Saturday, December 24, 2022

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the Earth. Break forth in song, rejoice and sing praises.

Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and sound of a psalm

With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King......



Balancing Talent and Character:

The debate between talent and character often centers around the idea that character can compensate for a lack of talent, and vice versa. Here are a few considerations:

Talent with Character: When a person possesses both talent and a strong character, they have the potential for exceptional success. Their innate abilities provide a foundation, while their character traits drive them to continually improve and act ethically.

Character Developing Talent: In cases where an individual lacks natural talent in a particular area, their character traits can help them compensate. Through hard work, perseverance, and a willingness to learn, they can develop skills and expertise over time.

Context Matters: The relative importance of talent and character can vary depending on the context. In some fields, such as sports or the arts, talent may be more immediately noticeable. In others, like academia or business, character attributes such as discipline, integrity, and teamwork may take precedence.

In conclusion, the debate between talent and character is not an either-or proposition. Both have their place in personal and professional development. Talent provides a foundation, while character traits like determination, resilience, and ethics determine how effectively that talent is leveraged. Ultimately, the balance between talent and character can vary greatly from person to person and situation to situation.

Have a Fun Holiday and a Happy New Year.

May the Joy, Peace and Love of the Season Remain in your Home


Sunday, November 27, 2022

Your Robot ID


Until you understand the writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding........(Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1817)



Your ID is Yours, even as you move from provider to provider. Your ID protocol should be web scalable with a mechanism for a marketplace ranking systems where the service providers can choose.

What happens when an AI is able to discover new hacks against these general systems?

What happens when AIs find loopholes, or loopholes in financial regulations?

A “Hack” is something a system permits but is unanticipated and unwanted by its designers. It’s subversion, or exploitation.

It’s unplanned: a mistake in the system’s design or coding 

 We have systems in place to deal with these sorts of hacks, but they were invented when hackers were human and reflect the human pace of hack discovery. They simply would be overwhelmed with AI finding hundreds, of loopholes in financial regulations. 

What happens if AI hacks Your ID, persona bots (These are chatbots on a very small scale);

 They could participate in small forums around the Internet, hobbyist groups, book groups and more. In general, they would behave normally, participating in discussions like a person does. 

But occasionally they would say something partisan or political, depending on the desires of their owners.

With unique ID, it would be hard for existing bot detection techniques to find them. 

With replication by the millions across social media, they would affect what we think, and -- just as importantly -- what we think others think. 

A political discussion could be persona bots arguing with other persona bots.

See You at The Top

Monday, October 31, 2022

Anonymity with Finance

“When you combine anonymity with finance -- not the right to speak anonymously, but the right to run an investment fund anonymously -- you’re rolling out the red carpet for serial scammers, who can run a scam, get caught, change names, and run it again, incorporating the lessons they learned.”.........Cory Doctorow (Privacy advocate,2022)





AI spent decades learning. Now it’s maturing and scaling—some say, too fast.


The balance between human and AI should be recalibrated, leaders worry openly about the implications of “bad AI,” faulty facial recognition, biased algorithms, and AI-powered deep fakes. By using software running on blockchains rather than people; You could create services that “cannot be shut down. Not by a court, not by a police force, not by a nation state.” People would be able to set whatever rules they wanted, regardless of what any government prohibited.


Is it a mistake to defend decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) on the grounds that code is free speech? 


  • The United States does not want China to have advanced AI computing and supercomputing facilities, so it has blocked them from purchasing the best AI chips. 

  • It does not want China designing its own AI chips, so it has blocked China from using the best chip design software to design high-end chips.

  • It has blocked chip manufacturing facilities worldwide from accepting entity-listed Chinese chip design firms as customers.
  • The United States does not want China to have its own advanced chip manufacturing facilities, so it has also blocked them from purchasing the necessary equipment. 


Some code is speech, but not all code is speech. 

This will become even more important as robots become more capable and prevalent. 

The past few years of DAO activity has taught enthusiast a series of painful and expensive lessons on the limits of both computer security and incomplete contracts: Software has bugs, and contracts may do weird things under unanticipated circumstances. These combination results in multimillion-dollar frauds and thefts.


See You at the Top


Friday, September 30, 2022

The Adventure of a Dream

 Listen, I tell you a mystery; We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed (1Co 15:51)



A dream can be an adventure playground, a night school or a portal into the multiverse. 

It can also be a place of healing, inspiration and higher education.

After all the research and science, there is strength in faith

Learn to recognize and harness the powers of dreaming:

  • We solve problems in our sleep
  • Dreams coach us for future challenges and opportunities
  • Dreams hold up a magic mirror to our actions and behavior
  • Dreams show us what we need to do to stay well
  • Dreams are a secret laboratory
  • Dreams are a creative studio
  • Dreams help us to mend our divided selves
  • Dreaming is a key to better relationships
  • Dreams recall us to our larger purpose

A dream can be a garden of heavenly delights and a place of encounter 

See You at the Top

Friday, August 26, 2022

The Business of Hope

"Science must begin with myths,and with the criticism of myths"------karl Popper (The philosophy of Science, 1957)



Downturns can be great times to introduce offerings that connect with consumers who have tighter purse strings or are naturally frugal given continued uncertainty. It’s reasonable to expect the need for alternative energy sources to combat climate change and reduce dependence on autocracies, greater food safety, and more dependable supply chains to attract today’s entrepreneurial energy. 

There was a recession on the heels of World War II, in 1948–1949, before the post-war boom. In 1948, the McDonald brothers fired all their carhops, closed their flagship store, installed new equipment, and reopened three months later with a novel approach for preparing food. Instead of having a single skilled cook who would custom-make orders, McDonald’s simplified the menu so that less-skilled people could prepare the same thing over and over again

In 1953, the company started franchising its stores to other entrepreneurs. Franchise owner Ray Kroc bought out the brothers in 1954 and scaled McDonald’s into today’s global powerhouse.

Walt Disney founded his Disney company in 1923, a time where the world desperately needed hope.

Airbnb, an online marketplace for “places to stay and things to do,” was founded during the height of the recession in 2008. Its service appealed to thrifty millennials looking for a cheap way to travel, as did Uber’s car-sharing model.

The fact that resource scarcity typically accompanies recessions forces innovators to optimize processes :

Prune Prudently- resources need to be focused on places where they can have the greatest impact

Share the Innovation Load-companies should embrace open innovation and find smart ways to collaborate.

Smart Strategic Experiments-start with a hypothesis. Design an experiment with clear objectives. Make a prediction about what you think will happen. Test in a way in which you can measure and assess your prediction

Thus, understanding how digital technology works and how to embed it into business strategy has had to become a core leadership skill 

Making the best use of digital technologies is what propels organizations into the future. To lead successfully in the digital age, leaders have to go beyond their usual training and learn to become digital collaborators.

Acronym HOPE (hypothesis, objective, prediction, execution plan).

See You at the Top


Monday, July 25, 2022

Technology Pioneers

 I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society

--------Henry David Thoreau 1817-62 (American writer)



Even the largest companies need partners.

Innovation partnerships offer many advantages; 

They offset R&D costs 

Add expertise and flexibility  

Help create new markets 

Accelerate innovation and commercialization timelines


The fact is, innovation is complex and risky, and collaboration can make it riskier. Partners need to devise new ways of fostering trust and openness, managing risk, and communicating opportunity. 

More specifically, they have to: 

1) Establish Rules of Engagement - assigning ownership of IP and the right to commercialize or benefit from the results of their collaborations, 

2) Devise fair and effective dispute resolution systems - partners should acknowledge formally that disagreements and disputes are likely to arise 

3) Figure out how to allocate risk and financial burden - all participants to take risks proportional to the potential benefits being offered to them


Some Companies to consider for Partnerships,

Technology Pioneers for 2022:

Africa

-Access Afya (Kenya) – High-quality healthcare for the global mass market

-Ampersand (Rwanda) – Africa's leading battery-swap energy network for light vehicles

-Okra (Nigeria) – Digitalizing financial services for Africa

-Sendy (Kenya) – Building fulfilment infrastructure for e-commerce and consumer brands


Asia Pacific

-Allinfra (China) – Building technology to help institutions achieve their climate goals

-Authing (China) – Enterprise's next-generation information technology identity infrastructure

-EMQ (Singapore) – Enabling real-time, secure and affordable financial services for everyone, everywhere

-Okra Solar (Australia) – Developing hardware and software for sustainable last-mile energy access

-Pandocorp (India) – Making supply chain execution intelligent with a fast logistics cloud

-Qcraft (China) – Autonomous driving solutions for easy autonomous application with rapid iteration

-XCharge (China) – All-in-one smart electric vehicle charging solution pioneer

-YesHealth (China) – Building the world's largest and most efficient vertical farms


Europe

-Beenova AI (UK) – Scaling education through conversational learning powered by artificial intelligence

-Betteries (Germany) – Upcycling electric vehicle batteries into affordable mobile power systems

-Citibeats (Spain) – Ethical artificial intelligence big data analysis

-Collective Benefits (UK) – Insurance and benefits platform for independent work

-Mission Space (Luxembourg) – A private satellite-based space weather intelligence system

-Oxford Quantum Circuits (UK) – Building quantum computers to enable life-changing discoveries

-Roboze (Italy) – Reshaping manufacturing with a new distributed production model

-ROCSOLE (Finland) – Insights from harsh process conditions improving industry operational efficiency

-Somnium Space (UK) – Open, social and persistent virtual reality platform powered by blockchain

-Twin Science (UK) – Developing children's skills through purpose-led STEM learning

-Wolfprint 3D (Estonia) – Cross-app avatar platform for the metaverse


Latin America

-microTERRA (Mexico) – Powering the plant-based future

-Pomelo (Argentina) – Infrastructure to launch and scale fintech in Latin America


Middle East and North Africa

-Eureka Security (Israel) – A data security posture management platform

-HawKar (Tunisia) – An innovative start-up aimed at people with reduced mobility

-OCON Healthcare (Israel) – 3D uterine drug delivery to fit women's anatomy


North America

-Alife (USA) – An IVF operating system to improve outcomes and fertility care

-Aliro Quantum (USA) – Quantum networks for physics-based secure communication and scalable quantum computing

-Butlr Technologies (USA) – Making the built environment people-aware

-Credo AI (USA) – Operationalizing responsible artificial intelligence

-Databento (USA) – Pay-as-you-go for financial market data

-Emerge (USA) – Bringing touch and emotion to virtual experiences

-Ignite (USA) – Accelerating the world's transition to a decentralized future

-Journey Foods (USA) – Automating sustainability, nutrition and cost innovation

-Novoloop (USA) – Upcycling company creating chemicals and materials made from plastic

-Oolu (USA) – Distributing solar energy solutions in West Africa

-Recuro Health (USA) – Pre-emptive digital medical care to lower costs and improve outcomes

-Resilinc (USA) – A leading supply chain risk monitoring, mapping and resiliency solution


See You at the Top

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

The Challenge of Revolution

The critics say, you can't run Government like a Business. I respond, well, we can't run Government like Government anymore --------Ralph Klein (1942- Canadian Politician)




Strategy in Greek (strategia) means the “art of the general,” and, since ancient times, implied the ability to achieve a complex battle goal. In the modern business world, common “battles” may include executing a digital transformation strategy, winning the war for talent, or disrupting yourself before others do so. Whichever it might be, the only valid strategy is one that can be executed.


If technology could make a twin of every person on Earth and the twin was more cheerful and less hungover, and willing to work for nothing, how many of us would still have our jobs? I think the answer is zero. This is a complex challenge for digital transformation


To acquire reliable data to meet this challenges, companies must embrace three key trends:

• Digitalization—to generate value by using the internet of things to combine human intelligence with technologies such as sensors, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

• Decentralization—to shift from isolated “islands” of understanding to collaborative ecosystems of shared knowledge and trusted exchange.

• Democratization—to give access for collaboration and to form networks that bring diverse stakeholders together to act jointly.


This challenge extends to international trade:

As trade becomes more digital, so does the need for a digital ID system that works globally across borders and not just in specific sectors.

In February 2022, the United Kingdom signed a digital trade deal with Singapore that includes shared digital systems for e-invoicing, e-payments and other electronic documents.

Singapore has also signed a digital trade agreement with Chile and New Zealand. The deal is designed to help trade flow between different regimes, with benefits including enhanced security, quicker cargo clearance and faster payment processing.


This is the challenge of the Fourth Revolution:

As Nations Embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution with rapid investment in, inter alia, artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), robotics and 3D printing

It is evident that the success of digital transformation in Africa rests on; 

1) Enabling the necessary digital infrastructure that can assist in reducing the digital gap 

2) Developing digital literacy skills to take advantage of the digital economy 

3) Ensuring less corruption within its structures to enable sustainable economic growth  

4) Having the right regulations and frameworks in place to offer support locally, across the region and internationally


See You at The Top

Monday, May 30, 2022

Machine Decisions

"How to succeed in business without really trying"---------Shepherd Mead (title of a book 1952)



An organization most powerful asset is its data and no asset in more urgent need of defense.

Technology is key to improving digital trust across an organizations people, process, governance, and regulations. But with the cyber-security industry filing over 2,000 patents supporting digital trust between 2015 and now, it can be challenging for organizations.

As organizations stores and manages customers digital assets, an independent third-party governs, controls, secures and manages legal data rights for authorized parties. Data trusts are integral components of such use cases as engineering smart cities and securing sensitive health or financial data. These Decisions are Increasingly made by AI machines

Organizations must geared toward improving the efficiency and ethics of the algorithms that make these machines decisions.

Organizations don't scale well if they rely on people with top talent; machines do....

The solution to scale in data security is to create products that can give their full value with limited human talent.

See You at The Top

Friday, April 29, 2022

The WorldCoin

 "It has been said that an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for pound" -------Nevil Shute (British Novelist, 1899 - 1960)



Sam Altman and physicist Alex Blania are set on the mission to create a human-centric coin that can be distributed to every person on earth. This could be done by leveraging advancements in biometric technology and blockchain, they announced a $100 million round of funding at a $3 billion valuation.

“ A collectively owned global currency that will be distributed fairly to as many people as possible.”

The concept of a global currency is audacious, intriguing and a clear social agenda; away of distributing wealth outside of the control of nation states, directly to people.

The global currency ultimately leads to the future of human freedom - freedom from work.

This echoes classical economists. As automation is responsible for more and more of human output, the labor contained in products and services will shrink towards zero. As that happens, prices will also trend towards zero because the cost of production of everything will trend towards being free.

The concept concludes that the two dominant sources of wealth will be 

1) Companies with AI, 

2) Land, which has a fixed supply.

The projection is that Capitalism will have been superseded by a higher form of civilization, where production directly meets need. This collapse of prices driven by reduced labor will enable fundamental needs to be met extremely cheaply: food, care, education, housing, health, and more, would all move towards being free.

Worldcoin represents an encouraging, bold but challenging vision for the inevitable post-work society.

By the time it’s in full effect, both traditional forms of currency and digitally-native forms such as cryptocurrency, stablecoins and central banks digital currencies will be integrated into the economy.

See You at the Top

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Crypto Adoption

"Every country has the government it deserves."

Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle merite .......... (Joseph de Maistre 1753-1821, French writer and diplomat)


War has significant and multifaceted effects on the economy of the countries involved. While the specific impacts can vary based on the scale, duration, and nature of the conflict. 

Here are some common effects.

Destruction of Infrastructure- War often results in the destruction of physical infrastructure, including roads, bridges, buildings, and utilities. The costs of rebuilding and reconstruction can be immense, diverting resources away from other economic activities.

Displacement of Population- War can lead to mass displacement of people, causing a strain on resources and services. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees may require humanitarian aid, affecting both the host country's economy and the economies of the countries providing assistance.

Impact on Human Capital- Loss of life, injuries, and psychological trauma during war affect the labor force. This can lead to a shortage of skilled workers, a decline in productivity, and increased healthcare and social support costs.

The current war shows different leadership style but similar crypto adoption pattern. Sanctions is crushing the economy and GDP is set to drop by 22% this year alone. The destruction of facilities is also affecting the agricultural exports and hence destabilizing the global food ecosystem.  

The above is a classic scene for an increasing demand in the economic possibilities of blockchain.

Blockchain technologies are the future, and any effort to ban them—or even excessively intervene in their operations—would meet the same fate as other state attempts to circumscribe behavior. Restricting cryptocurrencies at the moment, when they are facilitating innovations and brimming with potential, would undermine financing of critical sectors.

Top 10 Countries in Crypto Adoption Index:

1. Ukraine

2. Russia

3. Venezuela

4. China

5. Kenya

6. United States of America

7. South Africa

8. Nigeria

9. Columbia

10. Vietnam

Government should play a role; a tailored regulatory environment that allows for the live testing of innovative capital markets related products, solutions and services with the potential to deepen and develop the capital markets prior to launching into the mass market.

See You at the Top

Sunday, February 27, 2022

The Coins in Blockchain

"Its the economy stupid".........(1992 Bill Clinton Presidential Campaign)





Blockchain technology is known today because of platforms like Bitcoin, which enable the peer-to-peer transfer of assets. On more advanced blockchains, like Ethereum, you can transfer assets, create other forms of assets, and also record votes as a point of coordination.

While many see Bitcoin as a store of value, most see Ethereum as a platform for launching new cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications.

Use cases of  Blockchain (Ethereum)

Smart contracts and dApps: A smart contract could reward a musician when a music dApp plays their song or grant a loan to someone using crypto as collateral in a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol.

Tokenize anything: Blockchain (Ethereum) allows users to create their own unique, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can represent anything from virtual assets to real-world commodities. Users can then trade these tokens or use them to power other decentralized applications.

Create a new currency: Blockchain (Ethereum) lets anyone create their own cryptocurrency with a few lines of code. For example, USD StableCoin (USDC) runs on Ethereum.

Transaction fees. When you send an Ethereum-based token or use the network, you pay transaction fees in ETH.

Individuals will gravitate towards options that give them more flexibility or value.  So a currency that is accepted universally and preserves purchasing power will always be chosen over one that is limited to a region and prone to devaluation. 

If regulation does not keep up with innovation, many will start having parallel financial lives.

Scenerio 1:

Ngozi wants to rent a flat for N5mm - she says to the estate agent;

Femi, I will pay you N2mm in naira and N3mm in stablecoins.

The Owner is happy - He only books N2mm in revenue and a lower tax bill but he also 

has stablecoins that he can deploy to pay his Chinese supplier. 

This is how a shadow system will be built up over time.

Payment infrastructure will soon be built that is powered by crypto with the complexity hidden from the user. 

Scenerio 2:

Compare sending money to 0x23463959CFeC064f5e5aE68FB9bf5735D204d12 ( A blockchain address)- even if you copy and paste, there is no bank to verify if you make a mistake, the funds are simply lost.

But now you can send Ethereum to femi.eth and it will get delivered

Increased cross-border payments. 

Scenerio 3:

You want to pay your Chinese supplier in $. 

Your local currency will first be converted into USD then yuan. So you suffer transaction costs twice. Then the bank will put a fee on this. 

Now you can send your Chinese supplier stablecoins (USDT) 

1 USDT is instantly changeable for $1 via crypto-exchanges.

Every day, SMEs and individuals are making this choice not because they are economic saboteurs but because using stablecoins makes their life easier, and opens up opportunities that didn’t exist before.


See You at The Top



Saturday, January 29, 2022

Celebrate Each Day

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me  "..........Abraham Lincoln 1809 -65 (letter to A.G Hodges)



Each day is an S Curve of its own. I encourage you to reflect of them this way. 

Take a few moments in the morning before engaging in any task. 

— even before reading emails 

— to meditate through the day to come. 

What is the most important objective today?  This is the mountaintop, the summit of the day’s S Curve. 

No matter what the day requires, keep this critical objective the top priority. The morning routine is your base camp to attack the climb. 

At the end of the day, celebrate the achievement, or your progress. 

B.J. Fogg says celebration can be as simple as looking in the mirror and claiming, “Victory.”

Feyzi Fatehi, CEO of Corent Technology said; “I always told myself when you feel too comfortable, you have to move….It’s like in climbing; you can’t just camp somewhere. You can rest. You can look around. You can take a deep breath, have a snack. But you’ve got to keep moving, otherwise you get complacent.”

Celebration is an Event, not a Destination. 

It’s the little pause where we survey the Journey. We can have a snack, with our colleagues or friends, rather than alone in our office. We rest, we catch our breath and we contemplate on the next opportunity ahead. 

The fact that the interval is brief doesn’t make it unimportant, or harmless if neglected. 

Celebrating an achievement great or small is a platform for further achievement. 

We don’t just celebrate the win; we celebrate to win.

Excerpt; Whitney Johnson, Author Smart Growth

See You at the Top...