Digital Gold: Earn Money on the Web

95. You need to be happy yourself to make others happy.

Still wondering why others do not want to communicate with you? Analyze what you usually say and how you say it. Try to avoid talking about how bad the government is and how hard it is to live. Talk about the good, even if you are sad.

96. Sometimes, we don’t get what we want but what we need. So, do not ask: “Why me?” but think: “What for?”

97. All that you have now is the result of your actions.

To have something that you never had, you need to do something that you never did! And to know what to do, you must first change the source of information. Undoubtedly, the new series of “Game of Thrones” is very interesting, but it will be much more useful to open the website cryptocompare or airdropalert.

98. A successful outer life begins with a sense of success inside.

If you are fixated on the mistakes of the past, the difficulties of the present and possible obstacles in the future – there can be no talk of any success.

99. Do not be afraid to take risks.

The saying, “who does not risk, does not drink champagne” is quite relevant. I always remind myself of this. If you are afraid all the time, you will never be successful.

100. You owe nothing to anyone. Nobody owes you anything either.

Everything you owe is written in the tax code, and what you don’t have to do is in the criminal code.

In the world, there is only one person capable of pulling you to the bottom or pulling up – this is yourself.

2. How to Set Goals

1. Think “in writing” on paper.

2. Limit your goal in time. A goal without a time frame is just a dream.

3. Form a goal in the affirmative form in the present tense.

4. Remove the particles “not,” “nor” from the lexicon when setting a goal. Say “I’m healthy” instead of “I never get sick.”

5. Divide the goals into sub-goals and prepare a detailed scenario for achieving them (determine the intermediate results of the goal achievement).

6. Think about the goal, not the difficulties on the way to it. Set the path and go.

7. Be responsible for your actions on the way to the goal.

8. Create an image of the future where you have already reached your goal and fix it.

9. Set big goals. It’s easier to get into them.

10. Behave as if success is guaranteed to you.

3. Recommended Literature

1. Robert Kiyosaki. “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.”

2. Allan Pease. “Answers in Questions.”

3. Dale Carnegie. “How to Make Friends and Influence People.”

4. Robert Kiyosaki. “Cash Flow Quadrant.”

5. Robert Kiyosaki. “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing.”

6. Chance О. К. “Hot Ten.”

7. Jim Rohn. “Vitamins for the Mind.”

8. Tom Schreiter. “Secret Language of Attraction.”

Movies recommended for viewing

1. The Secret (Documentary, 2006).

Watching this movie should not be postponed. If you don’t understand it the first time – watch it again another day.

2. Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (Documentary, 2014).

3. Wolf from Wall Street (2013).

4. Founder (2016).

5. Big Eyes (2014).

6. Obsession (2013).

III. Practical advice

1. Investing in cryptocurrency

“Cryptocurrency is the currency of people’s monetary independence, and it is more than just a financial unit.”

Nick Spanos

For the beginning, a bit of terminology, interesting facts and history.

Terminology. Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency, the creation and control of which is based on cryptographic methods. As a rule, accounting for cryptocurrency is decentralized. That is, the cryptocurrency does not belong to any government in the world. In addition, it does not belong to one particular person. Its operation is based on technologies such as blockchain. Transaction information is usually not encrypted and is available in clear text. To ensure that the base of the transaction blockchain is unchanged, elements of cryptography are used (digital signature based on a public key system, etc.).

The term was entrenched after the publication of an article about the Bitcoin system “Crypto currency,” published in 2011 in the journal Forbes. The very author of Bitcoin, like many others, used the term “electronic cash.”

Sometimes, a new cryptocurrency appears as a fork from another cryptocurrency due to changes in parameters, which makes them incompatible. In this case, both cryptocurrencies can have a common transaction history until the split. In addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have probably already been heard, there are many other currencies. For example, on the coingecko service, information was collected on more than 3,500 coins and on the cryptocompare service, about 2000.

The emission of different cryptocurrencies can occur through mining, forging (minting) or ICO (I will discuss this later).

Discussions on the economic nature and legal status of cryptocurrency are underway. In different countries, cryptocurrencies are considered as a means of payment, a specific product may have restrictions in circulation (for example, the prohibition of operations with them for banking institutions). ³ But it is worth noting that cryptocurrency has long been used in many countries and for many purposes. In Europe, it has already been paying for real estate and other small goods, while in some countries, it is planned and implemented to accept payments for utilities in cryptocurrency. Who knows how else the cryptocurrency will be used in a few years…

Blockchain

Blockchain – built by certain rules, a continuous, sequential chain of blocks (linked list) containing information. Most often, copies of block chains are stored on many different computers independently of each other.

The term first appeared as the name of a fully replicated distributed database implemented in the Bitcoin system, which is why blockchain is often referred to as transactions in various cryptocurrencies, but the blockchain technology can be extended to any interconnected information blocks. Bitcoin became the first application of the blockchain technology in October 2008.

Imagine a digital medical history: each entry is such a block. This entry has a label: date and time of entry. Initially, it is considered mandatory to ban retroactive change of records because it is necessary that diagnostic, treatment, etc. records did not allow different interpretations and remained in their original form. Only a doctor who has one private key and a patient who has another can access the records. Then this information will only be accessed if one of these users provide their private key (for example, to the hospital or an individual specialist). This is an example of how blockchain technology can be used in a medical database.

Blockchain is decentralized, and there is no one common “command center,” hacking that will succeed in destroying all the data about the transaction and its participants or changing them. Hacking one computer will not affect the integrity of the data on the others (as well as on their change).

Blockchain will be a good help for any services where users could worry about possible fraud or data integrity:

– Micropayments

– Bank operations

– Logistics

– Jurisprudence

– Medicine

I think blockchain is really the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution.

“Money is just a number. But it must be a reliable number. Digital currencies are based on the fourth industrial revolution, called the blockchain.”

Bin Henu

Application outside the scope of cryptocurrency
Education

At present, representatives of various spheres are interested in the blockchain technology. At the same time, the degree of interest of companies in different sectors of the economy varies considerably. The financial sector is actively preparing for the widespread introduction of the blockchain, while manufacturing companies are still ignoring this technology.

So, a team of scientists from Oxford, who founded “blockchain-university” Woolf University, announced the admission of the first students in early 2019, ABC News reported.

As planned by the organizers, their educational institution will offer a “learning system of the 21st century,” and using the blockchain technology to create a decentralized management structure will reduce student spending and increase teachers’ salaries. Forbes has previously described the initiative as “Uber for students and Airbnb for academics.”

“The Woolf blockchain was created in order to remove an intermediate level of bureaucracy from the process between the audience and the regulator. The platform offers students and teachers complete control over their personal data,“said Joshua Broggie, founder and director of Woolf University. According to him, the blockchain will allow organizing the learning process directly between students and teachers, often in a one-on-one format, while avoiding the difficulties traditionally associated with a very expensive university bureaucracy. In addition, the founders are confident that their institution will be the first in the world “University without borders.”

“We literally could not have achieved this without the blockchain. I really hope that this is the education of the future. Woolf aims to solve two big problems in the higher education system: auxiliary education and ease of access for students,” Broggi added.

He also noted that training at Woolf will cost $19,200 per year, and the blockchain technology will make it possible to achieve “very substantial savings, which is very important for wide access.” ⁴

Banking, Investment and Exchange

In the Russian banking sector, companies like VTB and Sberbank are interested in blockchain technology.

VISA, Mastercard, Unionpay and SWIFT payment systems announced the development and plans for using the blockchain technology.

The London division of Deutsche Bank Innovation Lab is developing a blockchain-based investment system that accelerates, simplifies and cheapens the investment process by eliminating or reducing the role of intermediaries, lawyers (attorneys), auditors and clearing agents.

In July 2017, S7 Airlines and Alfa-Bank launched a blockchain platform for automation of trading operations with agents based on Ethereum. ⁵

On August 10, 2018, the World Bank authorized the Australian bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to issue the world’s first blockchain-based bonds. This was stated in a joint press release of the banks. The new blockchain-based debt instrument will be called “bond-i.” It will be launched after consulting with a wide range of investors who show great interest in it. The blockchain platform for bond-i was developed by the CBA Blockchain Advanced Technology Center.⁶

In early September 2018, the American company IBM, which is not only the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier of hardware and software, but also consulting services, announced the launch of the IBM Blockchain World Wire project. The payment blockchain system based on Stellar is positioned as an alternative, which is replacing a morally obsolete network for processing financial transactions that the world has been using for as long as 50 years. Integrating IBM Blockchain World Wire with existing payment systems, they said, will be able to “replace costly opacity with available transparency – and this will bring greater financial opportunities for all.” Thus, the brainchild of IBM and Stellar can compete with the traditional global payment system SWIFT. ⁷

Land registry

Sweden, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates are planning to maintain a land registry using blockchain technology.

The government of India is fighting land fraud with the help of blockchain. Andhra Pradesh was the first Indian state where the government took steps to implement blockchain solutions. For this purpose, a technology park is planned to be created in the city of Visakhapatnam with the participation of the blockchain companies Apla, Phoenix and Oasis Grace.

Identification

In 2014, Bitnation was founded, providing such services of a traditional state as ID, notary and some others.

In June 2017, Accenture and Microsoft presented the digital identity card system on the blockchain.

In August 2017, the Brazilian government began testing the identity system for the blockchain.

Finland identifies refugees with blockchain technology.

There is a blockchain e-citizenship system in Estonia. ⁵

In September 2018, New South Wales, a state in the south-east of Australia, announced that they would transfer the state database of driver licenses to the blockchain. As part of the experiment, 140,000 drivers registered in the state will be transferred to the blockchain platform. If successful, the project will be distributed throughout Australia in 2019.

Transport

In May 2018, the Government of Malta began to actively introduce modern technologies in the country, starting with the deployment of a high-tech transport and logic platform using blockchain. This was stated in a press release from the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects of Malta, Jan Borg: “We believe in Omnitude blockchain technology, its versatility and wide potential for government use. We see its potential in a number of government departments, and it will form the cornerstone of the technology platform as part of our commitment to introducing innovative technologies. This will improve the quality of life and increase access to information for Maltese citizens. Blockchain technology is a key part of our national technology strategy, which will allow us to transform various sectors.”

At the end of October 2018, the largest airline in Canada, Air Canada, announced its participation in the blockchain-based traffic distribution platform, which was developed by the Swiss startup Winding Tree. According to data released in the airline’s press release, Air Canada signed a letter of intent to participate in a decentralized platform for distributing open source traffic developed by Winding Tree. Thanks to the integration of the new blockchain platform, companies are striving to improve the distribution and sale of air transportation services. ⁸

Means of payment

The World Food Program uses blockchain technology to provide refugees with food through local outlets and networks instead of directly distributing food or giving refugees cash to buy food. The idea belongs to Houman Haddad. Biometrics is used to identify recipients of food (iris scan). Savings in 2018 through the use of this technology in Jordan alone amounted to $150,000 per month. ⁵

In the middle of October 2018, the decentralized marketplace of real estate and land title registration, Propy, announced the first sale of real estate on the blockchain in Europe. The seller from Spain and the buyer from France made a deal to sell real estate in Seville, and the calculation was made in Ethereum cryptocurrency.

According to Natalya Karayaneva, CEO of Propy, the blockchain platform allows you to conclude an international real estate transaction in the form of an ordinary online transaction, which greatly simplifies the whole process. ⁹

And these are just a few examples. In fact, the blockchain covers more and more areas of our life every day. Many (and I among them) believe that Blockchain is an important technological breakthrough that should accelerate the fourth industrial revolution.

“Blockchain makes cryptocurrencies the inevitable future of money.”

Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of Malta

Bitcoin

And now I will tell you about the grandfather of all cryptocurrencies – about Bitcoin.

The emergence of Bitcoin was simply inevitable. Given that the gold standard was abolished in 1971, the economy became less stable, more prone to inflation, because the government can print money at its discretion that is not backed by gold. Money is now not backed up by anything. Bitcoin is also not backed by anything, but at least it is not controlled by the government, and the issue of coins is foreseen (21 million coins).

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system that uses a unit of the same name to account for transactions and a data transfer protocol of the same name. That is, this is both a payment system and a means of payment (if you do not go into the legal nuances of different countries). To ensure the functioning and protection of the system, cryptographic methods are used. All information about transactions between system addresses is available in open form.

How to start use Bitcoins

The minimum transmitted value (the smallest fragmentation value) – 10^-⁸ Bitcoin – was named Satoshi in honor of the creator Satoshi Nakamoto, although he used the word “cent” in such cases.

By the way, Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym, and there is no evidence that the creator of Bitcoin is from Japan. His famous report titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” also called Bitcoin White Paper, was released on October 31, 2008.

Electronic payment between the two parties occurs without intermediaries and is irreversible – there is no mechanism for canceling the confirmed operation (including cases when the payment was sent to an erroneous or non-existent address, or when the transaction was signed by a private key that has become known to others). No one can block (arrest) funds, even temporarily, with the exception of the owner of the private key (or the person to whom he has become known) and with the exception of court orders (such precedents are already known). But the provided multi-signature technology allows you to attract a third party (arbitrator) and implement “reversible transactions.” ¹⁰ No one controls Bitcoin, currency is emitted through the work of millions of computers around the world using a program for calculating mathematical algorithms.

For Bitcoins, you can also buy anything on the Internet, like for dollars, euros or rubles, and it also trades on exchanges. The most important difference between Bitcoin and all other forms of money is decentralization. This currency is not printed by the central banks and does not work according to their rules. Banks can issue as much money as they like to cover their national debt, thereby devaluing their currency.

On the contrary, the emission of Bitcoins is possible only in digital form, and anyone can begin to mine Bitcoins at any time. Bitcoin mining occurs through the use of computer power in a distributed network. When sending Bitcoins, transactions are processed by the same network, turning Bitcoin into an independent digital payment system.

Benefits of Bitcoin:

1) Decentralization – the process of sharing power, finances, or effort without the intervention of a global governing body. In the blockchain technology, the decentralization of control is because there is no local server in the system, and all the miners and participants in the chain of transactions are equal.

Developers do not follow the operations in the blockchain, and transactions are confirmed by network users. The technology involves the distribution of computing power and data across the globe, and the information is repeatedly duplicated to prevent loss, and DDOS-attacks on such a system have zero or minimal effect. ¹¹

2) The ability to send directly to anyone at any time.

3) The amount sent is almost unlimited.

4) Low commissions.

5) Nobody can block your account.

6) The transaction system can not be deceived or destroyed. Each transaction is confirmed by several independent nodes, which makes it impossible to substitute data or bribe the verifiers.

7) Anonymity.

8) Bitcoin is not subject to inflation.

Classical system

Bitcoin nentwork

The use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in the world

Since October 2017, the Swiss University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Lucerne has been accepting Bitcoins. The government agency takes the cryptocurrency as a payment for student accounts via Bitcoin Suisse AG. The university itself does not work directly with digital currency – a brokerage firm will convert incoming payments into Swiss francs weekly. Also, the intermediary assumes all risks associated with exchange rate fluctuations. The University of Lucerne is not the first institution that accepts payment in Bitcoins. Earlier, a similar decision was made by the Royal College of New York and the University of Cumbria in the USA. ¹²

In April 2018, it became known that the University of São Paulo, the largest institution of higher education in the financial center of Brazil, is launching a course on cryptocurrency. The course is launched against the background of a growing coverage of the topic of cryptocurrencies by Brazilian universities. The Sao Paulo based charitable foundation (Fundacao Getulio Vargas) announced that it would be the world’s first master’s degree in cryptocurrencies. ¹³

On July 23, 2018, there was news that the South Korean company Samsung, which is one of the world leaders in the development and production of telecommunications equipment, household appliances, as well as audio and video devices, will sell its products to customers in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Kaunas with cryptocurrency. As the Lithuanian cryptocurrency payments platform CopPay reported, Samsung’s branded outlets will accept payments in Bitcoins, Litecoins, Ethereum, XRP, Dash, NEM and Steem. In addition, in the near future, cryptocurrencies will be accepted as a settlement tool in Samsung online stores. Samsung has long been working with the cryptocurrency sector. In January 2018, they announced that they would start producing video cards for mining. In April, the company reported an annual increase in production profits of 58% in the first quarter of 2018, which was partly due to the demand for mining chips.

In addition, Samsung uses the blockchain to manage its global supply chain. According to a Bloomberg report published in April 2018, the electronics industry trusts this technology to ship goods worth tens of billions of dollars a year, which reduces transportation costs by 20%.

A survey showed that small business owners believe that within two years, cryptocurrency payments will become a reality in the mass market segment. In turn, a study by eToro and London’s Royal College indicates that cryptocurrencies can become the accepted means of payment in the next ten years. ¹⁴

In early September 2018, the Japanese real estate company Ruden Holdings announced the results of its own experiment, in which it tested its recently created “platform for the real payments in cryptocurrency.” The experiment began with the seller indicating the property for sale, and the buyer – the application for the purchase. After, the buyer filled out an offer to purchase the property, which was confirmed by the seller.

“Then the buyer sent the virtual currency (Bitcoin) to the virtual currency account of Ruden. As soon as the Ruden (system) confirms the transfer of the virtual currency, we execute the contract and [convert] the virtual currency to Japanese yen. In addition, the notarized purchase and sale agreement is immediately transferred to the buyer and seller,” – told in Ruden Holdings. ¹⁵

Back in 2013, the popular British newspaper The Guardian called Berlin “the Bitcoin-capital of Europe.” Since then, Fin-tech has continued to expand in a European city. Today, in Berlin, you can buy real estate for cryptocurrency, book a trip or drink and eat in a large number of trendy bars. You can even get an education for cryptocurrency. In December 2016, the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) was one of the first to start accepting payments for its courses in various cryptocurrencies. They currently accept Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Dash. The Financial Director of ESMT, Georg Garlichs, explained to journalists why the school started accepting cryptocurrencies: “Like SMS, digital currency allows you to make international money transfers within a few minutes without a bank. ESMT is an innovative and future-oriented business school.”

Bitcoin payments have been popular in Berlin for some time. Leuchtstoff Kaffeebar is one of those cafes where you can drink a cup of invigorating espresso and pay for it with cryptocurrency. For owners such as Niels Göttsch, digital currencies are exciting innovations and no additional bank fees: “There are no political solutions. The algorithm is completely transparent for everyone,” he admires with cryptocurrencies. What to say about the IT sector, where cryptocurrency turnover has become a matter of course. However, despite the European tolerance for cryptocurrency, Europe has not become the market leader. Today, the lion’s share of all operations with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is in Asia, which sets the tone for the market. ¹⁶

However, it is good that recently Bitcoin almost got the status of a monetary unit in Germany. This is how the local regulator of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) interpreted cryptocurrency. However, the court quickly “corrected” the situation and noted that the authorities of the country cannot interpret the laws as they please. ¹¹⁰

In the USA, it has recently become possible to purchase coffee at Starbucks for Bitcoin.

All these examples are also just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Bitcoin is gaining momentum every day. It is believed that the most loyal to Bitcoin countries are the USA, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and China. There is information that payments are made in Bitcoin by the computer corporation Microsoft, the developers and manufacturers of computer systems DELL, the ticket search service Expedia, and the airline airBaltic. ¹⁷

According to cryptocompare.com, Bitcoin’s market capitalization is more than $110 billion. According to coin. dance, Bitcoin is allowed in 110 countries, and its price has increased by + $6,565.05 or +132,895.75% over the past 7 years. And according to the report of the company Diar, venture investments in the blockchain and cryptocurrency increased by 280% – investments almost tripled in the first three quarters of 2018.