TechOps Techops

How to Secure the Digital Survival of African Cultures

Had very intriguing discussion with Regina Modise and Bongani Sibanda, on the convergence of Tech and Heritage, more importantly we discuss various technological solutions to help secure the digital survival of our African heritage.

In this episode we are joined by Regina Kgatle. She is an Electrical And Computing Engineering graduate from the University of Cape Town, who went on to build an Indie Gaming Startup focused on using arcade games as a vehicle to educating young south africans. We dive into her journey unpacking some of the highs and lows of the startup life, along with the challenge of raising funds of her startup and finding a sustainable monetisations strategy. We also touch on some of the issues in the ecosystem which limit the ability of founders in South Africa from succeeding, and finally we catchup on some of the interesting things which have caught our attention lately.

In this episode we take a deep dive in the question of why is it harder to scale a hardware startup vs a software startup. We discuss the fundamentals of how startups scale, along with some of the unique problems that hardware startups have to overcome in order to grow. We also discuss the latest Ethereum protocol update title The London Hardfork EIP1559, aimed at introducing more predictability of transaction fees. We unpack the details of what has actually changed, the fundamentals on how fees currently work today, and what impact will this update and future updates impact the relationship between miners and users in the ecosystem. We also unpack the latest update from Alphabet googles parent company in the introduction of a new division called intrinsic which will focus on Industrial Robotics Automation. We unpack what this could mean for the industry and more specially for founders in the space, along with the pros and cons of google entering this industry. 

Links:

Ethereum london hardfork:

https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-1559.md

Google Alphabet launches Intrinsic:

https://blog.x.company/introducing-intrinsic-1cf35b87651

In this second part we explore the philosophical elements behind blockchain. We unpack the relationship between philosophy and technology, and the need to transcend the application layers of a technology, into the more fundamental frameworks and protocols they are built on. We highlight the need for engineers to think more philosophically about the technologies they build, and by doing so, enhance the depth and impact of their contributions to the ecosystem as a whole.