I finished a draft of my cryptocurrency article! Here is a link to it: https://medium.com/@a.jeremymah/how-cryptocurrency-works-a-deep-explanation-of-the-fundamentals-ddc5f8aa53e3 I decided to compliment the article with simple stick figure drawings. Although these might look slightly childish at first glance, I think they're actually quite effective in making potentially daunting concepts more accessible. I believe that one secret to explaining complex ideas effectively is to start at a place that readers feel like they are 100% comfortable with, and work up from there. Stick figure drawings are a great way to get readers of all ages and ability levels comfortable, while also giving a potentially dry technology article a bit of character. It’s worth noting that the scope of this article is slightly different than I originally planned it to be. My top priority was explaining the mechanics of cryptocurrency, but I also planned on extensively discussing other aspects of cryptocurrency, such as potential issues with it, controversy around its use, and how it may impact society. However, my detailed explanation of the fundamentals of cryptocurrency ended up being over 5,000 words long. Although the research I did would be sufficient to write much more than this, generating this explanation was my top priority, which I achieved. I need to make time to write my other pieces as well, so I decided to end the post without extensively discussing some issues I planned to explore.
Tomorrow, I'll delve into researching neural networks and prepare to write my article on neural networks Friday and over the weekend!
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I unfortunately wasn't able to finish my Bitcoin article today, as I had originally planned. However, I've begun writing the main part of the article, and I have my complete outline with all my ideas finished. I should be able to finish it by tomorrow. I also did a bit more research on the potential economic and societal implications of Bitcoin, and I discovered some of the most interesting aspects of bitcoin I've found yet! One fascinating thing about Bitcoin is that it's designed to be a deflationary currency, as opposed to an inflationary currency. Almost all currency in the world, such as the US dollar, is inflationary, because a central authority is constantly printing new units of the currency and will continue doing so for the indefinite future. This means that the value of one unit of such currency will decrease over time, leading to inflation. However, the rate at which new bitcoins are being generated is consistently decreasing, and over 80% of the bitcoins that will ever be in circulation already exist. If the Bitcoin user base continues increasing, then there will be fewer bitcoins per person as time goes on. This means that the value of a single bitcoin will increase over time, leading to deflation! This is perhaps the first time a currency has ever been developed with deflation specifically in mind. Economists disagree over the potential effects of mass adoption of a deflationary currency, but some express concern that mass adoption of the deflationary Bitcoin would slow the economy. Because each bitcoin that a person keeps out of the economy will be worth more in the near future, people have an incentive to avoid spending money. This decreases aggregate demand, which could cause firms to find ways to cut costs and reduce supply, which would increase unemployment and further decrease aggregate demand. This could lead to a downward spiral quite quickly. Another fun, but more far-fetched idea, is that cryptocurrency could be used by a semi-sentient form of artificial intelligence to incentivize humans to improve it. The AI system could pay its developers in Bitcoin, utilizing the privacy features of bitcoin to make sure its developers remained anonymous. Even if a governmental authority tried to ban development of the AI system, the AI system could continue paying anonymous developers. Over time, the AI system could continue improving and eventually spiral out of control. This situation certainly isn't upon us yet, and likely won't be for some time, but it is nevertheless fascinating to consider.
Today, I began writing my cryptocurrency article, did a bit more cryptocurrency research, and began researching neural networks. First, I decided on the rough structure of my article. My article will begin with a discussion of the basics of the mechanics of cryptocurrency, such as how it's traded and created. I won't start my article with broad generalizations about cryptocurrency; I think that will confuse the reader if they don't have a strong foundation. I don't intend to talk about cryptocurrency as an abstract entity until I've made it so concrete in my readers' minds that they could explain it to another person. After I explain what Bitcoin is under the hood, I'll start getting into the implications of cryptocurrency for the economy, including semi-private transactions and potential for crime. Finally, I'll mention some common misconceptions about cryptocurrency and correct them. By the time a reader has finished my article, they should be at roughly "level 5" understanding of cryptocurrency. One way I continued my research today was by typing in biased google search queries with the intent to uncover biased sources. Things I typed in included, "Bitcoin is a scam," "Bitcoin is for criminals," "Bitcoin is the future," and "why invest in Bitcoin." I learned this technique from Tim Urban of waitbutwhy.com. He says that he often does this as he writes articles to get a good sense of the division between what everyone in a field agrees on and what even experts disagree on. It seems that most experts in the realm of cryptocurrency research agree that bitcoin can be a reasonably secure method to make semi-anonymous transactions, but they disagree on whether or not Bitcoin will stay stable in the future or is a good investment to make today. Though it may seem early to be researching neural networks, my self-imposed deadline for my neural network article is Friday, so I started learning about the math behind neural networks today as well. I looked at the basic algorithm that inspired early neural networks: linear regression. I learned two ways of creating a linear regression algorithm. One is called gradient descent, which uses multivariable calculus, and one is called least squares regression, which uses linear algebra and matrix calculus. I won't be directly discussing linear regression in my neural network article, but neural networks and linear regression algorithms are fundamentally related because they are both predictive algorithms that take ideas from one another. Understanding the simpler mathematical system of linear regression helps tremendously with understanding the more complex system of a neural network. I don't intend to discuss the math that I learned about today in my article, but learning the math gives me a deeper perspective on the function of the algorithm. With this perspective, it will be easier for me to avoid misrepresenting aspects of neural networks when I simplify them in my article.
My top priority tomorrow will be finishing a draft of my bitcoin article! I spent yesterday getting myself familiar with the basics of how cryptocurrency works. Today, my goal was to dive into the controversy surrounding cryptocurrency and evaluate various people's stances on the issue. First, it's important to note that there are over a thousand different cryptocurrencies in existence. However, according to Forbes, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin currently makes up about 79% of the cryptocurrency market. According to surveys, Bitcoin is seen as the most reliable cryptocurrency, and it was also the first cryptocurrency to utilize decentralized blockchain validation. (I won't explain complex terms like that in these small, daily blog posts, but I'll be sure to explain these terms in my completed articles.) Every type of cryptocurrency is a bit different, so it doesn't make sense to talk about "cryptocurrency" as a whole when discussing debates about the topic. Doing so would be a bit like complaining about the volatility of "money," rather than criticizing the Mexican Peso or the Canadian Dollar specifically. As a result of Bitcoin's dominance, I'm choosing to focus on controversy around Bitcoin in my article. I'll briefly mention other interesting cryptocurrencies (such as Ethereum, which is associated with a smart contract programming language!), but Bitcoin will be the focus. One of the questions I'll address in my article is whether Bitcoin is truly anonymous. Unsurprisingly, there's no simple answer to that question. There certainly are ways of using Bitcoin that make it one of the more private methods of exchanging money. However, a Bitcoin user who does not take deliberate steps to increase their privacy is not anonymous. All transactions with Bitcoin are recorded on a public ledger. As a result, it is often possible to trace the flow of cash between users' addresses. Although the addresses are not directly linked to the user through Bitcoin, it's often possible to find an unsuspecting Bitcoin user's identity given only their address. For example, people often post their addresses online so that people can pay them, and these posted addresses are often linked to identity-revealing accounts. The flow of Bitcoins can be complex and difficult to trace, which I'll discuss in my full article, but it is often possible to trace the flow of Bitcoins using advanced analytics. In my article, I'll also discuss several interesting methods I found that people can use to increase their privacy when using Bitcoin.
I also discovered a fascinating fact today! But understanding this fact requires knowing the definition of an important word in the world of cryptocurrency: mining. Put briefly, mining is the process of solving a difficult math problem in the cryptocurrency system, and the owner of the computer that successfully mined gets paid in cryptocurrency. I'll explain mining in greater depth in my full article, but the important thing here is that mining requires a powerful computer (or a network of computers) and lots of electricity. Here's the fascinating fact: an estimated 90% of all remote hacking involves hackers attempting to use a victim's computer to mine cryptocurrency! The potential for privacy when using cryptocurrency unfortunately makes it an ideal way for criminals to deal with money. I'm really enjoying learning about cryptocurrency, so I'll probably read about it for fun over the weekend. On Monday, I'll start writing a first draft of my article, and I'll finish the draft on Tuesday. Today was the first day of my independent study! I spent the first half of the day making a detailed plan for the next three weeks, and the second half of the day researching the basics of cryptocurrency. In this independent study, I’ll write simple, yet nuanced explanations of five different complex topics. Ultimately, I’ll post these explanations on Medium.com. My target audience consists of interested people with a high school or college student reading level, and they are not expected to have any background knowledge of any of these topics. To reach this audience, I’ll avoid jargon (clearly explaining any I must use), include stories or jokes wherever possible, and focus on building up the reader's background knowledge adequately before diving into the actual topic. Below are the five topics I’m going to write about. For each topic, I’ve given myself a deadline by which I will have written a draft. Once I complete each draft, I’ll send it to my sponsor, Mr. Cambisios, and he will give me feedback. After revising, I'll post the final draft on medium.com, and it will show up here: (https://medium.com/@a.jeremymah) The topics, along with the date I will complete my draft of my blog post on each topic, are listed below: 1. Cryptocurrency. Draft submission date: Tuesday, August 25. 2. How computational neural networks work (explained using as little math as possible). Draft submission date: Friday, August 28. 3. Credit risk modeling. Draft submission date: Wednesday, September 2. 4. Adderall: neuroscience and national usage patterns. Draft submission date: Monday, September 7. 5. Analyzing the process of breaking down complex topics. Draft submission date: Wednesday, September 9. When thinking about my target audience, I find it helpful to rate understanding of a subject that a person can have on a scale from 1-10. This chart summarizes blogger Tim Urban's description of this scale, and it aligns closely with how I view the scale as well: As the numbers increase from 1 to 10, understanding increases by orders of magnitude. My target audience has a 2 or 3 level understanding, and my blog posts are designed to get people up to a 5 or 6.
The first step, of course, is to get myself from a 2 or 3 level up to a 5 or a 6, at which point I can begin writing. At the beginning of the day, I barely knew what cryptocurrency was. I could recite a few simple facts about it, but nothing coherent. Now, after about 5 hours of research, I would say I've elevated my understanding to roughly 4 level. Tomorrow, I'll focus on investigating controversy, false claims, and predictions around cryptocurrency to elevate myself to 5 or low-6 level understanding. |
Jeremy MahoneyImpromptu teacher, lover of learning, and admirer of the universe ArchivesCategories |