The 10,000 Question Challenge — Your Blockchain Journey Starts Here
By: Kirill Shilov
Tags: Challenge, Education, Blockchain, Bitcoin, 10kqa

#10KQA — 10 000 Blockchain Question Challenge

Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers: The Story of Success,” refers to the “10,000 hour rule” as a rule that says it takes 10,000 hours of what Gladwell calls “deliberate practice” to become a world-class expert in any field. Satisfaction does indeed come from these long hours of hard work, but when you are at it long enough, practicing every day and getting closer to your 10,000-hour mark, you will see big results.

While some people don’t believe this rule to be true (some interesting details here by Nick Skillicorn), I have through my own experience found that hard work and dedication does in fact pay off, and the payout is far greater thereafter. How many times have you gone to the gym and felt your muscles ache and burn only to realize that after a while, and after several hard runs on the treadmill, you finally got the figure you wanted? How many hours have you spent coding on Assembler before you finally started getting into the flow of things, realizing that you’ve created something special?

It takes hard work and deliberate practice to get into the flow and become a master. And that was how the idea to start the 10,000 Question Challenge was born. The main goal of this challenge is to derive a better understanding of the blockchain by studying it and interacting with other experts. I am sure that a huge quantity of new ideas will rise to the surface during the process, and it will be interesting to chat with experts in the field as well.

What is the 10,000 Question Challenge?

For 2018, I would like to receive answers to 10,000 questions about the blockchain from the best experts in their respective fields. Why 10,000 questions? Why not… This number is not so large. There are, after all, more than 19,000 questions posted onto both of the Bitcoin and Ethereum forums.

So, my purpose is to create a gateway for beginners who want to take the plunge into the blockchain.

I have formulated the following categories myself, and I will organize the questions into four categories:

• Core Blockchain Development: This will cover everything from core blockchain technologies, to its development, to the methods of resolving the scaling problem, and cryptography in general (including understanding what will happen when quantum computers enslave the world).

• Profits (trading, ICO, mining): These will all be questions related to earning money and understanding how long the cryptocurrency hype will go on. It will be questions regarding the mechanisms of trading and the nuances that distinguish crypto trading from usual trading. There will be questions about investing into ICOs and the real profitability behind the new technologies that are being developed in this field..

• Real Disruptive models: There is the feeling that, in most cases, blockchain technology is farfetched, and there is no way to actually profit from implementing it into other markets (freelance services, the airline industry, the music industry, etc.). I would like to dive deep into these questions about how the blockchain can disrupt multiple industries, and to receive answers from the real practitioners and experts who have already implemented the blockchain in their fields with great success (by the way, there is a good article on this subject here by Haseeb Qureshi).

• Laws and regulations: Any questions regarding regulations, applicable legal practices, the legality of Bitcoin, and so much more will fall into this category. Will ICOs soon be regulated? Is it legal to pay a salary in crypto?

The discussion and selection of questions will happen on Slack or they will be gathered from social networks via the #10KQA hashtag. It is my hope that a large number of people are involved with this event.

Later on, a mailing with the chosen questions will be distributed every day. My team and I will moderate all of the messages and leave only the truly interesting ones. In addition to that, I will ask a question to people whom I consider to be experts in the field (there are plenty of them in our Howtotoken community). Also, feel free to recommend your own experts.

Once a week we will sum up the results here on Hackernoon in the form of the short essay, complete with descriptions of the interesting things that we have learned that week. We will select the most interesting questions, answers, and unexpected perspectives. I also hope that other participants will publish their own essays about what they have learned.

How to begin with #10KQA?

The hashtag for the challenge is #10KQA. All questions, as well as the answers with it, will be gathered by our team of moderators (for those of you who want to become a moderator just write in comments or just join the slack below). I believe that it will prove interesting for experts and blockchain startup owners to be able share their knowledge and achievements with anyone who wants to learn more about the crypto world.

If you are a trainee and want to ask your question or get a head start with 10,000 answers:

Subscribe to a newsletter here. Follow our updates on Twitter, or Telegram Discuss on Slack

If you’re an expert or a blockchain startup owner and want to give back to the community by answering a couple questions:

Answer on forum here

If you want to participate as moderator and help find the best questions by being a part of our team:

Just join Moderator Slack channel here

I will be appreciative of all participants, ideas, and discussions. I hope that we will all get something positive from the process and that unforgettable feeling of having a flow.

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About the author:

Kirill Shilov — Founder of Geekforge.io and Howtotoken.com. Interviewing the top 10,000 worldwide experts who reveal the biggest issues on the way to technological singularity. Join my #10kqachallenge: GeekForge Formula.