Skip to content

Week of August 18, 2023

Weirdo's Weekly Update — 18 Aug, 2023

The update covers PayPal's entry into crypto and the launch of Europe's first physically-backed Bitcoin ETF, plus a sharp 12-14% drop in Bitcoin and Ethereum prices. The team plans to travel to Estonia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan with carry-on only, and shares tips on automating social media using Buffer, Metricool, Airtable, and Zapier.

Crypto News

The Potential with PayPal

PayPal, with 435 million active users and $1.36 trillion in transactions, is entering the crypto space including DeFi and NFTs, which could significantly boost the market. However, concerns exist regarding their stablecoin, $PYUSD, due to regulatory uncertainties and previous challenges encountered by tech companies like Facebook's Libra. PayPal's launch indicates optimism about favorable crypto regulations that could accelerate industry expansion.

The Launch of Europe's First Physically-Backed Bitcoin ETF

Europe unveiled its first physically-backed Bitcoin ETF on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. Launched by 21Shares, this ETF enables investors to gain Bitcoin exposure without direct ownership.

G20 Preparing for Global Cryptocurrency Regulations

The G20 is finalizing global cryptocurrency regulations following India's presidency. Member nations are pursuing unified crypto regulation approaches, with India emphasizing international cooperation importance during its leadership term.

Changes in the Last Week

Bitcoin: $25,742 (-12.7%) | Ethereum: $1,588 (-14.2%) | Gold: $1,889.24

More Crypto News

  • Mantle Network (formerly BIT, now MNT) launches a $200M ecosystem fund
  • Starknet completes mainnet quantum leap 0.12.0
  • Polygon details the Polygon 2.0 roadmap

AI News

Lifelike AI-powered avatars and videos are becoming publicly available. HeyGen's CEO demonstrated a flawless AI-generated video of himself.

AI is surpassing human capabilities in handwriting, speech, image recognition, reading comprehension, and language understanding.

Apple has signaled interest, with Tim Cook hinting at generative AI's major role in their R&D spending.

Microsoft introduced Azure ChatGPT for businesses, ensuring data privacy while enabling customized integration and scalable systems.

Deeplearning.ai offers AI courses to help professionals stay current.

Travel Update

After time with family and friends, the travel plans resume. This Saturday targets Estonia. For Maja, it represents a nostalgic return—where her 2009 travel adventures began through Erasmus studies. For the author, it's a new country addition.

Plans include remote village exploration in eastern Estonia and vibrant Tallinn discovery.

Following Estonia, Georgia and Azerbaijan explorations are scheduled. This journey features a unique element: carry-on backpacks only, abandoning checked luggage for lighter travel simplicity.

I am currently listening

A podcast exploring artificial intelligence and blockchain/crypto convergence, covering deepfakes, bots, proof-of-humanity, ChatGPT, user control, governance, privacy, security, zero-knowledge machine learning, MEV, media, and generative art.

Additional listening: "Sense of self" meditation via Headspace.

I am currently watching

The film "Oppenheimer," following considerable anticipation.

Tool of the week

Metricool consolidates data from various online platforms into one dashboard. It provides content performance insights, enables post scheduling, and offers organic and paid metrics visibility. Used alongside other tools for social media scheduling.

Inspiring Quotes

"The modern devil is cheap dopamine." — Naval Ravikant

"Those who keep learning will keep rising in life." — Charlie Munger

Question to Ask Yourself

What are the current habits hindering your future progress?

Productivity Tips and Tricks

What's on my calendar that can be automated?

In the digital age, maintaining social media activity is business-critical but time-intensive. Automation transforms online presence management. Rather than manually posting throughout the week, tools like Buffer and Metricool enable advance scheduling, ensuring consistent engagement without daily effort. Airtable organizes content calendars, tracking topics, dates, and metrics. Zapier integration elevates automation, linking Airtable content calendars directly to schedulers, automating posting based on predefined schedules.