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chamza

1,262 karma · joined August 16, 2009

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chamza··on What Will Happen in the 2020s
The reason a country would want to use a crypto asset for their money supply would be to own the private ledger completely; they wouldn't utilize the decentralized, public, blockchains we see today.

All financial activity and transactions can easily be monitored on a blockchain; the movement of money could be tracked from it's inception to it's current location on one ledger. Each private key can correspond to a citizen (much like a social security ID) and citizens can be taxed more easily and efficiently. This is why China is leading the pack here and is already developing a PBOC digital currency[1].

[1]=https://fortune.com/2019/11/01/china-digital-currency-libra-...

chamza··on Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations
In our case (Glaze), we are using a simple freemium model. The assets are free to use as long as the user attributes the illustrator and Glaze. If the user wants to buy a license so that they can use the image without crediting the artist/glaze, they can pay for that license (they also get a larger file size and the source file).

Unsplash is a bit different, all of the images are completely free. From my knowledge, this was originally used as a marketing funnel for their parent company, Crew. Crew has since been acquired and Unsplash has spun in to it's own entity. Nowadays my hunch is that they are monetizing through calls to their API (Unsplash is integrated into big players like Squarespace, Trello, Medium). Feel free to fact check as I am no expert when it comes to Unsplash's business model.

chamza··on Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
I was in a similar situation, I had offers from both companies and chose the startup, but ultimately ended up at Google.

I was up with the startup for 6 months, it was not a good fit for me and I lost faith in the company quickly. A recruiter reached out to me from Google while I was there to follow up. I did not need to re-interview and they brought me in since I was still in the system as an accepted candidate (I think this stands for one year). so I got to experience the best of both worlds. I’m still at google 2 years later, I can echo the sentiments of it opening up many more doors

chamza··on Ethereum Sharding FAQ
Dai is a stable cryptocurrency, not a speculative money making scheme, since it's purpose is to be stable. A decentralized stablecoin is an enormous use case.
chamza··on Ask HN: How many hours do you sleep on average?
I usually sleep 9 hours, sometimes 10. I enjoy sleeping.
chamza··on Why Stellar could be the next big ICO platform
I️ was looking into building some stuff on Stellar, but found the resources to be poor compared to ethereum. Unfortunately every time you try to find some resources to build in crypto currency the vast majority of material is around “how to buy stellar!” “Is stellar worth investing” etc
chamza··on Why Bitcoin will fail
Good read.

There are more mature cryptocurrencies emerging that are based on 'loans' as the author describes. The Maker Project's stable coin 'Dai' is an example, which is only created by collateralized debt positions. However, the debt position is currently based on ETH, which is 'backed' by speculation.

chamza··on Ask HN: What would you do if your income was taken care of?
I'd focus more on my music, fine art, and try to make a hand-drawn animated film.

I'd spend more time growing my own food, tending to the garden, and raising animals.

I do all of this in my spare time anyway, it'd be nice to dedicate more time to it though. Alas.

chamza··on Ask HN: Should I provide salary history after an accepted offer?
I fell in to this trap with 'BigCo'. I never gave my salary information to the recruiter, and kept my cards to my chest.

When I tried to negotiate my low-ball offer this docu was brought up, that she had taken a look at my past salary that was provided here. I would not fill this out if I could go back in time. That being said, this was provided prior to the salary offer.

chamza··on Young People Need Another Gold Rush
As a millennial, I have observed a few perceived 'gold rushes' for individuals in my age group (25) and younger. I am defining 'gold rush' as an exponential growth of capital:

-Creating a technology startup / business

-Becoming YouTube famous and selling 'your own brand'

-Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrencies

chamza··on Lessons I Learned from the Dotcom Bubble for the Coming Cryptocurrency Bubble
Internet companies during the dotcom bubble had market value of several trillion dollars.

The total market cap of crypto-currency is still only ~$70 billion. I agree with the principle, but this boom is still pretty modest.

chamza··on The DAO close to $100m in funding. Soon to be the largest crowdfunding ever
I agree that the website is terrible. Over the past few weeks I've dug deep into it and think it is a really awesome experiment, although a very risky 'investment'. I will attempt to explain it below:

The DAO is a group of people putting together their money to manage it and make more. This is done through proposals and members voting on passing them.

Based on the proposals that are accepted, the DAO can be anything really: a hedge fund, VC fund, lottery-system, gambling pot, etc.

What it becomes is still undefined and we can only see with time based on proposals and how the members vote. That alone is really interesting and exciting to me: will members actually make intelligent decisions or will it crash and burn?

The DAO also shows the power of the underlying crypto, Ethereum, on which this was built.

chamza··on Introducing Ethereum Script 2.0
More about ethereum here: http://ethereum.org
chamza··on 7 Cups Of Tea (YC S13) Connects People Who Need Emotional Support With Listeners
I think this is a great idea. I want to offer some design feedback and advice. This is just my opinion, but I hope it can be of help in some way.

-The testimonial scroll is a little awkward and hard on the eyes as it moves. My suggestion would be to have a fade in/fade out, or a much quicker animation

-There is quite a lot going on in the navigation bar (many different options + sub-options). My suggestion would be to narrow it down significantly to maybe 3 - 4 of the most important menu items.

-I think the "satisfaction guaranteed" thing can go. There can probably be some better messaging or use of real estate here to establish trust.

-I think there could probably be a better way to present the large image with text on top on the home screen (for example, see airbnb.com or screenleap.com). Visual design thing so it's kind of subjective.

Otherwise, really strong work. If you'd like more design help see my contact info in my profile.

chamza··on DeveloperAuction gets developers paid what they're worth
Great idea, hoping they open this up to UI/UX designers in the near future.
chamza··on Show HN: App creates a meal plan that satisfies your nutrition constraints
This would be the perfect tool for me and my friends if we could only change the macronutrient percentages (protein, fat, carbs) for the day and for each meal. Otherwise, great work. One of the coolest web apps I've seen in a while
chamza··on Ask HN: What are 3 things you would want from a non-technical co-founder?
1) Connections in the domain the startup is working in

2) Marketing experience in that same domain

3) Someone who is honest and genuine

chamza··on Why incorporating my startup was my worst mistake
I've learned that 10,000,000 shares is fine if you have a low par-value per stock. I believe this many stocks are especially good if you're looking for outside investors/board members.

But actually, don't listen to me, I'm the one whose in this ridiculous mess.

chamza··on Why incorporating my startup was my worst mistake
I've thought about this and asked around. I was told that if I did not pay my tax returns and annual reports, the State of Delaware can go after me personally. I'd rather not risk that, and there is a monthly fee that gathers up if I don't pay the annual reports on time; which is what happened this time around.
chamza··on Show HN: my new project, an anti-snub dating site
I would never use it, but that video is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Good idea nonetheless.
chamza··on What Makes Remarkable People... Remarkable?
This is one of the best articles I've read in a long time. Long, yes, but very, very, valuable.
chamza··on How I Incorporated My Startup
Interesting, didn't know this! I edited the original post, thanks.
chamza··on Ask HN: Favorite startup demo videos
I thought this one was genuinely funny and well executed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FC_eMDnCRg

Thumbtack; saw this because they just got funded through Venture hack's Angel list.

chamza··on Please check out our side project, OhLife (from MeetingMix, YC S08)
Love the idea. Good work fellas
chamza··on Why Programming Isn’t For Me
This was the problem. A naive approach to the scope of the work that goes into this all.
chamza··on Why Programming Isn’t For Me
Its unfortunate that the only thing that is considered "actual work" is programming. But I blame myself for not explaining more thoroughly in the article.

I invite you to look at the startup itself and the video demo. I know I'm asking a lot, but I think you should look more in to someones work before you say that they gave up without putting in any actual work. The video demonstrates a considerable part of the back-end being complete; I just need assistance because I understand that I cannot manage a project like this on my own.

chamza··on Why Programming Isn’t For Me
Apologies. That's something I overlooked and it definitely does go to show how much I have to learn.
chamza··on Why Programming Isn’t For Me
I hate putting people in to boxes. Youre the "programmer guy", and I'm the "business guy". Thats the type of attitude that breeds "shady craigslist entrepreneurs that you speak of. People who believe they have no part in programming or designing, and are simply the "idea guys" and never dabble with code.

Was it wrong of me to attempt to learn something even though I was a "business guy" from the start? I tried programming, I wasn't successful at it, but I've gained a greater appreciation for it. I also attempted designing, and I loved it. I created a visually appealing website and actually learned a lot [by the way, people go to college for graphic design degrees too, doesn't mean I had a "special drive to become good at it"].

Theres nothing that will come out of dismissing someone as the "business-guy" or the "programmer", we all have the potential to do so many other things, and sometimes it works, but other times it doesnt. There's no harm in trying though.

chamza··on The incredible power of a 16 year old video blogger
This is reminding me of a post I read on HN about some guy who was trying to start an advertising business focused around getting popular video bloggers from youtube to advertise products.

Does anyone have a link to that post? Im intrigued on reading it again in light of this.