Despite having only 3 classroom sessions these past two weeks, I sure did learn a lot in regards to my INFOSEC class. Specifically, (as you can tell from the picture above) about Bitcoin in general.

For our INFOSEC class, we took a deeper dive on organizational security, and the matters regarding it. Earlier in the day, our professor talked about the implementation of the acceptable use policy, what constitutes it, and what happens if implemented. Our professor told us a really funny and yet interesting story about a coworker of his using the computer for "non-work-related purposes" where the said employee got in trouble with the IT department, and sorts. It really opened my eyes about the kinds of stuff I am/am not allowed to do at the workplace, which made me want to make a note to my future self to check on the company's acceptable use policy before doing something non-work-related on the computer.

But aside from that, I really learned a lot about Bitcoin this week. Like, so much of it. What started as a forced task due to some of my teammates not helping me soon turned into kind of an obsession with Bitcoin. First, I got into how it works and such, and I found a really good SciShow video about how Bitcoin works and it really got me interested in the topic. I gotta admit, having every single coin in the system have its own list of past transactions for verification is quite cool, I'm not gonna lie. And then I got into the bulk of the topic: what is a blockchain, how it works, why it's there, Bitcoin mining, and other stuff of the sort.

I must say that my eyes lit up to the topic as I really found out that it's a great 21st-century invention. Sure, this week was great in terms of learning, but it had some downs as well.

To be quite honest, I actually hate being tasked with a technical research paper/case study. If it was only a little on the technical side, sure, it would be okay with me—as I know my teammates will actually share the work around the whole team. Well, tough luck that we were all tasked with a technical research paper, and the opposite just happens.

Just like in my last class with my professor, DNETCOM, I'm highly sure that I'll have to bear the weight of actually doing the bulk of the work. My research paper in that class was hell because I really was the only one who made the entire paper, and that added a lot of stress on me. Sadly, the same goes for this paper as well.

For the past week or so, I've been toiling through articles and research papers talking about the problems with Bitcoin and how to improve it and it's been driving me mad. It would be okay if I only wrote a part of the "results and discussion" as well as the "recommendations," but no way in hell did I expect to do all the work. I've personally asked my teammates for help regarding the paper and one agreed to help me, and yet the other 3 have stated that the task was too hard for them or said that they can't do the work.

Which actually just puts me at a crossroads with this paper. While I do want to make them work on some parts of the paper, I do know that the information they will gather will either be wrong, incorrect, or be missing a huge part about the topic. I just wish they actually tried to do the work I tell them and learn to check it themselves rather than relying on me to do everything.

So, in summary, I've learned a few things these past few weeks:

• Bitcoin actually has an ingenious mechanism if you took a closer look at it.
• Try to minimize the use of computers for personal use in the workplace.
• Learn how to deal with people who respond with "it's too hard, I can't do it."
• When all else fails, take note of those who actually try to help in group papers and just do the paper yourself.
• Oh, and, in the future, partner up with those who actually have the courage to take on a technical topic and write about it.
• Although I like to have a picture-heavy blog, do not over-obsess about the post image much as it can lead to unnecessary stress.

Overall, it was a fun (albeit stressful) week!