GM HEARTLAND |
Hawk Tuah girl just rugpulled a shitcoin. …and that is a sentence of genuine, honest reporting in the year of our Lord 2024. You best start believing in the darkest timeline, dear reader. You’re in it.  |
—El Prof, Muhammed & Chad |
TOKEN | PRICE CHANGE | PRICE |
|---|---|---|
Solana ($SOL) | -8.41% | $221.64 |
Helium ($HNT) | -5.83% | $8.71 |
Pyth ($PYTH) | -19.57% | $0.43 |
Save ($SLND) | -6.10% | $1.16 |
(Price changes reflect past 7 days as of 12.14.24)
Google just announced Willow, a quantum computing chip that, according to their recently published studies, has overcome a small hurdle on its journey to becoming a commercially available technology.
That’s lowkey a scary thought. There are significant implications of quantum computing on existing technology infrastructure that is secured by encryption algorithms like SHA-256. These are supposed to take the average computer millions and millions of years to break into. But they could be accessed by quantum computers in a matter of minutes.
In other words, your seedphrase, your private key, let alone your passwords? No longer safe in a quantum computing environment.
The slight silver lining is that, in order to do so, someone with access to one of these computers would have to target you specifically. But in this context, “commercially available” is an ominous turn of phrase, for sure.
Is that responsible for this weeks’ sell off? The discovery of El Dorado in El Salvador? Is it the failure of our Chad and Savior Michael Saylor to convert Microsoft shareholders? Are the paper bitcoin ETFs and Coinbase meddling with things? Who knows.
But as for the FUD narrative around quant tech, on the bright side, I don’t see it coming to fruition for another 5 to 25 years. Google is boasting about this now due to, in my opinion, a relatively mundane academic breakthrough. They were basically able to overcome a theoretical challenge posed by academics and show they could get quality outcomes as they increased the size and capacity of the chips, which theory argues isn’t possible. But said breakthrough is also only “in theory”.
Aside from critiques about questionable evaluation methodology, the chip currently holds 46 physical qubits (quantum bits, more in a sec) of which it needs millions in order to make a functional quantum computer capable of breaking into a wallet. A taller task like, say, rewriting the Bitcoin blockchain would require exponentially more quibits and more energy. These computers suck fuel.
As with all things in nature, balance will be achieved. Defense will catch up to offense. And the strongest quantum decryption resistant algorithms will emerge to protect the systems. Hell, Algorand or Quant would already argue that this is what’s intrinsically valuable about their design compared to other blockchains.
The Bitcoin Foundation and its network of participants are more likely to fork than successfully upgrade the protocol to ensure quantum resistance. (Although, as the OG, it’s still got more staying power than Ethereum.) As for Solana, transactions per second (TPS) reigns supreme. Consumer capture will always be the name of the game when it comes to true technology adoption.
Which brings us back to Qubits. Quantum bits are an upgrade to the existing computer bits, because they introduce a third position to the traditional binary-based statistical processing of a computer. In other words, these computers don’t think in black and white, but shades of gray. This allows for the computer to draw conclusions faster, because it derives a more holistic nature of the rules and relationships between variables in its predictions.
The data scientists at Google clearly have a spiritual tinge because they think it’s evidence of parallel universe theory… but you’ll have to Search for that yourself.
A data scientist’s favorite thread on the implications of Google’s quantum announcement.
—El Prof
Spot trading — simply, when you buy and sell digital assets at current market prices — may seem straightforward. But it’s an art that requires both instinct and precision.
Profits in spot trading come from buying assets at a lower price and selling them at a higher price. But it’s not as simple as picking any low price and waiting for it to go up. The crypto market is notorious for its volatility, and prices can swing wildly in hours, minutes, or sometimes seconds. That’s why timing is everything.
To succeed, you must constantly monitor the market, identify key price movements, and act fast when the right opportunity presents itself.
One of the first lessons I learned was the importance of taking profit orders over stop-loss orders. While many traders set a stop loss to minimize potential losses, I’ve found that this approach can be counterproductive. Imagine the price of a coin drops while you’re away from the screen — your stop loss triggers, selling your crypto at a loss. But what if the market quickly rebounds? You’re out of the trade, missing out on the gains.
On the other hand, with a take-profit order, you set your target price and let the trade run its course. Once the price hits your target, you lock in a profit. It’s a safer, more reliable way to ensure you’re capitalizing on the market’s upward movement without getting caught in emotional reactions.
Understanding the market is about more than just watching price fluctuations. It’s about knowing the subtle signals the market sends through patterns and trends. Although many successful DeFi transactions rely on unusual sources of alpha — such as Twitter threads, Telegram channels, or meme cycles — technical analysis remains an essential tool in crypto spot trading too.
It’s still crucial to be able to interpret charts and recognize key patterns, like the head and shoulders formation. This pattern is a classic indicator of a reversal from bullish to bearish, and understanding it can help you time your entry and exit points. A head and shoulders pattern consists of three peaks — two shoulders on either side of a taller “head” in the center. The key to trading this pattern is identifying when the price breaks through the neckline, signaling a trend reversal. The accompanying volume also gives clues: the highest volume typically occurs during the left shoulder, and the lowest during the right shoulder. If you know how to “spot” this, you can make highly profitable spot trades by entering positions at the right time.
On the flip side, patterns like rising and falling wedges provide different kinds of insights. A falling wedge, for instance, is a bullish pattern that signals price consolidation before an upward breakout. Conversely, a rising wedge typically signals a bearish reversal when the price starts to break downwards. Both patterns are invaluable tools for predicting market direction.
Beyond these TradFi tools, it is important to pay especially close attention to external factors like news events. Cryptocurrency is highly reactive to news, whether it’s a regulatory update or a tweet from a prominent figure. At the same time, these events tend to generate runaway hype on social media channels, so it’s important to react to them with logic and discipline, not emotion.
Ultimately, the key to being successful in spot trading is understanding not just the technical aspects, but the psychology of the market. Spot trading requires an ability to read the market’s mood, react swiftly to changes, and avoid the pitfall of emotional decision-making.
See spot? Great. Now trade, spot trade!
—Muhammed
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