Tag Archives: Blockchain

Never Lose Faith in Zeros!

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0000 won 2nd prize for 2nd time in over 10 years.

If you’re thinking of an early retirement and considering playing lottery or indulging in crypto speculation in achieving your financial goal, you can’t merely hope or pray for the best.

Even Lady Luck favors those who diligently put their mathematical or probabilistic knowledge into practice. You can’t be a passive pray-er!

As a “math person,” there are certain “smart” steps you’d take to increase the chances of winning the lottery or outperforming the market. For instance, if you longed to be one of the few (or the only one) rather than one of the many winners in a 4D or TOTO draw, it’s wiser to choose the oft-dreaded 0000 (or deadly 4444) instead of the boring 1234 or auspicious (or superstitious?) 8888.

Remember: Not all 4Ds are treated the same—some are luckier than others!

PHOTO: Stomp

In case you think that only semi-educated, semi-innumarates, or blue-collar folks (or MAGA patriots or Jan. 6 “hostages”) play lottery or visit casinos, you couldn’t be more wrong.

A decent (or probably obscene?) number of mathematicians and math educators worldwide frequently (or discreetly) try their luck in all kinds of gambling activities, legal or illegal.

It looks like they “know” something that the majority of “educated” folks tend to dismiss as a recreational or get-rich-quick activity for the “uneducated” or “mathematically challenged.”

PHOTO: Stomp. Since 1986, 0000 got lucky a total of 14 times, excluding the latest result.

Who are laughing all their way to the bank? Who are we to judge these street-smart folks, who’re now financially independent while their geeky friends are barely surviving to pay the bills or mortgages?

There are more than one way to be cash-rich (but often time- or health-poor), and 4D lottery is one such arguably sinful avenue or option to fulfilling that dream.

How are they (morally) different: Young Singaporeans speculating in crypto hoping to retire early, and their parents or/and grandparents playing 4D and TOTO every week also praying to retire prematurely?

Luckily & wealthily (and generously) yours

References

Number 0000 wins second prize in 4D draw for second time after over 10 years tinyurl.com/mv9pfk4m

Number 0000 wins second prize in 4D draw tinyurl.com/m3kchuvw

© Yan Kow Cheong, November 23, 2024.

Are You a Square?

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Math geeks or nerds are frequently labeled a “square.” Nonmath or non-symbol-minded folks also nickname them a “block” or “bore”!

Art © Grant Snider

Indeed, it hurts if you’re dubbed one! There is no shortage of negative or unflattering labels to describe those who’re apparently born or blessed with the “math gene.”

Fortunately, these days, with so many math geeks using their talent or gifting to help produce all kinds of technological marvels, or helping the world solve a number of wicked problems, respect or awe for the socially awkward or romantically inept seems to be at an all-time high.

Getting Rich from Math

Think of those tens of thousands of millionaires and billionaires worldwide, who’ve made their fortune thanks to the oft-invisible power or applications of math and science.

Their “square” looks or dating habits might make you avoid them like the plague, but you can be sure that a good percentage of these “bores” or “non-blockheads” are laughing all the way to the bank.

Many of those “squares” or “blocks” are being paid handsomely because of their sought-after mathematical or coding skills.

And many of these (oft-foreign-born) guys Trump & gang think they can do without them because they’re “stealing” white-collar jobs or “spying” on Americans—the MAGA cult want to deport (or even demonize) them to protect local high-tech jobs from skilled aliens.

Yes, some of these geeky guys and gals are arguably unhandsome or plain-looking. Who cares when math is their god, which has allowed them to retire prematurely or to attain financial independence, when their non-STEM peers are struggling to pay the bill?

Love + Math = Success

And if you’re a hundredaire or thousandaire, it’s not too late to befriend or even date some of them. There is exponential power or benefit when love meets math. When you discover in no time that the square-looking geek is often an (imperfect) circle inside.

Remember: The geeks shalt inherit the earth!

Squarely & securely yours

© Yan Kow Cheong, October 6, 2024

Math Word of the Day: Bitcoin

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The advent of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether has provided math educators worldwide with fertile resources to indulge themselves in creative mathematical posing and solving.

Unfortunately, the negative perception that cryptocurrency or crypto is a vector for serious organized crime and money laundering has led millions of half-informed or risk-averse folks to adopt a wait-and-see attitude vis-à-vis Bitcoin transactions.

Who/What Is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Nobody knows the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. If the name isn’t a he or she or it, could the name be a covert group of cryptographers and mathematicians?

Like the modern-day equivalent of the Bourbaki group—the collective pseudonym of a group of predominantly French mathematicians in the 1930s, who tried to axiomatize mathematics to make it more rigorous?

So far, the few suspects—digital-currency addict Nick Szabo, Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki, and Co.—all have denied being the founder of Bitcoin, except for Australian computer scientist who loudly but unprovenly claimed that he is Nakamoto.

Crypto Math

Posing fertile crypto math questions is only limited by our imagination. Thanks to Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, NFTs, and the Metaverse, I’ve toyed around with a number of crypto math questions.

Below are a sample of Bitcoin-related questions that I hope would make their way into a math booklet fit for publication in a-not-too-distant future.

  1. Bitcoins are divided into Satoshis: one hundred million Satoshis in each Bitcoin. At the current Bitcoin price, what fraction of a U.S. cent is worth the smallest fraction of a Bitcoin?
  2. In 2010, a pizza restaurant agreed to accept ten thousand Bitcoins in exchange for two large pizzas. At today’s exchange rate, how much would each pizza be worth?
  3. In September 2021, El Salvador approved Bitcoin as a secondary currency; in April 2022, Central African Republic followed suit. Which rogue or war-torn nation in Asia or the Middle East would be the first one to make Bitcoin its official currency? Or would it be “fine” city Singapore that would lead the way in becoming SE Asia’s crypto hub?
  1. Crypto Apocalypse: What are the odds that due to hyperinflation (or a possible WW3 in the aftermath of the senseless Ukraine-Russia war) people would start losing faith in Bitcoin to the point that it suffered the same fate as the Zimbabwean dollar bills?
  2. A golf resort is rumored to have been gifted with 13.257 ETH and 12.5 bitcoin from a Middle Eastern prince. How much did the shady resort receive in cash donation from their criminal donor?

Crypto Winter Is Coming!

With news of a crypto winter in the horizon, let’s hope that the mathematics of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency wouldn’t deter math educators globally from getting involved in creative mathematical thinking and problem solving.

I don’t know about you, but I’m waiting for Bitcoin to drop under $10,000 as my next buy alert. The future lies in Bitcoin—or in blockchain.

Richly yours

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