Tag: #article

<strong>Web 3</strong>

Web 3

KUCC Journal

A topic of conversation!

“Web 3”, “Web3” or “Web 3.0”, whatever you want to call it, is a topic of conversation today! It won’t be shocking if, you haven’t heard about Web 3, because it’s recently launched in September 2021.

Let me guide you on Web 3 via this article!

Don’t be confused with Semantic, i.e. Web. Web 3.0, is an extension of the World Wide Web through standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It is the third generation of online services where AI-based semantics, AR/VR-based immersive-ness, and blockchain-based decentralization come together to create transparent, ubiquitous, open, and socially responsible internet experiences. In simple words, it is an identity layer for the internet. “Web 3 represents the next generation of the internet, one that focuses on shifting power from big tech companies to individual users,” says Robert Stevens.

It was elaborated by Berners-Lee along with AI researcher James Alexander Hendler and computer scientist Ora Lassila in a 2001 Scientific American article. The goal of Web 3 is to make Internet data machine-readable. The emergence of Web 3 is the result of the sequence of improvements done in the concept according to the need of time.

There were two different versions before Web 3. The first version of the Internet — known as Web 1 — arrived in the late 1990s and comprised a collection of links and homepages. The websites weren’t particularly interactive. You couldn’t do much apart from reading things and publishing basic content for others to read. Then was the era of Web 2. Some people call this the “read/write” version of the internet. This version of the Internet allowed people to not only consume content, but create their own content and publish it on blogs like Tumblr, Internet forums, and marketplaces like Craigslist. Later, the emergence of social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram took content sharing to new heights. And enters Web 3, which can be understood as the “read/write/own” phase of the Internet. Rather than just using free tech platforms in exchange for our data, users can participate in the governance and operation of the protocols themselves. This means people can become participants and shareholders, not just customers or products. In rather simpler words, you have the freedom to manipulate your data on your terms.

Web 2 has major drawbacks because of this Web 3 was brought into existence to overcome this backwardness of Web 2. Web 2 is based on a centralized client-server structure. However, Web 3 was developed to break this centralized system into distributed ledgers. It is built using artificial intelligence, machine learning and the semantic web, and uses the blockchain security system to keep your information safe and secure. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will help in decoding and filtering online data and offering the most relevant choices to users. The Internet of Things (IoT) will help the interoperability layer of Web 3 to connect the internet to smart devices. Blockchain will help in achieving decentralized data storage and foster faith in the virtual world. It is the foundation for web 3.0.

Walking you through Web3, here is the list of advantages and disadvantages that gives more of a basic idea related to Web3.

The advantages of Web 3 are:

  1. Encrypted data
  2. Accessible data and multiple backups
  3. Transparency
  4. Enhanced data processing
  5. Single profile creation
  6. Restrictionless platform

The disadvantages of Web 3 are:

  1. Very advanced to use
  2. Complicated functionality
  3. Difficult to adopt

Now, as you have all already come across the idea of what actually Web 3 is, and now you all might have started to think about and notice the devices and technologies present in your surroundings. Take a look around you, and think about the applications of Web 3.

I am sure, you all might have guessed at least a few. Let me take you through some basics as well as some of the unknown words to your ears.

Some applications of Web 3 are:

  1. Apple’s Siri
  2. Wolfram Alpha
  3. Sola
  4. Steemit
  5. IDEX
  6. e-Chat
  7. Everledger

Web 3 is the idea of the next generation of the Web, where most people will be connected on a decentralized network and people will also have control of their own data. It will take a little time to understand the complexities of Web 3, as it is a very new topic. However, the development of this new version will make the vision clear and the world will probably be covered with Web 3, a vague topic now.

Writing credit

Melina Shakya

<strong>Blockchain Technology</strong>

Blockchain Technology

KUCC Journal

A new entry for a new era!

Introduction

Blockchain was first introduced in the 1990s, but it became very popular after 2009 when an anonymous person named “Satoshi Nakamoto” introduced Bitcoin.

Blockchain is the list of records called blocks that are linked together via cryptography. It can simply be understood as a ledger, where each block contains relevant data like financial transactions, medical records, etc. A block contains a unique hash, which is the digital signature of the data in the block and which helps to uniquely identify a block from other blocks. The initial/first block is known as the genesis block. Each block is linked with other blocks and the other block contains the hash of the previous block.

Why does Blockchain matter?

As mentioned earlier, a block contains a unique hash and also a hash of the previous block. So, if anyone tries to tamper with the data or information stored in the block, the hash of the block gets changed. Since, the next block is storing the hash of the previous block and since the previous block’s hash gets changed, the next block becomes invalid as it no longer stores the previous block’s hash.

Also, the blockchain is a distributed database, i.e., there is no central system or server and the data is available to computers all around the world. Users from all over the network can get a full copy of the blockchain i.e. all the data like transactional data, records, etc., and they can verify and keep track of the data, which helps maintain transparency.

Some Applications of Blockchain:

Blockchain technology has become a very major factor in the development of whole new technology and ideas like Cryptocurrency, Web3, NFT, and Decentralized Voting applications (DApps).

Here in this article, we will be discussing two of the trending applications of Blockchain i.e. Cryptocurrency and NFT.

Cryptocurrency

In the present time, where every little object, whether it be a certain tool or it is an asset, everything has taken its grand entry on the digital platform, and this has made everything happen with a click. It was more than obvious that the centralized currency system was heading towards its extinction. . If we just pause and think about it, it’s something extraordinary, it’s like magic!

Let’s understand what exactly is cryptocurrency.

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency, where the blockchain is used to record and secure every transaction. Since it works on blockchain technology, it does not have central issuing or regulating authorities and is decentralized, i.e. the payment is sent directly from one party to another party without going through financial institutions. If in case, we make payments or transactions with cash or digital payment service provided by banks or e-wallets the transactions go from sender to receiver through the middleman like banks and other financial institutions. The services provided by financial institutions no doubt are very useful and convenient, but there are some ways where things could get wrong and cause inconvenience.

Some of the few scenarios would be:

  1. Technical issues like the system being down
  2. Bank account being hacked
  3. The transfer limit being exceeded
  4. The capital loss due to the middleman(transaction cost)

These all situations can be prevented by the use of cryptocurrency. Since the cryptocurrency contains no middleman, the transactions are simply from sender to receiver where the system checks the necessary criteria like required balance, user authentication, etc. and the transaction takes place in a matter of minutes.

The top 10 Cryptocurrencies in March 2022 as listed by Forbes are:

  • Bitcoin
  • Ethereum
  • Tether
  • Binance Coin
  • US Dollar Coin
  • XRP
  • Terra
  • Cardano
  • Solana
  • Avalanche

NFT

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. They are digital representations of assets on blockchain with unique identification codes. Since the identification codes are unique i.e. the token is unique, the asset becomes non-replaceable. The assets may be anything like music, digital painting, video game skins, tweets, etc. 

Let us understand the term ‘non-Fungible’ with a simple example. Suppose, you and your friend have a bitcoin, so you can digitally exchange your bitcoin with your friend’s bitcoin, and both have the same value, suppose you have a painting, and if you exchange your painting with the painting possessed by your friend you will get a whole new thing as the previous painting was unique in itself i.e. it does not have the same value. NFT allows the buyer to own the original item, and it contains built-in authentication, which serves as proof of ownership. The unique identity and ownership are stored in a blockchain, typically on the Ethereum blockchain.

Nowadays, selling digital artwork using this technology is a great hype. Popular Bollywood actor ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ made 7 crores selling his NFT collection. Not only popular artists but, also has made ordinary people millionaires. A very great incident took place where Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, an Indonesian student, took a photo of himself every day for five years and sold his selfies as NFTs and his collection reached a trading volume of more than $1 million. Buying selfies for this huge money may seem very absurd but many people have the habit of collecting this kind of thing which opens the door to new opportunities for many creative people.

Not only digital arts but tweets as well by famous personalities have been sold as NFT which was bought at a very high price. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet as an NFT for the price of $2,915,835.47. NFTs are typically sold and bought with cryptocurrency. NFT now has become a great medium to sell your creations online in the digital world.

Potential & feasibility of Blockchain Technology in Developing Countries like Nepal

Blockchain technology has great potential in developing countries like Nepal. Yet there still exist some challenges on the way forward. The transaction records and other important data when kept by a single organization, it is very easy to manipulate, and high possibility of getting tampered with data by authority figures or other important people for their benefit. Now, if Blockchain technology is used to store such data, it cannot be modified and tampered with easily for some personal benefit. So, this, in a way, helps to solve the huge problem of corruption. The Nepal Government also can use it to keep and manage records of its citizens. Blockchain technology can also be implemented for fair and transparent elections to ensure that the votes have gone to the person whom we have voted for as the records will be stored in the blockchain and no one can modify the votes for their personal or political benefits. Financial transaction which requires middlemen like banks and other financial institutions can eliminate the middlemen using blockchain technology as people now no longer require the help of these institutions to send or receive money. Blockchain technology can also be very helpful in tracing the origin of the product. For example, if you buy a vegetable from a store; how do you know where the vegetable has come from to ensure its quality? So, the use of blockchain technology will be of great help in such cases as the origin of the product can easily be traced, and the citizens can buy quality goods and food items for a better lifestyle.

Conclusion:

So, Blockchain technology is considered to be a technology that is growing from good to great, as it has successfully been implemented in developing whole new technology like Cryptocurrency, NFT, and concepts like Web3. Blockchain has led the foundation for building a decentralized and transparent system for the people, industries, various institutions, and the country as a whole for economic and financial development. Information and data now with the help of Blockchain can easily be traced and cannot be tampered which proves that Blockchain in the future is not only going to be limited to the present application of the technology, technologies, and services in the future for sure will use Blockchain Technology and this technology experience immense growth in coming days.

Writing Credit

Sushankhya Chapagain

Engineering: The Fairy Tale

Engineering: The Fairy Tale

KUCC Journal

Need a wand or want just a lifetime memory?

For someone like me, especially, a guy who believed he will never ever be having a special day that will be worth remembering. But, who knew, the same guy will be marking a special day and be able to share it as well.

For me, that special day was 28th February 2021.

The day where I started my journey to be an Engineer, not just an Engineer, a Cool Computer one! Little did I know, back then, that this would be a quest for eternity.

Among the thousands who couldn’t join their dream Ivy League undergraduate school, I am also one.

I never thought for a second that, writing this one year later, I will be this happy as a year-old member of The Family of Kathmandu University.

As we enter the world of the kitchen, we find out there are several ingredients, some of which we are already aware of and some of which we are introduced to. As a normal being, I thought, entering engineering would be similar to entering a restaurant with different names yet, serving the same dishes. But, who knew, here, that same dishes would be named in the most fascinating way according to the people and places. For me, it felt like, calling a normal glass of water, Mineral water! Sounds fancier, but it is still water. The first flavour of engineering that I came across was probably the most believed, ‘The Cinematic Engineering’. The second and cool one that we get introduced to from the engineering seniors & chit-chat circles, is ‘The Chill Engineering’. Some other incarnations of Engineering we get introduced to are ‘You will be sitting on a pile of cash Engineering’,’ The Party-Party Engineering’, and’ The Soulmate Engineering’.

I can now tell you, after a year, that this is not what Engineering is.

Anyone, I repeat anyone, who is a true Engineer will laugh out of their lungs every time s/he hears of these variants.

Starting from the most beautiful aspect of Engineering, Friends. The most common aspect among all the variants of Engineering is the circle we make throughout this period. Generally, the friends we make during the starting weeks are the ones who stay together throughout the duration and might even be throughout life. From tea gathering to pee gathering, from birthday cakes to beautiful treks, from sports to projects, festivals and roadside dance, the most unpleasant jamming sessions they are the ones who support. To enjoy your Engineering life to the fullest, remember to make some quality circles.

This is only one side of the story, no matter what you will find some people who you just can’t resonate with, and it’s totally up to you whether you choose to enjoy the cherishable or just keep lamenting.

But in Engineering all about this only? No, the serious stuff is yet to come. Loads of assignments, tons of quizzes, midterms, end sem, internal-external viva, projects, and God knows what else. It will be very untrue to say that these are impossible to go through, as you will often feel to be the only person who has to go through this. It’s never about the load, but how well you can handle your time and grow under pressure. This is the life-changing skill you will have developed, once you are into this.

Distractions, peer pressure, over-excitement, and under-excitement are integral parts of this journey. You can never have them completely out of this journey, which will result as disturb in the equilibrium, rather you have to make sure to embrace all of these and still remain intact to what you desire to become, an Engineer.

All these things about Engineering, but the unbeaten truth is once you are into Engineering, it never leaves you till the end, it will always be an integral part of you. The part that shines out over all others.

Writing Credit
Sangam Ghimire

Know our Design Community Coordinators!

KUCC Journal

This article is interview-based. For this article, Mr Kushal Manandhar and Mr Sushant Subedi, the Design community coordinators, had been interviewed with a series of questions by the Documentation team.

Q1)Tell us about yourselves!

Ans. Hello, I am Kushal Manandhar. I am a 3rd-year Computer Engineering student. I  am the coordinator of the Design Community. I am an ambitious person who likes to set goals and work on the goals systematically rather than following a blind approach. I create time blocks to achieve my daily goals and usually stick to my routine to be productive most of the time.  Playing games is my way of releasing stress and refreshing myself. I am very open-minded and calm by nature.

Kushal Manandhar, Design Coordinator

Hello, I am Sushant Subedi. I am from Nepalgunj. I completed high school at KMC. After high school, I planned to go abroad for my higher education but later studied Computer Science at Kathmandu University.

I was most of the time involved in a youth leadership development organization named AIESEC Nepal. Being involved in different clubs at KU, I got the chance to explore my best interest. I also contributed to a few clubs at KU and explored many fields to find what was suitable for me. I later found my interest in designing. I am very fond of designing and being a creative person I find this field exciting. I am presently the Community Coordinator of  KUOSC Design Community. I am a foodie and speaking of my hobbies I like to travel in my free time. 

                  
        Sushant Subedi, Design Coordinator

Q2) Define the term ‘Design’ in your own words.

Ans. According to us, the term ‘design’ is neither technical nor professional but a way of sharing ideas, thoughts,  emotions, and overall creativity. It’s a very creative field, where the design elements (such as typography and images) convey information.  For us, design has always been a mood freshener that allows us to increase our creativity to a whole new level.

Q3) What according to you makes a good graphic designer?

Ans. Well, that’s a great question. According to us, Graphic designers must possess certain qualities. The first and foremost is patience. Patience is the key to success in this field. You cannot create a masterpiece in a single day,  it requires a lot of hard work. You must be patient enough to learn all the concepts and not rush to complete the topics and concepts. Another quality a good designer must possess is competency. A designer must be competent and at every point try to push himself or herself to get the best possible results. A good designer should always have a good idea and gather the energy to create new designs. A good designer is also a good listener who constantly tries to learn from others. Last but not least, he/she should be a constant learner and should possess the ability to accept criticism.

Q4) If you had to learn everything from the beginning, how would you proceed?

Ans. If we had to get back to those days when we just started to learn design, we would concentrate more on the basic theory. Tutorials too would be helpful, but we would avoid depending only on tutorials since watching too many tutorials makes you dependent and less creative. Our focus would be more on the concept and apply the concept learned from the documentation to our design. Copying the trendy design would also be a good idea to learn in the beginning phase. Staying close to the design community for feedback would also be a very good option.

Q5) How do you get new design ideas? Describe your creative process.

Ans. That’s a tough question! We think that there is no need to brainstorm for creativity. We observe trends in the digital market, get different ideas from other designs, google, and in our free time when we use social media, we just take a screenshot if we see any interesting design and try to learn from it. If you professionally work as a designer you should first see the requirements of the company or client and then after proper research and taking help of proper references (if necessary) you can draw your idea. For us, creativity may come from anywhere, and no matter wherever it comes from, we give in our best to make it perfect use in our design. We also sometimes spend hours thinking about suitable topics and sometimes when we are not satisfied with the design we again in the middle of creating a design just have to stop and start again with a new topic or design.

Q6) What were/are your struggles as a Designer?

Ans. Learning design is a very long process, and first and foremost the main struggle we faced was impatience. Even after learning continuously and creating various designs we didn’t have good results at first and sometimes in a hurry of learning everything we would skip various important concepts. This used to make us frustrated and impatient. In the beginning, we also did not plan a proper routine for ourselves, which also was the cause of imperfection. Sometimes in our initial days of learning, we also felt that other people were very biased as they would select other ideas instead of ours, which later we realized was not true,  gave us a very hard time. These struggles now shaped us to become good designers. There is also a huge gap between self-learning and taking internships and jobs in companies and exploring how things worked there fixed everything up. 

Q7) There are many fields in Computer Science, but what made you choose to design?

Ans. Well, it’s very simple. We simply chose to design because it excited us the most than any other field. When choosing your field, you must see how passionate you are about the field. We found out our passion for designing and learning to design was more like fun and gave us immense happiness. We can wake up fresh every morning, even after spending a long time creating designs the previous night. Even when travelling by bus, our eyes automatically go to the hoarding board, seeing the designs implemented there and thinking about what would have made it more attractive and beautiful. 

Q8) What are your visions and goals as a coordinator of the Design Community?

Ans. The Design Community has some flaws which we would like to correct at first. First of all, we would like more people to come for design as there is less number of designers on the team. Also, whenever programs are being held, the designs and posters should be made beforehand by the Design Community. We are also planning to inform the students about careers in design. We have also prepared a one-year plan in which we plan to bring new design podcasts, and challenges, publish magazines, call mentors for guidance and provide field training. We are also going to bring new projects and activities for the students.

Q9) What changes would you like to bring via your committee?

Ans. Well, we would like to set a benchmark through our committee. Students should know what to work on and explore, and we as the coordinators of the design community would like to guide the students on that topic. We would also provide mentorship and feedback to the students who are learning to design. We would like to create friendly teaching and learning environment via our committee.

Q10) Some words of motivation to the one in this field of designing or one scared to enter this field.

Ans.  If you are new, first of all, try. Always remember, a good starting is half done when u try. You will get to explore many things in this field. Express your creativity freely and work on yourself to make yourself better day by day. If you are a beginner, complete the basics fully and implement the concepts in your design. Don’t lose hope and always remember, that bad design leads to the best design. If you are in this field, brush up on all your concepts properly and implement them in your design. Be as creative as you can be. Take inspiration from other designs. 

Fellow designers always remember “Good Designers Copy, Best Designers steal”.

Interviewed by: Sushankhya Chapagain