The Catalyst Network

  What is behind the recent surge in the price of Bitcoin? Throughout most of its history, speculative interest has driven the bitcoin price. It has shown features of a bubble as its price has spiked outrageously within a short space of time and a craze of media following.  In the latest developments, a sustained increase in bitcoin price has seen it rise by over 300% in the last year. This is the third in a cycle of peaks of the cryptocurrency since 2013. Unlike a stock or bond, it is hard to determine the bitcoin price.   Is Bitcoin Fiat? Fiat has value because parties exchanging it agree on its value. Bitcoin is fiat in the sense that it was brought about by Satoshi Nakamoto . It derives its value from the willingness of a community to use it.  According to Satoshi, the original intent for bitcoin is about eliminating trusted intermediaries and establishing a decentralized network with no single points of failure.  What bitcoin is not Although Bitcoin ha...

                                                            5 Economic Reports That Affect the Euro Trading euro-based currency pairs require being up to speed on events that have an impact on the euro, which is no small feat for foreign exchange traders. At present, the euro is the currency adopted by 19 of the 27 member countries that make up the European Union. These are collectively called the eurozone. As of 2020, the collective GDP of the Eurozone is $18.2 trillion. There are several economic reports that come out of the eurozone annually relevant to the forex market. How does one identify the economic reports that would affect markets? The European Union is comprised of 27 members. However, only a few are large enough to generate economic reports that move the needle when it comes to currency. The euro...

  What you need to Know to Protect Yourself from Phishing    Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to get sensitive information or data by disguising oneself as a trusted friend or acquaintance in electronic communication. Phishing is a cyberattack that uses disguised email as a weapon. The goal is to trick the email receiver into believing that the message is something they want or need — a request from their bank, for instance, or a note from someone in their company, and to click a link or download an attachment. Typically, the attackers look for information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details,  Phishing is an old attack method. It has been around since the mid-1990s. By analogy with the sport of angling, these Internet scammers were using e-mail lures, setting out hooks to "fish" for passwords and financial data from the "sea" of Internet users. When an offer is attention-grabbing, eye-catching, and too good to be true, you need to take precautions....

    How A Podcast Saved My life I was listening to an episode of an HBR IdeaCast where ShannonHuffman Polson spoke about her time in the military. She overcame many obstacles to fly U.S. Army attack helicopters. She remembered what her father told her “If you were to clean for 25cents, earn every cent.” She then mentioned the technique that saved my life. It was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese inventor and industrialist, the technique became an integral part of the Lean philosophy . The method became popular in the 1970s and is still in use till today. They have used the technique to get to the root of production failures in the production plant.   This technique has been added to a group of ideas that is called Lean philosophy. The technique is called The 5 Whys Technique . The 5 whys technique implies that when you encounter a problem, dig deeper into the investigation. Ask Why five times instead of once. What this does is that it helps you to get to...

  The 5 Whys Technique – Getting to the Root of Problems   Have you ever had a challenge that would not just go away? Maybe you notice it at first and tried to ignore it. At last the discomfort it caused made you to tackle it headlong and try to find a solution. The solution seemed to work as you had some respite. Then unexpectedly, the problem resurfaces!! What could be responsible for problems resurfacing after they have been supposedly addressed? Why do some disagreements persist after mediation has been attempted several? Why are there cold wars that develop into full-fledged confrontation? Could it be that the problem was never really addressed? Could it be that the resolutions attempted provided only a superficial treatment? The 5 why’s technique is Toyota’s method of getting to the root cause of tough, persistent problems. The method is one of the methods of lean manufacturing. It was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese inventor and industrialist, the te...

  The Lean Startup in A Nutshell   Are startups smaller versions of large companies? No. Large companies have tools to manage strategy, operations, organizational theory, and so on. Startups don’t. They need a different set of tools. According to the book, a startup is a faith-based organization. You believe in your idea. But there are no facts. So, what is a startup to do? Part 1: Go outside the building and meet with customers. Get some feedback. Gather facts. (The book calls this the Customer Development Process ). Part 2: Have something to show customers, no matter how simple the version. Products are built incrementally. Take an incremented version of the product, improving it in stages. (The book calls this Agile Engineering ). Part 3: What is the startup taking outside the building? What should they be testing? They need information and to make decisions about- Who are the customers? How does the startup create and sustain demand so as to continue to ge...