Buying Bitcoin with PayPal: Harder Than It Sounds

This article was originally posted at Mintdice
https://www.mintdice.com/blog/buying-bitcoin-with-paypal-harder-than-it-sounds

Buying Bitcoin with PayPal: Harder Than It Sounds

Unlike the period in which Bitcoin first emerged, it is a lot easier to buy cryptocurrency today. The major upside of this is that users do not have to break their necks searching for a way to buy their favorite coin.

There are numerous ways to go about it, including exchanges and Bitcoin ATMs, as opposed to attending crypto meetups and hanging around chatrooms in the hopes of meeting people who are willing to sell their tokens. However, most exchanges have not completely figured out how to make it easy for users to buy Bitcoin using fiat currency. In fact, this is a major drawback since people mostly have fiat currency as their starting point for acquiring cryptocurrency.

Normally, fiat purchases can be carried out through third-party applications like Paypal. However, users have found it nearly impossible to do something as simple as buying some Bitcoin straight from their Paypal accounts. With the Paypal active user base falling to 250 million, this is a far-reaching problem.

Currently, attempting to buy cryptocurrency through Paypal is difficult and expensive, mostly due to the potential for users to take advantage of chargebacks. For example, a user could buy some Bitcoins on an exchange, directly from their Paypal account and use its support system to charge it back so that they receive a refund. This can be problematic for exchanges since they can’t request refunds from the Bitcoin wallets they’ve credited.

WAYS IN WHICH BITCOIN CAN BE PURCHASED WITH A PAYPAL ACCOUNT

Although they are few, there are still some other ways in which users can purchase Bitcoin directly from their Paypal accounts, including direct trade, Bitcoin loans, and centralized exchanges and Specialized payment apps.

1. P2P DIRECT TRADE

Since most exchanges do not accept Paypal payments in exchange for BTC, direct trade is the most efficient way forward for those bent on using the payment app.

This involves sites that facilitate peer-to-peer agreements to sell and purchase Bitcoin using Paypal. Essentially, one user connects with another, either in person or through the use of a decentralized exchange like Localbitcoins, Paxful or Cancoin. After connecting, both users can agree on Paypal as a method of payment for their mutual benefit.

LOCALBITCOINS

Localbitcoins is easily the most popular way to buy BTC from a Paypal account. It is a peer-to-peer marketplace that aims to connect buyers and sellers who want to carry out their transactions using Paypal.

The platform method has continuously proven to be an effective way to achieve this. However, users must be careful when choosing sellers to avoid any fraudulent issues. Traders can be filtered by looking at their trade volume and feedback.

PAXFUL

This is another popular marketplace which links buyers and sellers as well as provides escrow services. The fees on Paxful are higher than the market rate but may prove to be worth it. Its user interface bears some slight similarities to Localbitcoins. Apart from Paypal, the platform also conducts transactions via Skrill, Payoneer and gift cards. The site will only accept verified U.S. Paypal accounts.

CANCOIN

Cancoin is a relatively new, decentralized peer-to-peer exchange for Bitcoin traders. It facilitates transactions between users and allows them to carry out these transactions using Paypal. Cancoin greatly emphasizes its security and range of tools to make the user experience more convenient.

Some features include multiple escrow orders, multi-signature transactions, custom alerts via email, SMS, desktop or browser and Interactive price history graphs. Creating an account on the platform is free but sellers pay a 1% fee on each transaction apart from the normal Bitcoin transaction fees. Buyers on the other hand, do not pay fees.

2. P2P BITCOIN “LOANS”

Bitcoin lending is becoming increasingly popular and since a large number of users receive money through Paypal, several bitcoin lending platforms accept it as a payment method. In these systems, users who hold Bitcoin can decide to lend their tokens to other users in hopes of generating profits from interest.

Since Bitcoin lending is still a growing concept, there are not many lending platforms. As a result, the chances of finding one that accepts Paypal as a payment method are slim. xCoins has managed to stand out in this regard.

XCOINS

xCoins is a cryptocurrency exchange, which also serves as a peer-to-peer marketplace, offering additional services including Bitcoin lending. It primarily exists to act as a bridge between Bitcoin lenders and borrowers.

When users fund their xCoins account, they can decide on what interest rates they would like to charge their borrowers, with a starting point of 15%.

Borrowers on the platform are matched with loans, according to the needs they specify.

xCoins guarantees a high level of security through its internal rating system. This way, the credibility of users can be verified easily.

3. CENTRALIZED CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGES

A handful of centralized exchanges have also developed their own systems for ensuring security while accepting Paypal as a payment method. They include Virwox and eToro.

VIRWOX

VirWoX, an acronym for Virtual World Exchange, is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange which accepts Paypal payments. It was launched in 2007 as a digital currency exchange even though it precedes Bitcoin.

Currently, the platform has over 1 million registered users and uses an automatic order system to match them. Like almost any other exchange, a user must create an account to use the platform.

After this step, funds can be deposited in a virtual wallet using Paypal, credit cards, and a host of other options. Subsequently, buy-sell pairs, market limits or order limits can be created on the exchange page and submitted.

ETORO

eToro is a popular social trading and online forex platform where users can invest in several digital assets. The platform offers a wide array of cryptocurrencies and ensures that all user assets are managed in a single place.

It also eliminates the need for a digital wallet and claims to use high-quality encryption technology to secure investors’ funds. Unfortunately, fees on the Etoro platform are relatively high.

4. SPECIALIZED PAYMENT APPS

Some payment apps act as intermediaries to allow Paypal users access cryptocurrency from their accounts. One example is WirexApp which is not an exchange, yet facilitates the purchase of digital currency.

WIREXAPP

WirexApp allows users to set up consistent Paypal cryptocurrency payments. Unfortunately, a user’s first transaction takes about 1-2 days but all transactions after that are carried out instantly.

It is available in several countries including Bahamas, Bahrain, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates among others.

To get started, users must create and verify a WirexApp account. This gets them a free virtual visa card which they have to deposit about $3 into. The card can be added to Paypal and used to pay for cryptocurrency transactions.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Buying cryptocurrency from a Paypal account has many upsides. But fraud, its major drawback seems to trump them all. Until major exchanges find a way around chargebacks, users may be stuck jumping through hoops just to buy cryptocurrency conveniently.

At the same time, platforms that currently offer this service are few and as a result, there is more profit to go around in the form of transaction fees. While this is great for these exchanges it does not do users any favors– since the scarcity of a Paypal payment option on cryptocurrency exchange will only drive up the existing transaction fees on the few platforms that offer this option. Hopefully, exchanges will become fiat-friendly in the next future and allow users to pay for cryptocurrency more conveniently.

This article was originally posted at Mintdice
https://www.mintdice.com/blog/buying-bitcoin-with-paypal-harder-than-it-sounds

December 1, 2018

Finding your lost or stolen iPhone

Last week we were at a cousin’s birthday party in a bowling alley. With the party being held in the basement, cell phone coverage was non-existent. My sister arrived to pick up her kids and came downtstairs, in a panic. She had gone to the gym and her iPhone was stolen. She was frantic and told me she had tried calling me from a phone at the gym, but of course it didn’t reach me.

We went upstairs where I got a signal and started to work on tracking down her phone. Using Apple’s Find My iPhone app, I had her log into her Apple account from my phone

enter your Apple ID / iTunes account login and password

The app started searching and sure enough it found her phone a few blocks away, and not where she had left it. That confirmed that someone had taken the phone, but now what to do? The first task was to put the phone in lost mode. This meant that the screen would come up showing a message that the phone is lost and a contact phone number.

Select your missing phone and tap on Lost Mode

She kept trying to call the phone and then finally someone answered. The woman who answered was quite bewildered as to who was calling her phone. My sister told her that she had the wrong phone. Finally, the message seemed to get through and the woman told my sister that she had accidentally grabbed the phone. Not to worry, she would come and drop it off where we were.

You can follow the path of your phone either as it’s coming back to you or as the thief is getting away

We followed the progress of the phone coming back to where we were. This missing iPhone had a happy ending, but it’s not always like this. If your phone is actually stolen you may be tempted to go and find it yourself. Do not do this! You’re better off calling the police and let them advise you about what steps to take to track down the phone.

Whether you have an iPhone or Android, there are tools to use that allow you to track it down. Even if not stolen, maybe you left your phone somewhere in your home these tools can help. Find My iPhone allows you to send a sound to your phone which could help in tracking it down. Make sure to enable these features on your phone when you get it – you never know when you’ll need it!

November 15, 2018

Google Photos, great in the cloud, not so good from your computer

I recently read an article about Google Photos in the New York Times. There are numerous places online to store your photos and while I had tested out Google Photos a few years ago, I hadn’t continued to use it as an every day photo system. In this article, the author talked about the advancement of artificial intelligence and how accurately it was able to determine pictures of the same person. One of the main problems we face with taking so many digital pictures is that we can’t find them and end up not looking at them. Google has been working to solve this problem and their solution is to have you upload all your pictures and let Google figure out what is related, be it people, places or things.

This got me thinking about how I could use Google Photos along with the method I already use for storing and organizing my photos. I still prefer to have my master copy of photos and videos on my computer, stored by year, month and events. It’s backed up in numerous places, including offsite. What if I could have the best of both my system and Google? It was worth a try.

Syncing up to Google

I already have a Gmail account and I have uploaded numerous photos over the years, but more as standalone albums to share with people online.The first decision to make when putting your photos and videos in Google is cost. You can let Google compress your videos and photos and then there is unlimited storage, but if you keep them at their original size then you’ll have to buy space at whatever the current rates are.

I looked up the compressed rates and they’re pretty reasonable – 16 megapixel for photos and 1080p for videos. If you use this as secondary storage, then it’s not an issue, and for most cases, these are good enough quality unless you are doing professional photo or videos work.

Setting up the sync

First, before doing anything I made sure that my master copy of photos was backed up. I have a regular process where the external hard drive of my photos is backed up to network hard drives in my house. Once this was done, I continued.

I installed Backup and Sync from Google. It walks you through the steps for installation including deciding what you want to sync and what not to sync.

A few items to note in the screenshot above:

I clicked on Choose Folder and picked my external drive where I keep photos. That is the box that is checked on the list of folders
I chose the High quality, free unlimited storage option
I set it to don’t remove items, so that it would upload only and not affect files on my computer

I then started watching as photos and videos started getting uploaded.

Note that you can click on the Google Sync icon in the taskbar, shown above with a red circle.

Something isn’t right

As I watched the screen scroll with photos and videos being uploaded, I occasionally saw the word ‘deleted’ or ‘failed’. After awhile, it stopped and couldn’t sync a whole bunch of files. I knew it couldn’t be close to done as I have over 50,000 photos and videos! I use a program called FreeFileSync to back up my photos and videos to another hard drive so I used it in reverse to show me what files were on the backed up hard drive and not on my primary one. It showed about 60 pictures that somehow got deleted. That concerns me as I specifically chose the option to NOT delete files. I was able to put everything back because of the backup.

I am still experimenting with the software but at this time I cannot recommend Google Backup and Sync for anyone to use with their main copy of photos and videos. If you want to get your photos and videos into Google Photos, I would suggest something along the following lines:

Copy all of your photos to a temporary location
Install Google Backup and Sync
Point Google Backup and Sync to the temporary location
In future, install the app for your phone and let it sync from the phone directly

October 29, 2018October 29, 2018

What is SelfKey (KEY)? | A Beginner’s Guide

This article was originally posted at Coincentral.com
https://coincentral.com/selfkey-key-guide/

What is SelfKey?

SelfKey is a self-proclaimed identity management platform that allows individuals and organizations to keep full control of their identity. The creators have introduced a concept known as the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSID).

The SelfKey foundation manages the project and plans to govern it based on principles of self-sovereign identity. In other words, the core theme for users of the network is to limit risk by storing and managing sensitive data themselves.

The internet has made the world a smaller place. With a few words and a click of a button, you can send messages tens of thousands of miles in only a few seconds. While that obviously means an easier life in many respects, it also introduces a new set of problems for the modern person.

Identity theft is a growing issue worldwide. Results from the Federal Trade Commission and private consulting group Javelin reveal that fraud victims in the US were up 8% in 2017 alone. Recent data leaks from Facebook and Google, considered by many as the darlings of the tech revolution, haven’t helped either.

Blockchain just might be the solution here, and fortunately, several startups have emerged and are racing to get in front of the problem. In this article, we’ll cover one of these popular projects known as SelfKey:

How Does it Work?

The SelfKey process

Documents are shared with third parties using public/private key cryptography similar to that used in pioneer projects like Bitcoin. This ensures that these parties only have access to personal data when users specifically grant them access.

In addition, SelfKey has built a claims protocol which allows only the necessary information (like age, nationality, or gender for example) to be shared with third parties as and when needed. This should prevent the overflow of information between parties which often leads to data leaks and potential identity theft problems.

Project Details

The SelfKey project evolved out of several startup accelerators to become an organization known as KYC-Chain. The company enables organizations and individuals to better manage their know-your-customer (KYC) processes. The logical next step for the company was to raise funds in the ICO market and SelfKey was born. KYC remains a hot topic for the emerging cryptocurrency industry.

The Team

The team page is well-documented and provides a breath of fresh air compared to a host of other cryptocurrency startups out there. Most profiles have LinkedIn profiles attached – a good sign.

A section of the SelfKey growth team.

Edmund Lowell is the founding member of SelfKey and previously founded KYC-Chain as mentioned previously. His skills merge the fields of finance, technology, and law. These days, however, most of his time is spent recruiting the right members to keep the SelfKey project on course.

We won’t analyze all profiles here as the team is quite extensive. We will, however, provide a snapshot here of the core members in each of the other development, legal, and advisory teams:

A few key members of the Design & Development teams.

A section of the SelfKey legal team.

Some of SelkKey’s more prominent advisory figures.

Partnerships

SelfKey already has a growing number of partners including notable mentions from established projects like Kyber Network and Polymath. It’s worth highlighting, though, that their partnership with Standard & Chartered Bank out of Singapore is what got people in the industry to stand up and notice. Together they manage KYC for token sales and Fintech startups around the world.

Roadmap

No official roadmap appears to have been given before the ICO. There is, however, a fair amount of update and progress tracking on their site for a roadmap from early 2018. Other than updates from Lowell, potential investors will want to keep their eyes on the remaining goals for 2018 which include the Cryptocurrency Exchanges Marketplace, Key Token Staking Functionality, SelfKey Browser Extension, and the Incorporations Marketplace.

Roadmap goals and updates

Trading History & Sentiment

Selfkey review and community sentiment on the web remains mixed. Some Reddit posts have suggested that the project may be nothing other than a pump-and-dump scheme. On the other hand, many other Reddit threads are hailing it as an innovative solution which may completely change the nature of the identity management landscape.

It’s particularly difficult to determine the value of projects like these in their early stages of development. Add to that the bear market which has played out year-to-date in 2018 and you may wonder about the long-term viability of SelfKey.

The KEY token was listed on exchanges earlier this year and has unfortunately performed quite poorly against other assets. After SelfKey news of the Binance listing in July, prices moved sharply higher. Prices have since fallen back to even lower levels than before the listing.

Many investors will want to see consistent strength from buyers before adding the token to their crypto portfolio.

Where to Buy and Store

The KEY token runs the SelfKey ecosystem and was used as the primary way to fund the project. The token allows you to verify documents, access the network, and buy additional services via the SelfKey marketplace. It’s listed on several reputable exchanges including Binance, KuCoin, and OKEx. This is an important point since the bulk of new traders/investors will be found at these places of purchase.

Symbol: KEY
Specification: ERC20
Network: Ethereum
Circulating Supply: 2,400,000,000 KEY
Total Supply: 6,000,000,000 KEY

As with most new tokens, you won’t be able to buy it on fiat-to-crypto exchanges just yet. So you’ll have to get hold of some Bitcoin or Ethereum first and then transfer to the exchanges listed above before grabbing some.

Identity Wallet

SelfKey has created their own storage solution known as the SelfKey identity wallet which allows users to store, manage, and authorize documents. The wallet also provides additional features like cryptocurrency management and a marketplace for your typical administration – things like bank accounts, setting up a business, or passport control.

The SelfKey wallet in action

Advantages

Security

Decentralizing identity management is a huge step forward in preventing identity fraud. Centralized record keeping can be really wasteful and time consuming with traditional paper methods. More importantly, however, is removing the possibility of the so-called “honeypot” from the equation.

When a large number of records are stored in one location this naturally draws the attention of thieves looking to score big. In a decentralized scenario, hackers would need to break into many individual accounts to get the same payday. In most cases, this is just not worth the hassle.

One Time KYC

Know Your Customer is a pretty annoying requirement in the cryptocurrency space. Traders and investors often have accounts with several exchanges. Having to verify each one can be an incredibly time-consuming process. Think back to the end of 2017 when exchanges were turning customers away due to high demand and limited customer resources.

SelfKey would effectively do away with this by creating a verify once process. Once a certifier has validated an initial KYC claim, users can validate that proof just about everywhere with a few clicks of a mouse. This kind of scalability will be necessary for the future. Cryptocurrency markets are forecasted to grow and more people are bringing their identities online than ever before.

Risks

The Middleman Bottleneck

According to SelfKey, the network is highly dependent on third-party certifiers to verify identity claims. This works almost exactly the same way we do today, except by making the process more efficient on the blockchain. Lawyers, bankers, accountants, and government authorities, amongst others, as usual, are eligible to be certifiers

This, however, doesn’t really address the issue of decentralization which is fundamental to building any project with blockchain tech. In other words, these certifiers are still middlemen and the potential bottleneck of the system. Unfortunately, certifiers still have excessive power which can be used to abuse the system. This can be illustrated by the recent arrest of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) senior lawyer in Seattle.

Certifiers are still the bottleneck. These kinds of systems will only work if they are open to audit from the public. This is one of the biggest challenges when trying to merge decentralized blockchain solutions with traditional centralized processes.

Lack of Simplicity

The SelfKey website and whitepaper are not easy to follow. If users are going to trust in the possibilities of a blockchain future we need to make it easy for them to understand and adopt the technology. You can always explain great services in an easy way. Many cryptocurrency projects, however, suffer from very technical examples and convoluted explanations. SelfKey, unfortunately, falls in this category.

Final Thoughts

Nobody should deny that identity management is an area of the modern era that needs some serious attention. The anonymity of the internet makes it super easy for trolls, hackers, confidence tricksters, and fraudsters to attack from miles away. This begs the question of how jurisdictions of the world will function in the future.

Central authorities may not have many options as these kinds of problems cross international borders. Blockchain doesn’t stop at the border, however. And SelfKey is in a prime position to capitalize on this advantage. It does, however, already have serious competition from the likes of Civic and The Key. Who will come out on top? Just like the rest of us, you’ll have to stick around to find out.

More information on the project can be found on the following channels:

This article was originally posted at Coincentral.com
https://coincentral.com/selfkey-key-guide/

October 29, 2018October 29, 2018

When the cloud goes down

Last week my mom got a new iPhone so this was a perfect test for her to see how well iCloud backs up all her data and can easily restore it a new phone. When we went to restore her iCloud backup to the new phone, it showed that there wasn’t one. I checked closer and discovered that she had run out of space in her iCloud account, even though she had upgraded it from the free 5 GB to 50 GB of storage space. This ended up as a positive, as I saw that my dad also had upgraded to 50 GB and if they pooled their resources, they could share a 200 GB storage plan for about the same cost. They made the switch and then I kicked off a backup from her old phone.

The first lesson – check your backups

Once you have a backup system in place, make sure to check it regularly to ensure that your precious data is actually getting backed up. There’s no point in paying for something that isn’t working properly.

Waiting for the backup to continue

So before she could use her new phone, the backup had to complete on the old phone. I suspected it would take into the night so I suggested she let it run and then try the restore in the morning. Later in the evening the backup wouldn’t run at all and it showed that she had 0 GB available in her plan. Something had gone very strange in her account. At this point I decided to check my iCloud account and sure enough, it wasn’t working either. It was then that I discovered this very helpful status site that Apple runs that lets you know about problems within iCloud:

https://www.apple.com/ca/support/systemstatus/

By the morning iCloud was up and running and the backup finished. My mom was able to successfully restore her phone and everything worked as expected.

The second lesson – it may not only be you having a problem

Sites like iCloud provide helpful status information so that you can determine if the problem is on your side or Apple. By knowing there is an issue with Apple, you can stop troubleshooting and wait for the problem to be resolved.

The downside of the cloud

This was a short outage of iCloud so it didn’t really affect my mom’s ability to use her phone. What if she needed some data that was in iCloud for a meeting? Several hours of outage might just be too much. We have to strike a balance when using cloud services. The are very convenient to be able to access from anywhere and are likely more stable than hardware we have in our house. Still, if you need a file and it’s on your computer, it’s likely you’ll be able to access it.

The compromise

Evaluate your files and data to determine how critical each is and what are the implications of losing access temporarily. If you have an important presentation, put that PowerPoint file in the cloud and also on a USB stick. If you can’t access some family pictures for a few hours, that may not have much impact. The cloud has become an invaluable tool for data access everywhere, but some advance planning will ensure that you’re covered when the cloud is taking a break.

October 15, 2018October 18, 2018

How Sentinel Protocol Can Protect You Against Crypto Fraud

This article was originally posted at Coincentral.com
https://coincentral.com/sentinel-protocol/

How Sentinel Protocol Can Protect You Against Crypto Fraud

It often feels like navigating the cryptocurrency investment landscape is like taking a stroll through a treasure island crowded with minefields. The open nature of the technology is both its greatest benefit and its biggest downfall, at least at this early stage of the game. Sentinel Protocol has arrived and they claim they have the solution.

The Problem

By now, you should be aware of the growing problem of identity theft, ICO scams, and hacking that litter the internet. They’ve become so common in recent years that it has almost become the new normal.

It’s a lot easier for criminals to commit coin fraud these days since the launch of DIY coin creation platforms like Ethereum. But while some projects are focusing their efforts on identity safety what we also desperately need are some tools to verify cryptocurrency wallets, links, and source code.

The Sentinel Approach

Sentinel is an ambitious project that aims to be one of the first decentralized regulators of the crypto space. That sounds like a contradiction, but the truth is we all need to have some level of accountability for our actions online.

Government regulators typically have full control over who is considered a good or bad actor. By decentralizing that process we can pave the way for a community-led solution. As Sentinel Protocol chief evangelist John Kirch puts it:

Imagine a world where a single platform can collect scam data from hundreds of projects and be accessible by any company looking to add security to their own sales.

The Sentinels

One of the real beauties of blockchain is the way contributors can be incentivized for doing good work in an ecosystem. In the past, ethical hackers usually only received reputation points from a community. Reputation is a great starting point but it doesn’t pay the bills. And while it would in a corporate environment, the general public loses out.

Introducing the Sentinels: ethical hackers, security teams, professionals, and developers who offer their services to the network. In return, they receive Sentinel Points (SP). Consider SP’s as the reputation score of each contributor. Sentinels can then exchange their SP’s for UPP‘s which is the local currency of the entire Sentinel Protocol network.

Mobilize security experts from around the world

Tools Maketh the Man

One of the fundamental drivers of the project is a security expert governance model. Clearly, decentralization is important to the fair distribution of power in a network. It does, however, make sense that the combined expertise of security professionals around the world lead this process. This doesn’t mean however those ordinary users are left out. Here are a few tools in development.

The Threat Reputation Database

Threat reputation is not a new field and has been around just about as long as the first spies appeared in foreign countries. Collecting information about your enemies was key to keeping your kingdom, government or even village safe. But the enemy is now a virtual one and working in an isolated way. Like secret government agencies, it has its limitations.

The Threat Reputation Database or TRDB is Sentinel Protocol’s solution to this isolation problem. Security companies typically store their data privately and then sell it to the highest bidder. There are a few problems with this approach:

Information that could benefit the general public is not made available to all.
Security experts in these companies would love to contribute their findings to the public but can’t due to non-disclosure agreements.
Finally, those experts who work independently often don’t get paid for providing free analysis.

TRDB is potentially the first global database that pays security experts for helping cryptocurrency users stay safe. They hope to connect with other leading platforms, exchanges, and various cryptocurrency projects to make this reality possible. It’s fair to say that the more people that climb on board the better the network will become.

Uppward Chrome Extension

Uppward is a chrome browser extension geared towards protecting you as you navigate cryptoland. ICO’s have generated quite a bit of buzz and continue to attract new investors from around the world. This little tool helps you validate wallet addresses before sending your hard-earned investment savings. The extension also conveniently alerts you of phishing websites and those dodgy telegram groups that seem to be popping up everywhere.

Simply input any wallet address, URL, or Telegram group into the extension, and the system will generate a safety report. Keep in mind that new wallets, scams, and Telegram groups appear every day. Sentinel Protocol will not protect you from every issue out there and relies heavily on user feedback. The extension is also still in its infancy so expect some bugs. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped it from receiving excellent reviews so far.

Sentinel’s chrome extension is highly rated

S-Wallet

The S-Wallet is Sentinel Protocol’s free wallet for storing their native UPP token. It’s available for both desktop and mobile and will ultimately use other technology to keep users safe. That tech includes machine learning and the distributed malware sandbox, which we’ll cover in the next section.

For now, this wallet will only cover the UPP token. The team has made the TRDB available to other wallet creators, however. So hopefully other wallet developers will jump on board and make use of this security feature in their own projects.

Distributed Malware Sandbox

Sandboxes are used by programmers to isolate code from the rest of a system. In this way, it’s possible to run code in a secure environment and test for suspicious files or links. To this end, Sentinel Protocol has created what is known as the Distributed Malware Sandbox.

These sandboxes usually require complicated software and expensive hardware to run. Blockchains, however, introduce nodes into the equation which make it possible to decentralize this process. According to John Kirch, this will make things cheaper to run and a lot easier to scale.

Anybody can become a sandbox node if they choose. In return for their services, they receive Sentinel Points as a reward. They still need the above-mentioned S-Wallet to set this up though.

Sentinel Protocol is a fairly ambitious and rather technical project to follow. There are a lot of complicated processes that need to come together before we a see a network that really shines. While governments step up their efforts to clamp down on the cryptocurrency industry, there is a very real need for solutions that come from within the cryptocurrency community first.

Sentinel Protocol is an early mover with excellent potential to achieve this. By their own words, they consider themselves one of the very first threat intelligence platforms. This is a great step for protecting cryptocurrency users, but remember, you are the first port of call when it comes to your own safety in this space.

Use the tools available and keep in mind that no tool is perfect. No tool will protect you if you don’t educate yourself first. Crypto scams will not go away overnight, but if more projects show up to protect users in cryptoland, then that will surely go a long way in bringing cryptocurrency to the masses

This article was originally posted at Coincentral.com
https://coincentral.com/sentinel-protocol/

October 15, 2018

The Case of the Failed Hard Drive and the Files left Behind

When we think about data protection and backup, it’s easier to get an idea of what it’s all about if we can see an example in real life. Here is the first of hopefully a number of case studies of data loss and how to handle it.

Elaine is a retired social worker. She has used a computer for many years, mostly in her working life and also for keeping journals writing memoirs. Elaine is also very artistic and enjoys creating greeting cards for family and friends using her computer.

Several months ago, Elaine’s computer starting making loud noises and then Windows wouldn’t start. Since the computer was 10 years old, I advised her that this was a good time to look at getting a new one. Even if the computer didn’t start properly, we could could still possibly retrieve some or all of her files from the old one. Elaine ended up buying a new laptop and was able to get it up and running. Since she had subscribed to Dropbox a few years ago, most of her files were right there waiting once it was installed. But not all files – more about that soon.

The Diagnosis

Elaine brought over both her old and new laptops. I started up the old one and sure enough heard the fan motor loudly humming away. Windows did not start up so I was able to get to System Recovery. I chose Startup Repair.

From here it ran a scan trying desperately to find an installation of Windows to fix. Unfortunately, it came up empty, as you can see from the image below. If there were an installation of Windows to repair, it would have shown up in the list.

This meant that there wasn’t much to do on this computer. There are recovery tools that can be run that are booted up from a USB stick or a CD but I decided to try something else – take out the hard drive and attempt recovery from another computer.

I highly recommend keeping one or more extra hard drive enclosures in your computer supplies. These allow you to pop your hard drive into a box that turns it into an external hard drive. These usually come with USB cables so you can connect it up to any computer.

The Search for Files

Once connected, it didn’t look good for Elaine’s hard drive. I ran Windows Disk Management and looked at the hard drives listed. The following image shows a bunch of healthy, normal disk partitions. The one shown in red is RAW and this means that data corruption has occurred. Built-in tools for Windows will not let you look at or retrieve files from RAW partitions.

I did some research and found several programs that claim to recover files from RAW partitions. Several have free trials that will show you what files can be recovered but you have to pay to recover them. MiniTool Power Data Recovery will not only scan a RAW drive and show you what files it can recover but it will recover up to 1 GB for free. This is very helpful if you have a small amount of data to recover or want to test the software first to prove if it will work.

The Recovery

When I installed this software, it scanned the drive and came up with a many folders that it could recover. Elaine spotted several folders that weren’t in Dropbox, and therefore weren’t on her new computer. Since Elaine had less than 1 GB of data to recovery the free version of MiniTool was sufficient. Now that I have seen the program in action, I would recommend either the free or full version to anyone requiring data recovery.

Additional Data Loss Prevention

Elaine was very pleased when I found her numerous journal entry files and memoirs. She had saved all of these to folders not in Dropbox, therefore they were never backed up. Elaine had already invested in the paid version of Dropbox that provides 1 TB of data. I relocated all of her files to Dropbox and then reviewed where all the files were located. I then launched Word which is the primary program she uses for her writing. By default, Word saves its files in your documents folder. I changed this to Dropbox to ensure that all future created files are automatically saved in Dropbox. This should be repeated in all programs.

Elaine also brought over her digital camera as she wasn’t sure how to transfer files from a camera to Windows 10. I showed her how to put the SD card from the camera into the computer.

I then launched Windows Explorer and went through the process to import pictures from a memory card. The key take away here was not to use the default settings. I set the destination for copying the pictures and videos to Elaine’s Dropbox folders. This way the pictures would go directly to Dropbox. Elaine mentioned that she wanted to use the SD card as a backup for her pictures. I highly recommend against this. First of all, if you always keep your pictures on the memory card, how will you know what you have and have not copied to the computer? This makes for lots of duplicate photos.

Second, think of the memory card as your temporary storage for pictures. By emptying out frequently, you will always have lots of space for taking more pictures and videos. Of course, all of this assumes you are using a traditional digital camera and not a Smartphone.

In Conclusion

Elaine now has a new computer that contains all of her files. She was very fortunate that the files on her old computer were able to be recovered. Professional recovery services charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for recovery. Software like MiniTool doesn’t work in every case so it’s helpful to try it first before engaging with data recovery professionals. By properly setting up save locations and having a proper system for using Dropbox or another cloud based service, you can make a computer failure more of a minor annoyance where you have to replace the computer instead of a disaster where your critical files are gone forever. Like the old cliche says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

October 10, 2018

The long and short of it – what data to keep and what to delete

My parents are in the process of downsizing their house to a smaller one. Part of the process is going through years of papers and memorabilia to determine what to keep and what to throw out. That seemingly important file from 20 years ago doesn’t look so critical when you look at it now. The collection of National Geographic Magazines might seem valuable but do you (a) need it and (b) do you have anywhere to put it. With digital data, there are many of the same issues and it’s important to be able to determine what is important for long term vs short term.

An important distinction to be made between physical and digital data is the amount of space it takes to store both. Having to find place for 500 magazines is not quite the same as having a big enough hard drive to store 500 digital copies of the same magazines. Hard drives continue to drop in price so it’s feasible to keep buying larger hard drives as your quantity of data increases. And it’s also like that your current hard drive purchase will be cheaper and higher capacity than the previous one.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it should help you think about what you should and shouldn’t keep.

This view of the Cabot trail in Nova Scotia is definitely a keeper

Photos and Videos

This summer we went on vacation in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. We took lots of great pictures of the scenery. When we returned from the trip, I went through the hundreds of photos that we took and DELETED many of them. If there are 10 pictures of a statue then only the best one needs to be kept. The key thing here is to do your purging of pictures as soon as possible. If you wait until the end of the year then there’s a good chance you’ll never delete anything. The same goes for videos. Check your videos after you record them and if they’re no good, then get rid of them!

Financial Documents

These include all your digital bills and statements, receipts for products purchased and everything to do with taxes. I’m not one to give financial advice but I have been told to keep all tax related documents for 7 years. I have also heard that when there’s a tax problem, the tax department might go back even further. The reality if you save copies of documents then the files are not too big, at least compared to photos and videos. If you don’t do much else in digital filing, at least have a folder with files for years. Put everything in each year’s folder. Take it further by having folders for bills, statements, receipts, taxes, etc. This way if you decide to get rid of certain years, you know that the files are broken up by years. And it has the added bonus of making it much easier to find what you’re looking for.

Documents created in word processors and spreadsheets

Some of these documents are related to taxes or finances and should be filed along with the statements. Others are quick letters or notes that you might take that are never needed again. These too should be kept in folders by year so that you can quickly check through them at the end of the year to see what you actually need. Many of these are also small files that over time do not take up that much space on our ever increasing sized hard drives.

What to do with files that are kept?

The key take away here is to have an effective filing system so that you can better locate what you want to keep and what to get rid of. In future posts, we will talk about various methods for long and short term archiving. You should be able to actually find what you choose to keep!

October 3, 2018April 13, 2019

Beginners Guide: What is Bitcoin?

This article was originally posted at Coincentral.com https://coincentral.com/beginners-guide-what-is-bitcoin/

The Bitcoin world is abuzz with both excitement and curiosity… and the opportunity for upside potential to skyrocket. Everyone from everyday Joes to reputable experts are betting on Bitcoin’s success.

It’s been a wild 8 years since Bitcoin’s release. Most notably, we’ve seen headlines of people who fortuitously purchased bitcoins early on turn into kid-millionaires. With the immense potential of new cryptocurrencies, our attention often turns to Bitcoin as a quintessential example of what’s to come.

We’ve designed this guide to teach you about Bitcoin so that you’re up to speed and ready to join the crypto-world.

What is Bitcoin?

Released as an open-source software in 2009, Bitcoin is often credited as the world’s first cryptocurrency and is best defined as a digital currency that only exists electronically. Here’s another solid introduction to article to what is bitcoin.

Bitcoin is decentralized, meaning it doesn’t have a central issuing authority or political institution that controls the amount of bitcoin in circulation. But the Bitcoin platform is far from anarchy.

The whole process is pretty simple and organized: Bitcoin holders are able to transfer bitcoins via a peer-to-peer network. These transfers are tracked on the “blockchain,” commonly referred to as a giant ledger. This ledger records every bitcoin transaction ever made. Each “block” in the blockchain is built up of a data structure based on encrypted Merkle Trees. This is particularly useful for detecting fraud or corrupted files. If a single file in a chain is corrupt or fraudulent, the blockchain prevents it from damaging the rest of the ledger.

Instead of relying on a government to print new currency, Bitcoin’s blockchain programming handles when bitcoins are made and how many are produced. It also keeps track of where bitcoins are and ensures the transactions are accurate.

There are currently about 17 million bitcoins in circulation. There isn’t a central regulatory agency or government controlling the supply of bitcoins, meaning the supply is controlled by design. The total supply to ever be created is capped at 21 million bitcoins.

This cap raises an argument that Bitcoin could have problems scaling. However, since Bitcoin is essentially infinitesimally divisible (meaning users can transfer as little as 0.00000001 bitcoins), this doesn’t really create a scaling issue. The magic number of 21 million is arbitrary.

It’s believed that Bitcoin was designed to become a deflationary currency to combat the government’s use of inflation as a hidden taxation to redistribute earned wealth. Many people praise Bitcoin for empowering the people by overthrowing the currency printing powers of transient politicians.

How Does Bitcoin Work?

One of Bitcoin’s most appealing features is its ruthless verification process, which greatly minimizes the risk of fraud. Since Bitcoin is decentralized, volunteers—referred to as “miners”—constantly verify and update the blockchain. Once a specific amount of transactions are verified, another block is added to the blockchain and business continues per usual.

What is “Mining”?

Instead of a single central server verifying every transaction, essentially every other person on the network verifies each transaction.

Cue the “miners.”

Let me simplify the process so we all understand: Miners are presented with a complicated math problem and the first one to solve the math problem adds the verified block of transactions to the ledger. The calculations are based on a Proof of Work (POW), or the proof that a minimum amount of energy was spent to get a correct answer.

There aren’t actual human beings hunched over computers with scraps of notebook paper and calculators doing pre-calculus homework; hardware is used to perform Bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin’s built-in reward system compensates successful miners with a chunk of bitcoins. The reward changes over time per Bitcoin’s programming, and the block reward halves about every four years. The current reward for each new block of verified transactions is about 12.5 bitcoins.

The mining processes have become increasingly sophisticated. The most popular method uses ASICS–Application-Specific Integrated Circuits. ASICS are hardware systems similar to CPU computers that are built for the sole reason of mining bitcoins.

Bitcoin mining operations take a lot of effort and power, and the sheer amount of competition makes it difficult for newcomers to enter the race and profit. A new miner would not only need to have adequate computing power and the knowledge to use it to outcompete the competition, but would also need the extensive amount of capital necessary to fund the operations.

A Simple Bitcoin Transaction Example

While Bitcoin’s underlying technology may seem hard to grasp, using Bitcoin does not have to be difficult. Here’s an example of how simple a real world Bitcoin transaction can be.

Bitcoin Wallets: How to Store Your Bitcoins

So, you’ve got this digital currency. You can’t really chuck it in your pocket. Let’s go through some useful definitions before we jump into storing cryptos:

Exchange platform: where you trade money for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin. You can also trade one cryptocurrency for another.
Wallet platform: essentially a bank account where your cryptocurrencies are kept.
Hard wallet: an “offline” wallet that is not linked to a network.
Public Cryptographic Key: your account number. Similar to how someone would send money to your bank account via your account number, your public cryptographic key is the information you give to someone to receive cryptos.
Private Cryptographic Key: the key that allows you to spend your Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. You guard this with your life. If someone has access to it, they can transfer (steal!) your bitcoins.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can discuss Bitcoin wallet better.

When you hear of bitcoins being hacked, you’re probably hearing about an “exchange platform” being hacked. Since Bitcoin’s blockchain structure makes it EXTREMELY difficult to hack (borderline impossible), it is considered very secure.

Exchanges, however, are a different story. Perhaps the most notable Bitcoin exchange hack was the Tokyo-based MtGox hack in 2014, where 850,000 bitcoins with a value of over $350 million suddenly disappeared from the platform. This doesn’t mean that Bitcoin itself was hacked; it just means that the exchange platform was hacked. Imagine a bank in Iowa is robbed: the USD didn’t get robbed, the bank did.

Industries surrounding Bitcoin are new and not without their kinks. Bitcoin advocate and esteemed venture capitalist Marc Andreessen stated, “MtGox had to die for Bitcoin to thrive. Its former role from early Bitcoin days has been supplanted by better, stronger entities.”

Even though most wallet platforms are considered extremely secure, the prospect of hackers makes many users paranoid.

That brings us to hard wallets. A hard wallet is essentially a USB that allows users to store their cryptographic keys offline and off of exchanges. Your cryptographic key only lives on your hard wallet and is impossible to hack (unless someone physically steals your hard wallet).

Hard wallets are so secure that there are countless stories of people carelessly misplacing a hard wallet full of cryptos and never being able to recover thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of bitcoins.

Some users opt to use a “paper wallet,” which is essentially your cryptographic keys on a piece of paper stored somewhere safe like a bank vault. Although paper wallets are not recommended, they can be done either by an online key generator (not recommended due to threats of malware) or handwritten.

For more information on Bitcoin wallets, read out Guide to Finding the Best Bitcoin Wallet.

Why use Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is often hailed as the future of the monetary world for a variety of reasons.

It’s decentralized and brings power back to the people. Launched just a year after the 2008 financial crises, Bitcoin has attracted many people who see the current financial system as unsustainable. This factor has won the hearts of those who view politicians and government with suspicion. It’s no surprise there is a huge community of ideologists actively building, buying, and working in the cryptocurrency world.
Freedom. The concept that one could carry millions or billions of dollars in Bitcoin across borders, pay for anything at any time, and not have to wait on extended bank delays is a major selling point.
Security. Bitcoin payments don’t necessarily need to be tied to one’s personal information. Since personal information is left out of the transactions, users aren’t as exposed to threats such as identity theft. Bitcoin can also be backed up and encrypted to ensure the security of your money.
Low Transaction Fees. Banks and companies like PayPal charge to send and receive money. Bitcoin replaces the 2.5% “transaction fee” with one that’s only a fraction of that.

The Immutable Ledger. Bitcoin’s blockchain public ledger is objective. People trust it to be fair because it is based on pure mathematics, rather than the human error and corruption of questionable politicians.

What are the disadvantages of Bitcoin?

For all its advantages, Bitcoin does still pose some significant issues.

Perhaps one of the largest reasons everyone hasn’t jumped on the Bitcoin train is because its price is shrouded in uncertainty. Many people are concerned with…

Legal Gray Area. Major governments have largely remained on the sidelines, and this has created both a sense of potential and apprehension for Bitcoin proponents and critics respectively. Bitcoin isn’t backed by a regulatory agency and a government would technically be ceding power by supporting a decentralized currency. This has been largely officially unaddressed. Bitcoin’s price, however, tends to be very sensitive to any news concerning the US government’s opinion of cryptocurrencies. For example, when the SEC denied the approval of bitcoin-based exchange-traded-products—essentially bitcoin-backed assets on the stock market—in 2017, Bitcoin’s price dropped 18%. Yet while the price and adoption of Bitcoin would be affected by government action, governments are unable to criminalize Bitcoin. In fact, governments such as the United States and China have invested in it at some capacity.
Exchange hacks. As stated above, an exchange hack has nothing to do with the integrity of the Bitcoin system… but the market freaks out regardless. This trend seems to minimize as users see that cryptos recover from exchange hacks. As exchanges evolve and become more secure, this threat becomes less of an issue. Additionally, outside investments funneling into exchanges are providing the capital for them to grow stronger.
Illiquidity. This is mostly moot due to Bitcoin’s $47 market cap but it still makes users sweat. It’s highly unlikely that Bitcoin’s price would plummet and you’d be unable to take action, but it’s still unsettling. As more investors invest, however, illiquidity becomes a negligible risk, as there will likely always be a buyer for Bitcoins waiting.
Volatility. This very reason many speculators are attracted to Bitcoin is the same reason many potential users are hesitant to get involved. Users that look at Bitcoin as a speculative investment option are essentially gambling on the process, and the future price of Bitcoin is largely unknown. There are estimates that Bitcoin will both be worth pennies in a few years, while some predict that a single bitcoin will be worth $500k in three years. As new investors continue to invest and the market cap grows, Bitcoin’s price could become more stable.
Lack of adoption by businesses. The price volatility is a large reason that many businesses have yet to adopt Bitcoin as a form of payment. Increased consumer adoption and price stability will eventually mitigate this disadvantage.

Another disadvantage is that while many people have heard of Bitcoin, few understand exactly what it is or how it functions. Guides like this help to push the needle and build a foundation, but it’s ultimately on the users to seek out more information.

Bitcoin’s strength lies in its networking effect. The more we spread the word and grow the Bitcoin community, the better off our bitcoins will be.

How to Buy Bitcoin

As mentioned above, in the early years of Bitcoin it was difficult to find a trustworthy place to buy the cryptocurrency. With the increase in demand for Bitcoin, numerous new companies have sprouted to help facilitate easily purchasing Bitcoin.

These days, many Bitcoin exchanges have received huge investments from venture capitalist. They’re also now more heavily regulated, especially those based out of the United States. You can compare exchanges and view our in depth reviews in our How to Buy Bitcoin Guide. We’ve also listed our top two recommended options below:

Coinbase launched in 2012 with the hopes of giving users an easier way to buy Bitcoin. Since its launch, the San Francisco based startup has become the most commonly recommended buying option for newbies. You can learn more in our complete Coinbase Review and User’s Guide.

Gemini was founded in 2015 by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. While they launched more recently than many of their competitors, the New York based cryptocurrency exchange has quickly built a great reputation in the crypto community. You can learn more in our Gemini Review and User’s Guide.

Who invented Bitcoin?

Satoshi Nakamoto is credited with designing Bitcoin. Nakamoto claims to be a man living in Japan born on April 5th, 1975 but there are speculations that he is actually either an individual programmer or group of programmers with a penchant for computer science and cryptography scattered around the United States or Europe. Nakamoto is believed to have created the first blockchain database and have been the first to solve the double spending problem other digital currency failed to. While Bitcoin’s creator is shrouded in mystery, his Wizard of Oz status hasn’t stopped the digital currency from becoming increasingly popular with individuals, businesses, and even governments.

Bitcoin’s Popularity

It’s important to take a look at Bitcoin’s popularity over time because… well, have a look below:

Google Trends structures the chart to represent a relative search interest to the highest points in the chart. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term “Bitcoin” and a value of 50 means it was half as popular at that time. A score of 0 indicates that the term was less than 1% as popular as the peak. It’s amazing how the searches relating to Bitcoin have spiked in the past few years.

When Bitcoin began circulating in 2009, its early adopters consisted of programmers and a niche crowd of technical people. Its popularity over time indicates that many of the disadvantages of Bitcoin will likely dissipate as Bitcoin becomes more standard.

Unsurprisingly, Bitcoin’s price has grown with increased demand. As you can see, more buyers enter the market and raise the price as more people learn about Bitcoin and its technical applications.

Bitcoin’s popularity has undeniably been its number one advantage over the numerous other cryptocurrencies. By gaining a large number of adopters and users, Bitcoin has achieved a network effect that attracts even more users. Users who would otherwise be more apprehensive investing in a relatively unknown and unproven digital currency are reassured by Bitcoin’s performance over time, its growing community, and the fact that people they know are adopting cryptos.

Bitcoin’s first mover advantage, popularity, and network effect has cemented it as the most popular cryptocurrency with the largest market cap. Rivals like Litecoin may have numerous technical advantages over Bitcoin’s algorithm (see more about that here), but they only hold a fraction of Bitcoin’s market cap and their dwindling communities largely consist of loyalists, speculators, and antagonistic anti-Bitcoin buyers.

What We Can Learn From Bitcoin’s Popularity

Understanding what makes Bitcoin so popular allows us to not only conceptualize where Bitcoin is headed, but also how other cryptocurrencies generally function. Bitcoin is able to attract users better than any other cryptocurrency because…

It has the network effect. Bitcoin’s network validates its worth to newcomers and gives Bitcoin a viral growth rate.
The high market cap is comforting. Bitcoin’s massive market cap gives users a sense of security and stability. With a market cap of about $69 billion, Bitcoin is comparatively a much safer crypto investment.
Speculation drives numbers. Many Bitcoin users are holding onto their bitcoins in hopes of selling them off for an enormous profit one day. With news articlesportraying Bitcoin millionaires as lucky kids who got in early, you can’t really blame them. For example, if you had spent your $5 latte money on 2,000 bitcoins one morning in 2010, they would be worth about $5.4 million today. Makes you really wish you’d managed your Starbucks budget better, doesn’t it?

News drives attention, and attention drives understanding. While many people have flocked to cryptocurrencies purely in search of financial gain, there are a ton of people that are simply curious. Some peoples are sticking around and trying to understand what cryptos are all about. While more users increases Bitcoin’s network effect, more people forming in-depth understandings of cryptos also strengthen the active Bitcoin community.

Final Thoughts

Bitcoin is still a relatively young currency but it has achieved substantial user adoption and growth. Bitcoin’s network only grows stronger as more people learn about Bitcoin’s fundamental technology and potential in relation to other methods of value storage.

As the flagship of the cryptocurrency fleet, Bitcoin is considered the “gateway” cryptocurrency. Understanding Bitcoin’s potential is an essential first step to seeing the brilliant solutions being worked on in the cryptocurrency world.

Bitcoin paints a future that is drastically different from the fiat-based world today. This is either exciting or unsettling for the vast majority. Equip yourself with the best possible resources. Become active in communities that further explore not only the technical applications of Bitcoin and other cryptos, but with their overall potential to disrupt virtually every market. Brace yourselves. Cryptos are coming.

This article was originally posted at Coincentral.com https://coincentral.com/beginners-guide-what-is-bitcoin/

September 4, 2018

Review: Apple iCloud Photo Library

On a recent vacation to visit family in Montreal, I decided to turn on Apple iCloud Photo Library so I could give it a proper test. With my system for storing photos, I wasn’t so sure that iCloud Photo Library was for me but I get asked about systems like it all the time so I decided a test was in order. Let’s take a step back. When iPhones first came out, all photos and videos were stored on the phone. When you wanted to do something with them off the phone, you plugged your iPhone into a computer and transferred the photos. As we move to a more phone-centric world and always connected, having the ability to automatically have pictures stored in the cloud is an option. With iCloud Photo Library, as you take pictures and videos, they are uploaded to your personal Apple iCloud online space. You can decide whether or not to do this through cellular or only on WiFi. Let’s walk through how this is set up and some important settings.

Enabling iCloud Photo Library

First, when I mention iPhone here, it also applies to iPads. If you have a cellular enabled iPad, then all the cellular considerations apply to. For WiFi only iPads, it’s only going to upload when it has a WiFi connection. On your phone, go to Settings-> Photos and tap on iCloud Photo Library. If you expect to take many photos and don’t want to have to manage space, choose Optimize iPhone Storage. This will reduce the size of photos on the phone but the full sizes remain online.

That’s all there is to enable iCloud Photo Library. Now when you take photos and videos, they will get uploaded to your iCloud account. If you have several Apple devices, you’ll be able to view and even share these photos and videos from anywhere. And even from any web browser you can log in to icloud.com to see and manage your pictures from there. As time goes on, you’ll have all your photos easily available. So in summary, these are the pros for enabling iCloud Photo library:

backs up automatically to the cloud
becomes available on all devices including any web browser
easy to share pictures with others

The Other Side of iCloud Photo Library

When the great features of systems like iCloud Photo Library are talked about, it’s always about the convenience and protection of your photos and videos. The questions I always ask about any system that stores my precious memories include:

How easy is it to get my photos and videos out in the future in case I want to change to a different cloud provider?
What happens if they go out of business?
What happens if the system is hacked and I lose everything?
If they do stick around, how can I ensure that I can give these photos and videos one day?

So let’s look at the “cons” to iCloud Photo Library. First, if you use Microsoft Windows, like I do, then it’s not as tightly integrated with your computer as it would be with a Mac (more on that analysis when I get my hands on a Mac)

Hard to sync photos between iCloud and your computer

It’s not easy to sync up pictures to a computer if you use “my” method of storing photos. You can install iCloud for Windows which gives you some tools for synchronizing things like web browser bookmarks, email with Outlook and photos. As you can see here, you can both upload and download photos from your computer. In this case, I have 80 photos and 13 videos from 2018 that I can download to my computer. There’s no way to say only download photos that I’ve added since last time or a specific range.

It would be very easy with this download method to lose track of what is in folders on your computer vs what is in iCloud. If you keep your photos in organized folders by year, month and event, a much better choice is something like Dropbox or OneDrive.

Managing photos in iCloud web site

If you log into icloud.com, you can browse through all your photos. There is no easy way to delete multiple photos – no ctrl-click, to select multiple, all you can do is select a “memory” which is photos on a certain date or album. Otherwise it’s one by one.

Long term existence of the service

At the time of writing this, 2018, Apple is in excellent financial shape and show no signs of going anywhere anytime soon. Having your photos in iCloud Photo Library works great as long as Apple keeps the service going, but what happens if in 20 years Apple discontinues the service or makes such a drastic change that you don’t want to keep using it? If you care about the long term ability to keep these photos, then suddenly having to move all of them can be very difficult. If you create “albums” or any other proprietary structures in iCloud Photo Library, all you’ll likely get in a download is every single photo.

Summary and Recommendation

As I have said before, never rely on only one service. Because of the way that Apple traps you into their ecosystem without the ability to sync to other services, I am unable to recommend iCloud Photo Library for anyone who is relying on it as their sole source to store their photos and videos. In future posts, I will talk about how to effectively use different methods to both have access now to your photos and videos and protect them for long term.