[Last updated by 04 Aug, 2020]
In 2020, Blockchain (or particularly cryptocurrency) becomes the elephant in the room that i don’t think anyone should overlook anymore, be it in technological, financial, or even sociological perspective. Motivated by my needs to move my financial assets “off-grid” and become a true “digital nomad” after a year of social unrest in Hong Kong, i take my first step into this rabbit holes.
And hence this experimental post. A journal about my on-going study about this monstrous topic.
The structure would be disorganised at the moment and the start is boring (i ensure you), yet please bear with me as it will evolve (as i do).
So, as always, enjoy, and wish me luck. — 04 Aug, 2020
Cheers.
D.W.
Studies so far
- Blockchain Specialist program on Coursera, offered by University of Buffalo. Good for beginners on Solidity, DApp and IPFS.
- [WIP] Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies offered by Princeton University. Old but worth the time if you want to know the technical bits.
- Possible next on-list: have a solidity project / hashgraph / hyperledger
The Journal
January 2020
- Ledger Nano X, my first hardware wallet arrived. So eager to try it out by buying BTC through a local exchange, ends up overpaid by triple of the cost because of the low liquidity of BTC/USD locally…. and clicked a wrong button. (i hate exchanges).
- Lesson: when it comes to money, don’t rush.
February 2020
- Joined Liquid & Crypto.com. Both have way much better UX. Finally have some legit way to start HODL (off the grid!).
March 2020
- Cryptocurrency crush! Acquire additional BTC and averaging out my previous mistake to around USD/BTC 8.5K. The volatility of this market saved me!!
- ETH first time acquired.
May 2020
- Join Argent, discovered more about Defi, Compound & yield farming stuff. Start using Brave browser for privacy and BAT earning because Compound saving rate is 60% p.a.!
- Learn more about the DeFi ecosystem. Interim conclusion: too many options, too complicated, too much leverages. Better avoid if do not understand.
June 2020 — finally start learning
- Start thinking that it’s NOT OKAY to not knowing what i have been buying. So i begin the Blockchain Specialist program on Coursera, offered by University of Buffalo. Context is easy to pickup while informative for most beginners. It did give me quite a good view on how Ethereum works as well as a brief on how Solidity operates. i think i might give a ETH project a go some day.
July 2020
- Discover Cardano, aka “ETH killer”, a HK company with close to zeros locals. Interesting enough it does have a lot of partnerships going on to build on top of its ecosystem. Seems have potential, HODL a few ADA.
- ConsenSys Q2 2020 DeFi report released, and highlighting the USD 4 Billions market capital, grown from 1B two months ago, has been locked down in DeFi, making ETH “a little bit behind” in terms of ETH/USD (around ~240 at that moment.)
- Crypto starts rocketing.
August 2020 — a lot is happening!
- Crypto.com suddenly push for MCO & CRO swapping. Despite of many early swap bonuses, that’s speculation on market manupulation. a few points to note: a) Crypto has 80% ownership on CRO; b) CRO is a private network; c) Obviously there’s insider price control on MCO before swapping… you may find similar point of view here on Youtube. I convert most liquidised CRO into ETH instead and will wait for the un-stake of the remaining stuff.
- Missed the last assignment of Blockchain Specialist Program and cannot resume…
- Starting the free course Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies offered by Princeton University. Despite a bit old (2015), it’s very technical and does give a very good picture on how things work in Blockchain.
- Learnt about Hashgraph, a very interesting consensus mechanic which i think it will be useful for later & deeper study.
