James
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Stellar Soroban Alerts With OpenZeppelin Monitor
In this tutorial we will be setting up the OpenZeppelin monitor and creating a custom monitor to get alerts on large USDC transfers and send them to a Telegram chat. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/9ebmeGu1LmE | Subscribe To follow along you’ll need Rust installed. Let’s start by forking and building the repository: The…
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Pine Script v6 For Tradingview: How I Created An Indicator To Find Bitcoin/Microstrategy Divergences
Pine Script v6 has just been released and whether you have never created a TradingView indicator before or you are a Pinemaster, there’s something in here for everyone. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/6XOTQ4OP-dE | Subscribe Let’s start by exploring the upgrade and new features, then we’ll jump into writing some code using the…
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3 Conversation Starter Prompts To Turn ChatGPT In To A Life Coach
Over the last few months I’ve had more deep and meaningful conversations with large language models than I have with friends and family IRL. While that might not be a great thing I’ve found it very valuable and want to share some of the prompts I’ve used to get these conversations started. 1. Design The…
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Creating OpenZeppelin Soroban NFT’s
In this tutorial we will be creating a NFT contract on Stellar Soroban using the libraries from OpenZeppelin James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/xA1HfckPqFs | Subscribe To follow along you’ll need a couple of pieces of software:- The full source code for this project is available on Github:https://github.com/jamesbachini/OZ-Stellar-NFT The code is based on the…
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Creating Landing Pages Using Web3 Backends
In this tutorial we will be demonstrating how web3 technology can be used to store data on-chain rather than in a database when building a landing page. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/3iPqLtjL_9k | Subscribe We will be using a simple Soroban smart contract to store a counter which increases each time a transaction…
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Building A Stellar Web Wallet With Blend
In this tutorial I’m going to show you how I built a web based wallet that can create Stellar addresses and deposit any funds to Blend Capital. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/GbAy9f93eyE | Subscribe Blend is an overcollateralized lending protocol that enables lenders to earn yield on their deposits. The source code for…
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Stellar Anchor Platform Tutorial
Anchors serve as bridges between traditional finance and blockchain technology. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/57iZMxAr_1Y | Subscribe They enable users to move money seamlessly between their bank accounts and the Stellar network. Without Anchors, integrating traditional financial systems with blockchain would be significantly more complex. Anchors make decentralized finance more accessible by providing…
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3 Reasons Why Bitcoin Outperforming Everything Else In Crypto?
Over the last year, since the release of the ETF’s Bitcoin has outperformed the rest of the crypto market on a risk adjusted basis. This has led to more maximalism and less attention to DeFi and Web3. There are negative opinions on why alts are failing to compete, whether it’s the Ethereum Foundation’s management or…
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Building a SEP41 Token on Stellar Soroban with OpenZeppelin
OpenZeppelin has just launched the first few contract libraries for the Soroban ecosystem. Let’s take a look and build out a token using their fungible token module. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/2Ak_nHyfrEU | Subscribe Deploying a Fungible Token on Soroban Prerequisites Ensure you have the following installed: You’ll also need some testnet tokens…
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Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Imminent
The upcoming Pectra upgrade, scheduled for March 2025, aims to make ethereum more efficient and lay the ground work for further scaling and development. Pectra is a significant update that merges two planned upgrades, Prague and Electra, into one comprehensive overhaul. This combined effort is designed to streamline improvements and accelerate Ethereum’s evolution. Account Abstraction…
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Vibe Coding
What Is Vibe Coding? An Introduction To Next Gen AI Development Is vibe coding an overhyped trend or a real threat to your job security? Vibe coding is an AI first approach to software development. Instead of meticulously structuring code, debugging line by line, and sweating over syntax, developers now interact with AI models like…
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Ark’s Big Ideas For 2025 Summary
Always a Cathie Wood fan so here’s a condensed version of the research report at:https://www.ark-invest.com/big-ideas-2025 Multiomics, Genomics, and AI-Driven Drug Discovery Robotics and Automation Aerospace and Reusable Rockets Energy and Infrastructure Overarching Themes and Takeaways
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DeepSeek vs ChatGPT | Is The Future Of AI Open-Source & Chinese?
Let’s start with how these AIs are trained. ChatGPT goes through pre-training, learning from an enormous amount of text scraped from the internet, the model then completes supervised fine-tuning for better instruction following, and then reinforcement learning with human feedback. Basically, it’s learning what we like and don’t like, improving its responses for all kinds…
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10 Worst Web Hacks
The 18th annual “Top 10 Web Hacking Techniques of 2024” highlighted web security research through community nominations and expert panel voting. From 121 initial nominations, 103 qualified entries were evaluated, culminating in the selection of the most innovative web security findings. Confusion Attacks in Apache HTTP Server Researchers found ways to make the Apache web…
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Deploying An NFT Using Stellar Soroban
Today I’m going to show you how I deployed a simple NFT contract to Soroban, Stellar’s smart contract platform. Whether you’re an artist, a developer, or just curious about blockchain, this tutorial will guide you through the process step-by-step. Let’s get started. You’ll need a few things to get started:- James On YouTube Watch On…
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Soroban Token Deployment + React dApp Tutorial (Stellar SDK)
In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the process of deploying a fungible token on the Stellar network using Soroban smart contracts, and then build a decentralized application to interact with it. We’ll cover everything from setting up your development environment to creating a user interface for token transfers. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/oF624m5b384…
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Using ChatGPT To Monitor The Silk Road Bitcoin
In this video I demonstrate how to monitor a Bitcoin address using NodeJS James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/rZ5TnPkO86Y | Subscribe Here is a quick script (full code below) that was knocked up using chatGPT to play an mp3 alert file if any Bitcoin moves from the SilkRoad address. I set this up because…
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Crypto Market Thesis 2025
It’s that time of the year again, I have published my thoughts and musings on the blockchain sector in the annual crypto market thesis for 2025. Full document has been published here: https://jamesbachini.com/resources/CryptoMarketThesis2025.pdf Previous years: 2023, 2024 Summary below: 2024 Year in Review Macro Trends Market Outlook for 2025 Sector Insights Emerging Trends to Monitor…
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Soroban Data Locations & State Management
In this tutorial, we’ll explore how data is stored on Stellar’s Soroban smart contract platform, focusing on Soroban’s state management and the types of storage available. Understanding these concepts will allow you to manage data optimally and keep your decentralized applications efficient. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/cw-TPSCqtSU | Subscribe Introduction to Soroban State…
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Best Practices for Storing Large Data in Solidity
Blockchain storage is limited and block space is therefore expensive, especially at times of peak congestion. Solidity developers must employ strategies to optimise data storage whilst maintaining the integrity and accessibility of their smart contracts. One of the most effective approaches is to leverage off-chain storage solutions. Instead of storing large data sets directly on…
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Understanding The Fallback & Receive Functions In Solidity
Among Solidity’s essential features are the fallback and receive functions, which play crucial roles in handling Ether transactions and contract interactions. A thorough understanding of these functions is vital for developers aiming to create robust and secure smart contracts. The Fallback Function In Solidity, the fallback function is a unique, unnamed function that executes under…
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The Hidden Deflation of Digital Assets
The Inevitable Loss Facing Early Cryptocurrency Hodlers Substantial amounts of digital assets are going to be lost forever over the next few decades. The first generation of crypto hodlers will be dying off and many of their holdings will die with them. These losses, often caused by misplaced private keys or forgotten passwords, add an…
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Programmatic Stellar Transfers
In this tutorial we will be setting up scripts to send and monitor transfers on the Stellar network. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/gVC5ijif2-0 | Subscribe I’ll be using Node.js and the Stellar-SDK library. All the code is open source and you can fork the repository here: https://github.com/jamesbachini/Stellar-Cross-Border-Test There are two scripts, send.js and receive.js, created to…
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Optimizing Smart Contracts For Layer 2 Chains
Layer 2 solutions have emerged as a crucial component in addressing scalability issues. Optimising smart contracts for these Layer 2 chains is essential to harness their full potential. This article explores key considerations for developers working with Layer 2 solutions, focusing on cross-chain interoperability, gas fees, and frontend considerations. Cross-Chain Interoperability When optimising smart contracts…
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How Often Should I Rebalance My Portfolio
In this tutorial I modelled the optimal rebalancing frequency for a digital asset portfolio holding: This is a 60/40 crypto portfolio which I’ve discussed before. You can run the code with different assets (anything with a historical price feed). Starting with a $10,000 initial investment, the code allocates the funds accordingly and tracks performance over…
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Creating Custom Solidity Libraries For Reusable Code
Solidity libraries enable blockchain developers to create modular reusable code. This shared usage avoids duplicating code, saves gas during deployment and promotes consistency within a code base. Let’s create a basic library that demonstrates how this works: This code defines a simple smart contract that utilises a library for basic arithmetic operations. The MyMath library…
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Building Smart Contract Event Filtering Systems for DApps
How events work in web3 Events in Web3 act as logs of significant occurrences within a smart contract. When a specific function is executed, the smart contract can “emit” an event, signalling to external systems that something has happened. These emitted events are stored on the blockchain, but they do not modify the contract’s state.…
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Automating Web3 Interactions In Rust | Minting Ethereum NFT’s With Ethers-rs
In this tutorial we are going to be deploying a simple NFT contract to Ethereum and then minting new NFT’s using a bot built with Rust and ethers-rs Let’s start by heading to Remix and deploying this contract to Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet. It has already been deployed here if you want to skip this step:…
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Building A Cross Chain Token Bridge With LayerZero v2
This tutorial will guide you through the process of building a token bridge using LayerZero v2, specifically employing the OFTAdapter on mainnet and the OFT.sol contract on all other chains. We’ll cover the setup and deployment workflow, ensuring you have a comprehensive understanding of the process. Before we delve into the deployment process, it’s crucial…
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Practical Applications Of Merkle Trees
Merkle trees are a useful tool for blockchain developers offering a myriad of benefits, chief among them being the efficient verification of large data sets and proof of inclusion. By leveraging Merkle trees developers can significantly optimise gas costs and enhance the overall performance of their decentralised applications. In this article we will look at…
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How To Connect An Arduino To A Soroban Smart Contract
This tutorial will guide you through the process of connecting an Arduino to a Soroban smart contract on the Stellar blockchain. We’ll create a system where blockchain events can trigger physical actions through an Arduino. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/C4a9O7AFAVc | Subscribe All the code for this project is open source at: https://github.com/jamesbachini/Arduino-Soroban-Controller…
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Implementing RBAC Patterns in Solidity
We can implement role based access control or RBAC patterns in Solidity using OpenZeppelin’s AccessControl.sol library. This allows developers to manage different roles and assign permissions dynamically. Here’s a step by step guide based on the information provided. Understanding Roles in Access Control The essence of RBAC in Solidity involves defining roles, where each role…
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The Future Of Prompt Engineering | Best Practices For LLM Models
This article will explore how prompt engineering for LLM models like ChatGPT is evolving and how you can stay ahead of the game. Prompt Design Principles As large language models (LLMs) continue to evolve, the art of prompt engineering has become increasingly crucial. At its core, effective prompt design hinges on clarity, specificity, and context…
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Tokenomics 101 Designing Effective Token Models
Tokenomics Fundamentals Tokenomics refers to the economic model and framework that governs the use, distribution, and value of tokens. At its core, tokenomics is the study of the supply and demand of tokens, how they incentivise users and developers, and the role they play in driving network effects. Unlike traditional currencies, tokens are highly versatile…
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Why Inflows Into Spot Bitcoin ETFs Don’t Push Prices Up
The Bitcoin Spot ETFs are a gateway for institutional inflows into Bitcoin, potentially driving up prices. However, on the 29th and 30th October over $1.763 Billion USD flowed into the Bitcoin ETFs*. During this period the BTC/USD price barely moved. Here’s a closer look at why spot Bitcoin ETF inflows don’t always translate into an…
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Marketing Psychology in Web3
This article delves into the key aspects of marketing psychology that are unique or particularly relevant to the Web3 ecosystem, exploring how trust, community engagement, scarcity, fear of missing out, attention economy, and behavioural economics intersect with this innovative space. Trust and Credibility The blockchain sector has been plagued by numerous fraud & scams, making…
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Meridian 2024 Takeaways
Key Innovations and Infrastructure Developments from Meridian 2024 The recent Stellar Meridian conference and its preceding hackathon showcased significant developments in the Stellar Network’s ecosystem, highlighting how the platform is revolutionizing blockchain infrastructure and smart contract capabilities. From innovative on/off-ramp solutions to ground breaking smart wallets, Stellar is positioning itself as a formidable player in…
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Creating MultiSig Wallets with Solidity
MultiSig wallets have become increasingly popular due to their enhanced security features. In this article, we will delve into the key components of a MultiSig wallet, how to write a MultiSig wallet contract using Solidity, deploying the wallet, and handling deposits and withdrawals. Note that the code provided here is for educational purposes only. If…
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Simple Example Of Rust Struct & Importing Modules
One powerful feature in Rust is how it organizes code into modules and allows the reuse of code with structs and methods. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through a simple example to illustrate how to define and use a struct in Rust and how to import modules for organization. Step 1: Define the Module and…
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Prediction Markets Solidity
Prediction markets are decentralized platforms where participants can bet on the outcome of future events. For example, people could bet on the outcome of a presidential election or a sports game. In this tutorial, we will walk through a smart contract built on Ethereum, which allows users to create and participate in prediction markets. The…
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Incorporating Bitcoin In A Treasury Strategy
Cash Savings in Treasuries Treasury managers face a significant challenge in preserving the value of their reserves. Traditional cash savings, once considered a safe haven, have become increasingly unsuitable for long-term corporate savings. This shift is primarily due to the ongoing dilution caused by money supply growth, as central banks worldwide engage in quantitative easing…
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A Simple Browser Resource Monitor
This single index.html file can be uploaded to any web server, run locally, or accessed here: https://jamesbachini.com/misc/browser-resources.html It enables web developers to monitor browser resources over time and test different devices processing abilities. The dashboard first collects and presents fundamental system information, providing context about the environment in which the application operates. This data includes:…
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Stellar Soroban Boilerplate
In this tutorial I’m going to go through the code for a boilerplate which connects a Soroban smart contract to a React dApp. Note that for a more full featured demo app you can check out the excellent Scaffold Soroban at: https://developers.stellar.org/docs/learn/interactive/dapps/scaffold-soroban There is also this from the guys at Palta Labs:https://create-soroban-dapp.paltalabs.io/ James On YouTube…
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AI Predictions | How Close Are We To AGI?
In recent years, the field of artificial intelligence has witnessed remarkable advancements, particularly in the domain of large language models. These sophisticated systems like ChatGPT have demonstrated impressive capabilities in natural language processing, coding, and problem solving. However, the question remains “how close are we to achieving true artificial general intelligence?” James On YouTube Watch…
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Decentralized Lending Pools | Blend Capital
Overcollateralized lending has emerged as a cornerstone in the decentralised finance ecosystem, providing a secure and efficient way for users to borrow and lend digital assets. Blend Capital leverages this mechanism on Stellar’s Soroban smart contract platform, introducing a robust protocol for overcollateralized lending and borrowing. This article delves into how overcollateralized lending works, explores…
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Encrypting Private Keys in .env
It has become very normalised to store Ethereum private keys in plain text within .env files. While this is convenient, it’s a disaster waiting to happen when working in production with wallets that contain real funds. Today, I’ll show you a better way to manage your hot wallet keys using AES encryption. Full code for…
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Balancer v3 Hooks
For the Balancer v3 Hookathon (yep it’s a hackathon to create DeX hooks) I had the idea to try and create a fair launch memecoin platform. It’s the kind of thing that could bring utility to the ecosystem as we’ve seen recently with the wave of memecoin trading on Solana. The target is to create…
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Creating WASM Files Using Rust and Running Them in the Browser
In this tutorial we will be writing some code in Rust, compiling to web assembly (WASM) and then running that code in a browser. This enables high performance applications to be run within a web dev setting. In this tutorial I’ll be using windows subsystem for Linux. Let’s first install Rust and wasm-pack (more instructions…
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Understanding ABI Encoding: A Guide to abi.encodeCall and encodeWithSelector
What Is ABI Encoding Application Binary Interface (ABI) encoding is a crucial concept in Ethereum smart contract development. It serves as a standardised method for encoding function calls and data, enabling seamless communication between different components of the Ethereum ecosystem. ABI encoding ensures that data is consistently formatted and interpreted across various platforms and programming…
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How to Host Your Own Generative AI Model with Flux
Why Host Your Own Flux Model Hosting your own AI model offers significant benefits, particularly for users who demand fine control over image generation, privacy, and customisation. Unlike public cloud-based APIs, which may impose usage limitations or fees, self-hosting gives you full control over how the model operates. You can adjust hardware configurations, implement optimised…
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Enums In Solidity
Enums are one of the most useful and underused data types in Solidity. I think because they aren’t widely used in Javascript and web dev, they often get overlooked in contract development. In this article I’ll make my case for why enums deserve a place in your tool kit and smart contracts. Enums in Solidity…
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WebAuthn PassKey Smart Wallets
In this article we will take a glimpse into the future of account abstraction where web3 can offer walletless, passwordless authentication to web applications. I’ll be connecting a Stellar Soroban smart contract to a web3 frontend and verifying signatures from biometrics on your phone. Welcome to the future. The full source code used in this…
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React Hooks Tutorial | The 7 Most Important React Hooks
React Hooks provide a way to manage state, side effects, references and more in functional components. In this tutorial, we’ll look at the seven most commonly used React hooks When You Would Use These React Hooks useStateImagine you have a piece of data in your component that might change, like a number for a counter…
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Value Investing In DeFi
For value investors the goal is to find assets priced below their intrinsic value, providing a margin of safety and potential for significant future growth. Could applying this principle to DeFi help identify underappreciated projects that are gaining significant traction. Let’s find out… Market Cap, TVL & FDV Market capitalization is the total value of…
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7 Problems That DeFi Solves
Last month Vitalik caused a stir when he suggested that DeFi “can’t be the thing that brings crypto to another 10-100x adoption burst” In this article I’m going to share my thoughts on why DeFi is still the no.1 most important use case for Ethereum. Lack of Financial Inclusion In a world where millions remain…
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3 Ways AI Will Change Software Development by 2030
As a developer who wrote his first computer program on a Commodore64, I’ve seen my fair share of technological shifts. But nothing quite compares to the seismic changes I anticipate large language models will bring to software development in the coming years. Let me take you on a journey through my vision of the future,…
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Building Rust Smart Contracts On Stellar Soroban
Soroban is the smart contract platform that allows developers to write and deploy smart contracts on the Stellar network. This tutorial will guide you through the process of building a simple smart contract using Rust and deploying it to Soroban. I recently took on the role of Developer in Residence with Stellar and this is…
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Pump.fun Clone In Solidity
Pump.fun is a token factory that lets users create and trade memecoins on Solana with dynamic pricing along a bonding curve. In this article I’ll show how I went about converting this concept to Solidity and deploying it on Ethereum. Full code for this is open source at: https://github.com/jamesbachini/Pump.sol Token Factory Contract At the core…
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Over-Collateralized Lending In DeFi
Decentralized finance has opened up many possibilities for holders of digital assets. One of the products which has gained traction over the last few years has been over-collateralized lending which is now a $30+ billion dollar industry. In this article I’m going to look at how over-collateralized lending works, why would someone want to do…
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Creating Your Own Oracle Solidity & NodeJS
In this tutorial I’m going to go through the steps to setting up your own oracle service to bring data on-chain. We are going to be deploying a simple smart contract, then setting up a NodeJS client to fetch the price of Bitcoin, then uploading this to the contract. Full code for this is open…
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Format JSON Tool
A simple tool to lint and format JSON because I was fed up of using the ones covered in ads. Format JSON The Javascript code that makes this work is quite simple: It can be used to format outputs prior to displaying the results of API queries or any other JSON found wild around the…
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Best Sketch To Image AI Generator
Recent developments in AI image generation have led to the availability of tools which can convert your doodles into generative images. Here is an example run across some freemium web apps: FreePik https://www.freepik.com/pikaso/sketch OpenArt https://openart.ai/create?mode=create NewArc https://www.newarc.ai/ ChatGPT https://chatgpt.com/ WindyBot https://windybot.com/editor Which Is The Best AI Sketch To Image Generator? As of September 2024 I…
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The Future Of Bitcoin, Ethereum & Web3
In this article I’m going to discuss where I think the industry is going over the next decade and how emerging developments will affect the following: Bitcoin Bitcoin, the pioneer and household name of crypto, has not evolved significantly from its origins as a digital currency. It is becoming increasingly recognized as a mainstream financial…
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What’s Happened Since Chip War
After reading Chip War by Chris Miller I was intrigued to see what developments have taken place since the book was written and if Moore’s Law is still alive and well. TSMC & Taiwan Strait Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has maintained its position as the world’s leading chip manufacturer. The company announced ambitious plans for…
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What Are Blockchains Good For?
This article explores the strengths, limitations, and potential applications for blockchain technology. I will delve into six primary areas where blockchain technology shows promise: Transparency Blockchains are inherently transparent, making it a powerful tool for enhancing trust, accountability, and security in various applications. This transparency is evident in how transactions are recorded on a publicly…
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How To Calculate Gas Costs For Solidity Contracts
Deploying Solidity smart contracts can be expensive because the code needs to be stored on the shared storage of a decentralized peer to peer blockchain network. The dollar cost of deploying Solidity smart contracts is dependent on a number of variables: I’ve previously provided code to analyze the bytecode size of contracts, you can also…
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Are We Living In A Simulation?
In the vast expanse of human thought and philosophical inquiry, few questions are as mind bending and provocative as the simulation hypothesis. This idea, popularized by philosophers and futurists, posits that our reality the world we perceive, interact with, and call home might be nothing more than an incredibly advanced computer simulation. The Simulation Hypothesis…
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NFT Token Vault Solidity
This was inspired by the CryptoKitties WG0 token vault which accepts gen zero CryptoKitty deposits and mints 1 ERC20 token for each. Users can then buy tokens on exchange and claim NFT’s from the vault. The code is open source and available at: https://github.com/jamesbachini/NFTvault How The NFTvault Contract Works When you deposit your NFTs into…
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Creating an UpOnly ERC20 Token
In this tutorial we are going to create a ponzi game in the form of an ERC20 token that has an internal marketplace function. The idea is to increase the price over time so that early buyers get to dump on late buyers at a higher price. The last buyer will have no liquidity to…
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Solidity Encrypted Messaging dApp
This morning Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, was arrested at a French airport for refusing to provide backdoor access to the messaging application. This tutorial will demonstrate how to use Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) cryptography to establish a shared secret and encrypted messaging across a insecure communication channel, in this case a public blockchain.…
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CryptoKitties Investment Thesis
Below I have outlined the reasons why I invested my kids college fund into pictures of cats and why CryptoKitties are my highest conviction bet in the NFT space. Historical Significance CryptoKitties hold a unique place in the history of blockchain adoption and NFTs. It was the first time I remember the Ethereum network becoming…
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7 Incredible Use Cases For ChatGPT
ChatGPT has become an invaluable tool since it’s release in 2022. Here are seven amazing use cases which you can take advantage of today. Language Partner Learning a new language can be challenging, vraiment difficile, but ChatGPT can serve as an invaluable language partner. ChatGPT’s chat feature can be utilized as a voice tutor, it…
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Script To Analyze Bytecode Size Of Smart Contracts
I was having trouble with the hardhat bytecode plugin so I wrote a little nodejs script which will print off the size of my compiled Solidity contracts. You’ll need nodejs installed and can then run it like this. You should get an ouput like this: Here’s the code to save to analyze_bytecode.js file in the…
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Solidity Virtual Pet
Let’s create a virtual pet in Solidity and deploy it to the blockchain. Full frontend and contract code for this tutorial can be found here: https://github.com/jamesbachini/Solidity-Virtual-Pet Demo here: https://jamesbachini.com/misc/SolidityPet/index.html Smart Contract Our pet is going to have two attributes for hunger and happiness. Hunger should increase over time and happiness should have a mechanism where…
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How To Scrape Twitter/X Without API Access
Scraping Twitter/X without direct API access can be accomplished by leveraging third-party services like RapidAPI, which provides a streamlined way to interact with Twitter data. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the process of using RapidAPI to scrape tweets from a specified user. I’m going to provide code snippets in Python and NodeJS for this…
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Calculating Bitcoin Fair Value With Rust
In this tutorial, we will create a Rust script that: Instructions Rust Code The code is open source and available on Github: https://github.com/jamesbachini/Bitcoin-Fair-Value We’ll start with the async fetch_klines function to fetch Bitcoin price data from the Binance API. The Binance API provides various endpoints for accessing market data, and we’ll use the /api/v3/klines endpoint…
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AI Is Not Decentralized
Can AI solve centralization issues for blockchain projects? There’s more hype than ever around “AI on the blockchain” and while this still isn’t a thing I’d like to look at one particular use case in this article. Can machine learning be used to address centralization issues, is it enough to trust a model where true…
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Can ChatGPT & Keras Predict The Price Of Bitcoin
I get asked a lot if ChatGPT can be used for trading and I normally say “no, it’s a language model which isn’t designed to find market patterns in numerical price data”. ChatGPT works more like predictive text in a search engine or on your phone but what it is good at is writing code…
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Calculating CAGR in Python & JavaScript
The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is a useful measure for assessing the mean annual growth rate of an investment or business metric over a specified period longer than one year. Unlike other growth metrics, CAGR smooths out the volatility, providing a clearer picture of how investments grow over time. In this guide, I’ll show…
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Web3 Social Network
Today I’m going to explore what a web3 social network could look like and try to figure out what we want from social networks and where they might be going in the future. Let’s first look at some existing social networks and what makes them popular The thing that all these products have is targeted…
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How To Check Token Balances Using Python
To check a wallet token balance on the Ethereum blockchain using Python you will need the following: Once we have our API key ready and Python installed we can install web3.py using the following command Now let’s create a file called balance.py and add the following code. Note the code is also available in the…
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Using ChatGPT To Explore Future Investment Opportunities
This post was inspired by @Jake_Pahors post on Twitter which led me down a rabbit hole of thinking about what the world might look like in 10 years time and what investment opportunities might arise from these changes. The first step was to get ChatGPT to check what I was missing using the following prompt.…
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DeFi Whale Watching Tutorial & Code
Imagine if you could tap into the strategies of top investors and see where the smart money is allocating capital? Welcome to the world of DeFi whale watching, where tracking high net worth wallets can give you the edge and open up new Whale Watching Explained DeFi whale watching involves tracking the investments of “smart…
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Investment Thesis for Alibaba Group (BABA)
I first became addicted to eBay a couple of decades ago, over time I started ordering more and more on Amazon, I’ve now found myself ordering more on AliExpress and having items shipped directly from China. During the Euros (soccer tournament) AliExpress was one of the main sponsors which got me thinking that this trend…
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DeDollarisation In The Changing World Order
What if the world’s most dominant currency, the US dollar, is losing its grip on global power? De-dollarisation is a seismic economic shift that could reshape the global financial landscape as we know it. Imagine a future where the dollar’s influence wanes and emerging currencies, backed by hard assets rise to prominence. This change will…
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DeFi Analysis With Rust
In this tutorial I’m going to provide some code and show you how to monitor the number of depositors to Eigenlayer over the last 24 hours. We will be using Rust with the Tokio and Ethers libraries along with the Infura API which you can get a free key from here. The first thing we…
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Structured Products DeFi
We all remember the 2008 financial crisis, a global upheaval sparked in part by complex structured products like collateralised debt obligations. These financial instruments are still widely used in traditional finance to manage risk and enhance returns. But what if we could reimagine these products in DeFi? In this article, we’ll explore how decentralised structured…
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ChatGPT vs Claude
In this test we will be comparing the performance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Anthropic’s Claude. Both are LLM based AI models designed to offer virtual assistant type services. Update 2024-08-09 I find I’m using Claude more and more for complex coding tasks. It seems to have access to more up to date data and I’m…
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Web3 vs Cloud Computing
Have you ever wondered if decentralised data storage can truly rival the convenience and efficiency of traditional cloud services like AWS? Web3 devs today face several significant challenges. On-chain data is currently slow, expensive, and often comes with a poor user experience. However, with the rapid advancements in technology, the future could look very different.…
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How To Lookup An ENS Name In Python
To check a wallet token balance on the Ethereum blockchain using Python you will need the following: Once we have our API key ready and Python installed we can install web3.py using the following command Now let’s create a file called enslookup.py and add the following code. Enter your Infura API key on line 5.…
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The Future Of Cryptography
Have you ever wondered how the world of cryptography will evolve in the next two decades? As technology races forward, the landscape of data security is set to undergo dramatic transformations. From quantum resistant algorithms to biometric encryption, the world of cryptography is evolving. Let me take you through the fascinating journey of where we…
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Bitcoin Censorship Resistance
Imagine a world where your transactions are dependent on government approval. A central authority has the ability to cut off your right to trade for any reason they see fit. We aren’t far from this already and we’ve things like sanctions and freezing of assets by governments around the world. This primarily targets the banking…
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The Ethereum Pectra Upgrade
Imagine your everyday Ethereum account could temporarily transform into a powerful smart contract wallet. This is exactly what EIP-7702, a core part of the Pectra upgrade, promises. This new feature will allow normal Ethereum account addresses (EOAs) to act as smart contracts during transactions, only to revert to their original state afterwards. This upgrade has…
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Building A Portfolio Tracker In Python
In this tutorial we will be building a digital asset portfolio tracking tool using python and the Coinbase API. You’ll need to install python and the following library to make requests. The code for this is open source on Github at: https://github.com/jamesbachini/Python-Portfolio-Tracker Put this in a file called portfolio.py or fork the repo above. Then…
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Apple Tap To Cash
Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote unveiled Tap to Cash to simplify p2p payments, simply tap one iPhone to another to send money via Apple’s wallet. Why should you care about a minor tech upgrade from Apple? Because this one could be the first step towards a wider change in how we handle personal transactions. Dive in…
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Interest Rates, FOMC & Crypto
Ever wondered why crypto traders are obsessed with FOMC meetings and what the Federal Reserve are planning next? Interest rates set by the Fed impact the price of Bitcoin and other digital assets alongside stocks, shares and bonds. What if you could anticipate long-term price movements just by understanding a few macro economic principles? Let…
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Building a Career in Web3
Web3 represents the future of the internet, where developers can deploy permissionless code on a decentralized network. Building a career in this space requires a combination of technical skills, practical experience, and a strategic approach. This article outlines the key steps for anyone looking to forge a career in Web3, from learning Solidity to launching…
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Frontrunning Crypto Catalysts For Fun & Profit
There is opportunity in crypto markets if you can get ahead of the next narrative and allocate capital prior to mass of market participants. Staying ahead of the curve often means keeping an eye on emerging trends and strategic moves that can significantly impact a project’s market perception and value. In this article I’m going…
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Ethena USDe | DeFi Analysis Report
Ethena Labs has introduced USDe, a synthetic dollar on the Ethereum blockchain. USDe is designed to be crypto native, stable and censorship resistant. This is a write up of my internal research notes, this is not a sponsored post and I do not hold any exposure to Ethena or USDe at time of writing. Do your…
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Creating A Solidity Escrow Smart Contract
In this tutorial, we will create an Escrow contract using Solidity and deploy it to an Ethereum testnet. An Escrow contract is a financial agreement where a third party (the arbitrator) holds and regulates payment of the funds required for two parties involved in a given transaction. It helps make transactions more secure as it…
