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The Bitcoin Crash (What is Bitcoin? - Part 3 Finale)

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So here comes the last part of my Bitcoin trilogy! Part 3 is without doubt the most important part of this trilogy, hence please make sure that you read this article before you decide to put your hard-earned cash into Bitcoin!  For those who are new here, do check out my Part 1 and Part 2 of 'What is Bitcoin?'! At USD 4000 per Bitcoin, is there a Bitcoin bubble? Short answer: Yes! Most definitely! To prove this, I will use a very simple Bitcoin’s Price-Volume chart to explain. The graph below indicates Bitcoin’s Price-Volume chart from Mid-2015 till August 2017. Do focus on the year 2016 where price of Bitcoin was around USD 500-ish at the start of 2016 to nearly USD 1000 at the end of 2016. Then, observe carefully at the volume in 2016, in comparison to 2015 and 2017. Big difference, yes? What does all this mean? In short, a high volume indicates that there are many transaction activities in the Bitcoin market - people are rushing into the Bitco

What is Bitcoin? - Part 2

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How Safe is Bitcoin as a Whole? Short answer, it is really safe to transact with Bitcoin. In  comparison, conventional banks tend to have high risk towards hacking activities due to its centralized nature and human’s fraud (eg. Corruption, Money Laundering). As Blockchain is decentralized, every miner will have a  record of all the transactions involved in Bitcoin. Hey, what’s a miner? In essence, Bitcoin mining is a process where people worldwide validate Bitcoin transactions, instead of going through intermediary such as banks. Those people are called miners. Imagine a scenario where I want to transfer 1 Bitcoin to my  friend, Eddie. Data of this transaction would be available  in the record of every miners in the world. Hence, if a hacker wants to modify this transaction, the hacker would need to hack in the majority of the miners in the world at the same time in order to modify the transaction between me and Eddie, which is near impossible with today’s techno

What is Bitcoin? - Part 1

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First of All, What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a decentralized virtual currency. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, it basically means that Bitcoin being a kind of financial asset generated by a bunch of codes of which humans give value to, without being regulated by centralized parties such as banks and governments. Yes. In short, there is no rock solid Bitcoin for you to hold on your hand. Everything is digitalized and virtual. Then, How does Bitcoin Comes About to What it is Today? Introduced in 2009, Bitcoin was regarded as the answer to many factors that had led the fall of Lehman Brothers and eventually led to the Global Financial Crisis. While fiat money (eg. USD, MYR) could be increased via money printing, crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin has a capped production limit of 21 million units by the year 2140. A capped production simply means that Bitcoin has a solid store of value compared to fiat money, which can be increased in volume by money-printing

3 Ways to Build a Healthy Culture in UM Clubs and Societies in a Term

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Culture is not something that is easily changed. This is especially true, seeing how fast a typical term cycle ends and changes hand to a new team every year – it is scary fast. A hasty term simply means one thing – things come and go quickly, good and bad ones alike. Hence, there are many clubs and societies in the campus that enjoyed a short term spike in success, while many never get to breakthrough in years. Ultimately, this led to the problem where no one would like to take up leadership roles in clubs and societies every year. And if you are experiencing this in your society, it is most likely that you are not alone. Many of the clubs and societies in UM face the same issue as well. All of these inconsistencies and underperformance of clubs and societies boil down to one key aspect: Weak Culture. A weak culture within a club or society can be seen when members are not passionate to support their own initiatives, an unresponsive board of leaderships and the most obvious

Dear Malaysian Youths, Your Country Needs You. Register as a Voter Today!

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Malaysian youths are always up-to-date with news spread across social media, yet it is so hard to convince them to register as a voter. It is never easy to convince one to do the right thing, and today I would like to try my luck on Malaysian youths age 21 and above. Politics is never a popular topic among youths in Malaysia, which is especially true when some of them felt that their votes will not change anything in the Malaysian politic scene. With the opposition coalition winning the popular votes in the last general election (GE13), yet still losing to the current government, the confidence of Malaysians towards our democracy system is again weakened. Do Not Give Up! Being a youth myself, I understand the helplessness. I understand the frustration, and I call it the 'Political Fatigue' - The feeling that one vote would not change anything. The feeling that one vote would not be enough. The feeling that one vote would not create any impact. True enough,

22 or 23 and Still Studying - The Dilemma in the Transition to Adulthood

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As I am approaching my final academic semester in UM, this is an article that I would like to share with everyone that comes across my blog for Form 6/STPM advices and opinions (I started this blog writing about Form 6), my recent contents on education and politics, or maybe just simply because the topic of this article caught your eyes. So technically, I am 23 this year. I studied Form 6/STPM for Pre-U which results in me lagging at least a year behind many of my peers. For the past couple of years I’d seen my peers and even high school juniors graduated and started their full-time career in their respective industries and my relatives starting to step up the ladder in their career. The outcome from witnessing these events, especially the peers same age as me are getting out to the working world, is a mixed and complex feelings on my current state – 23 and still studying while the peers around me are starting to work and earn. As a result, many questions popped through my mind

Why are We Still 'Malay, Chinese, Indian & Others' instead of 'Malaysian'?

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To start, let me say that this will be a long read as I'll go through an interesting journey of politics in Malaysia from the past until the present, and hence, my short introduction:  This is why we are still so racially divided till today.  The introduction of the concept of 1 Malaysia in 16 th  of September 2010 seven years ago marked an important moment in Malaysia, as it aims to build on the concept of inclusiveness which reinforce the national identity through various policies and measurements of all Malaysians regardless of race and ethnicity.  We cannot discuss this issue in concrete without the brief introduction of a few theories: Systems Theory is an important concept in this discussion, whereby it applies the Easton’s Key Concept to describe how a policy is made, and how the outcome of the particular policy can impact the policy-maker. It started off by an input of demand from the community, which in turn supporting the politicians that are able to fulfill their