Cards and Portugal
Daily Ramble
Today is my wife’s birthday. We had lockdown measures in place yesterday which meant I couldn’t make the pilgrimage for a birthday card until this morning. As expected, the stationary store greeted me with a meager rack of birthday cards located just below the cash register. It’s not until a special occasion arises that my American instinct to purchase a card kicks in and I’m reminded that the Portuguese don’t do cards.
Living in a different culture has provided the contrast needed for me to see my American-ness. Birthday cards are a great example. Why? Because it wasn’t until I lived in Portugal that it ever occurred to me that birthday cards WEREN’T a thing. Birthday cards were like gravity — something that just is. And it’s not until I have those gravity-like assumptions about reality challenged that I see my native culture in action.
Why is that important? Because when I choose to give a birthday card now it’s not under the weight of cultural obligation but a sense of joy for demonstrating to my wife gratitude for her arrival in the big wide world on this day. More than once after receiving a card, I’ve heard her say “I really like cards…I should do that more in my family.” And just like that — culture transfer in action!
Favorite Thing on the Interwebs Today
The video in this tweet is pure gold. I couldn’t find the video by itself and gave up trying after 15 minutes. Excuse the text in the tweet and my laziness.
Bitcoin Price Update
Yesterday’s price range prediction: $17.2-$19.3k
Today’s predicted price range: $17.2-$18.7k
As anticipated yesterday, the bears did take control driving the price down from a daily high of $19.3k to see where buyers would step in. Buyers have stepped in today at $17.6k and are attempting to shift the momentum. It will likely take another day or so for it to be confirmed that the low is in and we’re headed back up to test $20k again, but at midday, it is looking like the bulls are holding their own. Therefore, I see limited further downside today, with the most likely action being sideways price action in the low $18ks.
Bitcoin Ed Bite
We’re continuing to build towards an explanation of mining. With a bit of history and an understanding of hashing now under our belts, let’s explore how hashing fits into Bitcoin’s mining function.
When a transaction is broadcast across the Bitcoin network, all the miners on the network receive it, group it with other transactions and begin the process of mining the next block. The first step in this process is to take the hash of the last block’s data. Recall that that is like a fingerprint for the previous block.
That hash from the prior block gets included within the current block linking the two blocks, which creates the blockchain. Again, recall that since each hash is unique, by placing the hash from the previous block into the current block, the blocks become cryptographically linked together. We’ll go into this more tomorrow.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
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