How to Understand Blockchain?

"The practical consequence […is…] for the first time, a way for one Internet user to transfer a unique piece of digital property to another Internet user, such that the transfer is guaranteed to be safe and secure, everyone knows that the transfer has taken place, and nobody can challenge the legitimacy of the transfer. The consequences of this breakthrough are hard to overstate.»

This quote by entrepreneur Marc Andreessen is accurately reflected the essence of bitcoin which is the most famous and common use of blockchain technology. While many experts try to predict the impact of this technology, ordinary people try to understand how does it work and what should they do in the situation of generalized digital gold rush.

What is it?

Blockchain is a shared database without a common server. This database stores an ever-growing list of ordered entries called blocks. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to the previous block. Every block is confirmed and encrypted.

How does it work?

Imagine a digital patient history. Every entry is a suchlike block.  It has a mark - time and date of its registration. There is a prohibition on changing the original entry. There is only doctor and patient who have an access to these entries with the key. One of them could give an access to this entry to other doctors via his own key. This is an example of using blockchain technology in medical database.

What about bitcoin?

If we are talking about bitcoin, transaction is a message which is encrypted with a specific public key. If you want to make a transaction on the blockchain, you need a wallet, a program that allows you to store and exchange your Bitcoins. Each wallet is protected by a special cryptographic method that uses a unique pair of different but connected keys: a private and a public key. If a message is encrypted with a specific public key, only the owner of the paired private key will be able to decrypt and read the message. On the other way, if you encrypt a message with your private key, only the paired public key can be used to decrypt it.

Why world is crazy about it right now

Only scientists, experts, and IT giants had been interested in this technology before an opportunity to get virtually rich were taken. On 22nd May 2010, Laszlo Hanyec bought a pizza for 10,000 bitcoins. The current USD value of that pizza now is $60,516,850. Between these two numbers are seven years of ups and downs of bitcoin and fortune hunters.

Security of blockchain technology is originally built at the database level. This is why many people in the condition of information transparency are very interested in it. Despite the fact that bitcoin is the virtually the most transparent system just with the strong encryption.

Where is it used?

We got used to share the information via decentralized Internet platform. But still, if we need to send values (money) we have to use the service of bank. Even if we do it via Paypal. There is required integration with bank account and debit card. Blockchain offers us an attractive opportunity to get rid of the third side. It can fill all of three main roles of the financial industry: transaction registration, identity verification and contracting. It’s going completely change the financial relations between people and organizations removing any single entity control and a possibility of manipulation or human errors. Many people don’t trust organization and corporations so blockchain solves this problem.

This technology can be used to store any type of digital information, including computer code. This fragment of code may be programmed so that it executed only when both parties enter their keys thus agreeing to a contract. This code can also get the information from the external data stream base such as news headlines, weather reports or stock prices and make a contract which will be automatically registered under certain conditions. This mechanism is called smart contracts and have endless applicability.

Sex, Science and Bias

Do you know the story how the word «scientist» was coined? A woman was a reason! A woman who overcame many barriers on the way to becoming a scientist. In many families of 19th century, girls were discouraged to take an interest in math and physics. When the parents of young Mary Somerville knew about her interest they put her on a steady diet of illustrated ladies’ journals. Mary tried to find the way to science through the art -  the era’s traditional domain for young girls. She was fond of geometry and asked her brother to help her to learn about Euclidus. However, only after years of marriage and searching for like-minded people who would support her, she opened a new horizon of learning.  Mary became the first mathematical tutor of reconstructionist Ada Lovelace and wrote the book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences which impressed English polymath William Wheel so that he couldn’t find the best way to appreciate her work but to find the new word instead of «man of science».

Nonetheless most of 19th century scientific researchers preferred to use “man of science”. The analog for this term was “man of letters” – a figure who attracted great intellectual respect in Great Britain. Nowadays “Man of science” is egregious example of gender discrimination. At that time this term had a benefit of being gendered, clearly conveying that science was a respectable intellectual endeavor pursued only by serious and intelligent sex. How far did our society move away from this position?

Despite many good intentions and initiatives, gender inequality is still rife in science. Many sociological studies became the confirmation of this fact.

There are few female full professors, and gender inequalities in hiring, earnings, funding and patenting. Show two alike applications with the only one difference in name and the application of John will get more salary and better work conditions in a lab than Jennifer (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/14/sexual-discrimination-science).

Papers whose first authors are women receive around 10% fewer citations than do those that are first-authored by men (http://www.nature.com/news/machine-learning-algorithm-quantifies-gender-bias-in-astronomy-1.20932). Why there is a few women among professors? On the way to get on top professional level women face with these facts of discrimination, which had a direct influence on their career and research recognition. Women have to compete not only with themselves but with men. If you want to be successful in science you should be better than ten men combined in your lab. You have to prove your right to be a scientist. Being a male automatically gives you more opportunities in science.

Women are already in a minority in this field and they are selected for peer review much less than men. This is due to the natural and unconscious tendency of publishers, most of whom are men, to select a reviewer of their own sex. It works for both, men and women, however,  it's widespread more among men (more than 50% of individuals) because they constitute the majority. (https://phys.org/news/2017-03-gender-discrimination-science.html#jCp). Scientists are not as objective as they think they are. They are people with the same cultural norms and beliefs as the rest of the society.

Bias, stereotypes, and fears - three things that are still in the heads of many parents, who don’t support their daughters in becoming scientists or engineers. This is why STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is still male-dominated field. This situation is just a reflection of our society. Years ago the situation was much more worse and now we are just in the beginning of becoming equal despite the sex, religion or colors. Nowadays many scientists and historians are interested in gender research and many leaders or celebrities make special projects to encourage people to do research or work in the field of technology. Google has created a competition among women who code - Google Code Jam. Model Carlie Kloss was inspired by her courses on programming and launched a camp scholarship for girls in the frame of her project Code with Klossy. There are a lot of awards and fellowships for women who work in different fields of science. It seems that now we are at the birth of creating female STEM community, but another challenge is to be involved and become equal among male community. We still bear the imprint of previous generations’ barriers and strong division by gender.

From Mama Africa to Mama Russia

It was warm June day when I came back to Russia after five years spent in Africa. Thank God, it wasn’t those nine months of something between winter and autumn. The weather helped me to adapt to Russian reality. But not those faces. You can recognize Russian face among thousands of different. And I inquire all of them after coming to the airport. I don’t know if I had the same gloomy expression because I came back home just like them. But the difference between me and them was huge. I started getting to know my Motherland.

Among the hundreds of white people, I found out friends of my parents. Here I realized that in a few hours I would be dragged into Russian welcome home party with vodka and Russian food. Ordinary Russian party is not a party if all the guests don’t drink and have fun like last time. Where does it come from? Life in Russia is fall of unexpected things especially when we are talking about politics, wars, and revolutions. This is why for many people here is so hard to think about future or even tomorrow day. Perhaps, another reason is an importance of suffering for Russian soul and head. In orthodox culture the idea of suffering and redemption is very strong, so the hangover is the best way to train soul and body.

In two hours after the party had started, I heard loud women voices: “You should eat, but not only drink“. Wise women.

The best way to get to know the country is to eat local food. It was more than twenty degrees above zero but on the table, the weather was stable like all the rest of the year. I found all kinds of Russian traditional food which was aimed to get warm and fat no matter what season it was. Though, if it’s really very hot you have an option: change hot soup which is called Borch to a cold one. But no more exceptions. So that day I ate «Olivye», traditional celebration salad which includes everything, that you have in your fridge with mayonnaise, dumplings (or "pelmeni"), hot mix of meat and dough, sprats, smoked fish in oil and pickled vegetables. Some of these dishes we used to cook in Africa. Russians often missed all kinds of pickled or salted vegetables even twelve months a year there were fresh. It was the easiest dish to cook in the conditions of a foreign country but only if you have big glass can. If you are true Russian and going somewhere for a long time don’t forget about taking five liters can in your luggage. You will never find something similar to that genius glass packing. But with your own, you have a chance to satisfy an unexpected need for old vegetables. The same was with finding salami for «Olivye». Traditional salad may be cooked with meat or chicken but the more popular and cheaper is to cook it with salami. In Africa you will find all kinds of meat, but for Russians, the most desirable was delicacy mix of fat, gristles and toilet paper.

I have nothing to say about herring or sprats even it’s under fur coat (traditional Russian dish, which includes herring under layers of potato, apple, beetroot, and mayonnaise) because still, it seems to be very exotic and strange for me. Nonetheless, at official receptions in Russian embassy it’s possible to taste all kinds of salted fish and even its eggs (of course, the right caviar!), embassy employees bring it from Russia.

Over five years my major edible wish was glazed cheese and ice cream. In Africa, we had no problem with milk but with products made of milk. All that summer I enjoyed a diversity of ice creams and still, it’s my favorite dessert.

You may see how Russia may surprise merely with one table! But there were a few things that didn’t surprise me. Expensive cars with loud music out of them it, women on high heels even if it’s not a black-tie party, dog walkers who don’t clean up after their dogs - that is all that I saw just on an ordinary day in an ordinary Russian yard. But I was already ready for that because the same I noticed in Africa. 

Should we pay for the attractiveness?

Attractiveness is one of the most controversial notions in society. Especially now, when diversity of all colors and types of figures is welcomed even in fashion. Nonetheless, still there is a lot of stereotypes in advertising and beauty industry, which sell us products from the hands, faces and bodies of attractive models. In addition, the latest research shows that most people have the same opinion about attractive appearance. Overwhelming majority call the same people with the same types of figures and faces attractive.

This weekend I spent in Cannes, where the amount of money, expensive cars and luxury clothes is really getting up. Cannes is the center of all the stereotypes about attraction. A lot of tourists come here to buy things which will make them more attractive. The base of these purchases is absence of awareness and blind desire to be a cover girl but not yourself. Will these things make people happy? Yes, for an hour, not more. Purchases slightly increase the level of dopamine, but a person quickly gets used to the new thing. Possessing things such as clothes or diamonds is a temporary pleasure without strong emotions. Therefore psychologists advise to invest in impressions but not purchases.

Despite the fact that French Riviera is considered to be a place for rich tourists, in Nice I found the diversity of beautiful people who were not dressed pretentious and luxurious. Here I realized what I found attractive in appearance of passers-by. The way how people feel effects on there faces and movements. Neat and comfortable clothes of good materials will never cause any inconvenience especially when you travel. I met Russian women on high heels who were trying to climb on the top of city waterfall. Was it attractive? It was reckless. To have nice skin, athletic body and good teeth are much more important not only for appearance, which is directed more outside but also for health. There is no such dress which will make you happy if you have a toothache.

I believe, if you invest in impressions and health, the results of these investments will enhance the attractiveness of your appearance.

Passion or addiction?

One evening in a Welsh pub, two revelers were discussing whether a human or a horse would win a race. The pub landlord decided by all means to check it out, and thus was born the Man vs Horse Marathon. A horse won for the first 24 years of the contest, until an elite British marathon runner, Huw Lob, became the first human, who won the race. What a mad runner! When I heard this story, I thought: What do runners run from? But the more accurate question should be: What for do they do it? There is no correct or incorrect answer because we are talking about obsession, which is rather emotional than rational.

Since my childhood, I was passionate about sport. I played tennis and had a dream to become the second Maria Sharapova. My passion wasn’t about health, it was about being a winner. Victories and good physical form only fostered the interest to my main hobby. I believed that I would carry this love through all my life and turn my profound passion into a profession. But that didn’t happen. Lately, I found many other things that took me over. 

Today I meet a lot of people who are obsessed with sport, especially with a run. It became a global trend, which attracts more and more allies. Why is it so popular? It’s not only a passion but an addiction. Physical activities produce the «happiness» hormones endorphins and we feel substantially better and active after sport. Adding communication with like-minded persons and self-confidence improving we get the rational formula of non-proffesional sports addiction. Sometimes I think that addiction has a pivotal role to passion. 

Still, I can’t live without different kinds of sport. Was it a real passion? The dream of my childhood turned to good everyday habit and consistent ritual. I believe that it became more wholesome. I don’t need any trophies or victories, I need energy, health and everyday motion of life. My passion became the way of life. 

Could we control our emotions?

Many psychologists say that one of the most important things for everybody is to become friends with yourself. We got used to live in society and many of us try to understand other people but not themselves obviously. The fact is that if we know our reactions and accept our nature with habits we can influence and control them. What about our personal emotional reaction to stressful situations? When we face with daunting news or challenges and have to react immediately. There is no place for thinking. Our emotions go out first.

Two weeks ago I faced with the situation that ruined my dream. I and my friend spent a few weeks preparing for a road trip to Iceland: buying hiking stuff, planning everyday route, packing our backpacks. We missed one very important thing. Ten minutes before the train to Finland, we got to know about a non-validity of my friend’s visa from a train steward. That was a shock, it was so out of the blue. We were so responsible and careful in a trip planning we didn’t think about the basic condition of the trip. I mean, not “we” but my friend whom I have trusted in.

My first words were: “Thank you. We are staying here” (to steward). And: “What the fuck?” (to the Universe). My first reaction was to cry, which lasted for a few hours with some breaks in between. But no words. I couldn't say any bad words to my friend except the words of support which were essential for us both. The main idea was to go to travel together, but life gave us the challenge to get over it together. I didn’t want to exacerbate the situation and damage relations with my frustration. I could tell that he was a fool and had a huge problem with memory (that may be the the truth), but I didn’t. I knew one thing. I have to take a pause and to switch my thoughts.

Do you know what happens inside your body during stress? We feel adrenaline buzz, blood pressure increases, heart is beating faster. Nonetheless, we are able to influence our body during the stress through breathing and musculation actions. To concentrate for one minute on the breath helps you to switch thoughts from the problem and to look at the situation later from another point of view. During crises we become restless. It is the muscular system forces us to walk or at least to fumble with something. That also could immensely help us to get away from this for a while.

My second words were: “Breathe”. It was a very beautiful early morning. At that moment we were alive and we could breathe. When we were waiting for the taxi outside of the station I made a few deep breaths that helped me to feel the present moment. The worst situation was in my past and now I have to cope with the present. As they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I stayed at home, didn’t miss any important events and gain the most out of my time here among friends, colleagues, and course-mates. 

How may we control our emotions in a moment of crises? We should take a pause, calm down and switch the thoughts off. Take a minute for breathing and a short walk to clear your mind and then make a decision.

Человек ищет человека, чтобы трахаться мозгами.

Никита М.

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