers.

Before I got into crypto currency, I hired a designer in Pakistan for some work, but turns out you can’t use PayPal in Pakistan. Here’s our conversation:

Joe: Whaaaaaat come on PayPal! Ok no prob, do you have Google Wallet?
Designer: No it only works for US accounts.
Joe: Ok how about Venmo or Dwolla?
Designer: Venmo needs to be in US also, Dwolla I don’t think works.
Joe: Hmmm ya I haven’t used Dwolla in years but it was promising.
Designer: How bout Payoneer?
Joe: Ahhh ya perfect I’ve heard of them I’ll sign up for an account… (goes to sign up for Payoneer) oh wait… Payoneer not available for US citizens jeeeeeez come on banks get with the times we all live on the same planet here it’s a small world.
Designer: You could use Western Union?
Joe: Haha hmmmm I’m in Colombia, I wouldn’t know where to find one, plus do these even still exist?
Joe: Well, I guess my only option is to eat the $27 fee and send an international bank transfer. Great designs though thanks! Send me your bank details.
Designer: Thanks man.

Crazy right?! This is EXACTLY the problem crypto solves. If we had crypto currency, I could have just sent him the equivalent value in Ethereum or some other coin with low transfer fee (fyi Bitcoin transaction fees were in the cents when that happened, but now they’re pretty high).

Scenario 2 Volatile Government Currency. The Venezuelan bolivar has lost 90%+ of its value this year, and it’s been sliding for years. The currency is so inflated and devalued, people have to carry bags of cash around to buy anything.

Crypto currency solves 2 problems here (assuming a stable coin and mass adoption to trade as currency):
1) Crypto currency is decentralized, so governments can’t control or corrupt it.
2) Transactions and wallets are digital, so you don’t need to carry paper cash.

Sure, credit cards are digital too, but they’re also owned by banks and charge high merchant fees…
and credit card information is relatively easy to steal and use for fraud.

Crypto currency is a game changer, a problem solver.

Right now it’s volatile, with values significantly changing on the daily (mostly in the up direction this year), but eventually we should have stability and be able to have an agreed global currency.

Our current financial system is wayyyy out dated if you think about it like this and in terms of how our world has changed, especially in the last 20 years now we’re all interconnected digitally and international business is common amongst online merchants.

Ok if you want to get started scroll down to Getting Started, but you gotta check out these stats the returns are mind blowing.

Some Fun Coin Stats

Here is what would have happened if you bought some coins on January 1st, and what they’re worth about a year later on December 21st.

If you invested $100 January 1st…

• You got .1038 Bitcoin > now worth $1,682
• You got 12.1685 Ethereum > now worth $9,994
• You got 5,000,000 Verge > now worth $620,733

And if you put in $1,000 January 1st…

• You got 1.038 Bitcoin, which is now worth $16,817
• You got 121.0653 Ethereum > now worth $99,436 (Nice!)
• You got 50,000,000 Verge > now worth $6,207,331 (WTF!)

Daaaaaaamn Verge went off, but there are a bunch of other alt coins that blew up huge too.

You can check a running list of coins and their historical values with coinmarketcap.com

This summer I put together some coin values and history for the year, this is what prompted me to buy 10,000 Verge coins when it was worth about 1 cent. I figured why not, who knows, and now that it’s 20x’d, I’m like alriiiiiiiight.

Coin values at the start of the year – fun for hypothetical calculations

Who knows if these are all just getting started, or if they’re going to crash, or are just cruising along, but it’s fun to speculate and have some cash in the game.

I shared my excitement with some friends and fam this summer after I studied the market haaaard and watched my own holdings going up. Some got in, some didn’t, but in retrospect I wish I would have made it easier and just had a step by step guide.

So now, here is that guide!

Getting Started With Bitcoin

Jump in the water’s warm!

This is just a hobby for me, I think it’s cool and since it makes money that’s double cool! I wouldn’t put in big stacks right away – just toss a couple hundred in to get started and play around, you’ll quickly get a feel for the market.

Bitcoin is the main currency to use for trading. So first you gotta get some Bitcoin, then you can use it to trade for other coins – there are currently about 1400 coins listed on Coin Market Cap.

How to Get In

It’s not too late, and if you’re here because you’ve been hearing the booming news about bitcoin, today is the best option you have to get started.

Step 1 – Buy $100 in Bitcoin from a reputable source

Crypto Currency isn’t regulated by banks, like traditional money, so you want to use a trusted entity.

Coinbase is the most popular.

– Founded in 2012 in San Francisco, CA
– $217M raised from investors
– 10M users

You get $10 free in Bitcoin if you sign up using my referral link:

www.coinbase.com/join/59084c7001bc8b0df50a02b8

… and I also get $10 in free Bitcoin. Thanks! I’ll buy you a beer next time I see you

Take a quick look at my chart above and check what your $10 would have yielded if you traded in January for Verge (or another alt coin)- that ten bucks would now be worth $62,073 jeeeeez. Who knows what will happen a year from now, could go either way but I’m betting on more UP.

I like math if you couldn’t tell.

Here’s how to get into Coinbase:

It’s easy just head over to Coinbase and sign up for a new account, enter your info, add a credit card, and click Buy/Sell.

You can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, or Litecoin with a credit card.

Toss in a $100 into Bitcoin for now so you can use it to trade for other alt coins.

Once you’ve established your account, deposits instantly show up and can be used for trading.

*I’ve been hearing they’re crazy busy with the influx of people jumping in Bitcoin, so there might be a few days wait for your first deposit to be available for trading.

Step 2 – Spread Da Coinz Arooooooound

Stack mad chips spread love with my peeps

Coinbase is your start point, but it’s not a full exchange marketplace. To trade in alt coins, you need to transfer your Bitcoin to a currency exchange, like Bittrex.

Bitcoin is flying sky high right now. Who knows it could crash, or it could continue, but either way there are hundreds of other cool coins, many backing interesting projects.

Side note, you can find coins on coinmarketcap.com, then just google a coin and you’ll see the purpose of their coin. Bitcoin is just a currency, but many of these coins are part of an ecosystem, like Steem for example.

My personal favs are Ethereum, NEO, Ripple, Steem, and now Verge (haha admittedly I don’t know too much about Verge, but since it has exploded in value I’m paying more attention).

Lots of coins to choose from.

Trading on Crypto Currency Exchanges

Everyone’s got their favorites, here are the 3 I’ve used personally:

• Bittrex (my go-to)
• Poloniex
• Kraken is cool you can deposit Euros here and trade (it’s more steps than Coinbase but a good option)

They’re all pretty similar, but not every coin can be purchased on every market, so sometimes if you want a specific coin you have to trade on a different market.

Here’s step by step guide how to transfer Bitcoin from Coinbase to Bittrex:

1. Sign Up with Bittrex then log in and click on Wallets

2. Type “bitcoin” in the search box, then click the + sign next to it.

3. This gives you your wallet address to send funds into your account

4. Head back to Coinbase  and click Buy/Sell to “sell” your Bitcoins to your Bittrex account

5. Paste your address from your Bittrex wallet, the amount of bitcoin you want to send, then click Continue

If you look at the fees, you’ll notice they’re super high right now! Earlier this year, you could send bitcoin for like 10 cents, as of now it’s like $30 whaaaaat. One of the best things about crypto currency is the ability for low transfer fees, because you aren’t paying into fat banks… this is one of the problems with Bitcoin right now, but luckily there are a bunch of other alt coins that don’t have this problem. Bitcoin is just the first mover and most popular, not the best solution.

What you lose in fees you make up as the market rises, so I just see it as a small annoyance at this point.

6. Grab a beer and wait for your transfer to complete

*Update: Because Bitcoin is raging in popularity, the network is congested so probably going to take a little longer, maybe 30 minutes to a couple hours, so grab a couple cold ones!

When the transfer completes, you’ll have the Bitcoin available in your Bittrex account, and now you can buy other coins.

7. Trading for alt coins

I like buying some well known coins, but I also like to gamble on coins that are worth 1 cent or less, because you can buy a bunch and if that coin does any decent kind of run you’re sitting on high quantity and stackin up.

Click on Markets with the Bitcoin currency icon, then search the coin you want to buy, then click on the result.

8. This brings you to the trading block

Here is where you make your trades. If you haven’t traded on the stock market, this is probably foreign to you (it was to me).

There are some high level strategies you could use, but for simplicity you can click on a bid in the order book to match that bid, and it will auto fill in your bid box.

You obviously want to bid low to get better value, but if you bid too low nobody will buy your trade and it just sits there. If you’re after a coin, just bid a common value from the order book to get it faster.

Select how many units you want at that bid, then click the + Buy button, then Confirm. Double check your numbers though before purchasing, if you entered a bid manually and accidentally added an extra 0 for the bid, you just put in a bid to buy that asset at 10x more than you intended.

Once your bid is confirmed, your transaction will happen as soon as someone buys at your bid price. This is why getting started you can just select a bid from the order book, so the trade happens faster.

If you get into trading strategy, you can start playing with bid amounts but for now just get in with some coins.

NOW YOU OWN SOME ALT COINS, NICE!

Step 3 – Tracking your holdings

Download the Blockfolio app for your phone. This app is where my portfolio screenshots are coming from.

You input your holdings and the app tracks them in real time. You will check this every day

Step 4 – Storage

You can keep your coins in Coinbase (if Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash), you can also keep them in Bittrex or whatever exchange you’re using, or you can keep them in your own wallet.

I keep my currencies spread out in my trading accounts, but will move long term holdings into an offline wallet when they reach significant level.

For offline wallets, Trezor is really popular and recommended everywhere.

For online wallets, you can put on phone, computer, web. I have a Copay wallet, but here are some other recommended options to choose from: bitcoin.org/en/wallets/web. You can worry about a wallet later though, once you have the assets you want to pull off the market and hold long term.

Step 5 – Research and join discussion groups

Some coins are scams, some are legit. Stay with the legit ones if you’re thinking long term.

A scam coin example is someone does an ICO makes a big buzz, get’s people to buy in to drive up the value, then they dump their holdings for a profit. Also called a pump and dump.

Join facebook groups to get the newest information and trends, and get in some convos. This is where I learned about NEO when it was around $6, now worth $60+

You can also check Meetup.com for bitcoin/crypto meetups in your area. These are pretty fun because you can talk about coins, strategies, biz ideas or just shoot the breeze.

Don’t go crazy dumping all your money in

It’s cool to play around with a couple hundred bucks, but before investing anything significant, do some research, and also know that this is still the wild west. It’s fun to throw some cash in but be careful don’t invest more than you would want to gamble with. Until things stabilize it’s a roller coaster ride… except it’s a roller coaster ride that pays you money haha.

Well, pays you money if you take it out. If you want to be conservative, you can withdraw your initial investment once you start making some gains. I still have all my chips in the pot, maybe I’ll take some out when it gets over 10 I don’t know.

The Roller Coaster

This is kinda funny…. in the 3 days I took from idea to publish this article together, my holdings were up and down thousands, check it out:

Swings like that are why I’m hesitant to invest big until I have the time to analyze on a deeper level. For now it’s been fun watching that small early investment almost 10x.

Additional Resources

Mining – how coins are created:

Coin Stats

• CoinMarketCap
• CoinGecko is like CoinMarketCap, but it also adds more info, like public interest and community activity to rank coins based on more than just market cap.

News

• coinzy.com sends a daily curated newsletter on the top crypto news.
• coinspectator.com – timeline style news and links.
• There’s a lot of activity on Reddit, like /r/Bitcoin, /r/CryptoCurrency, /r/ethereum
• Facebook groups are great too, search “crypto currency groups” and join some – look for active groups with lots of members.

Wallets

• Here is a comprehensive list of wallet options.

Techincal Details

• What is Blockchain Technology
• Bitcoin White Paper

Ideas

• Earning crypto for riding bikes – could be a cool way to help build cycling infrastructure in cities.
• Create a platform for freelancers and businesses to transfer money. Low fees, smart contracts (kind of like escrowing), no international restrictions (like Google Wallet and PayPal), and quick payments are all bonuses that could make this easier and low cost.

It’s Still a Gamble

But a fun gamble. And a gamble on a world changing technology that could become a part of our ever day lives.

Enjoy the ride! If you have any questions comment below and I’ll expand this.

The post Join the Future – Getting Started with Bitcoin and Crypto Currency appeared first on Joe's Ideas.

It’s my new favorite gym in the entire world!

Here’s what I love about it:

• It’s got a raw feel that gets you into beast mode quick! There are barbells made from rebar and empty paint cans filled with cement.
• It’s free
• It builds community
• It’s eco friendly: No electricity, no plastic bottles, just objects to lift and play around with
• Exercising outside in the sun is a double bonus!
• It has a lot of bars, which is perfect for me because I set a goal earlier this year to be able to do 20 pullups in a row (currently at 16)

Having an outdoor gym like this also promotes better health in the community. Thousands of cars drive by every day, and when you see people exercising and being healthy, that has to rub off and inspire right?

I think it would be cool to start an organization, or campaigns for existing organizations to build more community gyms like this. These are beacons of positive energy and an excellent alternative to paid gyms.

Perfect Timing

This year I got into calisthenics bigtime, and this is exactly the type of gym that is perfect for that.

The major inspiration for me was Barstarzz, and this video is the one that kicked it off for me:

Level Up

Hah I’m not on these dudes level yet, but after focusing on calisthenics and body weight exercises most of the year, I’m feeling strong, flexible, and fluid.

The bars also make working out super fun, like playing a sport – there are skills and progressions to learn… but you don’t need teams or an organization.

I hope the calisthenics trend continues going huge, it’s such an amazing way to workout and especially you can do it outdoors and with little equipment.

Vamos al gymnasio aire libre!

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