@M3i

@M3i 11 November 2022

The icing on the $Cake One of the most dreaded events in life which most people tend to shy away from especially when they've done below expectation is evaluating the progress they've made in achieving their goals. It can be painful when one is incapable of executing tasks to their timelines. Flip the coin and  It may also serve as a morale booster and encouragement to do more when tasks were done to time or way before their deadline or the results from the tasks exceeded the expectations. I assume the latter is likely going to be the feeling by the devs at PancakeSwap by the end of 2022 with it's 4th Quarter almost running to a close. From the 1st quarter till the date the team constantly updated the community as to the targets for the respective quarters as well as the progress being made.   As stated in my previous post the team has gone above and beyond with its public relations in the course of executing the road map. They promptly informed the community whenever any challenge was encountered and also did same when such issues had been fixed. You can verify this by joining their official telegram channel https://t.me/PancakeSwapAnn  **How far so far with the PancakeSwap 2022 roadmap?** The dev team has simplified the process of the $Cake community accessing the progress made thus far by presenting the road map under 4 broad headings (Ongoing/recurring, Cooking in Q4 Backlogs and Done) as shown below . The full roadmap is publicly available at  https://docs.pancakeswap.finance/roadmap Ongoing/Recurring Regular IFOs and cIFOs Regular new Farms and Syrup Pools Farm Auctions Recently upgraded to a new format​ https://medium.com/pancakeswap/reinventing-recipe-new-updates-to-pancakeswap-farm-auctions-2ade3a0283b3?source=collection_home---4------3----------------------- UI/UX, Bug Fixes, Product Upgrades Cooking in Q4 Multichain PancakeSwap is expanding to more blockchains Trading Product Upgrade New swap router to improve capital efficiency and trading experience Market-maker integration Backlogs NFT Gamifications Potential collaborations with other top projects on BNB Chain NFT Market Phase 3 - open NFT platform Other improvements and upgrades Done Trade Stablecoin Swap Zap - Provide liquidity in one click Perpetual Trading Limit Orders Charts & other trading features on-site Migration to Exchange V2 (exchange, liquidity, farms) Pancake Bridge Token Risks Scanning Multichain Swap & Liquidity Earn CAKE Staking Fixed-term Staking CAKE Side Pool - Flexible CAKE staking on the side of locked staking Fixed-Term Staking Benefits iCAKE, IFO benefits vCAKE, weighted voting power bCAKE, farm yield booster Events with well-known projects Farms Crosschain Farming Syrup Pools Syrup Pool Farm Boosts Auto-compounding CAKE-CAKE Syrup Pool APR/APY Calculator v3 Harvest all function NFT NFT Market Phase 1 & 2(buy & sell whitelisted NFT collections) Customizable User Profile NFT drops Pancake Squad generative NFT collection Site Upgrades / CAKE / Other Products Mobile-first navigation & site overhaul Analytics: Info site IFO CAKE Pool & IFO 3.0 IFO Private Sales with NFT Utility cIFO, Private Sales with Pancake Profile points utility Token vesting iCAKE integration PCS Mini-Program in Binance App My assessment of the above mentioned items from the road map is that the dev team has done very well with execution to time. When the announcement indicating the plan to go multi chain was made in the telegram channel I assumed the target was likely the addition of a single chain. Thus when the announcement of the deployment to ETH chain was made sometime in October, I assumed that would be the last I would hear of any chain addition at least for 2022. Little did I know that I was wrong as the Chefs were busy in the kitchen baking. Fast forward a few weeks after the deployment on ETH Chain, another announcement came of plans to deploy to APTOS. True to their word, pancakeswap has now successfully deployed to the APTOS chain and can beat it's chest anywhere while laying claim to be multi chain. It is only expected that the dev team will ensure proper functioning of all the chains ad with every opportunity comes attendant responsibilities. From the road map the only area which is still somewhat pending is that of NFTs as regards Gamification and phase 3 of the NFT market. We eagerly await further announcement pertaining to these areas as well as the 2023 roadmap which we hope will bring more benefits to $Cake holders as well increased functionality to the PancakeSwap platform. Thank you for reading.

@M3i 6 November 2022

The puzzle of learned helplessness Have you ever wondered why an individual in an abusive marriage refuses to leave the marriage when given the option of doing so? or why an addict voluntarily refuses to sign up for a rehabilitation programme even though to everyone around him or her , there's a great chance that they can become clean provided they commit to the rehab programme? These two classes of individuals seem to have resigned to fate that their situation or condition can never be changed or become better despite the fact that to others around them they have the potential to turning their lives around and rewriting the story of their lives. The answer to this puzzling situation may lie in s psychological condition termed as learned helplessness. Some researchers have defined the condition or state as when an individual is unable or incapable of finding a solution out of a difficult situation even though the solution is accessible. Other researchers described the condition as a state when an individual who has repeatedly faced with a difficult challenge or situation develops a mindset that no matter how much they try they cannot control the situation or alter the outcome or result hence they resort to not bothering to exert any effort even when opportunities become available for them to alter the outcome. The condition was brought to the fore in 1967 when the duo of Professors Steven F. Maier and Seligman conducted behavioural experiments with dogs as the test subjects using methods best described as unethical as it pertains to animal rights and welfare. They divided dogs into groups and exposed a certain group to electric shocks while not providing any means for them to avoid it. The results from the experiment were shocking. They reported that dogs who had been exposed to the electric shocks stopped trying to escape the source of the shocks altogether when they were subsequently exposed to the shocks even when they could press a lever to avoid it. The researchers further subjected the theory of learned helplessness which was in its formative stages to human trials this time with loud noises in the place of electric shocks. The results obtained in the study were virtually identical to that of the trial involving dogs. Human test subjects who had no way of escaping the loud sounds in the first trials didn't bother attempting to exert effort to avoid them in subsequent trials even though a means to do so was available. ***Symptoms of learned helplessness*** Overtime as a result of research on this subject matter some symptoms have been observed to be possible indicators of learned helplessness. They include; Low self esteem Frustration Lack of exertion Passivity Giving up easily Absence of motivation  ***Causes*** The common culprits responsible for this condition include trauma, over and under parenting, child abuse and domestic violence ***The way out*** There's however light at the end of this seemingly pitch dark tunnel, just as the state or condition was learned it can also be reversed by the process of unlearning. The key to overcoming learned helplessness is mastering our responses to challenging situations in order words learning to control how we respond. The moment we give in to despair irrespective of the magnitude of the challenge we're done for. Those that overcame the most challenging situations in their lives learnt to develop the attitude of facing the challenge head on with positive thinking and hoping for a good outcome. Thank you for reading.

@M3i 4 November 2022

When crypto met law enforcement Mass adoption of cryptocurrency has gained significant traction in recent times, it is not yet Uhuru as the we are still a long way from the desired destination in this regard . Consequently at some point crypto has to be traded for USDT or other available trading pairs for onward trading to the desired local fiat currencies.  Thus for those who have chosen to exploit cryptocurrency as a means of perpetuating crime at some point the cover of anonymity which they chose to hide under will have to be broken when they have to exchange whatever illgotten cryptocurrency in their possession for local fiat.  This is because at that point which usually involves peer to peer transactions, their identity will have to be revealed as no centralized exchange or bank will accommodate any user without the necessary know your customer documentation. The blockchain itself has a unique quality which makes it useful in fighting crimes perpetrated in the cryptospace. The quality is that it's records are public and cannot be altered. Thus funds taken illegally can easily be traced by following the money trail.  Sometimes the identities of criminal elements is unmasked when they slip out of careless creating an opportunity for information such as their IP addresses to be monitored or traced.  Once one individual slips it opens a window for all those involved in the criminal network to be apprehended by law enforcement with the records of their transactions on the blockchain as solid evidence against them. It is almost become a 'necessary evil' for there to exist some sort of collaboration between law enforcement and those trying to fight crimes perpetrated in the cryptospace. You may want to think of it like some sort of back channel for communication between both parties to check mate the activities of cryptovillians. Only recently the five top centralised exchanges in South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with law enforcement agents in the country to collaborate on fighting crimes such as money laundering and investment scams in the crypto space. The exchanges involved in the deal are: Upbit Bithumb Coinone Gopax Korbit The South Korean police were motivated to push for the agreement because of the surge in crypto related financial crimes which accompanied increased mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. The crimes ranged from hacking of crypto wallets to investment scams which falsely guaranteed investors high profits. Similarly Chainalysis, one of the leading crime fighters in the crypto space have had their hands full in recent times with the surge in hacks in the DeFi space. Their crypto incident response team played a vital role in assisting law enforcement to recover about 30 million USD which had been stolen during the Ronin bridge hack.  Binance, one of the largest centralised exchanges is also not left out. It also collaborated with law enforcement in the recovery of some funds stolen when the Ronin bridge hack occured. Aside pitching in to render whatever assistance in can with fund recovery during hacks in the cryptospace, Binance is also actively involved in organizing programmes for training law enforcement agencies across the globe on how to fight crimes in the cryptospace space. As stated in a Twitter thread dated September 6, 2022.  "Binance has been collaborating with law enforcement and institutions globally to strengthen market understanding and efforts to prevent, investigate and fight cyber crimes" Binance has built a formidable team which boasts of former operatives of some of the top security agencies in the world who distinguished themselves while in service with some having garnered experience under the belt in fighting crypto related crimes. The current collaboration being witnessed between law enforcement, the centralised exchanges and some other key players in the cryptospace such as Chainalysis was inevitable with the rise of crypto related crimes with hacking of several protocols and DeFi platforms taking the center stage in recent times. Everyone desires a cryptospace that is somewhat safe to tread even though we know there will always be bad actors just as we have them in the conventional financial system who will always seek to make gains at the detriment of others. Therefore no effort should be spared towards clearing the label of the crypto space being the 'wild west' where outlaws roam free unchallenged. Thank you for reading.

@M3i 1 November 2022

What has become of the feminist movement The focus of the feminist movement is stated to be fighting for equal rights for women. Some feminist have interpreted this mission to include women doing all tasks or jobs that men are usually engaged for. This is a faulty line of thought as by nature there are tasks that are best performed by the respective sexes due to their unique qualities or features. The manner in which the demand for 'equal' rights is being pursued in recent times is indeed is an injustice to women, rather treating women in a just and dignified manner is what should be advocated for. There is a gulf of difference between equality and justice as aptly illustrated in an internet meme where three individuals who had different heights wanted to see a football match being played on the other side of the fence. For them to be able to view the match they have to be provided with a wooden platform to enable them view the match. If each of them were to be given wooden platforms of equal height in the spirit of equality, the shorter individuals would be at a disadvantaged position due to their lower height. The implication of this is that they'd either barely be able to see the match or worse still not be able to see the match because of their height challenge. However applying the concept of justice, would put the height of each individual into consideration thus each individual would receive a platform that would elevate them to a level that enables them to conveniently see the match. Thus any movement that truly claims to be fighting for the betterment of the women folk should be championing the course of justice for women rather than simply chanting 'equal right'. A vivid illustration of the deficiency of the equal rights mantra was when the Ukraine war broke out and male volunteers were being sought to sign up to fight, there were calls in some quarters ( which by the way I was totally against) that same be extended to women folk since feminists are always chanting for equal rights for women thus they shouldn't be left out of combat as well. A rather alarming dimension to the practice of feminism is rearing it's head these days. It is the attack of on men under the toga of women's rights. I recently came across a shocking photo of the advice being given by a lady who claimed to be feminist to another lady who was married pregnant and pregnant BUT not for her husband. Hiding under the guise of a woman having the choice of who she allows touch her body to commit paternity fraud is wrong by any standards. She urged the woman seeking advice to keep the real status of the child's paternity from her husband and further went on to give her some heartless options to entrap the man such that if he eventually finds out that he isn't the father he dare not dissolve the marriage because of the false allegations that would be made against him. The entire text as well as the other bizzare advice given are captured in the screenshot below from Quora. Thank you for reading.

@M3i 31 October 2022

Anatomy of a crypto con The crypto space can be a very hazardous terrain to traverse. These days danger seems to be lurking at every corner. Hardly a month goes by without an exploit or a hack being reported.How seriously the affected network or platform is disrupted depends on the magnitude of the funds stolen during the hack. Sometimes the platform makes a quick rebound because of the contingency plans that have been put in place to manage such scenarios. At other times, the post hack Outlook is rather bleak as the hack may well be the trigger for the demise of the platform. Cons in the cryptospace come in various shades. Some of them are inside jobs involving a member or members of the development team, at other times it is the handiwork of external actors. Despite past incidents of hacks, people still fall prey to cons even those that have spent a significant number of years in the cryptospace. One of the most common cons these days are high yield investment platforms or HYIP in short. These platforms claim to offer an unusually high rate of returns on investment within a short time interval. Ordinarily such high rates ought to be a red flag for any potential investor but whether you call it greed or the human urge for more profits seem to becloud or hinder sound reasoning causing such individual to fall prey or victim. Each new platform that emerges touts itself as being different from it's predecessor that failed or folded up. Sometimes they seemingly or rather deceptively appear to do things differently giving them an air of legitimacy. Alas it's all nothing but a smokescreen as the end game still remains the same, make away with invested funds when they've warmed their way into the hearts of such investors by doing things to earn their trust. I will highlight some red flags which if found in any project are warning signs that such project is up to no good. Unusually and consistently high rate of returns on investment Any crypto project that promises unusually high rate of return of investment which remains consistent irrespective of market conditions or sentiments. Even the most established crypto platforms with years of experience in the bag cannot boast of such consistently high returns on investment thus it makes sense to be wary of any new platform that's just cutting its teeth claiming to offer such packages which are intended to be too juicy to resist. You should probably do a thorough research about any platform offering recovery of initial funds invested within a short period of time irrespective of whether we're in a bull or bear market. Such outcomes may indeed be possible during a bull run but in a bear cycle the chances of that happening are rather slim if not altogether impossible. Focus on massive investor or membership drive It is not out of place for exchanges or decentralized finance platforms to organize or have a referral programme which rewards existing members for inviting new members. However when that apparently becomes the sole focus of the platform with mouth watering rewards which are irrestible such that the old members just want to bring others in without educating the invitees about such platform and the possible risks, then that's another red flag. The likely end game for such platform is the draining of liquidity when a particular target for invested funds is attained. Sudden or bizzare change in mode of operations or road map Before making any significant changes as per modus operandi, what responsible development teams do is to consult their community members. Often this culminates in a vote by community members to decide on adoption or rejection of the proposed changes. When the development team unilaterally conceives and executes changes out of the blue, it gives room for concern as such moves may be the beginning of worse things to come with the end result usually being unsavory such as a rug pull leaving investors with worthless assets and loss of funds. Such devs usually evasive and give unsatisfactory responses or answers when being queried by community members as to why unilateral action was taken. The above red flags are from my past experiences with projects which turned out to be well planned Con operations. The moment these projects assess that they've built sufficient trust with the investors that's the time they strike. Little wonder those who have spent a long time in the crypto space also have a rule aside the regular ones that we're familiar with. The rule is TRUST NO ONE and always manage your risk. Thank you for reading.

@M3i 26 October 2022

Getting 'high' from a dopamine rush Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain. It is chemical messenger of sorts between neurons. It does not function in isolation and interfaces which hormones such as adrenaline and seratonin which is vital to our sleep cycle. It is also involved in a variety of physiological and neurological activities. Some of these include influencing our ability to maintain focus, mood, decision making, heart rate, sleep, processing of pain and movement .  It is usually released when the brain is expecting a reward. When we link or associate certain actions or activities with pleasure, the mere thought or anticipation of such actions is usually enough to trigger an increase in the dopamine levels.  This is what comes to play whenever we interact with any of our favourite activity such as food , movie or a tv show which brings us pleasure. The presence of any stimulus which brings the favourite activity to memory sets off triggers in the brain, when we eventually engage in the said activity, there's a dopamine rush which creates a connection to satisfying the crave in future due to the pleasure obtained from engaging in the activity.  Thus a cycle of motivation, reward and reinforcement is birthed irrespective of whether the activity is harmful or beneficial. Due to this strong association with reward and pleasure, It is often termed the "feel good" neurotransmitter .  It is therefore not surprising when individuals exhibit signs of moodiness when they are denied of participating in their favourite activity or eating their favourite food. This can also be linked to being the reason why people who derive pleasure from the likes or shares their posts get on social media tend to feel down when they don't get likes or shares as expected from their posts. Due to the cycle or connection that has previously been formed whose end result is pleasure as a result of dopamine rush, the denial of such activity could also increase the craving for such activity. This is likely what happens when trying to quit any form of addiction. Just as it is important to have the right amount of blood sugar and normal heart rate, it is also important to have the right amount of dopmaine . Having the right amount of dopmaine enhances our productivity due to its role in helping us maintain focus , alertness as well as in decision making. Sleep deprivation or inadequate sleep time is capable of lowering dopamine to unhealthy levels. Depression and conditions such as parkinson's disease have been associated with low levels of dopamine. Similarly excess of or very high levels of dopamine are unhealthy. Although such levels can make one experience feelings of euphoria irrespective of how long it lasts, such levels are injurious to one's health and have been associated with addiction, obesity and schizophrenia. In these conditions the individual tends to act compulsively even when their actions will harm them. In the case of addiction, the connections formed in the brain have become so powerful due to the cycle of that has been established that the individual hungers for a new 'high' each time he interacts with the source of the addiction as the previous high has been normalized by the brain. Thus there is a craving for more and more after each successive exposure to the activity. If you've watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, this can be likened to what happened to Frodo Baggins after using the ring of power for the first time albeit out of necessity. He kept craving to use the ring more often after each successive use. Another negative effect is that due the fact that the dopamine receptors have become attuned to being fired up by the source of the addiction, there's a lack of interest in other activities which are deemed incapable of eliciting the 'high' that the addiction delivers. Thus any activity which comes to us compulsively and causes us to abandon healthy habits or social interaction should sound alarm bells as we may well be on our way down the slippery slope of addiction. With such activities , restrictions or denial of access to them could result in depression or other negative tendencies. There was once a time when the mention of addiction was usually associated with that use of illicit drugs or pornography but with the evolution of social media and technology, a new type of addiction has emerged which is that of addiction to social media and by extension our mobile devices.  This new addiction has destroyed many homes and relationships. Because of this addiction, spouses, parents and children living under the same roof have become nothing more than strangers to one another, they derive more pleasure by staring at their screens rather than by spending time with each other. Ironically as someone once put it, the stranger in the home (the screens) has turned its inhabitants to strangers to one another. It is therefore necessary to have a regular regime dedicated to taking time off our screens so as the enjoy the simple things in life which are healthy for our mental health and of course free. This is also important to allow our brains forms strong connections with healthy habits as the focus. The healthy habits I would recommend but not limited to the following include reading good books, spending quality time with family, taking a walk or going hiking. The experiences from these activities are often what form the priceless moments in our lives as the give us a healthy rush of dopamine.

@M3i 14 October 2022

The Campaign Season The political gladiators are at it again in Nigeria . It's campaign season and the political actors are in the spotlight. They are putting up the performances of their lives in order to woo the electorate to cast their votes for them. It is the season where friends can become the worst enemies in the twinkling of an eye because of differences in political inclination or affiliation. It is also a period where bridges of mutual respect which have been built over a substantial period of time are often burnt or destroyed because of differing views as to who is the best man for the job of leadership or stewardship. This is rather ironic because the main political actors aren't the ones doing all the 'bridge burning' or destruction but rather it is their over emotional or over zealous supporters who engage in these acts. Indeed, it is going to the extreme in expressing support for candidates who have mutual respect for themselves as they reealize that life continues after the elections. Little wonder someone said about politics in documentary that it is similar to professional wrestling where before entering the ring, the wrestlers usually express how they'd trash their opponent black and blue to the cheering of their supporters. For them whatever happens in the ring, stays in the ring that is except for those who leave out professionalism and take it personal by continuing or taking the 'make believe ' outside the ring arena. All these dramatic acts such as trash talking and name calling are aimed at entertaing the audience and setting the stage for the 'main event' as it's usually called. The similarity being suggested between politicians and professional wrestlers is also important for another reason which I will point out later. The campaigns are often characterized by digging into the past of the candidates by their opponents in an attempt to stumble across a skeleton or skeletons in the cupboard of their past with the intent that if any is found, it will be weaponised to discredit such candidate. The accusations that usually rent thr air at this time range from plausible ones to some that are outrightly ridiculous without any substantial evidence to prove such. The areas on which searche lights for damaging material are usually beamed range from educational qualifications to things as petty as the fertility of a contestant. Another anomaly about most campaigns is the fixation on the opponent's misdeeds rather than on what a particular candidate has as a manifesto or agenda for governance as well as how he intends to achieve them in practical terms. I once had the opportunity to be at a gathering which was intended to sell the candidacy of a particular aspiratnt to the attendees but guess what? The members of the campaign team squandered the entire time casting aspersions and bad mouthing the main contender from a rival political party. They only spent a few minutes to read out the key points in their candidate's manifesto which they failed to deliver in a convincing manner. Funny enough when I tried to raise the issue about the approach adopted in wooing support with someone close to the campaign team, the response that I got gave me the impression that it was that style that a vast majority of the electorate are used to. Hence it's adoption. If indeed this is the case, then there's every chance that a candidate who would have performed better could lose support from the electorate if his opponents have a formidable media presence which consistently churns out misinformation or half truths in favour of the client. If you constantly bombard people with the same information over and over again, overtime they tend to accept such information as being correct or factual even if they are outright lies. I have reached a conclusion that until the electorate have a chañgr in mindset, they'll continue to make bad choices when it comes to casting their votes. The present mindset of fixation on the intrigues and misinformation is birthing leaders who are elected on the basis of emotional manipulation of the electorate. Things will change when the electorate transcend to voting based on intellect or sound reason. When the electorate start to ask the right or appropriate questions to guide their choices , then they'll get the positive change they desire. The emphasis should not just be on what the candidate has promised to do because we have seen over time time that a large chunk of those promises never see the light of day. Rather the crucial thing should be How the candidate intends to achieve the content of the manifesto in practical terms and how realistic are the key points in the manifesto are in the first place. If this thought pattern is adopted, the electorate can easily discern the candidates that have workable and avhieveable plans from those who are simply building castles in the air. This way of accessing candidates will also weed out those who are fixated on regurgitating problems alone without proferring solutions to fix same. Before I forget, back to the issue of the correlation between professional wrestling and career politicians. As a young boy I was a diehard fan of professional wrestling. I was thrilled by the theatrical performances of wrestlers such as hulk Hogan, Macho man , Shawn Michaels and the rest. Their performances felt so real. Innocently, As children we often tried to practicalise some of their moves despite the warning that usually proceeds their performances of 'Do not try this at home'. The motivation for attempting to practicalise their actions was because we wanted to be as good as them and most importantly because we thought the stuff was 'real'. Real meant that we accesssee that the blows and kicks were intended to as much impact on the opponent in the manner in which they were 'inflicted'. Little did we know that the professional wrestlers were really no different from actors in movies excpt that for the wrestlers their acts were being broadcasted on live television and in front of audiences with no room for editing. I therefore got a ride shock when I stumbled across a BBC radio interview with a representative of one of the professional wrestling outfits. The representative in the course of the discuss revealed that amongst other things before a fight commences, the winner was already known and the duration for which a particular bout was to fought was decided prior to it's commencement. From that time onwards I didn't see the need to waste my time sitting down to watch full grown men dressed in spandex rehash preconcluded fights. One thing pro wrestling and politics have in common is that the 'actor' i.e. politician or wrestler as the case may be with better showmanship tends to be loved more by the audience. For wrestling this may be harmless as it has no real world consequences but for politics it could be disastrous if such candidate is no more than a political actor without the requisite ability or capacity for delivering on campaign promises and good governance.

@M3i 11 October 2022

Sometimes it pays to look beyond the branding It is often said that we spend money we don't have to buy what we can't ordinarily afford in an attempt to please or impress people we don't know. This is the reality of life for most people such that they are eager to impress strangers by showing off their designer clothes and shoes which they sadly acquired on credit i.e. by borrowing or in some other instances by enaging in acts of illegality or criminality. Very rcently a guy who had become popular on social media for flaunting his lavish lifestyle as well as wealth met his Waterloo. In one of the videos before his cover was blown, he is seen in pyjamas flashing foreign currency bills while urging his followers or audience to 'hustle'. This ordinarily wasn't a bad advise except for the skewed definition of 'hustle' in his case. It turns out that the wealth he was flaunting were ill gotten proceeds from his kidnapping escapades. A video which went viral after his apprehension by security operatives showed him begging for leniency on the premise that his wife had just given birth. This plea drew the rebuke of one of the onlookers who asked him if he had extended such leniency to one of the victims he had kidnapped while beating him (i.e the victim) up during the period of captivity. This is just one of many cases of social media personalities who have branded themselves to be icons of success via genuine effort only to be later exposed to be some sort of fraudster or criminal. Sadly many people because of the falunting of designer brands by these individuals tend to now put themselves under undue pressure as they have set the flaunting of designer wears as the yardstick for one to be considered successful. Hence for them it is alright to use any means necessary, whether criminal or otherwise to acquire wealth and buy stuff so as to be the centre of attraction. While it is not a bad thing in itself to acquire designer or branded products , one need not become depressed or become desperate in an attempt to get them. The reality is that some generic products who may not have build a popular name for their brand are just as good even better in some instances than the popular or well known brands. People are generally willing to pay more for products from a known brand even when there are comparable alternatives from less known brands. For some it's more of maintaining a status symbol to always go for the expensive brands. It's all good if one has the means to maintain such lifestyle but if that isn't the case it's akin to going down the slippery slope of constantly being indebted to maintain a false image of affluence. While it's a good idea to always want to improve one's financial status and crave for the 'better' things in life, it shouldn't be taken as a do or die affair. People will always be in different classes on the basis of wealth or material possession. That's just the way life is . Thus on order not to pressure oneself unnecessarily to become rich at all costs, it is best to always access oneself and live within one's means. Popular brands have long understood that there will always be differences in terms of disposable income as 'all fingers aren't equal ' and have tapped into this for their benefit. I know of a smartphone manufacturing company that has different product lines targeting different classes of people. They have pticy devices that are targeted at the elite, those for the middle class and even those on a meagre budget. So if brand manufacturers can adjust and adapt to the fact we all have different strengths in terms of purchasing power, then what excuse do we have as end users or consumers not to also adapt based on our economic realities while not necessarily totally discarding consideration for quality. While it is sometimes okay to look beyond branding , there are instances such as in health care products where we may have to give it serious consideration above all else. Brands that have a reputation or name to protect will expectedly do more in terms of quality control and due diligence unlike those that have nothing to lose. The case of what has now been termed 'killer cough syrups' in circulation in some African countries is a pointer to the fact that sometimes using unknown brands of drugs may come at a price which could be too heavy to bear. The aforementioned pharmaceuticals have taken their toll on 66 babies in Gambia already . These are the cases that have been traced to the drugs thus far as there are likely to be more pending their total withdrawal or removal from circulation thanks to the efforts of the World Health Organisation in collaboration with health officials across the continent. Some might argue that unbranded or generic brands of drugs are just as good as the branded ones which are usually and expectedly more expensive. However, the reality is that when push comes to shove , the best bet for optimal results as it pertains to medications remains the tested and trusted brands.

@M3i 5 October 2022

PancakeSwap deploys on Ethereum As part of its 2022 road map to go multichain, one of the top AMM on the Binance Smart Chain network has taken a significant leap with it's deployment of its swap and liquidity packages on the Ethereum network.  This feat was executed on 27th September, 2022. Consequently upon visiting PancakeSwap.finance the upon of switching between it's birth chain i.e. BSC and Ethereum is now available via a drop down menu as show in the screenshot below. The following tokens are currently available for Swapping on the Ethereum network: Ethereum USDT USDC Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) Three farms are to be initially deployed on Eth Chain. The pairs to be accommodated in this initial deployment are: ETH/USDT ETH/USDC WETH/ETH The proposed date for deployment is 10th October , 2022 which is just a few days away. As stated in the infographic for the deployment, the Chefs i.e. devs will adjust emissions based on volume and performance of pairs between 10th and 17th October.According to the deployment plan all issues related to Cake emissions for the farms on the Eth Chain ought to be concluded by 17th October. Clicking on the earn option which usually brings up the sub menu for farms and pools on BSC currently will result in a prompt to switch networks as the farms aren't yet deployed neither are other features such as IFO et al. which are available on BSC. While we keep our fingers crossed as the the deployment on Ethereum chain progresses, we eagerly await further deployment on other chains. I personally think they'll likely be considering the Polygon chain next. On which chain or network do you think PancakeSwap will deploy next?

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@M3i 25 September 2022

Experience can be a cruel teacher There's a popular saying that experience is the best teacher, suggesting that most important lessons in life are best learnt from personal experiences. Lessons learnt in such a manner are seldom forgotten, though sometimes we choose to ignore or forget them usually depending on the emotions they cause us to have when we recall such experiences. The ones that elicit feelings of pains or regret are usually the ones that often times we opt to forget or dread having to relive as no one wants to have a repeat of an occurrence that brings sorrow. However sometimes having to reflect or recall painful experiences may just be what one needs to be cautious or careful so as not to fall into error or repeat past mistakes. Conversely the ones that elicit feelings of joy or satisfaction (no matter how shortlived they might have been) are the ones we tend to recall or better still want to re experience. While this may apparently be a good thing, it may not be so in all instances. For cases that involve commiting crime or breaking the law and thereafter getting away with it without facing any consequences, there is a tendency to want to repeat such misadventures or misdemeanour. Same applies to cases of addiction as the individual tends to return to the subject of addiction because of what was deemed a 'pleasurable' experience irrespective of the consequences that would follow. We've all had our fair share of experiences where we had to learn the hard or painful way. Sometimes we have such experiences because of naivety and at other times due to sheer recklessness or worse still deliberately choosing to ignore the warning signs which were literally right in front of us. Thus for some people, it often takes repeated occurrences of unpleasant experiences for them to learn the appropriate lesson and thereafter take the necessary precautions to avoid a repeat of such. There is hardly an adult on the planet who hasn't made bad or Ill-advised investment decisions at some point in their lives. It's often the price paid sometimes for taking risks. I can recall vividly like it was yesterday the first time I lost funds in what I thought was a genuine business opportunity which later turned out to be a ponzi scheme of sorts. The investment started off well with payouts or profits coming as expected thus creating a false sense of security amongst first time investors like myself who were just cutting their teeth. Then delays started coming in till eventually the whole thing burst in our faces leaving nothing but a sour taste in the mouth. It hit some of us real hard, creating a phobia for any investment that involved anything online. Thus when crypto took center stage particularly when the pandemic hit, many were reluctant to get on board because of the previous bad experiences they had. I was one of such people who hesitated coming on board the crypto train till we were almost past the climax of the pandemic. Because of the phobia from past online investments that failed several genuine opportunities were missed. One of the most painful ones was the UniSwap airdrop, this I dare say was the miss that jolted me and motivated me to cast aside my fears and take a bold dive into the crypto space. As fate would have it, this decision paid off within a few months as I not only got rewarded in a massive airdrop, I also managed to to make a good investment in a project which turned out to be one of the top projects on the BNB Smart Chart Chain as of today. However with these successes came a challenge. It was that of FOMOing on any opportunity to make one's portfolio richer or bigger with the prospect of earning more profits. Thus because of not properly managing the emotion of happiness from the previous successful experience with investing and eagerness not to miss out of any possible future prospect I ended up losing some funds in some projects which appeared to be promising but either ended up rug pulling or their tokens tanking in terms of value even when the projects didn't go under. Thus from the above bitter experience I learnt the hard way the need for always doing one's research and not just APEing into any project due to the emotion of FOMOing. This is important because one needs to be able to filter through the abundance of noise from different traders characteristic of the market place to pick the right ware or product. Just as there are traders who are deceptive in the real world market, there are also devs in the crypto space who are deceptive and have engaged in fraudulent activities. To conclude, I opine that in some instances, having to go through a learning curve via experiences is wholly unnecessary especially when one is not a pathfinder or pioneer in the area being treaded or explored. In scenarios such as these the best option is to seek the stories of those who have once taken the route we are about to take. This is to enable one digest them, make improvements or modifications to the steps they took to make progress (where necessary) and most importantly learn from their mistakes so as not to repeat them. Ironically though for the most bizarre reasons as humans sometimes we still choose to go down paths which from the experiences of others before us lead to sadness or destruction.

@M3i 20 September 2022

The investor mindset In High school , one of the many concepts I learned while studying Economics before I decided to part ways with the subject (probably going to be the topic for discourse sometime in the future) was that of opportunity cost. Put simply it is having to sacrifice a thing in order to gain or obtain something else which is usually of a greater value. If memory serves me correctly it is related to the term 'foregone alternative'. As an investor one has to forego a lot of things such as such term pleasure or gratification in order to achieve one's long term goals of financial freedom or independence. An investor is never satisfied with staying within the confines of his comfort zone , neither is he afraid to make changes in order to attain his goals as more often than not we have to embrace change and jettison the fear of the unknown. Little wonder someone said: "***Change happens when the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the pain of making the change***." Some may say I have a 9 to 5 job that pays well which meets all my needs , why then should I consider becoming an investor ? The reality is that with the dynamics of the world today, it is imperative for everyone to diversify or have multiple streams of income. What better way to achieve it if not other than having or making an investment no matter how little it may be. Remember the ocean in all its vastness is made up of little drops of water. Thus having an investment which consistently generates passive income for you, no matter how little it may be is now a necessity. Having the false sense of security of being engaged solely as an employee because of a fat paycheck will be anyone's greatest undoing. Anything can happen in life as it has its ups and downs. Sometimes this go well in your favour and some others times it may seem as though the whole world is out to get you. Also an employee, job loss can happen out of nowhere even though you may have being very productive. Firms could restructure and consequently have to downsize, worse still they could go down under or 'fold up'. In such scenarios employees who were unprepared for such eventualities could have a long and tough road ahead to getting back on their feet. The plight of Academics in Nigeria who while trying to salvage the public universities as well as better conditions of service for her members has been a bitter pill to swallow especially for those who did not and still do not have a secondary source of income aside what they earn for carrying out research and tutoring students. Since they embarked on an industrial action to press home their demands, the government has withheld their salaries as it has invoked a 'no work, no pay' stance. This scenario is a clear pointer to the fact that relying on a single source of income is dangerous especially for those with families. Thus transitioning from having only an employee mentality to adding an investor mentality is no longer a luxury or something optional but a necessity. The question one needs to really be asking is when and not if one needs to have the investor mindset. The path of an investor is not always rosy as there are challenges Losses can be incurred while building up one's portfolio or due to investment failures. It is therefore important to state that for one to succeed in this path, willingness to take risks is an essential quality or ingredient one must possess. Similarly one shouldn't throw all caution to the wind all in the name of taking risks. The risks have to assessed to ascertain if they're worth taking. Essentially the good investor takes informed decisions involving calculated risks and isn't heedless or reckless. Another bottleneck that can serve as an hindrance in the path of an investor is that of procrastination . This needs to be avoided when it comes to making the hard or painful decisions on the route to achieving your objectives. Situations where you have to make such decisions must always come up, thus it is usually a matter of when and not if they will arise. Being indecisive could make one miss out on opportunities that may never come one's way again. Indeed such opportunities could a once in a life time occurrence thus missing them could result in life long regret. Closely related to this is the endless wait for the perfect condition for investing or investment opportunity which usually never comes. Thus if you have an idea of something you'd like to invest in no matter how big you intend it to be in future, you can as well start the investment on a small scale and consistently build on it while making changes or adjustments as you progress as there's no such thing as a perfect plan. Remember 1^365 = 1 But 1 *365 = 365 That is the power of consistent value addition no matter how little it may be on a daily basis. Thus NEVER become comfortable with your present situation but STRIVE to build upon it by ALWAYS adding something no matter how little it may be. Though it is never too late to adopt the investor mindset irrespective of age, you will agree that those who do so at an early age or stage on life have a higher chance of achieving their dreams as they find it easier to take risks. The reason for this is that as one ages, one takes on more responsibilities and there's a tendency to be more cautious as one's actions tend to affect a lot more people. As Elon Musk puts it during a speech at a valedictory or graduation ceremony ( the additions in parentheses were done by me): "***Now is the time (when you're single or younger) to take risks , you don't have kids. As you get older ,your obligations increase and once you have a family you start taking risks not just for yourself but for your family as well . (At this stage) It gets much harder to do things that might not work out.***"

@M3i 13 September 2022

The SWEAT Score card When the sale of SWEAT was to be hosted on DAO Maker, many barely gave it any attention. Little did they know that history was about to be made as a new record for token sale on the platform was eventually set. The sale raked in about USD 1M for SWEAT tokens within about 15 minutes. This no doubt has earned it a place in the halls of fame of the DAO Maker platform. This came barely a few days before the much anticipated official SWEAT token launch which happened today 13TH September, 2022. Users who had earned Sweatcoins over time via the Sweatcoin app and had downloaded the SWEAT wallet app had the privilege of earning SWEAT tokens in a ratio of 1:1 to the Sweatcoins they had accumulated. For those who have been faithfully using the app since it's launch around 2016 will surely be smiling to the bank based on their accumulated sweatcoins now turned SWEAT token. The SWEAT wallet has also been updated with new features such as the NFT gallery and the rewards section. The NFT gallery is expected to support NFTs sent from NEAR wallet. The rewards section offers rewards for those who stake their SWEAT tokens. This enables stalkers to become eligible to participate in draws for an array of items ranging from: 10 USD Adidas gift card to Apple MacBook Pro The draw a 'GROWER' can participate in is dependent on the number of SWEAT they have grown via staking. Although the Exchange function in the SWEAT wallet isn't yet active , it is expected to become functional in no distant future. The GROW option which I had hunted in my previous post to be a staking option is now active , offering users the option of staking via locking up their SWEAT for different time periods with different returns on investment (ROI). Naturally the higher the lock up period, the higher the ROI as shown in the screenshot below . The transfer option is also active allowing users send SWEAT to other wallet owners by entering the username of the recipient. There's also the option to request tokens from other users. The option of adding SWEAT by buying via bank card as well as the exchange option are yet to be activated. However users who bought via the DAO Maker sale have the option of trading their tokens already. This is where it gets really interesting, as at the time of writing this piece, SWEAT is already trading on about 7 centralised exchanges. From the screenshot above available via a tweet by SWEAT Economy, five exchanges are listed viz: BITFINEX OKX FTX KUCOIN BYBIT Others that have listed SWEAT are MEXC Global and Gate.IO. Some of them such as FTX are already hosting trading competitions for the SWEAT /USDT trading pair. FTX has a 30K USDT pool for users who trade at least 3K sweat between September 13 and 27, 2o22. It even gets better it is also available for trading in dexes such as UniSwap and Ref. Finance. Ref.Finance has a dedicated pool for SWEAT X NEAR with triple rewards in SWEAT, NEAR and REF. We expect more CEXes and DEXes to get SWEAT listed in no distant future. Who knows, we may also see the token going across more chains aside Ethereum and NEAR which it currently supported. It's still early to start earning while sweating it out as 1000 steps still presently earn you 1 SWEAT. This will not remain so in the years ahead as shown in the infographic below. The difficulty of mining new SWEAT will walking is designed to get harder with time as the number of steps to earn 1 SWEAT will increase in the future. Also as a mechanism I presume to check mass dumping of SWEAT token, only 10% of SWEAT earned via the sweatcoin app is available to those who earned them while the rest 90% earned will gradually become available over a 24 month period. My two cents, if you're a very physically active person who loves jogging, taking walks or hiking, you should probably give the sweatcoin app a try for a chance to not just SWEAT but to also earn some of it i.e. the SWEAT token. Who knows your hard earned SWEAT could be worth much more in future. Besides if you aren't interested in the financial gains you could donate your earnings to charitable courses via the challenges section in the sweatcoin app. By the way, SWEAT has already hit an all time high of 0.08 USD according to CoinMarketCap charts. Thank you for SWEATING.

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@M3i 11 September 2022

The Stargate Bridge PancakeSwap is no doubt one of the leading decentralised finance platforms on the Binance Smart Chain. With its recently launched fixed staking pools it aims to encourage long term holding of its native $Cake token. It's road map for 2022 has thus far been impressive matched with timely execution of the target(s) for each time period so assigned. And the best is yet to come. In order to encourage inward movement into the BNB Smart Chain, It partnered with the team at Stargate Finance to deploy a cross chain bridge which allows users to bridge their stable coins from other networks to BSC. For now only a few stable coins and networks are supported with plans to increase the number of available pairs as well as networks with time. The coins (mostly stablecoins) currently supported are: 1. BUSD 2. USDT 3. USDC 4. STG On the network side of things, currently six of them are supported for bridging to BNB Chain viz: 1. Ethereum 2. Optimism 3. Arbitrum 4. Avalanche 5. Fantom 6. Matic The bridging fee is shared as indicated in the screenshot below The bridge can be accessed by visiting bridge.pancakewsap.finance http://bridge.pancakewsap.finance The steps in utilizing the bridge are quite simple. Once you visit the URL mentioned above follow the instructions below: Connect your wallet Select the token and network or blockchain you want to bridge FROM Select the destination token you want to bridge to as well as the network Select the desired amount , this action will prompt the fee (0.1%) breakdown to be shown Once you're satisfied with the above , click above Confirm the transaction in your wallet Wait to receive your tokens on the destination Blockchain You can keep track of how long it will take for your tokens to arrive via the countdown timer for the transaction Transactions are are usually completed within a timeframe of 10 minutes. PancakeSwap states that whatever revenue it gains from the bridge fees will be used for cake buyback and burn As at 23rd August, 2022 when the bridge was announced via a medium post, it was still in Beta testing thus a few things will still need fine tuning with time as users bring to the notice of  the developer team any bugs they may have encountered in the course of using it. There's also a promise of a USD 20 reward for users who try out the bridge within the first few weeks of its deployment. Think of this as a reward for participating in the beta testing of the bridge. Please note that ALL pictures contained herein are screenshots from PancakeSwap's medium post about the Stargate bridge.

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@M3i 8 September 2022

Brave and Uphold suspend wallet verification in several countries One of the perks that I have been benefitting from using Brave browser aside the privacy protection and great adblocker was the optional Brave rewards program which incentivised users for viewing adverts served by the brave browser. Though the income generated by viewing the ads wasn't much , it was way better than having to encounter pop up ads which sometimes one simply can't escape and not earning anything for such. I had initially been faced with a challenge of setting up my brave rewards account with uphold because there was a popup of having 2 BAT as a requirement to initiate having an Uphold wallet. However thanks to a post by @scottcbusinessabout brave rewards I was able to get an account with Uphold in no time. Hence I began to enjoy the little monthly payments from the brave rewards programme. All that now appears to now be a thing of the past at least pending when the Brave team resolves the issue of limited verification for a few select countries. I first observed that I could no longer login to verify my uphold wallet this month (September) in the Brave rewards section like I usually do once on a monthly basis. After several attempt I was getting a still processing screen. Then upon my last attempt I got a prompt that verification was no longer available in my region. I was taken aback as to the reason for this change in terms. Thus I began searching around the web for the reason for this . Finally I came across a post in the Brave community discussion where the bombshell was dropped. The post indicated that from 12th July verification would only be available for participants in the Brave rewards programme who used UpHold wallets in only 18 countries which are : Australia Austria Belgium Canada Denmark Finland Hong Kong Ireland Italy Netherlands New Zealand Norway Portugal Singapore Spain Sweden United Kingdom United States The post continues to state that: "***For countries no longer on this list, Uphold and Brave will continually work together to evaluate whether such countries can be supported again, and how quickly.*** ***Note that those who are currently verified in regions that are no longer supported will continue to be until they are naturally logged out over time, or press to disconnect Brave Rewards from their Uphold account. Once logged out or disconnected from Uphold, users in unsupported regions will not be able to log in again or re-verify Brave Rewards with Uphold.***" Although there may be genuine reasons for this suspension while I suspect may be due to legal or regulatory in nature, the post left a lot of room for speculation as no definite reason was given for why the suspension had to be effected. One post in the brave community forum remarked that the number of countries where verification seems to be steadily decreasing instead of increasing. He suggested that the reason for supporting less countries was to prevent users sending their earned BAT from the browser to other destinations or wallets. Another question that comes to mind (which only the team at Brave can provide answers for) is if there's even any further need for the use of third party wallets such as Uphold and Gemini for the Brave rewards programme as Brave browser now has its own in built wallet. Whatever the case may be Brave browser still remains browser of choice on my mobile device as it's adblocking service has been the best I have seen amongst all the browsers I have used thus far. I am open to suggestions as to any other browser which can outmatch it in this regards.

@M3i 7 September 2022

The inside man "***Na the rat when dey inside house dey invite those when dey outside say make them come chop***" "***Na who know man dey kill man***" The above expressions are just a few selected from some of our local adages written here in pidgin English about the subject matter of this article. Both adages have the same underlying message or theme which is that it takes the collusion or betrayal of an insider in any system for it to be compromised and subsequently become the subject of attack by outsiders or intruders. Indeed they attest to the fact that the worst adversary or enemy anyone can encounter in one from within one's close or inner circle. These traitors or inside men usually open the doors for secure systems which seem impenetrable to be exploited. It is for this reason that cases in which internal sabotage is suspected are usually referred to as 'inside jobs'. Inside jobs are usually common place in the conventional financial space where disgruntled or greedy employees leak sensitive information or vulnerabilities of their workspaces for a fee to bad actors to take advantage of. These bad actors could do damage via virtual or cyber theft while in other cases through physical robberies. There have been cases where due to compromise by bank staff, cyber criminals gain access to information about clients of the bank. These criminals then use such information to attempt to defraud such customers by tricking them to reveal further information such as dedit card data and the likes which they can then act upon. I recall receiving several calls from such scam artists who due to compromise by either staff of the banks or identity management authority had gained access to the bank verification number (BVN) data of customers. With the information available from the BVN (name, date of birth, telephone number among others) , these scammers would pose as bank staff. They would attempt to convince the customers that they were genuine by sounding off the information which they had gleaned from the BVN, any unsuspecting customer would indeed be convinced by this act and be cajoled to provide further confidential information or data at their prompting. If the per chance a customer were to divulge sensitive debit card data , that would be the beginning of the end as the hacker(s) would then have access to the funds in the account and if the breach isn't detected and plugged quickly enough, the entire account could be drained completely. A kidnapping event I heard of several years ago also lays credence to the collusion that usually occurs between bank staff and men of the criminal underworld. A certain philanthropist had unfortunately fallen into the hands of kidnappers. While negotiations were on to secure his release, the most bizarre things took place. The kidnappers informed him each time a deposit was made into one of the accounts he operated in a particular bank indicating the amount that had been paid in. The revelation by the kidnappers led the man to one conclusion, the kidnappers had somebody on the inside in that bank who was feeding them with information about the transactions involving that account. Thus the man upon being freed from the kidnappers den had no other option but to close his account with the said bank as obviously the bank had been compromised. Block chain technology is also not free from the activities of inside men . In the aftermath of the recent hacking of yet another DeFi platform, Velodrome Finance, investigations as to the source or culprit involved in the breach led to a shocking and disappointing revelation. It turns out that the hack had been executed by one of the members of the development team who stolen funds worth 350K USDT. He cited a flimsy excuse of previously losing funds when crypto blizzard struck a year earlier as the motivation for him to pull the heist. These are just a few instances were comes have been perpetrated successfully due to the collusion of inside men. For any system to truly remain impregnable to external invasion, there has to be fail safes out in place to mitigate the risk associated with insiders going rogue and opening the flood gates for external aggressors.

@M3i 1 September 2022

You can't do it ALONE Man is referred to in some circles as a social animal. The reason for this is that an individual is meant to live in a society or community where interaction with others takes place. The level or extent of interaction with others usually varies giving rise to different classes or groups of people with this criteria. There are those who love always being in the company of others while there are others who prefer to limit their interaction to a small circle of loved ones or confidants. To the extreme of the spectrum there are individuals who adopt a life of solitude wherein they prefer being in the company of only one individual i.e. themselves. These class of people are prone to depression and probably suicidal tendencies due to the absence of a support system in times of stress or challenges. There is indeed no benefit in being a loner as it is antithetical to human nature. Having someone to lean on or talk to when one is going through trying times can indeed work wonders. Imagine the thought of having to carry a huge burden all alone , then suddenly a helping hand emerges to help with the burden thus relieving some of the pressure the weight was exerting on you. That is the effect a helping hand or a listening ear can have in times of crisis or challenges . Little wonder it is said that : *a problem shared is a problem half solved*. That is if shared with the 'right' person(s) though, as some individuals have a nasty character of compounding or making problems worse rather than helping to solve them. That's why there's this general advice always that '***you cannot do it alone***', indicating that best results are often achieved when executing a task or facing challenges if we seek assistance or help from others in an appropriate or legitimate manner. You might be wondering why I put a clause or condition of getting assistance via an appropriate or legitimate manner. The reason for this is that people have hidden under the guise of not being able to do it alone to perpetuate unlawful acts or illegality. I will cite a personal experience. When I sat for the high school leaving certificate examination sometime in 2001 as a private candidate I encountered first hand how the statement 'You cannot do it alone' can indeed be abused. The examination centre where I was assigned by the examination council to write my examination had some unsavoury characters posted there who ought to have been the eyes and ears of the council ensuring that no acts of malpractice or impropriety took place. To my utter dismay as well as a few other candidates these persons who were the invigilators turned out to be wolves in the clothing of sheep. Their routine as any examination commenced was to walk around the examination hall seeking financial inducement;'offering' as they chose to call it from willing candidates all the while chanting 'You cannot do it alone ' perhaps in an attempt to demoralise and cajole those of us who had refused to participate in giving any 'offering' of sorts. Once they were done with collecting their offerings, they would take note of those who had paid. Once the examinations commenced and questions were distributed, it was open day for those who were deemed loyal via their offerings. The supposed invigilators would allow their loyalists have access to whatever materials they needed from their bags such as textbooks or hand outs to answer the questions. What was supposed to be an examination where candidates answered questions from memory was turned into nothing short of an open book test where the examination umpire was aiding and abetting the dastardly act. Those of us who refused to be loyal watched with shock as the despicable drama unfolded. Alas there was nothing we could do other than to answer the questions we could and turn in our answer sheets often times while being mocked by the invigilators and their accomplices. Our biggest fear was that our results should not be withheld because of the misdemeanor of the law breakers at the centre. Thankfully these fears were allayed when several months later the results were released. Anytime I recall this event , I wish I could travel back in time to prevent the corrupt invigilators and their accomplices from successfully perpetrating examination malpractice while abusing the virtuous concept of one not being able to do it alone.

@M3i 29 August 2022

Investing the 'Smart' way with BCH Anytime I go down memory lane on my SmartBCH journey, some memories come to the fore. The first was how I eagerly converted a substantial part of my assets on the BNB Smart Chain in preparation to commence my adventure into the world of DeFi in an entirely different terrain. I also remember the reaction on the face of a close friend who I like to think of as one of those who encouraged me to take a leap into crypto when I mentioned SmartBCH to him, it seemed as though I was speaking Greek. The reason for this was not far fetched as up until that moment he had never heard about SmartBCH and hence had the faintest idea as to what I was referring to. He was familiar with BCH alright but was at sea at the mention of SmartBCH and honestly he wasn't interested probably due to the fear of the unknown or being cautious due to bab actors who have now learnt to live with in the crypto space while trying to avoid falling for any of their booby trap schemes. Right now the momentum with which SmartBCH was moving appears to no longer be there. It appears to have run out of Steam. Some might even say it was initial ***gra gra*** (a local term similar to a flash in a pan i.e. a one off thing). One of the things that might have scared or put people off was the series of rugs that were pulled off in quick succession. Although rug pulls aren't a new thing as other ecosystems haven't been spared either, there seemed to be this glimmer of hope that SmartBCH would be different as it was expected that only those who truly believed in the ecosystem that would build on it. There was also issue of conflicts between the Devs of the pioneering projects on SmartBCH with accusations and counter accusations flying about. These conflicts in my opinion were totally unnecessary and added no value to the ecosystem rather it pained a picture to any newbie who might have been interested in pitching a tent with SmartBCH that it was a house in chaos or disarray. Gladly we have since passed that stage with the Devs now busy and focused on building solid projects instead of petty squabbling. Bridging tokens to the SmartBCH network was also one of the teething challenges. It required a somewhat lengthy process of sending BCH to CoinFlex before then sending it to SmartBCH on MetaMask. Reason being that as at that time, CoinFlex was the only available bridge to SmartBCH. Thus each time one wanted to move in or out of SmartBCH one had to go through the multistage process of bridging via CoinFlex. This chapter now belongs to the history books with several bridges now available to hop in and out of SBCH. However, I would suggest that the bridges be tweaked to be more newbie friendly to encourage more adoption or onboarding. In my little experience, more people tend to prepare simple user interfaces. Simply put, the simpler the better. This brings me to the last challenge for some in using the SmartBCH network which is the MetaMask set up which required having to manually add the network in the wallet. This would surely not have been a walk in the park especially for newbies like myself who only started using MetaMask so as to be able to access SmartBCH. Had it not been for detailed articles or tutorials by some users on this platform who deserve commendation for their effort in helping many come onboard SBCH, many would have surely found it very cumbersome. For SBCH to experience more mass adoption and consequently phenomenal growth, deliberate and consistent action or effort is needed in terms of its digital footprint. In today's media driven world, there's a way one will make so much 'noise' (or make one's present felt) that one can't afford to be ignored even by the major players in the crypto verse. Hence the presence of SmartBCH needs to be felt across the entire crypto verse such that everyone will be eager to get aboard the moving train. In order to do this its social media presence needs to be amplified. This can be achieved through massive and well coordinated publicity campaigns via twitter , Facebook, Instagram *et al*. Let people know what's on offer on the SmartBCH network, the unique DeFi opportunities and projects that are available. Narrate the success stories of the leading and consistent projects on SmartBCH as well as upcoming projects with good prospects. With a successful publicity campaign other things will naturally fall in place such as support for the SBCH network by other prominent wallets which hopefully will be way easier to set up than MetaMask. Imagine what would happen if say Trust wallet were to integrate the SmartBCH network. There would surely be a significant increase in activity as well as new users on the SBCH network. Hopefully if the above ideas were ever to come to fruition someday, those of us who 'lost' our way due to distractions from the crypto market will find the way back to the Smart home of BCH like the prodigal son who returned after many years of wandering. To the true believers who have been with SBCH since the beginning and continuing to weather the highs and lows of the ecosystem, you guys are the real OGs.

@M3i 27 August 2022

It pays to WALK When I first came across the sweatcoin app, it left a good first impression. Hence I was promoted to write about it in my previous article. As at the time I wrote about the app, I assumed that it was a new entrant in the move to earn space. Little did I know that I had stumbled on one of the pioneering move to earn projects. Sweatcoin made its entry as far back as 2016 and has steadily grown and developed over the years with over 600 partnerships in play. Little wonder that the sweatcoin app is indeed feature packed with lots to offer its users. It is therefore not surprising that it has several interesting statistics in its favour such as the: Number 1 app in over 60 countries Over 110 million users across the globe Most downloaded health and fitness app thus far in 2022 Launching soon on $DAO pad In preparation for the launch of the SWEAT token on September 13, 2022 the SWEAT Wallet has now being launched and available for download on the Apple and Google play store. Once downloaded, users can login into the SWEAT wallet via the sweatcoin app or other available sign in options. The home screen has several sections. There are four prominent icons on the home screen with a countdown timer indicating the time left to the launch of the SWEAT token. Although most features are still in the works , it's only a matter of time before they become fully functional as the token launch is just around the corner. The four main functions in the wallet as indicated by different icons are: Transfer: This section may facilitate outgoing or outbound transfers of SWEAT tokens to other user wallets. Likely similar to the send function in other wallets. Add: option to add more sweat to one's wallet. If this is similar to what obtains to other crypto wallets, it will probably display the user's sweat wallet address or some other unique identifier that makes receiving sweat tokens possible. Grow: likely to be a sort of yield farming or staking where SWEAT holders are incentivised for holding. Exchange: Going by the in wallet infographics, the SWEAT token is planned to be multichain or multinetwork with support for the following ecosystems: Bitcoin Ethereum Near BNB Smart Chain Thus the exchange function is expected to support swaps across the supported networks as the SWEAT token is expected to be tradable. **Sweat generation**: It is stated that the mode of generation of SWEAT tokens from the sweatcoin app is such that only the first 5,000 steps on a daily basis can generate SWEAT. Other steps after this daily threshold will be converted to sweatcoins. Minting of SWEAT tokens will be more difficult as time passes by.Each new token will be more difficult to generate than the previous one. The SWEAT token is designed to be deflationary indicating that the supply of new SWEAT will decrease linearly overtime this will hopefully be beneficial to maintaing the price stability of the token. With the official token launch just a few days away, there's still time for you to grab the sweatcoin on the Google or Apple store and start your journey of walking to earn SWEAT the easy way before it gets harder in the future.

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@M3i 26 August 2022

Getting even with hackers The concept of hacking is often misunderstood by many. It is usually associated with crime and negativity. The layman would regard anyone who professes himself or herself a hacker as a criminal or an enemy of the public. This isn't always the case. The choice of the word 'always' is by no means a mistake. It was chosen because not all hackers are criminals or inclined towards evil. There are those who use their hacking skills for evil and others who use it for the betterment of the society i.e. good. The good ones are termed 'White hat hackers' or 'Ethical hackers' while the not so good or evil ones are referred to as 'Black hat hackers'. However more often than not it is the black hat hackers who are in the news for their malicious exploits which tend to negatively paint the entire community of hackers in bad light. It is they that the community need to get even with and teach them a lesson or two. Probably such lessons will compel them to have a rethink and literally change their headgear from black to white and benefit the community instead of causing harm. Recently, the CEO of Aurora Labs narrated in a Twitter thread how a black hat hacker had attempted to compromise the Rainbow bridge. He narrated that the said exploit was attempted on a Saturday. The hacker had probably hoped that being on a weekend, the security systems would be more vulnerable to being penetrated as the number of people monitoring them would be less than usual. The individual presented a falsified NEAR block to the Rainbow bridge and made the required deposit in ETH. Unfortunately for the hacker his attempt failed as it was foiled within 31 seconds of it being initiated. The automated countermeasures put in place against malicious transactions triumphed and decimated the exploit in good time. Apart from the failure of the hack, the hacker lost his deposit of 5 ETH further compounding his losses from the misadventure. It is always a thing of joy when one hears news such as this of good prevailing over evil. It is only hoped that this particular hacker will cease and desist , however most times they love to learn the hard way and eventually end up doing jail time when the long arm of the law catches up with them. The CEO also left a message directed at the attacker urging him to put his skills to positive use by engaging in bug bounties to solve problems to benefit the community instead of engaging in illicit activity to steal and launder funds. This is not the first time that hackers or scammers are have bean dealt with by the community. Sometime in the month of May, the Solana community teamed up to recover 25 stolen NFTs. This was done by luring in the hacker to list the stolen NFTs for sale by making an offer that was simply irresistible. The offer was an increase in royalty to 98% as opposed to the usual 5% for the stolen NFTs. The community was able to buy back and retrieve all the stolen NFTs within a few days. The retrieved items were thereafter returned to the legitimate owners.

+6 more

@M3i 23 August 2022

Another DeFi platform pulls a Houdini On January 27, 1908 at a theater in St.Louis in the United States, a man stepped into what was best described as an oversized milk can filled with water. What makes this scene chilling and suspense filled was that he was handcuffed with his hands at his front as he stepped into the can of water. Afterwards the can was sealed with six padlocks from the outside making it impossible or so it was thought or believed for him to make his way out of the can unaided. Previously the can had been inspected under the watchful eyes of the audience to ascertain that there were no hidden escape routes within in. However to the amazement of the audience this man emerged after about two minutes from behind a cabinet which had been wheeled around the can. He had somehow managed to free himself from the handcuffs and escaped from the can which still remained padlocked from outside. This man was Harry Houdini and this was the first of many tricks or escapes he would pull off in his illustrious career. To some he was a master illusionist while to others he was an escape artist. In the circles of magicians, he was referred. At his prime was reputed to be capable of escaping or making a disappearance of sorts from any restraints that were placed on him. It is therefore not surprising that his name thus comes up often as a reference in respect to mysterious or sneaky stuff just like what the Devs of the DeFi platform, SudoRare did. The Automated market maker protocol which offered swapping from ERC-721 to ERC-20 suddenly disappeared from the internet. It services were shut down as the website (sudorare.xyz) became unavailable popping up a 403 error . Its social media accounts were not left out as they were also deleted. The mischievous devs left a theft of 519 ETH worth close to 850K USD (as at the time of writing this piece) in the wake of their disappearing act. According to a tweet by @PeckShieldAlert the stolen ETH was shared evenly between three accounts with each receiving 173 ETH. This is yet another instance of rug pulling which is fast becoming one of the clear and present dangers associated with the decentralised finance landscape. Sadly it isn't going to be the last as these projects promising high returns on investments continue to pop out of the woodworks ever so often.

@M3i 16 August 2022

Earn crypto for your daily walks and runs You must have heard of earning from playing games aka GameFi, wouldn't it also be great to get paid in cryptocurrencies for your daily exercises specifically your walks and runs? Thanks to move to earn, that is now a reality. The crypto space is becoming more diversified with new ways of earning crypto. The concept of move to earn essentially monetizes the movements of the individual in the form of jogging, running and walking. One of such move to earn apps is the sweat coin app (Sweatcoin) which is available on the android and iOS store for download. The app currently pays 1 sweatcoin per 1,000 steps taken. The number of steps to earn 1 sweatcoin is due to increase in future, so time is of the essence. Also SWEAT token is scheduled for launch in September and owners of sweatcoins can then swap for SWEAT at a ratio of 1:1. Hence the more sweatcoins one accumulates between now and the launch, the more SWEAT tokens one has. After downloading the app sign in with your email account (Gmail account for android users) and follow the on-screen prompts to allow permission to access one's physical activity as well as Google Fit data for android users. The app apparently also uses GPS data, so your location tile will likely be toggled on whenever the app is in use. For optimal running of the app, you'll also need to disable battery optimization for it so that it can continue running in the background. Once the app is set up, it will start recording and displaying the steps taken within a short while. The app has 4 tabs. The home screen, shop, wallet and another tab which contains challenges, friends and events sub sections. The home screen has several sections. The insights sections displays the steps history indicating the number of steps taken on a daily basis from when the app was installed till date. There's as tab urging users to sign up for the SWEAT wallet. Upon clicking this tab and following the prompts , the user is eventually sent a six digit activation code via his or her registered email to complete the sign up process for the wallet. Although the wallet is currently not available, users get a message that they'll be notified as soon as it becomes available. Next is the Daily 2x option. Upon activation of this option, a 20 minute countdown is initiated. Within this period any number of steps taken will eventually be doubled i.e.2x and the user's sweatcoin balance credited with this amount once the timer reads 0.00. For optimal use of this option, choose a period when you're most active such as during morning walks or jogs where you're likely to take the most steps. The daily rewards section offers the user the option of earning additional sweatcoins by opening 3 mystery boxes. Upon opening any of three boxes, an ad popup plays, thereafter the user is created with the number of sweatcoins that appears when the coin roller stop moving. There's also the option of inviting friends to earn more sweat, daily offer and the choice of switching to premium to earn 2x daily for a year. The shop is quite feature rich offering a range of online as well as physical products for purchase such as subscriptions, gift cards and wireless ear buds. I personally tried one of the items (the wireless earbuds) and got a discount code after spending 5 sweatcoins. I was thereafter redirected to the merchant site where the code could be used. I had to create an account on the site, thereafter I proceeded to check out. It turns at that the initial price of the ear buds was 79 USD but after entering the voucher code obtained by spending 5 sweatcoins, the price was about 39 USD indicating a price slash of 40 USD which translates to roughly 50% price reduction. However I could not proceed beyond this point as our debit cards in Nigeria now have a 10 USD monthly spending limit (this rule I hear doesn't apply to premium USD debit cards which have a monthly rental fee of sorts). The shop also has the option of bidding for items wherein the highest bidder gets the item on display once the bidding period elapses. The wallet tab displays the sweat coin balance, the daily earning and market (spending) history. The history has the option of displaying all transactions done as at any point in time. The challenges section found within the last tab contains all ongoing as well as concluded challenges. The user can choose to join any ongoing challenge to earn additional sweatcoins. One of the ongoing challenges offers a reward of 25 sweatcoins who are able to hit a target of 250k within the month of August. There's an additional reward of apple airports to 3 lucky contestants. The friends section displays all your contacts who have joined the app while making the option available to invite others who are yet to do so. It also offers the option of sharing one's invite link via Facebook, messages and WhatsApp. The profile section allows the changing or editing of one's username while in settings one can choose between automatic, light and dark theme modes. One can also delete one's account from within the settings. Considering the options available for utilizing sweatcoins, I consider the app a good one with nice visuals and easy to navigate. The only draw backs for me is the additional drain on one's battery due to the app always running in the background and having to watch adds to make daily claims (though optional) of sweatcoins. If you're interested in signing up for the app, you can use the link below to sign up. Sweatcoin signup https://sweatco.in/hi/m3doti

+10 more

@M3i 14 August 2022

When two storms collide One of the things I have learnt about weather systems from documentaries about nature is that when two of them meet or collide, the stronger one usually swallows up the other becoming a super storm. The process of one of them 'consuming' the other is usually a sight to behold with increased destructive power for the newly created one as one of them goes into oblivion. I recall when I penned in the eye of the storm which highlighted how tornado cash was being used as a conduit by hackers of various blockchains as well as defi platforms to launder or channel the funds stolen from their exploits, I had an inkling that we had not heard the last about them. https://read.cash/@M3i/in-the-eye-of-the-storm-1728f55b The reason for this is that they were appearing all too often in the news for all the wrong reasons. For the benefit of those who may have missed my previous article, I will highlight a few things about tornado cash. Tornado cash is a mixer on the Ethereum block chain which serves as a 'black box' for crypto transactions. It masks transactions by executing interference on the block chain making it difficult to track funds to their final destination. As the name of tornado cash began popping up in most of the recent cases of funds being stolen in the crypto space, all eyes in the crypto space were on it. According to Elliptic, a firm which tracks financial crimes or illicit activity in the crypto space via blockchain analytics, Tornado cash has been used to launder about 1.5 billion USD worth of funds. It was only a matter of time before law enforcement also beamed their search light on them as well. The action of sanctioning Tornado cash and several addresses associated with it by the United States Treasury department was hinged on the accusation that its services had been used by the Lazarus group to launder stolen crypto currencies. There is no love lost with this hacker group because of its links with North Korea. The implication of these sanctions is that it is now illegal for American citizens to use the Tornado cash service as its protocol and associated smart contracts have been blacklisted by the US Treasury department. This calls for concern as innocent citizens who aren't engaged in illicit activity but want to protect their privacy stand the risk of facing prosecution if they use the service henceforth. According to a CoinTelegraph report, the penalties for breaching these sanctions could range from fines of btw USD 50K to 10 million or prison terms of 10 to 30 years. The casualties of the ensuing super storm continue to rise by the day. Users of the decentralised derivatives exchange, dYdX who had interacted with tornado cash. The addresses of such users have been banned by the exchange. More recently Dutch authorities have reportedly arrested the developer of tornado cash accusing him of being involved in money laundering via tornado cash. One might argue that the Devs of tornado cash had no knowledge that stolen funds were being laundered through their platform hence they should be free of blame. However with their platform being fingered virtually constantly, it should have given them room for concern. But we really need to ask if there's nothing they could have done to check mate their platform being used to move ill gotten funds because it had become clear that they were now the popular option for money laundering. The Devs might have become comfortable with this because of the benefits to the platform was receiving because of the increased traffic due to their increasing popularity. They might have actually been basking in the euphoria of being in the spotlight. Alas everything comes with a price, the clamp down by law enforcement is likely aimed at shutting down the platform as was done with previous mixers. As the drama surrounding tornado cash continues to unfold, we are likely to see another provider or platform stepping up to take its place as there can be no vacuum where there exists the demand for a service . That's a rule of nature.

@M3i 11 August 2022

Correct to build and not to destroy We all have encountered criticism or being corrected at one point or another in our lives. It is impossible to find any human alive who hasn't been criticized. However I am also sure that some of these instances where we've been criticised brings pleasant memories while others leave a bad taste to the mouth. What likely would influence the feeling one has after being criticized is the manner in which it was done. Interestingly the manner in which it was done depends on the intention that one effecting the correction has in mind as this influences the manner by which he or she chooses to go about it. This however may not apply in some environments such as for those serving in the security forces such as the military where everything is done by the book with little wriggle room for the emotional effect of the one being corrected to be brought into consideration. We often see in work places instances where staff dread being verbally reprimanded by the boss because of the manner in which some bosses do so. The atmosphere is one of tension. Such cases can be akin to that of a raging storm which wrecks damage on anything in its path with the employee being corrected unfortunately being at the epicenter. Such employee usually has to live with the bruises after the storm has abated. These bruises are usually unseen as they are psychological and usually take more time to heal if eventually they do. One thing is certain, such employees may never forget such bruises depending on how strong they are psychologically. Thus they may develop a phobia of having any sort of encounter with such boss. We see the same thing in marriages which is manifested in emotional abuse. Often times it goes unnoticed because the recipients bear no physical scars. Sometimes the erring spouse may be the type that has issues with anger management and more often than not rather lashes out whenever he or she attempts to effect an correction even for the most minor mistakes made by the other. In other instances the spouse may not have issues with anger management but rather uses a wrong or poor choice of words which devastates the other emotionally. Funny enough because of the absence or neglect of emotional intelligence, the guilty party often doesn't realise the damage that has been done except of course the victim speaks up which doesn't happen most times. Hence we have cases of spouses bearing emotional scars in silence irrespective of the sex as both sexes are culpable in this. It is therefore necessary that as bosses, parents or spouses we learn to access the WHY when we intend to correct others. The why, will determine HOW we choose to go about correcting or criticizing. Some just criticize for the sake of criticizing without intending to get a positive outcome, worse still others criticize to pull others down or destroy. The aforementioned reasons for criticising results in using means or methods that destroys the recipient of such criticism. Correcting from a place of love or with the intention of bringing about a positive change in the one being criticized is the right approach. This is what is called constructive criticism and the intention is to build and not to destroy. In doing this unlike the earlier mentioned scenario where the mood is tense as though a storm is raging, the atmosphere is one of calmness and filled with love such that the one being criticized readily accepts the correction and is better off without being emotionally scarred. The leader, parent or spouse who chooses such approach often gets the best out of the other party in terms of productivity and getting a sustained positive outcome. Although most know that this approach is the best route to take, it is often neglected as it requires more effort in seeking the best way of effecting criticism such as choosing the most appropriate time, choice of words and setting or creating the right emotional atmosphere for it. I am quite sure that those who lash out or correct out of anger likely exert less effort as they do not take the aforementioned things into consideration. As we all hope for a society where we have less people walking about with emotional bruises and scars, we need to embrace the art of constructive criticism from a place of love which is by no means an easy task. For most it is one of things that is more easily said than done.

@M3i 9 August 2022

What value are you bringing to the table? Learning and self improvement ought to be a life long journey, from when one is a toddler to when one breathes one's last. It is for this reason that it is often said that people stop growing (intellectually), the moment they stop learning. Thus in order to live a fulfilled life, self improvement should be paramount for any individual. It is self improvement via unlearning and relearning that confers value on an individual. In some instances it is also responsible for enhancing the value of an individual. This reminds me of a comedy skit I watched recently which featured two popular skit makers , with one of them having a characteristic trademark of expressing his thoughts deliberately with anger laden outbursts. In the skit he was obviously having a bad day and was viability irritated and boiling hot ready to blow. Unfortunately he still had the task of conducting an interview for a prospective employee, so he had to make his best attempt to keep a lid on his infuriation. In the course of the interview the applicant seemed to deliberately intend to infuriate the interviewer with his response to the questions he was being asked. Despite losing his cool due to the awkward responses from the applicant, the interviewer still decided to give the applicant a chance to secure the job. The climax of the interview was when the applicant was asked what values he would bring to the company. This infuriated the applicant who tongue lashed the interviewer for wasting his time when he knew all along that the company had no value(s). The applicant thereafter rudely retrieved his credentials he had submitted on arrival and walked out on the interviewer. The visibly agitated interviewer at this point went bananas and put a call across to the security man at the gate no to allow the applicant out of the premises. You can use your imagination to conclude on what would befall the applicant when the interviewer eventually lays his hands on him. Sarcasm aside, a clear message is contained therein, no one wants to associate with an individual or place that has no value. No firm or establishment that is goal or result oriented will hire an employee who doesn't add or bring any value to the firm as it will amount to a waste of resources that would be spent on paying the wages of such staff. Even on occasions where firms hire staff that have no on the job experience, they usually look out for applicants who they feel have the potential to add some value to the firm after haven received some training while on the job. The same thing applies to human relationships. No one wants to be in a parasitic relationship where one party is constantly giving his all while the other sits back and contributes nothing. This parasitism is not limited to finances alone , it may also be psychological or emotional. Any relationship where this is present is ultimately bound to hit the rocks as it is only a matter of time before the host gets fed up by the lack of reciprocity. Therefore as individuals we need to constantly access ourselves in our work places as well as in our relationships to know if we're bringing any value to the table or just being the one who loves to receive only while not giving anything in return. Thus it is paramount to always invest in one self by learning new skills to enhance one's contribution in the workspace and reciprocate whatever we receive in our relations with others. Even when others hurt us, we shouldn't reciprocate with evil but with good for that is the only value which when brought forth puts one's mind at ease. Indeed it is the secret to living a fulfilled life free of hatred or enmity.

@M3i 6 August 2022

Chess is one of those board games not for those who lack an abundance of patience. It also involves a lot of strategizing before making one's next move in order to check mate one's opponent. If you've ever encountered any great chess player one piece of advise you'd surely get from them is learn to be patient and of course also be strategic or purposeful in making your moves. A move made in haste without thinking it through thoroughly by accessing the possible consequences could result in losing one of your important pieces on the board. In such a situation panicking or becoming frustrated at the loss could ultimately result in losing the game. This is why it is never a good idea to dwell too much on one's mistakes but rather do a necessary analysis of the error made i.e. the possible reason(s) why the error was made and how it could have been possibly averted. Once the analysis is done, quickly move on while being alert as to the indicators of signs of possibly making such mistakes in the future. One of the skills one has to develop to be good at chess is the ability to think or plan ahead, not just the next move but several moves ahead. Those who can master this skill have an edge over their opponent who lack the skill as they can anticipate and counter their moves on the board. This skill is also important in our daily lives in order to get the best out of the day in terms of productivity. The ability to consistently plan one's daily schedule may seem like an easy task but without discipline there is a high chance of being distracted by challenges or unexpected occurrences which eventually result in one not being able to achieve the goals that the schedule was supposed to facilitate. Planning steps ahead will save you a lot in terms of time, effort and finances. It makes you better equipped to manage challenges that may pop up on your way to achieving whatever objective or goal you've set for yourself. Failing to plan steps ahead can make the most basic taks become like a burden. I will illustrate the points raised in this paragraph with a few examples. My father always says if you're planning for a journey, don't just start arranging the things you are planning to take along for that journey a few hours to when you're about to set off, rather start making preparations well ahead of time if possible days to the expected time for departure except of course it's an emergency. There's a higher tendency of leaving something important behind when one doesn't plan ahead for a trip. If this happens it could even result in one not being able to make the trip as the time spent in searching for or locating such item usually results in loss of valuable time as the departure time fast approaches especially for things like flights or trains which have specific departure times. Also there's this anxiety that usually comes with searching for items when running late or short of time , you could miss such items even if they are 'hiding' in plain sight because of one's emotional state at the time. Another example is if Mr.A has an appointment for say midday and the commute to the location for the appointment is supposed to take 30 minutes, without planning ahead Mr.A would likely begin his journey by 11.30 am but with proactive planning it would have been a better idea for Mr.A to leave much earlier say probably by 11 am just in case he encounters any unexpected challenges such as traffic on the way. He has a higher chance of getting to his appointment to time if had factored in the possibility of hiccups on the route while deciding on his departure time. Before I give the last illustration, I would like to share a tweet I came across recently. It read (I have paraphrased some parts as I didn't commit it verbatim to memory) "If you see something you like and you have the resources to buy it at that point in time, please buy it because it may not be available at same price if you choose to delay the purchase to another day". This is one of the stark realities of the times we live in. There's virtually no place in the world that's not experiencing some sort of inflation. If I were to add an alternate end to the the tweet, I would said 'buy it else the item may not be available because someone else would have beat you to it". The last illustration will describe how planning ahead helps you save or manage your finances. Mrs. A intends to go to the supermarket to purchase some none perishable items for her household. She has 14 USD which will get her two packs of diapers at 7 USD each. She has the option of buying one and waiting to buy another when it gets exhausted or buying 2 now while planning ahead (factoring the fact that with the trend in prices increasing rather than decreasing)that in future there's every likelihood that the 14 USD will not be sufficient to purchase 2 packs. Choosing the second option will save her the resources and even possibly the time spent to go out shopping again for a second pack of diapers. While some free spirited individuals opine that one shouldn't bother with planning for the future but live in the moment , I opine that planning ahead helps to save one from a lot of inconveniences while optimally utilizing the resources at one's disposal. While not a chess player myself, one of the things I have come to appreciate about the game is the art of planning moves ahead and not just seeking momentary gratification of pleasure from one move only without considering the results or consequences that follow.

@M3i 5 August 2022

Plan your day like a chess master Chess is a board game not for those who lack an abundance of patience. It also involves a lot of strategizing before making one's next move in order to check mate one's opponent. If you've ever encountered any great chess player one piece of advise you'd surely get from them is learn to be patient and of course also be strategic or purposeful in making your moves. A move made in haste without thinking it through thoroughly by accessing the possible consequences could result in losing one of your important pieces on the board. In such a situation panicking or becoming frustrated at the loss could ultimately result in losing the game. This is why it is never a good idea to dwell too much on one's mistakes but rather do a necessary analysis of the error made i.e. the possible reason(s) why the error was made and how it could have been possibly averted. Once the analysis is done, quickly move on while being alert as to the indicators or signs of possibly making such mistakes in the future. One of the skills one has to develop to be good at chess is the ability to think or plan ahead, not just the next move but several moves ahead. Those who can master this skill have an edge over their opponent who lack the skill as they can anticipate and counter their moves on the board. This skill is also important in our daily lives in order to get the best out of the day in terms of productivity. The ability to consistently plan one's daily schedule may seem like an easy task but without discipline there is a high chance of being distracted by challenges or unexpected occurrences which eventually result in one not being able to achieve the goals that the schedule was supposed to facilitate. Planning steps ahead and sticking to the plan will save you a lot in terms of time, effort and finances. It makes you better equipped to manage challenges that may crop up on your way to achieving whatever objective or goal you've set for yourself. Failing to plan steps ahead can make the most basic taks become like a burden. I will illustrate some of the points raised in this paragraph with a few examples. My father always says if you're planning for a journey, don't just start arranging the things you are planning to take along for that journey a few hours to when you're about to set off, rather start making preparations well ahead of time if possible days to the expected time for departure except of course it's an emergency. There's a higher tendency of leaving something important behind when one doesn't plan ahead for a trip. If this happens it could even result in one not being able to make the trip as the time spent in searching for or locating such item usually results in loss of valuable time as the departure time fast approaches especially for things like flights or trains which have specific departure times. Also there's this anxiety that usually comes with searching for items when running late or short of time , you could miss such items even if they are 'hiding' in plain sight because of one's emotional state at the time. Another example is if Mr.A has an appointment for say midday and the commute to the location for the appointment is supposed to take 30 minutes, without planning ahead Mr.A would likely begin his journey by 11.30 am but with proactive planning it would have been a better idea for Mr.A to leave much earlier say probably by 11 am just in case he encounters any unexpected challenges such as traffic on the way. He has a higher chance of getting to his appointment to time if had factored in the possibility of hiccups on the route while deciding on his departure time. Before I give the last illustration, I would like to share a tweet I came across recently. It read (I have paraphrased some parts as I didn't commit it verbatim to memory) "***If you see something you like and you have the resources to buy it at that point in time, please buy it because it may not be available at same price if you choose to delay the purchase to another day***". This is one of the stark realities of the times we live in. There's virtually no place in the world that's not experiencing some sort of inflation. If I were to add an alternate end to the the tweet, I would said 'buy it else the item may not be available because someone else would have beat you to it". The last illustration will describe how planning ahead helps you save or manage your finances. Mrs. A intends to go to the supermarket to purchase some none perishable items for her household. She has 14 USD which will get her two packs of diapers at 7 USD each. She has the option of buying one and waiting to buy another when it gets exhausted or buying 2 now while planning ahead (factoring the fact that with the trend in prices increasing rather than decreasing)that in future there's every likelihood that the 14 USD will not be sufficient to purchase 2 packs. Choosing the second option will save her the resources and even possibly the time spent to go out shopping again for a second pack of diapers. Some free spirited individuals opine that one shouldn't bother with planning for the future but live in the moment . Call me an 'overthinker' but I rather opine that planning ahead helps to save one from a lot of inconveniences while optimally utilizing the resources at one's disposal. While not a chess player myself, one of the things I have come to appreciate about the game is the art of planning moves ahead and not just seeking momentary gratification of pleasure from one move only without considering the results or consequences that follow.

@M3i 16 July 2022

Survival kit for Crypto winter Winter set in rather early in the crypto space and with it has come a blizzard of surprises which caught many off guard. The wave of snow storms has negatively impacted the crypto ecosystem. First it was the Terra storm which initiated the process of terra forming the cryptosphere to a terrain that has become almost treacherous to transverse especially for newcomers. In its wake other storms such as that of Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital and more recently Celsius followed. As if that wasn't enough one of the more popular bridges to reach the SmartBCH ecosystem (CoinFlex) was virtually blown to bits cutting off many in the SmartBCH community from the BCH mainland. Thankfully it appears that reconstruction work has since commenced but with limited functionality of the bridge. Speaking in real world terms, CoinFlex has initiated a plan to allow its users to withdraw up to 10% of their funds while the remaining 90% will be considered as locked funds. These locked funds will appear as balances which are utterly useless to the owners till whenever Coinflex can sort itself out fully . Pending whenever that happens the funds cannot be withdrawn or traded. This scenario clearly highlights one of the major risks associated with keeping one's funds or assets in centralised exchanges. **Survival Tip 1:** **Use a decentralised or hardware wallet** Hence the number one tip in our survival kit is DO NOT store your funds or assets on centralised exchanges as it is akin to transferring ownership of such assets to whoever runs or administers such exchanges. It is thus preferred to keep assets in decentralised wallets or better still hardware wallets to have full control over them. In light of the renewed instability that has hit the crypto market, it is necessary to be creative as to strategies guiding investment decisions. This is what informs the next survival tip. **Survival Tip 2:** **Invest in assets that can be staked** Invest in stakable assets with decent or reasonable APR. With such investment even when the market goes sideways , you still make gains in terms of asset accumulation from staking. In choosing such assets please consider the following attributes and do not be enticed only by high APR . ***Good utility or use case*** : This is very important because it implies that even in a bear market, such asset remains relevant and will continue to be utilized. It shouldn't just be one that is dependent on hyping by an influencer or influencers on social media. This utility will also enable such asset maintain some sort of stability while others are plummeting price wise in a bear market. ***A clear road map***: Someone once said "you may have the best aircraft and pilot, but without a clear vision of where you're going you will never arrive at your destination. This is the importance of a road map, it gives or tells you the direction in which a project is headed. It may be inevitable sometimes to alter the 'check' points as well as timelines for them as deemed necessary. The absence of a clear or realistic road map enables the community or investors to track the progress being made. Hence it is not a wise decision to invest in any project which either lacks or has an unrealistic road map especially for long term investments. ***Regular progress updates***: Any project that keeps its community or investors in the dark even in the face of obvious challenges or threats should be avoided. The absence of good public relations or regular updates on progress being made is a danger sign especially in the crypto space with its associated volatility. These updates help to boost investor confidence and as such any project truly intends to succeed will make it a priority to issue regular updates of progress as w**ell as challenges.** **Survival Tip 3:** **Always be informed** Be abreast with trends or happenings in the cryptospace to enable one make the best investment decisions. Information they say is power. This is particularly true in the crypto space. Getting the right information at the appropriate time is vital to avoid making wrong investment decisions which could leave one rekt. An investment could be going well only to nose dive and plummet to the abyss. More often than not there are usually hints or warning signs which can only be gleaned with access to the right information. If you have funds invested in any project endeavour to be a member of their social media communities or groups and also follow their social media handles. This affords you the opportunity of getting information directly 'from the horses mounth' and such information or attitude displayed by the Devs to enquiries or queries could well form the basis for you to decide if you will be comfortable with them managing your investment. **Survival Tip 4** **Use the DCA approach** While some crypto pundits suggest that we have seen the bottom in terms of prices in the crypto markets , others opine that we are yet to see the true bottom. Hence for this reason it will be wise to avoid the lump sum investing approach but rather adopt the dollar cost averaging (DCA) technique of splitting the entire sum to be invested into bits and making entry or buying in at intervals. This will provide some protection from inadvertently buying the top if one were to go all in at a single entry point. These are just a few suggested survival tips to keep warm as crypto winter sets in. If you have others you'd like to share , please feel free to comment below. Shukran Danke Merci Gracias ขอบคุณ ধন্যবাদ Спасибо.

@M3i 19 June 2022

The price to pay for freedom One of the features which has been used to encourage people to come on board the train of decentralised finance (Defi) is the freedom from control or regulation by any government entity or centralised authority. This concept of true financial freedom would have been great had it not been for the emergence of fraud in the Defi space. The absence of regulation now seems like a loop hole which must be addressed if truly the prospect of onboarding more people to defi is expected to come to fruition. Although one of the common slogans in the crypto space is always do your research, the reality is that so many people in the general public do not know what to look out for in terms of red flags when faced with the opportunity of investing in defi projects. Even when some of these projects pass the test of known features to avoid or look out for, there is still a chance of rug pulling or absconding away with investors funds. The case of projects which passed audits by well known crypto security firms lay credence to this existential threat. A mechanism of sorts to checkmate the activities of actors in the defi space who have malicious intent needs to be developed else the hope that crypto would one day unseat the conventional banking or financial system will be nothing more than a mirage as the absence of some level of trust in the system will scare away a vast majority of the general populace. Similarly in the quest to have access as well as pass information in an unregulated space, we have seen the emergence of several social media platforms, some of which employ blockchain technology. These platforms have provided an alternative to the mainstream media outlets who usually have some sort of bias in their reportage and hence deliberately do not present the facts as they are so as to suit the narrative their benefactors want the public to believe. With this freedom to access alternative sources of information dissemination has come a challenge which is becoming more sophisticated by the day. Some of these platforms are now being flooded by fake news in the form of deliberate misinformation such as manipulated or doctored images as well as videos which are intended not to present the facts as they are but to achieve a selfish or sinister motive which the mainstream media outlets are accused of. What makes it somewhat worse is that no one is usually held liable due to the anonymity that usually goes with the accounts on these platforms especially those built on Blockchain technology. In order to check the spread of fake news there has been a clamour for people to always verify information posted on social media platforms to ascertain their authenticity before sharing such but this campaign has failed to yield the desired result. The reason for this failure is that most people are simply too lazy to go through what they see as the stress of verifying information while some don't just care about the consequences of spreading or sharing information which turns out to be false. Except we choose to kid ourselves, the reality is that in order to check fraudulent behaviour as well as disinformation or misinformation, there is obviously a need for some sort of check and balance mechanism or system to protect these freedoms which ought to be a blessing but whose abuse now appears to be a curse of sorts. Some may opine that any form of censorship or regulation of these freedoms is a no go area as it would go against the essence or spirit of decentralisation or freedom of speech. If there's a way to checkmate these ills aside from the aforementioned mentioned option , I will be fully in support as we cannot sit idly by and watch as these freedoms are being exploited by a few for selfish or personal gains . The cost of their exploitation is taking its toll as in the case of fake news lives have been made miserable and even lost in some instances. The price to be paid for these freedoms may be too heavy for us to bear someday if nothing is done to check the activities of those who have chosen to abuse them.

@M3i 30 May 2022

The Delegate The Nigerian internet space has been awash with memes about a certain group of political actors who have gained prominence in the past weeks. These individuals are the delegates from the various political parties participating in the primaries which will determine the flag bearers of their respective parties from the State house of assemblies, through to the Number 1 citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They have become like the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg because of the immense power which they will wield at this critical phase of the electioneering process. Think of them like the beautiful daughter of powerful king with many suitors attempting to win her heart by wooing her with gifts and whatever material possessions they have. These suitors are willing to part with these possessions in exchange for her hand 'in marriage' which comes with the juicy benefit of securing a seat at the table of power of her father, the king of the land. Translating it to the reality of the process involved in the primaries, it would mean getting the votes from the delegates to emerge as the flag bearer of the party for the forthcoming general elections. Before I go too far, let me highlight some of the hilarious memes. Teacher: What do you want to be when you grow up? Pupil: I want to be a (party) delegate Mr.A: What do you do for a living? Mr.B: I am a delegate You might be wondering why being a delegate became the future aspiration of a child or how on earth is playing the role of a delegate an actual means of livelihood. The answer is simple, politics in Nigeria as with many other countries around the globe (particularly in developing ones) is heavily monetized. Thus any chance some individuals get to cash out from the system, they do so with so much gusto as for them it may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to change their economic fortunes. Thus it was not surprising that as some parties conclude their primaries, some delegates are already reaping and displaying the 'fruits' of their 'hard' labour. There was a story of how a candidate who lost out in the primaries went after those whom he had induced financially after they refused to cast their votes in his favour probably due to what they had received from a higher bidder. The candidate had received an infinitesimal number of votes in comparison to the one who clinched the ticket. Some aggrieved candidates who lost out even went to the extent of physically assaulting the delegates who they felt betrayed them when it got to the time of vote casting even after they had 'settled' them. Just yesterday a video began trending online of one of such delegates. Upon his return to his place of residence after completing the delegate assignment, he promptly purchased a brand new vehicle with what he had been 'gifted' while on assignment. His arrival with his 'war' booty was greeted with cheers and chants of delegates from his neighbours and well wishers. Most delegates have become auctioneers of sorts selling their vote to the highest bidder irrespective of if the candidate is competent and will follow through in delivering on his campaign promises. For these group of delegates what is important is the state of their pockets or accounts and not the future of the nation. They failed to heed the call of a popular TV anchor to them. His appeal was that the delegates had a decisive role in shaping what will become of Nigeria in the next 4 or 8 years, thus their choice of candidate for whom they will cast their vote would either make or mar the nation's future. Hence the need for delegates to put the interest of the nation above all else. Alas this appeal was not taken to heart as most delegates followed their stomachs and not their conscience in casting their votes. The most unfortunate outcome of their selfishness is that the electorate and indeed the entire nation will have to deal with the consequence of their misplaced priority in picking the flag bearers of their respective parties. This is because more often than not candidates who would have served the interest of the electorate as a matter of principle refuse to financially induce delegates to vote in their favour. The ridiculous amount of funds spent to buy votes during the electioneering process can be said to be the primary reason why elected officials usually turn to corrupt practices once sworn in. Some have ironically stated that it is only logical that they recoup their 'invested' funds from the public treasury. However their recovery or rather looting often goes beyond what they invested in manifolds hence the failure to execute quality or standard projects that will benefit the electorate.

@M3i 22 May 2022

When the crypto space deals you a bad hand The past weeks have been devastating for some new entrants into the world of crypto trading and investing . Even some not so new entrants got hit as well. Sadly some will never get the opportunity to learn from their mistakes as they opted for suicide. This is quite unfortunate and honestly wasn't the best way to have reacted to their loss irrespective of the magnitude. There's a common saying that when there's life, there's hope. We never truly know how strong or resilient we are or can be until a strong adversity stares us in the face due to our actions or inactions . This goes without saying that being able to rebuild or pull oneself together after an unexpected financial loss or investment failure is one of the most difficult challenges anyone can encounter in life. It's like going from grace to grass and having to strive to move one more time from grass to grace. This by any standards is no easy feat as it requires a strong will, courage and determination to pull it off. In fact, for some the thought of losing it all again takes the wind out of their sails to face the daunting task of rising from the fall. The recent happenings of the depegging of prominent stable coins with that of UST stealing the spotlight due to the magnitude of losses of investors have once again energised the critics of cryptocurrencies to ramp up their onslaught. In fact , some have generalised the entire crypto space as one big Ponzi scheme, where the big fish or whales always win. Sadly some scams which have been pulled off in the crypto space seem to justify this assertion. These critics have even suggested that the UST crash could have been deliberate. The concept of decentralisation too hasn't been spared by these antagonists as they argue that any system without any sort of regulation is always bound to collapse or implode. Furthermore they argue that the high rate of scams and hacks in the cryptospace particularly that of decentralised finance is proof that the absence of regulation or oversight creates an environment or system that allows criminality to thrive. With all these market crashes and investors losing entire portfolios, we may see a shift in public sentiment in favour of regulation playing a more prominent role in the crypto space especially as it is being marketed as a viable means of keeping market crashes at bay in some circles. However going forward irrespective of if regulation becomes more integrated or not, we all need to be reminded that the crypto market remains a volatile one. This reminder is especially important when onboarding people to crypto investing or trading, letting them know that it's not always rosy. Price fluctuations which affect the value of invested funds will always occur. Therefore individuals need to put appropriate risk management protocols in place to protect their investment or portfolios. NEVER invest funds intended for important stuff in your life like tuition, mortgage or worse still entire life savings in any crypto asset. That is a big NO NO. ONLY invest what you can afford to part with in the event that the investment fails or doesn't perform as expected. This can happen even outside the crypto space. A business activity can look so promising with those managing it doing everything right and still fail. That is life. Sometimes bad things happen despite our best efforts. The reasons why some persons after the UST crash might have opted for suicide is that they went all in with funds that they shouldn't have risked investing in the first place. Hence just when they thought they were home and dry with their investment decision, the UST bubble bust. The rest is now history which we all should learn from even those who weren't affected directly. Another fundamental advise is always make educated or informed investment choices to minimise the risk factor involved in your investments. This is only possible if you always do your research. Do not rush into any investment simply because of the perks it is hyped to offer else you may get burnt before you know it. Invest ONLY in assets that don't just have strong fundamentals but also have potential use case scenarios or utility. This is why assets such as Bitcoin cash are which have proven themselves as usable payment solutions are good investments. While those who do not have a favourable disposition to cryptocurrency have touted the current market crisis as the beginning of the end or an apocalypse of sorts for cryptocurrency. However, those who see a promising future liken the current situation to that of the internet as at the year 2000 which a newspaper article captured as probably being a 'passing fad' as millions of people gave up on it. But here we are today, with the internet continuing to break new boundaries. Hence for crypto enthusiasts, the belief is that: "***this too shall pass***"