Masaa ya Mututho no more!!

During the week when schools were just opening and children going back to school, Kenyans were treated to a sad episode on social media where a schoolgirl in full uniform was captured drunk and helpless. She was struggling in the hands of a stranger and nobody was able to tell where her parents were. The girl confessed that her mother takes alcohol and was her role model and mentor.

The following day Kenyans were treated to another incident in the same home after officials from the NACADA visited to offer assistance to the family.

The officials happily talked to the press and did not show any remorse or provide Kenyans with the road map that the organisation is taking to ensure that such cases are minimised.

Kenyans should remember that during the tenure of John Mututho as chairman of NACADA, incidences of alcohol abuse went down drastically and the organisation’s presence was being felt in every corner of the country. In fact, Kenyans came up with the term ‘‘masaa ya Mututho’’ to warn their friends to take alcohol within the stipulated time.

Many residential estates were calm after 11 P.M. as police patrols were common. Police officers would arrest those who violated the drinking hours.

But since his exit, nobody hears about NACADA again. The only time the organisation is mentioned is during the state appointments. Bars, nightclubs, wines and spirit shops are on the rise in residential areas with no opening time limit. Many estates in Nairobi are now home to many nightclubs with some even operating on the ground floors of apartments and flats.

Loud music until morning has now become the norm. Police officers are usually on the patrol in these areas and some are even found around these clubs every night, maybe to collect their dues! This life!!

These apartments are full of school children who need enough sleep and many other persons involved in nation building who need enough rest which is being interrupted.

Bar and nightclub operators claim that they have been issued with a 24-hour permit to operate in the estates from the regulator.

NACADA officials should wake up and bring this chaotic situation to an end.

Kenyan taxpayers cannot continue to pay these officials while there is nothing tangible happening on the ground.

NACADA should tell Kenyans who is issuing the 24-hour permits to bars and nightclubs in the estates.

What is it that which Mututho did that the current NACADA officials are not able to do?

School children are being exposed to alcohol and other immoral habits by the proliferation of these establishments in residential areas.

In many rural areas with limited resources, the chiefs and police have reduced alcohol abuse and it makes no sense that in Nairobi the administration that has resources is unable to contain such a situation. Somebody wake up!!!!

Why you should be cautious of the crypto-currency fuss!

If you’re looking to make a quick kill on the volatile and rapidly-growing cryptocurrency market, it may be wise to step back and learn a bit first.

While the market is a good place to make quick profits, the volatility of cryptocurrencies makes any investment a risky one – especially if you are investing in smaller coins. This, coupled with the complex technology behind cryptocurrencies and what makes each coin unique, means it is not a foolproof path to riches.

Volatility

While the success stories of Bitcoin and Ethereum investors continually encourage fresh investment into cryptocurrencies, the volatility of the market means you can lose a significant portion of your investment overnight.

This was demonstrated recently when the prices of almost all major cryptocurrencies dropped by around 53% in less than a week. This followed news of a cryptocurrency crackdown in China.

Blockchain expert Simon Dingle said that cryptocurrencies do carry risk and people must not invest more than they can afford to lose. If newcomers are chasing profits, then cryptocurrencies are as good a place as any to do it.

“People chasing a quick gain usually just get their faces ripped off by the market. That’s fine if they feel like doing it, but I’d prefer to spend my energy elsewhere.”

Dingle said investing in cryptocurrency purely to make quick profits is risky, and many people lose a considerable amount trying.

Security

Another issue plaguing newcomers to cryptocurrency is a lack of knowledge about how blockchain technology works.

This means new investors are often scammed, lose their private keys, or send their coins to the wrong address. Make sure you do your homework on where you are buying your cryptocurrencies from. Only use reputable exchanges like Luno in South Africa or Bitstamp in Europe.

I recommend using a hardware wallet like a Trezor or Ledger Nano S, or a secure software wallet like Bread, Blockchain, or Copay to store cryptocurrency.

Many phishing scams prey on a newcomer’s lack of knowledge, asking them to provide their wallet details to avoid a “hard fork”, or pose as third-party wallet providers.

Fakes

Scammers also leverage the unregulated nature of the environment to create their own cryptocurrencies, presenting no real product and holding ICOs aimed at inexperienced newcomers.

Potential investors must learn about how funds move around on the blockchain and how they can control their funds. Take time to learn about the difference between controlling your own keys and how to back them up, versus trusting an exchange to look after your keys for you.

Technology

Many cryptocurrency investors do not fully understand how blockchain technology works or the concepts behind the coins they have bought, but are looking to profit from the growth of those coins.

The blockchain technology underpinning cryptocurrencies has the potential to disrupt global banking, legal, and financial systems, and each cryptocurrency is usually backed by a development team which is building a specific infrastructure or application on the technology.

Most investors have limited knowledge of what they’re investing in. That isn’t just true of cryptocurrencies. People follow the crowd and very few take the time to truly understand what they’re doing and why.

Learning about the technology behind cryptocurrencies is more rewarding for newcomers, rather than just judging their potential to make money. If new investors want to learn about one of the most exciting developments in human history, then I believe learning about cryptocurrency has a lot more to offer than just the potential of profits.

THE CRYPTOCURRENCY BUBBLE!

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized systems based on blockchain technology, a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its biggest allure, is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

The first blockchain-based cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which still remains the most popular and most valuable. Today, there are thousands of alternate cryptocurrencies with various functions or specifications. Some of these are clones of Bitcoin while others are forks or new cryptocurrencies that split off from an already existing one.

BREAKING DOWN:

Cryptocurrencies are systems that allow for the secure payments of online transactions that are denominated in terms of a virtual "token," representing ledger entries internal to the system itself. 
"Crypto" refers to the fact that various encryption algorithms and cryptographic techniques, such as elliptical curve encryption, public-private key pairs, and hashing functions, are employed.

The first cryptocurrency to capture the public imagination was Bitcoin, which was launched in 2009 by an individual or group known under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. As of October 2018, there were over 17.33 million bitcoins in circulation with a total market value of around $115 billion (although the market price of bitcoin can fluctuate quite a bit). Bitcoin's success has spawned a number of competing cryptocurrencies, known as "altcoins" such as Litecoin, Namecoin and Peercoin, as well as Ethereum, EOS, and Cardano. 
Today, there are literally thousands of cryptocurrencies in existence, with an aggregate market value of over $200 billion (Bitcoin currently represents more than 50% of the total value).

Benefits and Drawbacks:

Cryptocurrencies hold the promise of making it easier to transfer funds directly between two parties in a transaction, without the need for a trusted third party such as a bank or credit card company; these transfers are facilitated through the use of public keys and private keys for security purposes. In modern cryptocurrency systems, a user's "wallet," or account address, has a public key, and the private key is used to sign transactions. Fund transfers are done with minimal processing fees, allowing users to avoid the steep fees charged by most banks and financial institutions for wire transfers.

Central to the appeal and function of Bitcoin is the blockchain technology it uses to store an online ledger of all the transactions that have ever been conducted using bitcoins, providing a data structure for this ledger that is exposed to a limited threat from hackers and can be copied across all computers running Bitcoin software. 
Every new block generated must be verified by the ledgers of each user on the market, making it almost impossible to forge transaction histories. 
Many experts see this blockchain as having important uses in technologies such as online voting and crowdfunding, and major financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase see potential in cryptocurrencies to lower transaction costs by making payment processing more efficient. 
However, because cryptocurrencies are virtual and do not have a central repository, a digital cryptocurrency balance can be wiped out by a computer crash if a backup copy of the holdings does not exist, or if somebody simply loses their private keys.

At the same time, there is no central authority, government, or corporation that has access to your funds or your personal information.

The semi-anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them well-suited for a host of nefarious activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion. However, cryptocurrency advocates often value the anonymity highly. 
Some cryptocurrencies are more private than others. Bitcoin, for instance, is a relatively poor choice for conducting illegal business online, and forensic analysis of bitcoin transactions has led authorities to arrest and prosecute criminals. More privacy-oriented coins do exist, such as Dash, ZCash, or Monero, which are far more difficult to trace.

Since prices are based on supply and demand, the rate at which a cryptocurrency can be exchanged for another currency can fluctuate widely. However, plenty of research has been undertaken to identify the fundamental price drivers of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has indeed experienced some rapid surges and collapses in value, reaching as high as $19,000 per bitcoin in December of 2017 before returning to around $7,000 in the following months. Cryptocurrencies are thus considered by some economists to be a short-lived fad or speculative bubble. 
There is a concern especially that the currency units, such as bitcoins, are not rooted in any material goods. Some research has identified that the cost of producing a bitcoin, which takes an increasingly large amount of energy, is directly related to its market price.

Cryptocurrencies' blockchains are secure, but other aspects of a cryptocurrency ecosystem are not immune to the threat of hacking. In Bitcoin's almost 10-year history, several online exchanges have been the subject of hacking and theft, sometimes with millions of dollars’ worth of 'coins' stolen. Still, many observers look at cryptocurrencies as hope that a currency can exist that preserves value, facilitates exchange, is more transportable than hard metals, and is outside the influence of central banks and governments.