Farez.FM
By farezv
Episodes include monologues from Farez Vadsaria, long form interviews with real life friends, internet friends, and Crypto/NFT enthusiasts on Twitter/X Spaces.
Farez.FMDec 21, 2023
Ep 11: Jeremiah Oh & I talk about Crypto's Santa Rally, Trend Spotting Strategies, Spy Satellites, Enough Exoplanets, UFOs and AI Alignment
Summary
In this conversation, Farez and Jeremiah discuss the performance and predictions for Bitcoin and Ethereum, the potential impact of ETFs on crypto, investing strategies beyond the top two cryptocurrencies, the relationship between crypto and the stock market, and the timeline for crypto growth and adoption. They also touch on the surveillance satellite launched by China and NASA's discovery of exoplanets with possible subsurface oceans. The conversation highlights the pressure of necessity for crypto adoption and the fascination with aliens compared to Bigfoot. In this conversation, Farez FM and Jeremiah discuss various mysteries and unknowns, including UFO sightings, the depths of the ocean, and the intersection of AI and extraterrestrial life. They also touch on the importance of data science, the power of information and data, and the lag time of understanding AGI. The concept of AI alignment and the potential dangers of imperfect AGI are explored. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the complexity of AI alignment research and the importance of social media and thought leadership.
Takeaways
Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen significant growth and are expected to continue performing well, but a major correction may be on the horizon.
Investing in altcoins and shitcoins can be a risky strategy, but it can also lead to significant gains if done carefully and with thorough research.
The potential for ETFs and the integration of AI in the crypto space could drive further adoption and legitimization of cryptocurrencies.
The surveillance satellite launched by China and NASA's discovery of exoplanets with possible subsurface oceans highlight ongoing advancements in space exploration and technology.
The fascination with aliens and the possibility of extraterrestrial life continues to captivate public interest, while interest in Bigfoot has waned in comparison. There are many mysteries and unknowns in the world, including UFO sightings and the depths of the ocean.
The intersection of AI and extraterrestrial life is a fascinating topic, with the possibility that aliens may be monitoring our technological advancements.
Data science plays a crucial role in understanding and analyzing the vast amount of information available to us.
AI alignment is an important area of research to ensure that AI systems act in accordance with human values and objectives.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Catching Up
01:27 Bitcoin and Ethereum Performance
02:53 Predictions and Concerns for Crypto
05:19 The Relationship Between Crypto and the Stock Market
07:52 Expectations for Bitcoin Corrections
09:19 Investing Strategies Beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum
10:44 Investing in Altcoins and Shitcoins
16:48 The Potential of Solana and Ethereum ETFs
19:31 The Impact of AI on Crypto Adoption
23:25 The Narrative and Legitimization of Crypto
27:12 Timeline for Crypto Growth and Adoption
30:07 The Pressure of Necessity for Crypto Adoption
34:00 Surveillance Satellites and Exoplanets
44:09 Chinese Spy Satellite and NASA's Exoplanet Discovery
49:20 The Fascination with Aliens and Bigfoot
53:10 Mysteries of the Earth
54:12 UFO Sightings
55:08 The Unknown Depths of the Ocean
56:04 The Intersection of AI and Extraterrestrial Life
57:02 The Purpose of UFO Sightings
58:14 The Importance of Data Science
59:11 The Power of Information and Data
01:00:11 The Lag Time of Understanding AGI
01:01:10 AI Alignment and Ethical Frameworks
01:02:35 The Concept of AI Alignment
01:03:33 The Potential of AI Systems to Act Independently
01:04:02 True Intelligence and AGI
01:05:00 The Dangers of Imperfect AGI
01:06:26 The Complexity of AI Alignment Research
01:07:25 The Importance of Social Media and Thot Leadership
Sorry about Jeremiah's out of sync video at the end. The podcast tool I was using is clearly not good. Switched to Riverside.FM now.
Ep 10: Artificial Intelligence, Web3's 2023 comeback, Aliens and Investing with Dean, Jeremiah and Narbeh.
Episode 10: This conversation is between Narbeh (https://twitter.com/narb_s), Dean (https://twitter.com/dbring1) Jeremiah (https://www.instagram.com/ohmiahbad/), and Farez (https://twitter.com/farezv) recorded in November 2023.
The podcast covers a wide range of topics, including AI, cryptocurrency, the future of work, and the existence of aliens. It begins with the introduction of the participants and how they know each other. The discussion then delves into famous Sams; like Sam Bankman Fraud of FTX and Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI. The participants debate political influence in tech companies, the implications of AI and deepfakes, the future of AI and data security, the ethics of gene editing, and the potential dangers of state-controlled superhumans.
They also explore the existence of aliens, the possibility of different life forms in the universe, and the potential for AI to discover new physics and mathematics. The podcast further touches on the rise of cryptocurrency and blockchain, the future of Bitcoin and Ethereum, cryptocurrency taxes, and the impact of ETFs on cryptocurrency.
While none of this is financial advice, the participants also discuss strategies for investing in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency cycles, and investment strategies. The intersection of AI and cryptocurrency is highlighted, emphasizing the potential synergy between the two technologies.
The episode concludes with a reflection on the future of crypto, expressing excitement about the ongoing developments in the field. The participants also briefly touch on the future of work, specifically the remote versus office debate, and the impact of cryptocurrency on traditional investment models.
Ep 9: Web3 for everyone ft. MJ & Greg. Simple English explanations for Money, Blockchain, Cryptography and how they all work together in cryptocurrencies & Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
On this episode, I speak to MJ and Greg on Twitter Spaces about the basics of money, blockchain, cryptography and how all that ties into Web3, cryptocurrencies and Non Fungible Tokens. I explain trust-less systems using a real estate transaction and cryptography using a basic shift 1 cypher with Greg's first name. We also talk a bit about The Imitation Game and Alan Turing's early role in cryptography.
Follow MJ on Twitter @virginfty and me @farezv (I don't think Greg is on Twitter).
For episodes straight in your inbox, sign up at farezv.com.
Twitter: @farezv
Instagram: @farezv
Linkedin: @farezv
TikTok: @farezv.com
Anchor.fm: @farezv
Ep 8: Week in Crypto/NFTs, The Merge, EZU 🤝 @MagicEden in NYC, PA, OpenSea stolen assets policy, "fake NFTs" etc.
In this episode my NFT friends Beni (@Benibachi_eth) and Raez (@RAEZARTBAR) join me and we chat the @EZU_XYZ (an NFT project) event with @MagicEden (an NFT marketplace, like @OpenSea & @Coinbase_NFT) in New York City, the next Ethereum upgrade called The Merge which is scheduled for September. Remember, Ethereum goes from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake with The Merge. We also chat about "fake" NFT platforms such as Veve.
Ep 7: Magic Eden on Ethereum, PA/EZU/Rebels, Slope Wallet hack, & AI generated art, feat. JB, Junior, iHeart, & NassyWeazy (CISO at a16z)
This week I’ve got a special 90 min long Twitter Spaces episode with a few of my NFT friends from the Psychedelics Anonymous and Rebels By Night communities including Rebels co-founder Nass aka @nassyweazy on Twitter.
Apart from being a Rebel by night, Nass is a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Andreessen Horowitz focusing on blockchain security efforts. He worked in a similar capacity at Facebook prior to a16z crypto. Be sure to listen till the end as he shares some insight into various crypto exploits that have occurred including the recent Solana seed phrase compromise caused by a Slope Wallet misconfiguration & the Ronin bridge attack that resulted in the loss of $625 million.
And big thanks to my friends JB, and Junior from the PA community for hopping on and discussing ETH vs SOL in light of Magic Eden’s announcement of launching their service on Ethereum, and finally giving OpenSea a run for its money.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this jam packed episode. Please subscribe at farezv.com for episode updates straight to your inbox or follow Farez.FM on your favorite podcasting platforms. Thank you for listening!
Ep 6: Crypto Winter is here. OpenSea lays off 20%. Uniswap on Robinhood. Coinbase's Market Share Drops. GameStop NFT Marketplace. Polygon to be a part of Disney's Accelerator program.
On today’s episode, we talk about the various factors affecting the crypto market, OpenSea and Coinbase layoffs, Robinhood expanding it's crypto offerings with Uniswap, Gamestop launching its own NFT marketplace and finally Disney's Web3 push with Polygon amongst others as partner companies to invest in AR/VR and blockchain tech. Follow me @farezv.
Full written transcript: https://www.farezv.com/p/ep6-opensea-coinbase-layoffs-disney-accelerator?sd=pf
Twitter: @farezv
Instagram: @farezv
Linkedin: @farezv
TikTok: @farezv.com
Anchor.fm: @farezv
Ep 5: What are Non Fungible Tokens and why are NFTs so disruptive? Also my NFT.NYC 2022 experience!
We’ll explore what Non Fungible Tokens are. NFTs have taken the world by a storm and are quite disruptive when applied to the right business models.
We understand fungibility, talk about the role NFTs could play in real estate, venture capital, authenticity certificates, event management, the recording industry as well as crypto NFT games such as Axie Infinity, Sandbox, Decentraland and more!
I also talk about my NFT NYC 2022 experience. It's like a Coachella for NFTs held in New York City every summer with events, parties, conference talks etc. I went to a few events for CryptoGoonz, Psychedelics Anonymous, Bubbleworld party at Mr. Purple where I saw Future perform and other typical touristy things like Statue of Liberty, Times Square and Central Park.
Ep 4: What are crypto wallets? Ledgers, Domain and Ethereum Name Service, Apple is a finance company, Roku and Netflix acquisition dance.
We explore crypto wallets and their two main types. We’ll talk about hardware wallets such as Ledger and software wallets such as MetaMask. We also chat about how websites resolve addresses, the secret sauce known as Domain Name Service (DNS) and it’s crypto equivalent, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).
Apple is now becoming a bank. Well, not really but close enough and Roku might be acquired by Netflix who is exploring some avenues to save its decreasing subscribe base.
Concept ExplanationA wallet, is a software, hardware, paper, or Crypto Exchange "store" where cryptocurrency is held. Wallets can have multiple crypto accounts associated with them. Wallets can be "hot" (meaning they’re connected to internet) or "cold" like hardware wallets. Cold wallets are not connected to any internet networks and thereby generally non-susceptible to hacks and scams. I say generally because there’s still basic security principles one must follow when using hardware crypto wallets.
MetaMask is one example of a software wallet which can run on a web browser as a plugin, or on mobile phones as an app.
Coinbase Wallet is yet another such wallet with a couple of additional features such as a human readable account name that’s most likely also associated with your Coinbase account underneath the hood.
Please note, this Coinbase Wallet human readable account name is something like @farezv, not farezv.ethwhich is an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain. More on ENS domains shortly.Crypto account addresses have gibberish looking alphanumeric value associated with them. For instance, this is one of my wallet addresses for Ethereum, it reads 0x1bF51ED6cD81dE4449D4Ca3c33822ECC5f3F66a4
Simple to remember right?
If you heard the previous episode, you’ll realize that a wallet address looks like the result of a hash function. In the world of blockchains, wallet addresses and transaction ids all look similar since they are results of hash functions. Different wallet tech has different features such as showing currencies and NFTs on the front end, but on the back end, underneath the hood, a wallet address is just a row on the blockchain database that holds a certain amount of crypto.
A crypto account address is a unique public address on the blockchain for that specific cryptocurrency. My Ethereum address is 0x1bF51ED6cD81dE4449D4Ca3c33822ECC5f3F66a4
Similarly, my Nano cryptocurrency account has a different address and it's nano_3pr9488qndzpaiibk4e9jwcmib5qqpc9wnh4pjjcsfopkahwrjgjeiwmd89p
Wallets have a 1:many relationship with crypto accounts. Meaning if you want to hold 2 crypto currencies, you need to have two different account addresses on that wallet. Crypto exchange accounts "abstract this away" by providing you a single account to see all your crypto from that you sign in using your email but underneath the hood manage all the different accounts for you.
By the way, as someone who works in the authentication space (aka, I work on login software at Discovery+), I can tell you that Web 3 companies using email to login is VERY Web2.
The future of authentication is wallets connected to decentralized apps, aka dApps.
Full transcript https://farezv.substack.com/p/ep4-crypto-hardware-wallets-ledger-dns-ens-apple
Ep 3: What is a blockchain? Layer 2s, DAOs, Binance.US in Idaho, & intravenous oxygen!
On today’s episode,
We understand how blockchains work, and their two basic types. We also talk about DAOs, aka Decentralized Autonomous Organizations and why they’re important.
Binance launches in Idaho, Solana goes down…again! And some tech news regarding Meta, Tesla & SpaceX.
For the full transcript, please read https://farezv.substack.com/p/farez-for-me-podcast-ep-3-what-is?s=w and subscribe to my newsletter to not miss any updates!
What is a Blockchain?If you've ever seen an accounting ledger, you're already halfway there in your understanding of what a blockchain is. In simple terms, it's a connected list of records. Imagine a growing list of digital records, resembling real a life ledger book, known as blocks that are connected using cryptography.
These blocks each have cryptographic signature associated with another block in the chain, a timestamp, and sometransaction data signifying the connectivity of the chain. This cryptographic signature is known as a hash, it's implemented in computer code and is essentially a one-way mathematical algorithm to obfuscate simple information into complex information.
For example, there may be a function f(x) such that if x = hello, f(x) meaning f(hello) may return some value that resembles 0x43a5fc78 (which is some made up gibberish). There's no way for someone who reads 0x43a5fc78 to decode it back to the original message hello. This one-way nature of these hashing algorithms or hash functions as they're commonly known, ensures secure obfuscation of data (in this example, the term "hello"). Applying this same concept to blockchains ensures that each chain of blocks is unchangeable (especially by malicious 3rd parties).
Here’s how it works, from the book Mastering Bitcoin.
Each block within the blockchain is identified by a hash, generated using the SHA256 cryptographic hash algorithm on the header of the block. Each block also references a previous block, known as the parent block, through the “previous block hash” field in the block header. In other words, each block contains the hash of its parent inside its own header. The sequence of hashes linking each block to its parent creates a chain going back all the way to the first block ever created, known as the genesis block.By the way, hashing is different from encryption. Encryption is two-way. Data obfuscated by encryption can be decrypted to be human readable again whereas hashing is a one way data obfuscation method.
Ep 2: Web 3, Decentralization & 3D printed ears!
We define Web 3 and decentralization and why they’re important for humanity. Coinbase makes some poor hiring choices, and there’s 3D printed ears made from human cells? Let’s get into it!
For the full transcript, please check out https://farezv.substack.com/p/farez-for-me-podcast-ep-2-web-3-decentralization?s=w.
What is Web 3?
But first we need to understand Web 1 and 2.
Web 1: The first form of the internet, called Web 1.0 was mostly static pages. Content that was informational, and meant to be read. Only serious organizations like governments and universities had websites. Its early life coincides with mine, roughly from 1991 to 2004. People only READ Web 1.
Web 2 started around 2004-5 to well now(ish). People not only read but helped create Web 2.0 with social media networks and content creation platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Twitch.tv for instance. People are now reading and WRITING to aka creating the internet in the Web2 space. But there’s a catch, they don’t own their content. The platforms do, if you read their terms and conditions carefully before you hastily register your account under some pseudonym you think is cool, you will realize they the website you’re posting your cat videos and ice bucket challenges on owns that content.
Let’s think real quick about how we own anything. We require a medium of exchange to trade for goods, usually the currency of the country or continent we reside in. But how do we own things on the internet? Using fiat currencies, such as dollars or rupees results in confusing exchange rate scenarios and these aren’t accepted worldwide. Granted there’s credit cards, but they’re incredibly inefficient. Why they’re inefficient requires a separate episode.
So we need more than just a read and write layer for the internet. We need an ownership layer. A financial layer.
Web 3: Enter the blockchain. This is the underlying infrastructure where you can cryptographically own things on the internet via monetary mediums like cryptocurrencies. Because ownership requires a secure barter system, the un-hackability of blockchains comes in handy via cryptography.
How are blockchains un-hackable?
There’s a lot more to it than we have time for in this episode, but think of a game of telephone. If you whisper something to person A, who then whispers the same to the person next to them, call them B and so on, all the way to the last person in the chain, you expect the last person to hear the same thing person A told person B in the first conversation.
In a real human game of telephone, people often mishear and mis-transcribe down the line.
In blockchains, cryptography ensures this message is always the same as it goes down the chain. This is because, in order for the last person to get the wrong message, the person before it has to, and the one before it and so on. This makes the data on the block-chain (the whispered message in this analogy) IMMUTABLE aka unchangeable.
We’ll go over how blockchains work later but regarding the un-hackability of blockchains, let us dispel myth about crypto scams.
Ep 1: Introduction - Why start Farez For Me?
I’m your host Farez Vadsaria. I’m @farezv on the internet. In this episode, I talk about my 1. PODCAST CONTENT FORMAT, try to answer 2. So why should you listen to my podcast? Give you an idea of 3. Who I am and most importantly 4. Why I started this podcast. For the full transcript, please check out my audio newsletter farezv.substack.com.