DEV Community: Chizobaonorh

I Am A Web3 Writer Who Doesn't Know Shit About Web3

Chizobaonorh — Sun, 25 Sep 2022 23:56:27 +0000

Before you call me a scam, hear me out!

Writers are believed to be lovers of their work. You write about what you are passionate about; doing that, you create art and drive heartfelt messages to your audience.
Oops! That wasn't the case when I started writing about Web3.

The Backstory

I wrote my first web3 content when I needed to get whitelisted (WL) for a project. Normally we airdrop hustlers had our ready comments of "LFG!!!", " To the Moon," and our occasional one-line sentence trying to praise the project in order to get whitelisted.

Well, this was different; it was a Primate NFT Solana project. There were three things to do to get WL:

Engage actively in the community
Trust me, this is a non-ending circle of yarns and depression.
Fan Arts
Not your regular Tom and Jerry drawing, you needed an outstanding one, and I wasn't creative. So no…moving on.
Twitter threads for engagement
Yes! It's time. I could do this yuuno; from my regular writing of poems, I could research a project and write something on it that would bring engagement.

So I did that! And guess what? It worked.
Uhm…no, not what you are thinking, I didn't get the whitelist, but people loved it.
I got engagements on the post and comments tagging the founders of the projects to come check out this threadooorrrrrrr.

That was my aha moment; I could be a Web3 writer. I explained this project in a way people loved it, so why not write about the Web3 space in a way people will love it? But remember, I had no idea about Web3.

The Writing Journey

I started and wrote my first article on Consensus Mechanisms.
"Why such a difficult topic, right?"
It was a project I was given to work on in my Defi class, so I was like, "why not make it into an article."
Readers welcomed it with open arms, and I loved it. It gave me a reason to go on and keep "Learning on the job."
Then something happened...

I Landed My First Writing Job

Not in a five-star organization, but one that can influence me and offer me something to anticipate at the end of the month.
But this wasn't my regular article writing; this was crypto news writing…and God knows I didn't know shit!
"Hello, what happened to learning on the job?"
So I started. Ladies and Gentlemen, it was hard.
I was lost in a myriad of repetitive mistakes. I was unfamiliar with the terms and always turned in poorly written content.
As a result, I was dropped.

What Now?

The first few days, I was in a bad place. I wasn't only dropped; I was dropped with a farewell message, "You are a bad writer."
And you guessed it! I cried my eyes out.
I struggled with my self-esteem for days before getting over it.
Here's the catch.
I might not love Web3 now, but there is a reason I became a writer.
"I enjoy simplifying complex concepts for an audience."
This desire was sufficient to propel me onward.
So I started to educate myself about Web3. I was determined to grasp this idea and perhaps fall in love with it.

Let's Get Back To The Present

I have started my research, not superficial research, but in-depth research.
If you are still here reading to this point, there are two things involved.
Either you feel the same way I do, about knowing nothing on Web3 or, you want to see where this article is headed.

Sit back and relax!
I might not understand what Web3 is about or be passionate about it. But guess what? I am ready to explore Web3.
I am ready to research so much that I either fall in or out of love with Web3.

Why Is This Important To You?

This is a journey, but I don't want to walk this journey alone. I have little knowledge about Web3, and so do you, or maybe I am wrong. But we could take this journey together. I am making this sound like a marriage…haha.

Let's make a deal.
To better comprehend this Web3 space, I would conduct extensive study, go through all relevant articles and videos, and enroll in Web3 courses.
Then, all you have to do is show up and get knowledge about it.

I will provide well-structured articles tailored to boost your understanding, and you read them.
Then we can both start our Web3 journey together, guiding each other every step of the way.
Then maybe we might both fall in love with the Web3 space, or perhaps we don't, but at least we explored the space together.

So if you are in, give this article a like, click the follow button and subscribe to get emails when I publish an article.

We gat this!😊

Follow me on Twitter: Chizobaonorh_
Follow me on LinkedIn: Ononlememen Chizoba

Why your New year's resolution never works.

Chizobaonorh — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 15:31:00 +0000

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost. Luke 14:28–30.

“I haven’t even done what I planned out for this year and it’s November already, argh!!!”

If this isn’t me then I don’t know what is. Struggling with maintaining balance and achieving my goals had always been my major setback. I only wrote goals on what I wanted to achieve by the end of the year and used my months to toil and toil till I saw the fruits.

Believe me, it isn’t wrong to stay up on the 31st of December writing the new year’s resolution, but it is vital to break those resolutions into months, weeks, and days.

The game changer in my life happened on a particular evening I had this conversation with my brother. Before then, I had always written goals like “by the end of the year I should have started working as a senior staff in Microsoft” — a girl can dream!

But my goal setting took a U-turn after that conversation. I started taking into consideration small daily tasks which I ticked off at the end of the day from a checklist I made at the beginning of the day. And at the end of each month while writing out things I achieved, I would compare them with what I set out to achieve at the beginning, and 80% of the time I had almost all greens than reds on the paper— this gave me a valid sense of direction and put me in check.

This led me to understand the importance and the huge role daily goal setting played in fulfilment of the New year's resolution.

Steps to making the best out of your goals.

Write out your goal for the year.
Break it down into monthly goals.
Break down the monthly goal into days; each day, write out what you’re set to achieve and strive towards it.
Set realistic goals and stop low-key deceiving yourself.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you couldn’t check all the boxes. Instead, dwell on what you achieved, give yourself a pat on the back and prepare to take tomorrow by storm.

In all, don’t take life too seriously, plan out and also have breaks in between to maintain your sanity, because your riches cannot and will not be enjoyed in death.

You gat this!!!!

The Burn-Out Feeling.

Chizobaonorh — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 05:37:00 +0000

I always felt juggling things made me more productive. Everyday, I code, research and write, take online courses, and attend programs I signed up for. At first, it was an interesting feat to have my days occupied from start to finish doing something productive. However, I was having a dysfunctional life without even knowing it. I was skipping meals, didn't even know what it felt like to see a movie, my fun time comprised of either watching youtube videos on a particular course or researching a script, it also became extremely hard to keep up conversations with people; but it was okay as long as I was doing the things l loved to do. I always kept telling myself "when I reach that point I was aiming for, I'd normalize everything". But who was I kidding??

The joyous feeling I felt when it was time to code soon started dying, I would sit in front of my system watching a tutorial, and before you know it I'm rewinding to know what was said because my mind took a trip on its own to God knows where. Things I loved to do started feeling like chores. At first, I thought I was slowly losing the drive to be what I always wanted to be. But no! I was overworking myself, and my body's way of retaliating was making me lose interest in things I loved dearly. Sleeping wasn't even an option, I felt guilty sleeping knowing I still had 70 more days of courses to cover in my 100 days of code.

In my country of residence, constant electricity was not a thing, so whenever there was light and I was coding, my prayer was for the light to go off, and every time it did, I ran straight to my bed to nap; and on days it didn't, I waited till my eyes were closing before slowing dragging myself to bed.

You are probably waiting for a paragraph on how I dealt with it, trust me that's gonna be a long wait.
I'm still here sitting in front of my computer staring at the code that won't write itself, silently praying for either the light to go off or inner strength to pop out and have me coding in minutes.

The Simplest Beginner's Guide to Cryptocurrencies.

Chizobaonorh — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 10:57:00 +0000

"OMG!!!, I just made my first $10,000 through cryptocurrency, I am so excited!!!"

If talks like this weren't what brought you to learn about cryptocurrency then I must commend you. I, on the other hand, started learning about cryptocurrency because I perceived it to be a fast money-making scheme, and also didn't enjoy being referred to as stale for not knowing the latest happenings in the world. But a very common mistake with "hypes" like this is not knowing what it is in detail and diving into it.
This article would explain in simplicity what cryptocurrency is, and all you need to know to get you started using cryptocurrency.

What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital or virtual currency used as a means of exchange secured by cryptography.
For better understanding, let us discuss the terms used in cryptocurrency.

Terms in Cryptocurrency.

Decentralized.
This currency is not controlled by anyone—it has no central Authority— but only works using Blockchain technology, which is a technology that controls how cryptocurrencies are made and validated.

Virtual / Digital.
This form of currency cannot be held and only exists in electronic form.

Cryptography
This represents the "crypto" in the word "Cryptocurrency" which means secret or hidden. It is used to secure transactions, whereby transactions are encrypted in binary numbers making it difficult for anyone to access, hack and alter.

Why was Cryptocurrency Created?

For centuries now, monetary power has been in the hands of the government. They regulated how funds were to be spent, the limit one could have in an account without raising suspicion, who could have an account and at what age, and how money reaches the people— which starts at the top from the wealthy and only reaches the masses through hard labor.
But someone daring enough to stop this order, built cryptocurrency to solve this issue and give power to the masses. With cryptocurrency, even a 9-year-old can have a crypto wallet, limitless transactions are allowed and no one can control how much goes in or out of your wallet.

Types of Cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin
This was the first ever digital currency created by an Anonymous person under the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

Altcoins.
This is a shorthand name for alternative coins. It is a collective name used to describe any coin that is not Bitcoin.
Eg. Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Algorand, etc.

Uses of Cryptocurrency.

To Purchase Items.
Still new, but some stores use cryptocurrencies as a means of paying for goods and services. For example, PayPal allows payments and transactions in Bitcoin.

Money Transfer.
The most effective use of crypto is for transactions. Here, you can send bulk transactions from anywhere around the world in split seconds without having to go through the traditional means of sending money through banks that take a lot of days to process.

Spot Trading.
Just like owning a share in a company as an investment, you can get investment returns on cryptocurrencies by buying when the price is low and selling when the price goes up.

Guidelines on how to choose a Cryptocurrency to invest in.

Do a Deep Research.
You have to take your time to research any cryptocurrency you want to buy, read up on how popular the coin is, the management and development system in place before you decide this is a cryptocurrency you want to buy and invest in.

Read the Whitepaper.
This is a document that contains the vision and roadmap of that cryptocurrency. It gives all the information you need to know regarding that cryptocurrency and the technology behind it. No whitepaper equals a huge red flag.

Join Communities.
Join communities on Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn. Here, they share useful updates on currencies to invest in and why you should invest in those cryptocurrencies.

Where Can I Buy Cryptocurrencies?

There are so many marketplaces one can buy cryptocurrencies from, making it very easy for one to be scammed of one's money.
Here are trustable exchanges to buy your cryptocurrencies.
Binance Exchange
This exchange accepts a wide range of traditional currencies(value of money in your location) to purchase cryptocurrencies. It has an advantage over every other exchange because it supports over 500+ cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase
You can buy over 30+ cryptocurrencies on this exchange, also very secure and reliable.

You can read more on the advantage the exchanges have over one another here
It is very advisable to not store cryptocurrencies in these exchanges because they're centralized—owned by a central authority—and if anything goes wrong with the exchange or it closes, you will not have access to your funds again.

Where do I Store my Cryptocurrencies?

Just like we store our fortunes and assets in the bank, there is a provided place to store our crypto assets called a Wallet. There are two types of wallets.
Hot wallet.
These are wallets that are accessible online, they are very easy for fast transactions and storing your crypto assets. Eg. Metamask, Trust Wallet, etc. They are secured by having a seed phrase and a private key which should only be known to you and nobody. If you disclose your private key, your wallet will be hacked and your funds will be stolen.

Cold Wallet.
This is an offline wallet that could exist in the form of a USB Drive, Ledger, and even Paper or a Journal where your public and private keys are stored. This is helpful to prevent hacking from online attacks, but also has a downside which could be exposure to bad environmental conditions like fire and loss of hard drives.

Do well to choose the best option for you and ensure maintenance is in place to protect your wallets. Note: Do not share your Private key or SeedPhrase with anyone!!!!!

Advantages of Cryptocurrency.

Fast Transactions.
Using the bank system, bulk transactions take several days to process as it goes through many agencies to process these transactions. But using cryptocurrency, transactions are made in seconds which makes it a very effective means of exchange.

Anonymity.
This particular feature keeps you unknown and protects your identity. No one knows how much you have in your account, unlike the bank where the bank managers have access to your account and stay on the lookout for suspicious activities like large transactions.

Decentralized.
No one has the right to dictate to you how to run an account, how old you must be, and how many transactions you can make in a day. This gives you the power and authority over your money and income.

Secure.
It is very secure and protected by the cryptography explained in the paragraph above. Nobody can alter your transactions and redirect your funds to another account.

No Transaction Limits.
You can send up to 1000 or more transactions in a day using cryptocurrency. There are no police in place to question your activities. Your money, your choice!

Low Transaction Fees.
Transaction fees for huge sum transfers and low sum transactions are very low compared to the traditional method of transactions, where you pay processing fees, convenience fees, maintenance fees, and annual fees. Here, cryptocurrency removes the middle man and enables you to pay little fees for transactions.

Peer to Peer Transactions.
This allows transactions to be done easily anywhere in the world irrespective of locality. For example, I can be in Nigeria and send someone in China some Cryptocurrencies which he can in turn change into his currency in seconds, without having to go to the bank and wait for days before my transaction goes through.

Disadvantages of Cryptocurrency.

Loss of Wallet.
This has to be the most painful way of losing access to your crypto assets, because once you have no access to your private key or seed phrase your funds are lost and cannot be recovered.

Scammers.
With a new wave comes a series of criminal activities. People use this opportunity to lure you into revealing their private keys and connecting to malicious websites hence, stealing your funds.

Volatility.
This in cryptocurrency means instability and fluctuations in prices, which is caused by supply and market demand.This would affect investors who bought at a high price when the currency either goes down 50% or the currency becomes worthless. Always monitor your cryptocurrencies and know when to sell them off.

No Internet Services.
This particular disadvantage is never even mentioned but very important. Cryptocurrency transactions run mainly online, in a situation where there is no internet service or a blackout, it would be impossible to make transactions.

Environmental Effect.
The creation of new Cryptocurrencies takes a huge toll on the environment. For example, Bitcoin uses so much electricity and computing power to process transactions and the machines used to create Ethereum coins releases dangerous gases that harm the ecosystem.

Conclusion.

It is important to have your mind prepared to make losses and also profits in this space, if you don't have a strong mind to withstand losses I would not recommend cryptocurrencies as a means of investment for you.

Key points to Note:
1) Always Invest what you can afford to lose or do away with it, do not ever put your life-saving into it!!!

2) A very important tool in minimizing your losses and excelling in this space is simple—Do Your Research. I cannot overemphasize the importance of research, do not rush into anything because you see it booming and enticing. Always take pain to research on It, and ask experienced people in the space about it before you dive into it.

If you made it to the end of this article, A big congratulations to you, because now, you are ready to start your journey into cryptocurrency.

Enjoy!

Bitcoin Halving and The Future of Bitcoin.

Chizobaonorh — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 09:13:49 +0000

What is Bitcoin Halving?

You probably saw the title and the first thing that came to mind was "Bitcoin halving? Yeah that's simple, cutting bitcoin into half", But still you kept on reading, why? Curiosity! " Why would bitcoin be halved? What does this even mean?".
Well, today I'm going to be your tour guide, taking you on a trip to the past, to where it all began, so grab some popcorn and let's get started.

How Bitcoin Halving came about.

On the 3rd of January, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto created the first ever digital currency called Bitcoin. On creation, there was a limited amount of 21 million bitcoins created; The first mining took place on that same day with over 1 million bitcoins mined into circulation.
At the time, bitcoin had little value, and in order to grow into prominence and quantity, the Proof of Work Consensus Mechanism was adopted. This system involved miners solving a hash puzzle—complex math problems generated by the blockchain— and creating new blocks whenever a hash was solved. The estimated time of new block creation was 10 mins, after which a block reward of 50btc was given to the miner who solved the hash. This was the perfect incentive to have more miners and increase the circulation of bitcoins.

But unlike fiat currencies—like USD and Euro—bitcoin has a limited supply. With a system that gives 50btc for every block creation, a drop in value would be inevitable because much supply of a particular asset reduces demand and makes the asset worthless. This brought about the need for bitcoin halving.
This method was configured into the blockchain's source code to reduce the number of bitcoin miners earned by half, after every successful mining of 210,000 blocks which is estimated to be a Four year period..

Occurrences of Bitcoin Halving.

The first halving.
This took place in November 2012, after the 210,000th block had been mined, the block reward was reduced from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
At the time, the value of Bitcoin to USD was $11. After the halving, bitcoin's value saw a rise to its all-time high of $1,217 within the time before the second halving.
This halving was seen to propel the price of bitcoin using scarcity and little supply to create chaos for higher demand.

The second halving.
On the 9th of July 2016, the second halving took place after the 420,000th block had been mined. Miners' block reward was reduced from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC. At the time of the halving, the current value of bitcoin was $647 but on the 17th of December 2017, the price of bitcoin peaked at $19,800, its all-time highest at the time— Imagine owning 10 bitcoins at that time, that would have given you a whopping sum of $198,000.
This period saw investors looking into this new currency that was slowly catching the attention of the masses and the world. But due to its volatility, it didn't maintain this spot for long as it dipped to $3276 on the 18th of December 2018.

The third halving.
The most recent halving took place on the 11th of May, 2020 when the miners' reward was slashed from 12.5 BTC to 6.25btc.
At this time bitcoin had started getting the attention it deserved from the media, investors, and even organisations, so a pump in the price was inevitable. The coin took a triumphant entry into its all-time high on the 10th of November 2021 at $68,789. This showed the effect low supply had on demand during the halvings.

The next halving is estimated to occur in the year 2024 when miners' block reward would be reduced from 6.25btc to 3.125btc. Statistically, by the year 2140, the whole volume of 21 million bitcoins would be mined into circulation, at this point, there would be no block reward for miners. Presently, only 3 million bitcoins are left to be mined.

But why would miners keep working if there are no block rewards?

It is speculated that bitcoin would have gained a greater standing in the market and would be a much more precious asset likened to gold after all blocks have been mined.
It is also well known that miners get their incentives from block rewards but rarely mentioned that they also generate income from transaction fees on the blockchain. Once mining is over, miners would solely generate their income from transaction fees. These transaction fees on the bitcoin network are fees generated from day-to-day activities by traders using the blockchain to make transactions.
And as bitcoin increases in value, so do the transaction fees. From the coindesk article on bitcoin transaction fees it was calculated that "The average bitcoin transaction fee is $23"; With over 200,000+ transactions in a day, do the math!

What happens if 90% of miners leave for a more lucrative blockchain?

The lesser the miners the more chances of a current miner earning consistently from signing and validating transactions solely. But this could have a bad turn because the security of the blockchain would be in jeopardy and can be hacked as fewer people are left to validate and protect it.

The Future of Bitcoin after the Halving?

This is a question that cannot be answered with all surety, but two possible outcomes could play out.

Positive Outcome.
If everything goes according to plan and speculation, bitcoin would have reached a higher level of prominence where holding one bitcoin feels as though you held a dragon egg.
By this time, companies, stores, people, and the world at large would have started using this as a normalized form of exchange.

Negative Outcome.

We could have all just moved on from it to other altcoins with better-paying value. For some time now, investors have been seeking out other means of digital currency that would not consume as much electricity and computing power as bitcoin does, and an alternative is surfacing—The Ethereum Coin. If altcoins take the place of bitcoin there would be a drop in value and a drop out of the market, making investors who invested a lot in it make huge losses from this occurrence.

Conclusion

Like I said, it is very difficult to tell how the future of bitcoin would go, but in all, do your research before you ape in and have a strong mind to stick to your decision and fate no matter the turn of events.
Thank you!

All you need to know about Consensus Mechanism.

Chizobaonorh — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 04:31:00 +0000

What is Consensus Mechanism and its Types?

Imagine you run a store that is currently faced with issues of theft and insecurity. As a profit-making organization you know this is bad for business and should be sorted. You call up a meeting for ways to fix these issues, each worker comes up with a possible solution to this problem and eventually, a solution pops up. This solution solves the issues of theft— which could be proper record keeping— and of security— which could be using better padlocks and iron gates.
This illustration explains the concept of the Consensus Mechanism which is an agreed solution on every decentralized blockchain network, on ways to secure the blockchain, verify and record valid transactions, and create new blocks when the old blocks are filled up— ensuring proper functionality of a blockchain.

Types of Consensus Mechanism.

Proof of Work
This is the original form of Consensus Mechanism, first used by Bitcoin to regulate the functionality of its blockchain. Here, miners(computers) from all over the world compete to solve complex math problems created by the blockchain's algorithm, the first miner to randomly solve the problem and show proof, gets to validate and record the latest transaction, create a new block and earn a certain amount of crypto as a reward. But is this even secure? Yes! Proof of Work requires tons of computers working at the same time to solve the puzzle, making it impossible for anyone to alter transactions.
On the downside the disadvantages are, it consumes so much electrical energy; it is said to consume as much electricity as New Zealand, It also requires much computing power which wouldn't benefit individuals as much as it would groups.

Proof of Stake.
This is a user-friendly alternative to proof of work, This method involves Staking, which means putting down your crypto assets to be locked up in a particular blockchain over a period of time, which is in turn used to verify transactions.
Once a block of transaction is ready to be processed, a validator would be chosen at random—the chances of being selected depends highly on the number of assets you put in. This validator cross-checks the transaction to see the validity and approves if valid, thereby earning a reward. If a transaction is falsified, the validator loses all assets staked in the blockchain. This is the insurance policy the proof of stake runs on ensuring it's security.
Also, other miners get a little percentage of the reward once a transaction is validated.
Cardano blockchain uses the proof of stake.

Delegated Proof of Stake.
This is a slightly different version of proof of stake. In Delegated Proof of Stake, after staking your coins, you can vote for a validator who would run the transactions on your behalf. Once a validator with higher votes is chosen and the transactions are marked as valid, a new block is created, transactions are recorded, and the validator and those who voted gets rewarded with coins.

Proof of Space
This requires available space on your PC to store large documents or files for a required period. After the time is elapsed, checks would be carried out to ensure the file is still there, and once confirmed, you'd be rewarded with a certain amount of coins. This is used mostly by the Chia and filecoin block chain.
A very effective way of earning money but it has a disadvantage as dangerous files can cause malware and harm your systems.

Proof of authority.
Here, the rule of anonymity is violated as one's identity is revealed and their reputation is put on the line to validate and record transactions and create new blocks. In one way, this makes the blockchain secure knowing the person you're dealing with, but in another way, a revealed identity could cause manipulation and corruption.

Proof of weight.
This is mainly adopted by the Algorand blockchain. Here, eligibility is decided by how much token one has in a wallet, amount of transactions, and staking amount. With these, miners are selected to solve blocks, sign and record transactions, and create new blocks.
It is often said that this is a more general form as other mechanisms take their bearing from here. Eg. Proof of stake uses the method of staking.

Proof of elapsed time.
Funny concept but very effective. Miners' systems are randomly given a sleeping duration and put to sleep. When the time elapses, the system with the shortest sleeping duration immediately solves the hash and earns the reward. This method gives miners a fair chance of winning.

Proof of activity.
This greedy method applies both the proof of work mechanism in mining and the proof of stake mechanism in confirming transactions and sharing profits.
Miners compete to solve a particular problem which in this case is letters and headers, once solved, validators are randomly selected by the numbers of tokens staked and are allowed to validate the transaction, and rewards are shared among all miners.

There are many more Consensus Mechanism available and many more to come, the ones mentioned above are the most common ones associated with popular blockchains. With advancements in technology, more mechanisms would be created that would take into account higher level of security, faster transaction processing time, and reliable validators to validate and record transactions.
Thank you!