Week 11: Cryptocurrencies are NOT "Decentralized"; Why practice Writing?

Today's edition is going to be a short one, yet a very important one.

I wrote a full article detailing why I think we all should practice writing in today's remote/hybrid and asynchronous world. I sincerely hope you will read it and share your thoughts with me.

While I shared five reasons in the above article, in today's edition I am adding a 6th reason, only exclusive to the subscribers of this newsletter.

There is enough research about several benefits of writing but one of the most important benefits I want all of you to gain is the health benefits.

I can quote hundreds of studies but you will experience only if you practice it. This is the reason I started the #365daysofshipping challenge, so I can stay committed to this practice and spread the subtle + serious benefits of writing and shipping every day.

“Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change.” – Julia Cameron

Topics of the week

I am going to share just one topic this week and I hope that it can trigger some thoughts or questions in your minds.

Many times we don't question a lot of things and the question I am going to share was one of the biggest questions I had whenever I heard someone speak about cryptocurrencies: "Are cryptocurrencies really, totally decentralized?"

I thought people would consider me dumb if I ask this question. But this week I was thrilled to read an article where this question was brought to the surface.

And the reason I am sharing this as the only topic of this week is to help you feel confident about asking your dumbest questions.

This isn't new too, we all know it but to practice it every day is what makes it worthy and important. You should learn from my experience, at least and here is what I learned from this episode:

Asking dumb questions doesn't make you dumb.

Read the article I am referring to and I quote Nandan Nilekani's response when asked about how decentralized cryptos/web3 is:

The siren song of Web3 is decentralisation, where you take charge of your own life. But the reality is there is as much centralisation in this world of crypto as there is in the old world. So, you will end up exchanging an old set of gatekeepers for a new set of gatekeepers.?... I don’t buy this argument that you have perfect decentralisation. The genius of crypto is they have decentralised money making. That is the beauty of crypto. Then everybody has the interest in promoting it because the value of their holdings go up.

Apparently, it has been a research topic to understand how to leverage blockchain technology to decentralize decision-making however Bitcoin and Etherium, the two most popular cryptocurrencies are not as decentralized as assumed by many. You can refer to this explainer to start understanding a bit about what is decentralization in the blockchain.

From the internet/metaverse

This week I did not find anything significant to share in my newsletter hence this section is going blank. But if you found something worthy please do share it in the comments, so it helps me and other subscribers too.

Personal Updates

Never did I face any challenge in prioritizing which book to read until now.

Considering that there are so many good books by great people which hit the market recently, I am still evaluating what is the best way to prioritize amongst the list of books in my wish list.

If you have any thoughts on this please share with me and I would be so grateful to you. I even wrote a post along with a poll and received some good tips already, thanks to those who engaged with the post.

This marks the end of the Week 11 edition.

Until next Friday,?keep?tracing your mastery.

#TraceYourMastery

If you missed the previous editions of my newsletter,?that's okay?because you can check them here:?1,?2,?3,?4,?5,?6,?7,?8,?9, 10