Crypto Lunch 007 - Trying to use crypto PRIVATELY is almost impossible!

In the comments last week, @J85063 said "Hope there is no more set backs." Unfortunately, 2 new problems have arisen with Crypto Lunch!

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Crypto Lunch began by identifying the problem:

Crypto MUST be able to function WITHOUT identifying the user (private) and without involving governments, corporations, or banks (decentralized). There's NO way to convert Bitcoin to cash without identifying oneself. I believe this is one of the main issues preventing mass adoption of cryptocurrency!

And more recently, a pathway to achieve the goal:

Buy bullion online with crypto, and sell it for cash at a local dealer! Privacy retained, not too expensive, not too difficult.

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Week 7

Now, I'm attempting to save up for my lunch through post payouts and donations. Each post, I include original content like photographs of my garden and food it produces, and provide information about cryptos and related topics, in the hopes that viewers will find value in it, and bless me with an upvote.

Many of my fellow bloggers are earning $10+ per blurry cellphone snapshot, often of trees or flowers or sunsets, usually almost exact copies of previous posts. It's a formula. Crappy photo, nonsensical phrase or 2, ten bucks. It doesn't encourage quality, it encourages quantity (and sloppy curation), but that's just how it goes. I do think it's strange and unfortunate that my well-written posts - which include a variety of photographs, videos, gifs, writing, links, graphics, and other media - should also be able to generate a few dollars. It's strange that many of the Crypto Lunch posts earn essentially nothing, and it's taking me months to earn a single meal. Hopefully something changes, and I find a way to monetize what I do. I believe online content-creators, just like offline content-creators (aka conventional authors, photographers, etc), should be able to get paid for their time, skill, and effort. But this has been a 3-year struggle and losing battle, with content-creators only being shoved further into the dirt with each fork and upgrade. Any hope that things will change usually meets reality before long.

Regardless of that, 2 additional issues have become known:

1. I lost my method of converting tokens in steem-engine to STEEM in my account on the blockchain. Steem-engine now says they have "deprecated" SteemConnect, and that I must use "KeyChain". I looked into it, and KeyChain is a Google product, exactly what most crypto users are working to get away from, so it's not decentralized (and probably not very private either). There doesn't seem to be any other way to access my tokens, and there was no warning that was about to happen. I can still use hive-engine as before, but my steem-engine funds (and tools) are currently unavailable.

2. I no longer have any private and decentralized way to convert STEEM or HIVE into BTC. In other words, I have bigger problems than a few lost tokens, or even a sluggish income. If I don't have a way to move funds off the blockchain, they're of limited use to me, and I need to rethink my participation here. If I'm not reaching anyone and I'm not making any money, what am I doing?

To be specific, when I use my wallet to "sell STEEM (or HIVE)", I am taken to a very complicated 3rd party exchange platform, for which I need an account so my transactions can be tracked (due to anti-money-laundering laws).

3 years ago, when Steemit took my 0.2 BTC in exchange for a few hundred STEEM to get my account started, I didn't have to prove my identity, and there was no 3rd party required. I just sent my BTC to the address they indicated, and the STEEM was credited to my account. Now, I want to do it in reverse, but it appears I'm out of luck.

Why do we pretend we're involved with "crypto", when it's not private or decentralized? Don't we care that the currencies we're getting into are just virtual tokens that are FAR more heavily tracked than even bank accounts or credit cards? Don't we mind that "crypto" all-but-requires a smart device, use of banks and corporations, and the complete loss of our freedom? Why do we pretend crypto is making us more free, when I have proved very plainly here that it isn't, and that fact is apparent to anyone with half a brain and a lick of common sense?

Shouldn't a computer savvy person like me, heavily motivated and backed by hundreds of followers, be able to figure this out? If there's a way, shouldn't we be able to find it?!

And if there isn't a way... what the hell are we doing?

So, with a PC and internet connection, how does a person privately convert STEEM (or HIVE) into BTC? This is the only potential option I can think of:

One token available at hive-engine.com is a BTC-swap, which means it is pegged to the value of BTC. It appears in the list of tokens able to be withdrawn from the platform:

It costs 2% in fees, it's not instant, and it's limited by how much you have accessible to your hive-engine account, but it should work. I went through with the withdrawal and should receive 0.0000099 BTC soon. (At the time of posting this article, the payment hasn't arrived in my private wallet, but I will make an update once it does.)

Even if that works, and I'm okay with the fees and delay, it's only a partial solution... but even partial solutions are worth investigating, at this point!

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Lunch Budget

Last week's post will bring in 5.22 HIVE and 0.65 STEEM, so that much has been added to the totals. @Kunschj sent me 5 SBD and a TipU for a converted total of 22.315 HIVE! Thank you! It has also been added to the totals:

BTC: 0
HIVE: 93.41
STEEM: 17.03
CAD: 0
USD: 0

That's about 24 bucks, and we need around 85 for a minimum online order (silver price is UP again this week). We're about 28% of the way to the first Crypto Lunch.

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How to make Crypto Lunch happen

All are welcome to follow and enjoy the weekly adventure. But hopefully some curators also provide crypto to make the whole process happen! Here are a few ways to do that:

• upvote this post (on both chains if possible)
• send HIVE or HBD directly to my Hive wallet
• send STEEM or SBD directly to my Steem wallet
• send BTC directly (1NWGEhWfeg4kscoBUFNqzRT1UN7qjLgnVa)
• use a service like TipU
• send any kind of tokens to my Hive-Engine or Steem-Engine accounts

You can assist by offering information/advice, and spreading awareness of the project. Your help is very appreciated, because it will lead to more eyes on the issue, more crypto to buy lunch ingredients with, and more people learning how to make crypto part of everyday life. That's good for us all.

Thank you for reading and participating! There's no such thing as a free lunch, so I hope the crypto community feels I've earned one with this post. :)

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What's faster than earning crypto online and converting it into groceries?

Growing food in your back yard from seeds!

This squash plant has been growing for the same amount of time I've been doing Crypto Lunch. What will I eat first, the squash, or lunch bought from crypto? Looks like it's going to be the squash.

If you know anyone else who cares about privacy and cryptos (at the same time), please let them know about this project! They aren't alone. Others in the crypto sphere also want privacy and are disturbed to find there currently isn't any.

Your input and participation is requested. To make a delicious garlic stir fry from scratch, we're going to have to get our hands a little dirty!

DRutter