Deyner´s Notes!

Investing, Cryptocurrencies, Prediction Markets, Old Photography, Weird History, Funny Stories...and MORE!

Everyone who follows me here at Coil knows i am an appasionate of old and vintage photographs and i have dedicated several articles covering rare and unusual photos. But this time i want to start a series of articles covering those people who were behind scenes, taking those amazing photos we can see nowaday using old techniques that seems ridiculous to us right now but in those days were amazing techniques and quite complicated to handle and to learn.

This series of articles is dedicated to those forgotten photographers. Thanks to their incredible work we can see today scenes from the past and we can amaze thinking on how exciting it would have been to live those past days when everything was simpler and began to rediscover the very foundations of humanity itself...photography was there to get it all covered!!!

What a better start for this series than dedicating the very first article to the father of the very first photography practical process: Louis Daguerre...does this name seems familiar to you? ;)

Louis Daguerre: from painting to photography

His real name was Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and he was born in 1784 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France. He grew up in a middle-class family in a royalist environment despite the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Fig 1. Daguerreotype of Daguerre por Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot (1844)

Due to political upheaval during and after the Revolution, young Louis’ formal education was very inconsistent. He did, however, show a talent for drawing, and at 13 became apprenticed to an architect. Those teachings, however, were of great value for his second occupation: 3 years of apprentice with the famous and talented stage and theater designer, Degoti. And a little later, we can find him as main assistant to the most prominent stage designer in Paris of the time, Prevost. He spend those years studing and practicing scene painting for the opera wich gave him basic and advanced ideas on how to paint realistic scenes. This would be very important in the next steps Daguerre would take in his life from year 1820 onwards.

We must say too, before continue, Daguerre was a second-row painter in Paris in the first half of the 19th century. One of his most spectacular creations was the painting of the Mass of the Rooster in Saint-Etienne-du Mont, for the realism of his perspective: the play of lights crossed an imaginary stained glass window until reaching the altar; that feeling of being in front of the real space was so great that the spectators, placed at an approximate distance of seven meters, came to throw objects thinking that they would cross that space; but, surprisingly, they collided with skillfully painted fabrics. :)

Fig 2. The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel(1824) – Daguerre was well known for his realistic paitings.

The invention of the Diorama

Louis Daguerre will go down in history for inventing the Diorama, at the very beginning of 1820's.

The Diorama was an installation that provides a sense of depth to the images. This invention aroused the attention of the Parisian public in a show that consisted of creating the illusion to the spectator that he was in another place through huge images, that could be moved and that were combined with a play of lights and sounds, etc. , to make it appear that the viewer was in situations like a battle, a storm, etc.

For all this to be credible, the paintings had to be very realistic and for this reason, Daguerre was interested in applying the principle of the Camera Obscura to the Diorama.

Fig 3. Diorama by Louis Daguerre, currently being restored, central panel, Bry-sur-Marne, France

This invention was not really “his invention”. Scenic designers such as Philippe-Jacques Loutherbourg (1740-1812) with his “Eidophusikon” or Franz Niklas König (1765-1832) with his “Diaphanorama” had proved that getting movement with light effects on realistically painted fabrics was possible. Daguerre's merit is that he knew how to see the wishes of an audience that was already beginning to claim shows like that, and he successfully added transparencies, sound effects, embossed elements and other effects to his representations, taking them on a much larger scale than any of the representations seen before.

The representations at huge theaters with capacities for more than 300 spectators were a huge success wich leads into a more stable financial situation for Daguerre wich focused into make his representations even bigger and more realistic. But after a decade of financial and critical success, Daguerre lapsed into bankruptcy from 1832 to 1835. Dioramas were costly to produce, and a cholera outbreak in Paris at the time had crippled ticket sales. He ran into more bad luck in 1839, when his own theater burned down.

As a businessman who perseveres, Daguerre did not get carried away by discouragement and while his Diorama business was in decline he decided to partner with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who four years earlier had produced the world’s first permanent photograph, hoping to incorporate this invention into his Dioramas.

After Niépce’s death in 1833, Daguerre’s experiments with chemicals and silver plates yielded the Daguerreotype process, which he patented in 1839.

The Daguerreotype: his greatest achievement

Daguerreotypes were the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of photography. Each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate and in contrast to photographic paper, a daguerreotype is not flexible and is rather heavy.

The daguerreotype is accurate, detailed and sharp. It has a mirror-like surface and is very fragile. Since the metal plate is extremely vulnerable, most daguerreotypes are presented in a special housing: like a picture in its frame.

Fig 4. L’Atelier de l'artiste(“The artist's studio”): a daguerreotype of 1837, made by Daguerre

Daguerre discovered the proccess of fixing an image to a plaque almost by accident in 1835 trying to perfec Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's image fixation method when in an oversight he placed a plaque that had been exposed inside a cabinet, later discovering that the image had been fixed, thanks to a process of revealing, produced by Mercury’s fumes: had been born the daguerreotype process!

Daguerre used, in obtaining fixed images, silver copper plates, which he subjected to treatments of Yodo vapours, which after being exposed were subjected to mercury vapours in order to reveal the image, which was finally fixed with salt and salt water warm, perfecting the Niépce method, and reducing the fixation time to twenty minutes instead of two hours needed by Niépce's method.

Fig 5. View of the Palais Royal in Paris, 1839 by Daguerre.

From the moment of its birth, photography had a dual character—as a medium of artistic expression and as a powerful scientific tool—and Daguerre promoted his invention on both fronts.

First photos(or plates) were still-life compositions of plaster casts after antique sculpture, but being a bussiness man he knows that his invention could also be used to obtain commercial benefits in other facets of life regarding commercial use over artistic one, so he also photographed an arrangement of shells and fossils days before daguerreotypes were first shown to the Académie des Sciences, trying not only to present but to sell his invention as a scientific tool.

Fig 6. Shells and Fossils by Daguerre, 1839

He photograped too iconic places of Paris like this Notre Dame Cathedral daguerreotype.

Fig 7. Notre Damme du Paris by Daguerre – 1838

...and this one represents a view from Paris, more exactly the view of 17th Street of the Paris of that time.

Fig 8. A view of Paris from 17th Street by Daguerre

...being the following image the original plaque of the daguerreotype shown above:

Fig 9. Original daguerreotype of the “View of Paris from 17th Street” by Daguerre

As people started to realize the power of this invention quickly, 500,000 daguerreotypes were made in the city of Paris in a year and Daguerre, helped by his brother-in-law, brought the camera called “Daguerrotype” to the market with the manuals being translated into several important languages in order to export them to other parts of the world.

“Daguerrotype” cameras and the invention itself attracted everyone, but only a few were really interested at all. Although Daguerre made little money from his eponymous method trying to market it for himself, the French Government paid him an annual pension for publicly releasing it: the goverment paid an annual pension of 6,000 francs for Daguerre and another 4,000 francs for the son of Joseph Niépce, with the aim of making the invention available to the public, which allowed the use of the daguerreotype to spread throughout Europe and the United States .

In 1840 he retired from public life, returning to his first trade: the painting of dioramas, this time contracted by the churches of Bry-sur-Marne. Finally, on 10 July 1851, at the age of 63, Louise Daguerre died.

Conclusions

There are controversial versions on how Daguerre stole the credits for being the inventor of the photography to his partner Niépce. The truth is Niépce invented the process on how to make an image to appear into a copper or silver plaque but Daguerre perfected this process and his main discovery was that he was the first one to achieve the fixing of that image into that plaque reducing the exposure time to get better images.

There are no doubts that Daguerre was one of the pioneers in photography world and his inventions and discoveries lead future generation into perfectioning those process to what we know today as “real photography”. As a fair recognition to Daguerre's works and discoveries when the Eiffel Tower was built in the late 1880s, Daguerre’s name was inscribed on its base next to those of 71 other influential French scientists and inventors.

Today, just over 25 Daguerre's daguerreotypes survive, for the sake of humanity.

Final thoughts...by now...

This is the 1st part of a series of articles dedicated to ancient photographs. Many more series regarding vintage photos who immortalized weird and amazing things and their photographers are coming...just follow me to ensure don't miss even one of the articles that will be published.

So if you are an enthusiast of historical photograph and amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

Photos were taken from:

* Wikimedia Commons

* https://www.pinterest.es/RazvanP_69/)

* http://archives.evergreen.edu

* https://www.arquine.com/

-———-For subscribed members only!!!!————

Daguerre is also known for taking the first photo of a living person in the world at Boulevard du Temple in 1839. And here it is, in all its glory, just for my beloved subscribers friends:

Read more...

Maybe you have read the firts part of this series of articles dedicated to weird and rare sports which have been inmortalized in vintage photographs...if not, you should do it, so you can amaze on how weird can people become regarding the sports world back in the beginning of past century.

And is that, as we go back in time, we can see amazing, rare and almost unbelievable types of sports that were practiced those days and today we can only see in amazing, rare and almost unbelievable too vintage photographs...Those sports are disappeared now, so looking at the photographs we can only imagine those moments and asking ourselves if, given the human nature and fashion trends to return we will be able to see, one day, those weirds sports once again come to real life.

1- Horse Long and High Jumping

Fig 1. Dominique Gardères, winner of the Horse High Jump competition in Paris 1900 Olympic Games.

Yes, as weird as it can sound for the very first time(and the only one) there was a competition of Horse High and Long Jumping in the Olympics Games... it happened back in 1900.

Equestrian sport made its first Olympic appearance in an era when horses were still very much an essential mode of transport. The competitions took place over three days in the arena at Place de Breteuil, in the very heart of the French capital.

Fig 2. A competitor at Olympic Games(Paris, 1900) trying to long jump with his horse this water tank.

High jump competition was won by a horse named “Oreste” and his french rider(Dominique Gardères, as you can see in the photo #1). They cleared a bar 1.85m off the ground to get the golden medal

Long jum competition was won by a Belgian army officer named Constant van Langhendonck, riding his mare “Extra Dry”, the couple were the only competitor to go clear at 6.10m, to secure the top prize.

2- Aerial Golf

Fig 3. One woman takes aim with her golf club after landing for a round of aerial golf after she dropped the ball from the air.

The invention of the airplane in 1903 brought new opportunities to combine technology and sport, with the pastime of aerial golf taking off in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The game was in large part played by the upper class who could afford it. It involved flying over a hole and dropping a golf ball from the airplane high above the ground. The plane would then land on the course near the ball and a normal game of golf would take place.

But once the novelty had word off, the price and impracticality of the game caused it to quickly die out...exciting and boring at the same time :)

3- Cockfight

Fig 4. Union soldiers gather around to watch a cockfight in Virginia during the American Civil War between 1862 and 1865

The “sport” of cock-fighting traveled from Britain to the US in the 1700s, where it soon became a favorite in local bars and taverns. Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were rumored to be advocates of the sport, but the brutal pastime was officially made illegal across the United States when Louisiana became the final state to outlaw it in 2007.

This sport was played mostly in rural areas but was seen in cities too, where it was used to be played in special places built for that purpose. In many countries is illegal this “type” of brutal sport where animals fight between them sometimes till death, but the nature of this “sport” lends itself to play to bet on the winner, so the ease to play it and the promise of a good profit, makes it still played in many countries even being out of law....a shame :(

4- Live Pigeon Shooting

Fig 5. Australia’s Donald MacIntosh won a bronze medal in 1900 by killing 18 birds(here we see him prepared by the moment when the pigeons are released)

Shooting has long been a staple at the Olympics, with the sport appearing in the first modern Olympics in 1896. While competitors typically shot at disc-shaped targets called clay pigeons, the 1900 Games in Paris went with livelier targets – real pigeons. Live birds were held and released, as athletes took aim at the moving targets. Reportedly more than 300 birds were killed in the event.

Fig 6. Leon de Lunden of Belgium, the “winner” of live pigeon shooting at Paris Olympics in 1900.

The winner was Leon de Lunden of Belgium, who bagged 21 of the 300 birds that were released to the gun-toting competitors. Perhaps the sight of all those gory feathers fluttering down from the Olympic sky was too horrible for the audience and the organizers; the event never returned...hopefully for pigeons and why not, for us too.

Final thoughts...by now...

This is the 2nd part(and final part too) of a series of two articles i have published this month about rare sports in vintage photos. But if you are concerned about the finishing of this series of articles...do not worry at all !!! Many more series regarding vintage photos who immortalized weird and amazing things are coming...just follow me to ensure don't miss even one of the articles that will be published.

So if you are an enthusiast of historical photograph and amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

Photos were taken from:

* The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

* Rockingham Free Public Library

* MediaDrumWorld

* TopTrendSports

For subscribed members only!!!! ...a popular and competitive sport in middle ages played by the upper class mainly: bloody and intriguing at the same time. Famous for highlighting the animal cruelty with which the wealthy classes treated animals in by that time.(If PETA had existed it would have had a lot of work in court!!!)

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It maybe sounds quite rare but there is some pleasure into applying past knowledge to nowadays situations to obtain results in a future. It's almost as if we rediscover old things to give it new uses....so yes, there is certain placer into applying this.

And we ask ourselves nowaday how people who lived 500 or 600 years before actual date discovered “things” that are so useful for nowadays events. And the point here is that some people from the past were smart and visionary...that's a fact...

Leonardo Pisano was one of those smart and visionary minds of the past wich discoveries in the field of mathematics still amaze us today. And if i tell you “Leonardo Pisano” maybe you could ask yourself who the heck is that guy i am telling about, but if i told you that this man was also known as “Fibonacci” or “Leonardo Fibonacci” then you will know immediately who I am talking about...so let's make a little history.

Leonardo Pisano(Fibonacci)

Leonardo Pisano was an italian mathematician who lived at the end of XII century and the beginnigs of the XIII. He was considered to be “the most talented Western mathematician of the Middle Ages”.

Fig 1. Leonardo Pisano(Image taken from Wikipedia)

In his moment of greatest splendor he wrote his peak work entitled Liber abaci (1202; “Book of the Abacus”), the first European work on Indian and Arabian mathematics. He introduced the so-called “modus Indorum” (method of the Indians), today known as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The book advocated numeration with the digits 0–9 and place value. This book showed the practical use and value of the new Hindu-Arabic numeral system by applying the numerals to several aspects of the daily life but mainly commercial bookkeeping and trading...He will change the way the Western people saw the mathematics...forever!!!

Fibonacci Sequence

In his “Liber Abaci” Fibonacci posed and solved a problem involving the growth of a population of rabbits based on idealized assumptions describing the growth of the population as a sequence of numbers today known as “Fibonacci Sequence” where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers.

Fig 2. Fibonacci sequence example

This sequence was known by indian mathematicias from early VI century but it was Fibonacci who introduce this series of numbers in Western mathematics by the beginning of XIII century.

This sequence hides a strange surprise...and it is that if we take any two successive (one after the other) Fibonacci numbers, their ratio is very close to the Golden Ratio “φ” which is approximately 1.618034... In fact, the bigger the pair of Fibonacci numbers are, the closer the approximation.

Fig 3. Table representing the “Golden Ratio” in Fibonacci sequence.

Golden Ratio is, as you can see, a mathematical ratio. It is commonly found in nature, and when used in a design, it fosters organic and natural-looking compositions that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

It can be found in nature but Golden Ratio can be found too in several aspects of real life like:

1- Our Bodies: The ratio of the distance from the top of our head to our belly button to the distance of our belly button to the floor is in Golden Ratio.

2- Flowers: Take a closer look at a sunflower the next time you see one. It is said that these flowers grow in the Fibonacci Sequence number (I will explain this next). The reason is so that they get the maximum exposure to sun light.

3- Architecture: A lot of historical buildings were built using the golden ratio. The Parthenon and Great Mosque of Kairouan are some examples.

4- Paintings: The sacrament of the last supper by Salvador Dali, Mona Lisa and illustrations of polyhedral by Leonardo da Vinci were all said to exhibit the usage of the golden ratio.

Fig 4. Example of the Golden Ratio applied to nature.

So we have Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio derived from are applied to several aspects of real life and then, a question came to our traders minds: could be possible to find a use case of Fibonacci Sequence and Golden Ratio in trading too?

..the answer is simple: YES!!!

Fibonacci & the Golden Ratio in Trading

As an investor or trader, you’ve probably heard of this indicator called the Fibonacci Retracement. Many trading strategies have been developed using Fibonacci thru the years. From stocks market to cryptocurrency markets a huge number of trading strategies use Fibonacci elements to enter or exit in the desire position in a trend.

If you are a Technical Analyst, Fibonacci is probably your good friend. The Fibonacci levels that are used within institutional trading are 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, and 100%. However, the Fibonacci levels more commonly used in cryptocurrency trading is 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, and 100%. The 50% level is not a Fibonacci level per say, but stems from Dow Theory’s assertion that averages often retrace half of their prior movement. Nonetheless, these are levels that you’ll find the most support and resistance around.

Fibonacci retracements levels are, by definition, areas on a chart that indicate areas of support and resistance having in count the price; for Fibonacci Retracements this areas are limited by horizontal lines. In order to create these levels, you’ll need to draw a trend line between the lowest and highest price of a particular trading cycle.

Fig 5. Here you can see some Fibonacci Levels(XRP/BTC Graphic from Coinbase Exchange data)

In the above graphic you can see an uptrend identified in April/2019, then choosing the tool of Fibonacci Retracements in your prefered charting solution(TradingView, GoCharting, ...) you can draw the Fibonacci levels as shown. Soon you will be aware that there are support and resistance areas where price “retraces” once it reaches the limit. This points at the graphics where candle chart almost touch the lines defined by Fibonacci levels are points of inflection wich traders commonly use to enter or exit a given trade position(buying low – selling high)

Fig 6. You can see places when you could have triggered short or long trades(XRP/BTC Graphic from Coinbase Exchange data)

From the above chart you can see 61.8%(Golden Ratio) level acting as a support level for the price.

Support levels are levels where the price tends to not fall below for period of time. An asset's support level is created by buyers entering the market whenever the asset dips to a lower price.(you can buy here)

Resistance levels are the point on a price chart at which an upward price trajectory is impeded by an overwhelming inclination to sell the asset. If a market price is nearing a resistance level, a trader may opt to close their position and take the profit, rather than risk the price falling back.(you can sell here)

Why are this levels important in trading?

This levels are psychological barriers that tend to repeatedly show up within the financial markets, time and time again. As stated before they are called inflection points where traders tend to anticipate a bounce or break off a resistance or support.

Another interesting aspect to Fibonacci levels are, the fact that the more people that use them, the more accurate they become. This tends to fall under the “self-fulfilling prophecy” paradigm.

The most important Fibonacci level, as you might’ve guessed, is the 61.8% level. This is a critical level where sellers tend to give up bargain-hunting and a potential mass buying frenzy will ensue.

You can use Fibonacci Retracement Levels even to predict future prices for not only cryptocurrencies but for stocks too. Looking at the periods of price fluctuations together with the level at which price candles are approaching, a very experienced trader would be able to guess in what percentage the price of some value can vary, up or down for the next few days or weeks.

You need to have in count this tool is not completely accurate so the best thing to do is to combine this awesome tool with other indicators in trading strategies and if this indicators tend to overlap with the results of the Fibonacci Retracement Levels, this generally means that there is a fortified support and resistance to be expected.

Conclusion

As you can see we can apply old techniques to nowadays problems. It is really amazing how techniques developed hundres of years ago can be applied today and we can realize that they actually work making life easier for some of us :)

This is a reminder to all of us that we need to know about history, our own history as humans beings. Sometimes we look answers in the present to solve problems for the future and sometimes we are not aware that answers were given already in the past...just we need to look back and marvel at the things that humanity has already achieved...no need to reinvent the wheel!!!

Saying good bye...for now!!

So if you are an enthusiast of investment and crypto world and you love amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

Is my guess that everyone here at Coil knows what a micropayment is because the whole Coil ecosystem is build on this feature. If you do not know what a micropayment is or you know it but want to go deeper in micropayments knowledge...then this article is for you!

Micropayments?

The word by its own explains itself, but let's go to Wikipedia to get a more accurate concept of what a micropayment is:

A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money and usually one that occurs online.

So, if we understand well, this kind of payment is plain and simple a small digital payment. :)

The term was coined by Ted Nelson even before the World Wide Web was invented and from mid-to-late 1990's a significant amount of micropayments systems were proposed an developed by huge tech companies such as IBM and Compaq. They both started developing their own micropayment platform in 1999 in anticipation of the eventual use of micropayments for internet transactions.

Unfortunately, almost all this first wave of micropayments system were unsuccessful; then, starting 2010's, a second generation of micropayment systems emerged...these are the systems wich, evolving on time, we have today.

Why micropayments?...I want examples!

According to Capgemini from the World Payments Report 2019, global digital payment volumes are projected to rise by an average of 14% through to 2022, reaching around 1046 billion transactions.

When a digital payment is processed via a single centralized ledger, such as bank to bank in a person’s home country, the transaction is generally fast and cheap. However, when it involves more than one ledger, across different countries, currencies, and banking platforms, the process can be slow, inefficient....and expensive.

Fig 1. When a payment is sent from bank to bank the process is simple, fast and cheap.

Slow, inefficient and EXPENSIVE you said?... this is where Blockcahin world comes into play regarding payments systems. By using blockchain payment services to get access to services and goods, every transaction is executed faster in a very efficient way and in some cases, the fees to pay go down to almost zero. Several blockchains have their own system to allow payments and execute transactions over their network.

Tha main differences are in speed and fees to pay to make a digital transaction. Let's take the below chart as an example regarding Top3 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization:

As we can see from the above chart Ripple has the fastest and cheaper transaction features among three, while Bitcoin has heavy fees and slow transaction speeds.

No matter the case this options are somehow more affordable and feasable than common transaction services and the advent of Lightning Network in the case of Bitcoin, Rayden Network for Ethereum and Interledger Micropayments change the way a consumer is able to get access to what he needs and pay for it in a fairer way, both for consumer and supplier.

In recent years changing trends have happened in consumer behaviour regarding publishing world. The down of traditional publishing revenue systems and the ease of making micropayments has caused editors and publishers leave those systems and have started to look at micropayments services trying to integrate it in the services they provide.

Micropayments could be one of the most disruptive technologies of all, especially for publishing sector allowing content creators to collect a fixed amount of money for the access on every piece of content created by them and exposed to the public.

Coil it is a clear example of the power of micropayments in publishing sector: you are charged a fixed amount of money on a monthly basis and Web Monetized websites owners affiliated with Coil earn an amount of money every time a Coil subscriber visits their sites, site owners(or inside Coil bloguers like me) can even offer special content to subscribed visitors...so you, as a content creator, can earn by your work while maintain your site or blog free from annoying traditional publicity...You earn, Coil earn, subscribers get quality content for a plain fee while your site shines in simplicity and still remains eye catching due to lacking of “bad” publicity...it's a win-win situation!!!!

Fig 2. Coil pays the creator while subscribers read the Web Monetized content (*Image taken from Coil's website)

There are several examples of the use of micropayments in publishing sector, Coil is one of them and it is really great but we have more examples...you wanna know?...keep reading and reach the end of this article ;)

Only for publishing sector?

As you read through this article you may think micropayments are only applicable to publishing sector...and if you think like this, you could not be farther from the truth.

Fig 3. Micropayments are a reality of our days, a tool to improve life making things easier, allowing to reach goals, not only services and goods.

Use cases go beyond monetize content creation. Micropayments could also rewrite the rules of work and corporate organization, allowing contractors or employees to be paid income streams in real time for every second of work that they log.

Allowing tiny payments opens the door to new logistic and economic systems. In manufacturing, for instance, factory owners may rent equipment and pay for usage according to specific parameters.

Due to micropayments enable data monetization, then businesses and individuals can be paid for sharing valuable details with third parties. Among the first steps toward that direction is Jaguar Land Rover’s aim to integrate Iota into its vehicles and compensate drivers for sharing information like traffic or road conditions.

Micro donations for charity are other of the areas where micropayments are proven to be accurate. We have a clear example on St. Jude tip bot campaign thru Twitter and other social media. The goal is to raise a total of $1 million worth of XRP for the research hospital: the idea here is the more XRP is collected and the quicker the price goes up, the shorter that goal is.

Some blockchain enthusiasts believe that a functioning micropayment system could fundamentally alter the internet’s power structures and hand a censorship-resistant technology back to users so blockchain micropayments could offer a way for people to actually pay for privacy on the internet.

Some people think that crowdfunding proccess for startups will be more easy if the process were backed of by micropayments so a huge number of people could contribute with tiny amounts of money to get the desired total amount the startups needs.

As you can see the reach and use cases of micropayments are really wide going beyond publishing sector although this is the sector for which it all began.

Saying good bye...for now!!

This is the first part of a series of two articles regarding micropayments system on blockchains. Soon i will release the second part wich will be dealing on how micropayments could help people and companies in emerging countries to succedd.

So if you are an enthusiast of investment and crypto world and you love amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

A little gift for subscribed members only ;)

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I ask my readers for their permission today to publish an article that is not related to the usual things to which I am already accustomed. It's, by now, a solely article of its kind in my blog...but not for being kind unique here is lesser than others i've already published...it is simply different.

Be DAD....WHAT????

Who could imagine such news? She was almost 6 weeks pregnant by then and couldn't even believe it!!! The news took me in bad mood: that day had been a nightmare till that unique and amazing moment...my mood suddenly change... :)

Tears, laughs and hugs...i put my hand into her belly where a tiny “egg” was brewing, asking myself for the first time if “it” was going to be a boy or a girl.

“No matter if it is gonna be boy or girl” – i said to my wife ”...will love it no matter what....”

The fact was i was very happy. I think nothing prepares you to receive such a news but from the very moment you got this info processed by your brain, is like been in heaven and you don't know you are precisely there.

”...news like this are amazing and shocking to the heart!”

Then you start asking yourself questions like:

“Am i prepared to be a dad?”

“What could possibly need my wife in her gestation period?”

“How many visits to the doctor?”

“Will be he/she prepared to be my son/daughter” (what?...really crazy!)

Then you realize your house maybe needs a retouch in order to make it more cozy to the upcoming baby and start preparing in your mind the budget you will need to face this “situation”...Thousands of ideas come to your mind in that moment and finally after a short period of digesting ideas and thinking about it, you realize the truth behind the news:

Your life as you know it has just ended ... in a good way :)

A new day has arrived...
Well, here we are after 9 months of a patient and dedicated waiting. In that time every care we tooked was not enough to assure mother and baby's health...but finally here we are, and it is the most awaited moment but the most scary one....

And the thing is that fears invades us even if we try to stay calm saying deeper in our heads that everything is gonna be alright. That very moment....the most important one is the scariest: **giving birth...
**

”...the wait becomes interminable”

Then, after hours waiting for some news, sweating and eating nails, finally a hopeful voice rises in the other side of the room you are and gives you the best notice of the year:

...congratulations father, everything was fine, they both are ok....!!!

...aaaand...you're DAD!!! :)

You feel your body relax, no more sweating, no more eating nails. A feeling of peace runs through your whole body then, before running to the bedrom where your growth family is, you realize you have now another thing to live for...

With safe steps you walk into the room, then smile....yes everything was fine!!!

Happy days...crazy nights

A new life has started and you wanna no missing a single moment to be with your newborn. The feeling is great: you're dad now and have a bunch of responsabilities... and you can add to your social profile in every social media you have the words: “loving dad” :) ...quite good!!

The thing is you really have several responsabilities now. And that remembers me a famous phrase that states:

With great power comes great responsibility

...and is very true. The Spider Man's uncle was not wrong....

You have a “power” now...The power of being dad and that comes with a great responsability indeed: you are responsible for your child, for dressing him, for feeding him, for education, for his behaviour....a real Super Hero task!!!

One of the main concerns of new parents is night time because is well known babies are active most part of the days but nights, well, they are like Batman: they love the darkness indeed.

The days as parents passes with high activity level because the child as the mother requires high attention to their needs and you play here several roles, but the role of a supplier is the most needed of all. The day is passing and then comes the night(mighty night), that is the moment you think you will have to have a rest from the daily struggle...but it isn't....

Night is a very important part of the day regarding baby's care because the night is tricky and a newborn baby needs your cares even from night even on early morning too.

“Night is peaceful but tricky...your baby needs you even now...so no rest for you :)”

The days are a piece of cake compared with nights because all day's accumulated fatigue you wanna eliminate it at night..but you can't. Your baby doesn't rest more than a couple of hours and from time to time your wife needs to wake up to feed the baby and you, well, you can't hit an eye all night worried about the baby's well-being (I'm so sleepy...)

*“Who doesn't know this position called the -*H of Hell-”

Image from ww.howtobeadad.com

The time passes and is morning now...so you wake up(or rewake up by 23rd time now) and all started again...but wait you need to go to work....Damn!!!

Working dad...cool dad...

Now has come the time when your baby is a little grown: he crawls and he is even trying to take his first steps, cute baby steps.. :)

You are a working dad and every day training for at least a year have converted you into a super daddy by now. Nights have become more quiet and bearables for you and for all in the family. Your child recognizes you as his daddy and even if you do not know he is waiting for you to become a “cool daddy”...the child always know...

Been a working dad and a cooler one is not always an easy thing.

”...we dads need to work too”

Since the first day when you receive the notice your wife was expecting a baby you try to get used to the idea a baby is a

“time consuming thing” ...and it is for sure. You need(and should and want to) spend time in home, with baby and your wife but life is life and as anyone else in the world you need to go to work in order to get the necessary things you need for a living, to provide your baby and your wife with the best things the money can pay for and you can afford to.

Everyone knows that going to work is at least something very stressful more if you have a baby and your job is plenty of problems in a daily basis. Your life is a cycle that repeats every day...one day after another with almost exactly the same routine: baby night...wake up...go to work...return from work...baby night...and so on. It can be really stressful for a non mentally prepared working daddy.

The good news is you are plenty of time to prepare yourself for when this time comes...and you must do it because otherwise maybe you turn a bit crazy at all and becomes into a dad none wants to have. Your wife's help is very welcome at this stage of the life because is she who passes the most part of the time attending baby, so is she who knows better the baby's needs.

You need to rebalance your daily routines trying to find a way to be a nice worker and a cool daddy, after all that what society and your baby expects from you.

”...your son expects you to become a cool daddy. Don't let him down”

As said before: be both types of father is not quite easy as could be imagined before, but you must do it...Going to work is a must, is something needed by you and your family but be a nice and cool dad is a must too because is what your child is expecting from you.

Sometimes is hard to hold both positions, especially when you have had a bad day at work and return home trying to find some peace, a peace that if you are smart enough you can achieve just by being cool with your childs. They can be annoying sometimes but if you know how to seize the moment...that moment will bring you peace and will disconnect you from the problems at work fast enough.

As you can see be a working dad and a cool one is not easier but it is a thing that can be done just you need to love your kids a lot, you need to feel you in a true father's skin and get a rebalancing done between work tasks and home ones.

Saying good bye...for now!!

This article is dedicated to all fathers, especially to new ones that, like me, have find in our childs an escape way to our daily work problems.

But it is especially dedicated to my son Félix Ernesto, the little thing in my life wich makes me a better person than i was before he comes to my life to fill it with more happiness(*)

And remember: every time you spend with your childs is not a wasting of time... it is fuel for your life and happiness for your son...so be a cool dad, be his Spiderman, be his hero...sooner or later you will be rewarded with a bunch of kisses and a rainbow of hugs: i can't image a better way to live our lives.

And finally...

If you are an enthusiast of investment and crypto world, if you love amazing discoveries and want to know more about the maddness on raising a child do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

The Blockchain...what a journey since Bitcoin inception!!!

Bitcoin and the concept of its blockchain were first introduced in the fall of 2008 as a whitepaper and later released as open-source software in 2009. Almost everyone in crypto world(and even outside this world too) knows that Blockchain was invented by a person (or group of people) using the -now famous- name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency named Bitcoin.

Blockchain is considered a type of payment rail.

Since Bitcoin creation thousands of new cryptocurrencies and tokens have appeared on the Internet to operate as digital currencies with blockchain ecosystems designed to solve specific problems for people around the world.

As any other “industry” different categories were created to try to distinguish different types of coins.

Cryptos like Bitcoin(BTC) and Litecoin(LTC) are designed primary to act like everyday spending currencies(as you do with your FIAT money on a daily basis). Then we have tokens wich are divided into two main categories: **Security and Utility.

**...but first let's see the differences between a coin and a token:

“A COIN (including altcoins) is a form of digital money created through encryption techniques which store value. They are tied to a public blockchain, may be sent, received or mined, and do not perform any functions beyond acting as money.”...the we have the tokens:

TOKENS are digital assets, issued by a blockchain-based project, which can be used as a payment method inside of its ecosystem, performing similar functions with coins. However, the main difference is that it also gives the holder a right to participate in the network.The following graph shows better the relationship between them:

* Image taken from masterthecrypto Website

And finally Tokens are divided into two main categories: Security and Utility...and here we are, we've reached the “token thing” we are gonna talk about in this funny article. Let's go to bussiness....

What is a security?

In a traditional sense, securities can represent an ownership position in a publicly-traded corporation, a creditor relationship with a governmental body/corporation, or rights to ownership as represented by an option.

Securities are broadly categorized into:

1- Debt securities (e.g., banknotes, bonds and debentures)

2- Equity securities (e.g., common stocks)

3- Derivatives (e.g., forwards, futures, options, and swaps).

For the holder, a security represents an investment as an owner, creditor or rights to ownership on which the person hopes to gain profit.

Years ago evidence of ownership was a written piece of paper. But as all things in life, this process has been improving till today where we can find this kind of “ownership right” to be a computer file...amazing, isn't?

What is a Security Token?

A security token is a tokenized, digital form of these traditional securities(yes...those we were talking in previous section!...good bye old and friendly paper!!!)

Security tokens are the most recent invention in the crypto space. They are considered by many to be the key to cryptocurrencies achieving mainstream adoption, due to their focus on tokenizing digital and non-digital assets, which makes them useful for almost any industry or application...so many people consider security tokens as the BOOM! into cryptocurrencies adoption worldwide...nice! :)

By definition a crypto token that passes the Howey Test (check the info on provided link to know what this test is about) is deemed a security token. These usually derive their value from an external, tradable asset. Because the tokens are deemed as security, they are subject to federal securities and regulations.

In simpler terms, a token is classified as security when there is an expectation of profit from the effort of others. And please read carefully: “profit” not “steal” :)

Having Security Tokens in your hands is like having a paper signed contrat granting you ownership of shares of a given company...but in steroids!!

Taken as an investment contract Security Tokens represents legal ownership (as recognized by the SEC) of a physical or digital asset that has been verified on the blockchain(yeah...our old and dear blockchain, thanks Satoshi Nakamoto!). Investors can exchange fiat money or cryptocurrencies for security tokens via a smart contract.

Well known Security tokesn examples are:

1- tZero(distributed ledger platform and cryptocurrency launched by Overstock)

2- Polymath(global platform for issuing and investing in securities tokens, has its own token – POLY)

3- Blockestate(digital asset management platform that enables easy investment and portfolio diversification)

...plain and simple!!...hope you got it!!!

What is an Utility Token?

Utility tokens as their name suggests are tokens that have utility on the blockchain or DApp.

Utility tokens are often used as the underlying fuel for accessing the features of a blockchain or DApp. And sometimes utility tokens are used to pre-sell exclusive access rights of a particular DApp to the utility token buyers.

* Image taken from hk-lawyers.org

Having Utility Tokens is like having tickets for a baseball match entitles you to enter the visitor’s arena on the field.

So having these utility tokens/digital representations gives you entitlement for various things on a particular blockchain for which you are holding the tokens.

That’s why utility tokens are solely for utility and are not an investment vehicle(like Security Tokens are), but many utility token issuers and even buyers have taken them otherwise.

The most well known Utility Token in the market is, no doubt, Ether(ETH), but we have some genuine utility tokesn less know but quite useful like Siacoin (Sia), FileCoin(FIL), Civic(CVC) and Neblio (NEBL)

...plain and simple too...do you got it??

Utility vs Security?

Now a fine table summarizing all of this:

* Image taken from blockgeeks.com

Advantages...disadvantages...i don't know??

Clearly each one of them have advantages and disadvantages but at the end each one of them is designed with different purpose in mind.

Utility tokens serve as a tool for driving human behavior using incentives within a blockchain ecosystem. Since they help in building an internal economy within the system, some companies wich not have clear business models for a clear initiative, can construct their own ecosystems, produce their own ‘money’, and use this money to incentivize people who participates into.

Then these utility tokens can be traded for Bitcoin, XRP or ETH, or any other kind of crypto, which can be exchanged for fiat currency, making them equally as valuable as any form of fiat money.

So the company wich has no clear bussiness model becomes as valuable as anyone else out there, otherwise would likely have to operate as a non-profit because the revenue and bussiness model was not clearly established, so no investor comes in...facts of our days!!!

The problems with Utility Tokens are clearly SCAMMERS...(i hate those guys!!).

Many companies have good intentions when they launch tokens and raise funding through ICOs. However, there has also been many scammers that present themselves as value-driven companies, but ultimately only seek to raise as much money as possible, then exit without building the product they promised to develop leaving you with one hand in a can and another in a sign that reads: “please...one satoshi for a living...” Boom, if you get into those scammers hands and put all your savings in there, you will go back to the ages of faucets!!

By the other hand Security Tokens are safer...among the advantages they have lets note 4 of them:

Eliminates many scams: security tokens eliminate most scams in the crypto space. Security tokens are inherently a more trustworthy investment because companies that release them have to go through significantly more regulatory hurdles before they can be accessible to the public.(main advantage to me!!!)

Dividend payouts: yep!...you receive quarterly dividends paid out of the profits made from the assets they own...here is your wage mate!!!

Access to multiple asset classes: they offer access to any kind of company, product, fund, or structure that produces value. So you can obtain or give value to “anything you want”...nice!!

Access to liquidity for traditionally illiquid assets: by investing in a security token that represents an ownership stake in a house, you can sell the token much faster and receive the funds almost instantly.

Access to a global network of investors: by launching a Security Token Offering (STO), startup founders or any type of creator will get access to a global pool of investors without having to launch a blockchain based business.

...this are the advantages but what about the disadvantages...there HAS to be someone, isn't it??...yes, as all things in life, everything is not black and white:

Legal requirements: Securities are legally classified by the SEC under the ‘Howey Test’. (not easy to go through!)

Note: These requirements can be incredibly costly and time consuming for any business.

Restricted investor base: not everyone can “invest”...Under current US regulations, security tokens may only be available to accredited investors (i.e., investors with a $1million net worth, or $200k in annual income).

Which one is better?

...do your own math mate!...both are quite good, both are profitable, both have pros and cons but Security Tokens are the future as i see...the entry point to mass adoption of cryptocurrencies in real world: investors, users, companies...a real mess that will become more secure and organized because of Security Tokens...and investment, a secure investment for a future!!!

...but if you prefer to invest into Utility Tokens, no problem, just be sure what are you doing, and do that well...don't be that guy with a can and a sign later!!!

Saying good bye...for now!!

So if you are an enthusiast of investment and crypto world and you love amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

A little gift for subscribed members only ;)

Read more...

Everyone knows sports is not a thing of our days, even is not a thing of past days. Sports have been with us for a long time since mankind even knew that some things they usually do in a day...were effectively a kind of sport.

When we talk about sports we think always in great and amazing events like Olympics Games, FIFA World Cup, World Athletics Championships, The Diamond League of Athletics, NFL Cup....wich represents for the crowd the choicest of sports today(football, athletics, baseball, and the list is going on.....) But there are some kind of sports played years ago that attract a huge amount of fans and admirers and i am sure if those times where those sports were played would have been TV and Internet times...those sports would have had their own show(and would have been very successsfull indeed!!!)

...here you have some sports played in past century which i am sure that you would have been a fan of for sure!!

1- Motorcycle Chariot Racing(1920-1930's)

Fig 1. A Chariot with his “Charioteer” in racing field in 1922.

We may think that we may have seen everything that racing as an extremely entertaining sport has to offer today. Well…..not quite. We are yet to see a sort of racing sport which is yet to gain popularity now but which was extremely popular during the 1920s and 1930s. That sport was Motorcycle Chariot Racing.

It was a popular sport in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and some parts of Europe if we believe in writings of that time and some handwritten notes left behind in those photos reversal.

Fig 2. A writing dated in 1938 regarding Motorcylce Chariot Race.

As you can see it was really an extreme sport since you cannot have full control of motorcycle with a couple of flanges.

According to Popular Mechanics magazine: “these chariots were made from wine barrels for sporting in 1922 with automobile wheels attached to them with motorcycles in front and “Charioteers” wearing roman era inspired costumes with motorbike riders in front who drove them during the race.”

...and in fact, this sport remember us the antique Roman horse race in Coliseum from which this kind of rare sport was inspired by.

Fig 3. A “Charioteer” with a costume inspired by ancient romans

Innitially the chariot was attached to a single motorcycle but as the sport evolved, more than one motorcycle was attached to the chariot sometimes counting with 4 or 5 motorcycles attached(can't imagine speed and out of control all at the same time :) )

Sadly not much is known about this sport today, although there are still some motor cycle chariots racing enthusiasts who are trying to keep it alive.

2- Auto Polo

Fig. 4 Auto polo match in the 1910s at Hilltop Park in New York.

Automobile polo or auto polo was a motorsport invented in the United States with rules and equipment similar to equestrian polo but using automobiles instead of horses. It was a very popular sport in USA and several areas in Europe from 1911 until the late 1920s. But as big was its popularity, big were the problems attached to it since there was high probability of death or injuries to the participants and spectators, and expensive damage to vehicles.

Fig. 5 Auto polo match in Toronto City, Canada, 1910.

Wikipedia state that the official inventor of auto polo is purported to be Ralph “Pappy” Hankinson, a Ford automobile dealer from Topeka who devised the sport as a publicity stunt in 1911 to sell Model T cars(smart guy!!)

As a sport was regulated and had a set of rules regarding some things like the security of competitors and equipment to be used.

Internationally, auto polo was regarded with skepticism and caution. In 1912, the British motoring publication The Auto described the new sport as “very impressive” and a “lunatic game” that the writers hoped would not become popular in Britain.

Fig. 6 Auto polo match in 1915...as you can see sometimes players were heavily injured.

It was an expensive sport due to the price of the vehicles in that time and the fact that the vehicles and the players can suffer serious damage, though death by playing auto polo were extremely rare.

The sport waned in popularity during the late 1920s, mostly due to the high cost of replacing vehicles, but did have a brief resurgence in the Midwestern United States after World War II.

3- Rubber bullets duel

Fig 7 . A duelist with a .44 calibre French dueling pistol

In the early 1900s, the age-old custom of pistol dueling was briefly resurrected as a non-lethal sport by using wax bullets.

This kind of real rare sport was not lethal though could be realy painful depending on the place were the wax bullet hits the target.

Wax bullet duels appear to have first emerged in France, and in the early 1900s, a “School of Dueling” was established in Paris.

As a curiosity we can say that a version of this sport was even featured as a demonstration event at the 1908 London Summer Olympics, in addition to its inclusion at international pistol and revolver championships...but happily it was not succedded as to include it in real Olimpycs Games :)

Fig 8. Two opponents face off during a rubber-bullet duel in New York, 1909.

The wax bullets used could reach easily a speed of up to 450 feet per second (140 m/s) wich is more then enough to create serious bruise on the skin of any duelist but hopefully...not death.

Fig 9. The modified .44 caliber blackpowder pistols used in a 1909 exhibition.

This sport loose its popularity by the beggining of 1930's when other kind of sports gained in popularity and the “fun” of seeing two persons shoot each other without being death was not so fun at all...(...yes, human soul is darker sometimes :( )

4- Octopus-wrestling

Fig 10. Octopus-wrestling was a popular sport for some 20 years, but it was a dangerous one.

From 1949 to the mid-1960s, the unconventional sport of octopus wrestling ran rampant across the United States. Thousands of people would turn out to the seaside to wait with bated breath as a diver trudged into the ocean to fight dangerous cephalopods.

This kind of rare sport wich was quite popular among US citizens(as expectators in most cases) was considered yeasr later as cruel and totally inhumane way of entertaining. Just several decades ago, the bizarre spectacle was a reality and it could even attract up to 5,000 spectators.

The sport was taken so seriously that in the 1960s, a World Octopus Wrestling Championship was held yearly in Puget Sound, Washington.

Fig 11. A diver fights with an octopus in a contest.

The bizarre sport appears for the firs time in Eastern Coast of USA and slowly gained popularity across the entire country, reaching the West Coast by the beggining of 1960.

According to TheVintageNews “the sport involved a team of divers who would descend into the water at depths up to 60 feet, where they would encounter the octopus in its den. The teams consisted of two or three men who would struggle to get free of the tentacles of the animal and drag the octopus to the surface.”

Fig 12. A diver surfaces with an octopus after an underwater wrestling match.

After the competition, the prize octopi were eaten, released, or sent to some Aquarium.

The sport’s popularity faded by the mid-1960s, when people slowly lost interest in octopus wrestling perhaps because they became aware of the brutality with which these animals were treated.

Final thoughts...by now...

This is the 1st part of a series of articles i will be publishing this month about rare sports in vintage photos.

So if you are an enthusiast of historical photograph and amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!

Photos were taken from:

* The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

* TheVintageNews

* MediaDrumWorld

When people say “Berlin Wall” a single image come to our minds: a crowd of people divided by a wall under the watchful eyes of soldiers armed with rifles, the sadness reflected in people's faces, childs crying....

And isn't for less: during the 28 years Berlin Wall was standing from 1961 to 1989, millions of people get divided not only by a rock solid wall full of barbed wires and soldiers but for an insane solid politics ideas of a few. Entire families were turned apart...even children gets their parents lost...a shame....

Fig 1. Berlin position in a Germany divided by Allies

Fig 2. Berlin Allied Sectors.

For those who doesn't know what was the Berlin Wall(and i think almost every one knows it about) here are some facts about it:

1- Built from 1961 the original request made by East Germany to Soviet Union in order to build a wall dated from 1953.

2- Was standing for 28 years.

3- More than 100 people died trying to cross it. (At least 138 people were shot dead, suffered fatal accidents or committed suicide after failed escape attempts across the Berlin Wall.)

4- More than 5,000 escaped by going over and under the Berlin Wall.

5- Was nearly 12 feet high and approximately 27 miles long, with 302 guard towers and 55,000 anti-personnel explosive devices (landmines) and 3,000 attack dogs.

...finally(and for everyone's luck) on November 9th, 1989 it was announced in a radio broadcast that the border between East and West Germany would be opened for “private trips abroad”. Thousands of people heard the broadcast and congregated at the checkpoints demanding to be let through. The border guards had been given no instructions regarding the opening of the border but faced with such huge numbers of people decided to let them pass. In the following days people began using chisels and pick axes to physically destroy the wall...that was the END!!!

There are no doubts this is a sad story with a predictable ending because as the old saying prays:

There is no harm that lasts 100 years... and no body that resists it.

Luckily for us by the time the wall was being built, photograph was a common thing, so we can count with thousands of photographs of that time. There are some photos sadder than others, or more representative of what was the experience lived by the Berliners with the wall, but the truth is this historial event leave us with very remarkable photographs with the subsequent story behind them....here you have most remarkable ones(...according to ME!!)

#1 Conrad Schumann defects to West Berlin, 1961

Conrad Schumann was immortalized in this photograph as he leapt across the barricade that would become the Berlin Wall. The photo was called “The Leap into Freedom”. It became an iconic image of the Cold War. The image shown above belong to a 19-year-old(by that time) photographer Peter Leibing.

...and here we have Conrad Schumann 20 years after his escape standing before the iconic photo

On 20 June 1998, aged 56, suffering from depression, he committed suicide, hanging himself in his orchard near the town of Kipfenberg in Upper Bavaria. “Once a deserter, always a deserter”...he said...another more victim of Berlin Wall.

#2 Four-year-old Michael Finder of East Germany is tossed by his father into a net held by firemen across the border in West Berlin, 1961

This “maddening” photo was taken from the booklet “A City Torn Apart: Building of the Berlin Wall”. Here you can see four-year-old Michael Finder of East Germany been tossed by his father into a net held by residents and firemen across the border in West Berlin. The father, Willy Finder, then prepares to make the jump himself. Apparently, Communism gives people to do really crazy things...

#3 Residents of West Berlin show children to their grandparents who reside on the Eastern side, 1961

The Wall not only divided buildings, streets, subway lines, bus lines, tramlines, canals and rivers but families too. Here you can see a photo where a couple of parents are showing children to their grandparents who resided in the Eastern side. They were only allowed to visit each other during the Christmas season by 1963 (Passierscheinregelung). Similar very limited arrangements were made in 1964, 1965 and 1966...meanwhile...this was the kind of “visit” they have.

#4 The standoff at Checkpoint Charlie: Soviet tanks facing American tanks, 1961

In October 1961, border disputes led to a standoff and for 16 hours the world was at the brink of war while Soviet and American tanks faced each other just 300 feet (100 meters) apart. This is an iconic photo wich appears in many diaries by that time. An interesting fact is that the sign on the right only has German as the fourth language down the list, and in a smaller font than the others. Until the erection of the Berlin Wall, the differences between the sectors of Berlin didn’t matter much to German citizens. In the early years of the Cold War, they could travel freely throughout the city. For this reason, the information about the sector borders was printed in the languages of the occupying armies, and not the residents.

#5 East German soldier helps a little boy sneak across the Berlin Wall, 1961

This is a photograph of an East German soldier helping a little boy cross the newly erected Berlin Wall the day it was built. In the very beggining of the Wall many people was left behind in the chaos of people fleeing and families caught on different sides of the border.

About the boy we can say that according to Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, one of the boy’s parents, his father, was with the boy in West Germany visiting relatives while the rest of the boy’s family was at home in the East. The prohibition against crossing sectors did occur overnight thus separating this family. The father believed that the boy should grow up with his mother, so he had the boy walk to the fence where this soldier lifted him across.

About the soldier just must say it was reported that the soldier was caught doing this benevolent deed by his superior officer, who removed the soldier from his unit and whoever took this photo left a description saying: “...no one knows what became of him”.

BONUS...

The Wall was a place visited many times by many foreign personalities and here we a couple of them...

#6 Dr. Martin Luther King visiting the Wall

The visit came about after West Berlin’s Mayor Willy Brandt invited King to participate in a memorial ceremony for President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated the year prior, less than six months after his own famous visit there. King also received an invitation to speak in East Berlin from Heinrich Grüber, who had been a pastor at a church there and a prisoner in a concentration camp for three years during World War II for openly criticizing the Nazi Party...he accepted both invitations.

#7 President John F. Kennedy visiting the Wall

In the summer of 1963, President Kennedy visited Berlin and was greeted by ecstatic crowds who showered his entourage with flowers, rice, and torn paper. In the Rudolph Wilde Platz, Kennedy gave one of his most memorable speeches to a rapt audience from wich is remembered the phrase: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”). It is widely regarded as the best-known speech of the Cold War and the most famous anti-communist speech ever made.

No other American politician had met with such joy and enthusiasm on a visit to Germany. Shortly after President Kennedy's death in November of 1963, the square where he had made his famous speech was renamed the John F. Kennedy Platz.

Final thoughts

The Berlin Wall has been taken, for many years, as a symbol of hate, separation, sadness and political intransigence dividing not only a city but a country, families and friends. Since its collapse, German development has been superior in every way, showing the world that unity is strength and that everything that is built by force ... will end by force no matter how many years or lives it takes.

Do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 and get a Coil subscription to support good and amazing content exclusively for you!!!

It all started with a request and its respective answer:

..then i realized Coil(at least for a while) will not be using Telegram to get in touch with users, instead they will be using Discourse because as Mr. Sharafian pointed “it creates a more searchable knowledge base” ...but he said too: “Nothing stopping the community from making a Telegram though”, so i took his words as an invite to make the very first(and unofficial) Coil Telegram Cummunity!!!

What is Discourse?

First thing first....I think Telegram is wide known and it is one of the most used instant messaging app around the whole world. Just to you have an idea what i am talking about here are some Telegram facts:

  • Founded in 2013 by two russian developers.
  • More than 200 000 000 users using their services
  • More than 12 billion of messages sent every day
  • More than 220 000 new users sign up every day
  • 700 000 000 of photos shared every day

Telegram has everything a strong instant messaging app needs to have, but it adds new and unique features what gives it a superior level: Secret Chats(privacy and security are quite important things for Telegram and one of the most recognized features it has), share different file types up to 1.5 Gb, Two-Factor Authentication, Instant View, Multi Device access, Bots, Super Groups and Public Channels, gives the possibility to Edit messages sent and offer a way to send Payments accros the world.

While Telegram is quite known Discourse is lesser known. And the fact in here is both are used for different things but if you want to start a community to discuss, share and express your thoughs about almost everything both serve the same purpose but with different point of view...so what is Discourse?

According to Discourse website, they define themselves as: “A 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, long-form chat room, and more!”

...they stated that they are: ”...an attempt to reimagine what a modern Internet discussion forum should be today, in a world of ubiquitous smartphones, tablets, Facebook, and Twitter.”

If you need to know a little more how Discourse works and what are its features i invite you to go to their website an take an eye to their features: https://www.discourse.org/features

So as you can see, we can use Discourse to build a strong community from the ground having a forum, a mailing list and even a chat room where we can share new ideas and express ourselves, creating in the whole process a searchable database with all the knowledge acquired as time passes...GREAT!!

I think Mr. Sharafian and Coil hit the point choosing Discourse to build a community dealing with Coil's users and allowing us to as for new features, making new request or even make a complaint!!! :)

But i think Telegram offers its benefits too when we speak of building a community around a project.

Telegram communities(or groups) are easier to reach, and they get your attention even if don’t want them too (new messages will bump the group higher in the chat list) and you can have several groups open in your app: it takes only one click to switch between them.

Telegram groups now support up to 200,000 members(may increase in future) and Telegram apps provide a huge number of tools to help groups admins to do their job well done and even they offer an API developers can use to develop their own bots to help manage groups too, and all that for FREE...that's awesome!!!

Having this in mind and been a strong believer in Coil and XRP's future and thinking that in order to meet user requests, something very sophisticated is not required i am happy to announce the very first Coil's Telegram Community Group!!

First i want to express my thanks to Mr. Sharafian because of attend all my requests and questions via Twitter and to Coil for giving us access to this amazing project, that if it is true that it is missing a lot, it is really great and I think it is the future(it is in Beta yet, come on, give us a break!!!)

This Group is not backed up in no ways by Coil or anyone belonging to Coil's team...it is a lonely venture with no more courage than allows us(Coil's users) to get in touch in a very simple way: share our feelings and express ourselves the faster way to let others know what we think, or need.

Anyone could have brought to life a Telegram group regarding Coil's users(even Coil but they choose Discourse, and that's great) but this time it was me who decided to give the first step.

The group is public, wide open and i am configure it right now. I am the owner and the main admin(there could be others as time goes by) and i have a bot helping me with admin tasks i need to automate.

There will be some rules applied for proper functioning of Community but the main one is the Golden Rule wich stands for “Never be disrespectful with others...you are responsible for everything you say”

This group is not intended for attract you more visits to your posts, so if you think you will use the group as a source of “clicks”, you're in the wrong way and perhaps you'll be banned for that.

The logo i must say is my own invention(as not allowed to use Coil's logo). As i am a software developer, crypto lover and old, rare and historical photograph enthusiat but not a designer i do my best to make a logo that looks well(I think I didn't make it after all...), perhaps teh logo will change in the future when a nice and disinterested designer join us and been aware of the “disaster” makes a better logo for this community.

I plan to allow XRP tipping in the community. As you may know there are several Telegram communities allowing tipping and rewarding great ideas posted in...but for now if you enter there will be no tipping, at least from me....but it is on the roadmap!!!

Mr. Sharafian(wich i guess is not a Telegram fan) promises us to join us at the community and while he is a very busy man he promises trying to answer the questions we made as far as possible for him.

This is an ongoing work yet but i am glad to invite you all to join us at: https://t.me/Coil_Community and express yourself!!!

Do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 and get a Coil subscription to support good and amazing content exclusively for you!!!

When we speak about Social Media our minds always think about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other big projects all over the Internet, but nowadays, with the power of blockchain and crypto currencies some other big players have entered into the world of Social Media Apps initially dominated by centralized apps.

Blockchain-Based Social Media Networks are not so newer as we may think. In a recent past a handful of them arose giving the first impression to all Internet community of how we can achieve the same goals of using a centralized app but instead using blockchain based app(or Dapps).

Apps like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter(just to mention three of the biggest) have full access to user information and they’re willing to give it out to make stockholders happy. So, in essence, you give your info, you use the app, connect with family and friends, share info and the owners of the app sell your info and receives dividends for the info you gave him for free. That's why your newsfeeds are loaded with ads that are actually relevant to your needs and desires...

The problem here is privacy, as centralized apps have full access to users information and this info can be easily exploited and that’s more like having zero privacy and data security...but with Dapps...it is a completely different thing: you have your privacy and your data in a secure zone, they provide strong end-to-end encryption to all info loaded into “the cloud”, they boast digital currencies that can be used to process in-platform transactions and even more: you can earn crypto by using them...they’re the perfect alternative to traditional platforms you’ve been using all these years, don't you think?

Right now there are tens of Social Blockchain based community projects but in this article i will be referencing one of the ones I think is the best: QunQun App.

QunQun defines itself as:

”...a completely new incentive community platform based on blockchain technology. On QunQun, users can easily create their own theme community without encoding and deploying, and obtain extra tokens from the reward pool through operating it or submitting contents to the communities.”

They stated that:

“QunQun platform provides an innovative Social Community. Like an autonomous “Twitter”, each community is independent of each other. Members in the community can perform dynamic release and follow with each other. All dynamic release of members can be collected on the in-site public Timeline channel in community.”

How QunQun works...?

In QunQun App users can create their theme community and get tokens from the reward pool by operation or submitting content to the community. The members of each independent community can follow each other, like others content, comment, transmit, and forward interesting content just like on other social media accounts such as Twitter. Users can join the community by registering on their mobile phones. Each user will be given a unique digital identity and a digital wallet.

In QunQun almost every thing you do grants you a reward: sign in daily, check posts, share with friends, play a game...etc.

The heart of QunQun is community. They known their communities as “QUNs”(a community is a Qun) and these Qun are the reason of to be. The Qun belongs to the creator, the ownership is recorded in the blockchain and always belongs to the creator. Till today they have 32,551 Quns covering a lot of topics from cryptocurrencies and earning ways to photograph and politics.

Users’ contributions to the social ecology will be rewarded with QUN tokens. Users can use it to create Quns, consume, reward, buy Quns, serve ads, etc, and even trade them inside the same app because QunQun offers an internal exchange where you can trade your tokens and even the community you've created...amazing isn't!!!

Inside app you can find a myriads of ways to earn Qun tokens included daily rewards by doing simple activities.

The app is very well designed and the interface is clear with nice color combination and a good layout. It runs faster in medium-fast Internet connections but it is kind of slow and buggy in low ones. There are two versions of App: one for Android platform and another one for IOS, but they have a website where you can see and explore the whole QunQun ecosystem(https://web.qunqun.mobi)

The QunQun Token

The token referred to as QUN is the only payment mechanism that can be used on the QunQun platform. The token will also be used to purchase communities and will be the only from incentives given to the community contributors and creators of high-quality content. QUN tokens will also be used for the purchase of paid content and third-party applications. Users can also use the tokens to purchase virtual games and goods on the platform. Advertisers can further pay for their advertisement on the Qun Qun platform using the token.

According to https://digitalcoinprice.com QUN token is ranked in 361 place with a value of $0.0115676 USD or 0.00000111 BTC(August/2019 price) per QUN

Price prediction for QUN token are positive according same website, so they stated that QUN is profitable investment based on their own forecast.

...so as an investment for the future i think it will be wise if you take advantage of QunQun App to share knowledge, learn, have fun and earn some good and nice Qun!!

Final Thoughts

Centralized Social media platforms have failed to provide users a secure and reliable system in the recent past, and this led to a vacuum that is now being filled by decentralized networks. These networks are secure and solely based on the concept of freedom and control being held by the user. QunQun appart there are several Social Networks working over blockchain tecnologies but there is no doubt QunQun is unique and an amazing project to use and follow.

So, what are you waiting for. Sign up here: QunQun App Sign Up and you can use my invitation code(X7Q9JF) to get your first QUN reward!!

So if you are an enthusiast of crypto world and amazing discoveries do not forget to follow me at https://coil.com/u/deyner1984 because i will be releasing soon new and impressive contents about it!!!

...and if you valuate our work and want to support good and amazing content exclusively for you, do not forget to get a Coil subscription....it is a small fee to get great content for you and learn a lot!!!