Federal Reserve, GPT-4, Change | 2.46
Federal Reserve, GPT-4, Change | 2.46
"Have more than you show, speak less than you know." - William Shakespeare
News and Numbers
Markets this Week:
S&P 500 is up 1%
NASDAQ 100 is up 2%
Bitcoin-USD is down 2%
Ethereum-USD is down 4%
Headlines from this Week:
Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and creator of Moore’s Law, passes away at age 94.
Sony files patent for NFT use, transfer, and sales in games.
OpenAI introduces plugin support for ChatGPT.
Google begins opening access to its ChatGPT competitor Bard in US and UK.
Finance
By Vlad Estoup, B.Comm. (Finance), working in Ethereum cybersecurity
The next big move.
The actions of the Federal Reserve often have unintended consequences. Their current strategy of raising interest rates to combat inflation is no exception.
While the goal of reducing inflation is noble, the reality is that higher interest rates lead to lower asset prices. This is evident in the recent sell-off in equities and other risk assets. The bond market is also feeling the pain, with yields rising and bond prices falling.
The Federal Reserve has signaled its intention to continue raising rates, but the reality is that they may not be able to keep pushing rates higher. The banking system is showing signs of strain, with liquidity drying up and confidence waning. The lowering of the value of Treasury bills in bank treasuries is creating a liquidity crisis, forcing banks to buy up assets and print more money.
The Federal Reserve's hawkish rhetoric is belied by their actions. Despite their talk of reducing their balance sheet and tightening monetary policy, they have actually been buying up assets again. This is a clear sign that the Federal Reserve is aware of the risks facing the banking system and is taking steps to mitigate them.
As an investor, it is important to recognize the risks in the current environment. The Federal Reserve's actions have created a fragile ecosystem, with asset prices propped up by easy money and low interest rates. As the tide turns, we can expect to see a wave of defaults and bankruptcies.
The Federal Reserve's current approach is unsustainable, and we can expect to see a reckoning in the not-too-distant future. As investors, we must be vigilant and prepared for the inevitable. It is better to be early than late, and to be cautious rather than reckless.
In conclusion, the Federal Reserve's current strategy of raising interest rates to combat inflation is causing asset prices to fall. The banking system is beginning to crack, and the Federal Reserve is resorting to asset purchases despite their hawkish rhetoric. As investors, we must recognize the risks in the current environment.
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
I signed up for ChatGPT-4
I read all these articles out there about how ChatGPT can 2x your productivity as a programmer, and how AI is replacing jobs, but the reality is very from that.
I recently signed up for ChatGPT-plus in order to get access to GPT-4, and it’s better but sadly still isn’t 2x my productivity or replacing me.
I asked it to write a function for me that can implement token gating with NFTs, a process that basically restricts user access based on ownership of an NFT.
So I asked GPT-4 to write me a function that does this and although it wrote the code, kind of, it was very fairly bad code. (For those that don’t read code, don’t worry, you can skip the code and continue reading and get the gist of how GPT-4 falls short for certain technical tasks.)
Here it is:
app.post('/verify-nft-ownership', async (req, res) => {
try {
const { nftAddress, tokenId, walletAddress } = req.body;
const ownerAddress = await queryNFTOwner(nftAddress, tokenId);
// Compare the owner's address with the provided wallet address
if(ownerAddress.toLowerCase() === walletAddress.toLowerCase()) {
res.json({ result: true });
} else {
res.json({ result: false });
}
} catch (error) {
res.status(500).json({ error: 'An error occurred during the verification process.' });
}
});
The problem is that this code has a serious exploit because anyone can look up the address of the NFT publicly and provide that as input to this function in order to ‘prove their ownership’.
In order to properly verify ownership, this should function should make the holder of the wallet sign a message cryptographically to prove ownership of the wallet they claim to own. Put differently, it should implement appropriate message signing to verify NFT ownership, not just check for equality between inputs.
Admittedly, I left that detail out of my initial prompt and could have added it to get a better response, but it goes to show it’s not doubling my productivity or replacing my job just yet.
I’m happy to pay the $20 for GPT-plus because of how marvelous the product has been as a whole. It definitely helps in some cases, but I’m very skeptical of programmers who claim 2x productivity boosts using it.
(Head)Space
By Roman
Change
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” - Alexander Den Heijer
The above quote made me think about environments in which I have thrived and struggled.
In primary/elementary and secondary/high school, although I was one of the top students academically, I would get in trouble with the teachers. I went to small, francophone schools where the staff had the time to be on your case as there were only about 40 to 50 students in each grade, and 250 students total in the school. I was told I had a problem with authority, and that I wouldn’t amount to anything with my attitude.
Then as an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University and while working at Pacific Blue Cross, I noticed how not only was I excelling in my performance, but I was building strong relationships with the professors and management, respectively. I was still behaving in the same manner, however, unlike in primary and secondary school, when I questioned the “why” behind things, rather than being scolded, I was praised for critical thinking.
I realized that I didn’t have a problem with authority, I had an issue with following protocols and having little independence or autonomy. For instance, I was annoyed that I had to follow seniority rules from the Collective Agreement while doing internal recruitment because that doesn’t allow for the best talent to rise to the top as they may not have the seniority to test/interview for the job.
Sometimes we think we are a problem until we change the environment and realize that our growth was being halted by the previous situation. Choosing the right environment whether it’s where you go to school, where you work, who you live with (e.g., your partner), etc. These all have major impacts on your life outcomes in terms of happiness, success, prosperity, love, etc. Do your part to fix your environment so that you can bloom to your full potential.
TLDR: Sometimes it's not you, it’s the environment.
Company of the Week
PolySign, founded in 2017 by Arthur Britto and David Schwartz, is a fintech company that develops secure, scalable infrastructure utilizing blockchain technology for financial institutions to fully leverage their digital assets. PolySign's mission is to drive global use of digital assets by building infrastructure that enables institutions to secure and transact in digital assets across the capital markets and payments sectors.
Written by: Vlad Estoup, Keyann Al-Kheder, and Roman Kuittinen-Dhaoui