Embedding Text in Ethereum Blockchain - MetaMask + MyCrypto (Updated for 2020)

 Today I was playing around with embedding text on the block chain,  I found several tutorials using My Ether Wallet but they seemed out of date, and the browser kept crashing on the send.

Finally found a way that works using MetaMask and MyCrypto. 

Your text first needs to be transferred from text form to hex format, for this I used this online editor from Online-Toolz but you can use any editor you want.

You will also need some Ethereum coin, again - you can get this wherever you want.  I happen to use coinbase but again whatever exchange you prefer.  

These were preformed on a Chrome browser - and worked as of Nov 2020.

1) MyCrypto https://mycrypto.com/account/send

2) Choose the Web3 "Connect & Sign via your browser extension)

3) If you do not have the Metamask extension, MyCrypto gives you a handy link to downloads it

4) Setup your MetaMask Wallet if you don't have one (again read the starting intro on safety - it is important)

5) Send Ethereum to your MetaMask wallet if you don't have any yet.

6) Login to MyCrypto, you should get a message confirming form the browser extension

7) Choose the option 'Send' Ehter & Tokens

8) Paste your send address (it can be any valid address you want it will be for 

9) Sent the amount to send to zero (however it will still cost coin "GAS" in order to embed the data)

10) Expand the "+Advanced Box"

11) Enter the Hex Data in the data section (you may get a message that you a warning that you are sending a 'non-standard' transaction.

12) Hit Send

13) Watch for a 'confirm' button on the left hand side of your browser, this is your MetaMask extension confirming the transaction

14) Hit CONFIRM

You should see links to verify the transaction on the blockchain.  Copy these TX addresses, they will let you see the 'hidden' message

When you view the transaction on the chain, you may need to choose "Click to See More..." to see the embedded data in HEX, you can then choose "View Input as UTF-8" to read the message

Once confirmed it will be on the blockchain - FOREVER. 

ENJOY

Why am I here?

I had a dream last night of talking to my boss from my first full time job. In the dream I was telling her about my current job, and how much I missed interacting with those from my first job. How much I valued that time and wish I had recognized as the valuable experience while I was 'in it' then, the way I see it today.

I think GOD has a purpose for me currently, though I don't know what it is, and I know there are many people out there that move further away from 'GOD' in anything more then a myth or legend.  In the end though it's doesn't matter what you call it, 'GOD' or 'NATURE', or 'INNER SELF', 'HIGHER SELF'

For some reason, I feel their is *something* important I am supposed to do, but the road isn't always clear, and sometimes, I think EUREKA! - I found it, only to learn it is just "another" leaf to turn over. If live were a computer game, my EUREKA moments would be like a 'level-up', but the next level is so vastly different, I no longer recognize the path, and its like starting all over.

When I look back, there seems to be repeating pattern, a pattern where I am experiencing a similar event over and over, and I have yet to figure out fully how to 'PUSH' through it, or learn from it and move on. I have learned many ways that 'don't work', but I struggle to find the one that works.

I try to 'pretend' that I am immune to what others think of me, I really like the idea of building an inner belief in myself that transcends peoples outside thoughts of negativity and harm.

But I know this is not true, I am not immune, I feel hurt, I feel scared, I feel anxious and worry, not knowing what it is I'm 'supposed' to do next, wondering "Why I am here?, What is this all about?"

The more I learn and grow , the more I realize how much I really don't know.

A breakthrough ?

I think I made a breakthrough – A life shattering, mind altering breakthrough!!

I can’t even begin to explain how much my mind has been blown by this morning’s experience.

The world is FULL of people, different people have had different life experiences. Each of these experiences in turn create the current “STATE” of their life.

A man might be in a terrible car accident and loose the loose of his legs. He is disabled, anyone to see him can recognize his disability, but it doesn’t prevent him from leading a full and healthy life, but what if the accident leaves him upset and angry, “stunted”, unable to reach his full potential not because of the loss of his legs but because he simply hasn’t made the next mental/emotional step to move forward.

..But this is obvious when acted in TV shows, it’s “grand”, the actor playing the part yells at the other actors, calls them names..it is played that way so that we as the audience can empathize with what he is going through

Real life isn’t that BLACK AND WHITE. Their are so many subtleties, the man could recover could get out be sociable, do things, and function normally in most situations, but he still may hold back, may hold anger and resentment inside, and that holding on to it weakens him prevents him from reaching its full potential.

But the “problem” is in real life, we deal with people everyday, people with different levels of this ‘maturity’ but that is not how I have been moving through life, I have been continuing to assume over and over that whatever “emotional” milestone I have overcome, everyone else has to, that life exists as a learning experience for me and that I am at the back of the line trying to “catch up” to everyone else.

But this is FALSE, we are all at different points in the line together. And the line isn’t a race, the person in the lead isn’t ‘winning’, they simply ‘exist’ in that position and when we speak to one another person it can be hard sometimes to understand where someone ‘stands’ emotionally, but it is a mistake to ASSUME, they are in the same position as us.

Which is really ironic because we all want to feel connected to one another, we grow in our friendships by identifying things we have in common.

Okay, so I go along walking through life in this “line” assuming that everyone near me in the line is in the same ‘STATE’, if I look back I can see people who are at some type of super ‘obvious’ disadvantage. If I look ahead I see nothing.

So I am very OPEN to the people around me, people who have had difference experiences, but who I assume have learned / belief the same things as me. And this is where I get myself into trouble because even a small subtly can be like a GAP of a thousand miles if not charted carefully.

And it is NOT  my “DUTY” to assume or to try and bring everyone along with me on my journey, some people will want to travel along side of me, some will not, some I will not want to have by my side.

Meeting Requirements

Back in the early 2000's, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Quality Management Systems. In particular the ISO 9001 standard.

I admit, when first introduced, it wasn't something I found particularly interesting, however my attitude changed when I realized how closely the items in ISO 9001 parallel software development.

ISO 9001 defines quality as follows

Quality - degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements

 In my recent job role incarnation, I preform the role of a business analyst, this means a big part of my job is to identify requirements.

So the better I can correctly identify those requirements, the better I can explain them to those doing the development, the better chance at delivering a solution that meets those requirements.

If only life were that simple! - When I was a quality manager, our company developed policies, procedures, and checklists, all aimed to produce a consistent product. Consistency meant that any 'item' plucked would contain the same set of characteristics.   This item may be a physical product, or a service. The way we responded on the phone to a customer, the way we packaged and shipped an item, the way we reviewed/approved our engineering specifications. All deemed to produce consistent results.

Whose requirements are we trying to fulfill?  - The answer is 'THE CUSTOMER'S'. 

Quality is not about meeting the requirements of the 'policy', or the 'procedure'.  If you have a policy that consistently fails to meet the customer's requirements, then you consistency produce a low quality product.

Consistency is not the same as Quality.

But often it is the only thing we can control within business operations

Just like within programming, we can deliver a software product as free from 'bugs' as possible as 'easy to use as possible', we can follow best practices and standards but at the end of the day, a software product that plays checkers will not meet a customer's need to track customer shipments no matter how few bugs it has or how little memory it uses.

Within interpersonal communication,  we can deliver a 100 page report on the history of native people and the influence of Europeans on native culture, but this deliverable has no value to a customer trying to improve his/her business process for managing office supplies.

Sounds simple enough right?

I ask again, whose requirements are you trying to solve?

Let's suppose your boss asks you for a specific deliverable, a data flow diagram indicating the input & outputs, the data attributes and the CRUD methods involved as the data flows through various applications.

You need to meet this the customer (who uses this data flow) to identify and determine the information required to create the requested deliverable)

You spend weeks working on the deliverable, going back and forth with the customer to ensure it is validated, that you have identified the information correctly. That the flows are correct, during this process you go back and forth with your boss to ensure your preliminary mock-ups are in align with your boss's expectations. You check and double check that the format matches what he/she had in mind. You suggest alternatives, you receive confirmation of your boss's preferences.

Finally the day comes when you complete the deliverable, only to find out a few days later that it did not meet her requirements.

You sit there scratching you head over and over, trying to figure out what 'you did wrong'? What could you have done better? - Who was your customer?

Bad Dreams? [Feb 25, 2002]

Strange dream I had last night…I dreamt that God spoke to me, well actually not just me, there was a group of us, outside looking up at the stars when we heard his voice.

He was telling us how disappointed – ‘afraid’ he was of what the world was coming to, and that he knew that if things remained unchanged he could see our future destruction not very far way.

He felt his only hope was to reveal himself, and maybe he could pursuade people to change there ways. He had not revealed himself in such a long time.

Later in my dream I tried to tell mom or something what I had heard which had make them worry that I might be becoming like Dad.

Then there was another dream, I was in this house with a group of people, the house had ‘bad vibes’, and I was trying to remove the ‘evil’ or ‘unhappiness’ by pushing it out the door.

Weird, Eh ?

An apology (to myself)

Sometimes, I am racked with guilt. Guilt over past mistakes, when I come to a point where I finally recognize my own mistakes.

Sometimes this takes days, or weeks. Some guilt stays with me for years.

When I was younger, my mom and I frequently did not get along, we argued over things I thought were 'right' and she thought was 'wrong'.

We were on different paths, and the spot she was in within her life, was not the same as I the spot I found myself in mine.

I could not see, could not really understand this, and I was angry at her for it, resented her for not seeing things "my way". I said hurtful things some out of anger, and some out of "trying to make things better"

This has been a recurring theme in my life, to not accept certain 'types' of people. It's a prejudice, a stereotype against people who act and think at a different level or path then I do. I want them to follow with me, to believe in me.

I fail to recognize that they are just trying to do the best they can with where they are in life. I expect them to be 'the same as me', and that is not fair to them.  Instead of being encouraging and kind, I have been angry, even spiteful.

Inside I know, I feel guilty and I do not forgive, I do not forgive myself, I do not forgive others, sometimes I construct the others as the 'enemy'.

The only true way to move forward, is to forgive myself, to stop ruminating on the past, to focus instead on the here and now. To learn to accept all of the people in this world, to recognize that different people are on different paths, and that is okay. That not everyone wants the same things I want, and of those that do, they do not want my guidance or advice, and that is okay too.

So today I work to try and forgive myself, to try and be the best version of myself and to focus on what that means, and not the guilt of the past. To learn from these mistakes and grow compassion for those around me who think differently.