Changing the Financial System, Managing Apps, Thinking Backwards, Fasting | 2.49
Changing the Financial System, Managing Apps, Thinking Backwards, Fasting | 2.49
"If you cannot decide, the answer is no." - Naval Ravikant
News and Numbers
Markets this Week:
S&P 500 is up 2%
NASDAQ 100 is up 1%
Bitcoin-USD is trading flat
Ethereum-USD is up 10%
Headlines from this Week:
Amazon entered the generative AI race by unveiling Amazon Bedrock which provides a way to build generative AI-powered apps via pre-trained models from startups including AI21 Labs, Anthropic, and Stability AI.
Ferrari partners with Samsung to develop in-car OLED displays.
Juul agrees to pay $462M over marketing vaping products to children.
Canon USA to launch NFT marketplace on Ethereum
Finance
By Vlad Estoup, B.Comm. (Finance), working in Ethereum cybersecurity
The financial system needs to change.
The financial system has been in need of innovation for a while. Despite significant advances in technology over the past few decades, banks still take an inordinate amount of time to process transfers, and many financial institutions do not hold cash reserves backing deposits, leaving them vulnerable to bank runs.
This is where crypto comes in, particularly Ethereum. Ethereum is a decentralized platform that enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications, or Dapps. These Dapps can be used for a variety of purposes, including decentralized finance, or DeFi.
DeFi is a financial system built on top of blockchain technology, which eliminates the need for intermediaries like banks. This makes transactions faster, cheaper, and more secure. Because transactions are processed on the blockchain, they are recorded on a distributed ledger that is visible to everyone, making fraud nearly impossible.
One of the key components of DeFi is smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. Smart contracts enable the automation of financial transactions, eliminating the need for intermediaries and reducing transaction costs.
Solidity is the programming language used to write smart contracts on the Ethereum platform. Solidity is a high-level programming language that is designed to be easy to use and understand, even for those who are not familiar with blockchain technology.
One of the biggest advantages of using Ethereum and solidity for financial transactions is the speed at which transactions can be processed. While traditional financial institutions can take days or even weeks to process transactions, Ethereum can process transactions in just a few seconds.
In addition, because Ethereum is a decentralized platform, there is no single point of failure. This means that even if one node goes down, the network as a whole remains operational, ensuring that transactions can still be processed.
Perhaps most importantly, Ethereum and DeFi have the potential to solve the problem of bank runs. Because DeFi is decentralized and transactions are recorded on a distributed ledger, there is no need for financial institutions to hold cash reserves backing deposits. Instead, funds are held in smart contracts that are visible to everyone and cannot be manipulated by any single entity.
In conclusion, the financial system has been in need of innovation for a while, and Ethereum and solidity are the solution. By enabling the automation of financial transactions through smart contracts, reducing transaction costs, and eliminating the need for intermediaries like banks, Ethereum and DeFi have the potential to transform the way we think about finance. With its ability to process transactions quickly and securely, and its potential to eliminate the risk of bank runs, Ethereum is poised to become the future of finance.
This is not financial advice and you should always do your own research before investing in any securities or cryptocurrencies.
Sci-Tech
By Keyann Al-Kheder, Software Engineer in Web3
Managing and scaling Applications with Containers, Docker, and Kubernetes.
As software projects and teams grow in size, deploying and managing applications across different environments can become a challenging task. Containerization provides a way to package and deploy applications consistently across different environments. Docker is a widely used platform for creating and distributing containerized applications, while Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform used for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications at scale.
Containers, Images, and Volumes
One of the key concepts in containerization is the difference between containers, images, and volumes.
Containers are running instances of images.
Images provide the recipe for creating containers, containing the application code, libraries, and configuration files needed to run the application.
Volumes are a persistent storage mechanism for sharing data between containers or between a container and the host system.
Docker
Docker provides an easy way to create, package, and distribute containerized applications. Developers can create Docker images using a Dockerfile, which defines the environment and dependencies for the application. Containers are isolated from the underlying infrastructure and dependencies, allowing them to run consistently across different environments.
Kubernetes
Kubernetes automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across multiple hosts and clusters. It includes features like load balancing, auto-scaling, self-healing, and storage orchestration, and manages containers using a declarative configuration model. Kubernetes allows developers to manage multiple containers across multiple hosts, making it easier to manage complex applications, including microservices-based applications. Kubernetes also offers a rich ecosystem of tools and integrations to simplify application management.
In summary, containerization, Docker, and Kubernetes provide a powerful set of tools for modern software development and deployment. By using containers, images, and volumes, developers can create and manage isolated environments for their applications, while Docker and Kubernetes allow them to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of those applications at scale. Just as a kitchen creates and serves dishes, Docker creates and runs containers, while Kubernetes manages and scales the containers like a restaurant manager.
Paradigm Shift
By Roman Kuittinen-Dhaoui, BBA (Hons.), CPHR Candidate
Thinking Backwards
What’s the point of going to university/college?
The objective of going to university/college varies depending on the individual and their goals. Generally, university/college provides students with the opportunity to further their education, gain knowledge and skills in a specific field of study, and obtain a degree that may help them secure better job opportunities and higher salaries in their chosen career.
Additionally, higher education provides opportunities for personal growth and development, including socialization, exposure to diverse perspectives and ideas, and the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. University can also serve as a place to explore personal interests and passions, and to engage in research and creative endeavours.
However, often students graduate from university/college without an idea or plan as to what they want to do. They don’t have a clear career path in mind. They just spent a lot of money and time on education that they don’t know how to leverage. Then, they stay in jobs that don’t require higher education (e.g., server) while they may or may not attempt to figure out what they truly want to do for a career or business.
There are several reasons why people may not end up working in the field they studied in university/college such as:
Limited job opportunities. This can be especially true in certain industries or during times of economic recession.
Changing interests. People's career interests and goals may change over time, and what they studied in university may no longer be a good fit for them. They may find that they are more interested in pursuing a different career path or that their skills are better suited to a different field.
Lack of relevant experience. Graduates may find that they do not have the relevant experience or qualifications required for a job in their field of study. Employers may require additional training or work experience that graduates may not have had the opportunity to obtain during their time in university.
Personal reasons. Sometimes, personal circumstances such as family obligations or health issues may prevent graduates from pursuing a career in their field of study.
Economic factors. Graduates may find that the salary or job prospects in their field of study are not as attractive as they initially thought, which can lead them to seek employment in a different field.
Everyone doesn’t need to go to university/college. Trade schools are excellent. Many jobs require special certifications (e.g., truck driving). Several jobs don’t require any training or schooling. And the cost of starting your own business has never been lower.
Personally, I went into business school thinking I would major in accounting and finance, however, after working an accounting internship, I realized that this profession wasn’t for me. Next, I did an internship in human resources where I discovered that I could excel in this field that interested me. My university provided me with these opportunities. However, I picked a major in business because I had the foresight to know that I wasn’t going to university to learn but rather I was going to school to get career opportunities.
TLDR: Think backwards… What job do you want? What education do you need for it?
(Head)Space
By Keyann
Lessons from Fasting
It’s Ramadan this month, and with that said, I fasted.
Admittedly, I didn’t fast every day of the month as you’re supposed to, but I’m going to share what I learned from the days that I did.
For those that don’t know, fasting is a practice that is ubiquitous to all Abrahamic religions - Judaism has Yom Kippur, Christianity has Lent, Hinduism has Upavasa, and Buddhism has Uposatha. For Ramadan, however, you’re supposed to fast everyday from sunrise to sunset, which includes abstaining from water, food, brushing your teeth, sex, and substances.
One of the main things I learned from practicing this time around was the difference between hunger and cravings.
Each day starts off easy, but by the afternoon, I would start to experience fatigue, agitation, and other symptoms that I thought were hunger. However, after a couple more hours, the symptoms pass. Through this, I concluded that it was not hunger I was experiencing, but rather carb and sugar withdrawal.
Once you surpass 12 to 14 hours without eating your body starts to enter ketosis, a state when your body switches from metabolizing carbohydrates as a fuel source to metabolizing fat.
As the carbohydrate bacteria that’s in your gut biome gets flushed from your body, there’s a signal sent to your brain for the carbohydrates to survive, resulting in the urge to consume more carbs and sugar.
But again, that isn’t hunger, and those symptoms I experienced around the 12th hour, although similar to hunger, aren’t real hunger.
Once in ketosis, your body also activates a process called autophagy, where the body’s cells start to rebuild themselves and remove any toxins from your body. During this process, the body is given a chance to rest and repair itself, resulting in a healthier and more rejuvenated feeling.
For myself, my skin had been peeling for weeks recently due to a bad sunburn, but within my first day of fasting, it was gone like magic.
In addition to that, the more you abstain from succumbing to your urges and cravings, the more you fortify your discipline to delay gratification, and the more you start to unveil the notions of normal consumption that you’ve conditioned yourself to believe.
This process goes beyond food, and extends to everything we consume. In our modern world, we we are privileged to consume at all hours of the day, but this can lead to confusion between deprivation and symptoms of withdrawal. By abstaining from succumbing to our urges and cravings, we can challenge our conditioned notions of healthy consumption and fortify our mental discipline to delay gratification so that we may liberate ourselves from temptation and pursue longer term goals.
Individual experiences with fasting can vary, and while my personal experience led to benefits such as improved skin health and mental discipline, these benefits may not be universal. Not everyone is able to dive in head first and disregard symptoms of withdrawal to internalize spiritual lessons, even though I think that’s the best way to learn. However, research has shown that fasting can have numerous benefits, including weight loss, improved insulin sensitivity, and reduced inflammation.
Ultimately, I've come to realize that fasting is not just an antiquated religious chore, as I once believed. It's a timeless and natural practice used by people around the world that even science has come to reveal as having numerous benefits, such as making you feel healthy, clear, rejuvenated, and liberated.
Company of the Week
Elon Musk created a trio of holding companies dubbed “X Holdings” as part of his bid to acquire Twitter. This gives him the potential to bring all of his businesses under one parent company, as he mentioned earlier.
According to the April 20, 2022 filing, new companies were created in Delaware, each with a variant of the name “X Holdings.” In particular, we are talking about X Holdings II, Inc., which is listed in the document as “Purchaser” and X Holdings I, Inc., which is named “Parent.”
Written by: Vlad Estoup, Keyann Al-Kheder, and Roman Kuittinen-Dhaoui