Categories
Blockchain

How To Buy Bitcoin and Other Crypto from Canada

Bitcoin in Front of Canadian Flag

Now that the crypto market is once again bullish and some of the top cryptocurrencies are once again breaking all-time-highs, a common question I’ve been getting is: as a Canadian, what would I do if I wanted to invest $1K in crypto today in 2021. Many of my friends got in back in the 2017 bull market, but things have changed since then. Often, the question is something along the lines of “what’s the best way to enter the market these days with CAD?”. Another is whether I think it’s too late to invest in crypto. I’m certainly not qualified to give financial advice, but I can explain my own approach as a reference for those looking to get started.

Is It Too Late To Enter the Crypto Market?

First of all, be ready to lose anything you invest in when buying crypto assets. Many of the coins and tokens I have purchased went to zero and it’s not uncommon and should be anticipated. You should only be investing what you are prepared to lose.

I often feel like I’ve missed the bus for certain coins as I watch them go up and up and up. The problem is, I often find myself checking in on these coins each month and wishing I got in the month before. Once you’ve identified the crypto assets you’d like to buy, the commonly shared wisdom is to dollar-cost-average (DCA) your way in. This means that you buy it in chunks over time. This approach spreads out your risk of buying at the peak at any time and allows you to take advantage of any dips in price along the way.

How Would I Invest $1,000 Today?

This is only an example of what you could do and is in no way a recommendation. You’ll have to do your own research to figure out what coins you personally want to buy, if any. Full disclosure: I own these assets myself.

I’m a fan of having at least a small amount of as many crypto assets as I can. Some coins will die and some go to the moon. Generally, I’m a fan of buying a bunch and holding them long-term with the thinking many will be worth much more down the road. If you read my post about it already, I suggest you start building your collection for free by getting free coins in exchange for watching videos on Coinbase Earn.

Generally, if I was just getting into the market today, I would probably start with the following allocation:

  • 25% BTC (Bitcoin)
  • 25% ETH (Ethereum)
  • 25% XLM (Stellar Lumens)
  • 25% WAXP (Wax tokens used on the WAX blockchain)

Rationale for this Asset Allocation

Why 25% WAXP Token?

WAXP is an easy one to explain the rationale for buying from my perspective. The reason is that both bull markets and bear markets, I’ve continued using this token and interacting with the WAX ecosystem. Similarly, there’s an entire community surrounding WAX with spokespeople active on Twitter, Twitch, and Discord. Some of these streamers often share updates about the latest news within the WAX ecosystem and often offer giveaways during their streams as well. This is a great way to start getting your feet wet in the space before you are ready to throw some skin in the game. Two streamers you can start checking out for free that do giveaways are Burst of Energy (a fellow Canadian that cares deeply about the space) and NeonSpaceNFT (team of US-based roommates that make NFTs on WAX and hold frequent and consistent streams). Set yourself a WAX wallet today and go check them out!

WAX tokens are predominantly used for NFT-related activities, but not exclusively. There’s so much to explore, but you can start by checking out it’s primary NFT-trading platform: AtomicHub. If you’re familiar with OpenSea, this is the equivalent on WAX. You’ll find the assets to be far cheaper than their ETH-equivalents and gas fees on WAX are negligible. Making transactions on WAX is super fast which also makes it a popular ecosystem for blockchain games.

An example of a popular game integrated with WAX is Alien Worlds. Most of the games are of a P2E (play-2-earn) nature, but tread cautiously, few come out ahead. In fact, if you look at the list of the most popular games all-time on the platform, many are effectively dead today, unfortunately. A quick example is Farmers World. Overall, the amount of transactions made in the game amounted to 9 figures measured in USD! Today, it’s common to see a total daily volume under $10. You’ve been warned.

Why 25% Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the one you and your dentist most likely already know about. It’s the OG of crypto that performs phenomenally well and while its death is often proclaimed, it always seems to pull through and grow. It is often referred to as digital gold and a safe haven from traditional markets. Some believe this may replace the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world. I feel sorry for anyone that has zero Bitcoin.

Why 25% ETH?

Ether (ETH) is the token used on the Ethereum blockchain and is the 2nd largest crypto by market cap and many tokens are built on top of it. UNI token and USDT Tether are just two popualr examples of these. While Bitcoin is viewed as a store of value and occasionally as a currency, ETH is used to execute smart contracts that allow you to do all kinds of amazing things like insure your investments, invest in DEFI, swap tokens without a centralized intermediary, trade NFTs, and even raise your own digital cat! ETH transactions require gas fees which are also paid in ETH, so you’ll always want to keep some ETH handy.

Why 25% XLM?

Why Stellar Lumens (XLM)? I’ll admit, I don’t use this as much I do the others. This one has a special place in my heart because when I first entered the market, this was one of the lower-cost tokens with a large market cap which is always fun to buy for new investors because instead of buying a fraction of a coin/token as you would have with BTC, $250 CAD can buy you well over a thousand of these bad boys. Alt coins like this one can swing strongly either way when the market moves, so it’s fun to have some to expose yourself to further upside when things are green, but be ready to lose a lot at the same time since they tend to be far from stable.

I’ll admit that I’m not as familiar with Stellar as I am BTC, ETH, and WAX, but I can say that it’s held its place in the top 100 crypto assets by market cap for as long as I remember whereas many others have been introduced and died alongside it over the year. I think that speaks volume about it. Moreover, when I do hear about Stellar, it’s often about it’s actual utility, developer ecosystem, and progress. I get the impression there’s an active community there that keeps developing while there seem to be many other teams that seemed more intent on centering discussions around marketing and tokenomics. I really don’t know what to expect long-term with this one, which frankly, is partially why I find it interesting to hold longer-term.

What We’ll Need to Get Started

At the time of writing, not all crypto assets can be purchased in one place. For this reason, when you are first getting started, you’ll find that there are a bunch of services to sign up for as not all exchanges offer all assets. I’d start by getting these set up first since there are often lengthy identity verification processes that can take a while, so the sooner you kick them off, the sooner you’ll be able to start building your portfolio. Note that many of the links below are referral links. Don’t feel obligated to use them. You can also paste the links in your browser and strip the query string if you’d rather not use my referral code. I included them because often this allows both anyone that uses them and I to benefit from referral bonuses.

[Update 2013-07] Crypto.com actually sells all the coins listed here now. Newton sells all but WAXP. Feel free to look up who offers lower fees/exchange rates between crypto.com and Newton.

Step 1: Sign Up for the Required Tools

Here’s a list of the apps I’d need to sign up for to execute my plan:

  1. Newton (Website. They have an app available that I haven’t tried yet)
  2. Crypto.com (Mobile app. Referral code: gnnfvkxfmn)

Step 2: Buy the Tokens

A Newton account can be used to buy everything except for WAXP, which I’d use crypto.com for. To start, I’d fund my Newton account using an e-transfer from my bank. In this example, I’ll assume we want to invest $1,000. We can transfer the full amount we want to invest, e.g. $1,000 CAD, to Newton. If any of these steps aren’t straight-forward and you can use a more detailed explanation, let me know in the comments below and I can make more detailed follow-up posts.

Step 2a: Buy Bitcoin

This part should be pretty straight-forward. Now that we should have a Canadian dollar balance at Newton, we can click on “Trade” in the menu on the right and then enter the amount of Bitcoin we want to buy in Canadian dollars. If we want to buy $250 CAD worth of BTC, we’ll put 250 in the first box. Never touch the 2nd input box as that one tells you how much BTC (Bitcoin) you’ll get for your money. This number will be different from what’s shown in the screenshot before it depends on the price of Bitcoin, which fluctuates wildly. Then, click “Review Trade”.

After clicking “REVIEW TRADE”, it’ll ask you to confirm the amount you entered, then click “Buy BTC” and the process will begin. It can take a while for the transaction to complete, but Newton will show the BTC balance in your account when it is done.

If anyone gets this far, congrats! You’re no longer a no-coiner 🙂

Step 2b: Buy ETH and XLM

Now that we have BTC, what’s left to buy is ETH, XLM, and WAXP, however, because Newton doesn’t sell WAXP, after buying ETH we’ll use the remainder of our account balance to buy XLM. We’ll keep half of that XLM for ourselves, as planned, then use the other half to buy WAXP. We can buy ETH and XLM the same way we bought BTC, except after clicking “Trade”, we’ll need to click on BTC in the second box. A menu will appear and we’ll have to select ETH or XLM.

Make sure to select Ethereum before buying

After buying ETH, because we’re going to use the remainder balance of our CAD balance now that we bought the rest, in the first box, we can simply click “Max” and Newton will enter our remaining CAD balance (I only had $25.02 in my account when I wrote this. This number will be different). Make sure the first box shows “CAD” and the second box shows “XLM” where it says ETH below. We can then proceed with the transaction as before. Again, it will take some time for the transaction to complete.

Select “Max” to use your full CAD balance to buy the crypto asset listed in the 2nd box

Step 2c: Buy WAXP

  1. Open the Crypto.com app
  2. Click the logo in the bottom-center of the screen to pop the menu
  3. Select “Crypto Wallet”
  4. Select “Transfer”
  5. Select “Deposit”
  6. Select “XLM”
  7. Copy the XLM wallet address or keep it open if you want to use the QR code
  8. Go to Newton
  9. Proceed with the XLM withdrawal but we can specify 50% as the amount to withdraw instead of calculating it ourselves, and for the withdrawal address, we can paste the one we copied from the app in step 7 above, or you can scan the QR code on your phone
  10. Wait for the transaction to process. When it’s done, if we go back to the “Crypto Wallet” section of the Crypto.com app, we’ll see a non-zero value for XLM
  11. On the Crypto Wallet page, click the Buy button
  12. Select WAX (WAXP)
  13. Tap “Crypto”
  14. Select XLM
  15. Select “Max (<amount here> XLM)” and hit the big blue button to buy, following any prompts
  16. Once the transfer is done (it will take time), we should see a positive value for XLM in the Crypto Wallet section

Step 3: Move Your Crypto to Its Proper Home

Disclaimer

Now that we have purchased our crypto assets, we could in theory just leave them where they are, come back a few years from now and – if everything goes well – we’ll hopefully find ourselves wealthier than when we started. However, this is a bad practice.

Why? As the saying goes in crypto: “Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins”. What does this mean? Usually, in crypto, you have a public/private key pair for your wallet where your coins are stored. An oversimplification to help you understand it would be that your public key is like your username and your private key is like your password for the wallet. Your private key is what gives you full control over your crypto and by leaving them on the exchanges only they have the keys. If the exchanges were to disappear tomorrow – which absolutely happens, unfortunately – you risk losing everything!

There are many options ranging from cold storage to mobile wallets and a whole lot more, but that’s a massive tangent outside the scope of this list. There is plenty of literature should you want to learn more about it. Andreas Antonopoulos’ videos would be a great reference if you want to learn more.

If you want to follow the best practice, it would be to get your crypto off the exchanges and into a non-custodial wallet, which means you own the keys. The steps to do this vary for most coins as there are different wallets for different blockchains. In this example, it just so happens that BTC, ETH, WAX, and XLM are all on separate chains, so you’ll probably find yourself having to make 4 different wallets.

Keeping It In a Custodial Wallet

If you are looking to keep your assets in custodial wallets, that is, in the custody of a third-party, one option could be crypto.com since as of 2023 they now support all the coins listed and you’ll have the benefit of having them all in one place. Additionally, crypto.com is one of a number of platforms that allow you to lend your assets out to earn interest in crypto. This is a very risky practice and similar platforms like Celsius and Voyager have gone belly up. Richard Heart, founder of Hex has often discouraged this practice and has compared it to picking up pennies in front of freight trains. All this said, if you move your crypto to crypto.com, they offer (as per the time of writing) 1% on BTC and 1.5% on ETH.

Moving Our Assets to Non-Custodial Wallets

Earlier in this write-up we already went over how to move crypto out of Newton. The process for moving crypto out of crypto.com to another wallet is pretty intuitive. You essentially go to your in-app wallet, select the crypto you want to withdraw, select the amount to withdraw, and provide the new address you want to send your wallet to. The address you send you wallet to can be found within the wallet you decide to use.

Different Wallets for Different Chains

Storing Bitcoin

As Bitcoin is most popular crypto coin in the world today and has been around since 2009, there are many wallet options. Options range for more secure ones like Hardware and multisig wallets, to less secure options like web wallets and lightweight mobile wallets. Instead of trying to list the available options here, I will link to this wiki page on bitcoin.it which lists them in detail.

Storing Ether

Similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum has been around since 2015 and there are many options for storing Ether as well as the token built on the Ethereum blockchain. For small amounts, Metamask is a popular option for users. It can be installed as a Chrome browser extension and supports other chains as well. Metamask can also be used with a hardware wallet for extra security.

Storing XLM

As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t interacted quite as much with Stellar as I have other chains. My personal experience in storing Lumens (XLM) are on a Ledger device (highly regarded hardware wallet) and using StellarTerm, which is a convenient hot wallet, but less secure than using a hardware wallet. While there are other options available, I can personally speak of any of them, so I would encourage you to research the options available at the time if you choose to buy Lumens and see what sounds right for you. One place to start might be by perusing the list of wallets mentioned directly on Stellar’s web site.

Storing WAXP

WAX is pretty straight-forward as far as options go. The main options are the Cloud Wallet which is a popular web wallet and Anchor which is a more secure option that you can install locally. Anchor wallet is also compatible with the Ledger hardware wallet. I think Wombat may have a wallet, but I haven’t used it. Scatter is another option, but I don’t even know of anyone that uses it.

Step 4: Keep Track of Our Portfolio

While we can often watch the value of our assets fluctuate over time in their respective wallets, it can help to use a tool that will help us keep track of our entire portfolio over time. I personally experiment with a bunch of tools. So far, I’d say my best experience has been with CoinTracking because they support a lot of coins and tokens, can produce tax reports based on ACB to meet the standards of the Canadian tax authorities, and can import transactions using many methods ranging from manual input, to CSV imports and even automatic API imports. Other than CoinTracking, CoinTracker is another popular one and Blockfolio is quite popular as well.

Conclusion

And there you have it! I know it looks like a lot of steps, but I was careful to go into great detail so that even total newbies could hopefully follow to gain a better understanding of what I would do. I hope you found it useful.

Disclaimer

I just want to re-emphasize that this is not financial advice! This is meant to serve as a guide for my friends that asked how I would go about investing $1,000 CAD today myself. If someone chooses to follow these steps they risk losing everything. There are lots of risks associated with cryptocurrencies including, but not limited to: exchange hacks, fraud, phishing attempts, human error in entering addresses, theft, new regulation and lawsuits. Proceed at your own risk. You are responsible for doing your own research and due diligence and as always you should consult with a professional financial advisor before making investment decisions of any kind. I cannot be sure there are no mistakes in the steps I wrote and I don’t recommend anyone follow them as written without understanding what they are doing as I will not be responsible for any mistakes.

Categories
Health Rant

Seeking Solutions: Anticipating Having to Wake Up Prevents Me from Sleeping!

Messy Bed from Another Sleepless Night
Messy Bed from Another Sleepless Night

I struggle with sleep. Among my most frustrating sleep-related problems is my inability to fall asleep once I start anticipating having to wake up. Once my alarm is set, I start thinking of the reducing amount of time I have to sleep. I find myself counting down the time to the point that it makes me anxious. I’ll start worrying about how tired I’ll be if I don’t fall asleep and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s so frustrating and I haven’t found a solid solution for it yet. Apparently I’m not alone. I’ve seen some posts refer to it as “alarm anxiety”. That said, aside from the usual sleep hygiene tips like hiding the alarm clock, breathing exercises, and meditation, there seems to be no magic solution – and that grinds my gears.

How the Problem Manifested Itself This Time

Just today I faced a particularly frustrating case of this. This week I had a string of family events for three days in a row. I haven’t been feeling so hot lately and really wanted to sleep last night to feel healthy for today’s event. I arranged for myself to be able to get 7h of sleep. It took me about an hour to fall asleep. Next thing I knew, my partner’s alarm clock was waking me up. Unfortunately, they took a while to silence it and by the time they did, I was fully awake. They had set their alarm for almost 2h earlier than I had set mine for.

Frustrated, I lied there trying to sleep in vain only for my alarm to sound 2h later while I was still lying there awake. During those 2h I tried breathing exercises, listening to a relaxing podcast, different positions, but nothing helped me get back to sleep. I couldn’t stop the nagging thought I was about to lose 2h sleep and it seemed to feel totally outside my control which frustrated me. Now, I’m writing out of frustration because I feel too tired to go about the rest of my day’s plans and I can’t shake the feeling that I lost a full day of my weekend.

It Happens Often Enough in Multiple Contexts

I get this in other contexts as well. On the weekends, for example, I tend to take advantage of being able to sleep in. By the time Monday rears its head, I find myself struggling to fall asleep just because I know I’ll be needing to wake up to be ready for work by a fixed time again. It’s a frustrating way to kick off the week.

Another example is when I take an overnight flight. I think it’s the combination of feeling pressure to sleep so I don’t get sick/exhausted, knowing there’s a limited amount of time, and just being physically uncomfortable that makes it nearly impossible for me to sleep on a plane.

Anyone Figure this Out?

I’m really frustrated today because of this. I had to fight the urge to make my partner feel guilty for having woken me up early. Surely nothing good can come from that. There’s a part of me that seems to want to play victim and seek their pity for some reason. In reality, I should really just want the much needed shut-eye.

I know that if I need to sleep before an event or something, there are tricks I could take to ensure a decent night’s sleep. For example, I can pop a sleeping pill, take a warm bath, meditate and stretch beforehand, and more. The problem is, something it feels too late to employ these strategies, e.g. when I woke up today within a 2h window of when I’d have to wake up, I could have meditated and stretched during that time, but it’s also hard to know whether I could have fallen asleep without doing such things which would have maximized my slumber time. There’s no guarantee these strategies would work either and they could just eat up precious sleep time. If anyone has recommendations to solve this problem, I’m all ears!

Categories
Uncategorized

Gmail Spam? This Default Google Setting May Be Why

Spam block comic

I feel very good right now. I feel lighter. This post is written with the hope I may help some others feel the same.

Clearing Junk Mail had Become Part of an Unconscious Daily Routine

For years now, I have been receiving incredibly annoying spam e-mails at my primary Gmail address. Increasing amounts of blatantly obvious spam subject lines littering my junk folder would leave me wondering if it might just be the cost using an email address over time. Purging it daily became mind-numbing ritual. It takes a few seconds each day and it goes like this:

  1. Notice a non-zero amount of mail in the Gmail spam folder
  2. Eyeball it to ensure there’s no legitimate e-mail there (an unfortunately necessary step as 1/1000 spam mail happens to be valuable)
  3. Move the rare legitimate mails to my Inbox
  4. Clear the rest to bring that spam counter back to zero

Robotically executing this routine this morning, I began to wonder, “had I clicked an unsubscribe link or something with a malicious action”? Much of the spam have subjects rife with emojis, non-standard character sets, and typical spammy terms like “Viagra”, “male enhancement” or “get rich”. I decided to click a few and examine the headers and noticed a pattern: none of these were actually addressed to me!

Here’s an example of a typical subject line for one of these spam e-mails:

ðŸ’ē-$-FIVE HUNDRED CHIP$ðŸ’ē-ðŸ“Đáī˜áī€Ęáīáīœáī›-áī áī‡Ę€ÉŠŌ“ÉŠáī„áī€áī›ÉŠáīÉī 💰 ðŸŧ.ðŸķðŸķðŸķ$ áīĄáī€ÉŠáī›ÉŠÉīÉĒ ʏáīáīœðŸ”Ĩ OPEN-IMMEDIATELY⭐ïļ! N°:TU9FYWCWZ

Perpetrator Revealed! ðŸ˜ą

Naturally, I wondered why I was receiving these mails if my e-mail wasn’t in any of the recipient mail headers. I noticed that much of the spam was addressed to specific groups that were common targets for many of them. Strangely, I couldn’t recognize any of them! I took to Googling and managed to identify them to be Google Groups. I started to feel like a noob! With over a decade of web development experience, taking all the usual precautions one ought to take online is second-nature to me. Had I inadvertently signed up for one of these spammy groups? Shame!

Check Your Google Groups Now!

As it turns out, I didn’t exactly do anything wrong. No. To my surprise, what led me to this situation was actually a lack of action! I suggest you check out Google Groups. It was on this page that I noticed I was in a whopping 12 different groups I can’t even recognize! I strongly encourage you to go check it out and see if you’re in any yourself. If you discover any, please let me know in the comments! I’d love to know how many people were in Groups without even knowing it.

Example of 1 of the 12 groups I had apparently been part of. Purge ’em all!!!

Digging deeper, I discovered that the default setting for Google Groups allows people to add you to groups without even needing your approval! People can add you to groups, spam the groups and you’ll get the spam. Fortunately, there’s an action you can take to stop this. Google Group settings allow you to toggle off the ability for Group admins to add you without permission. I encourage you to take this action now to protect yourself moving forward.

Why would Google make this a default? I’m changing it immediately and believe it should be an opt-in, not an opt-out

I hope this helps someone out there. I’m surprised how good it felt to leave these groups I never wanted to be part of and to protect myself against being added to more.

Categories
Blockchain Rant

How I Nearly Became a Victim of a Crypto Scammer

Shady looking person with crypto

The crypto space is one I am extremely passionate about. Like the web, it moves at breakneck pace and given that it’s still in some early stages as an industry, many people find opportunities to prey on those that might not know how to protect themselves yet.

Here is a story of how I nearly fell victim to a crypto scammer over Telegram.

About 2 years ago, I took part in an airdrop for a token called DAG which was issued by the team at Constellation Network. They issued me 1,000 DAG tokens to my ETH wallet. At one point, they underwent a token swap and I had to send my tokens to a portal they dubbed “Orien”. I spent about $5 in ETH gas fees to execute the transfer and my tokens remained locked there. When the unlock period was over, I went to claim my swapped native DAG tokens, but the portal was broken and today it no longer exists. Constellation Network continues to exist and so does the token, but for whatever reason, they killed off that portal and a bunch of us lost our tokens. I thought I might be able to get them back, but I asked in their Telegram community and they confirmed pretty quickly that I should kiss my tokens goodbye. It sucks, but I got over it pretty quickly. I mean, they were only worth about $10.

In Come the Scammers

About an hour later, I get a private message from “CONSTELLATION OFFICIAL”. Their part went like this:

CONSTELLATION OFFICIAL, [04.10.20 04:11]
CONSTELLATION COMMUNITY

Hello,

Administrative support on to you

DAG now has it’s own blockchain, the swap window of erc20 DAG to mainnet DAG tokens is now closed. The swap process was made available for a long period of time,we informed community,gave a deadline date and re-opened the swap window for a second time.

Why did you fail to undergo the swap process?

[I explain my situation to them in detail]

Speak with the technical director @ANATOLLY_DONTWORRY

Explain to him and follow the instructions he’ll be guiding you through.

So nice, here I thought my $10-worth of shitcoins was forever lost, but these kind support folk are willing to invest me in me to get back what’s rightfully mine! Let’s talk to Anatoly.

The conversation with “ANATOLY” was much longer and involved, so I’ll just give you the tl;dr. Basically, I describe to him what I had told “support” already and tell him that it had been escalated to him. He kept asking me for more about the account I had sent my airdropped tokens from, and each time I made sure to provide him with whatever info I can to help move things along.

Finally, he tells me that in order to recover the tokens I “will have to generate the account extended public keys of this wallet”. He went on:

To proceed with the extend public keys for the first, you have to go to the public keys page: www.publickeysindicator.com

ANATOLY the Scammer

He tells me to follow his instructions and was kind enough to send me this professional-looking guide of how to fill out the form:

He tells me:

Firstly change words to the number of phrases you have
The second part of it, you are to input your mnemonic phrase of that of the first wallet
Third part, change to eth
After completing stage 1-3 your account extended public keys will be generated below
Which you will be required to provide and send to the constellation email

ANATOLY the Scammer

I reply:

This tool will actually process my recovery phrase? That seems super risky, unless I’m missing something

Me, finally starting to wake up

He replies:

No it is only required to generate your extended public keys below which you are required to send to the constellation mail address after completing the process. You have nothing to worry about

ANATOLY the Scammer

I examine the website. I don’t want to link to it here since it’s obviously malicious, but the hostname is www.publickeysindicator.com. While I’m looking it over, he starts checking in to see if I’ve completed the form. I started to feel bad. I’m mean how lucky was I that their Technical Director was taking the time out of his busy day to recover my tokens and I’m holding him up! I tell him:

Sorry I was just trying to educate myself. I wasn’t aware of BIP39 and the concept of XPUB key. I just get sketched out whenever I need to provide a recovery phrase somewhere

He reassures me:

I have assured you, that you have nothing to worry about, it is just confirm your transaction and you are sending to our official mail. There is no way we will want to spoil our reputation. So you have nothing to worry about

ANATOLY the Scammer

I continue reading to make sure I know what I’m doing. I see this at the bottom of the page:

I check out the source code and at a glance it seems legit. I realize I can just run it locally. I download a local copy, disable my network card, try it with a fake seed, see that no network calls are attempted, try with my real seed, and alas it generated the value he wanted me to email them!

I go back online, and let him know I’ve compiled it from source and ran it offline just as a precaution. I told him this to justify why it took longer, and he replied: “Oh! I understand, not to worry it’s all fine”

The segment after this is lengthy, boring, and I’ll spare you the technical detail. In essence, he keeps telling he my account is invalid. I keep trying to communication that he only has my ETH public key and I hadn’t sent anyone my generated XPUB key and don’t understand what he is checking. This is when he tells me I need to run the tool “online”:

Are you doing the steps offline? Because it can’t give you same extended public keys as when you are online. You have to do it online.
So it generate the accurate extended public keys

ANATOLY the Scammer

I entered a fake mnemonic phrase into the online tool and examine the network calls. Sure enough I see requests made to Google Firebase which include the Mnemonic phrase in the payload!

Now, I’m 99.9% certain it’s a scam. I look up his user details, and see this:

I don’t see much there that is problematic. So I check the support chat details:

Now, funny thing, I already denounced these people in the community channel and warned the room about them. Right before I grabbed the screencap above, the above user removed our chat history and changed their avatar. Before it was the Constellation Networks logo. Notice however, that their telegram username ends in “0124”. Sketchy. Why wouldn’t their real support not be able to get a more original username… I go back to the community chat and examine the pinned message:

Hmmmm… The guy I was talking to is actually listed as an admin. Odd… I click on his name to make sure it’s the same guy, and sure enough it took me to a fresh new chat with the real Anatoly! The one I was talking to had two “L” in Anatoly while the real one has one “L”. Easy difference to overlook when you’re just looking to quickly get back $10.

I provided a warning to the community and sent this to the scammer:

I hope that your life situation improves to the point where you won’t feel the need to waste your limited time on this planet trying to swindle others.

My victory speech

Now, I’m writing this because I have many years of experience in tech and still came pretty close to being duped. Crypto and blockchain can be difficult to navigate sometimes and the UXs for the user-facing functionalities can be rather raw and require some technical skill to use intelligently. When the guy started throwing technically details at me I wasn’t familiar with, I started to think I was just in over my head in this case and considered just “trusting the expert” to move on with my day. Boy, am I glad I didn’t. Unfortunately, I feel quite confident the average crypto investor would fall for something like this, so I feel the obligation to share my experience in case it might help others. That website didn’t turn up any results of Google when I looked it up, so hopefully my article will surface now and help protect others.

What Did We Learn?

  1. On Telegram, look up the profile of the person you are speaking to and examine their username. Check with the communicate to make sure they are an official representative. Misspellings are easily overlooked
  2. Don’t use any online tools that ask for your private key or mnemonic phrase unless it’s software provided from an official trusted source
  3. If you need to run operations on sensitive data like this, try running an offline copy you run yourself first. Examine the network requests made and try with dummy data first
  4. Remain vigilant! There’s a lot of money in crypto and that attracts a lot of bad actors. Many of them are smart. Keep your guard up. If you are feeling lazy and ever find yourself tempting to forego doing your due diligence, pause and come back to it when you have more time and energy

Stay safe out there!

Now let’s have a moment of silence for my 1,000 lost DAG.

Update 2020-10-04

An awesome member of the Constellation team reached out to me and thanked me for working to protect the community and send me the amount of tokens I lost plus interest! That was very much appreciated. I look forward to see what comes of this fairly unique project in the space.

Categories
Blockchain

Easy $50 of Free Crypto Just for Watching Videos About Them on Coinbase Earn

Site preview of Coinbase Earn

This is Legit, Really

I wanted to make a title that didn’t sound like an ad or a corny get rich quick scheme. I’m not sure I succeeded. I know it sounds scammy or too-good-to-be-true, but it’s legit. I just did it and have the money in my account already.

What is Coinbase?

Coinbase is one of the best known entry points for people to exchange their fiat currency (e.g. USD, CAD, GBP, etc.) for a bunch of crypto assets that might interest them. While I respect the company for having set up a really solid platform early on for this nascent industry and scaling quickly for massive traffic, I don’t actively use them today.

I think Coinbase is a good starting point for those new to crypto interested in buying their first coins. However, there are other options out there with lower fees. What should you look for? I think a critical factor is whether they allow you to cash out of crypto when you want. As a Canadian, I have found Shakepay to be the best app available right now. They make getting in and out of crypto simple and efficient. It has a minimalist UI, supports e-transfers, has an active support team, and the fees are fair.

How to Get the Free Crypto

So, why am I writing about Coinbase then? Well, I have an interest in crypto and enjoy learning more about it in my free time. If you’re like me or have an interest in learning more about crypto, I recommend you make that time extra productive by using their Coinbase Earn program! They’ll actually pay you in crypto in the crypto asset you allow them to teach you about. Each video is about 2 minutes long and you can get about $2 USD in value per video, on average. Check out this one about the popular crypto currency called EOS, for example. Another popular one is about Stellar Lumens (XLM) which allows you to quickly earn $50 of XLM in minutes. I just went through the videos myself and earned about $50 in crypto in about an hour! Who knows what that might be worth one day?

Hats off to Coinbase for this one. I think it is a great initiative to accelerate the adoption of crypto, get more users on their platforms, and give an opportunity for different crypto projects to reach wider audiences. Kudos!

Categories
Rant

TD Strikes Again: Fees Even They Can’t Explain

Fed up with TD
Photo by Moose

In my last post about my experiences with TD just days ago, I was simply trying to be able to spend my own business’ money again. Fortunately, I managed to get that resolved. Their claim is that when you have a two-to-sign policy on an account you cannot have access to an EasyWeb account with the ability to spend anything, including your taxes. Small businesses take note! For all transactions both signatories need to be physically present at the bank. Somehow, they allowed us to work that way for years, but when they renewed our cards they decided to revoke our full online access without telling us. Neat! Ultimately, we had to solve it by both going to the bank and removing the two-to-sign policy altogether.

Now that I have access to my account again, I look at the transaction history and see two charges of $1.50 with the description: “CHQ-Image Fee” on the 1st of the month. I write to them via secure messaging and they respond with the following:

TD’s First Reply via Secure Messaging

Thank you for taking the time to review your TD Basic Business Plan account and noticing this fee. I can certainly understand how confusing unexpected fees can be, considering you have not used any cheques for the month of August. I happy to help provide clarification regarding the Cheque Image Return service and fees.

The Cheque Return Fee (CRF) for $2.00 monthly is one of our convenient record keeping options which forwards printed digital images of the front of all cheques you have written during the month with your monthly statement. This fee is charged monthly, regardless of cheques are issued from the accounts.

If you feel the service is not required, it will need to be cancelled by changing your record keeping options, this can be done online, over the phone or in branch.

If you would like to remove this service, I would recommend you change your record keeping options on your EasyWeb to online statements. Via EasyWeb within Profile & Settings -> Notifications & Alerts -> Delivery Preferences.

**Please make sure you select the online only option NOT the online option with cheque return.**

**Please note that until you change your record keeping options, you will still incur the cheque return fee.

Note that I bolded the most relevant part above for emphasis

Now, notice two thing. First, the fee name they provide isn’t even the one on my account. Second, the fee on my account was for the amount of $1.50, charged twice, but they are talking about a $2 fee. Regardless, I look into the menu options they described, and, sure enough it doesn’t even exist. Naturally, I write this to them as a response and this is what they came back with:

Secure Online Messaging: Take Two

I can confirm that when an account type is changed, the statement delivery preferences does change and default to the option that offers all the services in one. That said, we are able to request copy of the cheque that is not recognized, however, we mail a copy to your address which may between 7 to 10 business days. This services offers instant access to all cheques written throughout the month.

I tell them I have no use for this service so I would like to stop paying the fees. Because the menu options they told me to use don’t exist, I asked them to cancel it. Here’s what they responded with:

Third Times A Charm? (Spoiler: Nope)

It appears that you are looking to change your statement delivery preferences for your small business chequing account. I believe there is some miscommunication, and I do apologize. To change your statement delivery preference off “Cheque Return” and not get charged $2.00. You’ll need to call TD Small Business, as the change is not available through EasyWeb.

Seriously? So, wanting to just get this silly item off my to-do list, I give them a call. What do they tell me? It’s not a monthly fee at all! Rather, they charge this fee whenever someone views a cheque. They explained that with our previous account type, they were waiving the fee. They told me very clearly before switching my account that the only difference is the number of transactions we could make. Argh!!

Told To Call Them, Once Again

Anyhow, I tell the support agent that I’m the only person actively using our account today and haven’t viewed any cheques because I write them all myself anyway and have no reason to go look at the cheques I wrote. As you can see in the written communication above, the agent actually said: “I can certainly understand how confusing unexpected fees can be, considering you have not used any cheques for the month of August”. The agent told me one of us must have looked at the cheques. I assured him we did not and asked when we accessed it. He asked me to hold. He came back and said he did not know and to let them know if we see the charges again. I reiterated that we never viewed the cheques, but he said there was nothing else he could do.

So, ultimately, what are we paying for? Who knows. We sure don’t and apparently neither does TD.

TL;DR

Here is a summary of all the things that went wrong:

  1. We wanted to save on fees. TD told us we could downgrade to a basic account and the only difference is the number of free transactions. Once downgraded, we started getting random cheque-viewing fees. These fees cost more than half the new monthly account fee!
  2. They misread what the charges are. Both the amounts they charged and the description
  3. They led me to a menu to change an option that doesn’t exist
  4. Once again, the online support agent tells me they are powerless to help me and I need to call them
  5. Just like last time, the agent on the phone gave me very different information than the online agents
  6. Phone agent claims we access cheques that we didn’t. The online agent even wrote that we didn’t even use any! The phone agent couldn’t find any evidence that we accessed it, but kept the charges anyway

Save Us De-Fi!

Decentralized banking can’t come soon enough!

Categories
Rant

Rant Time! TD Bank is Dated and Disorganized

TD makes life difficult

Generally, I tend to be rather patient and understanding. Especially during the current pandemic, I appreciate any business that remains open to serve customers. Doing banking for my business with TD bank has made my life difficult enough times now that I feel the need to say something about it.

How it started

My online business has been losing steam lately. Looking to minimize expenses, I noticed that we were paying $19 per month for our TD business account. We really only use it to collect payments from customers, pay suppliers, and pay taxes. I suspected there must be a way to lower those high monthly fees since our account activity has been minimal. So, I reached out to TD and inquired about ways to save on fees.

First, I tried to resolved it online, but was told I’d need to call them. I ended up having multiple calls speaking with different people.

Finally, they told me to present myself at my branch in person with my co-founder. They said that the branch could downgrade our account to a $5/month plan without losing anything. Preferring to avoid going in person and dragging my co-founder along, I called back. I got another person and reiterated my preference not to go in person to avoid spreading the virus. They insisted that myself and my co-founder go in person due to our 2-to-sign policy. Fortunately, the agent offered me a tip. He explained that the employees working at the branch have more powers than the general phone support staff. So, I called the branch and alas I managed to downgrade my account over the phone. Awesome, right?

I received a new client card in the mail. It specified that I would need to make a transaction using my PIN to activate the client card. Receiving the card reminded me I needed to schedule a payment. However, when adding a payee (the government), the website told me I no longer had the required access! What?!

My radical dream: To be able to do what I’ve always done again

Once again, I called their customer support line. It turned out that when they downgraded my account they reset my account privileges. Consequently, I lost the ability to use my EasyWeb account to make payments! They gave me precise instructions that I confirmed. I would need to present myself at any TD with 2 pieces of ID. They told me to request “full access with point of sale”. Okay… A quick Google search showed me that there’s a single TD open on Saturdays in Montreal. Perfect! I hopped on my bike and rushed over to Westmount to get it done!

I explained my situation in person to the teller. First she replied that I should have access. Obviously, I replied that I don’t; otherwise I wouldn’t have made the journey over to see her. She said she needed to escalate it to her manager. She returned from his office and confirmed that there’s nothing she can do. Because we have a 2-to-sign policy, my co-founder and I would have to go to our branch, specifically. I protested that I’d been using the account for years. I’ve been the only active person in my business for years. She retorted that whoever gave me that permission initially must have made a mistake. She asked me to step aside so she could help someone else. Her manager came to see me and repeated the same thing.

The reason why I’m particularly pissed off is not just that they wasted my time. It’s also that the information I’m getting from their staff, once again, is inconsistent or incomplete. Due to COVID-19, most business have adapted their ways of operating to allow most work to be done online. This expensive bank, however, insists on making people go to different locations along with other people.

What’s really grinding my gears here

  1. There’s a freaking pandemic. Why can’t the bank adapt like the rest of the world to stop making people show up in person? We’re already half a year into the pandemic
  2. Why did they remove my ability to make payments once securely authenticated to my online account?! I can’t even pay my taxes online any longer. I’ve had that access for years
  3. Assume it was a mistake allowing me to spend our own money online when they set up the account initially. Why didn’t any of the many employees involved warn me about losing that fundamental ability by downgrading my account?
  4. The customer service rep authenticated me to access my account, she should have seen we have a two-to-sign policy. She also failed to inform me that I’d need to bring another person. She also stated clearly that I could go to any location to have the change made
  5. The staff today realized that my account was initially misconfigured. I also made it clear that I was misinformed by the agent on the phone. Given this information, they made no effort to rectify the situation themselves. Also, would it not make sense for them to follow-up with the agent I spoke to? At least try to get aligned and see if someone is missing information. This would also prevent the further spread of misinformation since someone was obviously wrong. I really felt they just wanted me out because it was near closing time

Conclusion

All in all, I realize this isn’t a deplorable or noteworthy situation by any means. It’s an annoying inconvenience. I doubt anyone will even read this, frankly. I’m just irritated and feel annoyed. Why? Because I’m fairly confident I’m going to continue to bounced around before I can finally get this silly situation resolved. I mean, I’m just asking to be able to use my bank account to spend money again. I want to pay my taxes like I was doing a month ago! I’m aware that typically employees rarely care to make extra effort to ensure their business improves. So, I don’t think these employees are exceptionally bad either, but I find it super disappointing that TD has employees communicating different information depending on who you speak to over what medium or what location.

In protest, I shall buy more bitcoin 😉

Categories
Rant

Warning Against Using Chrome Extension “Block Site”

Block Site example page. Credit: lifewire.com

My PC was starting to slow down this evening. While investigating, I noticed that my disk space seemed to be on the low side so I decided to start with that. So, I used a Windirstat run to help me identify how my storage is allocated across different files. The results showed a massive 8.28GB chunk of storage allocated to something I didn’t recognize. Behold the offending file: C:\Users\<redacted>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Extension Settings\eiimnmioipafcokbfikbljfdeojpcgbh\000003.log. A quick Google Search for “eiimnmioipafcokbfikbljfdeojpcgbh” brings up the Google Extension Block Site.

Flabbergasted at the idea that a chrome extension with the trivial purpose of blocking sites you enter into a list would take up over 8 gigs of storage, I took to Google to look for other’s experiences with the extension. Sure enough, right on the first results page lots of warnings came up that it’s spy ware. I tried using PowerShell to tail a snippet of the file. Unfortunately, the contents appeared to not be in plain-text. So, screw it. Do not trust.

In the end, I’m not going to invest more time into investigating further. I’m sorry. I installed this to simply limit my brains attempts to distract itself on Facebook. There’s no way it should need that amount of resources. Ludicrous! So, I might just add a rule in my hosts file to replicate this simple tool’s main functionality. At least I can trust my hosts file… Right?!

If anyone else has a recommendation for an alternative, let me know in the comments. Without question, this extension will be an instant delete forever for me.

Categories
Blockchain

Event Recommendation: Virtual Blockchain Week

Virtual Blockchain Week 2020

Event date: April 26 – May 2, 2020
Event name: Virtual Blockchain Week
Time: 6:30-10PM EST
Cost: Free (VIP option with charitable angle offered as well)
Where: https://virtualblockchainweek.com/

About the Hosts

If you’re interested in the crypto space, The Bad Crypto Podcast is a great place to start. Joel Comm and Travis Wright started the podcast in 2017, the year when bitcoin had its most recent major bull run. They began as friends that used to hang out and talk mostly about politics and technology. Those discussions eventually led them to dive deep down the rabbit-hole of cryptocurrency. One of the things I love about these guys is that they called it the “Bad” crypto podcast because they are totally down-to-earth and unpretentious and aren’t afraid to admit to declare total lack of knowledge about things so they can get ELI5’ed things while their viewers get to listen.

These two self-proclaimed “Bitcoin Bozos” have enjoyed a lot of success with the Bad Crypto Podcast to the point that they’ve become major names in the space. As a result, they are now sought-out as sponsors for blockchain and cryptocurrency projects and they sponsor major events as well.

Lowdown on the Event

On the subject of hosting major events, these Bad Boys of Tech are hosting a major blockchain conference right now! While most conferences are canceling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, these guys are practicing what they preach by using tech to solve problems. In this case, they are live streaming over multiple platforms over the course of a week to bring up live interviews with the biggest names in the space, including:

  1. John McAfee
  2. Charlie Shrem
  3. Roger Ver
  4. Justin Sun
  5. Changpeng Zhao

That’s just to name a few. They have about 50 speakers lined up overall and all of them are going to be live streaming from home, giving you a chance to see them in their element! The event is called Virtual Blockchain Week and it has already begun. You can attend for free, but there are VIP packages available. The conference has charitable angle as well for people affected by the coronavirus and there are awesome prizes to be won. Doesn’t that sound like a sweet way to spend you evenings in quarantine? I’d say so. So, go check out the site and sign up before it’s over!

Categories
Health

Buyer’s Guide: Local Face Mask Options for Canadians

Curve 1.2 mask sold by o2 Canada

A recurring question during this pandemic has been: should the average person should be wearing a mask. The answer was that it isn’t so important and that we should focus on social distancing and washing our hands. The withering supply of masks needs to be reserved for medical personnel. Now, months in, we’re being told, with hesitation, “you know what, let’s wear masks”. Some cities have even gone so far as to make wearing a face covering mandatory. Others give mixed messages. We’re told they’re strongly recommended when a distance of 2 meters cannot be maintained. We’re warned that the research is inconclusive and that it might even make things worse if not used correctly. It has also repeated that they are not to protect us, but can protect others.

Instructions abound to help us make our own, but that’s not for everyone, and the efficacy of cloth-based masks isn’t guaranteed. Consequently, many of us are going to shop online for our masks.

What to buy?

So, fine, let’s buy a mask. Only… surgical masks and N95s are sold out and we’re being told to leave them for medical professionals even if we do find them. Okay – well, I could make one, but like a lot of people, I’m not interested in sewing and frankly if I’m going to bother with a mask I’d like to get the best option I can. So, off to Wirecutter I go to get purchase advice, but their picks are out-of-stock. They do suggest that cloth masks may be better than nothing and can be made even more effective by including a filter. I tried consulting Quebec’s Wirecutter equivalent, Protegez-Vous, but found no guidance there.

We are encouraged, however, to support local businesses to help strengthen our nation’s self-sufficiency in the production of protective equipment. Here are some local options for Canadians, excluding overly expensive, back-ordered, or tacky options:

  1. Peace Collective is a Toronto-based company selling locally-manufactured masks and disposable filters that also donates masks to Canadian medical staff. The masks have a nice minimal design, have a nose-wire for shaping the mask (I think these also have the added benefit of preventing eyeglasses from fogging up). Masks are sold in sets. The one I liked had a minimum of two in a pack, which makes sense since you can rotate them between washes. Combining this with a pack of 50 filters would set me back $68.25 including taxes and shipping. Not terrible. Their site mentions that orders will take 7-14 days to ship though. That’s a little off-putting given that some of us are anticipating having to return to our offices soon
  2. Vancouver-based Search and Rescue Denim looked promising as it also has a charitable angle and their masks are nice and simple. Having to choose a size seems to be a bit of a challenge though, since this is obviously something we cannot try before we buy. I chose large to move forward. Once taxes and shipping are applied it would come to $42.15 for a single mask. At that price, I think I’d rather go for Peace Collective‘s option and get a 2-pack with 7 weeks-worth of filters for just $26 more. However, if you do choose this option, you can use coupon code SRSave10 to get 10% off
  3. Ontario-based Oliberte usually handcrafts their goods locally, but I suspect the masks they sell are an exception (it’s unclear). However, they do offer three kinds of masks:
    1. 50 non-medical for $85
    2. 10 medical for $20 (pre-order)
    3. 2 KN95 for $10 (pre-order)
  4. Mask Canada offers some nice-looking masks. I liked the checkered pattern. I think it makes sense to buy a minimum of two so they can be rotated. Two masks with filter pockets including shipping would come to a very reasonable $34.49. My only hesitation here is that I’d like to order filters at the same time. They also suggested washing them in cold water and air-drying which is contrary to the advice of washing and drying them at the hottest possible temperatures. I really love the checkered pattern though and would highly recommend they sell filters like Peace Collective as well (though I have heard people promoting the idea of using paper towel or coffee filters as a free disposable filter alternative)
  5. Waterloo-based startup O2 Canada is easily the one that best captured my attention. In fact, their Curve 1.2 product (featured image at the top) was the inspiration of my post and I actually already ordered one for an immunocompromised relative last weekend because it ticks nearly all the boxes. Given that we are short on PPEs in the country and these are potentially more effective than N95s, I don’t understand why this isn’t talked more about. Sure, they are expensive, but the filters are reusable and they are actually available for purchase, unlike N95s. An order of one mask with 30 filters came to $212 after shipping and taxes
  6. 👑[UPDATE] Just a few hours after making this post, news came out about a reusable respirator produced by ACAMP, a non-profit nanotechnology research facility in Alberta. They partnered with the University of Alberta to design the mask as well as the inner protective cloth. They claim that their mask, dubbed the A95, provides as much filtering power as the N95s used in health care setting. What’s more? They also claim to have enough raw material in Alberta to produce them, so I don’t feel guilty buying one as I would an N95. The mask is made of two main components, an outer polyurethane-based mask that makes an effective seal with your face, available in multiple colors, and on the inside a protective cloth that goes inside the shell of the mask. They are sold together on their website. The protective cloth, which lasts 1 month, can be washed in soapy water and then air-dried once per week. Each day, you can sanitize it by baking it in an oven/toaster oven at 70 degrees Celsius for half an hour. The masks are being tested by the Alberta government and Edmonton Health Services. This is more vetted of any product than the other picks seem to be getting.
    Here is a graph of their test results compared to the renowned N95s:
    ACAMP A95 Filtration Efficiency
    This seems like a winning solution in my eyes. The claim is that unlike homemade masks, they masks are designed to protect both you and others. The mask can be had for just $39.94 CAD included shipping and taxes. Not bad for a month. Step aside O2 Canada Curve 1.2, a seemingly comparable solution just came out for a fraction of the cost.

    Two things I’m not yet clear on is:
    1. How to clean the outer shell of the mask?
    2. Are they going to sell just the cloths to replace after a month, or will we need to buy them with the outer shells each time?
    3. Will it cause my glasses to fog up? That’s a pain point I’ve experienced with other masks
    4. I don’t own a toaster oven and my conventional oven’s lowest setting is 170 degrees Celsius. That is ~77 degrees Fahrenheit, i.e. 7 degrees Fahrenheit above the recommended temperature. Is that too hot?

Top Pick: ACAMP’s A95 ($39.94)

A man wears ACAMP’s a95 mask (one of 6 available colors)

This mask clearly isn’t a fashion statement like some of the cloth-based masks on the market today, but at least you won’t look like you got drunk and your roommates stuck a jock strap over your breathing holes. I won’t be replacing the featured image as this really seems to be a product designed and marketed by scientists, so their marketing material is nowhere near as nice as others. I actually ended up ordering 2 of these today. I’ll share how long it takes to receive it. The main appeal to me is that it’s being reviewed by scientists, is affordable, reusable, and supposedly effective in protecting both the wearer as well as others. Take my money. Good job Alberta.

[Dethroned] Top pick: O2 Canada’s Curve 1.2 + 30 filters ($212)

The pros :

  • It’s medical-grade silicone provides a better face seal than other masks
  • You can sanitize it in boiling water
  • The filters are capable of filtering ultra-fine particulate matter down to 0.1Ξm. This is the most important feature for me since the virus responsible for COVID-19 is approximately 0.125Ξm. This leads me to think that this mask may actually be the best protective mask against COVID-19 (but alas, I’m no doctor)
  • It’s been lab tested by the University of Waterloo

The cons:

  • They are expensive. I bought the white mask with 6 boxes of 5 filters and it came to $212 after shipping and taxes
  • Filters are disposable and should be used only once if used to protect against a virus. Sold in boxes of 5, you’d need to buy 6 boxes like I did to get a full month of coverage. Having to pay shipping each time when reordering makes for a costly recurring expense
  • It looks like a jock strap. No, really. They market it pretty well and the beautiful models make it look okay, but it almost looks as though CCM had pivoted to manufacturing these in a pinch. It was actually designed for the Chinese market
  • It can take about a month to receive the order due to the volume of orders they’ve been getting
  • While a Canadian startup, I doubt they are locally manufactured since they would have mentioned it on their site
  • The filters are supposed to be used within a year

Budget Pick: Peace Collective’s 2-pack + 50 filters ($68.25)

Peace Collective’s face mask in black

[UPDATE 2020-04-26] The relevance of this pick is already called into question now that you can get 2 ACAMP A95s and still come out ahead price-wise. I’ll leave it here for anyone that might find the A95’s HEPA vacuum filter look to be a deal-breaker.

Free option: Quebec’s DYI Guide

Worth noting: KN95s are available

While not a locally-sourced option, I thought it might be worth noting that while doing this research I did discover a supplier with an available stock of KN95 masks: DHGate. The products come from China, but at a glance the quality seems comparable to that of an N95 and you can get 10 masks for $62.85 with free shipping within 3-9 business days. That seems pretty solid.

Conclusion

[UPDATE 2020-04-26] I did indeed find something better and settled for 2 ACAMP A95s just hours after making this post. It set me back just $64.88 for 1 month of protection for myself and my partner. If I had to recommend one option to my fellow Canucks at this point, this would be it. Note that the only available option right now is for adults.

Times are challenging enough for most people trying to adjust their lives to make it unscathed through this global pandemic. Now that face coverings are being recommended, people are now further burdened with the decision of what mask to make with what materials, how to wash and dry it, and where to buy it if they aren’t comfortable making one themselves. At the end of the day, we’re all human, so what the average healthy adult should do ought to be more streamlined rather than leaving people to sift through countless options, many of which have little research done to back them anyway.

Personally, I already purchased O2 Canada’s Curve 1.2 for a more at-risk member of my family. I’d love to get one for myself, but it’s a little pricey, especially when we still don’t know how long we’ll be dealing with this. I’d happily provide a review in exchange for the product – hint hint O2! 😉 I’ve been using bandannas and neck warmers so far, but I don’t have much faith in them and I’m looking to get something designed for the purpose with an appropriate filter, so I may go for the Peace Collective option unless I find something better in the coming days.

Disclaimer

I’m not qualified to actually say whether a mask really ought to be worn by the average person, nor can I really judge the efficacy of any of these options. I’m just looking at these as an average consumer and chose to share my thoughts on my findings to save other’s the time to do the same.