Crypto and NFTs, what to know

Link: https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-40861685.html

 This article published in The Echo, Friday April 29, 2022.

 

 

A Cork-based expert explains cryptocurrency and how NFTs work in the latest Echo Chamber

The Echo Chamber: Crypto and NFTs, what to know

What is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a computer-based currency, or digital currency, which is managed through a computer network (blockchain). This blockchain system helps to maintain the ledger of transactions to buy and sell the cryptocurrency. Due to the use of strong cryptographic algorithms, these digital currencies are known as cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies are different from paper-based money or coins as they are not controlled by a central authority (central bank and/or government). Thus, one can say that these cryptocurrencies are world-based currencies – unlike the euro which is EU-specific, and the USD which is US-specific. Due to this feature, cryptocurrencies can be used easily for cross-border transfers. Additionally, cryptocurrencies have the same value around the globe, thus, there is no exchange rates involved as required in the exchange of fiat currency.

BitCoin, Ether, and XRP are a few examples of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies can be purchased through cryptocurrency exchanges or earned through the “mining” process. The easiest way is to install a wallet and then you can use euro to buy cryptocurrencies.

What is an NFT?

Assets can be classified as fungible and non-fungible. Fungible assets are identical, and mutually interchangeable, ie, they can be exchanged for others of the same value and type. For example, minerals, metals (silver, gold), and currencies are example of fungible assets. Assets like real estate, and diamonds are non-fungible as each carry unique qualities and, thus, their value can be determined individually. Assets can also be digital (video, audio, jpeg image, documents, and cryptocurrencies) and, in this case, these digital assets will be non-tangible (ie, not physically present).

“NFT” stands for non-fungible token. In simple words, NFT shows the rightful ownership of the original digital media. NFT, stored on a public blockchain (Ethereum), represents a unique digital identifier, which is cryptographically secure, and shows the ownership of the non-fungible digital asset.

Though NFTs are similar to cryptocurrency in the sense that they both use blockchain as underlying technology, NFT is not cryptocurrency and each NFT is unique in the NFT marketplace. NFTs can be anything like games, jpegs, digital art, video highlights, designs, music, collectibles such as NBA Top Shot, and even tweets.

NFTs can be bought from NFT marketplaces. Some famous NFT marketplaces are OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, NBA Top Shot, Crypto Punks, and Rarible. In order to buy or sell NFTs, you need an NFT wallet such as Coinbase, Trust Wallet, and Metamask.

How do cryptocurrency and NFTs carry value in the real world?

The value of cryptocurrency comes from the trust of the blockchain network ie, the users of any specific cryptocurrency. The user of cryptocurrencies determines its value by the demand and supply of the cryptocurrency in the cryptocurrency market.

NFTs have their own value and do not depend on the value of other NFTs in the market. The value of an NFT depends on the value of the item (digital asset) in terms of scarcity and authenticity of the item.

How do you use cryptocurrency to buy things?

First, you need a cryptocurrency wallet so that you can store cryptocurrencies such as BTC, XRP, or ETH. You also require interacting with cryptocurrency exchange services to convert euro into cryptocurrency.

If “asset value” is mentioned in cryptocurrency, one can directly buy the asset using his/her own cryptocurrency wallet. However, if someone wants to buy asset in euro or in USD, then they need to use cryptocurrency exchanges (Coinbase, Binance, Bitfinex etc) to convert their cryptocurrency into the fiat currency and then proceed with buying things.

Why do people buy NFTs?

It depends. Some buy NFTs for investment purpose and others for using it. One of the most expensive NFTs is Everydays: the First 5000 Days, which is a digital work of art containing 5,000 images and was sold for US$69m. Looking at such expensive NFTs; investing in NFTs has gained momentum. You can also buy NFTs if you want to “use” NFTs as the digital media right owner of the asset.

What is the point of NFTs?

NFTs have the potential to redefine digital property rights. With NFTs, one can claim the digital media right owner of the asset (original work). This protects the true ownership and can bring new business models as compared to first-sale doctrine.

How to tell the difference between an NFT and a copy?

Each NFT has a unique identifier, making it unique and different from other NFTs in the market, and represents the ownership of the digital asset. The traceability, provenance, and the current rightful ownership of the digital asset can also be maintained through NFT.

Why is the cryptocurrency market so unstable?

There are a few reasons as to why the cryptocurrency market is so unstable, or volatile. First, due to the supply-and-demand gap of cryptocurrencies. Second, these cryptocurrencies are not backed by the central bank or governments. Third, cryptocurrencies do not intrinsically contain any value itself ie, these cryptocurrencies are not backed by gold, silver etc (though gold-backed cryptocurrencies are now available in the market). Moreover, there are other factors as well which impact on the volatility of cryptocurrency, such as high energy consumption in the mining process. In simple words, cryptocurrencies are highly speculative.

Why is cryptocurrency not recognised by traditional banks?

Cryptocurrencies are not recognised by traditional banks because cryptocurrencies operate in a different way than reserve currencies. First, cryptocurrencies are decentralised in nature (based on blockchain, plus the fact that users can be located geographically anywhere in the world). Second, cryptocurrencies do not have any legal status or regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and other central banks in EU. Third, there is no government which backs the cryptocurrency. Fourth, cryptocurrencies do not have intrinsic value. Finally, there are issues related with Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering and countering of financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations. Therefore, cryptocurrencies are not recognised by traditional banks.

Why is investing in cryptocurrency ‘so hot right now’?

The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, therefore, the return on investment (ROI) sometimes is also high (risky as well, in my opinion). In January 2021, one BitCoin (BTC) was worth more than €30,000. In October 2021, it was worth more than €53,000, and in April 2022 it was more than €37,000. The same trend can also be seen in Ether (ETH). Imagine, if someone invested with 1 BTC in January 2021, the profit it gets in October 2021 would have been more than €23,000 in less than one year. This is a huge amount and that is the reason investors and people around the globe are attracted to investing in cryptocurrencies. There is another side of the coin. If someone invested with 1BTC in October 2021 and now wants to sell 1BTC, the loss will be more than €23,000 which is a huge loss. Another reason for investing in cryptocurrency is due to the momentum in NFT market. Since cryptocurrencies are required to buy NFTs, it therefore also has some effect on investment in cryptocurrencies. In summary, investment in cryptocurrency is “so hot right now” because of the profit it provides. Investment in cryptocurrency is some sort of gambling investment and it pays off extraordinary returns with high levels of risks.

Have you any tips or tricks for anyone interested in getting involved in cryptocurrency?

For anyone interested in getting involved in cryptocurrency and NFT market, my personal suggestion is to avoid investing in cryptocurrencies and NFTs until they are recognised by the central banks and/or governments.

Is there anything else you think is relevant in an explainer about NFTs and cryptocurrency that you want to add?

Developing and programming your own NFT, you need some technical knowledge about Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts.

Thus, I recommend not to plunge into this business without acquiring some knowledge in both technical areas.

 

Importance of Research Papers in Science

 

Importance of Research Papers in Science

Mubashir Husain Rehmani

The writer teaches Computer Science at Munster Technological University (MTU), Ireland.

 This article is published in Pakistan Today Newspaper on 05th Jan 2022.

Link: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2022/01/05/importance-of-research-papers-in-science/

 

The human quest to scientific knowledge results in expanding the body of knowledge. Looking at the fascinating scientific inventions, complex theories, and discoveries, one may awe-inspired with the wonders of science and nature. Science helps us to understand nature and its underlying governing principles. Are these scientific discoveries, inventions, and theories reported on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, or any other social media platforms? Not, of course not.  These complex theories, discoveries, scientific inventions, theoretical and experimental results are generally reported in scientific research papers which are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Looking back to 2019-20, the whole humanity was suffered from COVID-19. Countries were locked down, and travel restrictions were in place. Billions of people were affected and millions were died. Scientist who are working on Virology (domain of Science in which we study about virus) put their full efforts to understand this virus. Thanks to researchers and scientists who developed mRNA and other variants of vaccines for the cure of Corona virus. Before being used such vaccines publicly, scientists performed extensive experimentation and once approved by the medical regulatory bodies, these vaccines were rolled-out. The experimentation results were reported in scientific journals - for Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, results were published in Nature journal, and for Oxford AstraZenica vaccine, results were published in The Lancet journal.

In 1953, James D. Watson and Francis Crick published a one page research paper in Nature journal, showing the structure of DNA – double helix - through a diagram. This single one page research paper changed the world of biology and led to the human quest for search to the next level. This research of Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins led them to win Nobel Prize in 1962 in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.”

Pakistan’s Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Project supported by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is a response to climate change and Ozone layer depletion. The discovery of Antarctic Ozone hole by Joe C. Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin in 1985 was reported in a research paper published in Nature journal.

Current communication systems are based on the theoretical foundations laid by Claude E. Shannon (also known as the father of information theory). He wrote a pioneering research paper published in Bell Systems Technical journal in 1948 on the mathematical theory of communication. This was one of the highly cited papers in communications.

The Higgs Boson, an elementary particle, was one of the greatest discoveries in science. It was discovered by ATLAS and CMS experiments at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. This discovery was reported in a research paper published by Elsevier Physics Letters B journal.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1984 was given to Niels K. Jerne, Georges J. F. Köhler, and César Milstein “for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principles for production on monoclonal antibodies.”Again this discovery of anti-bodies was reported in a research paper published in 1975 in Nature journal.

In the world of computers and Internet, TCP/IP protocol suite is the set of communication protocols that helps run the Internet and make computers communicate with each other. It was co-develop by Vinton G. Cerf and Bob Kahn (both of them are recognized as father of Internet). One of the pioneering research papers about TCP/IP was published in IEEE Transactions on Communications in 1974 and the other one was published Elsevier Computer Networks journal in 1983. Paul Mockapetris - with whom I had a chance to interact when he was a visiting research fellow at LIP6 - Sorbonne University, France - is the inventor of Domain Name System (DNS). DNS was introduced in RFC 882 and 883 in 1983, and later details were published in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review in 1995.

As pointed out by one recent study published in nature index, journals such as Physical Review Letters, Astrophysical Journal, Science, and Nature are the journals in the domain of Physics which published a large proportion of Nobel Prize winning research papers. In simple words, if we collect the papers which received Nobel Prize in Physics from 1995 to 2017, then 50% of Nobel Prize award winning research papers are published in these four journals. This clearly confirms that even Nobel Prize winning research is reported in research papers published in top quality scientific journals and these are not merely “personal publications”, in fact, these “personal publications” provide the foundations of science.

These aforementioned examples are sufficient to show the importance of research papers in Science. Even Science itself cannot flourish without scientific research papers. Publishing in top quality scientific journals means researchers and scientists are conducting top quality research of technical worth, having an impact on the society. Publishing research papers in top quality scientific journals is not an easy game. If we want to increase the quality of research and nurture scientific knowledge in Pakistani society, we need to give due importance to scientific research papers - both at academic and government level, provide enabling environment and encourage researchers and scientists to publish in top quality scientific journals. These top quality field-specific scientific journals can be identified through Clarivate Journal Citation Report (JCR) – which annually publishes the list of scientific journal rankings.

Sadly, if a minority of scientists and researchers are conducting unethical practices in scientific research and publishing sub-standard research papers (has not been adding to the body of scientific knowledge) then we should not generalize this by denying all the scientific research papers and scientific journals. There is a dire need to enhance efforts of education and public engagement (EPE) activities. In some European countries, it is essential for scientist and researcher to communicate their research in easy words to the general public and educate the masses. The same can be done here and this will result in scientific attitude development in our nation. We, as a nation, should encourage quality research and discourage unfair and unethical means of publishing scientific research papers.

The writer teaches Computer Science at Munster Technological University (MTU), Ireland.

Twitter: @MRehmani

Bridging Industry-Academia Gap through Work Placement

 

Bridging Industry-Academia Gap through Work Placement

Mubashir Husain Rehmani

The writer teaches Computer Science at Munster Technological University (MTU), Ireland.

 

This column is published in Pakistan Today Newspaper on 05th Nov 2021.

Link: https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/11/05/bridging-industry-academia-gap-through-work-placement/ 

 

The interview panel of a renowned company is taking interviews for candidates in multiple locations including Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. Tens of candidates (fresh graduates) vigorously appeared in the interview, but none of those were selected. The interview panel finally decided to avoid hiring fresh graduates and instead giving preference to experienced candidates. This dismal situation is normal for fresh graduates in Pakistan. While some students may find their place in companies, for many this is unexpected and results in disappointment.

 

The undergraduate curriculum of universities in Pakistan comprises of state-of-the-art subjects focusing recent technologies and it develops skills set. Moreover, state-of-the-art pedagogical material for assessment is used (at least in theory). Foreign trained PhD faculty is teaching these courses and above all, Higher Education Commission (HEC) ensures to revise the curriculum time and again through National Curriculum Revision Committees (NCRCs). On top of it, accreditation bodies such as Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) also plays a pivotal role and ensures quality within the programmes offered. They do so by maintaining teacher-student ratio, resource provisioning, and a systematic check and balance system is prevailing in undergraduate programmes in universities. 

 

The question is what's wrong with the undergraduate curriculum of Pakistani universities? Are these universities intellectually barren? Why fresh graduates cannot be appointed by the top-notch companies? One reason could be the industry-academia gap and work placement is inevitable to bridge this gap. This is work placement i.e., four months training of students in companies or industry, which gives student confidence and enables them to understand the needs of the industry. Though trend of work placement is increasing among students during their undergraduate studies (summer vacations) but there is a dire need to include work placement as an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum.

When we look at the four years undergraduate curriculum of any engineering university, we can say that undergraduate students normally take 40 courses in four years engineering programme i.e., roughly 5 courses in each semester. In the starting semesters, fundamental courses are delivered and as students progress towards higher semesters, more specialized courses are delivered to them. However, during their course of studies, they don’t get enough understanding to the need of the industry.

In the final year, students are required to undertake a final year project (FYP) which last during two semesters. However, there is no requirement to associate your FYP to any industry. Similarly, students are not required to do any work placement. In fact, work placements are not the part of curriculum of undergraduate studies. In contrast, if we look at the curriculum of undergraduate studies in developed countries, mostly work placement is mandatory for students.

Much has been written on advantages of work placement but we highlight few apparent ones. With work placement, students get some remuneration. This will give confidence to the students that they have started earnings even during their undergraduate studies and may help students to achieve financial self-sustainability and autonomy. Additionally, work placement will help them to map what they have learned during their first three years of undergraduate studies to the actual problem faced and how to use their knowledge in practical scenario.

After returning from work placement, students see the world in a different manner. When taking new courses in last semesters, they will take more interest and try to relate what they will learn to the actual problems i.e., applications of that subject/course to the real life problems. Students will also be able to make their contacts in the companies/organizations/industry. This will then help them to secure jobs after finishing their studies.

This work placement will introduce the students about the real implementation of tools and techniques they learn in industry. This will also enable them to understand about industry and help in developing problem solving skills. It will also help them to meet deadlines and organize themselves and work as a team member. It will enhance their written and communication skills.

From the perspective of industry, it will also get benefit from these work placements both in regional socio-economical development and to solve the problems they are facing. More precisely, first, if industry solves the same problem by hiring any individual they may have to pay higher as compared to these work placement students. Second, in some start-ups, it is not feasible to hire at early stage dedicated employee to solve the problem they are facing. Thus, this four month work placement can help them to alleviate such problems quickly and with less cost. Third, work placement will enable industry to train students well in advance so that once they finish their studies; they are ready to start directly on the assigned job.

Finally, work placement will reduce the gap between industry and academia and thus help the regional growth and promote local talent. In the context of Pakistan, there is a need to design undergraduate programmes specifically catering the needs of the industry and work placement is one such need. This could be realised by industry-academic liaison committee which investigates the need of the industry and provide input during the curriculum revision. The reputation of Pakistani universities will be sullied if such actions will not be taken place.

Students may take elective courses if they are not interested in pursuing work placement but this should be discouraged. However, in exception circumstances, if student still want to take electives, then those courses somehow should enable students to get similar experience of work placement. Such courses may include entrepreneurship, a project, and any other related modules that develop the same skill set in students.

 

The writer teaches Computer Science at Munster Technological University (MTU), Ireland.

Twitter: @MRehmani