Microblogging On The Other Side of Spam
The most famous social media apps in the world are short form content ones. Facebook and twitter are so popular because both connect people all around the world in such an easy and convenient manner. The apps are very very easy to use and so popular. Any granny can do Facebook or Twitter and there are plenty of grannies who actually do that.
Read.cash is the best and probably most active blockchain-based social media platform out there. It's one of the few so far, as we don't have too many of this kind. It is however a mostly blogging oriented one. Short form content has been dismissed and labeled as shit posting since the early days.
I highly diagree on that, though. I get the reasoning(spam), but we can cure spam without discouraging short-form content. We can't say it is "forbidden" or completely disregarded as there is this dbuzz thing, but I see it more as a community rather than a separate living entity, something like Leofinance is.
Project blank is something I got obsessed with, over the years ;), and the more I think about it the more I feel discouraged that we might now have it this year either. I am not in charge of the development of Leofinance and not in the position to ask for anything, but my gut feeling tells me it will be a blast once we finally get our hands on it.
Engagement will be reshaped once we will have microblogging on Hive. Consuming whole 500, or more words of pieces of content is quite a challenge, especially if time is not on your side and engaging with as many authors and commenters to such posts in a day is definitely time-consuming.
Twitter makes for a lot of internet traffic and it's in this position because it was designed as such. Tweets are like sharing the core of an idea rather than putting the whole picture into words, for the ones following one on social media, and that ignites engagement. It's quite at hand to be heavily active on Twitter.
BUT, as mentioned above, it was designed as such.
More does not necessarily mean better, thus when we think we will have tons of more content going out in the world of the internet through this blockchain does not mean it's going to be a better type of content. Spam may occur, that's highly likely, but it shouldn't stop us from once and for all plunging into the microblogging world.
For us, crypto heads, getting there when shit happens, posting about it, and engaging on particular topics is more important IMO than spending half an hour or more wrapping such topics just to frame them into a blog post.
This entire post here could have been very well be formatted in a twitter-like one. Something like: microblogging is going to be a game-changer for Hive. Engagement levels will shoot through the roof once we dive into it, spam may occur, and transactions could become slower, but we desperately need such a form of content.
This entire post here could have been very well be formatted in a twitter-like one. Something like: microblogging is going to be a game-changer for Hive. Engagement levels will shoot through the roof once we dive into it, spam may occur, and transactions could become slower, but we desperately need such a form of content.
Microblogging will push us into the crypto content creation front lines. As I have stated in so many blog posts of mine, blank will market Hive as nothing has ever done that so far. Noise.cash is a lame try at doing what blank will. It simply doesn't have the tokenomics and the pedigree.
OK, time to close this one now, so you don't fall asleep reading my crap. The gist of this post is that IMO microblogging will 10x our current engagement/traffic levels and our impact on the crypto industry as a blockchain.
Thanks for your attention
The unmatchable combo of Llama + Venari Knifer
**What’s up my fellow splinterlands folks!**
I hope you all are having a splendid day in this weekend. My weekend is also going good and the splinterlands season on the other hand has also come near the end with only 3 days left for us to reach our Goal Spot.
This is the first season with the brand new reward update for Ranked play and I guess we are going to see a lot of changes in the season loot chests as we are seeing into the Daily focus chests. The other day, I got Life focus as my daily mission. I was recharging my ECR bar for last 3 days and also have pushed myself to Champ III. So, today as I started playing for the Focus, I was getting approx 60k FP per ranked win and also crossing every focus chest with just one win at beginning at 2 win later in. So, without wasting too much ECR, I made it to 9 focus chests and also jumped up too Champ II, But currently playing back in Champ III as I lost some trophies today.
Now, taking a look at the market, another big downtrend has affected the market cap brutally with BTC going below 27,500$ and also my beloved ETH which even came down 1500$ for some time. The splinter tokens also got heavily affected because of the dip. The main in game token DEC is currently being traded for 0.00087$ per unit with a -2.96% price change in last 24 hours. SPS also lost a bit value in last couple of days and currently being traded for 0.067$ per unit. However, Vouchers haven't lost much of a value and currently being sold for 1.1$ per unit.
VENARI KNIFER
Let us now take a turn from here and move towards to my main theme as today, As you all have guessed already, I am going to showcase the Venari Knifer monster from Chaos edition.
Venari Knifer is a common type monster card that got released with the Chaos edition. It costs 6 mana to be used in the battlefield and it’s attack type is melee. Now, let us take a further look at it’s tier wise stat.
Bronze
At level 3, this Knifer possesses 3 melee attack At 5 speed with 6 health and also has the thorns ability since its initial level even at bronze level. this monster speed is enough to evade some enemy attacks.
Silver
At level five, the Knifer’s overall stat gets increased with 3 Melee attack at 5 speed with 8 health along with the thorns ability.
Gold
At a level eight this monster gets 3 mile attack at six speed with eight health and also gets another ability backfire. If an attacker misses his target on a monster with backfire ability, the attacker gets back 2 damage.
Diamond/Champ
At level 10, the Knifer’s stat goes to ultimate level with 4 melee attack at 6 speed with 9 health along with those 2 abilities that I mentioned above.
Important points about Venari Knifer
First of all, Knifer’s speed is exceptional in the tiers. He has 5 speed in Bronze and silver and 6 speed at Gold to max. At this speed, he will most probably attack at first while on the other hand, it may also evade some enemy attacks.
Secondly, it’s Backfire ability combined with high speed results a good defence with which you may hurt some enemy melee and range monsters. Because of the high speed, it has more chance of evading melee and range attacks and hence more chance of damaging them via Backfire.
The high powered melee attack of the Knifer can’t be avoided as well. Even at bronze level, he does possess 3 melee attack whearas in Diamond level, he get 4 melee attack. This brutal attacks will help you kill those enemy cards faster.
**Market Stat**
The single BCX cards of Venari Knifer are starting from 0.069$ per BCZ and will cost you from 78.33 dec and onwards. There are also some high level Knifers available currently at the splinterlands cards market on low pricing you are interested.
Battle Line-up
**Battle**
mana Cap: 14
Splinters allowed: Fire, Water, Earth, Death and Dragon.
Ruleset:
Stampede - The Trample ability can be triggered multiple times in this battle by any monster if it kills the target.
Noxious Fumes - All monster start battling with getting poisoned in this battle.
Well, it was only a 14 mana limit match that I got this time and with 2 match rulesets - Stampede and Noxious Fumes. Now, if I would have use more number of small mana cost monsters over a big monster, the poison effect would have killed them faster. That’s why I chose the llama + Knifer combo in this match and hope it goes well.
SCARED LLAMA MAGE
This time, I got a Mini mana limit match with the Trample + Noxious Fumes ruleset. After some thinking, I decided to use the Legendary Earth summoner Llama with the Venari Knifer. The Knifer's stats will get buffed up by the llama's Last Stand ability and with it's high speed, it will harder to target it with those trample monsters. On the other hand, it will remove the poison effect on the Knifer with cleanse buff.
VENARI KNIFER
I decided to use the Llama + Knifer combo in this match respecting the mana limit and rulesets. I am hoping good results when the llama activates the Last Stand ability upon the Knifer. I am using a level 10 Knifer in her and it possesses 4 melee attack at 6 speed with 9 health along with 2 abilities - Thorns and Backfire.
Match Result
As the match lineups got revealed, I found out that my opponent has chosen the Dragon legendary 2 mana summoner Prince Julian against me. He has placed the Ruler of the Seas as his front defence, followed by the Furious Chicken, Doctor Blight and Kelp Initiate at the end of his lineup. He has chosen 2 over powered magic monsters against me further powered up by Kelp initiate who will remove the poison from the card at first position every round and will also heal backline wounded monsters with Triage. So. It will be an interesting match and hard to guess who will win. Let us now follow the match and see how it goes.
As the first round of the latch started, My Venari Knifer gets quickly buffed up with increased overall stats thanks to the Last Stand buff from LLAMA and it also removed
the poison from the Knifer. The knifer is now having 6 melee attack at 9 speed with 16 health and of course he attacked the first and took down the poor Ruler with just one blow of his overpowered melee attack. The enemy chicken thus came at front and the Doctor attacked and also applied poison upon the Knifer and the round ended here.
Next at second round, every monster got their health reduced because of poison. But my llama again cleansed the Knifer and he attacked again and this time he took down the Chicken, leaving the Doctor as the only attacking card left in enemy side. The Doctor attacked next and this time he applied the Affliction ability upon my Knifer. But there’s healing work going on in my lineup this time so that wont affect me.
At third round, my Knifer again attacked the first and this time, he took down the Doctor with his furious melee attack. Now, only the attack less Kelp Initiate was left alive on the opponent’s lineup and it hot taken care at the later round and I scored another ranked victory here.
The match was surely interesting this time as my opponent also came up with a unique lineup. He wanted to cleanse out the Ruler and make it a pain upon me. He also choose the Kelp initiate to heal the wounded backline monsters who probably will get affected by the poison.
I hoped you enjoyed the match that I shared above and also loved the performance of the Llama and Knifer duet. Do you also own a Knifer and play with it or just choose other monsters over it? Let me know you feelings in the comment below and I will be visiting you all in my next post.
Splinterlands Strategies: Reward Cards..., Overprinted?
It's been a while since I wrote a Splinterlands article. The truth is I don't write unless I have something to say, and for Splinterlands it's been a case of 'existing and waiting' in recent times.
Little has happened, but things are starting to happen.
I used to be an avid listener of the Town Hall sessions (now hosted on Mondays, sometimes at a bad time for the UK), but the more recent ones have been leaving me a little bored and underwhelmed.
If @yabapbatt is speaking then I know something is happening, and some of the other guys are really good talkers, but most of us want some action and less talk.
…’a little less conversation, a little more action please - Elvis Presley’
If you think this post is to shove out piles of FUD then you would be wrong. I have been relentlessly buying SPS, staking, buying cards, combining, renting, and even playing on one of my accounts.
...Yes, that last one is a shocker....
You see the rewards revamp is around THREE weeks away and I want at least one of my play accounts ready, and playing in the Diamond League.
Yesterday crypto rained blood and even though I should be used to the toxic rain falling it still hits me emotionally. Over the years I have learned to ignore this as I know the underlying product is sound.
***...'SPS suffered much like everything else yesterday. Big deal, what goes down must go up (...or something like that)'''...***
Splinterlands is 4 years old, it has lived through a huge bear market and survived. Yesterday was diddly-squat compared to what we saw through 2018 and 2019.
Embrace the sheer cheapness of what is on sale and embrace it.
…'Epic Reward cards at 27c; outrageously cheap, Djinn Chwala - what a card'…
One of the questions mentioned in yesterday's Town Hall was about the new reward cards that will be released to complement the existing ones.
‘Will the print run be less than the existing reward cards?’ – someone piped up.
@aggroed’s response was… ‘No, we don’t feel there is a need to do this’
The reason being is his vision of the future. Today’s player base is struggling to soak up the sheer amount of Venari Heatsmiths.
We all want more Heatsmiths, right?
A friend of mine, @onw who plays Splinterlands and someone who I have known since the 1980s, was saying the reward revamp will give us... 'even more of those cards that we already have lots of'.
Sure this is true, but the rewards revamp (if it works out), may attract a lot more players into the game.
...'You could be playing Splinterlands instead of wasting your life on games that give you fuck all back'...
What I see in the longer term is all those Facebook people who play those dumb games that give you nothing at all back wanting something more.
What if they were playing Splinterlands? The blockchain technology is possibly too difficult to grasp for most but Splinterlands seem to have gotten around that hurdle already, with usernames and passwords.
'Normal' people love Username and Password. That's normal.. Us, we are fucking wierdos.
The Facebook crew doesn't understand Keychain, or huge long keys. They also don’t understand that you own your assets; this is alien philosophy.
I feel ownership is key, and once that sinks in those Facebook games may ebb away in their minds and become a distant memory.
.'It may be daunting for new-users, but they don't need to use it right away'...
Attracting this audience would be a ground-breaker for the game, and gradually I see it happening.
The market is enormous and the game, while not exactly simple is not so difficult it can be grasped by someone with an average IQ.
The current set of reward cards are over-printed in today’s world, does that make them worthless?
If they were poor cards, underpowered and little played then I would concur. They are not, just look at today's Meta.
...'you think I haven't seen Reward cards at less than 2c before?, think again'...
I am keeping ALL of my reward cards, even Venari Heatsmiths, as tomorrow's Splinterlands may be radically different.
Be patient people, shit is happening, and have some trust in the team that has brought us a four-year-old game.
Earn currency while you play and become a global Rock Star with Rising Star
Own assets, and earn currency while playing one of the oldest, most established Crypto Games, Splinterlands
A Festival of Despair
Hello friends, Eid Mubarak to all. Today our Eid festival is being celebrated. Hope everybody is doing well and enjoying their time in a festive atmosphere like ours. Today I have come up with another new story for you, but today's story is centered on Eid festival. So let's read the story-
Arib-woke up early in the morning, because today is Eid. Abir has heard from all his friends that he has to go to the mosque very early in the morning on Eid day to offer prayers. Abir lives in a small slum, so there is no Eidgah, so his friends have told him to pray in the mosque if there is no Eidgah. So Abir got up in the morning and took a bath and went to the mosque to perform Eid prayers. His friends also said that if you want to perform Eid prayers, you have to wear new clothes.
But Abir does not have new clothes? Where will he get new clothes? He doesn't have a father, his mother works as a servant in someone else's house, they have to work very hard with whatever money comes. Abir can't go to school with this little money, because he doesn't have money to buy books, who will pay for his schooling? Thus, there is a shortage in their family for twelve months, then Eid has come again, new clothes, there is nothing good food in Abir's forehead.
Abir is very upset because he has to go to the mosque without new clothes. Abir asks his mother for two rupees. Abir's mother asked what will happen with two rupees? Abir says he will iron his old clothes. Abir's mother came to the boy for two rupees and hugged him and started crying. Forgive me for saying in a very vague voice, I could not make you happy even though I am a mother today! Abir also cries, but does not understand what will calm his mother!
Hello friends, Eid Mubarak to all. Today our Eid festival is being celebrated. Hope everybody is doing well and enjoying their time in a festive atmosphere like ours. Today I have come up with another new story for you, but today's story is centered on Eid festival. So let's read the story-
Arib-woke up early in the morning, because today is Eid. Abir has heard from all his friends that he has to go to the mosque very early in the morning on Eid day to offer prayers. Abir lives in a small slum, so there is no Eidgah, so his friends have told him to pray in the mosque if there is no Eidgah. So Abir got up in the morning and took a bath and went to the mosque to perform Eid prayers. His friends also said that if you want to perform Eid prayers, you have to wear new clothes.
But Abir does not have new clothes? Where will he get new clothes? He doesn't have a father, his mother works as a servant in someone else's house, they have to work very hard with whatever money comes. Abir can't go to school with this little money, because he doesn't have money to buy books, who will pay for his schooling? Thus, there is a shortage in their family for twelve months, then Eid has come again, new clothes, there is nothing good food in Abir's forehead.
Abir is very upset because he has to go to the mosque without new clothes. Abir asks his mother for two rupees. Abir's mother asked what will happen with two rupees? Abir says he will iron his old clothes. Abir's mother came to the boy for two rupees and hugged him and started crying. Forgive me for saying in a very vague voice, I could not make you happy even though I am a mother today! Abir also cries, but does not understand what will calm his mother!
Disappointed, Abir hugged the feet of a rich man and begged him to give him some money. The man slaps Abir hard, saying he can't eat rice, do you want to eat semai again? Abir fell to the ground and his shirt fell to the ground. He bowed his head and left the mosque empty-handed. Abir thinks in his mind why people are so cruel, at least one day do not understand the plight of the poor, the poor have no festival? Do they not have Eid?
As soon as Abir enters the house, his mother comes running and asks why you are in this condition. How did the body feel dirty, how did the dirt on the clothes? Why are your eyes watering? How will Abir answer so many questions together? No answer comes out of his mouth. Abir looked at his mother and started crying louder, asking his mother, why are we poor mother? Why don't we have money? Why can't we eat semai? Do we have no desire, do we have no taste?
Abir's mother can't answer, she just cries and says, my son doesn't say that, we are poor so we have to accept everything. Because we are poor, so there is no one beside us. This society and social system is only for the rich, not for the poor like us. Eid or festival for the rich, the poor have no Eid, the poor have no festival, and they do not have to have. We have the opportunity to survive, this is a great achievement for us. After that Abir's mother could not speak anymore, her voice stopped with difficulty.
Building the path on the basis of decisions
When at the age of 11 years old you are given the choice of which junior high school you want to go to, the one where all your friends from school go or the one with the best teachers, but there is not a single person you know, it seems like an easy decision, doesn't it?
Well, I've always been a bit stubborn, some would say it's because of my zodiac sign 😂 Taurus, and it seems to be a very distinctive feature of my character, which has been both a virtue and a defect. I chose to go to a school with better teachers.
My parents, very rarely, do I remember them imposing anything on me regarding my studies. My mom says that I was a very judicious child 😂 and that's why they let me decide so that I could learn from my own mistakes as well.
I was not a very social person, but I was not rude either, so the first day of school I already had a new group of new friends 😂, with the good fortune that weeks later several of my old friends, whom I knew since I was 5 years old, changed to my school as well.
During the 3 years of that level of education in Cuba, my closest group of friends were Jorge, Liliam, and Yaima and a new moment of decision came: high school. At that time, this level, necessary to continue to university, could only be acquired by studying in the ¨Becas¨, which are schools in rural areas of the country with a boarding school system or a school (a single one!) that was external, very close to my house, but that was for boys with ¨enfermedades¨ (I put it in parentheses because there were also daddy's little boys who did not want to get a scholarship).
I was always very much a homebody, I didn't go out to parties or have boyfriends hahahahah so getting a scholarship was a huge step for me. My cousins bet that if I got a scholarship I wouldn't last a week. wrong! Ajajajaj nothing better than a challenge ahead 😜. Peeeeero, once again my high school friends wanted to go on a scholarship, I wanted to go on another 😳 so I had to face again with 14 years old a 24/7 cohabitation with strangers far away from my home.
The first photo was taken the day of my 15th birthday (in the first year of high school), as I remember that that week we had a final test of History and I could not go home .
Almost at the end of the third year, a new opportunity presented itself to a group of us. Some of us with the best records could opt to choose the university career we wanted in exchange for teaching for 5 years in an elementary school. (... in the beginning, this plan required a lot of requirements and we accessed a few of my pre-university and some of the best records, others including the one from Exact Sciences known as "La Lenin").
This change implied leaving my friends again, this time it hurt much more, Osmar sat next to me in classes and had a horrible character 🤣, but that gave me grace, and Neka and Yasmely because our beds were barely separated by a 1-meter distance. So it was very difficult.
The interesting thing: in the new pre I coincided again with Jorge!!!! My friend from high school 😂 who was a brainiac in his pre had also been chosen. Those months were very intense, because of the preparation, we used to get up at 5:30 am and the sleeping schedule didn't start until 11:00 pm. I also remember the word dictations they made us do, they were endless and very very difficult and the grade you got depended on when we could go home to be two days for every 15 days in school.
Then came the choice of career, I was undecided between History or Communication, but in the end, I opted for the latter, as I found the Communication processes that happened in companies extremely interesting. This time, several of my friends also chose the same career as to me! Finally 😂
... And well, with Jorge, I even ended up working, since we coincided in the school that would be our turn to teach grades one through four. But, my experience during 5 years as a teacher I will tell you about it another day because it is something very beautiful that I carry in my memory and deserves a separate post.
For the moment I leave it here, and when I look back I think of the many times I could have taken another path, one that would have kept me in my comfort zone with my acquaintances, with what was safe, but I chose to step out of the box.
So, by way of teaching ( professional deformation 😜) do not be afraid to face new situations that involve a departure from your comfort zone, but, on the contrary. Take it as a personal challenge to achieve, a small goal in life.
This one often puts us in front of forks in the road and some paths are scarier than others, but be brave and demand from yourself that extra that is needed. That you made a mistake, ok, remember that:
"The only man who makes no mistakes is the one who never does anything". (Goethe)
Magikland Experience (Disneyland-ish!) | Negros Occidental, Philippines
Can you believe today's the last day of April?! It always seems absurd to me how time flies - whoosh!! - just like that. Before we know it, it's going to be the *Ber* months already haha. Anywaaaay.
I am excited to share with you today's post because this is the VERY FIRST TIME after the March 2020 lockdowns that I have visited a **Theme Park/ Amusement Park**! It's been two years that I haven't gone on rides and be a kid again in a theme park lol.
I have taken as much pictures as I can so that I am able to show you around the place. Are you ready for a Virtual Day Tour around Magikland? Because I know I am! So let's goooo. 🎡🎠🤸♀️
This is what the place looks like from the outside. A little fancy, right? Look at the buildings and structures - that's why it's Disneyland-ish for me haha. I posed here with my sister Ate Eve @eeventuree who's my ride-or-die during our Bacolod Trip. 👯♀️
This is the ticketing booth: of course you need to pay before you can enter the place. Once you pay, they give you the plactic wrist bands - your admission pass.
As you can see here, these are the Entrance fees:
₱280 - Admission Pass: This means you can enter the place and if you want to ride, you need to pay tickets to the ride. Basically this is what you pay to enter the place.
₱520 - All-you-can Ride Pass: This is ideal if you want to get a shot at riding all the rides to your heart's content.
We chose the ₱280 Admission Pass since we are not keen on riding and we just wanted to check the place out. Also it was 4:30pm and I bet we cannot make the most of the All-Rides-Pass anyway.
As you may well notice, some rides are for ₱50 and some are for ₱80 - I think it's not that pricy.
Here's a #grouphie of the Magikland #squad - my sizzum, my good friend Jem (who gave us a tour of Bacolod, thank youuuuu) and her niece Beia. 🥰 It was a blast - our visit!! 💖 https://ecency.com/trending/grouphie https://ecency.com/trending/squad
Upon entering the place, there's an "obligatory" photo, right? This was it lol. In all honesty, I was so happy to be able to enjoy the day and visit this place - I could've been anywhere but nah, my feet took me here. 👣
Of course we had to have a photo together - meet my friend Jem💃 I've been planning to visit Bacolod since 2018 since her invitation that she's going to tour me to places. FINALLY IT HAPPENED and I was so glad she's there to make us feel at home even when we're a bit far from home. Thank you, roomie!❤️
Basically the photos herein are all the looks and bits and pieces of the entire place - yep it's not as big as I had hoped. But I wasn't disappointed though because I did not do a research on this place before visiting. If there's one thing I learned about going to New places it's to NEVER do a research on PHOTOS of it so that you would not have the "Expectations Versus Reality" problem. A research on location, probable spending costs, accessibility would be of course recommended so that you won't get lost and people won't take advantage of you. But to do a little researching on what the places looks like that's some dangerous waters lol. Photos are enhanced on social media so it's gonna appear unreal than what it is. Yep - you just learned a little travel tip from me as well. And you're welcome.
See that Carousel Ride? Yep you bet your ass we rode it! Haha. I posted it sometime this week - my photos of the "very first time" I rode a Carousel! It was silly for adults to do so - yep we know - but we want to have fun and we also did not want Beia to ride on her own so we rode with her! It was a Lotta fun while it lasted. 🎠😁
I personally love this cutesy village. In fact this is my favorite part of the entire Magikland. I mean - look at that! It looks to me like it came straight away from a movie or a setting of a good fiction book. For me, this would always be my face spot around the area.
Magikland is open from 12noon to 7pm. It's located at QXJF+G3G, Consolacion Road, Lungsod ng Silay, Negros Occidental. If you are from Bacolod City, it's just near there ( you probably know that hehe). You're not from Bacolod or non from the Philippines and you are planning to visit and you need more information? Well you can check their official website at magiklandpark.com and see it for yourself!
And that's it!! We're done with our quick tour around the theme park. It's not as big as you would hope and there were not too many rides - but the place has got its magic. Not to mention kids love it there! With so many sights to see and food and beverages to enjoy, you will go home with happy memories, that's for sure and certain. 🤗
Yay! I hope you had fun with me on our Magikland experience, Hivers! I would definitely go vack there to check on other rides when there's much time to spare haha. I hope you all have a great weekend loves! Kisses🤸♀️🎡🎠👣💃😘
Packs, Shards and Rewards
As another Splinterlands season comes to a close in the coming days, I take a moment to reflect on the general well being of the scene. The notion, at least for now, is that the price of assets is generally affected by the wider crypto market.
The price of SPS in particular has been rather flat for a long time. This is perhaps pointing at what we should accept as the floor range of the token and I honestly don't think that it's so bad.
I had mentioned that SPS listing was announced on Crypto.com exchange and that hardly had any impact on the price of the token. Fast forward to a couple of hours ago, and the token is now officially being traded on the app, and again, this hasn't exactly positively impacted the price.
Looking at it on the surface though, Crypto.com isn't like most other crypto trading exchanges. Unlike Binance and the traditional platforms you use, Crypto.com offers a secure route to invest using your debit/credit card.
This doesn't necessarily give room for speculation and good old wash trading that could pump the token. Assuming SPS got listed in somewhere like Binance where there are buy orders and all that stuff, we'd have been seeing some crazy price action right now.
Exchanges like Binance would probably try to nick a little bit of profit from the token, due to the artificial pump from listing. That's a scenario that I can live with, to be honest.
Hive-engine price
Still on the topic of exchanges, the price of Chaos Legion packs has dropped even lower in recent times. The asset that managed to hold strong at $3, has now dropped to $2.8.
In the future, I think it might be a solid idea to actually just buy packs on the market and hold. The obvious disadvantage is that you will miss out on potential airdrops that in-game packs qualify for.
On the flip side, you still receive daily SPS airdrop and you can flip the packs in the future, at a much higher price.
Interestingly though, the price of vouchers has been above $1 for a while. It is currently trading around $1.6 and I think that's a fair price, with all things considered.
As long as you stake SPS tokens, then you're getting vouchers and they can be used for all sorts of purchases. I've mostly used mine to claim my bonus packs after I buy 100 CL packs in the game.
In the past three weeks, I've been able to accumulate about 16 voucher tokens passively. I almost forgot they even exist and that's the approach I also want to employ for the Chaos Legion packs I'm holding.
As I see it, Splinterlands is going to get bigger in the coming years, and you'd need to be holding assets to benefit from any major move. I believe that out of all the tokens and assets in the game, SPS and Vouchers have a special interest by the devs, and so, there will be a lot of activity surrounding the tokens.
Assuming my hunch is correct, it means that the two aforementioned tokens will most likely lead the charge, whenever the bull comes to Splinterlands. I can't speculate how high these tokens will get to but considering that vouchers have traded close to $10 before, it is not out of the question for them to get there again.
End of Season feeling
Anyway, the season ends in less than four hours and I've maxed out my league position. I feel really grateful that I'm still able to play this game that I absolutely love playing.
My main account has been working hard to increase the value that the SEED project receives, while I also use my other account from time to time.
The growth in my alt account has been slow but things will be getting better as the months go by. It was always going to be a long term project anyway, so there's no rush.
There NFT market has been flat for a while as well, so this means I still have room to get cheap monsters. My immediate plan is to get my hands on some summoners and slowly grow from there. A couple of dollars here and there should add some quality to my collection, so I aim to explore it.
I'm looking forward to the season reward chest as well. I haven't really been lucky in the past few seasons but eventually, my luck will shine through and I'll get the gold foil legendary that I deserve. A man can dream, you know?
**Bitcoin Adoption is the rebrand that Central African Republic needs**
Central African Republic is the second country to adopt Bitcoin and this is yet another piece of good news for crypto adoption. I'm particularly pleased by this situation because this is a country that is relatively closer to Nigeria than El Salvador.
The news hit the airwaves yesterday and has suddenly thrust the country of roughly 5 million people into the spotlight. For what it's worth, CAR adopting Bitcoin doesn't mean much in the general scheme of things though.
I mean, not to take anything away from the country but they have a total population of roughly 5 million people. On top of that, their GDP is about $2.4 Billion.
Central African Republic has the second lowest Human development Index and about 79% of the population lives in abject poverty. To put it into perspective, as at 2021, 40% of Nigerians live in poverty and I consider this place a hell hole.
Note that percentages don't tell the full story though. 40% of nigeria translates to over 80 million people, while 79% of a small population like CAR translates to about 4 million. This is probably why the news didn't exactly have any impact on the price of Bitcoin.
Central African Republic is a country that has been embroiled in a number of political issues recently. There have been a number of unsettling events concerning Central African Republic in recent times, and adopting Bitcoin will not fix them immediately but there's hope.
In any case, it will be fascinating to see how the adoption of Bitcoin will actually impact their economy. Perhaps, the country could join a short list of countries where people go to experience crypto tourism.
**It's Global**
I don't like politicians and cryptocurrency getting involved with politics will never sit well with me. In the case of CAR, I don't think politics is as much a factor than the potential of receiving a new source of income.
I'm pleased that the citizens of the country can now access crypto and live off it. This will open up opportunities on a global scale for citizens.
I can imagine there's a citizen, like me, living in the country and living 100% on crypto right now. That citizen will soon be a beneficiary of a crypto company like finance offering them debit card services that will make
Citizens in CAR, unlike Nigeria, do not ave to worry about being harrased by the police and law enforcements. Banks in CAR do not receive random sanctions from the Central Bank because they failed to report suspicious crypto activities.
For Central African Republic as a nation, this is an opportunity to delve into a new source of internally generated income. The country could accept tax in Bitcoin, hodl for 50 years and with proper management, we could see CAR become a world power.
There is no doubt that Bitcoin will be a major player in the future. In 50 years, we could be seeing the crypto industry become the most valuable industry with values reaching tens of Trillions of dollars.
In the coming years, we'll be seeing even more countries adopting Bitcoin and long term, we'll be able to gauge the impact that the decision has on the countries that adopt Bitcoin. On the surface though, it seems like a brilliant idea that could lead to major financial benefits for the adopters. Time will tell.
A midnight stowaway
One night like any other, there was a young man named Joe, that young man with a brilliant mind and very studious as usual every night he sat in front of the window of his room to observe the beauty of the stars and the darkness that did not let you see absolutely nothing.
After a couple of hours of routine observation, Joe heard a sound coming from the bottom of his house, it was something terrifying because the young man knew that his parents were already asleep and his sister was not at home, among so much noise Joe decided to go downstairs and investigate by himself what was happening.
For Joe it was a huge surprise to find a cat looking in the pantry bags, not knowing how to act he just kept watching the animal and it simply decided to ignore that the young man was there and continued looking for something to eat, Joe knew it was wrong what the animal was doing. But he also knew that he must have been very hungry not to be afraid of the young man and keep looking for food.
During the following nights Joe would go down to the kitchen to meet with that mysterious Cat who every night returned as if it were his house to look for food, those two stopped being strangers and every day their friendship was growing. For the young man it was incredible to have a visitor and furthermore a companion.
Joe had few friends, none that he could count on and the simple fact that that animal came to his home every day was great, somehow that loneliness was being filled by that animal and Joe was gradually becoming fond of the cat.
One day Joe went down to see his friend but to his surprise he did not arrive, not losing faith he waited all night for his companion and he did not arrive, sadness invaded Joe and without knowing what had happened he decided to go up to his room to rest and wait for his companion the next day.
While Joe was on his way to school he saw in the street a cat similar to his friend, he decided to follow him which took him a long time since the animal should not walk as if something was waiting for him and he had to arrive quickly, when finally the cat stopped he looked back and saw Joe, the happiness in the animal was so great that he walked towards his companion as if he was his master and approached him so that he could make him love him.
Joe for his part was relieved to see his companion and that he had recognized him and ran out to greet him. Both lonely companions were thrilled.
After a while of so many caresses Joe's mysterious companion decided to leave and follow his way Joe followed him and they arrived to a hole in a log to Joe's surprise his companion was not alone in the hole there were some small cats that had been happy to see the cat, Joe was able to understand everything. That cat was a female cat that was only looking for food for her children and that is why she had stopped going home, maybe her little ones needed her and she could not leave them alone unless she was looking for food.
Joe had understood that the mysterious midnight companion had a family and beyond that she had a duty to fulfill and that was to feed her babies, animals have a great sense of motherhood probably greater than that of humans. Joe decided to write his story and also to start and form a foundation for homeless animals. This way he could help not only his companion but also her family. Knowing that she was no longer alone Joe chose to help them all.
After many years. Joe is my person. He has managed to maintain a good relationship with the animals, maybe I didn't have the companions that everyone else has, but I had a companion that opened my eyes to have a better understanding of nature, no matter what we should do when it comes to taking care of our animals, the most reasonable thing to do is not to do nothing and to keep looking for something better every day.
The most reasonable thing is to breathe and feel alive, I love you my dear readers, see you later and a new day.
My New Life in Germany
My life has changed so much since the war. Every time I want to talk about it in detail and instead of writing it down, I write it in my head. I'm always storing in mental storage boxes I've created little fun facts and trivia about my unplanned stay in Germany so let's see how this telling goes.
My time is Germany has been so interesting so far. This country is very efficient. I know many people say they don't like the sound of German words, but for me it sounds like music. The language is conservative and not loud. It's actually very polite for me and I think those exaggerated enunciation of hard consonants that people on tik tok or YouTube do to make German language sound 'funny' is just basic trolling.
I had to leave my extremely kind host family on the 30th of March because my time there had come to an end. The arrangement was only a temporary one because they are expecting relatives this April. Luckily for me, and while I was in Warsaw, Poland, I received a new letter of admission for a program I had applied for in 2019. The university of Göttingen informed me that they'd decided to re-admit everyone again. This was for a program I had deferred twice because I did not have the 10k euros necessary to be able to apply for a visa.
I took this opportunity that fell on my laps, paid my student fees and began to search for accommodation. I was told by everyone online and off that finding accommodation in Germany is difficult. It truly is judging from the stories so I was worried. I'm still not legally registered as a refugee in this country because the queue at the foreign office is so long. Germany can be bureaucratic in this way, so I really wondered how it was going to happen. I applied everywhere and luckily Studentenwerk responded quite promptly to inform me of a room in a shared apartment not far from the University. So I moved to Göttingen day before yesterday. I lodged at a guest room and went to collect my keys yesterday.
In Germany, shared apartments are not segregated by gender. You can have men and women share a flat and this is exactly the situation here. It's interesting to experience. I currently live with two guys and I have not met the girl yet. They're nice people and helped me with fixing my wifi. I didn't have a Lan cable and apparently that's the most reliable way to connect to the university's wifi. My old laptop which had a hinge issue is completely broken now so I have to figure out what to do about that. I'm hoping to find a repair store closeby but I hope repairing would not end up being close to the amount for a brand new one.
I was anxious at first about moving here because my boyfriend lives about 5 hours away from this location and because he's gone on a field trip for two weeks in a region with little internet access. While searching for a place to live online, I found someone, an admin in charge of one of the groups here. I sent him a dm, found out he was Ghanaian and he agreed to meet me at the train station when I arrived and the next day to pick my keys and help me go shopping. This person has been so helpful to me and to think it all started from a simple dm with faith and hope! I've settled in well thanks to this person.
I've currently spent so much money on so many things but thank God I'm not broke. In fact, something incredible happened to me just yesterday evening. I was looking online on ebay Germany for some second hand bicycles because Germany is really a bicycle city. It's so convenient cycling to places. I found one and put out a tweet asking if no one one was interested in going a refugee get a bicycle. Someone actually offered to buy one of my digital paintings got the exact amount of 75 euros and I couldn't believe it! It's my most expensive art sale and such a mood booster.
I'm still not registered in Germany as I've mentioned earlier and without this registration, I cannot get health insurance or a work permit. I need these two urgently because my university has given me just two weeks to open a German bank account of my own. I'm hopeful that next week I'll be able to get these done. Also, I still don't even know how to organize my studies. The portal is online and school starts in about two weeks but I'm yet to figure out how it all works. I've sent an email to someone I think might help so let's see how it goes.
Hoping to really supplement my income with my crypto earnings on hive and since I'm in a new environment I know I'll have lots of new stories to tell.
Thanks for stopping by!
All photos are mine unless otherwise stated
empathy reflection
So I go, going through life in the midst of storms, tears and despair, realizing that I go against my feelings and that is where love appears interpreted in reflections that destiny leaves me and I understand that:
I loved myself when changing the circumstances of my life was no longer an option, because knowing that they are positive or negative are part of my existential growth.
I loved myself when I accepted that I am so authentic and special that I don't need to change anything in me, for the simple fact of reflecting what I am not, since I don't need to prove anything.
I loved myself when I worked to achieve my dreams with small steps, without hurting anyone and also understanding that the circumstances to achieve a goal are given with California and without effort, so forcing them in the end will leave me exhausted.
I loved myself when I understood that luxuries are fleeting, that happiness cannot be bought, it is lived day by day with moments that allow us to reflect a smile on our face.
I loved myself when I accepted that humility is that seat belt that makes you feel safe and grounded, avoiding forgetting who we are.
I keep loving myself when I repeat to myself how exceptional I am, how much I can transmit and the great obstacles I have left behind just by believing in myself.
I am loving myself with each dawn full of learning that submerges all that I am in a process of metamorphosis where learning and unlearning is part of maturity.
After knowing who I am, in that instant I am preparing to Love others and continue to love myself.
There are two kinds of Silence: one that suffocates and suffocates, another that oxygenates, balances and harmonizes. There are two kinds of Tiredness: one tedious and sterile, the other full of meaning, rich and fruitful.
There are two kinds of Loneliness: one that even "accompanied" destroys, another that "alone or accompanied", edifies, plans and revives. There are two kinds of Work: one that enslaves and mutilates, another that enlivens, illuminates and liberates.
There are two kinds of Laughter: one that offends and assaults, another that cheers, enthuses and revives. There are two kinds of Look: one that degrades and mutilates, another that exalts, comforts and sublimates. There are two kinds of Relationships: some that annihilate and debase, others that achieve the 'miracle' of bringing out the best in us.
In short, in life there are "two kinds" of everything or almost everything and each one of us, from the bottom of our hearts, knows which "kind" of reality we decide to live with. Life is not given to us once and forever. Life is given to us every day, every minute, every instant. In our hands is the wonderful possibility of choosing the "kind" of Life we want to live.
Thank you very much for taking part of your time to read this, I am very happy, if you like it, leave me a comment and help me to share it so that it reaches more people, it doesn't cost you anything and it would help me a lot.
**✓Reflection**
Now well says the title of my reflection All work generates an effort and all effort generates progress, well certainly my friends it is so and the greater the efforts the better the progress, we as reasonable and thinking human beings are the ones who decide how many limitations we want for our lives in certain opportunities to draw and achieve a goal, obviously there will also be some situations beyond us that will depend on third persons, but equally we must work hard, make the best of our efforts to achieve the goal set.
Sometimes it is not so relevant the position you hold in a particular job, but the effort you make to climb the rungs and thus get a better promotion.
When we perform a job let us put our hearts at our disposal, no matter if we are shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, housewife, plumber, engineer, doctor, lawyer or movie actor, just whatever we have chosen to be, let us do it from the heart and always seek to be the best, let us strive to learn great things, teach great things and make this world a better world every time.
My dear friends, this is the end of my participation, see you in a new opportunity.
In Memory of Mom Lily
Lily, the eldest of 8 children, was born on the farm Aasvoel near Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, where her father worked.
Lily's caring nature came to the fore at a young age when she had to take care of her youngest baby sister Doreen at night while her mother was in hospital with rheumatic fever. Her father's sister took care of the baby during the day, but Doreen sadly passed away after contracting gastroenteritis leaving the family heartbroken; they often spoke of baby Doreen.
The family moved to Richmond Hill in Port Elizabeth where they lived for many years.
Lily went to Mackie School and had a thirst for learning; loved the violin and took violin lessons, but as it was the depression years, she had to stop the lessons and leave school in Standard 6 to find work and help the family survive.
It made her endlessly sad that she never finished her schooling as she was a bright lass, but she loved listening to the violin, often with a tear or two in her eyes.
Lily found work at Kodak Photographic Studio where she was trained to colour in black and white photos with a painting technique as there was no colour photography back then.
The photo below is a good example and actually is Mom Lily and Dad Malan on their wedding day.
Their love of music brought them together as Malan played in a band with her father; he caught her hook, line and sinker with his guitar playing; they all became keen fishermen!
Lily's talented siblings all had great respect and fondness for their 'big' sister whose heart of gold, great sense of humour and cheeky attitude won over many people throughout the 90 years that she graced this earth; her circle of friends ranged from all walks of life and everyone were treated with the same respect and caring nature.
Lily excelled at cooking and baking just like her mother, loved walking and keeping fit, was a keen fisherwoman; always looked for an excuse to paint, not portraits; no, this little lady would climb the ladder and paint the walls in the most beautiful shades and even spruced up their church kitchen with the paintbrush!
Her great-granddaughter 10-year-old Mia-Lily also inherited her namesake's cheeky attitude and is already baking at this tender age!
Malan & Lily had 5 children; sadly lost two tragically and unexpectedly many years ago, leaving only three surviving children.
Family meant everything to Lily and she unselfishly sacrificed much to make her family comfortable.
Lily did voluntary work at Sizanani Academy of Sewing and Design during the period after Malan's retirement when he became the church's handyman until his unexpected death in September 2002.
They were living in their dream granny cottage which my husband designed with input from both Malan & Lily; she stayed there on her own for 8 years after Malan's death but moved in with us until her death.
The cottage has now become a successful BnB called Lily's Cottage.
Lily had been living with a benign brain tumour for many years which caused a balance problem, but on 2 January, the pressure of the tumour on her brain stem caused a severe seizure that left her with speech, swallowing and breathing problems, plus she lost her mobility.
The family gathered one last time so Ouma Lily got to see them all together.
She had one request, which we eventually worked out was wine, obviously wanting one last toast as it was her son's birthday.
A sweet Hanepoot was bought, diluted with a little water, and given to her in a 10ml syringe as that was the only way she could take liquids in. She likely only managed to swallow 5ml, but that was her way of wanting to be part of the togetherness and give us a good chuckle, even though she was suffering and only holding out till everyone departed the next morning.
Mom Lily left this world quietly the next day; leaving behind 2 siblings, 3 children, 8 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren all of who had a special place in her heart.
Lily made a huge impact on many lives and has left a huge hole in the lives of many, but will remain in our hearts forever.
The study and the internet
As we all know, in recent times we have had to adopt the largest percentage of the children's school classes from home, and for this has been very useful the use of various social networks such as WhatsApp, facebook, which allow home-school contact and facilitate communication, and we have also relied on the use of the internet to search for information and tools for better development of activities.
It is very true that the internet connection in the student stage can bring its benefits, especially under these pandemic conditions, such as direct and fast access to information, since currently it can be expensive and difficult to acquire books, encyclopedias, magazines, among others, while with the internet you can find a variety of information, images, videos and others.
As well as didactic games and practical exercises related to the topics studied, it serves as a support, and can create in them the interest to investigate, deepen on something in particular that is interesting to them, at the same time allows them to know the new technological tools that will be of help later.
However, it should be noted that although the use of the Internet has its advantages, it is also important that we guide them in its use because we run many risks when it is not used correctly. It is especially important to pay attention when children and young people show great interest and want to be connected to the Internet for a long time and do so unsupervised. They should be guided, supervised and not prohibited, since ignorance of use is also a cause of problems.
I am particularly interested in seeking information related to the subject to guide my 6 year old son and use the right tools to help me control and make the most of its use.
It is important for parents to research and read about the topic of new technologies and social networks, especially what can or cannot be allowed depending on the age to better understand what their children want or use, since due to lack of knowledge they can be given a bad orientation, or be allowed to use them without knowing what they are about.
There is a space reality that we cannot ignore, and it is the fact of a series of surprising events that occur in our universe, these events are studied by astronomers and scientists whose findings are surprising and allow us to have an idea of what happens outside our planet.
The materials that make up some elements of outer space manage to form clouds, planets and even extreme temperatures if we take into account the comparison with those we have on earth, perhaps the imagination is not enough to think about all the phenomena that we can find so that later they can be discussed in our most common social chats.
They were not wrong when from a very young age we began to be educated about the fact that the universe is so big that it is considered infinite in size, all these leads me to analyze that its greatness in size makes that we can estimate within it the occurrence of any type of phenomenon, reason why the phenomena that are impossible to occur on our planet may occur in our vast universe.
The disadvantage that I personally see in relation to the study that the human being can make to the universe is that the immensity of the universe makes that probably we will never get to know with exactitude the magnitude of its greatness, as much in size as in the absolute of the occurrence of all the physical and chemical phenomena that are gestated in it.
***How big is the universe?***
Perhaps the exact number at least of the diameter of the universe is what matters less, what I assure you is that it must have a very large number of light years away, what can really surprise us is that a staggering figure of the distance of its diameter is only about a part of the observable universe, so it would freak me out enough just to think of the lengths that would be the diameter of the entire universe at all, all this may seem like very large numbers, but the reality is that if we think that it will take an infinity of time to travel the entire diameter of the universe, the more is the time that the universe has been in existence.
In scales that seems surprising to us, the earth takes a year to make its translation movement around the sun, however if we compare that time with the time it takes the sun to travel around the milky way is approximately 200 million years. Logically this time is so long not because the sun travels at a minimum speed, but because the size of our galaxy is very large.
In order not to make this post so long I want to analyze another fact of great relevance that gives a sense of analysis to the possible readings that users give to this post, it is about the fact that we can get to surprise so many things in the universe and outer space outside our planet, but if all that set of curiosities revolve around the universe, then more curiosity should give us all the questions that may arise before the birth of the universe, so it is worth asking the following question:
***What was there before the Big Bang?***
For human thought there is nothing more curious than to know what existed before the universe was formed, given the immensity and infinity of the universe as I mentioned before, it is difficult to know all the mysteries that it hides, so perhaps humanity will never get convincing answers about what existed before the universe was formed.
It is not a mere whim to say that we will never know what existed before the universe was formed, since scientifically and perhaps with the empirical knowledge that humanity has, it is impossible to know.
It would be fascinating for each one of us to take it as a practical mental exercise to not only imagine what could have existed before the bigbang explosion, but also to imagine what could have existed before the bigbang explosion.
NFTs & Me - NFTs Are Not Crypto!
It is very easy to believe that NFTs and cryptocurrency are the same things, or at least that NFTs and crypto are linked in some indelible way. Indeed I have only just discovered that this is simply not true.
Whilst the digital Non Fungible Tokens that have taken the world by storm, are built and traded on platforms that are themselves sitting on various blockchains. They do not behave in the same way as crypto and it is dangerous to think they do.
One Man's Madness
DiscoverCommunities https://ecency.com/discover https://ecency.com/communities
NFTs & Me - NFTs Are Not Crypto!
**cryptogee75** https://ecency.com/@cryptogee
a month agoin**LeoFinance** https://ecency.com/created/hive-167922
It is very easy to believe that NFTs and cryptocurrency are the same things, or at least that NFTs and crypto are linked in some indelible way. Indeed I have only just discovered that this is simply not true.
Whilst the digital Non Fungible Tokens that have taken the world by storm, are built and traded on platforms that are themselves sitting on various blockchains. They do not behave in the same way as crypto and it is dangerous to think they do.
One Man's Madness
To illustrate just how different NFTs are from crypto, the story of *Degen Guy* is a perfect example.
Degen Guy released a bunch of NFTs for people to mint and then later trade on Magic Eden. By all accounts the mint went well and the floor price once they were listed, was higher than the mint. So far so good.
I personally didn't buy a Degen NFT and so don't know that much about the token or the community, however I do know that there were talks of a game and the Degen NFTs being used in a play-to-earn capacity.
As is usually the case the Degen Discord channel served as a meeting point for members of the community to congregate and find out more about the project.
Also usually, as I'm finding out fast, the Discord channel quickly turns from a place of hope, love and laughter, to a toxic pit of bitter sniping and spiteful comments.
Apparently the guy responsible for the Degen project, announced that as far as he were concerned everyone in there was an ungrateful arsehole, and he promptly shut down the channel along with Twitter and all other social media.
Shortly after Magic Eden delisted the NFTs from their site, and as far as I'm aware there is no other way for the holders to sell them.
In short, they have had the rug pulled out from under them in the most vicious way.
Can you possibly **imagine** how that **feels**?
One moment you're sitting there with a few NFTs that for once are worth more than you've paid for them. Maybe you even sold one for a small profit and are hanging onto the others in hope of larger returns.
Then the next moment, WHAM!! They're off the exchange, no social media and you're left with a collection of worthless Jpegs.
How is this any different from the dangers you face when dealing with cryptocurrency? I hear you ask.
Well for a start, when you have a coin, once it's listed on the exchange, the original owner has not got as much power of the fate of the coin.
If they decide that they just don't want to do it anymore, then the decentralised nature of crypto means that either other devs will take on the project, or there will be a hardfork. Think Steem to Hive and Ethereum to Ethereum Classic.
In both of those examples something heinous happened on the blockchains, and there were forks and everyone carried on. Plus of course, the exchanges carried on listing the respective coins because people were actively trading them.
Whereas on Magic Eden for some reason, Degen Guy was taking off the market simply because the original owner had a hissy fit.
I don't know, maybe he even contacted them himself to claim some kind of artistic copyright infringement if they continued to list it. After all, they *are* a centralised, legally-owned corporation, perhaps they didn't want the litigious smoke that could have come their way
Whatever the reason, the points are moot, because if you were in that project, the end result is the same.
You've been rugged.
Community Gambit
Another major difference between NFTs and crypto is the reliance on community to make a good project.
Now don't get me wrong here, I understand that there have been many a crypto community that have hyped and backed projects all the way to the moon. Arguably the Ethereum community could claim such a title.
The main difference with NFTs however, is the fact that, with a possible few exceptions, there doesn't seem to be any point whereby the project can just run off its own merits.
An example I'll use here is the Baby Wukongs project. As you may have notice if you follow me, I wrote the first part of a story whereby I took the drama happening between the Monkey Kingdom and the Baby Wukongs, and turned it into an ancient Chinese tale.
The drama in question was the fact that the Monkey King head of the aforementioned Monkey Kingdom, actively tried, and almost succeeded, to block the Baby Wukongs from being listed on Magic Eden. The way people found out was via a leaked private message between the Monkey King and another member of the community, whereby he admits everything.
As you'd imagine there was a lot of positivity going around the Wukong community, the Discord was buzzing, and the project was getting a lot of positive feedback.
Once listed the Wukongs started pumping and before long there was a 2.7 Sol floor price (roughly $400).
I went into the Discord and told them that I was fascinated by the whole episode and that it had inspired me to write a piece of fiction and that I would characterise some of them. The response was wholly positive and lots of members found the concept funny.
So I went away and took around six or seven days to get it down. I actually think it was a good story and really should have spent more time on it, but wanted to show them and hopefully get a bit of extra publicity for them.
DiscoverCommunities https://ecency.com/discover https://ecency.com/communities
NFTs & Me - NFTs Are Not Crypto!
**cryptogee75** https://ecency.com/@cryptogee
a month agoin**LeoFinance** https://ecency.com/created/hive-167922
It is very easy to believe that NFTs and cryptocurrency are the same things, or at least that NFTs and crypto are linked in some indelible way. Indeed I have only just discovered that this is simply not true.
Whilst the digital Non Fungible Tokens that have taken the world by storm, are built and traded on platforms that are themselves sitting on various blockchains. They do not behave in the same way as crypto and it is dangerous to think they do.
One Man's Madness
To illustrate just how different NFTs are from crypto, the story of *Degen Guy* is a perfect example.
Degen Guy released a bunch of NFTs for people to mint and then later trade on Magic Eden. By all accounts the mint went well and the floor price once they were listed, was higher than the mint. So far so good.
I personally didn't buy a Degen NFT and so don't know that much about the token or the community, however I do know that there were talks of a game and the Degen NFTs being used in a play-to-earn capacity.
As is usually the case the Degen Discord channel served as a meeting point for members of the community to congregate and find out more about the project.
Also usually, as I'm finding out fast, the Discord channel quickly turns from a place of hope, love and laughter, to a toxic pit of bitter sniping and spiteful comments.
Apparently the guy responsible for the Degen project, announced that as far as he were concerned everyone in there was an ungrateful arsehole, and he promptly shut down the channel along with Twitter and all other social media.
Shortly after Magic Eden delisted the NFTs from their site, and as far as I'm aware there is no other way for the holders to sell them.
In short, they have had the rug pulled out from under them in the most vicious way.
Can you possibly **imagine** how that **feels**?
One moment you're sitting there with a few NFTs that for once are worth more than you've paid for them. Maybe you even sold one for a small profit and are hanging onto the others in hope of larger returns.
Then the next moment, WHAM!! They're off the exchange, no social media and you're left with a collection of worthless Jpegs.
How is this any different from the dangers you face when dealing with cryptocurrency? I hear you ask.
Well for a start, when you have a coin, once it's listed on the exchange, the original owner has not got as much power of the fate of the coin.
If they decide that they just don't want to do it anymore, then the decentralised nature of crypto means that either other devs will take on the project, or there will be a hardfork. Think Steem to Hive and Ethereum to Ethereum Classic.
In both of those examples something heinous happened on the blockchains, and there were forks and everyone carried on. Plus of course, the exchanges carried on listing the respective coins because people were actively trading them.
Whereas on Magic Eden for some reason, Degen Guy was taking off the market simply because the original owner had a hissy fit.
I don't know, maybe he even contacted them himself to claim some kind of artistic copyright infringement if they continued to list it. After all, they *are* a centralised, legally-owned corporation, perhaps they didn't want the litigious smoke that could have come their way
Whatever the reason, the points are moot, because if you were in that project, the end result is the same.
You've been rugged.
Community Gambit
Another major difference between NFTs and crypto is the reliance on community to make a good project.
Now don't get me wrong here, I understand that there have been many a crypto community that have hyped and backed projects all the way to the moon. Arguably the Ethereum community could claim such a title.
The main difference with NFTs however, is the fact that, with a possible few exceptions, there doesn't seem to be any point whereby the project can just run off its own merits.
An example I'll use here is the Baby Wukongs project. As you may have notice if you follow me, I wrote the first part of a story whereby I took the drama happening between the Monkey Kingdom and the Baby Wukongs, and turned it into an ancient Chinese tale.
The drama in question was the fact that the Monkey King head of the aforementioned Monkey Kingdom, actively tried, and almost succeeded, to block the Baby Wukongs from being listed on Magic Eden. The way people found out was via a leaked private message between the Monkey King and another member of the community, whereby he admits everything.
As you'd imagine there was a lot of positivity going around the Wukong community, the Discord was buzzing, and the project was getting a lot of positive feedback.
Once listed the Wukongs started pumping and before long there was a 2.7 Sol floor price (roughly $400).
I went into the Discord and told them that I was fascinated by the whole episode and that it had inspired me to write a piece of fiction and that I would characterise some of them. The response was wholly positive and lots of members found the concept funny.
So I went away and took around six or seven days to get it down. I actually think it was a good story and really should have spent more time on it, but wanted to show them and hopefully get a bit of extra publicity for them.
While all this was happening I was seeing a ton of retweets regarding the Baby Wukong billboards that they project owners had organised in Times Square New York and Hong Kong. This all led me to believe that the general bonhomie of the Discord channel was being spread around Twitter whilst the Wukongs were pumping on Eden.
All good.
Oh how wrong could I have been.
Very, it turns out.
Back into the Discord to paste the link and have a laugh and bit of banter with the community.
*Tumbleweeds.*
I then scrolled up to read the chatter and realised that in less than a week the Wukong Discord had turned from a place of love and laughter to one of toxic bitterness.
I scrolled up and up and up, trying to find some positive comments and had to go back days before I found any. There were people complaining about the billboard not being enough.
Others were complaining that Wang the head of the Wukongs was too silent.
Yet more were sniping that he had been on holiday too long and should be back promoting the Wukongs.
By the way, this last comment was on Boxing Day.
I couldn't believe it, everything was great seven days previously and now they were falling apart and the Wukong NFTs had lost around 95% of their value.
The reason nobody gave a stuff about my *Wukong Scrolls* story, is because the place was falling apart.
Perhaps because the numbers involved are so much smaller than your average crypto project. If the Dogecoin community fall out, it's so vast that it will never be all of them and most people will not even be aware of any problems.
As long as a coin is being traded and the price is bouncing all about the place, people are generally happy.
In an NFT project on any given day, you might get twenty trades out of a few thousand possible NFTs. So if a project's community falls apart it will effect sales big time.
NFTs & Flee?
So what now? What does it all mean? NFTs don't behave like crypto, *so what'ya gonna do now?*
Well I think I'm going to take a back seat, the problem is, I haven't sold one single NFT and if I buy a shitcoin, I can at least get rid of it, even if I do lose money.
However it seems with an NFT I can't even do that!
On top of this I have discovered a Solana coin called $WAGMI and I really think this could be the one. It's a great project which I'll write about soon.
Anyway the point is, last night I'm sitting there watching WAGMI pump, thinking
Earth/Nature Takes Over: A Tribute to Matt Clarke
**Earth Takes Over!**
Here is the fact, I used to love Earth Splinter back in the day. The first legendary summoner I bought was Prince Rennyn, back in 2019, and then sliced through all of Silver, Gold and Diamond leagues in one go back then :) However, that was a while back, and just for nostalgia, I kept a screenshot of those prices. I am so glad I did, so that we can compare today :).
But, that is not the purpose of this post. The trigger for this post as an interview of Matt Clarke done by Bobaphet. I am putting the link below.
@bobaphet/hphzaoir https://ecency.com/hive-13323/@bobaphet/hphzaoir
The cool think about this post was how casually they discussed the Earth Splinter. For seasoned players it is not that technical, but for noobs there are a lot of learn there in this interview. The part that I enjoyed the post, that it opened my eye about a particular monster in the Earth Splinter. The Reaward Card SPIRIT DRUID GROG. Honestly @mattclarke I have never used this before. This is saying a lot, because, I thought I have used anything and everything under the sun (at least things that are useful). So thank you for opening my eyes again. See I bought a max, and used it immediately. https://ecency.com/@mattclarke
**Using the Grog!**
As Matt discussed in the interview. Earth is all about staying power. The longer one prevails higher the chance of an Earth Win. Now, I must say, that my early days of playing earth is long gone. My Prince Rennyn is delegated, so are almost all my beta cards. I also don't have a Max Epona (which is a shame, my max Epona is delegated). But after this Earth revival in my head, I opened first a 200 Dice packs that I have saved for a while and got one Epona. Then I open another 60 Dice packs, and not another. I had 1 spare, so with 3 BCX, now I have a L2 Epona that I can play.
So playing I did! This is a mid-mana battle above with Target Practice (Snipe) and Explosive Weaponery (Blast) rule. Lately in lower to mid Mana battles I like to play Magic Reflect with Amplify. Queen Mycelia, the new Chaos Legendary card, is wonderful for this game play. Max at L4 it is a four mana card with Protect, Amplify, Triage and Rust. It has only 1 magic attack, but with Obsidian, the new Earth Magic boost summoner, the Queen gets 2 Magic attack. Ideally for snipe and blast rule, your second monster, here the failed summoner, will get hit. I like to keep 2 magic reflect card on either side of number 2 position. Here it was impossible. So I had to resort to only 2 magic reflect cards. I like to use the Xenith Monk a lot. He got magic reflect and self heal with void. Ideal low mana tank melee for position 1. I wanted to play Spirit Druid Grog, that was the main point of this post, so the trick is to play him and keep him alive for a few turns. Only then he becomes deadly. I was expecting magic from the opponent, so kind of put a gamble and pul the Queen at the back at position 6 and Gorg at position 5. That is basically the safest position I could find for the Gorg (he has no health, right!). I am basically out of mana at this point with 2 positions left.
I don't have a max Epona as I said, so that is a L1 Epona above (now I have a L2). But that is 1 harden for Gorg and another one is from Failed Summoner. Last one is the Fungus Feind to slow things down and accupy a spot!
So, the guess went wrong, as it was a melee attack from the opponent with no magic what's so ever. Life is less than ideal for this line up because of the massive sneak possibility that comes with life. But thankfully my opponent was expecting range attack from me and had the Shieldbearer up front with only one sneak. So my Queen survived long enough and with a Resurrect from Gorg survived some more. That was enough to get Gorg's life leech to 13 health towards the end. And it was easy win.
**Magic Killer: The NEW Earth!!**
I hate Valnamor. I do not like water splinter in general. I used to play Zaku a lot (I don't any more) and Zaku is very weak to Magic. If there is a single magic card I hate the most is Ruler of the Seas. I have lost so many battles against it. Well, not any more. In the current meta in high leagues, I am going to argue that Ruler of the Seas is not much of an useful card anymore! That is saying a lot. Let me explain!
Please take a look at the battle above. Mind you Ruler of the Seas, is a formidable card. 4 Magic, Blast, Swiftness and Silence; there are few (no, zero) magic cards like him. But now, I can put three magic reflect cards at the first 3 spot and kill it with amplify, thanks to the Queen, with his first hit! Watch the battle above. It is 'Game Over' after that first blast and reflect :)
Mega City Tales - Squirt
He found himself observing how the periods of light and dark behind his closed eyelids coincided with the warming and cooling of his face. The sweet smell of the grass they lay on tickled his neck and earlobes as he timed his breathing to the beat of the day.
Hot-cold-hot. Maybe not cold he thought, but definitely not as warm. Yuri opened his eyes, blinking furiously to adjust to the bright light. He watched the clouds dance across the sky.
*'Wait, clouds don't dance.'*
"The clouds are dancing Lito, can you see?"
"What?"
The tone of his friend's reply made Yuri instantly regret his statement, but it was too late he was committed down that path now.
"I think the clouds are dancing. I was wondering what you see."
Yuri looked over at his friend, he too was lying on the grass looking up at the sky, but even to a casual observer his vibe was tense. His thick arms extended arrow straight by his sides, sausage fingers all pointed blade-like towards his toes. Legs rigid, feet pointing straight at the sky.
"I don't need your shit at the moment Yuri, I'm kinda going through it here."
*'Fuck.'*
They'd had a hit of Squirt™ about forty minutes previously, Lito, like most people always took too much, he abused when he should have used. Yuri was different, he took it in the same way the City Droppers and Thrust Runners took it. They used Squirt's time dilation effects to enhance their reaction times in dangerous situations. Lito and others took it to get high. Depending on the size of the dose a squirthead could experience multiple levels of hallucinations and reality distortions, compounded and exacerbated by the intriguing time dilation effect.
"Listen Lito - "
"My name is Carlos."
The way Lito had emphasised the word *"name"* unsettled Yuri enough to rise onto his elbows. Small beads of sweat were forming just below his hairline, he noticed the clouds had dissipated and it was just the heat of the midday sun beating down on him now. He chose his next words carefully.
"There's a story that fits this occasion."
"Yeah? What's that then?"
Yuri turned to look at his friend, his eyes closed slowly, the rapid flicking of the eyeballs behind shut lids betraying his true state. Yuri looked down at his friend's body, it seemed to relax somewhat. Yuri lay back and breathed out a long sigh.
"Okay, it starts in a rainforest - "
"What's that?"
"Huh; what's what?"
"A rainforest?"
"That was hours ago, the story is finished."
Lito was sitting in the memomesh chair in Yuri's living room. Yuri marvelled at how his friend's weight seemed to be even too much for the memomesh. Though his concern for his friend soon overrode the feeling.
"Are you okay Lito? Would you like to go for a walk?"
"Look!" Lito stood up with such force it caused Yuri to scoot back away from him, trying to sink into the sofa he sat in opposite his friend. "I'm not sure what I want." Lito declared loudly.
They walked along the main Skyway heading North back into the Megacity, soft lighting glowed to life as dark purple clouds turned midnight-blue. Pleasant smells of cooking food wafted about them as they walked. Yuri played the game he always did when he moved in crowds, trying to hear all conversations at once, seeing which ones caught his attention.
"...we're the good guys! Why should we have to go through this shit Yuri?"
How long had Lito been talking for? He had no idea, but he was agitated once more. Yuri had a flash-thought back to them taking the Squirt™ however many hours ago, or was it days? A quick blur of fingers on the tube meant that Yuri had not taken as much as his friend, yet still he could feel the effects. Lito must be flying.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean Lito." Yuri let his left hand casually slip into his trouser pocket, he felt the slightly dimpled casing of his borderline legal stunner. He looked up at Lito, in normal circumstances his friend wouldn't hurt a fly. However Yuri couldn't trust him when he was all squirted up.
"Fuck Yuri! It's like I'm talking to a wall sometimes. I was talking about how we're the good guys, we're upstanding tagged citizens of the Mega City, yet somehow..."
Yuri waited for his friend to finish the sentence but he remained frozen in the middle of the room, his half-open mouth twisted as if about to utter his next word. Yuri's grip on the stunner relaxed. He was glad not to have to use the device on Lito, he wasn't entirely sure it would be effective on his giant friend. Hopefully Lito would have lost his train of thought by the time they found themselves in the next scenario.
Yuri thought momentarily about taking some more Squirt, he felt his mind drifting back to a place of normality. Before he had time to formulate his next thought, Lito sprang at him from the middle of the room. Yuri had time to release a strangled half scream before Lito was on top of him. He struggled to get the stunner out of his pocket, but Lito had him pinned.
"Lito man! What are you doing? Get off me!"
"It's you isn't it? You're one of them!" Lito's eyes were wide and flashing, flecks of spittle were hitting Yuri's face.
"Please Lito, it's the Squirt."
That seemed to pause him and he relaxed his vice grip on Yuri's arms, long enough for Yuri to re-grip the stunner and pull it out of his pocket. Most of Lito's weight was still on him, so he could only pull out his arm far enough to drive the stunner into Lito's stomach rather than his neck.
Rather than put the big lump of a man out, it only served to enrage him. Lito roared as he jumped off the sofa bringing Yuri with him by the scruff of the neck.
Yuri woke up some time later with a ringing in his ears so loud for a moment he thought it was the building fire alarm. Lito was lying next to him, eyes closed, the cheek that was pressed to the floor wore a patch of dried blood, with a feint trail leading up to his nostril.
He winced as he tried to take his friend's pulse, a sharp pain emanating from his shoulder gave him notice his arm was, if not broken very badly damaged. He looked around his wrecked apartment, already worrying about the MediDoc bill for his arm. A soft groan told him that Lito was regaining consciousness.
"Hey Yuri man, what happened?"
He was back to his gentle giant self, big brown eyes staring innocently up at him. Lito rolled onto his back, readying himself to sit up.
"Wow! My head." Lito put his hands on either side of his head, he looked like he was trying to stop it falling off his shoulders.
"I don't think you should do squirt again." Yuri said.
"No shit."
Yuri got up slowly, trying to manage the pain he was feeling. He took one more look at the trashed room and headed towards his bedroom.
"I'm off to bed, let yourself out." Yuri didn't look back as he said this.
"Okay man, I'll head home soon. - Hey Yuri?"
Yuri paused in the doorway. "What?"
"Are you okay man?"
Yuri let out a long semi-muted sigh. "I'll see you later Lito."
Mega City Tales - The Eternal Soldier
Even through the visor on his helmet Rip could feel the temperature differential between the left and right side of his face as the lander's large bay door folded down like a giant metal tongue. He felt a slight tugging of his suit and a growing damp feeling where his boots met his trousers.
Rip looked down the line of soldiers sitting opposite him, the ones by the doors were already drenched.
For a moment all he could hear was the metal clanking of two lines of fifty combatants all dressed identically in bulky green and black combat suits prepared to depart the lander.
~*Check weapons, first target confirmed, split-blue formation.*~
He winced at the static hum as he checked the magnetic coil readout on his plasma rifle. His gloves buzzed softly and the gun gave an almost imperceptible whine as it readied itself to discharge its deadly contents at whatever poor soul happened to be in its way. He was fairly familiar with the weapon, he had been in a number of scenarios like this. It was still what would be considered pre tech, or at least early-tech, since guns like this hadn't been used in over two hundred years, but it was just as deadly as any handheld weapon of today.
Today.
He wondered briefly how much subjective time he'd been doing this for. How many wars had he fought in? He wondered.
~*Go! Go! Go!*~
He was part of the fifth pair to leave the craft, he peeled right immediately, boots squishing in the ground as he landed. The tactical display inside his helmet told him that the first wave point was a small utility building at the edge of the field around fifty metres dead ahead. Droplets of water pooled at the sides of his visor as he charged forwards.
~*Alpha-6 in position!*~
That was Adalan Djotic, he was a good soldier and Rip trusted him. Djotic was like him, a dedicated mercenary, both of them realising that the only way to make the time pass quicker on the Shadow Servers was to become an elite soldier, which in turn meant you'd be used for the real-objective wars. This one was playing out at a 1:1 ratio, meaning for every second they spent in this particular virtual war, one second passed in the real.
Rip wasn't sure what this particular conflict was about, all he knew is it was between the Vinkey Corporation and the OMC. He fought on the side of Vinkey, the Offworld Mining Corp did not need to use mercenaries like him, they were all real employees quite literally fighting to climb the OMC's corporate ladder.
"Captain?"
That was one of his squad, he tried to remember his name; perhaps Johan? Even though Rip noticed how wide the man's eyes were behind his visor.
~~"First time soldier?"~~ Rip's halfhearted attempt to calm the man down were only superficial he knew that nothing he said could prepare the man for the horrors of war.
Feeling your body being boiled from the inside by a spiralling vortex plasma bolt was a sensation you didn't forget in a hurry. Anyway they wiped your memory of your first few conflicts, this was a widely accepted measure taken mainly to preserve the soldier's sanity.
-"What is it 4719?"~ He decided to simply use the last four digits of the man's Indent number, best not to get too attached to someone you were probably going to witness being torn apart by an energy weapon.
-"Our jacket has arrived and we're ready to move sir."~
They worked in squadrons of fifty and then split into smaller groups of five called *jackets*. Rip looked at his team, he could tell by the way they held their plasma rifles that they were fresh Indents.
Rip himself had to fight in plenty of meaningless skirmishes set at 10:1 virtual to real time. From Rip's perspective he had been here around twenty years.
His mouth twisted into a half sneer as he wondered about the friends they must have had in high enough places to get them into a 1:1 virtual war.
His mouth softened as he realised those places were not quite high enough to keep the poor bastards out of here in the first place. Whatever the reason, none of it mattered.
~~"Okay, prepare to move out, our first objective is the machine area. We're unlikely to meet any OMC forces till we get there but keep your eyes sharp. They are better equipped and more experienced than us, but if you follow my lead you have a chance of not dying in agonising pain. Let's move!"~~
Of course all of them including Rip himself, were almost one hundred percent guaranteed to die in this scenario, but what was the point of telling them that?
Two of his *jacket* came forward and using small mechanical cutting tools cut a hole in the fence big enough for them to get through. Wet slaps echoed around them as they ran down the access road taking them to the main complex.
It was a standard Combat Arena setting, viewed from above the area was a two mile wide circle dissected by three main roads, one going straight up the middle and two across its lower and upper thirds. A variety of buildings in various states of repair, were dotted around the side paths and access roads sprouting off the main roads.
Rip had long since ignored the Rules Of Engagement for the countless conflicts he found himself in, at first he read them of course, just like everyone else. Now however it didn't matter, he didn't care what the OMC troops had on the line, perhaps they were to become Indents like him if they lost, or maybe a lowered SC score. The soldiers on Rip's side would mainly be fighting to lower their debt. Poor fuckers hadn't realised the futility of it all, you could have a six month objective sentence which they could make you experience as a subjective century.
Intel told them that the OMC troops were going to enter from the upper left quadrant, if Rip's squad could move quickly enough they may be able to outflank them whilst they were engaging with the rest of the squadron. A sharp smell of wet mud and brick made its way through his mask filters as they peeled of the main road onto a narrow dirt path lined with faux low-rise dwellings.
The tech restrictions were interesting on this one, often these affairs tended to be rooted in a particular time period, so the tech was usually restricted to what was available in say a fifty year span. But this scenario seemed to be mixing weapons and tech from different centuries.
His rifle for instance used a locally generated, magnetically induced coaxial plasma beam. Which he could set to wide-spread vortex or pulsed phase-fire. Yet his comms were just old fashioned radio and nothing was thought controlled, he couldn't even tell where his team were at any given moment unless he radioed them. Which he found more than a little annoying. Rip used his thumb to activate his comm unit on his glove before speaking.
~*5680 Reporting, Alpha Blue sitrep update. Stat.*~
~*...18 Re...ing ... heavy fire. Re... back...*~
The radio situation was really beginning to grate on his nerves. He turned to the four men nervously waiting on his lead.
~"We nee... ..ve .ow. Godd...it!"
Rip tore the mask from his face and disconnected the comms, there must have been some kind of jammer set off. He checked his plasma rifle again, a Pi-pulsed EMP would take out the gun, but no, it seemed to still be in order. He turned to look at his men, they still hadn't removed their masks.
Rip sighed, they had intel about possible chemical and/or nuclear contaminants. Rip knew that none of them would survive long enough to feel the effects of any kind of poisoning, as did the designers of this scenario. Rip supposed it was more for effect than anything else.
"Remove your masks, comms are down." Still hesitation from them. "That's an order!"
They slowly removed their masks.
*'Shit, they look even greener without the masks.'*
He contemplated telling them to put them back on, but supressed the urge.
"Okay, Alpha Blue should be a little way ahead of us heading North on the main road. I don't hear anything so we can assume they've run into an OMC squad with single-point energy weapons." He pointed to the one he thought to be called Johan.
"You, what have they modded you up with; any sniping skills?"
"No sir, skirmisher."
"Oh shit." He hadn't meant to say that out loud.
Rip could take on between ten and thirty badly trained men himself, depending of course on just how badly they were trained. He pointed to the others in turn.
"And you guys?"
One of them was a sniper the other two skirmisher, no scouts, he would have to do that himself and hope these idiots didn't try and run and hide.
"Okay stay here, I'll scout ahead and work out a plan of attack."
He moved easily through the undergrowth, using the sporadically placed buildings for cover.
It took him less than ten minutes to reach his target. He lay flattened on top of a steep hill looking down into a crater. He pulled his mask back on and activated the viewer.
Rip counted eleven bodies, all of his Vinkey guys had been wiped out. The viewer gave back readings of high levels of alpha particles. Probably a dirty nuke, that would explain the comms black out.
The bomb had been set off on the edge of some trees, he zoomed in and checked out the roots of one of the upturned ones. He marveled at how detailed they were, there were more types of tree here than still existed on the real Earth.
Rip turned away from the scene abruptly and made his way back to his jacket.
"We're going to have to head East from here along the main road. We won't last an hour if we go through there, a dirty nuke has effectively sealed that area."
Rip was glad they had their masks back on, their fear was a lot easier to ignore.
"I suppose it's a good tactic." He muttered more to himself than anyone else.
"Let's go."
They moved like the rookies they were, he tried not to notice. All Rip hoped for were some decent kills, good kills meant good points. A decent mercenary could usually expect to be employed once their sentence was over.
Rip never thought he'd become one of those guys, finishing their sentence and then choosing to carry on fighting virtual wars. The idea that somebody would willingly submit to themselves to these horrors was absurd to Rip. But here he was, the ultimate Corporate Man, ready to fight his way up the ladder, just like the OMC grunts they were heading towards.
They approached a long, low hangar, one of the huge doors had been blown clean off, the other hung precariously on a couple of its hinges.
Rip signalled the squad into formation, he felt his heart rate rise and was suddenly aware of a thin trickle of sweat making its way down his back as he peered inside, silently cursing the lack of vision enhancement on his visor.
He crept inside first, his squad following behind, he felt the tension in their footsteps. He heard the click too late to shout anything, he flung himself flat onto the floor, his suit taking a lot less of the force than he would have liked.
Rip experienced needles of burning pain searing across the whole of his back, he looked to his left just in time to see the Johan guy shredded into a dozen pieces. Charged energy balls flew around the doorway for less than three seconds, but that was all it took to wipe out every one of his jacket apart from him.
The scuffling of boots reverberated through his still prone suit. He was in one piece, but they thought he was dead, he could hear the voices getting closer.
Eight of them, maybe ten. Rip cursed his decision to set his rifle on tight-burst before entering. With the element of surprise and a wide coaxial plasma beam, he might even take out the entire squad.
His back felt like a giant tiger had ripped its piss stained claws down from his shoulder blades to his buttocks. He could hear his own breathing through clenched teeth, his stomach tightened from the effort of keeping him from screaming.
Vibrations from the ground played up into his cheek, he moved his finger just enough to feel the trigger of his gun.
"I think this one's still alive!"
Rip didn't even notice his wide grin as he jumped up and started spraying his deadly charge towards the oncoming group.
By the way they clustered together Rip could tell most of them were noobs, which was a shame, the points gained would be meagre.
The first grunt he hit burst into flames such was his proximity, Rip managed to hit another five simply because they had their weapons lowered.
Unfortunately for him, not all of them were green, two had stayed back on the flanks. Rip felt his left leg burst inside his suit. He screamed in agony as he fell, trying to fire coherently towards the man who'd just vaporised his leg. That simply gave the soldier on the other flank time to steady his aim.
Rip woke up in his own quarters, at his own request they no longer revived him slowly in the debriefing chamber. At first the chamber had been a welcome relief, as they simply revived your mind, it was akin to floating in a liquid you could not see or feel, but somehow comforted you.
These days he preferred to be revived in-body, ready for the next mission.
He closed his eyes and shifted into his meditative state, even though this body was not the one that had just been boiled by plasma fire, his mind still held the pain he had felt just moments earlier.
Lips barely moving, Rip repeated his mantra.
"This is not that body."
"This is not your body."
"This is no body."
"There is no pain."
"There is only this body."
He sat up on his bunk, he was in the *Barracks*, that's the way he liked it, from one conflict straight to another.
Another Ident loaded into the bunk next to him, appearing for a brief second as a bunch of coloured pixels, then he lay there, eyes closed, probably repeating a similar mantra to Rip.
He knew the guy, they'd fought both on the same, and indeed opposite sides many times. He flicked his eyes open and looked at Rip.
"Hey how was yours?" The guy asked.
"Pretty shitty, mixed tech, unclear objective and a bunch of fucking roobs in my jacket."
"Pff, tough. I just had a standard 20th century ballistic war. It was quite fun. Well, until I took some shrapnel to one of my lumbar vertebrae and paralysed myself."
"Yeah, what did you do?"
"What else to do? Shot myself in the head. Fist time I've had to do that, not fun, wouldn't recommend it."
The guy turned his back on Rip and lay on his side.
"Oh well, hopefully I'll get some hand-to-hand stuff coming my way." Rip said as he stared at the back of the guy's head.
The guy just got up and walked off, Rip wasn't offended that sort of thing happened all the time. Especially in the *Barracks*. Some people thought it was best to serve your time as quickly as possible, back-to-back wars. But Rip knew you had to let go of something before you could do that. This wasn't a game, each time you saw someone maimed or killed, or got killed yourself, it changed you.
The only way to deal with it was to accept the change, become a Corporate Man. That's all you had, they owned you now, so you might as well become a valuable asset, one that was not so easy to throw away.
Rip watched his fellow soldier weave his way through the bunks, still trying to remember the guy's name. Soldiers were loading in all around them.
Another assignment would be announced soon, Rip made his way to the rec area. Best to get some food, even though it would have no effect in his next scenario, the memory of it would be nice.
The Wukong Scrolls - The Battle Of Eden
The sound of rain slapping against mud enveloped them in a blanket of noise, even the distant roar of the great Open Sea was silenced by the perpetual torrent.
Emperor Wang stood motionless looking out over the misted valley overshadowed by the city of Eden beyond. Water droplets splashed up from his helmet and armour surrounding him with a vortex of vapour. To Wang's right stood An-Shi Liu, chief bodyguard and head of the Mu-Wukong Elite Guard. Behind them the rest of the generals on horseback sat in silence, the flapping of the banners they carried meshing with the relentless slap-slapping rain.
An-Shi Liu shifted his feet and cleared his throat gently. For a moment he wondered if his Emperor even remembered they were there, it was not unknown for Wang to pause in contemplation of a particular debate or piece of news being delivered to him by a vassal or courtier. Liu himself had seen the Emperor once pause for over half an hour between sentences, whilst the entire court of four hundred and fifty men and women waited in silence for him to continue.
Liu watched Wang's shoulders rise and fall with each inhale and exhale, for a moment it seemed as if the breath of the Great Emperor controlled the tempest that befell them.
As usual, much to Liu's secret frustration, he was slightly startled when the Emperor finally spoke.
"What do you see An-Shi?" Water streamed from the cuff of Wang's heavy ceremonial robe as he lifted his arm to point into the distance.
Liu took a half step forward so that he was almost in line with where Wang stood.
He followed the outstretched palm of the Emperor. They stood on a low hill, no more than an escarpment really. In front of them the thick cover of the Enchanted Forest lay carpeted in front of them, a patchwork of a hundred shades of green mottled with the white/pink glow of cherry blossom.
Liu narrowed his eyes as he tried to pierce the swirling mist clouds rising from the forest floor, shrouding everything but the highest trees. Eden stood barely visible high on the far side of the valley, atop a hill a good three days hard riding away. The sky graded from the dark grey above them to milky white by the far edge of the forest. A single shaft of distant sunlight drilled down out of the clouds only to be scattered by water vapour, showering Eden in white-golden light.
Liu agreed with the old legends, *to see it, was to understand its magic.*
"My Emperor I see hope."
Wang turned to Liu, his face full of smile as he spoke.
"An-Shi my loyal friend, I think perhaps you have been around me too long. My optimism is at last threatening to infect you."
"Sir I -" Liu's cheeks warmed as he looked back over towards Eden.
"Of course I am only playing with you An-Shi, I am sure your sharpness has not been dulled by my willful optimism. Your wit, and indeed your paranoid distrusting disposition has saved my life on many occasion."
Liu let his head drop slightly. The Emperor continued.
"It is indeed hope my friend. We have travelled a long way, we have navigated the treacherous Open Sea with its jagged rocks and devious pirates and now it seems at last we shall have safe haven within the city walls Eden."
"But Sir, the Monkey King moves against us. At risk of speaking out of turn my Emperor we should strike now. War is inevitable it cannot be avoided."
"Yes An-Shi, I too have studied the wisdom of the ancients."
An-Shi let his head drop further. He looked down at his feet, sunken into the soft mud. The rain abated back to a soft drizzle, in its place a cold steel wind wriggled its way inside the gaps into Liu's armour and underneath the folds of his clothes insisting on gifting him its icy embrace, wanted or not.
"Forgive my impertinence My Lord. My spies tell me that the Monkey King is ready to show his hand. If he attacks us here in the swamplands, "Liu turned to gesture past the horsebacked generals down the other side of the hill to their camp.
"we are at a severe disadvantage."
"Don't worry An-Shi, the Monkey King will not attack yet. You and I both have our spies, and that is good because they have separate skills allowing them to acquire varied information." The Emperor paused again breathing deeply.
The scent of freshly fallen forest blossom carried its way to the two men as Wang continued.
"The Monkey King has petitioned Grand Emperor Yin to deny us entry to Eden and the Emperor has agreed."
"What!?" Liu's heels squelched and slipped as he spun to face Wang.
"We cannot stand for this My Lord!"
"Calm An-Shi, plans are in motion. Do not worry, the Monkey King will not get his way, The Kingdom will not thwart the progress of the Wukong Clan. This is my promise to you An-Shi Liu."
The sound of the generals' impatient horses caused Liu to turn. The five of them still sat unmoving on their mounts, unblinking gazes fixed on Emperor's rigid back.
Wang continued. "An-Shi you are my most loyal, which is why I'm entrusting you to retrieve the scroll in which the Monkey King admits to trying to block the path of the Wukong Clan."
Liu's eyes widened before replying, "Sire, I cannot leave your side, these are treacherous times."
"You must An-Shi!"
The change in the Emperor's voice startled Liu. Wang continued.
"You must go to the Sun Wukong and meet with the Bored King, he and only he has the proof of the Monkey King's treachery. I must have that evidence before I go before Emperor Yin. Once he is aware that I'm in possession of the scroll, he will acquiesce to our needs."
"You are sure my Lord?"
"Yes An-Shi Liu, I am sure. Now go."
The Supreme Commander of the City of Eden, Zhuoxin Yin sat in the upper atrium of the fifth Secret Garden in the Crystal Palace. A row of high arches lining one side of the long rectangular hall were lit by green tinged sunlight dappled through the stained windows.
In places where the sun came directly through the windows, it reflected brightly off the white and gold stained marble floor, briefly washing away the dancing shadows playing on the dark brown-gold ceiling.
At the far end sat a messenger whose name Yin had not consigned to memory. Probably just as well, the man had brought him bad news. Yin glared at him, even at this great distance he could see the sweat that had formed on the man's brow. The messenger was doing his best look-at-me-I'm-ignoring-you pose.
Yin had already received advanced information as to what had transpired, but he had to hear it from the source. He gestured the man forward.
"My Lord!" The man flung himself to his hands and knees into a bow so deep his head hit the floor with an audible thunk.
"Tell me of the news." Yin said.
"Sire Xu Shuzheng, the Bored King has betrayed the Monkey King and by doing so has exposed you my Lord."
Yin's eyes narrowed as he stared at the back of the man's head, he had delivered the news still prostrated in his ridiculous bow.
"What form has this betrayal taken?" Yin asked.
"The Bored King asked for assurances that his army would be safe from attack once the Wukong entered Eden. The Monkey King sent assurance in the form of a sealed scroll telling of the pact between yourself and he, that you shall not allow the Wukong into Eden." The man replied.
"I see." Yin replied.
The Supreme Commander sat back, his eyes glazed over as a distant sound of children playing by the fountains below wafted gently through the hall. The messenger cleared his throat snapping Yin out of his moments reverie.
"There is more my Lord."
Yin felt a sudden irritation for the man. "Go on."
"There is word that An-Shi Liu is riding to retrieve the scroll from the Bored King."
Yin silently cursed the Monkey King, he had put him in an incredibly difficult position. On the one hand the Kingdom had become a major force within Eden and Yin could not afford to lose them as either patrons or allies.
On the other hand the Wukong Clan had gained much influence in the short time their arrival into the city had been announced and in an ideal world Yin would happily play both sides, yet that blasted Monkey King knew this and decided to force Yin's hand. It was now obvious to Yin that the Bored King had affiliated himself with the Kingdom in order to infiltrate and help the Wukong.
Yin had not spoken to Wang since he had done his deal with the Monkey King. The Baby Wukong would be at the city gates in three days, if Wang held proof of Yin's duplicity the resulting loss of face would almost definitely lead to a war between Eden and the Baby Wukong Clan.
Yin stroked his beardless chin as he stared back down at the messenger still on his hands and knees. The man was beginning to tremble with the stress of holding the position.
An-Shi Liu found himself in a small tavern in the city of Xeng. He was beginning to regret his choice of seating, he had taken this spot because it afforded him a perfect view of both exits. Whilst with his back to the wall he was safe from surprise attack.
The problem was the spot was also the perfect place to catch the full smell of the latrines outside as it blew into his face anytime the far door opened. This mixed with the overwhelming smell of strong ale began to turn his usually steel stomach to jelly.
He watched as one of the waitresses weaved her way through the maze of tables, expertly balancing a tray of drinks in one hand and a plate of food in the other. Her passage was made all the harder by the tiny gaps left by the patrons sitting almost back-to-back. She nodded in answer as various patrons tried to get her attention, though how she heard anything over the noise was remarkable to Liu.
The place was a port bar and as such there were many travellers, merchants, thieves along with every delight and misdemeanour Xeng offered. Liu could tell the difference between those who had just arrived and others whom had been here perhaps a little too long.
Liu watched the waitress shimmy sideways between two tables and spin half round and lift one tray higher in order to avoid a customer suddenly rising from his seat. The man was totally unaware how close he had just come to being showered in cold beer. The waitress made a face as she reached her destination and set both trays down. The men and women at the table barely acknowledged her as they grabbed for their drinks and food.
On the table behind them Liu noticed two men, they were dressed like him in traditional light armour, though they carried no flag and wore no crest of affiliation.
Two untouched drinks sat on the small table in front of them, Liu took a sip of his own drink as he watched them from the corner of his eye.
Liu was distracted by another foul smelling blast rushing through the sudden opened door. A man in the orange and purple finery of the Sun Wukong stood at the door, scanning the room.
Liu started to rise to greet his contact, he noticed one of the men from the corner stand, he held something in his hand shielded by a black cloak, his associate stayed coiled in his seat.
Liu started to shout to the man but his voice was lost in the hundred shouted conversations going on around him. The nobleman saw him and waved. Liu crashed straight over a small table, sending drinks and food over angry customers who had already started cursing his name.
As he went for his sword Liu felt someone tug at his right arm, preventing him from grabbing the hilt. He swung round to face a large round-faced man, his upper half was completely soaking and his beard was covered in some kind of yellow foodstuff.
Liu half spun and used his free hand to push the man hard in the chest. He twisted back to look at the nobleman in the doorway, he was frowning now, Liu turned to his left and saw that the man with the cloak now had a crossbow levelled at the nobleman's head.
Liu drew his sword and took another giant stride over a table. People in the immediate vicinity quickly realised there was a shouting madman waving a sword about. Some crashed into each other trying to get out of the way, others screamed.
The panic set off a chain reaction of people diving to the floor and scrambling out of his way. Liu could see the man in the corner had a clear shot now, and that he would not make it to him in time. The nobleman had realised that something was wrong, but by now his path back out of the bar was blocked by panicking customers trying to flee the scene.
Liu changed his angle of attack to face the men and thrust his arm towards the one with the crossbow with all his might. Just before the end of his strike he let go of the sword, it cut through twenty feet of air before landing with a thunk into the neck of the man.
His comrade had drawn a short sword and charged towards Liu. Without breaking stride Liu picked up a metal tankard from a table and flung it at the mans face as he dived for his midriff.
The tankard put his attacker off enough to allow Liu's dive to reach him. The two of them went tumbling onto the floor amongst the upturned furniture and general chaos. Liu drew his own short sword and brought it swiftly up towards the man's neck.
Before Liu could say anything a wet crunching sound followed by a short scream announced his attacker's death. Liu looked up to see the man with a crossbow, bleeding heavily from his neck had fired at them. It was unsure whether he meant to hit him or stop his comrade from talking, it didn't matter though as they were both dead.
Liu walked over to retrieve his sword, he turned to the door and spotted the orange robes of the nobleman on the floor. Liu had been too late, the assassin managed to fire his bolt before Liu's sword had hit him.
The man's dead eyes stared up to the ceiling, Liu put his ear to the man's mouth, but there was to be no dramatic message, he was well and truly dead.
*To be continued...*
NFTs & Me - The FREE MINT! Scam In 4 Easy Steps
NFT streets may be paved with gold, but they are also dotted with a fair amount of doggy doo-doo. There are a thousand ways to get ripped off in the NFT space but one of the most intriguing of them all is the FREE MINT! scam.
The reason this scam is interesting above any other bait 'n' switch type rip-off, is that it plays an alluring psychological fiddle, whose tune is very difficult not to dance to.
The Free Mint scam starts to play, and you can't help but tap your feet in time, whilst nodding your head appreciatively. A smile begins to play across your face as you hum the somehow familiar tune to yourself.
Just as the melody is reaching its soulful crescendo,
SKRRRRTTTCHH
The needle on the record goes sliding across the vinyl, piercing your ears and setting your teeth on edge.
And then.
Silence.
Disbelief.
You've been scammed again, but how? This one was free. How could you possibly have fallen for this one?
*'Ah yes, I see now. Well done sir. You got me.'*
*'You crafted a Symphony Of Greed. That's why the tune was so familiar, it was the sound of my own beating heart, yearning for the latest too-good-to-be-true shiny object, to actually be true this time.'*
So let's break it down. How the hell does a FREE MINT! manage to get money out of you, when the thing is free?
Step 1. The Hook - Give Them What They Want
Just like in music, a good scam requires a good hook. Some musicians say they write the *hook* first and then build the tune around that.
In much the same way the FREE MINT! guys do the same thing. First they'll set up a Twitter page calling it @WhateverLameNFT_FREEMINT_On_RandomDate! https://ecency.com/@whateverlamenft
The anatomy of this page is simple, lots of capital letters, preferably in different colours and flashing.
Then of course there will be some blurb about the NFTs and the talk of the most amazing project you've ever heard of in your life! It might be a game or some new financial DEX that's going to take the world by storm whilst making all the early adopters rich.
The project Devs are so confident of success, they are making the mint free. All you have to do to get on the advance mint is to follow, retweet and tag somewhere between two and five friends.
Oh and did I mention that all NFT holders get a free airdrop of ~~a shitcoin that will never get listed anywhere~~ the amazing token linked to the NFT that you'll be able to use for multiple benefits on the cool shiny new platform?
So retweet, follow, tag, join the discord, become an OG, special person getting in right at the bottom, and the best thing is, it's all completely one hundred percent,
FREE!!!
Step 2 - The Melody: Hype It Up Baby!
This is the hype phase, now that everyone is gathered in the Discord and the Twitter Army are primed and ready, it's time to spread the good word, because the more people who find out about this, the faster the coin will get listed on Magic Eden, ergo the sooner you become a crypto millionaire.
So now it's time to retweet the hell out of @WhateverLameNFT_FREEMINT_On_RandomDATE and pimp those sweet competitions they're running. https://ecency.com/@whateverlamenft
If you're lucky you were one of the first one thousand Discord whitelisted members who got a coin airdrop, but if not, don't worry, because the mint is FREE!! and you'll be getting it later anyway.
Now you are full of gratitude, *'these dudes rock!!*, what lovely people, so nice to see good guys out there in this sea of sharks.
A good FREE MINT! scam understands just how long to play this bit. Too long and people start to question the validity of the project. Too short and you don't gather enough people filled with the right amount of goodwill.
Like any good musician crafting a melody, they'll know when to stop and move on to the chorus.
Step 3 - The Chorus: LFG Baby!
Okay so after just the right amount of buildup, the RandomDATE is upon us, the countdown starts to the FREE MINT!
The first signs of something amiss will be a mint page that is not working properly.
Lots of frantic messages from desperate people worried they are going to miss out on this amazing opportunity!
It's fine, here's the project owner in the Discord calming everyone down.
*"Don't worry, we've coded it so that everyone just gets one at first, we don't want the bots to sweep this one up. Page back up in 15 minutes.*"
Then it goes back up and the FREE MINT! is actually;
0.05 $Sol
*'Ah. Right.'*
But never mind! Remember it's an amazing project and anyone with one of these bad boys is going to get airdropped to shit, so what's 0.05 $Sol between friends?
*'It's probably just to stop the bots, it's only a few bucks. Go for it.'*
Mint.
Approve.
*'Hmmm, maybe I should get a few more. I wonder if it will let me?'"
*'Yes!'*
Mint.
Approve.
Repeat.
Step 4. The Outro - The Awakening
Well you have to hand it to them, this was weaved as masterfully as a clever whodunnit murder mystery. One where you're kept completely in the dark until the big reveal at the end.
You hop into the Discord channel, everyone's showing off their new NFT. A couple of people are complaining that the FREE MINT! is not technically free. Yeah but whatever, most people are ignoring those naysayers.
*Lol, if you can't afford $5 for a quality NFT you shouldn't be in this space bro!*
*'Yeah exactly! And look, they've sold out, all 8,888 of them!'*
*'Awesome!'*
*'They've promised an immediate listing on Magic Eden, it's a bit late now so will probably be announced tomorrow.*
*A quick jump into the Discord channel to get a last bit of good vibes before bed and then get ready to hype tomorrow.'*
*'Woo Hoo!!'*
Then the next day comes and you log into the Discord before you're even properly awake. Of course you see that people from all different time zones have been in there at various points in the night.
You have a huge grin as you look at the first few messages and you start to scroll through them.
Like a slowly retreating tide on a beach, your smile starts to fade. The warm fuzzy feeling you had as you logged in, now sinks below the horizon of your awareness as the dark clouds of realisation blot out the last rays of your hope.
The messages start off varied at first, mostly showing off their newly minted NFTs and chatting excitedly about the future. However soon they all begin to read the same, until it is just one word repeated over and over again.
*Rug.*
*'Oh shit.'*
The Breakdown
So reading through the above, I'm sure you spotted the exact point it was a scam. When the free mint turned out not to be free.
The thing is though, and you'll only really be able to relate to this if you've been caught in something similar before. But while it's happening, you just kind of gloss that bit over in your mind. Simply because you've already been primed into thinking you're getting in on a cool thing before the masses.
It's the equivalent of someone coming up to you in a bar and striking up a conversation.
He tells you that through his job he gets free Rolex watches worth thousands and that his bosses are arseholes who scam their customers and treat the workers poorly.
The person says they'd like to stick it to their boss one more time and he likes you and you're an amazing individual and he'd like to give you a free watch.
You meet him the next day in the park and he shows you the watch. It's in its beautiful display box and he even lets you take it out to examine.
The secondhand sweeps beautifully, a trademark of the Rolex company. Wow! It's the real deal. Okay then, let's go for this!
*'You're sure it's free right? I can just take this and walk away?'*
*'Yup, here, take the certificate of authentication, it's now yours.'
*'Wow! Thanks man. You're a legend!*
*'Hey no problem, I just like to spread love in the world.'*
'*Really? That's so cool of you.*'
*Yeah no worries man, enjoy. Oh, by the way, I'm kind of stuck here now, I live right across town. Do you have $20 for a cab? It's no problem if you don't.'*
*'What? Sure man! Here, how could I say no when you're giving me this beautiful watch?'*
You watch your benevolent stranger get in his cab and deliver a friendly wave as he rides away. As it pulls off into the distance and your arm returns to it side, you realise you never got the kind man's name.
You're at home now and you want to check how much this is worth. Rolexes tend to increase in value, this could end up being a nice little nest egg for you.
As you examine the watch, more closely this time, you can see that there is a picture of Mickey Mouse which you never noticed before.
You flip the watch over and you see the unmistakable words, badly scratched onto the metal back.
***Made In China***
Hmmm, last time you checked Rolex was a Swiss brand, and you're pretty sure they would emboss the words onto there.
Oh well, at least it was free.
Ah, no, you gave him $20 for a cab, which he probably got out of once he was out of sight.
Essentially you've been tricked by the prospect of something shiny AND, this is the crucial one. He has used a type of *assumption bias* on you.
Because it's such a small amount of money, you won't ever assume anyone would be bothered enough to go through such an elaborate scam for such a pitiful amount of money.
But here's the thing, if he does it enough times it'll become a large amount of money. Also because everyone is ripped off by such a small amount, nobody is going to the authorities or trying to hunt the guy down to get their twenty bucks back.
Bonus Step - Who Wants To Be On A Scammer's List?
Unlike on the street whereby you'll most likely never see the person who ripped you off ever again. Online it's a different matter. Because the FREE MINT! scam isn't over there.
Once the Discord is covered with negativity and anyone coming in late realises its a rugged channel. You'll start to notice lots of people posting links to other channels.
*Shit, we got rugged guys. But this project is good. Honest Devs, good roadmap, etc.*
Of course a lot of these messages will be from the scammer themselves, because if you gather a bunch of people who'll fall for something once, then why not try again?
They probably end up with some kind of Elite List, whereby everyone in the final Discord channel has fallen for twenty scams in a row and they are labelled as the *ultimate marks*.
Some of the messages might be real, but they could be coming from people who get habitually scammed. Whatever the case, you definitely do not want to click on any of those links and then go ahead and leave the channel immediately.
Conclusion
So there you have it, the FREE MINT! scam. It sucks you in with the promise of something for nothing. Then once you're hooked on the story, it simply charges you a small amount for the mint. Sometimes it's not even small, I've seen a couple of these things go from free to 0.4 $Sol, getting close to $100 USD.
As in anything that has anything to do with money, there will always be the *bad actors*, who spoil it for everyone.
The thing is, there are genuine free mints out there, and some of them even advertise themselves as FREE MINTS!! Those ones tend to stay free and at no point are you expected to part with any cash.
They do this because they believe in the projects they've built. Which is why the scammers get away with it, because they use the same plausible story, they just tweak it slightly and if they do it well, you won't notice till afterwards.
So my advice would be to still look out for the free mints and take part in them. However as soon as that FREE MINT! turns into anything other than advertised, even if it's just a single dollar, unfollow the Twitter, leave the Discord and move on.
Stay safe out there peeps!
HAVE YOU FALLEN FOR THE FREE MINT! SCAM YET? OR PERHAPS YOU'VE FALLEN FOR A DIFFERENT CRYPTO RUSE?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
NFTs & Me - Dancing The Discord Disaster And The Fall Of Wukong
There are several different ways to check out an NFT project before buying into it, yet the main way still seems to be via Discord.
Whether it's an Ethereum project with NFTs costing tens of thousands of dollars each, or one on Solana costing just a few bucks, they both have something in common, a Discord channel where you'll be able to assess the vibe of the community.
Generally if you see a Discord channel that is well stocked with sub channels with plenty of positive comments and high activity then that tends to be a good sign.
However it is important to realise that the timing of when you first enter the room is crucial. Coming into a Discord just before a Mint can be a stark difference to entering after.
Goodwill often turns to toxicity very quickly in the NFT world, sometimes with such speed and force you'll feel as if you're on the latest gut wrenching rollercoaster designed to make you feel as if you are dying.
Yesterday we saw this toxicity ruin what looked to be a good project, the Baby Wukongs, one that I've written about a couple of times now.
The Wukong Discord went from a positive boon for the project to a millstone around its neck. It all came to a head yesterday when the Baby Wukong Discord and Twitter were deleted and the project owner Wang has disappeared.
This isn't your typical rug, but a different phenomenon all together.
Before we get into that, let's look at the different types of Discord you may come up against and how to spot signs of a good and a bad channel.
The Pre Mint Discord
Okay, so you have found what looks to be like a decent project. The artwork is on point, they have a game behind and they have active beta testers, for all intents and purposes this looks like the real deal.
Great.
So in you go to the Discord and you do your verification and start to browse the various rooms and everything looks good.
You go into the *general chat* room and see that there are people posting every few seconds, the messages are going too fast to read, so you stop and scroll up to check the last few days worth of messages.
Everything checks out, people are excited to mint, the project devs seem to be open and honest and you're ready to take the next step and buy into the project.
***Mint Day***
Everything is going well, the mint price has been released and the link is in the appropriate room in the Discord.
The chatter during this time is centered mainly around the NFTs that people are minting, what they're trying to get, with the odd person reporting technical difficulties.
The mint might sell out in a day or it may take a few days and during this time the chat stays mainly positive. Some talk may be speculative, with buyers wondering what the eventual *floor price* will be once the token is listed.
If the mint does take more than a few days, this is where the toxicity can start to creep in, especially if the NFTs cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars each.
In every example whereby a large group of people are investing, there will always be some who can barely afford to be in there. These investors tend to need fast returns, they have their asset and now they want to put it up for sale, hopefully at a huge profit.
When the toxic comments do start to fly, the thing you have to pay attention to is how are the devs reacting?
Are they calmly stating the status quo and sticking to the promises made before the mint? Or are they fobbing off the complainers?
Or worst of all; are they simply ignoring the complaints?
Obviously if you have already minted at this point and it seems to you that the devs are adequately answering questions about the mint, then chill, don't add to the general toxicity of the room.
If however the devs are giving surly replies or are ghosting the room, then do not mint any further, or preferably not at all.
To be fair it is usually the scam projects that turn toxic this early. Usually because everyone involved has had it in the back of their heads that this is a scam, so it doesn't take much to trigger an avalanche of negativity falling down the screen.
That's not to say a good project won't have any negativity at this stage. There will always be someone who is not happy regardless of the project. You could be giving out free hundred dollar bills but someone would find a way to complain.
So you have to be discerning, just ask yourself if all the things that drew you to the project are still there.
Importantly though, you must also ask yourself if the complaining people have a point, and if they do, have their questions been adequately addressed?
Remember it is easy to dismiss negativity when you are infatuated with something. Be that a new partner, car, or haircut, it doesn't matter what it is, but we can all get *shiny new object syndrome* from time to time.
All in all though, you don't want to be involved in a project that has turned negative this early on.
***Post-Mint-Pre-List Discord***
The strength of this type of Discord lies almost wholly in the quality of the art. In partnership with that, the clarity of the roadmap will play a big part in how the investors behave on the Discord channel.
If the devs have clearly stated that they expect listing to be a couple of weeks after mint and that in the interim they will be focusing on various project tasks, then the room will be chill.
Remember, here I am talking about real projects that are not rugs, they have been set up by genuine people who intend on doing the right thing. However if they do not follow the roadmap to the letter, then I'm afraid it's bad will from here on out.
***Post-List Discord***
Okay so now your NFT is on Magic Eden or OpenSea or whatever blockchain and marketplace you use, it's time to see the true colours of the Discord members.
If things are going well with the price of the NFT then as you'd expect, the overall vibe of the Discord will be great.
The chatter you want to look out for is that which focuses mainly on how best to increase the value of the assets.
For example; are there a group of individuals who are always pointing out what the floor price is? Are these same individuals investing more money by buying up what they perceive to be undervalued assets? Or are they just moaning about their NFTs losing value?
Another thing to look out for is the level of chatter in the channel. All too often after launch we see Discord channels that were full of activity in the days leading up to the launch/listing, only for all that excitement to die as suddenly as a candleflame in the wind.
As an example, one of the best projects I've seen for this on Solana is the Stoned Ape Crew, their Discord is vibrant, the members all seem to follow each other on Twitter and they are tweeting and retweeting each other via the Discord.
A lot of their tweets are organised via the Discord, if someone sells one for a lot of money, it's announced via the channel and then they are tweeting and retweeting.
For me, they are the perfect example of what a community should look like after they have launch/listed.
Fall Of The Wukongs
Unfortunately for holders of the Baby Wukong NFTs, their Discord went from a place of hope to one of despair.
Wang the sole developer of the project did seem to do all the right things. The Discord was stacked with information and it was well moderated. Questions were answered, promises were made and kept.
It seems the problems started when the price started to plummet, adding to that, no further marketing actions were taken after the Baby Wukong Times Square and HK billboards.
Investors weren't happy that more wasn't being done to promote the project and they were impatient to see beta examples of a promised game.
I think the final straw for Wang came when a small but persistent core of channel members started giving him stick for taking time off at Christmas.
As far as I saw, he did not answer any of the questions as to why he dared to take a few days off to chill out with his family at Christmas. He simply deleted the channel. Ditto Twitter.
Conclusion
I have mixed emotions about how everything went down with the Wukong.
On one hand I feel bad for the investors, my very good friend @bleepcoin along with others, bought into this project and for a while they were riding high on the wave of positivity sweeping the project along. https://ecency.com/@bleepcoin
They are now left with an NFT that is still technically listed on Magic Eden and Alpha, however it is flagged on Eden and as you'd imagine the price has tumbled as people sold in a panic.
On the other hand I feel sorry for Wang, he's obviously a good guy. @bleepcoin woke up the other day to 5 $Sol in his wallet, he'd won a meme contest that he didn't even mean to enter, and Wang stayed true to his word and paid out the prize money. Something that a lot of projects claim to do but don't. https://ecency.com/@bleepcoin
I also admired the way he took the dirty tactics of the Monkey King in his stride. He could so easily have gotten angry and bitter, but he didn't.
However if we look at it another way, he was naive to think that he could run such a potentially large project all on his own.
At the end of the day he was trying to do everything, artist, coder, chat moderator, customer service, marketing. This multi-role juggling trick worked well when everything was working out fine, however when the cracks appeared he needed a team behind him.
So I guess that's the main thing you should take away here. All the best will in the world does not necessarily make a hit project.
You need good art, good ideas, good utility and most of all, a good team.
Memebers of the Baby Wukongs are trying to do another project, whether anything will come of it I don't know. But hopefully they'll get their money back and future owners won't view them as a project, but simply as a piece of pixel art they'd like to own.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED IN DISCORD CHANNELS THAT HAVE TURNED TOXIC, OR PERHAPS YOU ARE PART OF AN AMAZING COMMUNITY THAT IS DRIVING THE POPULARITY OF YOUR NFT PROJECT?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Confessions Of An ADHD Trader - The FOMO Files
We have all at one time or another experienced the *Fear Of Missing Out* or FOMO as it is more commonly referred to, and you don't even have to trade in crypto to go through the emotion of FOMO it just helps.
It is easy to think of FOMO as a simple single thing you feel when you could have got something but now the opportunity has seemingly gone and it hurts.
Maybe you were wanting to buy that TV in the Black Friday sales, but you didn't get paid till a week later and now its back up to $500 and you could have got it for $150 if only you'd had the money at the right time.
Or perhaps there was a crypto that someone told you about, or you researched yourself and made a mental note to buy some. Then something happens and for whatever reason you don't make the purchase, next thing you know the coin is trending on Twitter and there are thousands of excited tweets from people who have greatly benefitted from the pump.
FOMO.
The feeling is made much worse if you, like me, have any kind of Attention Deficit tendencies. For a person with ADHD life is one long spiralling series of FOMO incidents.
The very nature of my type of ADD means that I can hyper focus on a task for a given amount of time, and then, *poof!* It's gone, and I'm onto the next thing.
When the *next thing* is another writing project or DIY job around the house, FOMO doesn't really come into it. That simply takes the form of later regret for not finishing a task.
However when the next thing is another crypto or NFT, then FOMO hits hard, because you're reminded of your lack of focus by the fact that the bloody thing is now mooning and everyone who bought in at the right time is making like a bandit.
The FUD/FOMO Conjecture
Why is FOMO bad? Because it leads to *Fear Uncertainty & Doubt* FUD.
So why is FUD bad?
Because it will lead to you buying and selling crypto like a maniac. You'll become a paper-handed wreck, buying something for a dollar one minute and selling it for fifty cents the next.
So how do you avoid this self destructive spiral that will see you frittering away your cash on meme coins and rugged NFTs?
First we have to realise why we're Fudding or Fomoing, after that we can see what particular flavour of FUD or FOMO we're ingesting.
***Tilt FOMO***
In poker it is said that when somebody makes a string of insanely bad bets, they are *on tilt*.
Tilt doesn't just happen out of the blue, it is usually triggered when a player is bluffed out of a large pot of money. Say for instance they have two Kings and there is an Ace on the deck. Their opponent, through their cunning and guile make the player think that they have the other Ace.
The player folds, and the opponent smiles and shows him that they were bluffing all the time! This triggers *tilt mode* and the player will start making decisions that steadily get worse and worse, until they have lost all of their money.
If you average out the human race, you'll find that we are naturally cautious. Most people do not gamble, the majority of us do not trade stocks, shares or crypto.
We see examples of this natural caution when the average person in the street finally starts noticing all those Bitcoin ads and asks one of their crypto friends how to buy some.
The friend then goes onto buy some Bitcoin and is very happy when they see it go up in value. Then, even though you've warned them that Bitcoin and crypto in general can have really massive swings in a single day, and not to panic if they wake up and Bitcoin is ten or twenty percent less than the day before, your friend still panics.
I've had it, and if you're reading this and into crypto, I'm sure you're sitting there nodding your head in agreement.
One particular friend I'm thinking about bought some Bitcoin and Ether just around when the 2018 bull run came to an end and he just couldn't handle it. My friend ended up selling for around a 30% loss even though I told him he should just leave it, as the long term prospects for Bitcoin were good.
But no, he Fudded and sold. Now of course, Bitcoin is roughly six times higher than when he sold.
As far as my friend's concerned it's no drama and he will never buy crypto again because he is built like most people, he is extremely adverse to risk.
However to someone like myself, and maybe you as well, seeing a crypto bounce back higher than when we sold it, is like a red FOMO rag to a bull.
Because when you sell after a crypto drops rapidly and you then watch it bounce back up, you are now primed to think you have been *too cautious*. You tell yourself that if you had just left your Bitcoin alone you would have several hundred thousand dollars worth by now.
Which of course is true.
This galling fact, like the poker player who has been bluffed, triggers off your *tilt FOMO* and thus you find something really risky, either something that is way overpriced or a clearly crappy project and throw loads of money into that, only to see it fall deeper and deeper into the red.
Essentially, you got *tilted*.
***You Got Burned FOMO***
I remember buying a coin called *Einsteinium*, two of them for $160 each and I kid you not, the only reason for getting that coin was because of my admiration for Albert Einstein. Go figure.
Anyway, predictably the coin turned out to be a piece of dung that had been lightly sprayed with the cheap gold glitter spray you get from the pound shop (thrift store). It's not even good spray, it's more brown than gold, but somehow you missed that at the time and picked it up anyway.
So over the course of three weeks I sat there and watched Einsteinium steadily drop to zero.
Each day the coin was worth a little less and I would tell myself a little lie, that it was going to go back up and ultimately be worth thousands.
Then one day I logged into my Bittrex account and Einsteinium had been delisted.
BURNED!
This scenario is the exact opposite of *tilt FOMO*. In that instance you lost money because you were too cautious, in this case it was over zealousness that led to you losing out.
So now when the next thing that sounds a bit gimmicky comes out, you studiously ignore it.
Then suddenly you see that stupid meme coin trying to twine you out of your hard earned cash, is now,
GOING TO THE FUCKING MOON!
***What?***
Why didn't you buy some of that Shiba Inu or Magic Drug Doge or whatever it was?
Now you have *YGB* FOMO, so when the next silly meme coin comes out, you buy billions of the fuckers. Because there is no way on this green Earth, that you're going to miss out again.
***NO WAY!!***
Trending FOMO
This one is probably the easiest for anyone either in, or outside the crypto world to understand.
*Trending FOMO* triggers the feeling in us that we just don't want to miss out on the thing that everyone seems to be getting into at the moment.
This is concentrated liquid FOMO, distilled down to its purest form.
In normal folk *trending* FOMO may manifest itself in a very different way.
Perhaps you know someone who split up with a partner, claiming they were completely unsuitable. Then that person sees the ex with someone else and before you know it they're back together again going through the same destructive routine that split them up in the first place!
This is *trending* FOMO.
A toddler gets bored of its favourite toy, then sees another kid come and be absolutely mesmerised by the little fluffy thing.
Now the toddler screams the house down until he gets it back.
*'Come on, you have to share little Timmy.'*
That's *trending* FOMO.
NFTs anyone?
Conclusion: No FOMO No Go
The irony is of course, that FOMO drives the gambler forward.
There are so many good things that I wouldn't have done in my life if it wasn't for FOMO I'd acquired in some way or another.
In fact the night me and my wife finally got together, another guy had been talking to her all night and I'd been trying to get in there with her.
After a while she stopped talking to the guy (*she told me later he was trying to chat her up*) and when I saw her on the dancefloor my FOMO kicked in big time and I just found myself going towards her and the rest as they say, is history.
So in the future when you feel your FOMO levels rise, try and identify why you're feeling it, examine and if necessary, embrace it.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU EXPERIENCED FOMO? WHAT WAS THE WORST CASE OF FOMO YOU'VE EVER HAD AND WHAT DID IT CAUSE YOU TO DO?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
NFTs & Me - The Science Of Art: Will NFTs Endure As An Artform?
What are NFTs?
Art.
Then what is art?
Something @quillfire said to me the other day got me thinking . . . But more about that later. https://ecency.com/@quillfire
Art it seems, like anything else in the human realm, is anything we say it is.
If someone wants to gather the contents of a trash can, spread it all over a gallery floor and call it art, there is absolutely nothing stopping them.
By the same tenet if another person comes along, a cleaner for instance, and they decide that in fact it is trash and proceed to throw it away, then who are we to blame them?
Of course I'm referring to the times when *"artworks"* by Damien Hirst, Gustav Metzger and Sala Murat were thrown away by cleaners working at the various galleries the works were displayed in.
All of those incidents sparked furious debate as to what exactly art is.
Some claimed that the very fact the pieces were not universally recognised as art told us everything we already knew. After all, no gallery cleaner would ever mistake the Mona Lisa, or any other painting for that matter, as trash to be discarded.
But is it that simple? Is visual art restricted to paintings and sculptures?
Or is it more than that? Can art ever truly be defined objectively?
The Science Of Art
Renowned neuroscientist Dr V S Ramachandran coined the term neuroaesthetics in a a 1999 *Journal of Consciousness Studies* article, titled *The Science of Art: A Neurological Theory of Aesthetic Experience*
Ramachandran later expands on this in his lay book, *The Science of Art*.
In the book Ramachandran claims that the apparent subjectivity of art appreciation is almost entirely illusory. Rather, he states, that artistic appreciation is a by-product of our evolution.
Much like the ability to speak a variety of languages, or see in colour, Ramachandran opines that art appreciation has evolved across the human species and thus there *is* an objective measure of what exactly constitutes as art.
Almost needless to say, his views are not shared by everyone in the scientific community. Whilst Ramachandran may have had some interesting results, he has not been able to conclusively prove his hypothesis via experiment.
However in his book *The Tell-Tale Brain* he does point out that things that we find artistic do have a certain *rasa*.
Rasa is a Hindu word best translated as *taste* or *juice*. Ramachandran uses it in the spirit of the original word. That is to say the *rasa* of an art piece is summed up as the feeling the art gives you.
It is the *unglimpsed*, the light around the corner that you can't quite see.
Rasa is a feeling you can recall perfectly in your mind, yet if you tried to articulate it into words, you'd be at a loss. The words seemingly making their way from your brain to your lips, only to evaporate like mist on a cold day.
The central philosophy of Ramachandran's hypothesis is that all art either enhances, transcends, or distorts reality. To this end all art is caricature.
He states that he does not mean this literally, however;
*"... it is true surprisingly often”
Ramachandran claims that artistic appreciation stems from an original evolutionary function called *peak shifting*.
Peak shifting has been demonstrated in the *Herring Gull Experiment*, whereby baby herring gulls were stimulated with a set of props.
The female adult herring gull has a red stripe on its beak. When she flies back to the nest to feed her newborn hatchlings, she lowers her beak which the chicks then proceed to tap. This in turn triggers the mother to regurgitate her food directly into the hungry mouths of her babies. (Cute and disgusting in one fell swoop.)
In the now famous experiment, scientist Niko Tinbergen discovered that he didn't even need to use a false beak to initiate the tapping in the chicks. As long as whatever he used had a red stripe on it the chicks would tap away expecting to be fed.
Perhaps the most interesting discovery in the experiment was the more red stripes Tinbergen painted onto his lollipop stick, the more enthusiastically the chicks responded, with three stripes seeming to be the optimal amount to get the chicks wild with excitement.
Ramachandran attributes this behaviour to the fact that the chicks are hardwired to find red stripes attractive as it is crucial to their survival, therefore the more stripes the better. It's almost as if they are thinking;
*'Now THAT'S a beak!'*
Ramachandran states this hardwired *peak shifting* is why we like caricatures so much. Because a well drawn caricature, takes a face and exaggerates all its best features in a flattering way.
He also states that is why *photo real* artists who can draw incredibly detailed scenes that look like photographs, are not the most famous artists on Earth, even though they are arguably the most gifted.
Of course we must temper these revelations with the knowledge that throughout human history art has changed dramatically. It was not always about peak shifting and caricature.
Renaissance art was very much about recreation, for every Picasso example there is a Turner.
Although I would humbly throw in an argument here, perhaps renaissance art *was* a form of peak shifting.
The use of perspective in art didn't start till the early 15th Century. Before then by today's standards all art looked decidedly childlike. So when we started drawing with perspective that set off a type of peak shift in our brain.
Indeed truly abstract art only became a thing after the invention of photography, film and later television. Once we could see the world around us created in print, or on a screen, perfect artistic representation started to wane in popularity, we yearned for something that was *more than real.*
Don't Believe The Hype
Whether our artistic appreciation is subjective or not really doesn't matter when it comes to what people are calling art at any given time.
It is about what is being hyped at the time, often it seems the mere act of a bunch of people calling say a bag of trash art, becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. The trash will then go on to be displayed at a prominent gallery and possibly sold for a large amount of money.
However hype is not just for the unusual, initially everything needs to be hyped.
Imagine I invented a cure for baldness that could also increase penis size. You might immediately say; *"you'd become the richest man in the world!"*.
However I'd only become rich if I started an advertising campaign, set up social media groups, and all the other tricks of the advertising and PR trade in order to get people using, buying and talking about my amazing product.
Hype.
Using this analogy exposes something fundamental about the hyping of a product, be it a penis enlarger or a piece of art. At some point its got to be able to stand on its own two feet.
We can use an art example to illustrate this point, Damien Hirst reportedly uses investment consortiums of which he's a part, in order to buy up his own pieces of art for huge sums. Most notably his jewel encrusted skull *For The Love of God* which first sold for $50 million and later $100 million.
Once a piece has been hyped to a certain amount, then if the work has what we might deem as artistic merit, it will at least hold its value.
Perhaps that's my main worry with NFTs, or at least the ones that arguably behave solely as art, in that they only exist for existence sake. They have no other function other than to be collected, admired, sold or destroyed.
NFTs all have hype teams behind them, mostly on Discord, Twitter and Insta, however there are many IRL hype trains in motion. From the mainstream media, to billboards in Times Square. The hype train is at full steam.
But what happens when it all stops?
Facing The Future
Of all those profile pic NFTs you were looking at (what normal, non-crypto people would call "stupid cartoons"), which one awed you with the insight or talent required to create them?
Which one required the genius of Beethoven, Shakespeare or Da Vinci? Were any of them ... extraordinary?
~@quillfire https://ecency.com/@quillfire
I read the words above and they resonated deep down, with a reverberation so low and ponderous, it stained my soul with its stolen whisper.
Those words did not come to surface until I found myself staring into what at first seemed like the abyss. The face above is an NFT from a collection currently on the Ethereum chain titled *Psychedelics Anonymous*.
To say I was blown away by the above is to cheapen the emotion experienced. Perhaps you may think me melodramatic when I say I was close to tears. Not the type that spring forth from the ducts in your eyes, but the kind that leaves a yearning deep within, a feeling that can only come from truly beholding a thing of beauty.
*Rasa*
However my feelings weren't pure, a feeling of ambivalence washed over me. There was another nagging feeling cloying at the edge of my subconscious.
What was it?
As I browsed through the various images on the Psychedelics Anonymous Heads, I suddenly understood Quillfire's words floated up to gently break the surface of my conscious mind.
*"Of all those profile pic NFTs you were looking at (what normal, non-crypto people would call "stupid cartoons"), which one awed you with the insight or talent required to create them?"*
Oh my God!
Of course!
This is what fills me with awe, wondering about the talent and insight used to create them.
I immediately rushed to the DucklingsNFT Discord and sold all of my NFTs in the collection for around $60, bringing in a slight loss I have not bothered calculating.
It was as if a very powerful flashlight had been shone on my naivety. Of course the *Ducklings* can't survive without hype. They are just trying to cash in on a zeitgeist and the hype behind them has died down to a distant murmur.
*They will not survive*.
I continued to stare at the heads, every now and again getting up a picture of one of my NFTs and comparing.
Obviously not the quality of the art, that is clearly not in question.
What I pondered was how the *Ducklings* and all the other NFTs made me feel, and I realised that Quill's words had been in my heart all along.
*"When the music stops, the vast majority of people buying shit NFTs [...] will find themselves without a chair."*
Art We Can All Agree On
And he's right, when the hype dies down only the ones that we all objectively consider to be art will have any value at all.
Because the biggest measure of any human system is the agreement that exists within it.
In other words things only begin to work once an unknown critical mass of people start to agree it should progress.
Good old social proof.
Many people claim not to be swayed by social proof, citing their individuality as a reason that they do not *follow the crowd*.
However I'm guessing almost all of those people will read customer reviews of products they want to purchase, or read, watch and listen to popular blogs and podcasts about an investment their thinking about.
We all use social proof to some degree pretty much all the time, and art is no different.
For a while a few artists tried to tell us trash was art, but after a few cleaners told us it wasn't, nobody is trying to push that particular claim any more.
*"People dramatically underestimate the magnitude of the*
*madness that can overtake crowds in the short-term.*
*In the long-term, though, some version of sanity always re-asserts itself because madness is inherently unstable and human beings, as a whole, will always seek to balance novelty with certainty.*
*It's how we're wired and such instincts can't be overridden."*
Perhaps Ramachandran and Quillfire are right, art is in fact objective, there are of course subjective tastes held within. But what constitutes actual art, whilst perhaps difficult to define, is easy to dispute.
After all the madness ends where will we be?
Well we can only surmise that some NFTs will endure as pieces of art, however most, and it's probably obvious which ones, will not.
WHAT TYPE OF NFTS HAVE YOU INVESTED IN? OR MAYBE YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT IT BUT HAVEN'T JUMPED IN YET?
Winter Wonderland - 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: big crowd
Even though Mali was easily the tallest in her class it wasn't enough, the reality of it hit her hard in the pit of her stomach, she was just too damn small.
The three of them were making their way through a living forest of torsos thronging from ride to ride. Mali's hands were sweaty inside the huge bear grip of her father. He weaved through the mess of people tugging her behind, every few seconds she had to skip for a few steps to catch up.
Three teenage girls burst into a small clearing in front of them, they were screaming and laughing spotlighted by the powerful lights ringing the whole fair. The girls started a fierce debate as to which terrifying ride they were going on next, their shrieks seeming extra sharp in the crisp night air. Mali craned her neck following their snatched away voices as they headed in the opposite direction, she watched as the crowd swallowed them up leaving just a memory of their presence.
"Sorry love." The man selling the tickets had already spun away to deal with another paying customer and didn't notice Mali glaring up at him.
The frozen night air chilled her damp cheeks, she looked up at the latest ride she wasn't allowed on.
*GHOSTRIDER II*
Screams of terror and delight dopplered high above their heads as the 'coaster came out of another gut wrenching loop.
The entire ride was bathed in a hazy pale blue light. Mali watched as the line of cars reached the pinnacle of the track. Even over surrounding noise enshrining her, Mali felt the combined inhale of breath from the people on board. The rollercoaster tipped over the edge and
ripped down through a tunnel covering most of the downslope of track. Just before the bottom it shot out of the tunnel and went into an almost immediate loop the loop.
Mali felt the rumble from the trundling wheels on the track as they vibrated up through her feet to echo around the inside of her chest. She sucked in a deep quivering breath, the icy air chilling her lungs.
"It's not fair! I'm only ten centimetres too short, it's not like I'm a baby." She looked down at the floor, she felt the sharp tang of tears stinging her eyes.
"I'm sorry baby." Her dad said. "It's a safety thing, if you're not tall enough the bar might not hold you and you'd plunge to your death."
She wasn't in the mood for jokes and the way her dad was looking at her was really beginning to get on her nerves.
His eyes were wide with pity, big brown pools staring back at her.
"Come on, we'll find something good. I promise."
Her mum looked like she just wanted to go home. She was doing that thing with her lips where she pressed them together so tightly the skin around her mouth went extra white.
The bright lights all around them highlighted the small flakes of mostly unnoticed snow beginning their gentle descent, settling quietly on the heads and shoulders of the fairgoers around them. Mali watched a few small flakes land on her mother's exposed blonde hair before glistening out of existence.
"Great! Look!" Her dad was pointing excitedly at a sign.
*MINIMUM HEIGHT 1.30 METRES*
"That's your height remember when we measured you? You were one metre thirty! Excellent!"
He wore a smile right across his face, Mali looked up, the ride consisted of maybe seven or eight rectangular loops. She saw people sitting in these couch like things trundling up and around.
Mali watched as the couch-cars ambled their way up to the top, only to come down again at exactly the same pedestrian pace. No loops, no tunnels, no lights. Just a yellow sign painted with squiggly red letters, surrounded by pale yellow light bulbs. The sign read:
*WHIRLY DHIRLY*
"Hmm, yeah, it's okay I suppose."
"Oh come on, this'll be great!" Her dad's smile was more frozen now. He kept shooting sideways glances at her mother.
"Are you coming mummy?" She looked up at her mum, a halo of yellow light round her head lit up her blonde hair making it seem like a golden fire.
"Of course baby, come on, it'll be fun."
The man put the bar down and the couch-car moved off up the track. Mali sat between the two of them, her dad slid a bit closer and squeezed her hand.
"Maybe we'll see some early fireworks from up there. I'm sure all the main ones will be at midnight but you never know."
Red lights strobed briefly across his face, lighting his dark brown skin. He pulled up the hood of his coat and shivered.
"Phew! It's a lot colder up here isn't it?"
Mali was just thinking about how she wouldn't have an exciting story to tell her friends after the holidays. She'd told them all that her parents had promised to take her to the Winter Wondrland and they'd been so jealous of her.
Tamara said that she was also allowed to stay up on New Year's Eve, but Mali was pretty sure she was lying.
Mali looked out to her left, in the distance she could hear the screams coming from the rides she wanted to be on. The car they sat in ambled its way to the first corner, as they got there it whipped around it so fast that she didn't even have time to scream properly.
"Woah!" She looked to her right, her mum sat there wide eyed, both hands enveloped Mali's.
"Ow, you're hurting me mummy!"
Her mum relaxed her grip momentarily, but then the car jerked around the next corner in the corkscrew.
"Aaaahhhhh!!!" All three of them yelled in terror.
The most terrifying thing about this ride, wasn't the speed it went round the corners, although that definitely had something to do with it.
It was the fact that the whole thing felt like a huge sofa with tiny little shopping trolley wheels, impossibly balanced on an extremely narrow gauge rail.
Mali felt like the whole thing was going to fly off the track every time it lurched around another corner.
"I'm scared daddy!"
"Me too!! Just close your eyes!"
Mali screwed her eyes shut, but that was worse. Now she had no idea when the next bend was coming. The feeling that they were about to be thrown hundreds of feet through the air was much more scary. She opened her eyes again.
Turn after turn they were whipped around, all three of them crying and pleading for their lives.
Another terrifying thing, Mali noticed, was the car they sat in was big enough for at least twice as many people as it currently held. So each time it whizzed round a corner, they all slid to the end, further convincing Mali that they were all definitely going to die.
They were at the top now and Mali realised that this was the tallest ride in the whole fair, even the *GHOSTRIDER II* was dwarfed from up here. There was a brief moment of serenity as they looked down at the large crowd below.
"Oh my God!!" Her dad's voice boomed into the night, Mali was sure the whole fair could hear him.
They began the descent, Mali had realised that there was a car just in front of them and if she watched she could tell when the next time their car was about to wrench them around the next corner. It was still terrifying but not as much as going down.
She realised that the corners on the side of the ride that faced the rest of the park, were much scarier than the ones on the other side.
For a start, Mali thought to herself, if they did come of the track then, they would fly silently off into the inky black night, to crash down on the unseen floor.
At least with the fairground side they might land on a group of people, therefore cushioning their fall.
Mali tried to take her mind off the ride by attempting to calculate just how many people they'd have to land on in order to save their lives. This was the kind of thought experiment her dad loved, however he was too busy screaming all of the air out of his lungs.
They lurched around the last corner and came to rest where they had left from, in what seemed like ten minutes ago, but in truth was probably little more than ninety seconds earlier.
The couch-car came to a stop, her dad immediately began to lift the safety bar up just as it suddenly jolted forwards.
"NO!"
The guy working the ride had been coming towards them, cracked a huge smile and let out a barely hidden laugh.
Her dad didn't seem to notice, or care if he did.
"Not again! Let's get off!"
"Again! Again!" Mali squealed.
"NO!" Both her parents chimed in perfect chorus.
On the bus ride home Mali told her father about the thought experiment she'd conducted whilst they were being whirled around.
He smiled the smile at her that always made her feel so warm inside.
"Well, what number did you come up with?" He asked.
"I was thinking about thirty, but they'd have to be standing fairly close together."
He turned and looked out of the window, stroking his short beard, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
"Hmm, yeah. I think that's a good calculation. Although I would've felt much more comfortable with fifty. We would have had a fair bit of forward momentum, so we'd want to make sure when we hit them that we didn't just kind of go through them."
"Femi!" Mum had her schoolteacher look on. "Jesus, that's horrible, they'd all die."
Dad grinned and winked at me. "Yeah, but we'd still be alive. Also I'd want fat ones, skinny people would be no good."
"Maybe you'd need twice as many skinny ones?" Mali said with a sly grin.
Her mother rolled her eyes and looked out of the window.
They spent the rest of the ride talking about how many people it would take to save them after falling out of a variety of fair rides, planes, helicopters and such.
They got off the bus a couple of stops early, and watched fireworks light up the night sky.
"Happy New Year baby." Her dad said.
"Happy New Year." Her mum said.
"Happy New Year mummy and daddy. And thank you, that was the best ever!"
"Yeah well savour it, I'm never going on one of those things again."
The genuine fear in her dad's voice set Mali off and she laughed the rest of the way home as her dad detailed every terrifying thought he'd had during the Whirly Dhirly ride.
The snow was coming down heavier now, with any luck there would be enough for a snowball fight tomorrow, and maybe even sledging.
Mali tried the obligatory, *can I stay up longer?* gambit, but her heart wasn't really in it.
That night she dreamt of the best, well the only, fair ride she'd ever been on.
Introducing The Flash Fictioners!
I am very pleased to announce *The Flash Fictioners* a new writing community on read.cash
I've been writing for around five years on Hive and many years before that on various platforms and projects. Yet still I recognise that a person can always improve, and so recently I've set myself a task to improve in my craft every single day that I can.
In order to achieve my goal I'm using a variety of techniques, one of which is *flash fiction*.
Like any other writer I want to create the big epic pieces, the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, Iain M. Banks and J.K. Rowling.
Grand stories such as the ones woven by the illustrious authors mentioned above, are captivating in their complexity and subtlety. They draw us in with artistically described seeds planted in our imaginations, then left to flourish and bloom.
Just like you, I love a deep and meaningful, long twisting tale that I can sink my teeth into. However some of the most impactful and memorable stories I've read or even watched, are short ones.
If a story can capture you in what is seemingly an impossibly short amount of time, it is more likely to stay with you for a long time.
For example I can still remember the exact details of two particular short stories I came across around twenty five years ago.
The first was a sixty second short film about a man who was trying to kill a cockroach in his apartment that refuses to die. In the end he blows up his home and the roach still lives.
The second was a five minute short about a guy who finds a set of keys at a train station tagged with an address. He goes to the house and ends up digitally sealed inside and the only way to feed himself, is to also feed the cats. After a week the owner comes back, and the two of them go to the same train station to drop the tagged keys onto the floor.
The thing is, I didn't even watch the first one, it was a script someone had given me to read, and I still remember it now.
*Why?*
I believe it's because these stories managed to give me an entire narrative in such a short space of time and were perfectly pitched to trigger my imagination into colouring the story even further.
So to that end, especially for someone like myself who is sometimes prone to verbosity, short form story telling is a good skill.
Of course a lot of the things I have written on Hive are short form, indeed my *Mega City Tales* series is a collection of short sci-fi stories.
However flash fiction appeals to me because it is difficult. How can you tell an entire story, rich with detail, nuance, drama, tension, change and all the things that mesh together in order to weave an intricate tale, in such a short space of time?
The Purpose of The Flash Fictioners
I've laid out some of what I'm about to say in the group description, so here I'm going to go into a bit more detail as to why I started the group and what I'd love to see it become.
**It's About The Art**
First and foremost if you're a creative writer at whatever stage in your development, you should join this group if you are passionate about writing and self-improvement within the craft. Most importantly, you should not be afraid to fail.
Not every single story we write is going to be amazing, however it is the striving towards perfection that enables us to grow as creators.
**Growth Is Reward**
Of course if you are writing on the Hive blockchain then you have been used to getting rewarded for your efforts. Maybe you haven't yet managed to break a dollar or you could be someone who earns hundreds per post.
There is obviously nothing wrong with that, however if you're joining this group because you think you may get madly rewarded for it, you may be disappointed.
My vote is not worth much at the moment and I can't guarantee the people who vote for me will vote for you. For the time being at least, this is going to be purely for the love of it.
I'm not saying that being a member of this group won't pay off at some point in the future, however for now it is all about growing your skills as a writer, sharing stories and ideas and entertaining your readers.
**Getting Better**
As a fellow member of the Flash Fictioners I will behave as I'd expect you to. Which is to encourage and help fellow authors in the group.
So for instance if I read a story whereby I feel I can give good feedback, then I'll give out some constructive criticism
This may take the form of actual direct advice on writing styles, or asking questions of the story and characters. Or maybe in some cases linking to outside resources that I feel have helped me grow in the writing process.
Remember constructive criticism isn't about being nice or nasty, but giving feedback and advice that the author can take away and act upon.
Of course I'm not expecting every single comment to be a detailed critical analysis of the work, because of course some of us just read for pleasure and have no interest in any type of creative writing.
**Competitions**
So all that said regarding rewards, there will be the opportunity to earn some crypto by entering the Fast Fictioners competitions running from time to time.
These comps at first will just be for a few Hive here and there as I'll be using a portion of my rewards to fund them. Hopefully after a while I'll be able to run larger comps and who knows? Maybe a story-loving Hive Whale will sponsor the group.
My main motivation with competition is to encourage quality. I want *The Fast Fictioners* to be the most creative, quality-content-creating group on the entire blockchain and I'm prepared to use my own finances to fund that goal!
A Good Story
If we strip a story down to its bare bones, then what do we see there? In other words; *what makes a good story?*
To boil it down to the bare minimum a story must have conflict, tension and change. How you express this is up to you.
The story could be about the time you went to the dentist to remove a molar, it doesn't matter as long as you convey the conflict, tension and change in the moment.
Maybe you were conflicted because you're terrified of dentists but don't want your child to be worried. Maybe there was a sexual tension between you and your dentist. Perhaps the change you experienced, can be expressed by how you felt about the dentistry profession after you left.
The fact is, any story can be told well or badly, it's *how* you tell it.
There is a saying amongst the writing community and that is:
*show, don't tell.*
This can also be transposed as; *describe, don't explain*.
So you could give me an itinerary for the day you went to the dentist, detailing your movements and the exact time of the procedure. Which would of course bore me to tears.
Or you could entertain me by describing your visit in wonderful illustrious detail, full of sound, sight and smell, so that I almost feel like it is me sitting in that chair as you spin your yarn.
For The LOLs
Some of you may just want to be connected to good writing and you're just joining for the quality content and any lols that might be generated along the way. Which is more than awesome!
*Without readers, us writers are nothing but journal keepers.*
The Rules
The first rule of The Flash Fictioners, is unlike Fight Club, you can, and in fact are encouraged to, talk about The Flash Fictioners as much as you like.
The second is that all stories submitted to The Flash Fictioners group must be between 250-1200 words in length. Some purists might say that it should be at least 500-1500 however I think that once you're around the 1500 mark, you may as well call it a short story and be done.
If your story is more than 1200 words (minus title) and you really can't get it down any further. Then please save that for one of the other wonderful writing groups.
**(Please include a word count at the top of the article. Title does not go towards the count.)**
Thirdly as I've mentioned above, submissions must endeavour to be creative. I don't want to hear about your trip to the beach if you explain it to me, however if you describe it, then by all means tell me about it.
Engage in constructive criticism. This is so important for a writer, we need feedback, tell us why you liked a persons tale or how you think it could be improved. I'm sure it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, be respectful.
Just remember, being respectful doesn't mean you have to suck up to me or anyone else. If you don't like what I or anyone else has written, give us some constructive feedback, as this is one of the best ways to improve.
As I've said above, tell stories, this is a creative writing group so whatever subject you choose, describe creatively!
Lastly let's all have fun! This is about growing your talents while pushing your creativity to its absolute limit. Enjoy the process, enjoy the feeling of getting a little better every day.
Prometheus Wept
I have already given the first contribution, I hope to see you over there, tell me what you thought of the story in the comments section.
Prometheus Wept https://ecency.com/hive-120646/@cryptogee/flash-fiction-freewrites-prometheus-wept
compilation of my day to day
This might sound too biblical because we are all familiar of the concept that the world was created by the Supreme being ex nihilo, or from nothing. However, this does not imply though that I was created out of nothingness. The idea of Ex Nihilo is that the Almighty One created everything from nothingness out of love—and I want to emphasize on love.
I was created out of love and nurtured with love by my family. I was born on 02 February 1995 in the beautiful place called Cebu, Philippines. From the moment of birth up until today has been a series of ups and downs which made me who I am today. My baby steps, literally and figuratively, became avenue for a series of discoveries which I am willing to share with you. As the famous latin dictum would say, “Nebo dat quod non habet”, that is “you cannot give what you do not have”, I will impart to you all that I experience—from the people whom I love to the things I love to do—because, just like the Universe, from nothing, I became something… or, from being no one, I became someone.
I am Eunice, and I welcome you to my universe… youreuniverse.
**Section 2: I’m the Last but Definitely not the Least… Just like Pluto**
I am the youngest among the three siblings. However, I am definitely not the last in terms of career nor competencies. Although competition is present to some family set up, mine revolves on cooperation. My idea of family is circular wherein we revolve for each other and to each other because, after all, this is where I experienced love and to love.
Just like a normal family, there are squabbling, and sometimes serious fights. My family experienced these too to the point that one has to leave the family circle. My father and mother got separated. It was a challenging moment because the love that was concentrated to a loving home will be was in trouble of being diluted. Even so, we did not let it happen. Yes, there were disappointments but love is way stronger than hate. We condemned the action not the person because no matter how long it takes, human beings have the capacity to change for good.
Instead of letting the foundation of our family undergo dilapidation, we strive harder to make it even more steadfast. None of struggled alone. We struggled together. And that was the specific point in life that we discovered that we were indomitable because we were together. Our experiences were our means to fuel up in order to succeed in life.
Each of us has our own career path and even if I were the youngest, I am very proud to say that I have established myself. In my college days, I experienced selling ham sandwich to my classmates. I am not ashamed of it because that was the call of the moment in order to help my family and sustain my needs. I also became a call center agent which helped me improve my communication skills. After graduation, I worked in one of the biggest food manufacturing companies in the Philippines as part of the learning and development team in the Human Resources Department. I worked so hard up until I was transferred to the Sales and Marketing Division for Frontline Talent and Development. Because of my dedication and loyalty, I am currently a Supervisor Trainee handling two sections. Training people became not only my passion but also my mission in life. As I am a leader myself, it is my responsibility to help others discover their potentials and make more leaders. Well, my mother did not raise a girl. She raised a strong independent woman who is able to run the world. 😉
**Section 3: Love Conquers All… It shines bright like the Sun**
Aside from my family’s love to me, I also had a fair share of exclusive relationships.
I believe that love is not a fairy tale. I ain’t no princess but I deserve true love that is tested by fire rather than your typical true love’s kiss from a total stranger.
Currently, I am in a long term relationship for nine years already. My partner and I showed the world that love conquers all. Our love bore fruit. Unfortunately, that fruit fell out of the tree too early. I had a miscarriage. It was so devastating after all the anticipation of creating my own family. However, because of the love that my partner gave me alongside my family’s and friends’, I was able to cope up gradually and accepted the misfortune. I became stronger not only because of my own efforts but because of the love that was given to me. It may sound cliché but it is real. Love is one, true, good, and beautiful…with the right people.
**Section 4: Just Like Gravity, the Sea Attracts Me**
Yes! I am a Thalassophile. It’s as if the sea is calling me to come to her cold yet comforting embrace. Because of that, I became a free diver. I have reached 12 meters deep and I still plan to go even deeper.
Why am I doing this? Is this about recreation or something profound? It’s both, actually. After working so hard, I deserve to unwind and wash my stress away. It’s some sort of a personal ablution wherein the water’s surface tension slowly stripped my problems off and resurfaced calm and relaxed. Well, we all want to release stress in any way possible, right?
Now, the profound purpose why I love to free dive is to have a sense of connectedness. Water’s cohesive properties teaches me to be one with myself and with nature. **Every time I free dive, the deeper I get, the clearer my mind is because of all the focus and control that I do.** I do not know if you experienced this but if I set myself to a specific goal, I tend to feel all the minute details in my surrounding. I obtain self-awareness. It’s as if I experienced, too, the Ecstasy of Sta. Teresa wherein I have a mystical experience every time I dive into the depths of Poseidon’s turf… more like a state of transcendence.
Free diving is never easy. Discipline is necessary. Process is very much essential and there is no room for shortcuts. as there are no shortcuts. With this, I would love to share to you all about my free diving experiences so that you, too, would hAve a glimpse of its beauty. 😍
**Section 5: Gratitude is the Memory of the Heart**
I am writing this not only because I do not have anything to do but because I am thankful for what I have received in life. Yes, the world did not promise us a bed of roses. Thorny days will come but it is on these days that we will be able to give value to life and make the best out of it.
BTC VS Taxes
In a society where governments and big business are in cahoots, prioritizing their powerful positions, lavish lifestyles and ever growing profits over the well being of the constituencies that gave them their lofty positions in the first place, bitcoin and alt-coins represent breathing room, a chance to escape from under the thumb of the powers that have screwed us over for decades, if not centuries.
https://youtu.be/f4aXe2Yatt8
Pardon the rude language and the unnecessarily long and clumsy sentence in the introduction above. It's just that I get angry when news like what I'm about to share with you reaches me. The TLDR is this: the U.S. House of Representatives have just passed a bipartisan bill that contains a cryptocurrency tax reporting requirement that is likely to affect all Americans who are active in the crypto-sphere. This is an outrage. Now, don't get me wrong here: I'm not against taxation. Taxation is, in my opinion, the price of admission we pay to take part in a functional and organized society with roads, schools, access to healthcare and so on. Also, as long as we live under capitalism, where the natural tendency is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few winners who get to rule over the 99 percent losers, taxation is necessary to redistribute wealth and power in order to maintain at least the appearance of a just society. The idea behind taxation is alright, but there are right and wrong ways to go about its implementation, and what I'm about to share with you is the wrong way. That's business as usual, unfortunately.
Let me first explain to you something that should be obvious, just in case you've missed it: insanely rich individuals and insanely large multinational corporations tend to skip out on paying their fair share of taxes. They have an army of expensive lawyers and accountants that exploit every loophole known to mankind, they move their wealth abroad, to tax-havens, and they don't pay income tax. When you hear, as we occasionally do, some billionaire CEO proclaiming that they will accept an annual wage of $1.00 (one dollar), they're full of it. Why? Because their wealth isn't measured in wages, but in assets and the income generated by those assets; that income is taxed at a far lower rate, and often is stored at a far away location where they pay even less or nothing at all. Amazon paid $0.00 federal income taxes in 2018 and instead collected a $129 million tax rebate from the government. Furthermore, American citizens subsidize Amazon with their tax dollars because a large part of their workforce relies on the social safety net due to the low wages paid to them. The same goes for Walmart, Costco and so on. If that doesn't make you angry, just stick with me. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/why-amazon-paid-no-federal-income-tax.html
Why Rich People Are The Reason America Is Broke | The Amber Ruffin Show
The Treasury Department published a document in September called The Case for a Robust Attack on the Tax Gap. So, what is the tax gap? https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/the-case-for-a-robust-attack-on-the-tax-gap
***Today, the “tax gap”—the difference between taxes that are owed and collected—totals around $600 billion annually and will mean approximately $7 trillion of lost tax revenue over the next decade.***
source: U.S. Department of the Treasury https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/the-case-for-a-robust-attack-on-the-tax-gap
Now, who do you think the IRS will haunt to close this gap? You've guessed it; the citizens at the lower rungs of the wealth and income pyramid. They refuse, as they've done for decades now, to go after the millionaires and billionaires. The video linked above is funny, but its message should make you angry. As stated in the video, the IRS spends a disproportionate amount of their time and resources chasing down the people who make the least money. Prime among their targets are the people who claim the "Earned Income Tax Credit," which was created to refund tax money to the working poor. If you claim the earned income tax credit, you're more likely to face IRS scrutiny than someone making twenty times as much. I love the comparison made in the video: it's like Batman deciding to let the Joker go so that he can focus on some guy fishing without a license. That's crazy...
Now, on to the relation with us, crypto-heads. We are the little people who discovered a way out of this criminally unjust game. But with this latest bipartisan infrastructure bill, the powers that be will attempt to close the small freedom loophole gifted to us by Satoshi Nakamoto. The bill will cost $1 trillion and has provisions that will help pay for it. The crypto-specific provision would raise $28 billion, and consists of an amendment to a law that was written nearly 40 years ago that applies to in-person transactions of $10,000 and more. The amendment *"essentially requires recipients to verify the sender’s personal information and record their Social Security number, the nature of the transaction and other information, and report the transaction to the government within 15 days."* And non-compliance will amount to being a felony, with the risk of jail-time. There are problems though with the implementation of this law:
***Unlike other tax code violations, violations of 6050I are a felony, and some lawyers have pointed out that, applied to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the law could be nearly impossible to comply with.***
source: CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/06/house-sends-infrastructure-bill-with-crypto-tax-provision-to-us-president/
This makes me so angry... It's not that I'm worried yet. I mean, crypto can't be stopped, the cat is out of the bag, Pandora's box can't be closed. But laws like these will set back the development of financial technologies and blockchain innovation in America. And we know that the rest of the developed world tends to follow in America's footsteps. Again, it's not that I'm against taxation, it's that I'm against the powers that are against my freedom. Freedom, if it means anything, has one crucial requirement, and that's that wealth and power should be distributed as egalitarian as possible and that the rules apply to each and everyone of us equally, but they clearly don't. I can understand KYC requirements for centralized exchanges (which is why we should all embrace the advent of decentralized exchanges) and other brokers, but this bill essentially expands the term "broker" to encompass literally all of us. And you might think that there's nothing to worry about because we, little people, won't transact sums of $10,000 or larger. Well, we'll speak again when, as a consequence of rampant inflation, $10,000 is just enough to buy yourself a good meal...
https://youtu.be/N4cCAeEH2z4
BREAKING: Joe Biden is About to Cancel Cryptocurrency in the USA!? (500M+ Reddit Users INCOMING)
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!
Loop Dex Review and Airdrop Analysis using Flipside Crypto
Hello Everyone!!! I hope you are having a great time over there? It's really nice to see you visit my blog today and I must say I'm really happy to have a great personality like you visiting my blog today 😊. Thank you once again 💕.
I could remember sharing an article which has to do with the introduction of Loop Finance and I stated it on that same article that Loop Finance is planning to have their own personal Dex which is known as Loop Dex. If you missed out the article, i suggest you check out the article or post link which has been attached at the end of this publication for proper understanding of what Loop Finance is all about. https://www.loop.markets/?ref=2206
Today this post will be more focused on Loop Dex and I will also be sharing my analysis about the previous Loop airdrop using data generated from Flipside Crypto. I also use this medium to congratulate users who got the airdrop after they got notified via my previous post about the introduction of Loop Finance whose link can be found at the end of this post. I also hope you won't miss out on the next Loop monthly airdrop. If you really don't want to miss out on the next airdrop, I suggest you read this post because I will sharing with you how you can claim your free monthly Loop tokens from Loop Finance. https://www.loop.markets/?ref=2206
**A Brief Review on Loop Dex**
According to a source from @terralunadaily and @lunarcrush on twitter, it was observed that Loop Finance was one of the top most influential Terra (Luna) project situated at the first position with number of followers greater than forty-four thousands users on twitter as shown in the image below. https://ecency.com/@terralunadaily https://ecency.com/@lunarcrush
There are many factors attributed to this but one of the important reason behind the increasing number of followers is that Loop Finance is one of the top project on Terra (LUNA) blockchain because the project is backed up by strong community members and qualified team members. The project gained more attention with the introduction of Loop Dex in which users are able to claim ***free Loop tokens.*** just by holding LOOPR tokens on the website or ***by providing liquidity on Loop Dex***. This is why we really need to know what Loop Dex is all about and the features attributed to Loop Dex itself which makes it more unique in the Terra ecosystem. https://www.loop.markets/?ref=2206
**What is Loop Dex**
Loop Dex is an AMM Decentralized exchange platform developed or built on the Terra blockchain which enable users to engage in crypto transaction such as swapping, staking, farming, creating and adding pools.
There's still more to the features attributed to Loop Dex apart from being a decentralized exchange platform. The team is also working on listing many native Terra assets both existing and new projects on Loop Dex. Also Solana and Etherium tokens will also be listed on Loop Dex with the help of Wormhole Bridge. The project development is still on going as some Terra assets such as ***DPH, UST, ANC, MINE, LOTA, ALTE, MIR, LOOPR, STT, SPEC, TWD*** and the greatest of them all ***LUNA*** are already available on Loop Dex even though there is still more to come other than these set of assets.
According to Loop Dex whitepaper, the platform will also be allowing swapping transactions between chains such as BNB, LTC, BTC, MATIC, DOT, VET and many others including Thorchain synthetic assets through Thorchain integration. Loop Dex will also be creating incentivised liquidity pools and community pools to allow other projects incentivise their own liquidity pools with their native tokens which can help in bringing a lot of liquidity to the protocol.
**Loop Tokenomics**
As seen from the image above, the total or available supply of LOOP tokens one billion(1,000 000,000). The 1 billion LOOP tokens will be divided by sharing 5% of the LOOP tokens for airdrop, 15% for private sale, 15% for core team members, 25% for Liquidity Mining Fund (LMF), 20% for partnerships, 25% for community fund, 10% for treasury and the remaining 10% will be used for charity (Loop charitable fund).
**Analysis and Data using Flipside Crypto**
Flipside Crypto has been one of my best analytical tool when it comes to producing visual representation and generating data about Terra (LUNA) and coins or tokens developed on the Terra blockchain.
I will be sharing my view and analysis about Loop Liquidity providers(Loop LPers) and the Loop airdrop using the data generated from Flipside Crypto by a Sem1d5 (MARNEESEAWEED).
**Loop Liquidity Providers between 7/10/2021 to 28/10/2021**
For those who are very conversant and well updated about Loop news, the team stated earlier this month of October that they plan to reward users by distributing or sharing 2M LOOP to these users calculated daily over the 22 days (90,100 LOOP daily) just for providing liquidity to the Loop Protocol between 7th of October to 20th of October initially before the date was extended to 28th of October 2021.
There's actually no doubt that some users were also able to utilize this opportunity to earn more free Loop tokens by providing liquidity to the Loop Protocol.
According to the chart shown above, we can observe the rate at which most users bought Loop tokens on the 8th of October 2021. The cause of the increasing purchase of Loop tokens could be as a result of users who plan to earn more Loop tokens by providing liquidity to the Loop Pool as this will make them earn part of the available 2,000,000 Loop tokens allocated for the airdrop.
According to the chart shown above, we can observe the rate at which most users bought Loop tokens on the 8th of October 2021. The cause of the increasing purchase of Loop tokens could be as a result of users who plan to earn more Loop tokens by providing liquidity to the Loop Pool as this will make them earn part of the available 2,000,000 Loop tokens allocated for the airdrop.
Also from the chart shown above, we can deduce that there was a slight increase in the number of Loop liquidity providers during the early month of October to 28th of October.
**Airdrop Analysis**
The number of users who claimed Loop airdrop is estimated to be above 12,000 users judging from the number of addresses generated by Flipside Crypto.
Some users who claimed Loop airdrop also sold their Loop to UST. The number of addresses who converted their Loop to UST was estimated to be 12,711 addresses as shown in the screenshot. This implies that some addresses who got the Loop airdrop did one of these things. Some of the users who got the free Loop airdrop converted their Loop tokens to UST while some of the users staked their Loop tokens to provide Liquidity to the Pool.
**Don't Miss Out on free Loop Monthly Airdrop**
You still have the opportunity to start earning free Loop tokens just by holding LOOPR tokens on your terra Station wallet or make sure you earn and hold some LOOPR tokens on Loop Finance just by engaging in the community and creating good quality cryptocurrency contents. https://www.loop.markets/?ref=2206
Are We Being Misled About Demand?
We hear a lot about the supply chain issues. There is no doubt that the economy was nuked in early 2020 due to the lockdowns from COVID. At the same time, the supply chains were completely disrupted as companies, globally, shut down operations. In short, nothing was moving very fast.
With people locked up at home, they decided to do a bit of shopping. This could be done online and people had money. Since services were closed off, people were able to concentrate their purchases to IT and durable goods. These sectors did very well and the products that were available were quickly scoffed up.
This created a problem. When retailers when to refill the orders, they were told to just wait. Delivery times exploded as items were very slow to be replaced. Even after economies started to open up, the process was very slow.
Here we sit 18 months later and the global supply chains are still disrupted. Or are they?
Perhaps what the financial media and the talking heads on television are telling us is not quite accurate.
Shipping
It is best to find out about the movement of products by looking at shipping. After all, most of what is produced and delivered globally happens on the open seas. Thus, monitoring what is going on there is vital.
For this, we turn to the **Baltic Dry Index**. This is consider the benchmark as to what is taking place within the shipping realm. We are getting some rather interesting data coming from there.
Before going into the chart, here is what Wikipedia said about the BDI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Dry_Index
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange. The BDI is a composite of the Capesize, Panamax and Supramax Timecharter Averages. It is reported around the world as a proxy for dry bulk shipping stocks as well as a general shipping market bellwether.
Now let us take a look at what things look like:
Going back to the start, we see how the chart lays out. Not surprisingly, last year, prices shot up. This was often discussed as the cost of shipping skyrocketed. Companies were paying a lot more per container due to the increased demand. After all, since things were locked down, after they reopened, customers wanted products. Whatever came off the factory lines was immediately shipped out. There was a shortage of everything.
This continues to this day. We are told how there is still demand out there and the consumer is strong. However, the BDI is issuing a warning on this idea.
Here is a close up of the last year. Notice how things turned of late.
We saw a 48% drop in the index over the last month. It has registered 11 straight down days.
Does this make any sense? If there is a major supply chain shortage of containers along with consumers screaming for product, why are the shipping rates suddenly plummeting?
Supply and demand says that if the later is strong, prices will be *increasing*, not decreasing.
Yet they are falling off a cliff.
How can that be?
Demand Not As Strong As Made Out
The answer to this is that **demand** is not what people are claiming. In fact, one of the main indicators of consumer expectations is coming in rather poor.
We are seeing the numbers drifting down each month in the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey. This is not a heathy sign for the economy. http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/
Here is the summary of the latest results:
As we can see, both the Month-over-Month (MoM) and Year-over-Year (YoY) are both reading negative. What we are seeing is the consumers are not buying into this idea that things are so great. For an economy like the United States, which is made up of 70% consumption, that is going to have a massive impact.
This could be leading to the sudden drop in the cost of shipping. If people are starting to turn away from purchasing, then the entire system pulls a reversal from last year. Instead of the suppliers cutting off the shipping, it is the demand side that freezes it.
Of course, considering the decline in China's GDP from the second to third quarter, this also lines up. When the world's largest exporter has a major decline, it is time to start asking questions.
There is no way with data like this that we can conclude anything is going well. There are major issues forming, something that the media is omitting from their narrative.
In fact, in some categories it is to a level we have not seen **in 40 years**.
This is the sentiment results for durable goods, vehicles, and real estate. Notice how it is much worse than either the Great Recession or the aftermath of the DotCom bubble.
Sorry but there is no way to conclude that people are going to be rushing out and spending a lot of money in this areas. This is something that is hard to overcome.
It looks like there is a major demand issue starting to line up. We can expect this to hit the numbers for companies going forward. This does not bode well for the economy.
Trouble In Financial Paradise: A $60 Million Alleged Dog Coin Rug Pull
It’s all exciting when we joke around meme coins price springing so high. We see it as a joke money forgetting we can also get joke rug pull. This meme coin craze is causing a lot of people to FOMO. You know that feeling of missing out on being an early investor on bitcoin, then there came the canine coin which was supposed to be a joke towards bitcoin. Yeah you are right I was talking about Dogecoin.
Few years ago, as a matter of fact 2 years ago no one really cared about Dogecoin. But for some lucky weird reasons some people bought Dogecoin and held it before the popularity of the coin. Fast forward to the the ending of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, Dogecoin was the star in the midst of other cryptocurrencies. It was looking like a stepping stone became the corner stone type of story. Everybody wanted to join in the meme coin craze and lots of people bought a lot. I bought too, I didn’t want to miss out also. We are all here to make money. The cryptocurrency,Dogecoin, got the full support of the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk. I bought more for that reason.
All of a sudden, there came shiba Inu, the supposed coin to over take Dogecoin. Well it did in market capitalization. Suddenly we started seeing people switch their attention from doegecoin to shiba Inu. I mean that’s life, everyone is always trying to make the best gain. We all saw testimonies of how lots of people have made millions of $$$$ buying these coins early, sometimes you begin to wonder, when will I be lucky enough to buy a coin so early it will make me a millionaire by making me millions of dollars.
The quest for early meme coin searching and the latest canine dog(since it looks like that’s the specie coin that makes people rich) coin began.
The latest dog coin that got people pumping their money was the AnubisDAO. Which was supposed to be a fork off the OlympusDAO. It’s ridiculous how desperate people are right now due to FOMO. This is the major disadvantage of FOMO. Scammers are seeing that Dog inspired coins is what attracts naive investors into pouring their hard earned money into. So they use that as a bait.
How do you invest on a coin that has no website just discord server and Twitter account. Don’t get me wrong am not saying a project with a website can’t rugpull. But not having a website is supposed to be an early red flag for you.
Investors decided they were going to make millions of dollars by pouring a total of $60 Million into this project to get ANKH tokens. But unfortunately the developers vanished with the money by transferring the liquidity in the pool to another address. Different investors have been showing their regrets through tweets.
Bounties has been placed on the developers of the AnubisDAO, angry investors are working with the police to apprehend these guys. These developers are just sitting in their homes $60 Million richer.
In investing in meme coins, aside Dogecoin, I don’t trust any dog coin, that was the reason I didn’t invest in shiba Inu. I’m not regretting that even though the profit is outrageously high right now. I also don’t invest in meme coins that have just telegram and discord as a means to communicate and interact with their investors. I don’t trust meme coin with complete anonymous developers. This is because when they vanish, you don’t have any body or a facial proof to hold responsible. And lastly I don’t believe in the next bitcoin,Ethereum or Dogecoin killer project. I believe in having a unique use case and working towards that.
**Others...**
*"Good coffee will always find an audience."- Bem Philosophy Coffee*
Coffee is an object that has the value of the subjectivity of the most high in the world. If you ask ten random people, to a question “How good coffee to drink ?” of course you will get different answers depending on on who questions that we ask.
Coffee is drunk by a construction worker to increase his stamina is certainly different with a cup of coffee that is drunk by celebgram which think about what becomes of the content instagram in that day. But one thing is for sure, a good coffee will always find an audience.
**Find Coffeeshop**
For coffee lovers, a day without drinking a cup of coffee will feel empty. So also when we are going out of town or overseas, usually coffee connoisseurs will add the list visit a coffee shop when you go to a new place.
This time, I visited one of the coffee shops in Berastagi, one of the districts located in the district of Tanah Karo Regency, within about 2 hours drive from where I live. Berastagi is a cool town, as a place of refuge citizens of medan city from the daily routine and the routine of work. Berastagi is located in the high land and is situated between two volcanoes, namely Sinabung Mountain and Sibayak Mountain. We can feel the cool air of the mountains when you come to this city. One of the options to warm the cold air Berastagi is by drink a cup of coffee.
**Biji Hitam Coffee Shop**
I took the opportunity to visit one of the local coffee shop there that Biji Hitam Coffee Shop. Biji Hitam is a coffee shop that has stood since March 19, 2016 and is located in Jl. Kolam Renang, Gundaling I, Berastagi. Biji Hitam Coffee Shop located in the settlement of the population that position a little higher than the road. I came to this coffee shop during the day and on weekdays, so that more can experience the enjoyment and can also chat with the owner of the coffee shop. Just info, as at the end of the week, this coffee shop will be very crowded by customers who come from different cities, mainly in Medan City.
From my experience of visiting the coffee shop and looking for some info about this coffee shop, Biji Hitam Coffee Shop is the first coffee shop in Berastagi which serves coffee with manual methods of brewing. This coffee shop is also the only one who brings third wave coffee. Earlier shop-coffee shop which has been in Berastagi serves black coffee or milk coffee that is brewed in the traditional way.
**Design Coffee Shop**
A traditional feel to be the hallmark of this coffee shop. To reach the main building, we'll have to ride with the pure use of material stones, and on the first floor of the building functioned as a place of roasting coffee and the second floor is a place that functioned as a coffee shop. When I went to that coffee shop, here again clearly hear the latest songs of Adele played through the speakers of the coffee shop, probably to break the silence or the owner coffee shop again want to listen to the song.
When we get into Biji Hitam Coffee Shop, we could see a variety of ornament unique coffee shop this look so cozy and comfortable. Bench and table in Biji Hitam Coffee Shop using the material of wood used pallets, and looks also there is a table made from wooden cable reels phone.
Design wall colors painted black and wood ornament in some corner of the room and the furniture to be the distinctive style of this coffee shop. When I was in this coffee shop, I like entering into a time machine that move me to a different time. A time where all was so thick with the traditional culture, peaceful and far from the conflicts of life.
**Menu Coffee Shop**
As a coffee shop that provides a menu of manual brewing, the coffee beans that we can taste is the coffee beans locally from Tanah Karo. Initially, we might be a little confused when selecting coffee beans to manual brewing because Biji Hitam Coffee Shop use 100 % coffee beans local from the village around Berastagi. There are several roasted beans that are on the table bar it is Mount Kaba, Lau Gedang, Onions, Aji Nembah, Beads Huluan, and Aji Julu. All of it, is the name of the village from where the coffee beans come from.
In addition to the manual brewing, there is also a very diverse menu, that is also available in Espresso, Americano, Latte, Cappucinno, and Caramel Macchiato. Don't worry about the taste of the signature Espresso in addition to this coffee shop uses quality coffee beans. This coffee shop is also supported espresso machine from Simonelli latest output. For who don't like coffee, there are also several drinks non coffee like Lemon Tea, Hot Chocolate or milkshakes. To accompany a cup of coffee Biji Hitam Coffee Shop also provides a menu of foods such as fried rice, fried rice, curry and a variety of snacks such as spring rolls chicken, fried potatoes, and grilled banana.
I ordered two drinks, namely Manual Brewing V60 Aji Julu and Earl Grey Milk Tea. For the coffee menu I select based on the recommendations of the owner BijiHitam Coffee Shop. In the coffee I drink, I can feel the sweet fruity like the taste of citrus, acidity of the coffee is also low and the time after taste I feel like the exotic taste, but I can't describe because in addition to enjoying the coffee I also enjoy the atmosphere of the coffee shop and air of the mountains.
For you who stop by to Berastagi, come to the Biji Hitam Coffee Shop. Enjoy a cup of coffee and you will believe that happiness in a cup is indeed true. Thank you for visiting the blog and reading my post, if you feel this post is helpful for other people, you can reblog or leave a comment.
[ENG|ESP] Slender: The Arrival // In the search of an old friend
2021 is getting closer and closer to the end, and I don't know if it will be something general or just me, but I have seen several things alluding to memes and trends of almost 10 years ago, that time when Minecraft began to become popular and was cataloged as “rat boy game”, and it was the rise of creepypastas, Ben Drowned, Tails Doll, Herobrine, and many other stories that deprived more than one teenager of sleep, I personally had an indescribable fear of Sonic.exe, to the point that even to this day it causes me some uneasiness.
El 2021 está cada vez más cerca de terminar, y no se si será algo general o solo yo, pero he visto varias cosas a alusivas a memes y tendencias de hace casi 10 años, aquella época donde Minecraft se empezaba a hacer popular y se catalogaba como “juego de niño rata”, y era el auge de los creepypastas, Ben Drowned, Tails Doll, Herobrine, y muchas otras historias que privaban del sueño a más de un joven, personalmente me producía un miedo indescriptible Sonic.exe, al punto de que aún a dia de hoy me produce algo de intranquilidad.
But on the side of video games themselves, Slender: The Eight Pages was released in 2012, a test by Parsec Productions that ended up going viral on YouTube and therefore we all ended up playing it, the principle was very simple, the whole game takes place in a forest completely surrounded by a fence from which we cannot get out, only armed with a flashlight we must look for 8 notes distributed in the different sections of the forest, while more notes are collected, a tall and slender being like his own name is following us very closely, Slenderman.
Pero del lado de los videojuegos propiamente dichos, fue lanzado en el año 2012 Slender: The Eight Pages, una prueba por parte de Parsec Productions que se terminó haciendo viral en YouTube y por ende todos terminamos jugando, el principio era muy simple, la totalidad del juego se desarrolla en un bosque totalmente rodeado de una cerca del cual no podemos salir, solo armados con una linterna debemos buscar 8 notas repartidas en las diferentes secciones del bosque, mientras más notas se recogen, un ser alto y delgado como su nombre lo indica nos sigue muy de cerca, Slenderman.
This is no surprise to anyone, even having a movie the image of Slenderman is known to many of us who frequent "those sides", but back to the game, as I said it was nothing more than a beta, the final product, Slender: The Arrival, saw the light some time later for technically each platform of that moment, a complete game with different levels, and even a story.
The protagonist is Lauren, a girl who goes to the forest in search of her friend Kate, who lives there, next to Slenderman (it sounds like a nice place to live honestly), but Lauren doesn't find Kate anywhere so the game goes about Lauren looking everywhere for Kate and as she finds different documents that add context and depth to the whole thing.
Esto no es sorpresa para nadie, teniendo incluso una película la imagen de Slenderman es conocida para muchos que frecuentamos “esos lados”, pero volviendo al juego, como ya dije no se trataba de nada más que una beta, el producto final, Slender: The Arrival, vio la luz tiempo después para tecnicamente cada plataforma de ese momento, un juego completo y con diferentes niveles, e incluso una historia.
La protagonista es Lauren, una chica que va al bosque en búsqueda de su amiga Kate, que vive allá, junto a Slenderman (suena como un lugar lindo para vivir sinceramente), pero Lauren no encuentra a Kate por ningún lado así que el juego se resume en ella buscando a Kate por todas partes mientras va encontrando diferentes documentos que le añaden contexto y profundidad a todo el asunto.
Slender: The Arrival is divided into chapters in which we will change the map but the objective is more or less the same, find 8 pages, turn on 5 generators, things of that style that involve taking a good couple of laps around the map while Slenderman (or someone else) is chasing us. Because one of the biggest annoyances of this game was not even Slenderman, but Proxy, his assistant who actively pursues us in a couple of situations, a female figure that runs wildly behind us and that we can temporarily stop by focusing the light of the flashlight. on her face, if she catches us her attacks are not lethal, but they will make it easier for Slenderman to catch us.
The formula of The Eight Pages translates quite well to The Arrival, because the gameplay is basically the same, Lauren has a certain amount of stamina so she gets tired if we run too much, in addition to the flashlight that above the Normal difficulty, it wears out over time and makes everything else difficult. Lauren also carries a camera but this is more than anything aesthetic since it isn't like Outlast for example that we can take advantage of night vision, at most we can zoom a bit, and that's it.
Slender: The Arrival se dividen en capítulos en los cuales cambiaremos de mapa pero el objetivo es más o menos el mismo, buscar 8 páginas, encender 5 generadores, cosas de ese estilo que involucran dar un buen par de vueltas por el mapa mientras Slenderman (o alguien más) nos persigue. Porque uno de los mayores incordios de este juego no fue ni siquiera Slenderman, sino Proxy, su ayudante que nos persigue activamente en un par de situaciones, una figura femenina que corre desenfrenadamente detrás de nosotros y que podemos detener temporalemente enfocando la luz de la linterna sobre su cara, si nos atrapa sus ataques no son letales, pero le facilitarán la tarea a Slenderman para atraparnos.
La fórmula de The Eight Pages se traslada bastante bien a The Arrival, pues el gameplay es básicamente el mismo, Lauren tiene una cantidad determinada de stamina por lo que se cansa si corremos demasiado, además de la linterna que por encima de la dificultad Normal, se va gastando con el tiempo y dificultando todo lo demás. Lauren también lleva una cámara pero esto ya es más que nada algo estético ya que no es como Outlast por ejemplo que podemos aprovecharnos de la visión nocturna, cuando mucho podemos hacer un poco de zoom, y ya está.
For all this, the atmosphere is quite similar or even more "oppressive" than that of TEP, because with the added threat of Proxy and the fact that each scenario is new and unknown, as well as a strange skeletal character that we will meet from time to time, if at the time TEP caused you terror, The Arrival won't disappoint you at all, but it depends a lot on the type of things that scare you, I personally recommend it a lot in case someone has not played it yet thanks to the wide number of platforms in which it is available and its low PC requirements today.
Without much more to add here I will leave it, I have a couple of indies pending and little time to try them, so see you in the next post, bye bye.
Por todo esto, la atmósfera es bastante similar o incluso más “opresiva” que la de TEP, pues con la amenaza añadida de Proxy y el hecho de que cada escenario es nuevo y desconocido, además de un extraño personaje esquelético que nos encontraremos de vez en cuando, si en su momento TEP te causó terror, The Arrival en absoluto no te va a decepcionar, pero depende mucho del tipo de cosas que te causen miedo, personalmente lo recomiendo bastante por si alguien aún no lo ha jugado a estas alturas gracias al amplio número de plataformas en el que está disponible y sus bajos requisitos en pc a día de hoy.
Sin mucho más que agregar hasta aquí lo dejo, tengo pendientes un par de indies y poco tiempo para probarlos, así que nos vemos en el próximo post, bye bye.
Facebook's New Brand, 'Meta', Launches Them Into The Metaverse.
Rebranding a product or business can be challenging, but doing so for one of the world's largest corporations, with a history of PR problems, legal cases and even unethical scientific research - yet one that many people continue to use daily - is a particularly large task to surmount. Facebook have opted to bypass some of these challenges by keeping the Facebook brand for their Facebook app, but adding to it a parent entity called 'Meta', that focuses on 'The Metaverse'.
As I explained in a recent article that defines the Metaverse, what exactly the Metaverse is, is open to some interpretation. In Marc Zuckerberg's mind, the Metaverse is an opportunity to evolve computing and social interaction in ways that break down borders and enable us to overcome space/time limitations in new ways (that are dependent on technology). https://ecency.com/hive-187231/@ura-soul/the-best-way-to-predict-the-future-is-to-create-it-what-is-the-metaverse-and-how-could-it-change-life
Today at Connect 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta, which brings together our apps and technologies under one new company brand. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.
The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company.
In my own mind, it is up to us all what a 'metaverse' actually becomes. However, it is currently most likely to be a layer of technology that sits between the current 2D world of websites/apps and our 'real life' world of 3D physical activity which enables new 'features' to be brought to life. Boundaries between 'siloed' and compartmentalised/segregated websites and communities can be broken down by open source blockchain technology which will allow some of the features that Zuckerberg mentions, such as being able to take digital items bought in one computer game and using them in another game or a social space.
Essentially, it seems that 'metaverse' will be the name given to a means of integrating computing into ever deeper ways in our lives, while also changing the way that we interact with computers and each other in the process.
Some of the proposed technologies seem fun, such as being able to watch movies in 3D while not losing touch with the physical room you are sat in. Being able to experience a 3D representation of someone else as if they are in the room with you while you talk on the 'phone' (aka Star Wars' communications with Princess Leia - projected from R2D2) will no doubt be very popular.
At the same time, those who are more security minded and more cautious with regards the intentions of 'big tech' and it's investors, are aware of the alarming plans made by Klauss Schwabb at the World Economic Forum. His 'Great Reset' and '4th Industrial Revolution' are fancy names for what may amount to the replacement of many people with AI and the integration of control systems directly into people's bodies! What may start out as an 'efficiency drive' may quickly turn into global enslavement via technology. It is essential that no-one rush into anything here!
For those of us who have used Facebook over the years and who have been put in 'Facebook Jail' for all manner of harmless actions, the idea of Facebook wielding huge power over a technology that may become totally ubiquitous in our physical lives, even more than mobile devices are today - raises some serious issues. While Marc Zuckerberg's team have pulled out all the stops in their latest promotional video to paint a picture of an expansive and improved world, where they hold many of the master keys - it will not escape many that the risks are potentially huge too.
Deepfake Humans
We already have fairly believable fake digital videos and audio, able to be produced by anyone at home, that can trick us into thinking we are watching/listening to a real person saying/doing something when in fact we are not. Deep fake technology has the ability to deceive us into a fake reality that will become ever more challenging to pick apart mentally. We will quickly reach the point where we are unable to easily know or understand whether a video really does show a legitimate public figure or even a relative of ours, or not!
The technology revealed by Zuckerberg and Meta includes, among numerous innovations, the ability to create fully realistic 3D avatars. The following is an image from the promotional video which is a fully animated, realtime 3D avatar of one of the project's technical team. When I first saw it I did not know it was not a real video of a real person: With wide availability of such technology, the next few years are likely to bring with them an explosion of new experiences, but also new scams, intrigue and all the other 'fun' problems we currently have to deal with. Imagine if instead of getting plagued by phone calls from Indian scammers trying to pretend they are Microsoft calling to fix a virus on your computer - you instead speak with a fully realistic AI projection of a Microsoft employee and you can't tell the difference!
Clearly, the ethics and security of these technologies need to be handled as a top priority to avoid massive societal problems, the likes of which we haven't seen before.
Work Life Integration
Examples are provided of Meta's tech in the 'real world', including tools for the workplace. They actually say that working from home will become more normal and that their tech will allow offices to effectively become a thing of the past. In the following scene, we see an impromptu meeting between two colleagues, with one being projected into the room, while physically being at another location. Their architectural project is projected onto the table for discussion.
This side of things is very likely to happen and I can definitely imagine this becoming a normalised part of life. The cost savings of not travelling into a City to work each day will be huge. The reduced stress and pollution as a result will also be hard to argue with.
A Meta Social Life?
The Metaverse is also described as manifesting in our social lives. This side of things will likely be more controversial! The example is given of a music gig where someone attends with her friend in a virtual way and then the two of them attend an 'after party' in VR.
The early versions of this technology, especially when filtered through the lens of a giant corporation such as Facebook/Meta seem limited and even exploitative to me. The aim seems to be to sell as much as possible to the 'consumers', while the 'famous' are insulated as much as possible from a physical presence with everyone else.
The idea that Zuckerberg continually sells all of this as 'connecting' people and 'bringing people together' is simultaneously somewhat true but also borders on denying that the gaps in society would best be healed rather than exploited using technology in order for a few people to profit financially.
It will always be a difficult sell to convince the world to buy into a system like this when only a few can afford it and the financial/social gaps between people can absolutely be widened by the insertion of big tech companies who seek to generate ever larger profits by being a 'middle man' between most human interaction
Ultimately, how we use this kind of technology will be up to us all and I fully expect truly open source or even hacked equivalents of this technology to become available - so that their benefits can be made available to the world without users being hooked in to the demands and prices charged by massive corporations.
Hive And The Metaverse
Plenty of people I have spoken to have been alarmed by the use of the word 'Hive' in the context of both blockchain and social interaction. The desires of many to 'harness' human imagination and mentality into a kind of 'Hivemind' are real, so the concern is worth baring in mind. It is unfortunate to me that, so far at least, Hive's open source architecture means that individuals are actually empowered to create apps and services here that truly do operate as we want them to and not as others dictate.
That being said, any 'Proof of Stake' (DPOS) system such as Hive, always runs the risk of being dominated by those with the most money. This could even include being bought out by Zuckerberg in the future if it poses enough of a threat to his agenda. This is precisely the business strategy that Facebook has long employed, buying up Whatsapp and Instagram to prevent competition from stifling Facebook's growth.
However, the saving grave for Hive users and DPOS is that just as occurred with the hostile takeover of Steem, that led to the creation of Hive, any attempt to dominate the community can be met with a fork that removes the influence and allows us to start over again.
For now, the 'metaverse' functionality of Hive is pretty limited, but it contains within it the seeds of most of what is needed for it to play a part in any future Metaverse. From support for NFTs, to a rich system of social interaction and engagement, it would not be particularly difficult to integrate Hive into any Metaverse 3D VR or AR environmental system. The open nature of the Hive infrastructure means that this is quite possibly inevitable.
In some senses, the main question is whether Hive will jump into the Metaverse off the back of work done by the 'Meta' corporation or whether it will be done independently. This in turn comes down to how much resources are able to be fed into development in the Hive community. 'Meta' are so far ahead with their physical technology at this point that it seems most likely to me that we will see Meta's APIs for VR and 'Metaverse' functionality used to integrate Hive as and when they are available for use by home developers and independent companies that support Hive.
Imagine a VR ready version of Splinterlands where you can see your opponent and even talk with them and shake their hands! This is where we may well be going sooner than many imagine!
