Travel to Nagoya, Japan in Fall of 2024

Our journey began as we landed at Nagoya Chubu Centrair International Airport. I went together with my wife as part of mini trip we have every year. We were immediately impressed by the efficient services and warm hospitality. After settling in, our first stop was Yanagibashi Food Court. We started our culinary adventure at Sarashina Restaurant, enjoying some traditional Japanese dishes. We then moved to にほんのうみ水產 Restaurant for fresh seafood delicacies.

On the second day, We explored Midland Square, the tallest skyscraper in Nagoya. We spent hours shopping and dining. Later, we walked to Takashimaya, a luxury shopping paradise. At ECHIRE, we bought some exquisite French butter, a delight for any cheese lover.

Day three was all about diving into history. We visited Nagoya Castle and we were amazed by the history of the main keep and the beautifully reconstructed Hommaru Palace. Later, we strolled through Osu Shotengai Shopping Street. We stopped by Gaburi Chicken for some juicy fried chicken, Ikinari Steak for a hearty meal, and Don Quiote for some quirky shopping finds.

The fourth day was thrilling. We spent the day at Nagashima Spa Land, riding the Steel Dragon, screaming through the haunted house and experiencing the exhilarating Hakugei. The Giant Wheel Aurora and the Viking ship ride added more fun to the day. We ended the day at Mitsui Outlet Park Jazz Dream Nagashima, shopping for a variety of brands at discounted prices.

On the fifth day, We took a day trip to Shirakawago. The Observatory offered breathtaking views of the traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses. We visited Wada House to step back in time and enjoyed delightful custard and jelly puddings at Purin House. Later, we continued to Hida Takayama, known for its beautifully preserved old town. I couldn’t miss Hidagyu Maruaki for delicious Hida beef skewers.

Returning to Nagoya, we dined at Sumibiyakiniku Sugimoto near Nagoya Station, renowned for its premium grilled meats. Before heading home, we dropped by Supermarket Seijo Ishi to stock up on unique Japanese snacks and goodies to take back as souvenirs.

It was a new and memorable experience for us and we glad that we took it. Next Stop, Osaka !

Travel to London, UK in 2024

 

It started with a dream. Sailing high up in the clouds using Singapore Airlines, the flight to London was all about expectations and comfort. When the plane landed at Heathrow International Airport, London, the universe played itself in the most dramatic way.

In a lovely part of the city, Stratford, it was pretty much returning home. Every day started with a tea and plans to conquer the endless beauty that this city has to offer. Buckingham Palace was more than a building, it was the epitome of history and followed a hundred-year-old tradition of welcoming people at its gates with the God Save the Queen chorus.

The London Eye was an altogether different experience with an aerial view of the whole city. From the most apparent heights, everything exists and it is undoubtedly possible to imagine the most pleasant sight, where the Thames slowly meanders through central London. The lines were long but the experience was great.

London Bridge has its obligatory stories and stepping on its stones invokes responses from centuries of business, victory and an unyielding will. This is a must visit if you ever go to London.

Westminster Abbey was an unsettling aspect of history in all its horrible dimensions where all the kings and the queens ended up buried. The design was quite striking as even the smallest pieces engraved into the history were somebody's hard work. Kensington Palace was an uninterrupted rewind of the happiest hours and the spicy sounds of its gardens brought some peace and tranquility from the hustle and bustle.

There were far more of them, be it street vendors’ stalls or secluded corners of a cafe, all promising to divulge the story. Owing to the historic as well as the contemporary, the aristocratic and the mundane, the city of London did not cease only as a place, but rather remained a memory.

Stratford, whichever way both ‘day’ and ‘night,’ was one such day which ended with the same glow. It was not only an exploration. London was a different world altogether that was full of surprises on a different level.

After 10 days, it's time to go home. This experience will surely be an experience to remember.

About Solana

The next best blockchain that I would like to cover is Solana. Although new, Solana has been one of the fastest growing technology in the crypto world. It is challenging Ethereum Dominance with faster speed and bigger throughput.

Solana is an innovative high-speed platform focusing on the development of decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies. undefined

1. High Throughput: Solana stands out from the rest due to its fast transaction rate that is capable of thousands of transactions per second (TPS). The high throughput of this solution resulted from leveraging both cutting-edge technologies and design elements, including a new consensus mechanism and a robust network architecture.

2. Proof of History (PoH): One of the distinguishing features of Solana is its consensus mechanism, known as Proof of History (PoH), a cryptographic clock function that order and time transactions in a fast and reliable manner. The PoH improves the network scalability by eliminating the traditional need for a leader-election mechanism, and as a result, the validators agree on the order of transactions.

3. Proof of Stake (PoS): Together with PoH, Solana employs the Proof of Stake with Proof of Replication (PoS-PoRep) mechanism called the Proof of Stake. The validators of the Solana network stake SOL (Solana's native cryptocurrency) and are selected to be block producers by amount of stake and their past performance.

4. Web-Scale Architecture: Solana's architecture is built to be web-scale in nature. Therefore, it can sustain the stress produced by the large-scale applications and facilitate global popularity. This scalability is created by applying a unique combination of technologies which consists of Tower BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) and parallel processing.

5. Low Fees: Solana acts by ensuring that the transaction fees are low and conducive for the users and developers to interact with the blockchain network. This is achieved by means of efficient network design and optimization, which make SOLA net fees low even in periods of high demand.

6. Ecosystem and Development: Solana is developing an increasing number of dApps, projects, and developers who is using its platform. The Slogan Foundation is responsible for assisting the ecosystem through grants, funds, and technical expertise.

7. Interoperability: Solana is a blockchain with a feature of interoperability that can be designed with other blockchain platforms and protocols thus allowing for cross-chain communications and compatibility. This interconnectivity enables Solana to leverage the capabilities of other ecosystems and, hence, ensures smooth interactions among the blockchains networks.

8. Decentralization: One of the main goals of the Solana network is to attain a high level of decentralization by delegating infrastructure and governance across a wide variety of validators. This, in turn, helps to secure and resist the integrity of the platform from any potential risks.

To sum up, Solana is a high performance blockchain platform, which solves scalability and performance issues that the most blockchains networks deal with nowadays, and gives the opportunity to develop decentralized apps and cryptocurrencies that are fast, scalable and cost-effective.

The year 2024 might just be the year for Solana.

About Cardano

In this Blog, I would like to talk about my favorite blockchain: Cardano.

Cardano is a blockchain platform that seeks to provide a more secure and scalable infrastructure for smart contracts and decentralized applications development. 

Here are some fun facts about Cardano:

1. Proof of Stake (PoS) Consensus Mechanism: Cardano uses a Proof of Stake algorithm called Ouroboros as its consensus mechanism. PoS systems are different from Proof of Work (PoW) systems like Bitcoin in that validators who participate in the network and have their own stake are in charge of validating transactions and creating new blocks. This method is cheaper in terms of energy as compared to PoW.

2. Layered Architecture: Cardano is a layered architecture built on which are sitting two layers: the Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) and the Cardano Computation Layer (CCL). The CSL processes transactions and handles exchange of ADA (Cardano's native cryptocurrency), which is aimed at smart contracts and decentralized applications development through CCL.

3. Native Cryptocurrency - ADA: ADA is the in-house coin of the Cardano platform. Such a currency can be used for numerous purposes within the environment, including transactions, staking as well as being used as a means of exchange. ADA is found on multiple different crypto exchanges.

4. Scientific Approach: Cardano is a project of peer-reviewed academic research and have a formal methods philosophy. Through this manner, the sustainability and the scalability of the system are assured with the help of academic rigor and mathematical principles.

5. Decentralized Governance: Cardano has a decentralized governance system that harnesses the power of ADA holders to partake in the decision-making process which is directed towards protocol upgrades and enhancements. This mechanism, called Voltaire, allows participants to submit and vote on ideas by using their ADA tokens.

6. Interoperability: The target of Cardano is to increase the interoperability between blockchain platforms as well as traditional systems. For example, these efforts incorporate the ability to communicate across chains and also integrate with the existing monetary and identity systems.

7. Partnerships and Development: Cardano runs on the technology of Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), a company that was founded by Charles Hoskinson who is one of the co-founders of Ethereum. IOHK aims at multiple partnerships with the educational institutions as well as the industrial leaders in order to progress the Cardano network.

8. Sustainability: Cardano has a sustainable growth strategy that targets for the creation of a self -sufficient ecosystem. It also contains methods of financing and maintenance such as transaction fees and treasury reserves.

In a nutshell, Cardano seeks to overcome some of the issues like scalability, security and sustainability that the current blockchain platforms have, by combining rigorous research, interoperability and decentralization.

Although currently Cardano is not yet as big as Solana, with the backing of its founder, it can be one of the biggest blockchain in the future. 

About Ethereum

In this article, I would like to give some fun facts about Ethereum as well as give insights regarding the second biggest blockchain in terms of marketcap: the Ethereum blockchain. 

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain system that features smart contract functionality. Proposed by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013, the development was crowdfunded in 2014 and went live on July 30, 2015 on the website. 

Here are some basic facts about Ethereum:

1. Ethereum is a decentralized and open-source blockchain software, Ethereum has been created with smart contract functionality. The idea was put forward by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013. The project was crowdfunded in 2014, and after that on July 30, 2015 went live on the website. 

Some basic facts about Ethereum: 

1. Blockchain Technology: Just as Bitcoin does, Ethereum uses blockchain technology. Nevertheless, unlike the former it was made to be more adaptive while allowing developers to create decentralised apps and smart contracts for its platform. 

2. Ether (ETH): Ether is the main cryptocurrency of the Ethereum platform. It is used to compensate participants when auditing and to recognize transactions. Ether can also be traded on various cryptocurrency exchanges and is commonly used as a means of exchanging goods and services in the Ethereum ecosystem 

3. Smart Contracts: Smart contracts are self-executing contracts where the terms of the contract are written directly into law. They draft and enforce the terms of the contract on their own subject to fulfilling certain conditions, without the need for an intermediary. Ethereum’s support for smart contracts enables a wide range of decentralized applications, from decentralized finance (DeFi) to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 

4. Decentralized Applications (dApps): Ethereum allows developers to create decentralized applications on its platform. These dApps can range from financial applications such as decentralized exchanges and lending platforms to gaming, social networks and supply chain management systems 

5. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM): The Ethereum Virtual Machine is a runtime environment for creating smart contracts. It’s a decentralized Turing-filled virtual machine, which means it can run any code with enough computing resources and time. 

6. Proof of stake (PoS): Ethereum is transitioning from a proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This change is known as Ethereum 2.0 or Eth2.0. Compared to PoW, PoS is expected to improve scalability, security and energy efficiency. 

7. Ethereum Enhancement Proposals (EIPs): EIPs are proposals for changes to the Ethereum protocol. They may include improving the performance of the network, modifying the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), or modifying the financial parameters of the network. 

Overall, Ethereum has become a foundational product in the blockchain-cryptocurrency space, providing a platform for innovation and development of decentralized applications across industries

I believe despite the emergence of ethereum competition such as Solana, Cardano, and other blockchain, Ethereum will still be one of the main player in the crypto industry. With strong foundation backing its growth, the future is bright for Ethereum.