Business Library News
William C. Gast Business Library News & Events
The Tokyo Olympics came to a close on Sunday and so we thought we’d bring you some statistics from the games.
Here are some quick stats for your next trivia night:
The official price tag for the Tokyo Olympics was $15 billion+, which a University of Oxford study says is the most expensive on record. In the two years between April 2017 and March 2019, 100 percent of the metals required to manufacture the approximately 5,000 gold, silver and bronze medals were extracted from small electronic devices contributed by people from all over Japan. The medals were handed out across 50... Continue reading "Statistics from the Tokyo Olympics"...
Have you ever wondered what's in the syllabi of other universities? Ever wanted to browse "the best" or most common resources on a subject?
The Open Syllabus Explorer plot shows over one million of the most frequently assigned texts in courses around the world. The corpus references a database of more than seven million college course syllabi and subsequent readings.
The Open Syllabus Galaxy is an infographic rendering of syllabus readings from schools around the world.
A simple search for business in the Galaxy matches over 200,000 courses and at least 10,000 texts...
Continue reading "Open Syllabus Galaxy"...“Leverage in the crypto markets — particularly on the retail side — has been a big theme that accentuates the volatility.” – Devin Ryan, JMP Securities
Bitcoin is a notoriously volatile market. The lack of oversight found across cryptocurrency exchanges makes the market ripe for abuse. And, since massive price swings occur at least biweekly, fears of manipulation are founded.
The assertion that Bitcoin is subject to price manipulation is bolstered by the fact that such practice is rampant among “altcoins.” Wash trading, pump and dump schemes, and spoofing have become almost...
Continue reading "Crypto Data Digest: Manipulation and Volatility"...Bitcoin mining – the process in which a bitcoin is awarded to a computer that solves a complex series of algorithms – is a deeply energy-intensive process. When people mine bitcoins, what they are really doing is updating the ledger of Bitcoin transactions, also known as the blockchain. This requires them to solve numerical puzzles which have a 64-digit hexadecimal solution known as a hash. The hash rate is the measuring unit of the processing power of the Bitcoin network.
On March 18, 2021, the annual power consumption of the Bitcoin network was estimated to be 129 terawatt...
Continue reading "Crypto Data Digest: Energy Consumption"...Price is what you pay, Value is what you get
Proof-Of-Work
For something to be an effective currency, it must have value. Until 1971, the US dollar (USD) represented actual gold. The gold was scarce and required work to mine and refine, so the scarcity gave the gold value. Cryptocurrencies are similar. “Coins” (which are nothing more than publicly agreed on records of ownership) are generated or produced by “miners.” These miners are people who run programs on specialized hardware made specifically to solve proof-of-work puzzles. The work behind mining coins gives them value...
Continue reading "Crypto Data Digest: A Valuation Discussion"...The theme this week is “investor perspectives” or more specifically, investor sentiment. For a specific list of publicly traded, non-crypto companies that have some level of exposure to cryptocurrencies, either through investments, partnerships, or side ventures, check out Top Crypto Bets via Yahoo Finance.
Q1 this year was profoundly positive in venture funding for the crypto/blockchain sector. Roughly $3 billion was allocated to crypto projects. According to The Block, this quarter also had more crypto/blockchain venture deals greater than $100m than 2019 and 2020 combined...
Continue reading "Crypto Data Digest: Investors"...The theme this week is "blockchain development", specifically the relative rise of crypto. For more on Bitcoin development specifically, check out TradingView's Bitcoin/USD Timeline. Our next post will feature "investor perspectives."
The Bitcoin market cap now exceeds the GDP of 175 countries. In 2017, the bitcoin market cap was $15.66 billion dollars. It has since grown to $2 trillion as of April 5th, 2021. In short, it took the market over 3 years to grow from $500 billion to $1 trillion, but it recently doubled in market cap in just two months.
Bitcoin’s...
Continue reading "Crypto Data Digest: Blockchain Development"...The theme this week is "crypto use cases." For even more information on Blockchain use cases, see IBM's "Blockchain use cases" by Industry (segmented by Government, Insurance, Supply Chain, etc.). Check back next week for data on "blockchain development."
The ‘World Economic Forum’ anticipates that ~10% of global GDP will be stored on the blockchain by 2025.
Leaders are increasingly investing in blockchain and digital assets as a top five strategic priority, with 66% forecasting investments of $1 million or more in the next 12 months.
Because...
Continue reading "Crypto Data Digest: Blockchain Use Cases"...The theme this week is "crypto holders and exchanges." Each week on Friday, we will explore one element of crypto and provide 2-5 relevant illustrative charts. Check back next week for data on "crypto use cases."
As of February 27, the monthly [cryptocurrency exchange] volume total stood at $1.05 trillion. That represents an increase of $143.9 billion — or 15.9% — from January when the previous monthly high was registered.
Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. It’s valued at more than $100 billion, and commands roughly 11% of the entire...
Continue reading "Crypto Data Digest: Exchanges"...
Are you looking for a productivity application that's akin to Evernote or Trello? Want something better?
One of 2020's top note-taking apps for students is called Notion, a digital productivity application that provides easy-to-use features in task management, organization, and much more.
One of the best features of Notion is the ability to create new pages, each with their own subtopics. Notion also allows users to embed links, quotes, lists, files, and images. So it's perfect for linking to articles cited by your professor, or embedding tables and relevant screenshots from...
Continue reading "Notion for Notes"...