gchs.trevorfrench.com

Agenda

  1. Career (GCHS - Present)

  2. Crypto Journey

  3. Crypto Basics

  4. Hardware Demo

  5. Fraud

  6. Opportunities

  7. Q&A

Career - Education

  • GCHS (Class of 2014)

    • Best class

  • FTCC (2015 - 2016)

  • Brigham Young University-Idaho (2016 - 2019)

    • B.S. Business Analytics

  • Western Governors University (2019 - 2020)

    • M.S. Data Analytics

  • University of the Cumberlands (2024 - 2027)

    • Ph.D. Information Technology, Specialization in Artificial Intelligence

Career - Work History

  • Insight Pest Solutions

    • Data Analyst Intern, 03/2018 - 07/2018

  • BYU-I

    • Data Analyst, 05/2018 - 03/2019

    • Analytics Manager, 04/2019 - 07/2019

  • Ecolab

    • Territory Manager, 08/2019 - 12/2020

  • Swire Coca-Cola

    • Data Analyst, 12/2020 - 09/2021

  • TaxBit

    • Data Analyst, 09/2021 - 03/2022

    • Analytics Manager, 04/2022 - 10/2023

    • Data Science Consultant, 10/2023 - 04/2024

  • USASOC AI Division

    • Data Scientist, 10/2023 - 04/2024

  • TaxBit

    • Data Scientist, 04/20214 - Present

Career - Links

Crypto Journey

Crypto Basics - Internet

  • Paul Baran is tasked with developing a communications network that could survive a nuclear attack and puts forth the idea of a distributed network in 1964.

  • This serves as a founding principle for the internet and ultimately cryptocurrency.

“Since destruction of a small number of nodes in a decentralized network can destroy communications, the properties, problems, and hopes of building ‘distributed’ communications networks are of paramount interest.” 

-Paul Baran (1964)

Crypto Basics - PoW

Crypto Basics - Bitcoin Launch

  • Bitcoin whitepaper is released in 2008
  • Bitcoin Network launches in 2009
  • Crypto “miners” can dedicate their computers to the network and receive Bitcoin in exchange for computing power.

Crypto Basics - A Secret Message

  • The first Bitcoin block has the following secret message embedded in it:

5468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6 e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73

  • We can write a script to decode the message:

message = "5468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6\
e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73" 

message = "5468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6\
e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73" 
decoded_message = ''.join([
    chr(int(message[i:i+2], 16)) 
    for i in range(0, len(message), 2)
])
print(decoded_message)
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks

Crypto Basics - Ethereum

  • Ethereum whitepaper is launched in 2013 and outlines the idea of creating “A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform”
  • Ethereum blockchain goes live in 2015
  • This allows the creation of decentralized applications that anyone can develop leading to things such as NFTs, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), custom tokens, GameFi, layer 2 blockchains, Ethereum Name Service (ENS), etc.

Crypto Basics - PoS

  • Ethereum moves to Proof-of-Stake in 2022 citing energy efficiency and improved scalability as motivations
  • The Ethereum PoS mechanism requires participants to put their Ethereum “at stake” (32 ETH) before they can serve as validators in the system
  • In return for being a validator, participants receive a percentage of their staked value as a reward (staking)
  • People who don’t have the full amount can pool their resources to still receive “staking” rewards.

Hardware Demo - Helium Mining

  • The Helium Network is a layer 2 blockchain built on top of the Solana blockchain.
  • Helium miners earn rewards by creating a wireless network with radio waves for IoT devices such as ride-share scooters, agricultural sensors, etc.
  • Recently launched miners to support a 5G cellular network.

Hardware Demo - Wallets

  • Hardware wallets allow users to store their private keys on a physical device that isn’t constantly connected to the internet.
  • Acts as a Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) device

Fraud

  • Wallet Drainers misrepresent themselves as genuine transactions; however, once you approve the transaction it withdraws all of your funds.
    • Defense 1: Transfer between a cold wallet/hot wallet for low trust transactions
    • Defense 2: Examine the source code of the transaction
    • Red Flag 1: Sense of urgency
    • Red Flag 2: Contract address has a short transaction history
  • Rug Pulls occur when project founders attract investors with projects that seem like they have a lot of potential but ghost investors after they’ve received the money
  • Whether it’s blatant fraud or incompetence, investors have lost a lot of money when exchanges have gone out of business.
    • BlockFi declared bankruptcy in 2022
    • Celsius declared bankruptcy in 2022
    • FTX declares bankruptcy in 2022
  • Stablecoins can also collapse. For example Terra (UST) imploded in 2022.

Opportunities

Q&A

Hawk Tuah

  • Reached a valuation as high as ~$500 million
  • Quickly crashed, losing ~95% of its value
  • Insiders are alleged to have dumped their holdings
  • Promoters being sued for selling unregistered securities

What is Money?

  • Money facilitates transactions
    • Easy to exchange
    • Safe store of value
  • Fiat currency
    • Issued by government
    • Not backed by physical commodities
  • USD & the Gold Standard
    • U.S. currency used to be backed by precious metals
  • Commodity-backed currencies
    • Many currencies (including cryptocurrencies) are still backed by commodities such as Gold