Kozminski Techblog

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Since January 2022, NFTs rapidly started declining in popularity. What happened? Well, I see 3 reasons.

Reason 1: The Crypto crash.

On November 12 2021 Bitcoin hit its all-time peak when 1 BTC cost over 64000 USD, after that happened a huge crash happened. In just 1 month the value of 1 bitcoin dropped by almost 20000 USD. And it’s not only bitcoin but almost every cryptocurrency that had a crash. For example, Ethereum which also hit its all-time peak on the 12 of November 2021, crashed after that, losing around 12% of its value in one month.

Reason 2: The Crypto Scams.

Another problem was the many crypto scams that happened during the high time of NFTs. One of them that recently came to light was Logan Paul’s “Crypto ZOO”. It was supposed to be an NFT “game” where you buy a coin called ZOO and with this coin, you would buy NFT eggs that would hatch into animals and you could crossbreed these animals to sell them at a higher price. However, even though many people invested thousands if not millions of dollars into the ZOO coin to buy the NFT eggs, the game never launched, and thousands of people lost money. There is a very interesting 3 part investigation on the topic by a YouTuber Coffezilla.

Reason 3: The NFT Community.

The thing about the NFT community is that many of them are really cringe and annoying people who think they’re better than everyone because they have a picture of a monkey in 3D glasses. That’s what caused many people who were interested in NFTs to stray away from them because they didn’t want to be thought of as an “average NFT owner”. Also, many people, especially the meme community just make fun of people who own NFTs .

These are the 3 main reasons for the NFT’s downfall, if you have anything else that I missed, be sure to comment.

Sources:

Google Trends

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Drones are an inseparable part of modern warfare. They’re practical and useful in many scenarios, and prevent the loss of life of your pilots. They are used by everyone, from the United States Air Force to extremists in the middle-east. They can be expensive, like the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, which costs US$21.5m^[1] each. Or they can be cheap, like a modified civilian camera drone that can drop small projectiles or grenades, which can cost up to US$ 1,000.

The idea to use UAVs (Unmanned aerial vehicles) to deliver payloads started in July of 1849 when Austria used incendiary balloons to attack Venice (Due to wind almost all balloons missed their target). Then during the First World War, the British experimented with radio-controlled monoplanes with small warheads as an air defense against the german bomb zeppelins. Finally, in the mid-1940s with the german V1 flying bomb (first cruise missile), which used an analog guidance system to target London at the end of the Second World War.

More recently, drones started to be used more widely as not only warhead delivery systems, but also strategic bombers and reconnaissance aircrafts. Since the start of the “War on Terror”, the United States and its allies, conducted thousands of strategic missile strikes launched from UAVs. They are also used as recon aircraft providing overwatch for the soldiers on the ground. These UAVs are controlled not from the battlefield but in an airbase of the country that the drone comes from.

Now, drones are also being used in a kind of guerilla-type warfare. What I mean by that, is they’re mostly modified civilian drones, that can deliver payloads fast and provide recon, and are controlled from the battlefield. They are used by everyone. The best example is the brave Ukrainian soldiers, who modify drones like the “DJI Mavic 3 drone adapted to drop two air delivered improvised munitions – here based on American M430A1 HEDP 40x53mm grenades.”^[3] to later use them as strategic bombers. The modified civilian drones are especially effective because they’re cheap, fast, and small (so it’s hard to shoot them down).

In conclusion, Drones / UAVs are a vital part of modern warfare. They provide important information and fire support for the troops on the ground. They are useful and effective, and I can’t see them not being used in any future conflict.

---

Sources:

[1] “GENERAL ATOMICS MQ-1C GRAY EAGLE.” Warriors Lodge, warriorlodge.com/pages/general-atomics-mq-1c-gray-eagle. Accessed 21 Nov. 2022.

[2] U.S Army. “MQ-1C Warrior (2005-08-11).” Wikimedia, 10 Aug. 2005, upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/MQ-1C_Warrior_%282005-08-11%29.jpg.

[3] @UAWeapons. “?? Ukraine Weapons Tracker.” Twitter.com, 27 Jul. 2022, twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1552393635794149376?s=20&t=LVzT0xVeoiUuyPRMoZOBSw.

“History of unmanned aerial vehicles.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Aug. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicles. Accessed 21 Nov. 2022.

Reading Time: < 1 minute

---

On the 22nd of October, the Chinese Communist Party meeting ended. Thus starting Xi Jinping’s unprecedented 3rd cadency in the position of the President of the People’s Republic of China. Unprecedented because of the term limit, which was established in the early 1990s by the CCP, to “prevent rival groups, or one individual leader, from becoming too influential”^[1]. Xi got rid of these limits, which made it possible for him to be the President of the PRC for another cadency. But what does it mean for the future of the world economy?

I believe it means, Xi Jinping will lead China to gaining more influence in the worlds economy by investing more and more in Africa. African population growth rate has been skyrocketing, and analyst predict that “By 2050, a quarter of the world’s people will be African”^[2]. On the example of China itself, population growth, means economical growth. Thats why Xi Jinping has been investing over $23 billion in Africa, building Infrastructure^[3]. China is already Africa’s biggest trade partner. The total Chinese-African trade value hit $254 Billion in 2021 growing by 35% in relation to 2020^[4]. It is hard to predict how much will this trade value grow in the future, but based on the predicted growth of Africas economy, we can safely say that probably by a lot.

---

Sources:

[1] Lin, Andy, et al. “All the Emperor’s Men.” Financial Times, 2022, ig.ft.com/xi-jinping-emperors-men/. Accessed 2022. 

[2]Paice, Edward. “By 2050, a Quarter of the World’s People Will Be African – This Will Shape Our Future.” The Guardian, 2022, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/20/by-2050-a-quarter-of-the-worlds-people-will-be-african-this-will-shape-our-future. 

[3] McDonnell, Tim. “China Has Invested More in Africa than the Other Top Eight Lenders Combined.” Quartz, 2022, qz.com/africa/2125769/china-has-invested-23-billion-in-africas-infrastructure/. 

[4] Mureithi, Carlos. “Trade between Africa and China Reached an All-Time High in 2021.” Quartz, 2022, qz.com/africa/2123474/china-africa-trade-reached-an-all-time-high-in-2021/.