"It's worth remembering that it is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change."

"Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom."

"Our modern world places such heavy demands on our time and attention that the need to remember our responsibilities to others is greater than ever."

"Each day is a new beginning, I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God."

"When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future"

"Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves–from our recklessness or our greed."

"Over the years, those who have seemed to me to be the most happy, contented and fulfilled have always been the people who have lived the most outgoing and unselfish lives."

"Everyone is our neighbour, no matter what race, creed or colour."

"Whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load."

"Grief is the price we pay for love."

"We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock."

"It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult."

"I know of no single formula for success, but over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal, and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration, to work together."

Over the nearly 70 years that she ruled Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth shared many words of wisdom. Here are some of the most inspiring

history

History

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

Queen Elizabeth's Most Inspiring Quotes Through the Years

Princess Elizabeth was on a tour of South Africa, part of the British Empire at the time, when she turned 21 and made one of her earliest public addresses: “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” The speech was broadcast on the radio from Cape Town.

1947: ELIZABETH DEDICATES HER LIFE TO PUBLIC SERVICE

Elizabeth’s path to the throne was hastened by the abdication of her uncle and the early death of her father, King George VI. She became queen in February 1952, at age 25, and was 27 at the time of her official coronation in June 1953.The event was televised for the first time — a decision encouraged by her husband, Philip, that would catapult the royal family into people’s homes for decades to come. Millions in Britain and around the world watched the BBC broadcast from Westminster Abbey.

1953: CORONATION

Elizabeth visited President Harry S. Truman in 1951 when she was a princess, but she made her first state visit to the United States as queen in 1957, meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.Queen Elizabeth has made more than 90 state visits, in addition to traveling widely in the British Commonwealth. While projecting the symbolism of the crown, she has helped to strengthen ties with allies and smooth fraught relationships in places such as India, Russia, South Africa and Ireland.

1957: FIRST STATE VISIT TO AMERICA

Queen Elizabeth II has never given an interview. But she has found ways to connect with her subjects, including through her annual Christmas address, a central part of British holiday traditions.As both head of state and head of the Church of England, she has mixed words of wisdom, faith and occasionally personal reflections.

 1957: FIRST TELEVISED CHRISTMAS ADDRESS

Thousands of adoring fans pressed past policemen and climbed onto palace gates and lampposts as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr arrived to meet the queen.Wearing a pale gold gown, she bestowed medals of honor on the British pop culture icons.Four years later, Lennon would return his medal, in protest of Britain’s support of the U.S. war in Vietnam and its involvement in the Nigerian Civil War.

1965: BEATLEMANIA COMES TO BUCKINGHAM PALACE

Space exploration ranks high among the scientific and technological advances during Elizabeth’s reign. After becoming the first people to land on the moon, Americans Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin undertook a global goodwill tour, stopping at Buckingham Palace on Oct. 14, 1969.Armstrong later revealed that he was so sick that day he considered skipping the event; instead he went and ended up coughing on the queen.

1969: A VISIT FROM THE APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUTS

Queen Elizabeth II broke centuries of tradition when, instead of waving from afar, she greeted people up close on a royal tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1970. Since then, the “walkabout” has become a regular practice for many members of the royal family.

1970: THE FIRST ROYAL WALKABOUT

One of the rockier periods of the queen’s family life began with the fairy-tale wedding of her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, to Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981. Up to a million people sought to get a glimpse of the procession in central London, while the BBC estimated that 750 million people around the world watched on television.Although Diana was beloved as “the people’s princess,” the couple had a troubled marriage, with mutual accusations of infidelity. They separated in 1992.

1981: CHARLES AND DIANA’S MARRIAGE

South African President Nelson Mandela arrived in Britain in July 1996 for a four-day state visit to his country’s former colonizer. On that trip, Mandela and the queen developed a lasting fondness for each other. She hosted him at Buckingham Palace and took him on a carriage ride through central London.

1996: HOSTING NELSON MANDELA

The queen faced criticism for a slow response after the news of Diana's death in Paris. Days later, she spoke to the nation live from Buckingham Palace and said: “No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her...We have all been trying in our different ways to cope.”

1997: DIANA’S DEATH

The famously staid queen surprised audiences at the 2012 London Olympic Games by appearing in a dramatic opening segment alongside Britain’s most famous spy, James Bond, played by actor Daniel Craig.The real queen, poker-faced as always, entered her box seat with a familiar yet cheeky wave.

2012: LONDON OLYMPICS

Elizabeth had been married to Philip for 73 years when Buckingham Palace announced his death on April 9, 2021.His funeral, in the midst of the pandemic, was attended only by close family members and friends. The queen sat alone in a pew, wearing a black face mask, in keeping with national restrictions.

2021: PRINCE PHILIP’S DEATH

Parades, parties and a public holiday marked the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which celebrated Elizabeth as the first and only British monarch to reach 70 years on the throne.The queen, smiling in a light blue ensemble and white gloves emerged on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as thousands reflected on her long life and reign. It would be one of her last major public appearances.

2022: PLATINUM JUBILEE

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Travel

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Society, Arts & Culture

Queen Elizabeth II: A visual timeline of her 70 years on the throne

Philosophy can help you a lot in your research journey, but it's also easy to misunderstand and get lost in all the different schools of thought.Philosophy is essential, not just for intellectuals in the ivory towers. It can help cure the human spirit's problems.

Purpose of Philosophy

Philosophy is the love of wisdom. It is the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, and language. At its most basic level, philosophy is a way of thinking about the world, the universe, and society.Philosophy is understood differently by different people.

What is Philosophy?

People used to think that thunder and lightning were caused by Thor and that poems and myths were true stories. But after people began to think more rationally, they realized that natural causes were responsible for these things, not supernatural ones.The ancient Greeks, like the Romans, wrote poetry and told myths. The myths were about gods and goddesses, like Zeus, Apollo, Athena, and Dionysus. The ancient Greeks wanted to find out why things changed in nature, instead of blaming it on the gods. These people were called "natural philosophers."

Philosophical Thinkers

Parmenides thought that everything in existence was unchanging and that there was no literal transformation. He believed that only "one-ness" is real.

Thinker 01: Parmenides

Heraclitus argued against Parmenides' belief that everything is static. He said that everything is constantly changing and that we need both good and bad things to exist.The world would not exist without the continual interplay of opposing forces.

Thinker 02: Heraclitus

Socrates was a mysterious person who kept to himself and was known for his silence. He was one of the most important individuals in European philosophy.Socrates believed that philosophers were people who realized that they know nothing and were disturbed by this. As a result, Socrates considered himself to be a philosopher.Socrates was a famous philosopher who taught Plato. They both believed that philosophers should love wisdom and know that they know nothing.He once said, “One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.”

Thinker 03: Socrates

Many historians think that Socrates was a type of philosophy, and not just a philosopher. They say that after he died, philosophy became more important to people and that people started to see it as more of a career.

The death of Socrates changed Philosophy

Plato was 29 years old when his teacher Socrates died from drinking hemlock. He was taken aback when Athens sentenced its greatest intellectual to death. This event had a lasting impact on his later philosophical career.According to Plato, the death of Socrates showed that there was a contradiction between the real world and the ideal one. As a philosopher, Plato's first action was to publish Socrates' entreaty for acquittal in the form of the Apology of Socrates. Aside from the Apology, Plato is responsible for all of Socrates' and Plato's writings.

Thinker 04: Plato

Plato's thoughts were not only linked to his teacher Socrates but even his student Aristotle.Throughout the last two millennia, Plato's ideas have been repeatedly discussed and criticized by others. It was Aristotle who began this practice.Aristotle admired Plato a great deal and said "Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth." Lastly, according to Aristotle, nature was a reflection of the real world.Aristotle was a famous teacher who taught Alexander the Great. He wrote about different things, including physics, metaphysics, biology, poetry, music, politics, economics, and more.

Thinker 05: Aristotle

Philosophical assumptions are:<ol><li>Epistemology</li><li>Meta-physics</li><li>Axiology</li></ol>

3 major branches of Philosophy:

<ul><li>Episteme (knowledge) + Logy (science) = science of knowledge </li><li>It is the argument - why this and not that.</li></ul>Epistemology is the study of knowledge - how we come to know what is real, and what our limitations are.

01 Epistemology

a) Revealed knowledge: this is true because it is written in religious books. Even what we know from religious books is being studied using scientific knowledge. b) Scientific knowledge: through a systematic study, the knowledge has been organized into general concepts. For example, many scientific theories are based on mathematics.c) Intuitive knowledge: little or no specific knowledge informs subjective judgment or gut feelings.d) Man-made knowledge: remember that when we are looking at how knowledge is created, we need to think about how it works in the real world.

Epistemology || Sources of knowledge

<ul><li>Meta (beyond) + Physics (nature) = beyond the nature</li><li>Discussion about reality.</li><li>What is the reality of this universe?</li><li>What is the reality of human beings?</li><li>What is the reality of everything that exists or does not exist?</li><li>What is truth?</li><li>What is beyond nature?</li></ul>

02 Meta-physics

a) Cosmogony: the study of the universe, space, time, and the origins and evolution of phenomena.b) Cosmology: the study of the universe, space, and time.c) Ontology: the philosophical study of existence and reality.d) Teleology: the study of or reasoning based on final causes.e) Eschatology: the study of or doctrine about the end of history or the last things. For instance, the judgment day.

Branches of meta-physics are:

<ul><li>Axio (value) + Logy (science) = science of value</li><li>What are values?</li><li>What is good? </li><li>What is bad? </li><li>What is acceptable?</li><li>What should be rejected?</li></ul>Basically, discussion of values within a society.

03 Axiology

a) Ethics: are the things that people think are the right thing to do. They can change from place to place and from time to time.b) Aesthetic: is all about personal opinions. What might look pretty to me might look ugly to you.

Branches of axiology are:

Greek word meaning 'pattern'Whenever we think of doing research, we get a few thoughts such as:<ul><li>'How do we plan to do this research?'</li><li>'What will be my approach to the investigation?'</li><li>'Will I do Qualitative or Quantitative or mixed?'</li></ul>To come out of this situation, the researcher takes the help of the "Research Paradigm"A research paradigm is a framework that is used to guide research. It includes the assumptions that researchers make about what is being studied, and how it can be studied.Paradigms can be based on different philosophies, such as positivism or constructivism.

What is Research Paradigm?

Our beliefs, knowledge, and reality are termed paradigms by social scientists.Example: Let's assume you are in a new country and exploring places. You want to go to a certain location. There are three or more routes to reach the destinationNow, it depends on the person to decide on a route based on his knowledge, belief, and reality.The important thing is what is the person's view on each of the routes.

Paradigm has its roots in Philosophy

When all the 'ology' is of the same nature, they lead to a certain research methodology. For example, positivism or interpretivism.<ul><li>First ontology.</li><li>Second, ontology will decide the epistemology.</li><li>Third, epistemology will decide axiology.</li><li>Fourth, all three will meet and decide the research methodology (quantitative or qualitative).</li><li>Research Methodology will showcase the research design (experimental, cause-effect, survey, grounded theory, ethnography, etc)</li><li>Lastly, Research Design will guide the research instrument.</li></ul>

Every Paradigm has its own Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology

Ontology↓Epistemology↓Axiology↓Methodology (Quantitative or Qualitative)↓Research Design↓Research Instrument

Constituents of Paradigm

Philosophy is a confusing subject. But it's important to understand the basics. The three main branches of philosophy are Epistemology (the study of knowledge), Meta-physics (the study of existence and reality), and Axiology (the study of values).

This article details the basics of philosophy as it applies to a Ph.D. student or anyone researching for an academic paper, dissertation, or thesis. Learn more about epistemology, metaphysics, and axiology.

philosophy

Philosophy

What is Philosophy and Why Every Ph.D. Candidate Should Study It First

John Lloyd Wright, son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, invented this classic building set. The original instructions included plans for a replica of Abraham Lincoln's cabin, obviously, but also directions for building Uncle Tom's cabin.

Lincoln Logs

After a stonemason saw kids building things with pencils and spools of thread, he got the idea for Tinkertoys.

Tinkertoys

Hula Hoops have been around forever in various formats, but the official Wham-O toy was invented in 1958. The inventors promoted it by going around to playgrounds and parks, giving children samples, and showing them how to use them.

Hula Hoops

These little critters are actual live animals called brine shrimp. They were "invented" in 1957 by Harold von Braunhut, the man who invented X-Ray Specs. Brine shrimp are ideal for packaging because they enter a natural (shippable) state of suspended animation in certain environments. When kids release the "monkeys" into the prepared water, they "hatch."

Sea Monkeys

The sculpting clay with the trademarked scent was first sold as a wallpaper cleaner. It was rolled on the walls to remove coal dust.

Play-Doh

These ugly-cute dolls were created in 1949 by a Danish fisherman who needed a cheap Christmas gift for his daughter. He used sheep's wool for the hair. Thomas Dam's dolls caught on, which is why the original dolls were called Dam Dolls.

Troll dolls

<ul><li>The Slinky was invented by naval engineer Richard James. </li><li>While he was working to develop springs that could keep ship instruments stable in choppy waters, he knocked a metal coil off a shelf. </li><li>The coil did what a Slinky does: It stepped down to a stack of books, then to the table, and then to the floor, where it righted itself into a cylinder. </li><li>James knew it would be a great toy and tests by neighborhood kids proved him right.</li></ul>

Slinky

<ul><li>A precursor to the familiar LEGO brick, the plastic Self-Locking Building Brick was developed in the late 1930s by the British toy inventor Hilary Fisher Page. </li><li>A decade later, a Danish master carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen examined the British bricks and designed a similar toy, sold in a set as LEGO Automatic Binding Bricks. </li><li>LEGO comes from the Danish words leg and godt, which mean "play well." Christiansen later discovered that in Latin, LEGO means "I put together."</li></ul>

LEGO

<ul><li>The dolls were invented by writer and illustrator Johnny Gruelle.</li><li> Raggedy Ann was created in 1915 for Gruelle's daughter. Gruelle reportedly named the doll after two poems from a book by James Whitcomb Riley: The Raggedy Man and Little Orphan Annie. </li><li>Ann inspired Gruelle to write stories about her adventures, and in 1918, Raggedy Ann Stories was released. Her brother, Andy, showed up in 1920.</li></ul>

Raggedy Ann and Andy

<ul><li>The sock monkeys that we have come to know and love today—the ones made with Rockford Red Heel socks—are thought to have come about in 1932. </li><li>The distinctive red heel (the monkey's mouth) was given to the socks so customers would know they were getting authentic Rockford socks. </li><li>When the Nelson Knitting Company discovered that their socks were being used across the country for this folk craft, they won the patent for the sock monkey pattern and started including it in the packaging of their socks.</li></ul>

Sock Monkeys

Ever wonder how Lincoln Logs or Sea Monkeys found their way into 20th-century toy stores? Here are the little-known origins of 10 classic toys.

How 10 Classic Toys Were Invented

A vital prerequisite for innovation is discovery - making things known or visible.Discovering profitable and scalable ideas is the goal of the Discovery Cycle.ORCA summarizes the four stages of the Discovery Cycle:1) Observation2) Reflection3) Conversation4) Analysis

Discovery Cycle Evaluating Innovation

Investigate anomalies, paradoxes, peripheral developments, and direct experiences to determine how the world is changing.

1) Observation stage

This stage is best approached by zooming in and out, using a muse, suspending judgment, slowing down, identifying what's missing, and restructuring data to simplify patterns.

2) Reflection

Innovation is driven by people, so it is best to use contrasting views, set an agenda, frame the issues, and generate hypotheses at this stage.

3) Conversation

During the final stage of the Discovery Cycle, systematic evidence is gathered, data are categorized, naming is assigned, data analysis is completed, and hypotheses are proposed.

4) Analysis

Innovation is difficult for well-established companies.Innovation is a complex, enterprise-wide undertaking that necessitates a set of cross-cutting techniques and procedures to structure, coordinate and promote it. There is no proven formula for success, but if businesses internalize and apply these essentials, they will increase the probability that they might rekindle the flame of innovation.

The Essentials of Innovation

There is no proven formula for success, but if businesses comprehend and implement these basics, they, too, may rekindle the spark of innovation.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

business

Business

creativity

Creativity

Essentials of Innovation

By 1434, Cosimo de Medici had consolidated power for himself and his family in Florence, all the while maintaining the appearance of a democratic government. Cosimo clung to his position as a private citizen, but it was clear to all that he ruled the city of Florence from behind the scenes.

What did the medici family rule?

Medici family, French Médicis, Italian bourgeois family that ruled Florence and, later, Tuscany during most of the period from 1434 to 1737, except for two brief intervals (from 1494 to 1512 and from 1527 to 1530).

Italian Renaissance (1330-1550) quizzes about important details and events in every section of the book.

Italian Renaissance (1330-1550): Florence and the Medici (1397-1495)

“This is a historical lesson of immense significance and should be kept in mind by anyone who thinks his refusal of Bitcoin means he doesn't have to deal with it. History shows it is not​ possible to insulate yourself from the consequences of others holding money that is harder than yours.”

How did it work? It was pretty simple: people just swapped things. It worked fine, except if you didn’t have something your neighbor needed. Once people figured out you could exchange universally valued objects for goods, everything changed.From there, we’ve gone from all kinds of currency to valuable metals, and now paper printed by governments. But since we ditched the “gold standard” of money and started relying only on easily manipulated paper money, we’ve seen a century of boom and bust and increasing debt.

The World Before Money

<ul><li>What makes good currency is that it is salable or easily sold. With the technology of smelting metals, early pre-Christian civilizations could make highly salable coins that were also extremely portable.</li><li>The preferred type of coin was gold.</li><li>When transportation and communications boomed from the 18th to the 20th centuries, nonphysical forms of payment like paper bills and checks became justified. The way they convinced people to trust these pieces of paper was by backing them with gold.</li><li>Britain led the way with this standard to back bills with gold, known as the “gold standard.”</li></ul>

What Makes Good Currency

A good’s salability across time refers to its ability to hold value into the future, allowing the holder to store wealth in it. For a good to be salable across time it has to be immune to deterioration.Similarly, with money, it was inevitable that one, or a few, goods would emerge as the main medium of exchange because the property of being exchanged easily matters the most. A medium of exchange is not acquired for its own properties, but for its salability.Monetary status is a spontaneously emergent product of human action, not a rational product of human design.

Salability

<ul><li>Money has come in all shapes and sizes throughout history, but there’s only ever been one truly sound system: money backed by gold.</li><li>The “gold standard” underwrote an age of prosperity and stability. That all changed in the early 20th century when European governments abandoned gold and fiscal prudence to fund their war efforts.</li><li>The world hasn’t been the same since, and we’ve endured decades of rising debt and boom-and-bust cycles.</li><li>Bitcoin, like gold, it’s a highly effective unit of exchange. But the digital currency will have to overcome some teething problems.</li></ul>

Money Backed By Gold

<ul>
<li>Different currencies were simply different weights of physical gold, and the exchange rate between one nation’s currency and the other was the simple conversion between different weight units, as straightforward as converting inches to centimeters.</li>
<li>In the same way metric and imperial units are just a way to measure the underlying length, national currencies were just a way to measure economic value as represented in the universal store of value, gold.</li>
<li>Each country’s money supply was determined by the natural working of the market system.</li>
</ul>

The Gold Standard

The fatal flaw of the gold standard was that settlement in physical gold was heavy, expensive, and insecure, which meant it had to rely on centralizing physical gold reserves in a few locations—banks and central banks—leaving them vulnerable to being taken over by governments.
Although gold was supposedly demonetized fully in 1971, central banks continued to hold significant gold reserves, and only disposed of them slowly, before returning to buying gold in the last decade.

The Flaw of The Gold Standard

Money whose supply is hard to increase is known as hard money (sound), while easy money is money whose supply is amenable to large increases (unsound).<ul><li>The easy money trap: anything used as a store of value will have its supply increased, and anything whose supply can be easily increased will destroy the wealth of those who used it as a store of value.</li><li>Money that is easy to produce is no money at all, and easy money does not make a society richer; on the contrary, it makes it poorer by placing all its hard‐earned wealth for sale in exchange for something easy to produce.</li></ul>

Hard Money, Easy Money

<ul>
<li>It protects value across time, which gives people a bigger incentive to think of their future, and lowers their time preference (this is what initiates the process of human civilization and allows for humans to cooperate, prosper, and live in peace.)</li>
<li>Sound money allows for trade to be based on a stable unit of measurement, facilitating ever‐larger markets, free from government control and coercion, and with free trade comes peace and prosperity.</li>
<li>A unit of account is essential for all forms of economic calculation and planning, and unsound money makes economic calculation unreliable.</li>
</ul>

The Importance of Sound Money

Time preference for money is an individual's preference for possession of a given amount of money now, rather than the same amount at some future time. The time preference for money is generally expressed by an interest rate. This rate will be positive even in the absence of any risk. The natural implication of this process is to reduce savings and increase borrowing.
Individuals will consume more of their income and borrow more against the future. This will not just have implications on their time preference in financial decisions; it will likely reflect on everything in their lives.

Time Preferences of Money

The 20 century’s binge on conspicuous consumption cannot be understood separately from the destruction of sound money and the outbreak of vilifying savings and deifying consumption as the key to economic prosperity.<ul><li>The reduced incentive to save is mirrored with an increased incentive to spend, and with interest rates regularly manipulated downwards and banks able to issue more credit than ever, lending stopped being restricted to investment but has moved on to consumption.</li><li>Credit cards and consumer loans allow individuals to borrow for the sake of consumption without even the pretense of perf<warningtag>orming investment in the future.</warningtag></li></ul>

Consumption Is Key

After the First World War, financial deficits forced European powers to drop the gold standard. They introduced fiat money, which was backed by decree instead of gold. This switch led to an age of unsound money where governments could intervene in the economy to stabilize the value of their currencies. 
Unsound money causes a myriad of problems, like recessions and debt. Interventions of governments distort markets and cause boom and bust cycles. The only solution would be to establish a new gold standard. This is where Bitcoin comes in.

The New Gold Standard

... because it is scarce, secure, and unique.
<ul>
<li>Bitcoin has a fixed supply— there will never be more than 21 million in existence. </li>
<li>They also have a stable supply because, like gold, bitcoins are mined.</li>
<li>Bitcoins are the only good defined by absolute scarcity, which makes them immune to manipulation. </li>
<li>It’s also incredibly secure. The public ledger, known as the blockchain, keeps a record of all recent transactions. Everyone can see it, and it is backed by every computer on the network, making it near-impossible to manipulate.</li>
<li>The best part is you don’t even need a central authority to oversee it.</li>
</ul>

Bitcoin Could Replace Money As We Know It

<ul>
<li>Bitcoin can thus be understood as a technology that converts electricity to truthful records through the expenditure of processing power. </li>
<li>Those who expend this electricity are rewarded with the bitcoin currency, and so they have a strong incentive to maintain its integrity. As a result of attaching a strong economic incentive for honesty, Bitcoin’s ledger has been practically incorruptible for the period of its operation so far.</li>
<li>By relying entirely on verification, Bitcoin dooms fraudulent transactions to failure and obviates the need for trust in anyone for transactions to be completed.</li>
</ul>

Verification > Trust

Bitcoin can be seen as the new emerging reserve currency for online transactions, where the online equivalent of banks will issue Bitcoin-backed tokens to users while keeping their hoard of Bitcoins in cold storage, with each individual being able to audit in real time the holdings of the intermediary, and with online verification and reputation systems able to verify that no inflation is taking place.This would allow an infinite number of transactions to be carried out online without having to pay the high transaction fees for on-chain transactions.

Bitcoin As a Reserve Currency

We know it is incredibly promising, but of course, there are challenges.
<ol>
<li>One of these is price volatility. This volatility is mostly due to demand, and because it’s so new, demand is highly variable. People wonder how it can be reliable if it fluctuates.</li>
<li>Bitcoin needs to grow. But eventually, Bitcoin would need to rely on centralized institutions to continue growing. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a viable way around this: the more transactions that happen, the more copies of the ledger need updating. All of this requires higher transaction fees and more processing power.</li>
</ol>

Bitcoin: The Challenges

Crypto? Blockchain? NFTs? Let us decrypt..

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Cryptocurrency

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

Getting started with Cryptocurrency

A deep dive into the role money has played across history and how Bitcoin fits in.

A comprehensive and authoritative exploration of Bitcoin and its place in monetary history When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few people paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications. While Bitcoin is an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Author Saifedean Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse. With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for the final settlement of large payments―a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure. Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders. The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knockoffs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘block chain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.

Discover the world of business and economics.

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Economics

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Books

A comprehensive and authoritative exploration of Bitcoin and its place in monetary history When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few people paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications. While Bitcoin is an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Author Saifedean Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse. With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for the final settlement of large payments―a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure. Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders. The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knockoffs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘block chain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.

Saifedean Ammous

The Bitcoin Standard

The earliest mention of dominoes is from Song dynasty China found in the text Former Events in Wulin by Zhou Mi (1232–1298). Modern dominoes first appeared in Italy during the 18th century, but they differ from Chinese dominoes in a number of respects, and there is no confirmed link between the two.

Who invented the game of dominoes?

Survey by Joe Celko of the history of dominoes in the Orient and in Europe.

entertainment

Entertainment

History of Dominoes

To measure blood pressure, your doctor uses an instrument called a "sphygmomanometer," more often referred to as a blood pressure cuff. The cuff is wrapped around your upper arm and inflated to stop the flow of blood in your artery.

What is the instrument used to measure blood pressure called?

health

Health

Find 100+ fun History Facts - European, American, Black, Asian across various periods - Curated by our community from books, articles or documentaries

Queen Elizabeth's Most Inspiring Quotes Through the Years

Queen Elizabeth II: A visual timeline of her 70 years on the throne

What is Philosophy and Why Every Ph.D. Candidate Should Study It First

How 10 Classic Toys Were Invented

Essentials of Innovation

Italian Renaissance (1330-1550): Florence and the Medici (1397-1495)

The Bitcoin Standard

History of Dominoes

What is the instrument used to measure blood pressure called?

Jurassic World: Could we live alongside dinosaurs? | BBC Science Focus Magazine

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

Queen Elizabeth's Most Inspiring Quotes Through the Years

Queen Elizabeth II: A visual timeline of her 70 years on the throne

What is Philosophy and Why Every Ph.D. Candidate Should Study It First

How 10 Classic Toys Were Invented

Essentials of Innovation

Italian Renaissance (1330-1550): Florence and the Medici (1397-1495)

The Bitcoin Standard

History of Dominoes

What is the instrument used to measure blood pressure called?

Jurassic World: Could we live alongside dinosaurs? | BBC Science Focus Magazine

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.