Wisdom Wednesday | Logical Logs #24
Where's the crypto bonanza
Bitcoin Block 761,361
00000000000000000002c1416d297ec679d0ba6f88113cf79c7a92e2e63507a0Welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesday where I bring to you content that stands unique from the normal headlines you see. Today we have a buffet of various palatable entities among us: 2008 and crypto, how is Meta going so far, , crypto regulation, the Lightning Network and an enlightening approach in the end.
Enjoy!
🎙️ The 2008 moment for crypto
Shadow Banking 2.0 in Web3 and DeFi (ft. Hilary Allen) (Crypto Critics' Corner)
In this episode the hosts Cas Piancey and Bennet Tomlin are joined by American University law professor Hilary Allen who argued about the case for a 2008 crisis moment in crypto. Crypto has been the escape goat for most people conducting financial activities outside the regulatory lens of the traditional financial system. Although they should be decentralized but we have to accept the reality that most of them are not. Not regulating them like the special instruments in 2008 were not citing their ‘financial innovation' will eventually lead to full blown contagion and it is the consumers that will be adversely affected. Stable-coins, being centralized and their manifold use cases also pose a risk to the consumer. This is the banking side of crypto that has become an inevitable part of crypto. It does pose threat. I have also written about it here.
🎬 The best explanation so far of Meta's aspirations
Who Cares About the Metaverse (Marques Brownlee)
This has got to be the most comprehensive explanation of where Meta stands today. Facebook dominated the early parts of the internet but now it has to step up to stay in the game. Google dominates the Ad market but where Meta has an edge is the Devices market which tends to connect people to their interests. VR is the technology that keeps on popping up and might be the future. But all that is necessary is cautiously using money to develop great user experiences. It's not that you can put billions of dollars in a thing and it will reach mainstream.
📰 Pearls in the ocean of headlines
Vitalik Buterin believes crypto still ‘needs time to mature’ before mainstream adoption (CryptoSlate)
Vitalik has been the proponent of Decentralization from the start and is one of the most trusted voices in the crypto industry. In a series of tweets following SBF's draft of of crypto regulation and setting industry standards for crypto. He is indubitable in his saying that crypto companies should not rush to seek institutional capital. When such fund raising is done it is bound to come with strings attached. Hence it results in centralization, the pure opposite for what crypto was built. User experiences and scalability should be the top priority of blockchain developers rather than rushing things.
Enormous multi-sig transaction briefly crashes Bitcoin’s lightning network (Decrypt)
The Lightning Network is often described as completion to the VISA networks and Bitcoin's own scalability solution. Burak Keceli, the founder of Bitmatrix constructed a transaction that had to be verified by 998 private keys. This was a 998-of-999 multisig transaction on Bitcoin. The Lightning network is usually 2 of 2 multi-sig transaction. In simple terms it is like telling 998 people you are sending a package and having them as a witness. It would be cumbersome but highly secure. The Lightning network was not able to comprehend this block and Bitcoin Network did leading to an out of sync situation. The upgrade soon came but it shows much has to be done on the Lightning Network to go mainstream.
🍯 An enlightening perspective
Why smart people think they're stupid (Mark Manson)
A great video by the author of the best selling book The Subtle Art of Not giving a F*CK. He explainsthe Dunning Kruger effect that how when we deepen our knowledge about something, the more we feel we have to know more. This is an endless cycle and being aware of this effect still makes us fall a prey to this feeling. It is important to keep your head low and continue going for what makes you happy and remembering how much you have achieved. Like going down crypto's rabbit hole. There is so much to be discovered.
Hope you reached the end with a smile on your face.
Till next time.
Azeem, signing off.