Tag: Blab

The Bitcoin That Got Away

Back around 2015, I found myself unexpectedly popular on a video chat platform called Blab—popular enough that one generous viewer decided to gift me 0.1 bitcoin. At the time, this felt like a nice gesture but nothing earth-shattering. Bitcoin was still this mysterious digital currency that most people barely understood, and converting it to actual spending money seemed impossibly complicated.

So I did what any reasonable person would do: absolutely nothing. I’m fairly certain the bitcoin eventually reverted to the sender, and the whole thing faded from memory until a recent deep dive through old Facebook messages brought it all flooding back.

There it was—evidence of my brief brush with what would become a small fortune. Today, that 0.1 bitcoin would be worth roughly $10,000. Cue the existential crisis about alternate realities where I’m significantly wealthier.

But here’s the thing: the more I’ve reflected on this “missed opportunity,” the more I’ve realized it probably wasn’t one at all. Even if I’d managed to navigate the technical hurdles of setting up a wallet and cashing out, there’s virtually no chance I would have held onto that bitcoin for a decade. I would have spent whatever cash I got on something forgettable—maybe a nice dinner, some gadget I thought I needed, or any number of things that seemed important at the time.

The idea that I would have had the foresight and discipline to hold onto a volatile digital asset through years of ups and downs, waiting for the perfect moment to cash in? That’s giving past-me way too much credit.

So while it’s tempting to frame this as a tale of missed fortune, it’s really just life being life—messy, unpredictable, and full of decisions that only make sense in hindsight. Sure, having 0.1 bitcoin right now would be pretty nice. But dwelling on it feels a bit like mourning lottery tickets I never bought.

I Coulda Been A Bitcoin Richie

Circa 2015, during a period of active engagement with the now-defunct online video platform Blab, I achieved a degree of prominence that resulted in a supporter presenting me with a gratuity of 0.1 bitcoin (BTC). At current market valuations, this quantity of cryptocurrency represents a significant sum. At the time of the gift, however, its monetary value was substantially lower, and its practical utility was further diminished by the considerable complexities involved in converting such digital assets into fiat currency.

Possessing only a rudimentary understanding of cryptocurrency and daunted by these logistical hurdles, I gave the matter little consideration and took no action to secure the funds. I presume the unclaimed transaction was eventually reversed. The incident was forgotten until I recently rediscovered the message while reviewing my archival correspondence.

This discovery initially prompted a contemplation of the counterfactual: an alternate timeline in which a seemingly minor event had yielded a substantial financial windfall. Yet, further reflection suggests that this vision of a missed opportunity is not as tenable as it first appears. Had I possessed the foresight and technical acumen to establish a digital wallet and liquidate the asset, it is highly probable that, given my priorities at the time, the proceeds would have been allocated to ephemeral expenditures rather than being held as a long-term investment.

Ultimately, the episode is perhaps best characterized not as a consequential financial misstep, but as a curious intersection of technological immaturity and youthful indifference. It stands as a personal anecdote illustrating a moment when a nascent technology had not yet fully entered the public’s financial consciousness. Nevertheless, one cannot help but acknowledge the substantial present-day value of that unclaimed digital token.

A Former Blab User’s Observations For Tik-Tok


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The video conferencing service Blab may one day be looked back upon as the Amiga of such things. It was way ahead of its time and it definitely gave a sense of the community building potential of video conferencing when combined with discovery.

On paper, at least, Blab was a multi-functional platform that could have been used for everything from a “video Reddit” to online dating to a robust podcasting platform, to you name it.

But the very thing that made it so great — it’s very cool discovery feature — was ultimately its downfall (in a sense.) Once hateful trolls got a hang of the service — and were willing to be on camera — that was the end of Blab at least from the community standpoint.

I use Tik-Tok a lot these days and occasionally — when I’m not worried the service is, like, fucking reading my mind — I wonder if they could somehow crib the best bits of Blab and give Facebook a run for its money.

The answer is I don’t know.

The reason is, Tik-Tok is a handful as it is. Throwing in four way video conferencing with discovery would face the exact same problems that Blab had. So, on paper, yes, adding Blab features to Tik-Tok would probably take it to the next level and make it potentially a Facebook killer.

But, in reality, you would have to be a lot and I mean A LOT smarter than me to figure out how to cherry pick Blab’s best bits without it slamming into the bonkers troll problem that Blab experienced. So, in the abstract, yes, it would be great for Tik-Tok to bring the Blab experience to the masses but it would be seriously playing with fire on a practical level.

So, I don’t know. I do think there is a way that Tik-Tok could grow as huge as Facebook under the right conditions — Facebook is a utility that is hated by a huge swath of if its user based. Whenever we move from Web 3.0 to Web 4.0 everything will be “disrupted” again and new titans will arise. It may be that we skip the video and VR phases altogether and go directly to MindCaps.

Or something.

Anyway, I miss old Blab. We hardly knew yuh.

V-Log: Some Idle Conversation

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Something to watch.

A Blab ‘Show’ I’m Proud Of

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

No one cares and I’m just lighting matches and throwing them into the void at this point, but if for some reason you’re interested in me, here’s a really long, really interesting Blab.im “show” I did with the guy who at the time was in charge of it.

Some Old Blab Shows Of Mine

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Here are some old Blab.im shows I did.

A Very Out-Of-The Box Vision For Saving SnapChat

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I have already mentioned this, but it’s fun to talk about so I’m going to write about it some more. If SnapChat were to re-imagine itself completely in the manner I have suggested, that of turning itself into something akin to a video discussion service with a new text aspect, I think something pretty cool could happen.

Here’s how I would do it.

If it were possible, I would base the new SnapChat on video conferencing. I used the now defunct Blab.im a lot a few years ago and if SnapChat were to leverage its existing user base to go in that direction I think it would reap significant rewards. But there’s a lot I don’t know.

Video would still be at the core of the service, but there would be so much more than that available. The whole point of this new SnapChat would be to get you to have video conferences with your friends that others could watch. It wouldn’t be so much about sending video email to your existing friends as it would be making new friends. That’s a pretty powerful concept, I think. If you had a robust discovery feature you could make all kinds of new friends.

But the point is, there would also be a powerful IRC (AOL Chatroom) text feature in this new service. And threaded Usenet-like post discussions. All of this wouldn’t be rolled out overnight, of course, but you would gradually work towards a completely new vision for SnapChat that I think users would really love. Again, the only reason why I even suggest SnapChat doing this is if it doesn’t innovate and innovate quickly, the whole thing is doomed.

I don’t know if its even technically feasible to do a massive amount of video conferencing in the way I suggest. Blab was never able to get more than, maybe, 100 people in a room to watch a four way video conference, so it may not even be technically possible to get thousands of people watching even a two way video conference. But let’s suppose they used proprietary technology or something.

They would have to expand onto the desktop to truly have this vision become a reality. It would be really cool to have a service whereby you had not only recorded video conferencing with an audience, but a feature rich text environment as well. I have talked at great length about my vision both on this Website and on Instagram. Like, I’ve done thousands of little Instagram videos about this subject. I just take a lot of pictures now, but the videos are still there on my account for better or worse.

The only reason why I even think SnapChat would be interested in such a completely different vision for their service is they’re in serious risk of becoming moot and if they did something really, really dramatic and revolutionary it may be the only way to survive at all. They have the means, motive and opportunity as they say.

They wouldn’t even have to worry that much about their userbase revolting. SnapChat is dying and if they don’t innovate their way out of this deadend, there won’t be much for them to worry about at all in the first place. But whatever. Like I said, I only even wrote about this because it’s interesting.