While in Istanbul, one of my first hostels since Kenya, I had the pleasure of meeting approximately seven fascinating people. Some would not like being recorded speaking their truths, others were too busy or simply chance conversations that happen in crowded, noisy bars or clubs of other chaotic cityscapes.
Here’s Mo-Morocco, a young Graphics Designer turned Crypto Trader and explorer, like many of the SEO and IT experts I met from Iran, Pakistan, and now Morocco.
I received invaluable advice from many such people.
While this is mostly info about XRP, ADA and other Tokens or Cryptos I am already familiar with, I feel sharing this young man’s journey – still in its infancy – may give insights to the kind of energies and excitement one encounters when traveling in the hosteling world.
July 16, 2022 Updates
According to “Yoko” – a local Bulgarian Investigting Financy Analyst I met at Bar Kubcheto:
“This is the main problem with XRP. They began with 55 billion and they simply said they’re making more. They are no different from the fiats of the US, when they do that.”
As Mohamed and I discussed a month ago, the beauty of many coins or tokens is their FINITE numbers.
When they simply decide to make more, it devalues those already in circulation, just like The US Mint printing more dollas-dollar Bills y’all!.
And let’s not forget the costly and useless penny?
“Yoko” also mentioned the lack of the initial Cryptos’ Designers foresight.
“They are coders. They needed a PR person or two with them from the beginning. Naming these “Cryptocurrencies” was a huge mistake. They should be called Digital Currencies, that’s what they are. By giving them this stupid name it scares people. Some see DEATH in ‘Crypt’ and other negative connotations. Others are confused by this futuristic name that doesn’t tell anyone what it is. Why begin this fantastic [movement] with some silly Coders’ Dungeons and Dragons name?”
Therefore, I will NOT be plunging more into XRP, as I’ve lost faith.
“Also, the way they handled the SEC was disappointing,” Yoko went on, but drinks were flowing indoors now, and my thirst for one overtook the other.
Sources
Proof of Authority
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjsaa0tJ8Cw
PoA is, what benefits and downsides it has, and if it can be used in a decentralized manner.
As this video states, POA is cheaper, less energy-draining, faster and 51% reductions of attacks and nodes are re-authenticated.
Downsides:
Centralization
Higher risk of corruption or manipulation
Notary Exam
Consensus Methods
and for a DEEP DIVE
Deep Dive into Proof of Authority – Hernando Castano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49MuSg8xYpM
FULL TRANSCRIPTIONS
[Mo] Hello, Do Epic Shiiiiiit! Welcome to Istanbul!
I’m sitting here with Muhamed from Morocco and I was just curious Muhamed, what brought you to Istanbul and specifically Sanat Hostel?
[Mo] We went through some hostels like I was talking with the people in my family and they helped me to choose. When we see Sanat Hostel, like we see that there is a lot of bars here. They told me that my made the music [might distract] you. I told them, ‘No, I think this is the best thing. I will meet a lot of people like.”
Excellent! So but you said your family saw there was a lot of bars here and they liked that or they didn’t like that?
[Mo] Yeah, it’s not the question about the bars like the drinking. Right.
[Mo] It’s about noses, like, all the noises.
Oh, so every night we have a bar next to us that plays Heavy Metal Music and it’s like, you know, my favorite music. It’s like AC/DC, and it’s like Def Leopard and it’s um DIO!!! Um, they’re playing this loud music, [and] they were worried about you not getting sleep or being…
Yes
…up all night?
Yes.
OK. And then across the street we have, obviously, uh Turkish music going all night and then we have people playing all sorts of other things.
[Mo] It’s everywhere, like, they have – there is music in Sanat. There’s music uh outside of Sanat Hostel from everywhere.
Of course, of course, so what helped your parents or you decide to actually come to this hostel? You said you could meet…
[Mo] I am the one who decide. Okay did – did you just trying to advise me.
OK. So what made you decide, in the end, to come here?
[Mo] I just feel like there is a lot of bars, they will be there, like a lot of people from my generation or people who I can have fun with.
I feel that I can make a new friendship here, because I heard about other hostels like there is not the like there is not the same the same thing I want. when I just come here to senate and meet Vila, a cool guy, he’s very nice and he’s a photographer.
Yes, he’s trying to learn photography and sharing his pictures… and then I meet Mohad and Samat.They are all Moroccans and there is another guy is a friend now, [he’s] from France; he’s originally [from] Algeria.
OK. Who is that?
[Mo] Amin, he’s in another another room.
Oh, he’s in another room, okay. So basically you’ve met like five or seven people from Morocco or from..
[Mo] Like seven, seven, five…six to seven people from Morocco, and a lot of other friends from another country.
Cool
[Mo] I met here man like the people who helped me and help them like we exchange the information and skills between us. Like I can tell you that Sanat Hostel was is the best the best experience to me here.
How long have you been here?
[Mo] Sanat? Now, it’s been 10 days. This is my last day.
This is your last day, so I happened to get lucky to ask you if you wanted to be interviewed – that’s awesome….
[Mo] I heard about the Pakistanis. There is like a famous Vlogger in Pakistan who came here and make a video from here for this hostel, then a lot of Pakistanis come to here. There is like uh i see here a lot of Moroccans and Pakistani you can say they also is a full of Pakistan and uh you will see a lot of Pakistani and Moroccans.
Yes, so many Moroccans and many Pakistani people here.
[Mo] Yes, I meet here a lot of days like i can i get her a lot of uh Pakistani friends. There is like Akel, he asked me – invited me to visit him Pakistan – and I received him to visit me Morocco, too. i’m thinking to visit to visit Pakistan to meet him and he is like a cool guy. There is Omar, a very nice guy. He left yesterday. So it’s very nice; I’m glad to to be here in this hostel.
Excellent. Is this your first time in a hostel?
[Mo] In Istanbul, yes.
Have you been in like lots of hostels in the past?
[Mo] I have been in a lot of hostels in Morocco. In Morocco uh yeah you will find like a lot of uh a lot of nationalities in the house in here i find like the there is not too much there is not too much nationalities locals yeah compared to Morocco.
Gotcha gotcha. So you said um about six months ago you were feeling like you had to make a change from your job in Morocco and so you decided to come here and and just um have some fun and explore some different opportunities. So what have you been doing or what have you learned since you’ve left Morocco?
[Mo] Since I leave Morocco, I started learning how to trade the how to like trade financial markets. I started learning trading and Cryptocurrency, especially I focus on trading analysis.
OK, so you’re doing trading analysis of the Cryptos?
[Mo] Crypto and like gold.
You said gold before.
[Mo] Gold, yes sometimes NASDAQ.
OK, so so we were talking downstairs about ADA, which is Cardona and um XRP of these and you guys both down there were saying, ” No, don’t buy now!” I said this is the perfect time to buy and you guys were like, “No, wait it’s gonna go down even lower so what is your take on this?
[Mo] All the market will go down more more and more because if you if you see like the conditions of the market now, they are all bad and they continue uh keeping very very bad very bad you understand?
Yes I understand and certainly I’ve been watching it for three years and then back in 2017 was the first time I invested with my brother and my nephew so yeah I’ve been in the Cryptos for six years – almost six years now. Yeah I get it, yeah.
[Mo] So you should wait. For me my opinion uh we should wait a little bit to buy.
Okay, I’ll listen to that because um um I – I’m ready to make a move soon and I definitely want to get more Cardona and I definitely want to get some XRP. In the united states of ‘Merica it’s illegal, through many um platforms, to buy XRP you have to go outside of the states.
[Mo] Yes, I heard that you can’t buy XRP in ‘Merica even that you can find like the volume of XRP is if er is high and XRP [is one] of the 10 most big Cryptocurrencies by the Market Cap even if it’s if it’s illegal in America.
….I have some friends that I met in Egypt and they’re from the United States and they have been living off of cryptocurrency for the last two and a half years now um and they have taught me how to buy Crypto and transfer through other other brokers outside. I met them in Egypt and so uh they’re going to be moving to Mexico and build a house there so so yeah there there’s a lot of opportunities um I’m going to wait to buy more uh XRP for sure.
[Mo] If you want to buy like there is an XRP have a certificate an ISO 20022.
…and then like Certificate of Banking – may that maybe the the banking will start adopting this certificate in this year.
Mohamed aside from um uh being a trader with Cryptocurrencies and learning those skills you’re also a trained Graphic Designer?
[Mo] Yes, yes I have like, this is Minecraft logo.
So basically you’re doing you said you started doing business cards for yourself and friends and then you made it more…
[Mo] Yes, this one I was doing it for myself then just in here I started buying my work to others.
You mean SELLING your work to others?
Yes.
OK, so what do you love more? Do you love um you said you were doing search SEO or um Search Engine Optimization um analysis you’re also doing the trading and your graphic designer – which of those three do you like doing the best?
[Mo] I love more trading.
Okay, exactly why?
[Mo] Because like I love [the rush] – I love taking taking risks like when you see like.. I love being afraid.
I understand, OK, yeah so you’re an Adrenaline Junkie. We call it Adrenaline Junkies; people who like to dive out of airplanes, they get that feeling of like, “I could die! I could die!”
[Mo] It’s like you are seeing your money [with] lows [increasing] losses and more losses and if you you are into a buy operation and you see the price still going down going down but you have strateg[ies]; like you have a plan. Price[s] go to the place you plan it to; the price will be there and then you and then you’ve been yeah there is there is like studies about XRP. Like I like how demeaning of exactly is they don’t have Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake they have something just the something just…
he was saying Proof-of-Authority yes yeah just for example the dmv they call the proof of authority like the the the ones who have power to mainly mean the tokens of not to consequence of xrp they are the founders so so you’re saying proof of authority for uh xrp is better because because like there is a number specific number of tokens the total supply i think one 1 billion 1 billion token uh 1 billion coin or 100 video i am not sure so basically there’s a finite number just like bitcoin there’s a finite number of these uh coins and uh and if every every every coin used in some transaction because exactly it’s come like to replace uh this wave system yeah if it took so it’s gonna replace the swift system yes in some transaction the transaction uh it will be burned and the different parts might another topic so so that’s more that’s better than proof-of-stake and proof-of-work yeah yes proof-of-work is like one of the first ones and then proof-of-stake replaces proof-of-work uh and then so you’re saying proof of authority is even better uh for me yes and the fertility like is just exactly uh the only token working by the proof of authority right and that’s what makes it so unique and that’s why my government does not want us to buy it because it scares the hell out of uh jp morgan’s and all the big companies of the world it or the united states it scares the hell out of him because the xrp could come in and be much more powerful than any fiat currency that’s like they just want to use the opportunity because it’s opportunity opportunity for things like assist a system will come and make the transactions like going fast and cheaper very cheaper more than like it’s better than swift of course yeah of course and that’s why it’s going to replace um western union it’s going to replace a lot of these other many money sending organizations even banks credit cards you won’t need the credit card because you can just on your phone boom boom boom and and shift money from my account to your account and i pay for the graphic designs that i’m buying from you i pay for the ceo i’m sorry the seo uh data analysis from my website or whatever so i can optimize my titles i can optimize my placing in google searches and whatnot so cool yes mohamed this has been ataking risks like when you see…I love being afraid. I understand okay yeah so you’re
I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. I’m glad to
meet you here in hostel and I am glad to meet
like friends like you here and might be
one of my friends. Thank you. A lot of friends
I meet here. Thank you, and that’s what
you’re saying before was one of the big reasons
why you chose this hostel; you met a bunch
of people from Morocco, from Pakistan from,
Iran from all over the world and that’s
one of the best things about hostelling
I think yeah? Because this is the culture of
hosteling. That’s the cultural hostels, yes.Thank
you very much, and just remind our audience
one more time to do Do Epic Shiiiiiit!
Do Epic Shit 