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Austonia talked to crypto investors about steps they recommend for people who want to get involved. (Pexels)
Cryptocurrency was once an obscure way of handling money that seemed almost like a ponzi scheme or something bound to crash. Now, it’s everywhere. The digital money based on blockchain technology passed 100 million worldwide users in February and has seen growing interest in Austin and across Texas.
Austonia talked to investors Sam Feldman, who started Austin’s crypto billboards, and Jon Gregis of crypto community ATX DAO, about how they got into crypto and steps they recommend for people who want to get involved.
Both say they understand that people feel intimidated, but that the best way to get it is by diving right in.
“If someone has like 100 bucks to invest in Bitcoin, or if they’re comfortable with more, I think it’s very hard to learn about this in a way that’s just conceptual,” Feldman said.
If you’re crypto-curious, here are a few tips to get started:
Decide what you want to get out of it
Ethereum\u2019s Dr Gavin Wood (@gavofyork) presents on \u201cEthereum: So now we\u2019ve built it, WTF is it?\u201d #blockchain #futurepic.twitter.com/DA7pugKCWO— Ethereum (@Ethereum) 1447412268
Crypto can seem elusive, and there are some basic concepts you’ll need to understand. One is blockchain technology. A blockchain is a digital ledger that’s used to record information such as transactions and NFT ownership. You’ve likely heard of some blockchains like Ethereum. This network is the second-largest by market cap, behind Bitcoin. This tech is decentralized, meaning there are no intermediaries like a bank.
With that, the next thing you should know is that there isn’t a one size fits all approach to getting started in crypto.
So, pick something that interests you. Do you want to be a day trader? Or perhaps you’d like it for transactional purposes, which Bitcoin is fit for. Maybe you’d be suited for building applications or becoming a blockchain developer through Ethereum.
But any route you go, you’ll have to be patient with becoming truly authoritative on it. Still, Feldman is excited to see what Austinites getting involved will bring.
“Crypto is something where it does take a few years, I would say, to be really comfortable with it,” Feldman said. “The earlier we start, the more well equipped this city is going to be for this next tech revolution.”
Learning sources
Feldman says the resource he uses the most is Twitter. Even his website, marketcap.guide, has a dedicated spot for top tweets, with posts from crypto leaders like a partner at VC firm Placeholder and Web3 accelerator DeFi Alliance.
Gregis is wary of relying too much on social media, however.
“There’s just so much information out there that for someone to use only YouTube or only Twitter… you’re only probably getting one side of the story,” Gregis said.
He suggests finding Telegram group chats or joining meetup groups like Ethereum Austin if you’d like to get in the developer space or smart contracts. The group hosts regular events on topics like game theory and NFTs for social impact.
What to invest in
Staking your $MIOTA to get $SMR and $ASMB tokens is a breeze ! Withdraw your #IOTA tokens from your preferred exchange, send them to your #Firefly wallet and start #staking . The #Firefly Wallet will guide you \nhttps://firefly.iota.org/\u00a0\n@shimmernet @assembly_netpic.twitter.com/Rm6zfTkNG7— IOTA (@IOTA) 1640257219
When Gregis started out around 2013, he was writing cashier's checks to buy Bitcoin. Those days are gone, and you can now easily get started by making an account on a crypto exchange like Coinbase or Binance. Once you're on these platforms, you'll be able to exchange U.S. dollars or other currency for digital assets.
Now that you have the tools to buy and sell crypto, you can go for the most mainstream ones like Bitcoin or Ethereum. But you may have an interest in meme crypto, like Dogecoin. When it comes to these types, experts say they could do well, but it may not work in your favor in the long term.
Then there's more advanced crypto, such as IOTA. Part of the process is signing up for Coinbase and buying Bitcoin. And then you can sign up for another service that will then allow you to convert your Bitcoin to IOTA.
Now, whether IOTA and others like it are a good investment, you'll find mixed opinions, and it's likely you'll need to do your homework to see what is best for you.
Security
A safety step Gregis has taken is keeping everything in “cold storage,” which is a space that isn’t connected to the internet.
“It’s far too easy to get your funds stolen, or if you keep your money on an exchange or even if you keep your money on your computer,” Gregis said. “I’ve heard so many horror stories of people getting their crypto stolen because they don’t do it securely.”
Gregis’ cold storage is a ledger in the form of a USB drive. This way, nothing can come out of the wallet and no transactions can take place without the password-protected ledger. And if you’d like to go a step further to protect your funds, Gregis suggests associating the USB with a mnemonic passphrase. That way, even if somebody steals the USB or it’s misplaced, you can use the passphrase to buy another ledger and keep your money.
“It’s not like a traditional bank where they’re holding it for you. There’s no custodian,” Gregis said. “You are the one that’s controlling your money or your crypto so learn all the problems that could occur if you don’t.”
Think long game
A common mistake people make when starting out is following hype or feeling like crypto is fraudulent because they lost money, Gregis says.
It’s also easy to lose sight of the potential. One day, around the time Bitcoin started hitting close to the $1,000 mark, Gregis asked his friend, who first told him about crypto, what had happened with his money. The friend responded that he had sold about 15,000 Bitcoin for a coffee maker, a move he regretted.
Gregis mentioned that In early December the market had been going through a recent dip, leading some people to switch out. It’s important to keep in mind that you might lose money right away, he says. And yet, you could still make money in the long term.
“If you’re going to get into crypto, really get into it. Don’t be a fair-weather fan,” he said. “If you believe in something, stay there long term because there are too many people that put blind speculation and think they’re going to make these insane returns.”
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Popular
(Eric Lee/The Texas Tribune)
By Eleanor Klibanoff
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional protection for abortion and allowing states to set their own laws regulating the procedure. This represents one of the most significant judicial reversals in a generation and is expected to have far-reaching consequences for all Texans.
Texas will ban all abortions from the moment of fertilization, starting 30 days after the ruling, with narrow exceptions only to save the life of a pregnant patient or prevent “substantial impairment of major bodily function.”
The law that will go into effect in 30 days criminalizes the person who performs the abortion, not the person who undergoes the procedure.
This ruling will radically change the reproductive health care landscape in Texas and the entire nation, where more than half of all states are expected to essentially ban abortion in the coming months.
Most of Texas’ neighboring states are also expected to outlaw abortion as a result of this ruling, with one exception: New Mexico. As the sole outlier in the region, New Mexico is expected to become a haven for Texans seeking abortions. The state currently has no significant restrictions and no plans to limit access to the procedure.
Friday’s ruling represents a victory nearly five decades in the making for Texas’ anti-abortion advocates, who have played an outsized role in the national effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.
It also represents a crushing blow to the state’s abortion providers, who have fought to maintain abortion access in Texas amid a nearly endless parade of restrictions, limitations and political attacks.
Roe v. Wade’s Texas roots
Before it became one of the most well-known Supreme Court cases in the country, Roe v. Wade was just a Texas lawsuit.
More than five decades ago, a woman identified in the legal filings as Jane Roe, later revealed to be Norma McCorvey, wanted an abortion. But under Texas’ laws at the time, it was a crime to perform or “furnish the means for procuring” an abortion.
Two young female lawyers, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, saw an opportunity to use McCorvey’s case to challenge Texas’ abortion law more broadly. They filed a suit against Dallas County prosecutor Henry Wade, who would be the one responsible for bringing charges against anyone who violated the abortion law.
The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where in 1973 Justice Harry Blackmun shocked the nation with a ruling that blocked not just Texas’ abortion laws from being enforced, but all state laws that banned abortion early in pregnancy.
Blackmun agreed with Coffee and Weddington’s argument that the right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution extended to a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. That right to privacy must be balanced with the state’s interest in the “potentiality of human life,” a balance that shifted in the state’s favor the further along a woman was into her pregnancy.
This ruling did little to settle the abortion debate in the United States, instead kicking off nearly five decades of anti-abortion activism and legal challenges seeking to overturn the decision.
Texas, the birthplace of Roe v. Wade, has led many of those legal challenges, including a landmark 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld Roe v. Wade and the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
But the Supreme Court has become much more conservative in recent years, thanks to three appointments by former President Donald J. Trump.
In late 2021, the court declined to block a Texas law that banned abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy through a novel enforcement mechanism that empowers private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” in an abortion.
That law remains in effect and will not be immediately impacted by Friday’s ruling.
In December, the court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson, a challenge to Mississippi’s law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Rather than considering just the law itself, the court agreed to consider the question of whether Roe v. Wade should be overturned — and today’s ruling gave the answer.
Ongoing legal questions
But if Roe v. Wade did little to end the debate about abortion in the United States, Dobbs v. Jackson is not expected to settle the question either.
Health care providers are worrying about how these laws will impact their ability to provide care for high-risk pregnancies or people experiencing miscarriages. Some local district attorneys have said that they won’t prosecute abortion cases in their jurisdictions.
Republican lawmakers have made it clear that they plan to use every tool in their arsenal to ensure that the state’s laws are being enforced, likely sparking legal challenges as they do so.
One such challenge is already looming, as state Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican from Deer Park, has made it clear he intends to target nonprofit advocacy groups that help pregnant patients pay for abortions.
Under the current law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, these abortion funds have helped hundreds of pregnant people leave the state to get an abortion. They’ve paid for travel, lodging, child care and the procedure itself, and they’re preparing for a surge in demand now that abortion is further restricted.
But Cain, an anti-abortion legislator, has issued cease-and-desist letters to these groups, warning that their work may be criminalized under the state laws that were on the books before 1973.
That argument didn’t carry much weight when Roe v. Wade was in effect. Now, legal experts say this may represent the first of many legal questions that will need to be sorted out by the courts as the state begins to navigate an entirely new reproductive health care landscape.
Peyton and Eli Manning's nephew Arch Manning has committed to the University of Texas. (Arch Manning/Twitter)
Arch Manning, the latest prospect in the Manning football family and No. 1 recruit in the class of 2023, has committed to the University of Texas.
Manning is the nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning and the son of Cooper Manning, a former wide receiver for Ole Miss. The Manning football legacy began with Archie Manning, Arch Manning's grandfather and namesake who played for the New Orleans Saints throughout the 1970s.
Committed to the University of Texas. #HookEmpic.twitter.com/jHYbjBaF5K
— Arch Manning (@ArchManning) June 23, 2022
Manning joins head Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian's program after a disappointing 5-7 first season. Manning, who has been the starting quarterback at New Orlean's Newman High School since he was a freshman, was the No. 1 recruit in the 2023 class, according to 247sports.
Manning had plenty of SEC suitors, including Georgia, Alabama and LSU, but committed to Texas after a recent visit to Austin.
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