Don't let wishful thinking get the better of you

I am new to crypto and I see a lot of posts from other new people as well. Which is great, the more mainstream crypto becomes, the more gains we can possibly make.

What I will advise is only based on my opinion as someone who bought his first coins around 2 months ago.

Disclaimer: these advices are not financial advice, and are aimed at fellow newbies.

1. Avoid clickbait videos

I started learning about crypto on YouTube. First I was watching everything, and obviously I stumbled across videos with flashy thumbnails. BUY BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, LAST WARNING, XY token 638% gains.

It all sounds amazing but please think for a second how these youtubers make money. With hype, clickbait. Obviously a title saying "XY coin moves sideways for now" is not a title that will bring a lot of views. There are big "prominent" channels that spew nonsense, just to hype people into a certain token.

And the result will be disappointment in many cases, which will just lead to people selling the given coin after a few weeks. It is bad for business. There are good channels, which rely on TA, and besides the possible upside, they will tell you about the possible drop as well. (For which you have to be prepared mentally.)

1. You are not the next wolf of the Wallstreet

Most people who get into crypto, especially alt coins are average Joes. I work in a callcenter for example and most people I know that are invested in crypto are simple folk with average education.

And this is fine, in fact a good thing, that average people get interested in finances and want to make another income next to their 9 to 5 jobs.

But this also means that you have to be humble when it comes to your abilities in trading. Just because you watched a few TA videos (like I did as well) you don't magically become a master trader. People spend years or a lifetime to learn this profession. And even they don't make successful trades all the time. Learn, develop yourself, you can find a lot of useful information on the Internet. But handle it with humility, knowing that you are not the smartest person who just unlocked some hidden truth.

1. Invest in projects

Now this is something that I heard in the beginning, but did not fully understand. Now I get it. There are thousands of tokens and many of them promise you quick riches.

But there is a difference between investing and gambling. If you just buy coins that have no practical use in real life projects, you just got into gambling with extra steps.

My first ever coin was Doge. :) I practiced transactions with it, learned how to buy, exchange, send, receive, etc. If I would have kept my money in Doge, I would have more money now, that is for sure. Yet I don't regret that I moved my money into other PROJECTS. (Personally Cardano, Zilliqa, VeChain, bit there are plenty more) I feel like keeping my money in Doge would have been a gamble. You cannot possibly predict that a meme coin or shitcoin will moon. With solid projects you are still gambling, but to a lesser extent as there are timelines, events that can increase the value of your portfolio.

1. Not every single event will raise the value of your tokens

There is a lot of going on with crypto projects, lot of announcements, development. But not every of these will moon your coins. Just as an example. Let's say your coin's team tweets we are negotiating with McDonald's, will not necessarily increase prices. Some teams like to overplay these news.

A negotiation can mean many things. It can be a contract, but it could also mean just a scheduled meeting for a presentation. Like I said in the title, don't let wishful thinking get the better of you. Don't get disappointed that tomorrow you won't wake up as a millionaire after these amazing news.

Yes, negotiation means they have a plan, a vision, which eventually can lead to adoption. But it can also mean many other things. For example just becase a company is interested in blockchain technology, ot does not necessarily mean that your token itself will become a payment method. (Which could actually raise value)

1. Be patient

One of the hardest thing to learn in trading was the perception of time for me. My initial mistake was for example selling high, and planning to buy low. However these changes can take days. If you trade as a hobby (because for most of us this is a hobby) you don't need to make money every day. You sold high, you can rest your money in a stable coin for example and wait possibly days for a dip. Maybe this is just me but I started to get fidgety after a few hours, and while I gained some, I could have gained more if I understand how time is in crypto.

If you are unsure in your trading abilities, then just hodl. I do the same.

1. Wishful thinking

Yes, I want my ADA to be the next Bitcoin, I want to be a millionaire. And I want it now. Anyone who tells me about market cap, and that ADA can be only 6-8-10 dollars, and it will take years, is automatically an asshole.

Don't be this guy, don't get upset or rude just because someone tells you an opinion about your token of choice that you don't like.

1. Prepare for bear season

Now I'm new so I don't have much to say about this, as I bought my first coins in the bull market. But one day the bear cycle will start probably. This is normal. And know about it. At one point people will start to sell, reap profits, and prices could plummet. But if you decided to hodl, then hodl unless you need that money that is more important. I am just putting this here because there are a lot of new people and might get surprised and panic one day.

Well this is it, if I said something stupid, feel free to correct me. These are my general thoughts as a newbie. I wish huge gains for everyone.

My crypto journey, might be helpful for some of the newbies around these parts.

First of this is from an Alt account as to not give away my identity.

One day in mid-late 2017 (weeks before the start of the up coming bull run and subsequent crash of Jan 2018) I’m sick in bed and I come across some Crypto/Bitcoin news articles and the tale of once in a lifetime gains and millionaires. You have my curiosity.

I start throwing a few bucks in here and there, couple hundred bucks or so and by Oct/Nov 2017 I’m the smartest motherfucker on earth. Shit I must have turned $500 into $1,000.

Christmas 2017 comes and it’s my time to shine! Forget Santa I’ve got the bags and sacks you wanna hear about! A couple people listen, most don’t. I’m fresh and my advice is likely shit!

Early Jan 2018 and I’m taking a shit, it explodes (no not my arse) my crypto portfolio! My $1,000 has gotta now be worth $10,000 - pants down! Dick hard, the only thing missing is the hookers but with this kinda money, it’s not going to be long! You now have my attention.

It happens! THAT crash! Fuck I didn’t even... what... I can’t.... my... my dreams... gone! Ohh fuck! am I more worried about my lambo I just ordered or the fact most folks I couldn’t stop pestering with “advice” know where I live?.....bad times.

Time moves on and so does my arse, to work every single day... except I’m hooked on the drug. Crypto has me.... each and every time I have extra cash for the next 3-4 years I’m throwing money into Crypto. I’m $40,000 of my own money In come the start of 2020. It goes up, it goes down, it’s not life changing but I can make it life changing by TRADING! Ohh boy! My trading skills are about as good as my crypto crash prediction skills.. and by Christmas 2020 all I do is loose money and rack up hundreds of capital gains tax events (By this point I now owe the tax man big time (it’s 45% tax here on any crypto profits) & come tax time I either sell most of my gains or get on a payment plan) That’s 2021’s problem right.

I settle on some bags I’m happy with BTC and VET mostly. Modest stacks from my 4 years of hard work putting money into what most are calling “a Chinese scam” whilst my friends point and laugh each and every pay day at how I’m throwing money away!

It’s now the start of 2021 and I’m on my way to work and I hear it! What was that? Another one in the wild.. someone a stranger no less talking about crypto.. ohh boy the 4 years cycle, it’s happening, my dick rises, suddenly I have a semi . Could this be it....

Defi this, pancake swap that.... holy shit crypto is fucking changing FAST! I used to be with it, but then they changed what with it was...

The months flash by, it’s April 2021 and suddenly Vet is no longer the cancer to the crypto reddit it once was, my gains and losses every hour would make a grown man cry (I was also watching the notebook at this time for full disclosure) and gaining and loosing six figures per day....

Friends, family, work colleagues, it seems now everyone has a crypto opinion and just can’t wait to tell me and everyone else about it.... it reminds me of me from 2017 (cringe!) ..... but Fuck me I didn’t get laughed at for 4 years to risk having nothing again. I pull the trigger (possibly to early.... who knows????) and take out 95% of my profits... sacrificing a vechain X Node in the process and my hopes and dreams of becoming a millionaire (for now)

I straight up gotta give 45% of my profits to tax. It hurts hard! Hey at least I can now afford a bottle of lube.

5% of what I pull out is my original investment over the 4 years and the other 45% is my hard earned profit? and the very important part for the newbies here is that 45% is now enough for 1/2 of a house. 1/2 a fucking house all from just a few hundred bucks every pay over 4 years. Even with all my mistakes song the way!

YES I probably sacrificed the chance to make millions and millions of dollars (time will tell) but I also made some genuine life changing money! Or at least enough that my life is “easier” yes I could have DCA out but that didn’t work for my risk/reward right now in my life. Point being you gotta do what is right for YOU!

You will make mistakes and have many experiences during the crypto journey, just remember you need to learn from your experiences, and mistakes! And do what is right for you! Don’t get sucked in to a echo chamber, if it’s made you cash and you start losing sleep over the potential losses if it crashes I would say it’s time to consider taking out some of that dirty fiat.

So ultimately in a nut shell this is what I learnt....

1) I’m going to be damned if I let 1/2 a house slip past my fingers for another long long bear winter, even if it means I could have made more, my greed in 2018 made for a harsh crypto winter and I don’t want another where I didn’t take any profits.

2) I am not a crypto prophet, and everyone is a genius in a bull market.

3) I don’t know how to trade, I will never know how to trade and fuck me the tax man likes money. Just don’t fucking trade you idiot!

4) Life is bigger than crypto, don’t talk about it so much it becomes your identity, most people think it’s lame and likely are bored by you talking about it (if they know what crypto is and don’t seek to learn themselves that’s there problem)

Last but definitely not least...

5) DCA.. I have no idea what the future will hold, and yes it’s possible that I’m going to be kicking myself in 3 months for pulling out and blowing my load prematurely but I will be ok.... I will continue to DCA every week for the years ahead and we’ll Natasha Bedingfield said it best with the “rest is still unwritten”

Concise summary on Zenon, pre yellow paper

1) i. What is Zenon?

Zenon leverages the advantages of well established ledgers and consensus mechanisms. It is a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) network but innovates a dual ledger architecture. Zenon's dual ledger structure allows it to have the high scalabity and security by combining the advantages of well established networks while introducing its own technology.

ii. Dual Ledger architecture: DAG+Block-lattice

Zenon takes a dual ledger approach,it uses a meta DAG as its consensus layer,and a block lattice data for storing the transaction, making accessing and storing data very cheap and efficient and making transactions efficient. Thus making zenon HIGHLY scalable.

a. Meta DAG-

Meta meaning its own version. DAG meaning Directed Acyclic Graph. A DAG is a data structure that looks like a block graph and a tree, DAG technology is used in IOTA, Avalanche, Hashgraph.

DAG function:

A DAG links transactions with other transactions so you do not have to wait for them to be bundled together in a block. A traditional blockchain structure transactions chronologically.

The benefits of DAG:

For example in IOTA, for the transaction to be confirmed, you will have to confirm two previous transactions. This system is very fast compared to traditional blockchains but the issue comes with security, and designing a solid security system for this is very complex.

b. Block-lattice

The block-lattice technology has been developed by NANO founder Colin LeMahieu in 2014. In this system each and every user has his or her own “dedicated” blockchain, but in this case these individual blockchains are called “account chains”. Every transaction is dealt with individually, blocks only contain data describing the transfer at hand i.e the data of transactions started, or received by the user.

The benefits of Block-lattice:

Transactions in a Block-Lattice system are almost instantaneous.

​

iii. Security in consensus design

Security:

How well can the network can resist against things like adversaries, byzantine nodes, the ability to defend against sybil attacks, how will it defend itself against denial of service attacks,censorship etc.

Zenon will be using a virtual voting scheme like in Hedera Hashgraph gossip about gossip and then it will be use a hybrid Proof of Stake and Proof of Work.

Gossip:

"... if a node receives information or transaction, to acknowledge the receipt of such transaction,that node will have to do gossip, .. the gossip is that node sends that transaction and also other gossips to another which their own gossips to another node which sends that transaction until it reaches a specific threshold, now everyone knows about what everyone did as well as the time."

Nodes in zenon:

trusting(sentry) nodes:

"they basically store the transactional data or their pruned version ,they have a very simple function of monitoring traffic for specific accounts,they require minimal resources to run."

trustless(sentinel) nodes:

"they involved with proof of work links,they require moderate resources (ZNN and QSR) to run,and they engage in consensus."

consensus(pillar) nodes:

"they engage in consensus,they help in relaying network traffic to other pillar nodes, they requires high resources (ZNN and QSR) to run."

​

A run down on how a transaction works in Zenon network.

"As a user you have to initiate a transaction and then the sentinel nodes to acknowledge the receipt of the transaction, it will do some computation (proof of work links), attach some data to it and then it will relay that transaction to other sentinel nodes and the process continues until it reaches a specific weight threshold for it to be considered valid after which this result will be sent to a consensus nodes which is chosen at random for final validation and that will put a final stamp of approval and then we can actually say this will serve as a standard,once the pillar nodes put their stamp of approval,it cannot be changed, so we take it as a point of reference."

​

2) Launch

Zenon was launched in 2019

"Product” maturity at launch

"Most projects start with a whitepaper and some vaporware and often take months or even years before delivering anything (if at all).

Zenon launched with a working blockchain. There was a wallet ready for all the common platforms (Mac, PC, Linux), an explorer, a nice looking website, and everything one needs in order to get started. And the only way to describe the onboarding experience was… SLICK. The website was beautifully designed. The colors of the logo, the explorer, the wallet UI, the BTT article, all perfectly matched. Somebody put a lot of thought into this before it was made public…"

Fund “raising” mechanism — the xStakes

" They came up with an innovative unique mechanism called xStakes. The basic idea is that the participants send their funds to some sort of a smartcontract, and in return get their tokens. The participants are then expected to adhere to some predefined conditions in order to qualify to receive their funds back from the smartcontract over a period of time.

In the case of Zenon, one is required to run a network node (on the temporary Zenon network) where the collateral is ZNN coins that were received as a result of sending the funds. xStakes are paid monthly over a period of 2 years (or until the NoM is ready, whichever comes first). In essence this creates an active community of loyal supporters that have the incentive to run their nodes and be part of the network in its first phase"

Also potential usage of a bitcoin smart contract for the funding unheard of in 2019.

​

3) Team

Anonymous:

The team is anonymous and most likely will never change. One is to avoid personal liability. Another is to avoid regulatory issues. No one is legally the face/front for zenon, hence highly decentralised and legal bureaucracy proof.

Testimony:

" Every single Zenon team member I have interacted with (and I had long discussions with many of them, especially during the riddle days) are clearly native English speakers. I would dare to guess North Americans (US/Canada). They are all also very nice and polite. And they are very knowledgeable and apparently tech savvy. Setting up a node is no rocket science, but many crypto folks have no previous experience in creating a VPS, installing software from the cloud on Linux, etc. The team has been very patient and helpful throughout the different phases, and “customer support” so to speak is simply astounding. Did we say corporate America? "

-@Shaimo

​

4) Partnerships

There is a TON of unannounced industry partners getting on board. Which will be announce one by one after mainnet (alphanet) launch.

Many other projects announce partners right of the bat to build hype on vapourwave.

i. Zenon fabric program

" The Zenon Fabric team has been communicating with leaders in the cryptocurrency space, building bridges, aiming to connect technologies, and merge communities in preparation for the next phase of Zenon and the transition to the Network of Momentum — Alphanet.

For the first part of the Zenon Fabric program, we have reserved 10 vested Pillar slots for key industry players. Being in the testing phase, we will be introducing them one by one, keeping close contact, aiming towards a secure and smooth transition to Alphanet for our network participants. For this first chapter, we decided to start integrating acknowledged Validator teams, having the most experience managing networks of nodes making both the communication and transition easy for both parties."

source: https://medium.com/@zenon.network/building-bridges-4ed4eb6988a

From their AMA:

A) Zenon Fabric will provide ZNN for 10 Vested Pillars Slots every 83 days that will be available for key industry players. Each Vesting Event will last 7 days and will coincide with the revoke window for Pillars. Any non-assigned slot will expire, and new ones will be available during the next Vesting Event. The ZNN used for the Vested Pillars is extracted from Zenon Structure. There will not be an increase in the total supply for this process.

source: https://medium.com/@zenon.network/zenon-community-generated-ama-edition-2-1ef42e624a90

​

5) Conspiracy on the founder/founders of zenon.

There has been rumours circulating around that square crypto, paradigm, jack dorsey (founder and CEO of twitter), lightning network devs involved with zenon network.

The Zenon team always responded to the allegations with " Zenon is an independant entity' However, never comfirmed nor denied the rumours.

Read more on the conspiracies here:

https://33sentinel.medium.com/absolute-proof-that-jack-dorsey-is-involved-with-zenon-network-f0e4f0ef8450

https://files.catbox.moe/26kuuh.pdf

​

6) Current development status of Zenon (as of 30/4/2021)

Public testnet launch:

Phase 1:

Plasma(gas) a mechanic to help mitigate network congestion. Completed.

Phase 2:

Pillars and sentinel nodes launched. Completed

Phase 3:

Native token system (ZTS). Completed

<<We are here>>

Phase 4:

Testnet incentives (rewards). Details on incentives for testnet participants will be announced soon.

I highly recommend joining the telegram to get started on joining the testnet.

Final Stage:

i. Alphanet genesis (mainnet launch).

Syrius wallet(zenon wallet) launched, current ZNN tokens will be swapped for the mainnet ones here. And partnerships will slowly be unveiled.

ii. Bitcoin interoperability and smart contracts

Zenon plans to enable smart contracts on bitcoin.

​

7) Exchanges to buy ZNN

These tokens have to be manually swapped later on after mainnet launch.

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/zenon

Bilaxy (KYC)

Mercatox (NO-KYC)

Stex (KYC)

Just pick the one with the lowest price. Beware that bilaxy has a lot of fake volume from wash trading.

​

other sources used:

https://knowledgeiskey2017.medium.com/lets-explore-zenon-network-cf46d6a8d1ee

https://medium.com/@shaimo/the-zenon-enigma-782f8b293bd6

https://medium.com/@zenon.network

https://medium.com/interdax/avalanches-be695ce9463

https://hedera.com/learning/what-is-gossip-about-gossip

​

TL,DR:

Zenon is an insanely promising project that is under the radar due to unannounced partnerships and being at the testnet phase. Imagine transaction speeds of nano but with high security. Soon to be interoperated with bitcoin.

Its ridiculous that a project of bluechip calibre is only valued at 120m marketcap. Zenon will be the powerhouse bitcoin interoperability/smart contracts.

The rumours and conspiracies are fun to discover on your own. Many have bought in on the rumours alone. The Zenon community is awesome and helpful with many respectable investors. And the dev team always delivers solid updates when you least expect it.

🚀

The best comedy skit in history Dogefather....

Elon Musk stands before his huddled masses in what will become the most watched tv event in history. After a couple of icebreakers Elon promptly pulls out his phone and dumps all his dogecoins and bitcoins at once crashing the entire crypto market. Let’s see how live SNL really is!

To those still looking for jobs and/or are looking for a career transition, I hope my little story on 'how I switched job industries despite retrenchment, getting a more than 50% pay increase' inspires you today, to take the next step in improving your chances of getting hired.

TL;DR: I got retrenched in April 2020, got a temporary job, became aimless and afraid for my future. I decided to take control of my life and picked up an upskilling course in a domain I wasn't sure of, applied for more than 300 jobs and failed, tried a different way of applying and secured a new job with a more than 50% pay increase in an entirely different industry I never expected to be in the first place.

Retrenchment in the height of the Pandemic.

It was April 2020, the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Working in the Sports & Events Industry as an Operations Executive slowed down as sales weren’t coming in due to the lockdown.

The company could only support me till May 2020 and unfortunately had to let me go by then, making my future uncertain. Fortunately, I had been submitting job applications months before the pandemic hit. I managed to secure a job at a governmental education institution in Singapore, leaving me jobless for only a month as I relied on my emergency savings to tide me through.

Going into my new job in June 2020, I was aimless and unsure whether this job would be permanent as I was bound to a 1-year contract with a slim opportunity for extension.

As this job was on a contractual basis, it bred uncertainty and cast doubt onto me as I constantly found ways to prove my capability to my co-workers.

It was extremely stressful to do so as I had to work out of my comfort zone and learn things that I never was interested in to live to see another day.

An opportunity arose in September 2020, and I decided to take the plunge to unknown depths — reaching out for that shining bright light at the end of the tunnel.

The shining ray of light through upskilling

3 months into my job, I learnt that the Singapore Government was rolling out measures to upgrade and upskill workers impacted negatively by the Pandemic.

The upskilling initiative focused on helping workers interested in making career transitions when the COVID-19 situation improved.

In my contractual role, I discovered a new interest and passion for Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. This ties in perfectly as the Government has earmarked the Fintech Industry as one of the industries in demand and is growing exponentially.

I decided that enough was enough and that I had to take control of my life and, eventually, my future.

I figured that I was only 27 years old then, and I’d rather suffer and work hard for the next 3 years now than lamenting on what I should have done when I am in my late 40s.

I eventually signed up for a full-time course designed to give me a 9-month crash course in Fintech, thereby imparting highly technical skills like web development, programming and even project management experience.

Going into the course, I didn’t know what to expect or what I could achieve — but it was a step into the darkness I was willing to take.

It takes only ONE

Working and studying full-time was not an easy task. I had to learn how to multitask during the workweek while also listening to the important pointers raised when lessons were ongoing.

Ever had a meeting with your managers while your lecturers are speaking? Been there, done that.

I am extremely thankful that I was working from home then, and the mode of delivery for the course was fully online — which allowed me to juggle between both commitments to the best of my ability.

As the course was scheduled to run from September 2020 to June 2021, I didn’t give up hope and continued to apply for jobs in the hopes of moving on to a role that would fully utilize my skillsets and experience.

However, it was all for nought. More than 300 job applications, several interviews led to final interviews, which also led to nothing as I was ghosted, ignored and left wondering what was wrong.

One day in February 2021, I woke up with an epiphany and found out what I was doing wrong all this time. I read articles from The Woke Salary Man, like finding out why I was underpaid and pinpointed the problem. 

My mistake? I ‘sprayed’ my job applications to hundreds of employers with a generic resume and the usual ‘Dear Sir/Mdm’ emails and ‘prayed’ for the best possible result. 

It was like the lottery. When the hiring manager called me back for an interview, I shouted for joy — but that was it, no job offers, nothing at all.

I decided to try something different. It would take some patience and time to do so — and I had both (my contractual role ends in June 2021).

Firstly, I had to build my portfolio to make sure I was credible and had works to show my potential employers the knowledge and experience I had. I decided to start writing articles on my personal experiences and interests in Cryptocurrency. That is why you see this Medium page right now because it was one of the factors that contributed to a job offer 😊. 

Secondly, I conducted extensive research on the major players in Cryptocurrency and found out who their hiring managers were. I wrote personalized cover letters to them, and the cover letters elaborated my personal vestments, knowledge and experience with Cryptocurrency and Blockchain. Still, think cover letters are not important? A cover letter was what proved me to several potential companies I applied for — like Paxos and, eventually, my current employers.

Lastly, all it takes is patience, determination, grit and commitment to your cause (and a little bit of luck). I could have easily told myself after 2 weeks to stop writing articles because I wasn’t receiving any responses from the jobs I applied for. Still, I soldiered on and wrote different articles relating to Cryptocurrency.

A month later, my wife sent me a job advertisement on a Job Ads Group in Telegram advertising that Hodlnaut is looking to hire for a Social Media Manager. I already knew of the company because I wanted to use one of the services they provided, earning interest on your Bitcoin, Ethereum or Stablecoin deposits.

I jumped at the opportunity, edited my resume and cover letter to suit the job description and also included a link to my ePortfolio and Medium page with high confidence that I would receive a response because this time around, I wasn’t a ‘sprayer’ (or a machine gunner in this case), I was a Sniper with a ‘one hit, one kill’ mentality.

Final words

I hope this little story has inspired you to take the next step forward, even if it is into the darkness, to explore and eventually score a better future for yourself.

From when I was young, my dream was to lead and live a fulfilling life by being able to experience tribulations and come out a better person. I had my fair share (cancer, retrenchment, having no money), but with the right characteristics and support system (thank you to the wife!), you will be able to push through barriers.

I want to end this article with this quote I learnt from Zack, a character from Final Fantasy: Crisis Core (even games inspire you!):

‘Embrace your dreams. No matter what happens, never ever let it go’

To those still looking for jobs and/or are looking for a career transition, I hope my little story on 'how I switched job industries despite retrenchment, getting a more than 50% pay increase' inspires you today, to take the next step in improving your chances of getting hired.

TL;DR: I got retrenched in April 2020, got a temporary job, became aimless and afraid for my future. I decided to take control of my life and picked up an upskilling course in a domain I wasn't sure of, applied for more than 300 jobs and failed, tried a different way of applying and secured a new job with a more than 50% pay increase in an entirely different industry I never expected to be in the first place.

Retrenchment in the height of the Pandemic.

It was April 2020, the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Working in the Sports & Events Industry as an Operations Executive slowed down as sales weren’t coming in due to the lockdown.

The company could only support me till May 2020 and unfortunately had to let me go by then, making my future uncertain. Fortunately, I had been submitting job applications months before the pandemic hit. I managed to secure a job at a governmental education institution in Singapore, leaving me jobless for only a month as I relied on my emergency savings to tide me through.

Going into my new job in June 2020, I was aimless and unsure whether this job would be permanent as I was bound to a 1-year contract with a slim opportunity for extension.

As this job was on a contractual basis, it bred uncertainty and cast doubt onto me as I constantly found ways to prove my capability to my co-workers.

It was extremely stressful to do so as I had to work out of my comfort zone and learn things that I never was interested in to live to see another day.

An opportunity arose in September 2020, and I decided to take the plunge to unknown depths — reaching out for that shining bright light at the end of the tunnel.

The shining ray of light through upskilling

3 months into my job, I learnt that the Singapore Government was rolling out measures to upgrade and upskill workers impacted negatively by the Pandemic.

The upskilling initiative focused on helping workers interested in making career transitions when the COVID-19 situation improved.

In my contractual role, I discovered a new interest and passion for Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. This ties in perfectly as the Government has earmarked the Fintech Industry as one of the industries in demand and is growing exponentially.

I decided that enough was enough and that I had to take control of my life and, eventually, my future.

I figured that I was only 27 years old then, and I’d rather suffer and work hard for the next 3 years now than lamenting on what I should have done when I am in my late 40s.

I eventually signed up for a full-time course designed to give me a 9-month crash course in Fintech, thereby imparting highly technical skills like web development, programming and even project management experience.

Going into the course, I didn’t know what to expect or what I could achieve — but it was a step into the darkness I was willing to take.

It takes only ONE

Working and studying full-time was not an easy task. I had to learn how to multitask during the workweek while also listening to the important pointers raised when lessons were ongoing.

Ever had a meeting with your managers while your lecturers are speaking? Been there, done that.

I am extremely thankful that I was working from home then, and the mode of delivery for the course was fully online — which allowed me to juggle between both commitments to the best of my ability.

As the course was scheduled to run from September 2020 to June 2021, I didn’t give up hope and continued to apply for jobs in the hopes of moving on to a role that would fully utilize my skillsets and experience.

However, it was all for nought. More than 300 job applications, several interviews led to final interviews, which also led to nothing as I was ghosted, ignored and left wondering what was wrong.

One day in February 2021, I woke up with an epiphany and found out what I was doing wrong all this time. I read articles from The Woke Salary Man, like finding out why I was underpaid and pinpointed the problem. 

My mistake? I ‘sprayed’ my job applications to hundreds of employers with a generic resume and the usual ‘Dear Sir/Mdm’ emails and ‘prayed’ for the best possible result. 

It was like the lottery. When the hiring manager called me back for an interview, I shouted for joy — but that was it, no job offers, nothing at all.

I decided to try something different. It would take some patience and time to do so — and I had both (my contractual role ends in June 2021).

Firstly, I had to build my portfolio to make sure I was credible and had works to show my potential employers the knowledge and experience I had. I decided to start writing articles on my personal experiences and interests in Cryptocurrency. That is why you see this Medium page right now because it was one of the factors that contributed to a job offer 😊. 

Secondly, I conducted extensive research on the major players in Cryptocurrency and found out who their hiring managers were. I wrote personalized cover letters to them, and the cover letters elaborated my personal vestments, knowledge and experience with Cryptocurrency and Blockchain. Still, think cover letters are not important? A cover letter was what proved me to several potential companies I applied for — like Paxos and, eventually, my current employers.

Lastly, all it takes is patience, determination, grit and commitment to your cause (and a little bit of luck). I could have easily told myself after 2 weeks to stop writing articles because I wasn’t receiving any responses from the jobs I applied for. Still, I soldiered on and wrote different articles relating to Cryptocurrency.

A month later, my wife sent me a job advertisement on a Job Ads Group in Telegram advertising that Hodlnaut is looking to hire for a Social Media Manager. I already knew of the company because I wanted to use one of the services they provided, earning interest on your Bitcoin, Ethereum or Stablecoin deposits.

I jumped at the opportunity, edited my resume and cover letter to suit the job description and also included a link to my ePortfolio and Medium page with high confidence that I would receive a response because this time around, I wasn’t a ‘sprayer’ (or a machine gunner in this case), I was a Sniper with a ‘one hit, one kill’ mentality.

Final words

I hope this little story has inspired you to take the next step forward, even if it is into the darkness, to explore and eventually score a better future for yourself.

From when I was young, my dream was to lead and live a fulfilling life by being able to experience tribulations and come out a better person. I had my fair share (cancer, retrenchment, having no money), but with the right characteristics and support system (thank you to the wife!), you will be able to push through barriers.

I want to end this article with this quote I learnt from Zack, a character from Final Fantasy: Crisis Core (even games inspire you!):

‘Embrace your dreams. No matter what happens, never ever let it go’

Zenon network (120mmcap) a BILLION dollar bluechip currently at testnet phase

1) i. What is Zenon?

Zenon leverages the advantages of well established ledgers and consensus mechanisms. It is a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) network but innovates a dual ledger architecture. Zenon's dual ledger structure allows it to have the high scalabity and security by combining the advantages of well established networks while introducing its own technology.

ii. Dual Ledger architecture: DAG+Block-lattice

Zenon takes a dual ledger approach,it uses a meta DAG as its consensus layer,and a block lattice data for storing the transaction, making accessing and storing data very cheap and efficient and making transactions efficient. Thus making zenon HIGHLY scalable.

a. Meta DAG-

Meta meaning its own version. DAG meaning Directed Acyclic Graph. A DAG is a data structure that looks like a block graph and a tree, DAG technology is used in IOTA, Avalanche, Hashgraph.

DAG function:

A DAG links transactions with other transactions so you do not have to wait for them to be bundled together in a block. A traditional blockchain structure transactions chronologically.

The benefits of DAG:

For example in IOTA, for the transaction to be confirmed, you will have to confirm two previous transactions. This system is very fast compared to traditional blockchains but the issue comes with security, and designing a solid security system for this is very complex.

b. Block-lattice

The block-lattice technology has been developed by NANO founder Colin LeMahieu in 2014. In this system each and every user has his or her own “dedicated” blockchain, but in this case these individual blockchains are called “account chains”. Every transaction is dealt with individually, blocks only contain data describing the transfer at hand i.e the data of transactions started, or received by the user.

The benefits of Block-lattice:

Transactions in a Block-Lattice system are almost instantaneous.

​

iii. Security in consensus design

Security:

How well can the network can resist against things like adversaries, byzantine nodes, the ability to defend against sybil attacks, how will it defend itself against denial of service attacks,censorship etc.

Zenon will be using a virtual voting scheme like in Hedera Hashgraph gossip about gossip and then it will be use a hybrid Proof of Stake and Proof of Work.

Gossip:

"... if a node receives information or transaction, to acknowledge the receipt of such transaction,that node will have to do gossip, .. the gossip is that node sends that transaction and also other gossips to another which their own gossips to another node which sends that transaction until it reaches a specific threshold, now everyone knows about what everyone did as well as the time."

Nodes in zenon:

trusting(sentry) nodes:

"they basically store the transactional data or their pruned version ,they have a very simple function of monitoring traffic for specific accounts,they require minimal resources to run."

trusting(sentinel) nodes:

"they involved with proof of work links,they require moderate resources (ZNN and QSR) to run,and they engage in consensus."

consensus(pillar) nodes:

"they engage in consensus,they help in relaying network traffic to other pillar nodes, they requires high resources (ZNN and QSR) to run."

​

A run down on how a transaction works in Zenon network.

"As a user you have to initiate a transaction and then the sentinel nodes to acknowledge the receipt of the transaction, it will do some computation (proof of work links), attach some data to it and then it will relay that transaction to other sentinel nodes and the process continues until it reaches a specific weight threshold for it to be considered valid after which this result will be sent to a consensus nodes which is chosen at random for final validation and that will put a final stamp of approval and then we can actually say this will serve as a standard,once the pillar nodes put their stamp of approval,it cannot be changed, so we take it as a point of reference."

​

2) Launch

Zenon was launched in 2019

"Product” maturity at launch

"Most projects start with a whitepaper and some vaporware and often take months or even years before delivering anything (if at all).

Zenon launched with a working blockchain. There was a wallet ready for all the common platforms (Mac, PC, Linux), an explorer, a nice looking website, and everything one needs in order to get started. And the only way to describe the onboarding experience was… SLICK. The website was beautifully designed. The colors of the logo, the explorer, the wallet UI, the BTT article, all perfectly matched. Somebody put a lot of thought into this before it was made public…"

Fund “raising” mechanism — the xStakes

" They came up with an innovative unique mechanism called xStakes. The basic idea is that the participants send their funds to some sort of a smartcontract, and in return get their tokens. The participants are then expected to adhere to some predefined conditions in order to qualify to receive their funds back from the smartcontract over a period of time.

In the case of Zenon, one is required to run a network node (on the temporary Zenon network) where the collateral is ZNN coins that were received as a result of sending the funds. xStakes are paid monthly over a period of 2 years (or until the NoM is ready, whichever comes first). In essence this creates an active community of loyal supporters that have the incentive to run their nodes and be part of the network in its first phase"

Also potential usage of a bitcoin smart contract for the funding unheard of in 2019.

​

3) Team

Anonymous:

The team is anonymous and most likely will never change. One is to avoid personal liability. Another is to avoid regulatory issues. No one is legally the face/front for zenon, hence highly decentralised and legal bureaucracy proof.

Testimony:

" Every single Zenon team member I have interacted with (and I had long discussions with many of them, especially during the riddle days) are clearly native English speakers. I would dare to guess North Americans (US/Canada). They are all also very nice and polite. And they are very knowledgeable and apparently tech savvy. Setting up a node is no rocket science, but many crypto folks have no previous experience in creating a VPS, installing software from the cloud on Linux, etc. The team has been very patient and helpful throughout the different phases, and “customer support” so to speak is simply astounding. Did we say corporate America? "

-@Shaimo

​

4) Partnerships

There is a TON of unannounced industry partners getting on board. Which will be announce one by one after mainnet (alphanet) launch.

Many other projects announce partners right of the bat to build hype on vapourwave.

i. Zenon fabric program

" The Zenon Fabric team has been communicating with leaders in the cryptocurrency space, building bridges, aiming to connect technologies, and merge communities in preparation for the next phase of Zenon and the transition to the Network of Momentum — Alphanet.

For the first part of the Zenon Fabric program, we have reserved 10 vested Pillar slots for key industry players. Being in the testing phase, we will be introducing them one by one, keeping close contact, aiming towards a secure and smooth transition to Alphanet for our network participants. For this first chapter, we decided to start integrating acknowledged Validator teams, having the most experience managing networks of nodes making both the communication and transition easy for both parties."

source: https://medium.com/@zenon.network/building-bridges-4ed4eb6988a

From their AMA:

A) Zenon Fabric will provide ZNN for 10 Vested Pillars Slots every 83 days that will be available for key industry players. Each Vesting Event will last 7 days and will coincide with the revoke window for Pillars. Any non-assigned slot will expire, and new ones will be available during the next Vesting Event. The ZNN used for the Vested Pillars is extracted from Zenon Structure. There will not be an increase in the total supply for this process.

source: https://medium.com/@zenon.network/zenon-community-generated-ama-edition-2-1ef42e624a90

​

5) Conspiracy on the founder/founders of zenon.

There has been rumours circulating around that square crypto, paradigm, jack dorsey (founder and CEO of twitter), lightning network devs involved with zenon network.

The Zenon team always responded to the allegations with " Zenon is an independant entity' However, never comfirmed nor denied the rumours.

Read more on the conspiracies here:

https://33sentinel.medium.com/absolute-proof-that-jack-dorsey-is-involved-with-zenon-network-f0e4f0ef8450

https://files.catbox.moe/26kuuh.pdf

6) Current development status of Zenon (as of 30/4/2021)

Public testnet launch:

Phase 1:

Plasma(gas) a mechanic to help mitigate network congestion. Completed.

Phase 2:

Pillars and sentinel nodes launched. Completed

Phase 3:

Native token system (ZTS). Completed

<<We are here>>

Phase 4:

Testnet incentives (rewards). Details on incentives for testnet participants will be announced soon.

I highly recommend joining the telegram to get started on joining the testnet.

Final Stage:

i. Alphanet genesis (mainnet launch).

Syrius wallet(zenon wallet) launched, current ZNN tokens will be swapped for the mainnet ones here. And partnerships will slowly be unveiled.

ii. Bitcoin interoperability and smart contracts

Zenon plans to enable smart contracts on bitcoin.

​

7) Exchanges to buy ZNN

These tokens have to be manually swapped later on after mainnet launch.

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/zenon

Bilaxy (KYC)

Mercatox (NO-KYC)

Stex (KYC)

Just pick the one with the lowest price. Beware that bilaxy has a lot of fake volume from wash trading.

​

other sources used:

https://knowledgeiskey2017.medium.com/lets-explore-zenon-network-cf46d6a8d1ee

https://medium.com/@shaimo/the-zenon-enigma-782f8b293bd6

https://medium.com/@zenon.network

https://medium.com/interdax/avalanches-be695ce9463

https://hedera.com/learning/what-is-gossip-about-gossip

​

TLDR:

Zenon is an insanely promising project that is under the radar due to unannounced partnerships and being at the testnet phase.

Its ridiculous that a project of bluechip calibre is only valued at 120m marketcap. Zenon will be the powerhouse bitcoin interoperability/smart contracts.

The rumours and conspiracies are fun to discover on your own. Many have bought in on the rumours alone. The Zenon community is awesome and helpful with many respectable investors. And the dev team always delivers solid updates when you least expect it.

🚀