Renee Ricardo

General Information

Block chain is the complex technology which is used to create bitcoin and what is used to help people acquire it. Bitcoin is the “world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency” (Global Internet Ventures, ‘Bitcoin Australia’, 2018) and it is used to purchase products online or just as a simple money maker. Block chain is complex technology that provides the basis for bitcoin.  Bitcoin and Block chain come with many technical and security problems as it is online and has a code which means it can always be hacked and taken from individuals who have used the correct measures to purchase it. This can be part of the reason why people are hesitant in regards to purchasing bitcoin.

Technical and History Information

Bitcoin and Block chain have been around for roughly 9-10 years (2008-2009) and is an emerging technologies that is having big benefits for people online. It is mostly used for purchasing products online or for profit of the owner as it can be sold to make money. There isn’t overally much history on bitcoin and block chain as it is fairly new and is mostly just used by companies online to acquire money. In 2017 Bitcoin was hacked by online hackers and the damage was roughly “$64 million” (Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian, December 7^th 2017) in bitcoin, and the hack was a “highly professional attack with sophisticated social engineering” (Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian, December 7th 2017). No attacks have been reported since then which implies that security has either been vamped up or the owner of Block Chain have rewritten the chains. Block Chain can be used for other things besides Bitcoin as it is basically an electronic version of agreements so that once a deal is made it is unbreakable which means it can’t be rewritten. This will come in handy in other areas such as: finance, computing, law, government sectors etc. as it will help to make a lot more agreements reliable as they will be harder to break and hold stronger bonds.

Block chain itself is a complex technology as it is a decentralized program which means that it is not controlled by one singular person, but by a community of individual people. Block chain is a series of virtual blocks that bond together to form a chain (not a literal chain a virtual chain) and this produces a code for the bitcoin. The chain begins when people store data upon data and it keeps all the information in order so it can be tracked so it is known how the bitcoin is being used, what it is used for  as to how much each person has and it also tracks where it has been spent and what it is used for. Bitcoin is fairly simple to acquire as you either buy it or mine it. To buy 1 Bitcoin as of today it will cost $10,664.16 Australian Dollars. (Global Internet Ventures, ‘Buy Bitcoin’, 2018), as it is currently so expensive people resort to other measures to acquire it which is called Mining. A Miner is someone who “uses a special software to solve complex math problems” (Hesiod Services LLC, ‘Bitcoin Mining’, 2011-2018) and in exchange they are “issued a certain number of bitcoins” (Hesiod Services LLC, ‘Bitcoin Mining’, 2011-2018).  To successfully have mined bitcoin the miners have to “add bitcoin transaction data to Bitcoin’s global public ledger of past transactions” (Saint Bitts LLC, ‘Bitcoin Mining’, 2018).  Mining of Bitcoin causes a few major problems as it is it steals off of other people and it can also have environmental impacts. It can cause environmental problems as it can be a “source of pollution” (Jerel Flint, MyMod, and 2nd November 2017) as the amount of energy that miners average is about “215 kilo-watts (KWH) is used for every bitcoin transaction” (Jerel Flint, MyMod, and 2nd November 2017) that is more than most household appliances. This is a bad thing as we don’t need to be adding more pollution to the planet as our cars and household emissions are doing enough of that, and using block chain is not helping to reduce pollution. Block chain and bitcoin are an emerging technology which will become more popular in the coming years.

Impact of Technology

Block chain and Bitcoin will benefit most people in society, businesses in particular as they will be able to use the technology to their advantage. The way that block chain makes agreements binding and unbreakable will be the most useful part of block chain as it will help to ensure that any agreements made between big companies and even between small companies will be binding and secure for their needs. It will also be handy as everything that is registered online with regards to the agreement will be stored for later use and proof of everything that has happened and they can track exactly where everything is going. The only downside of block chain for businesses is that it can be hacked fairly easily at this point. It doesn’t take long for professional hackers to break into the system and steal all the data which means the businesses data is not entirely safe from the world, and I think this will be the only issue in regards to how block chain will be used and how far the technology will spread.

References:

Global Internet Ventures 2018, ‘Bitcoin Australia’, retrieved on 16^th April 2018, https://bitcoin.com.au/ ,

:Hesiod Services LLC 2011-2018, ‘Bitcoin Mining’, retrieved on 16^th April 2018,https://www.bitcoinmining.com/

Saint Bitts LLC 2018, ‘Bitcoin Mining’, retrieved on 16^th April 2018, https://www.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-mining,

Samuel Gibbs 2017, The Guardian, ‘Bitcoin: $64m in cryptocurrency stolen in ‘sophisticated’ hack, exchange says’ , retrieved April 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/07/bitcoin-64m-cryptocurrency-stolen-hack-attack-marketplace-nicehash-passwords

Jerel Flint 2017, MyMod, ‘Bitcoin mining has huge environmental impacts, according to new research’, retrieved 16^th April 2018,  https://www.modmy.com/bitcoin-mining-emits-massive-amounts-co2

 

 

My Name is Renee Ricardo and I am 20 years of age. My Hobbies include hanging out with my friends and family either watching movies or playing games or cards, Reading and movies. I am currently employed within the customer service sector as I have part-time hours at Donut King. I am often responsible for handling and dealing with money, staff training and light managerial items. I enjoy working as part of a team as I do with fellow staff members as I find it character building and it also helps to develop my professional and social skill. I am a hard-worker and I am not afraid to put in the long hours required to succeed. I can work well in a team or independently and I rarely stray from tasks and deadlines. I also show up on time, looking neat and ready to start work.  I am interested in eventually after studying pursuing a career somewhere within the legal or computing sector. I thoroughly enjoy the legal side of how things work as well as how it all works on the computer, and with cybercrime being such an issue at the moment, I think it would be a really rewarding and interesting career.

My Career Video has successfully been uploaded to Deakin Air. Attached is a link to the video and I would love for everyone to check it out and give me some feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to watch it!

Link to video: https://video.deakin.edu.au/media/t/1_ynjjt58u

 

Attached is a screenshot of my Deakin Talent profile.

I have chosen to follow 7 different communities so far. They vary from Business & Law to ICT Industries to Internships and Placements. I have selected a variety of communities to keep my options open as I am interested at looking at a career in the Law or ICT areas. I have also followed Internships and Part-Time and Casual work as they will be posting jobs which I may take an interest in and the Internships and Placements page, as later on in my course I need to complete a placement and it is good to branch out and start looking at what I am interested in.

I also followed respective employers like Flight Centre, Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Australian Federal Police (AFP), Arnold Bloch Leibler Lawyers and InternMe Australia as I think all these places would have lots of needs for IT professionals, and they will all need a website and advertising materials and it would be quite an opportunity to work at these places.

 

Link to my Deakin Talent Profile: https://talent.deakin.edu.au/profiles/html/networkView.do?widgetId=friends&action=rc&key=17bc8540-b79f-1037-9f46-eaabefeaf0b8&lang=en_gb&requireAuth=true

Attached is a a copy of my summary of my skills audit, career values and all of the rest and also a copy of my skills audit on it’s own.

I enjoy doing and have a strong ability in Teamwork and I have a strong attention to detail. I enjoy doing computer literacy and Questioning/Investigation but I need to develop my skills in these areas further which I believe undertaking a computer studies degree and through work I will gain the skills I need to succeed.

In a job I would look for stability and job security, a sense of purpose and I would like to be rewarded or recognised  as when you do work to a high expectation it is nice to be recognised.

To become an IT professional, I will need to develop particular skills that can be applied to a range of things within and outside the IT area.

In my First year of study I plan to investigate what jobs I am interested in and begin to assess what skills I need to be successful in them by completing skills audits regularly to know what I need to work on. I will regularly check Deakin Talent to find out what my followed employers are up to job wise so I can get a better understanding of how I need to present my self and my work. I also plan to reflect on my assessments and work perhaps in a portfolio as it will also help develop my skills. I will also study as many IT units as I can to enhance my skills and knowledge further.

In years Two & Three I will begin to research and engage with employers about Internships or Work Placement so I can begin to look at where I wish to undertake work. I will also need to get in contact with Professional Associations and begin to make connections with industries. I will also need to review my resume and portfolios and create a LinkedIn profile so I can connect with other people and employers. I would also like to be investigating graduate jobs so I have a rough idea of where I am headed after completing school.

In my final year, I will begin to audit my social media presence as I would not want future employers to see anything that would stop me getting a job and I would also need to review my applications/resume so it tailors to the particular needs of the job I am applying for. I would also like to look into post graduate study to see what I could get out of that and I would begin to apply for jobs so I can begin to make a career for myself.

For my Skills Summary and Audit I used; Deakin University’s Deakin Talent Page, Career Decisions, 2017, https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/deakintalent-currentstudents/portfolio-item/career-decisions/

For my Deakin Talent Profile I used; Deakin University’s Deakin Talent Page, 2018, https://talent.deakin.edu.au/wps/myportal

For my Career Timeline I used; Deakin University’s Deakin Talent Page, Timeline & Action plan, 2017, https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/deakintalent-currentstudents/portfolio-item/career-decisions/