In 2017, the cryptocurrency rage reached to the highest point when Bitcoin surged to USD19,783, many speculators and miners started to invest an enormous amount of money into mining hardware and chips hoping to get on the craze. Cryptocurrency mining was originally designed to be doable with general-purpose computers. Yet with the increase in competition to the limited resources, miners have been seeking an effective way to improve their chances. A , known as ASIC, has taken over the mining market since. ASIC are chips that are designed with a singular purpose. For cryptocurrency mining, these chips are built into specifically designed motherboards and power supplies to efficiently . Each cryptocurrency has its own cryptographic hash algorithm and ASIC hardware are designed to excel at calculating that algorithm, in the case of Bitcoin, ASIC hardware is designed to calculate the SHA-256 hash algorithm. pplication-specific integrated circuit chips solve a specific algorithm However, in 2018, the bearish performance in the cryptocurrency market has put them in a difficult situation. Though with better performance comparing the general-purpose computer using GPU or CPU cards, there is a limited room of adjustment for the ASIC hardware. ASIC miners were seeking ways to deal with their machines and spaces they rent for running the mining machines. In contrast, GPU miners can easily adapt to new PoW algorithms and tokens due to better compatibility with different hash algorithms (in the cost of performance). Furthermore, the emerging of Cuckoo Cycle algorithm sheds light on the GPU mining to compete against the ASIC miners. What is Cuckoo Cycle PoW algorithm? is one of the most promising PoW algorithm created by Dutch computer scientist, John Tromp. Cuckoo cycle was originally applied as a measure to prevent email spams. Cuckoo cycle ASIC-resistant The email sender has to perform a certain amount of work that consumes computational power to prove that he does have the need to send out the email to the recipient. Yet, with its unique design, it sees fit for GPU mining. It focuses more on memory use, meaning the solution time is bound to memory bandwidth rather than the raw processor or GPU speed. Unlike other PoW algorithms that requires maxing out the capacity of your hardware that drains a lot of power which produces heat (which is why most mining factories are located in colder locations/or locations with cheap electricity that can turn A/C on 24/7), a memory-bound algorithm like Cuckoo cycle require far less energy than most other GPU, CPU or ASIC-bound PoW algorithms. The most up-to-date implementations and findings can be found on his . GitHub Difference between the Cuckoo Cycle PoW algorithm and the SHA256 used by Bitcoin? The SHA256 used by Bitcoin is a simple and pure hash function. The computational process of the solution is easily migratable from the CPU to GPU, FPGA, and ASIC. The above picture is an 8-node, 4-sided Cuckoo Cycle bipartite graph Cuckoo Cycle is a graph theory-based algorithm. It tries to find a fixed length L ring in the Cuckoo Cycle bipartite graph randomly generated by Siphash. As the scale of the graph increases, the L value increases and becomes more difficult to find a ring that fits the length of L. Solving the solution (i.e., the process of finding a loop) itself requires a relatively large amount of memory to store the sorting of data. The Cuckoo Cycle algorithm is to ASIC chips. The difficulty and cost to make Cuckoo Cycle compatible on ASIC are much higher than the SHA256 of Bitcoin. It is possible to reduce the anti-ASIC capability by deformation and become an ASIC-friendly algorithm, but it is also possible to further improve its ASIC resistance through deformation as well. resisted For example, simplifies and discards the binary end of nodes in the bipartite graph which greatly reduce the difficulty of the solution. However, if all the nodes in the bipartite graph are grouped where all the nodes in the group have mutually dependent relationships, it is necessary to calculate the hash of all the nodes in the group. The difficulty of the solution and the requirements for data cache are then greatly increased. This transformation of Cuckoo Cycle is called . CuckAToo algorithm CuckARoo algorithm Projects using the Cuckoo Cycle algorithm On the official Cuckoo Cycle page, a list of projects using this algorithm was announced including AE, Grin, and Cortex. GitHub The list of projects using Cuckoo Cycle on GitHub , also known as , is a new blockchain technology, designed to deliver unmatched efficiency, transparent governance, and global scalability. (2.0.0) was released a couple weeks ago. AE has a total of 254,396,431 AE and aims to boost 1,000 TPS. AE æternity Minerva Mainnet upgrade is currently live with its Grin uses the Mimblewimble protocol to improve scalability and privacy. It empowers anyone to transact or save modern money without the fear of external control or oppression. Grin is designed for the decades to come, not just tomorrow. Grin wants to be usable by everyone, regardless of borders, culture, skills or access. Grin does not have circulating limit, which means that there is no limit on the total amount, and 60 Grins are mined per minute. Grin mainnet . is building something unique and original. Cortex aims to create a decentralized AI autonomous system that continues to expand the performance boundaries of smart contracts, allowing smart contracts to be actually smart with AI algorithms. In Cortex’s AI on Blockchain ecosystem, AI model developers, AI DApp developers, miners, and users can be linked together through public blockchain to create more AI DApps with real-world use cases. It also help stimulating more high-quality AI models to open source through the tokenomic model and incentive mechanism, which helps to democratize AI research which often led to concentrations of power and money. This is a new AI on Blockchain ecosystem that is independently governed by AI smart contracts. Cortex follows the four-year halving mechanism of Bitcoin. The total amount of CTXC mined through PoW is 150 million, and the first four years yields 75 million, which is halved every four years. Currently, the is live and the are live. Cortex TestNet first AI DApp Grin and Cortex's take on ASIC Grin uses CuckARoo (anti-ASIC) and CuckAToo (ASIC-friendly) algorithms in parallel where 90% of Grin is mined by ASIC-resistant CuckARoo and 10% of Grin is mined by ASIC-friendly CuckAToo. This ratio will be adjusted every six months to the point that will fully adopt ASIC-friendly CuckAToo. Grin Cortex In contrast, goal is to try to establish an environment where any AI equipment or conventional hardware already owned by everyone to be able to mine. Based on this goal, anti-ASIC is a firm belief in Cortex. The reason for this is that Cortex hopes to allow the mining machine investors in the Cortex ecosystem to have better general-purpose computing capabilities and lay the foundation for the future large-scale AI computing demand market. Cortex’s Cortex has released a full version of the which is already using a version of Cuckoo Cycle for consensus mechanism. The AI smart contract feature has also been deployed. The first fully available has been created on the TestNet. The development progress of the MainNet is working in progress according to the roadmap, which will be launched in Q2 of 2019. The launched of Cortex MainNet will bring a new wave of not just to AI developers and DApp developers but also to GPU miners. TestNet AI DApp The first AI DApp on the Cortex TestNet Conclusion Cuckoo Cycle is the newly emerging Proof-of-Work algorithm adopt by many projects to establish a friendly mining environment. It generates random bipartite graphs from a provided message and tries to find whether a subgraph with required property exists or not. Different projects have their objectives using Cuckoo Cycle. The algorithm itself has a relatively high anti-ASIC capability and can be modified into other algorithms to adjust the anti-ASIC capability. For Grin, Cuckoo Cycle was used to the Bitcoin-style “hardware arms-race” by making it ASIC resistant. For Cortex, it is to the mining requirements to lay the foundation for future scalability in AI computing demand market. Cukoo Cycle and GPU mining will lead us to a better mining environment where anyone can be a part of. mitigate against lower

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11 questions with CISO Mike Convertino, a highly decorated U.S. Air Force Colonel. Part of Sensei School’s Meet-A-Pro interview series. Sunny Pedeva , Co-founder at Sensei School, got to chat with Mike Convertino , Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) @Twitter . Previously he was VP & CTO of Security Products at F5 Networks where he guided and managed the core intellectual property and technologies, as well as CISO & VP for Information Security at Crowdstrike . Just before that he was Microsoft’s Senior Director of Network Security, responsible for security automation development, intrusion detection and digital forensic investigations. Mike is also highly decorated retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and was last assigned as Commander of the 318th Information Operations Group responsible for the creation and operational employment of U.S. Air Force information operations capabilities globally. Sensei School: Why did you get into security? I got into security through my interest in electronics and engineering. Phone switches were particularly interesting to me at a very young age. Since they are basically computers that could respond to remote commands, I loved to tinker with them. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: What is Twitter’s security strategy in one sentence? Protect our users personal data and ensure that people on the platform are able to speak their minds safely in an environment of healthy conversations. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: How do you deal with threats at Twitter? Our platform infrastructure is massive and the threats we think about and work to defend against include both data theft and manipulation of the conversation on our platform. Many of our defenses at scale are embedded in the platform itself to prevent direct hacking, halt bots, troll farms and others who want to have an outsized impact on conversations. The privacy and the safety of the people who use Twitter is our top priority, and we are continuously working to defend it. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: What have been your biggest insights this past year? As new technologies such as Machine Learning become more and more intelligent, I’ve seen industry dealing with new types of threats that we haven’t seen before. Making sure that basic server hardware is not vulnerable is a challenge for companies both in terms of server load and implementation costs. Mike Convertino: The marketplace for attack tools has increased as well, as costs have gone down and “attack infrastructure as a service” such as a set of bots is becoming more available. Sensei School: What are some under the radar trends you’ve noticed? One of the trends we’ve seen on the heightened risk in the banking space as bad actors search for ways to exploit online systems. The marketplace for attack tools has increased as well, as costs have gone down and “attack infrastructure as a service” such as a set of bots is becoming more available. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: Why do people and companies underestimate the risk of being hacked / breached? To put it simply, often times they just aren’t aware of how much is really going on. To put it simply, often times they just aren’t aware of how much is really going on. The public generally views reports of attacks and data losses as individual events which aren’t related. The problem with that is that they actually are related to the design of the technologies. It’s important for companies to invest appropriately in threat intelligence and study where their vulnerabilities may lie. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: How should small businesses address cybersecurity? Small businesses should concentrate on their core business focus and outsource most of security. Some other things small businesses should consider is investing in services and technologies which will automatically block threats without a lot of human intervention. Purchasing cyber insurance coverage and making sure you have an incident response contractor on retainer are other things which they should look into. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: How can we increase cybercrime reporting numbers other than legislation? There isn’t actually a very well-known clearing house to post information about when individuals get hacked. There are many niche sites for specific acts like email takeovers, but no easy-to-use site for the general public. Creating one and publicizing it would help get general numbers up. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: What’s your take on cyber insurance? It can help companies with paying claims, defending against lawsuits and incident remediation and recovery. Some insurance companies also offer “reputation repair/recovery services” which can help to reestablish trust with users, customers and regulators. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: What would you advise people looking to get into the industry? If you are already in an IT or development-related field, check out different security forums for explanations of how attacks are launched and why they are effective. Sign up for a few classes with a college or university that has a cybersecurity degree program. Get involved in the community by going to conferences to meet people already in the field and make some connections. Getting a mentor in the space is a real help. Mike Convertino: Sensei School: What does Twitter look for in security candidates? We put a premium on looking for diverse backgrounds in an effort to foster different approaches to catching new and novel attacks. The hacking community is very diverse and comes up with some really unexpected and creative ways to break in. Our success depends on having that same level of diversity. Mike Convertino: Mike is on Twitter @mikeconvertino . Currently open security & tech positions @Twitter. Follow the Meet-A-Pro interview series @SenseiSchool on Twitter . We feature notable professionals in different fields from around the world, who share their insights and knowledge. They are also sometimes guest lecturers at Sensei School. Hasta pronto Sensei!

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The internet has been going on about data privacy issues on the social media networks which have become a standard go-to for all of us in our daily lives. In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook, Twitter and Google were summoned by governments across the globe. While they might have been put on pedestal and questioned about their business practices, nothing came out of it. Mainly because the network giants were able to convince everyone, that while they are processing the data given by the users of their platform, the users are giving this data out of their own free will. This is because there is an option on the platform from which they can either delete their history or turn off the data sharing. If people are not using these options, that means they want to see targeted ads, and are willing to allow the companies to continue monetizing their data. The Default settings I believe Human beings are lazy in nature. We don’t think twice before clicking agree to the end User Agreement for apps and softwares, just click allow for any option when an app is installing, and we do not bother checking what options are active or inactive till the time there is an emergency. Keeping this in mind, I believe while there might be an option for users to turn off their data sharing, very few of us actually exercise these rights. Product managers understand this. They spend their lifetimes understanding user behaviors and something as simple as a switch left on instead of off, gives an illusion of free will to the user. and more than 90% of the users (if not more) never bother with it as it is not causing any inconvenience in their lives. I went through the current user journey on Facebook and Google to see how it works: Facebook You can check your preferences here: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/ The Facebook options were fairly straight forward, but it was at the bottom of the complete settings list and once there, if you tried to change the settings you were prompted about what you might lose if you change the settings. A normal user who does not understand technology does not go ahead with it as they do not understand the repercussions and do not want to ‘break the system’. Default settings on Facebook Ad settings Google Google’s user journey is more complicated as I had to go through 3 different pages to actually reach the privacy options and the pages were descriptive and you can actually control a lot of data. You can make the changes in your preferences here: https://myaccount.google.com/privacycheckup Now if you are a product manager, you would know that the moment you give a lot of options to a user, they get confused. I myself, did not change anything after I reached this page as there were too many options for me to choose. While Google gives you the power, it would be interesting to know how many people actually make the changes once they are on this page. What if the Default settings were different Now consider a scenario when the default settings of these networks are with data sharing as off, and a prompt notification which asks them to switch on the settings manually. Most people will not bother turning them on, and these platforms, which monitor our activities even when we are not actively on the platform, would only be able to get data from users who have willingly and consciously allowed the platforms to get their data and show them targeted ads. The downside The downside, and this is what all the platforms keep saying in their defense, is the quality of ads that you would see would deteriorate. they would not be customized and would be random, at best suited according to the cookie data which your browser might be providing the platform. But then, if you are not ok with that, you can always turn on the data sharing from the settings, isn’t it? Isn’t that what free-will means? Consider the following scenarios: Scenario 1: Your water tank has a hole, and water keeps leaking from it till the time you do not put a seal on it. vs. Scenario 2: You have a small tap and you choose when to let the water flow, and have a small stream of water running so it could feed the birds flying to your water tank. Which one would you choose? Most of us would choose Scenario 2, while the used case which we are living Daily is Scenario 1. In conclusion I believe instead of asking Facebook and Google to change their business model, which is a behemoth task and success would be unlikely, I believe it is easier for us to persuade them to change their default settings and then users can consciously choose to switch them on. This would not only educate them about what data they are sharing, but also not lead to massive missteps like Brexit and 2016 US elections in the future.

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As GDC rages on, I’ve been able to bring you news about amazing games, but I’ve also spent a majority of my time talking to developers, engineers, and artists about the possibilities lying ahead for the gaming industry thanks to blockchain technology, and how is on the leading edge of this trend. pixEOS When people think of blockchain technology, often their minds jump straight to cryptocurrency, massive volatility, and perhaps even lambos. While this is all fine and good it doesn’t begin to even scratch the surface of what blockchain based systems can do for gaming. A Wave Of Non-Fungible-Tokens Approaches What is a non-fungible-token (NFT)? Simply put a NFT is a blockchain based token that represents a digital object. It could be a picture, or a Cryptokitty in the case with the Ethereum blockchain, or a song. A NFT resides within an individual blockchain based account, or wallet address, holding it, and the owner of that NFT essentially can prove that the digital object associated with it belongs to them, since the NFT will show up as a token on their public wallet address. As it stands before us the entire landscape of the gaming industry hinges on the use of digital assets. When it becomes possible to use blockchain backed NFTs to keep track of these digital assets, something wonderful happens. Digital assets backed by NFTs suddenly become provably scarce, counterfeit proof, unique digital objects whose ownership can be proven and tracked. Practically anything can become a NFT, and pixEOS is hard at work with the initiative in order to stratify the standard for NFTs across the EOS ecosystem. The teams have been making some amazing progress, and in the near future it will be possible to use NFTs to substantiate ownership of music, digital art, and 3D rendered objects. dGoods Impacting The Nature of Gaming I see a future where you log into a virtual EOS blockchain backed world on the pixEOS platform. Imagine you have a football in this world and that the football is backed by a NFT. Throwing the football back and forth between your friends in this virtual world would be tantamount to transferring a token between wallets. If someone logs off while they’re holding the football, or decides not to throw it, the football is no longer in play. Now if someone does “steal” the ball, conjuring a new one might be as simple as spending some CPU (which you might have in excess for having staked tokens to pay for it etc), and voila, you can play again. Mind you, we’re not quite there yet, but we’re CLOSE and that’s what so exciting. If we can begin to equate the base value of a NFT as equivalent to the amount of computational power required to process rendering that object on the network we set a sane baseline for assessing game object value. Add into this the game theory of consumer driven market dynamics and we’ll begin to see the marketplaces arising where players will pick and choose which objects they think are more valuable. Taking an approach to this marketplace that utilizes smart contract driven multi signature exchanges will facilitate efficient commerce. When dApp developers begin to code their games around the parameters of interoperability afforded to them by NFT backed blockchain based resources, they can begin to interweave various facets from other games into their platforms in non-game breaking ways. For instance it would be possible for a rare frost resist helmet you find an EOS blockchain based dungeon crawling dApp to be recognized as apparel you can wear in a golfing dApp, and perhaps the developer of that golfing dApp would add a particle effect reflecting that rare frost resist helmet’s rare attribute, so that it glows blue. The clothing might not change your golf swing, but as can be seen in popular games such as Team Fortress, or services like the WAX exchange, being able to customize your character’s aesthetics with rare gear is a booming industry. I know some of you reading this are already coveting that frost resist helmet (gotta stay warm!), and it doesn’t even exist yet! A Marketplace That Serves Creatives Assets backed by NFTs will serve as the mortar between the bricks of an entire ecosystem of commerce centered around creative designers. One way this will come to manifest is the pixEOS Art Gallery, scheduled to launch in the very near future, which will allow artists to make their original art into a NFT and sell it. As we continue to expand the pixEOS platform we are looking into making it possible to substantiate 3D modeled art in the form of a NFT as well as other forms of digital assets. Once you can generate your own distinct, unique, and counterfeit-proof NFT to substantiate your digital assets, pixEOS intends to give you the means to earn! In the pixEOS Art House artists like you will be able to use NFT tokens as a way to connect with everyone from big studios to indie developers that need their raw talent to bring projects to life. We want to empower you by directly valuing the assets you create, allowing you to set the market rate for your designs and digital assets, earn your fair cut, and thrive. As the gaming world evolves and continues to encompass new technologies, when it comes to the integration of blockchain and gaming, NFTs will go a long way towards eliminating the counterfeiting of assets, creating robust platforms that have the padded assurance of blockchain based provenance. I look forward to the bright future ahead, and I’m proud of the role that pixEOS is playing as we make these possibilities reality.

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Day 4 Of GDC Coverage From pixEOS!

Which programming language comes to your mind when you hear the word “software”? We are very sure that Javascript is among the top languages in your memory. Javascript is one of the well-known languages for every layperson. The chief reason behind its constant popularity is the vast usage. Do you know what percentage of developers are using this language? According to , a popular website used by developers to share their skills, Javascript is used by 69.8%. Stack Overflow It is followed by HTML, CSS, SQL, Java etc. Here is the representation of their findings: It is often remarked as a beginners’ language as it is quite easy to learn and execute. This makes it the best friend of developers! As a business person, you don’t have to go with what developers prefer. We want you to judge whether it’s really the optimum language for your custom software development project. One way to get a crystal clear image of the reality is an analysis of languages used for websites. Let’s check the insights! One thing about Javascript is extremely popular that it makes interactive web pages. In fact, for some people, front-end development means . It is well-proved through statistics as well. javascript development services According to the trends evaluated by , Javascript is the top-notch client-side programming language. The latest trend was examined on 15 March 2019. Let’s have a look at the representation of their evaluation: W3Techs Since its inception in 1995, Javascript has proved to be a dynamic language that has met the growing needs of web development services. This has been possible with the introduction of constant developments and innovations in its every version. No year in the past two decades has passed without Javascript being the most used programming language. Anyone can predict the same in the future after reading the above statistics. In this post, we are trying to forecast the future of Javascript on the basis of trends and facts. We have come up with the following frameworks that we expect to shine brightly in the coming years for Javascript: Node.js: Bringing Javascript to the server side Vue.js: Expected to rise more Angular.js: Continual launch of newer versions React.js: Constant increase in popularity Let’s evaluate these points in detail: 1. Node.js: Bringing Javascript to the server side Do you know which is the most used framework of Javascript according to statistics? In a survey by , which is a popular website for exchanging skills among developers, Node.js come up to be as the most popular framework. stack overflow Here is the chart of their findings: Following Node.js, Angular and react were also in the top list of frameworks. The top three frameworks are leveraging from Javascript. But what makes Node.js top this list? It has one plus point that enables it to outshine other frameworks. Unlike, other runtimes on Javascript, Node.js is highly developer friendly as it enables to work on single language on both the sides, that is, the client side and server side. Although Javascript has always remained a front-end development language, Node.js has brought it to the back-end also. It’s a complete stress reliever of Node.js software developers as they need to use only one language across all layers. It would not be misleading to conclude that it has revolutionized Javascript by introducing it to the server-side programming. This is the chief reason behind its constant growth and development. 2. Vue.js: Expected to rise more It is a progressing javascript framework which was launched five years ago. In a short time span, it has won the hearts of many . According to a survey by , the frameworks were reviewed among various parameters. Javascript language developers Stateofjs Vue.js scored more than Angular when the developers were asked to vote for ‘use it, would use again’. The chief reason behind its quick acceptance is the simplicity in learning this language because of its extreme clarity. The components of this framework are a mixture of HTML and Javascript. It would not be wrong to conclude that this framework has taken the best from all other frameworks of Javascript and eliminated their cons in its functioning. 3. Angular.js: Continual launch of newer versions It is extremely popular in developing single page applications. It was developed and maintained by Google with new versions being introduced every few intervals. From Angular to Angular 7, this framework has evolved a lot. The continual launch of these versions has presented innovations in Angular.js programming services**.** The most beneficial feature of this framework is its ability of data synchronization. This means that the view and model are synchronized. It reduces development time significantly. Although, the statistics say that the newer framework of Javascript is more popular than Angular among developers. 4. React.js: Constant increase in popularity When the Facebook Ads app gained remarkable traffics, the company required people to run it perfectly. They faced certain problems with maintenance and codes. This is when React.js came into being and was introduced proficiently to the market! React is a Javascript library which is mostly used by high traffic sites. According to the survey which analyzed the market position o react on 18 March’2019 by , it was found out that it is popular among high traffic sites. W3Techs Here is a graphical representation of their findings: Apart from Facebook, there are other popular sites which are using this framework of Javascript like Glassdoor.com, BBC, Paypal, Netflix etc. Its potential is very well utilized by some big organizations because it makes creating interactive UIs a completely stressfree work. Whenever the React.js application developers change their application data, React impeccably update and manifest the correct components. Looking at the statistics and market position, it does not seem that it will leave its popularity in recent times. Final Words: Undoubtedly, the various frameworks have their own established market which is constantly growing. It might be possible that some frameworks fail in the near future and some see remarkable growth. One thing which is certain is the existence of one or the other Javascript framework in software development services. There is no chance that Javascript will lose its position as the most used language. The statistics and fact speak volumes about its bright future!

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What is the future of JavaScript?

Data Access for AI: An Under-Explored Use for Blockchain There is a vast amount of computing power around the world that is not used efficiently. There are an estimated 4 billion personal computers in the world and 90% of them have free capacities at any given moment. This is to say nothing of the idle capacities of other personal devices, like smartphones and tablets. In effect, this excess computing power is wasted. Lots of startups are trying to use blockchain technology to take advantage of this inefficiency to meet different economic needs. The blockchain is exciting in this context because it provides an infrastructure for distributed computing power, while at the same time providing an incentive for individuals to link their idle devices to the network. Many of the startups I’ve come across are focused on providing web hosting and/or data storage solutions via blockchain. However, the use case I think is the most exciting involves artificial intelligence or “AI”. Democratizing AI The idea of applying the blockchain to artificial intelligence is attracting a lot of attention. Similar to the goal of distributed data storage and web hosting, the blockchain could encourage a broader distribution of the data and algorithms that will determine the future development of artificial intelligence. some experts argue However, many artificial intelligence experts are concerned that IBM, Facebook, Google and a few other big companies . These giant corporations also control the massive silos of digital data necessary to create and refine the best machine learning programs. Many argue there is a need to if A.I. is to develop in a direction to benefit all of humanity. are monopolizing all the talent in the field democratize data This is where blockchain technology comes in. At the most basic level, just as the blockchain allows money to be transacted between private parties without a bank or central authority in the middle. Artificial intelligence experts are hoping blockchain technology can allow artificial intelligence networks to access large stores of data and computing power without a large company or other centralized entity in control. Browser-Enabled AI Calculations Several start-ups are setting up blockchain-based marketplaces, where people can buy and sell data. The goal, , is to “decentralize access to data before it’s too late.” I’ve encountered multiple projects looking to accelerate artificial intelligence development in this way. Serious entrepreneurs with impressive academic credentials are behind several of them (e.g. and ). says one expert Skynet Kaasy In this article, I want to focus on . Hadron is creating a marketplace to harness otherwise unused and wasted computing power to solve real-life problems with artificial intelligence. Specifically, Hadron processes and categorizes images and sounds in ways that can be tailored to various uses, such as face detection and image classification. Users who link their devices to the Hadron network perform a piece of this work and in return, they get rewarded in Hadron tokens. Hadron The Demand for AI Computation Hadron gets its supply of artificial intelligence. tasks from the marketplace it creates, which enables people looking to processes and categorizes images to put in a bid for the task. Hadron assigns the tasks to devices linked to its network and pays out a percentage of the bid proportional to demand. The demand refers to the number of artificial intelligence tasks in the marketplace and supply refers to the number of linked devices. Together these determine the price of computations on Hadron’s platform. For example, if the demand for computation is high, the bid prices will be higher. If the demand is low, the bid prices will be lower. Centralized vs Distributed AI Computing In contrast to centralized artificial intelligence computing, Hadron’s distributed computing model has several advantages. The most notable is that scaling the computational resources based on demand is easy. When the demand for computation increases, the price increases, which provides an incentive for existing and new users to link their devices to Hadron. Hadron recently announced it will be the first dService launched by Aikon, which is a blockchain-enabled API marketplace. This will let anyone use Hadron’s new “ ” to recognize and categorize any image. Computer Vision API Conclusion While still very much in its early days, blockchain technology seems to hold much promise for accelerating artificial intelligence development. More than merely accelerating this development, however, blockchain also provides a decentralized infrastructure that can side-step corporate and government controlled data siloing while also ensuring that the value created through artificial intelligence can be shared in a democratic way_._ Subscribe to my channels Medium and Twitter if you like my articles and want to learn more about blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. If you have any questions about this article, please comment in the section below. Thank you!

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The reason why incentive design is such a powerful tool for the design of software solutions is because when incentives are aligned correctly, they will push the solution to grow indefinitely. This article will introduce a method for the design of economic incentives, used by economies to deliver value to all participants through time. Call it what you will, incentives are what get people to work harder. — Nikita Khrushchev Introduction to this article This article is the third part of a series on how to design a token economy, with lessons learnt from my work as a Lead Blockchain Architect for . My goal is to produce a framework that can be reused for the analysis and design of token economies in a structured and comprehensive approach. TechHQ The previous articles in this series introduced how to define the as a single driving vision, how to define the and their transactions, and the design of the environment that allows participants to transact, which is closely related to the go-to-market strategy. goal of an economy economy participants This article will introduce a method for the design of economic incentives, used to keep an economy in the goal path as it evolves through time. My knowledge of Game Theory is not at a PhD level so I’m sure that my method could easily be improved with some tools and techniques drawn from academia. As usual all feedback is very welcome. For this part, as I did for the second part on Stakeholder Mapping and Market Design, I will take the product for the done in Bern in November, . This solution had a very simple technological layer as a document registry with some auditing functions, and a carefully designed economic layer that theoretically allows Strea to easily reach a global scale. TechHQ Pioneers.io Energy Hackathon Strea About Incentive Design One skill that is commonly listed as a requirement for the design of blockchain solutions is Game Theory, which relates to the research field of . These areas of knowledge allow to understand why groups of individuals act in the way they do in the search for the fulfilment of their personal goals. To take an example from Bitcoin, the reason that the miners mine new blocks is because they are incentivized to do so by receiving a in bitcoins every time they do so. Mechanism Design monetary reward Academic knowledge in Game Theory will certainly help with incentive design, but from my own experience some common sense and critical thinking can produce an approximation that is good enough for prototypes and pitches. If you get your idea funded then you should definitely find a way to formalize it and give you more confidence. The reason why incentive design is such a powerful tool for the design of software solutions is because when incentives are aligned correctly, they will push the solution to grow indefinitely. In the Bitcoin case this reward has attracted more and more miners for as long as the incentive mechanism remained within a certain region, with the capitalization of Bitcoin growing stratospherically. Designing Incentives Economic incentives and value transfers are a powerful tool, since they can be used to motivate stakeholders to act in the greater good of the solution. By harnessing the will of the users the amount of management required is greatly reduced, which renders the solution more scalable. In this was introduced as the decentralization goal that should always be part of a blockchain solution. part 1 of this series The essential prerequisite to design effective incentives is to work from the that shows the desired transactions between our economy participants. This value transfer network will act as the goal for the incentive design, but at the same time the incentive design will produce a refinement of the targeted value transfers, and maybe the whole product to pivot. value transfer network Figure 2: Incentive Design Process The goal for is transparent reporting of carbon emissions. Successive incentive design iterations made us refine how much data should the companies be forced to make public, and what could they keep private. After a few iterations the solution reached was the simplest possible: All data reporting is completely voluntary, but there is no private data. Economy goal: Strea These mechanisms are aimed to incentivize some economy participant to do something. In Bitcoin it is the block reward to incentivize miners to sign blocks. In they were Bounty Hunters to find non-transparent reports, paid with fees from the Companies reporting. Positive incentives: Strea Figure 3: How Bounty Hunters are to audit emissions in incentivized Strea In most solutions the number of roles can be reduced to five or less, and specific incentives will often include only two or three of them. In a first pass of the solution as shown above most roles and positive incentive mechanisms will be identified, which will probably contribute to a clearer definition of the value transfers between stakeholders. These mechanisms are aimed to disincentivize abusive behaviours. In Bitcoin all the that it runs on, but that is not an option for solutions that for example run on the , and it isn’t necessarily the best strategy for all disincentives. Negative incentives: disincentives are built into the blockchain platform Ethereum mainnet In the first disincentive that we wanted to implement was that Bounty Hunters needed to be held accountable themselves and produce enough information so that the breach in transparency would be clear and fair. For this purpose we decided that the Bounty Hunters would only be paid when they would be providing verifiable transparency breaches and lacking low level consensus protocol options we implemented an independent tribunal. Strea Figure 4: How Bounty Hunters are to raise weak arbitration cases in disincentivized Strea We immediately realized that the tribunal members might not be unbiased themselves, so we implemented randomized tribunal selection, tribunal isolation, penalties for being in the minority side of the tribunal decision, and penalties for not taking a decision. All these features are not detailed in this article. A second iteration of the incentive design process yielded tweaks to the economy goal, to the value transfers between stakeholders, insight on abusive behaviours and a more complete incentive design. Each successive iteration should yield less changes and converge to a final solution. If this is not the case maybe a deeper look into the economy goal should be considered. Figure 5: Complete design of incentives for Strea Conclusion Economic incentives are a powerful tool for the design of decentralized solutions, allowing for economy participants to be trusted to work together towards the economy goal without the need for manual supervision. This produces more scalable solutions, which in turn makes it easier to achieve the necessary critical mass of participants for the solution to be self-sustaining. The design of economic incentives is not a new field of study, but their mass application to the development of software products is, and the tendency for short implementation windows and frequent pivots requires a loose framework that can be widely used for this purpose. Deep academic knowledge and support is always welcomed, but not always readily available or easily integrated. In this article we have presented how the incentive design can be facilitated by relying on a stakeholder value transfer network and an iterative process that focuses on the economy goal and the network of positive and negative incentives that steer the economy participants to work together. An economy designed using these tools can be easily portrayed using simple diagrams, which in our experience do a great job of helping potential investors understand the solution during a pitch. An economy designed using these tools can be easily portrayed using simple diagrams, which in our experience do a great job of helping potential investors understand the solution during a pitch. For proof, please follow future developments in . Strea Article originally published in the TechHQ blog .

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Designing a Token Economy — Incentives

A parable about missed deadlines and over-engineering Some time ago I attended to a coding interview for the position of Data Scientist at one start-up. I felt myself well-prepared and confident, practicing lots of programming puzzles, coding various Machine Learning techniques from scratch, and having several years of programming experience under the belt. What can go wrong? Unfortunately, I failed at the thing that doesn’t have any relation to the Gradient Descent methods or Time Complexity analysis. No, the failure was related to something very different and much more complicated. It was a Tic-Tac-Toe game! I bet at this moment, some of you just close this story with thoughts: What, a Tic-Tac-Toe game? How can one fail to implement such a simple thing? You should be a total newbie, man, not being able to solve such a trivial exercise! The rest of you, who decided to give me a chance, I invite you to read my story and probably this experience help you to escape similar mistakes in your software development practice and be more careful. Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash How Can Anything Go Wrong Here? Now let me explain the interview task more thoroughly to give you enough context and understanding of the project’s scope. The following list enumerates the minimal requirements. Terminal-based interface. Turn-based gameplay; the one player makes a move after another one. At the very beginning and after each turn, the game shows whose turn it is, and allows to make a choice. When the turn is submitted, the game automatically shows a new board’s state and analyzes if there is a winner. If there is one, the UI shows information about the winner, and the game ends. The game is written in Python ≥ 3.x. Sounds very straightforward, right? The greatest twist here is a . You’re only given a to build the MVP, i.e., working terminal-based game for two players. Also, there is an additional list of priorities that clarify and extend the design requirements. Note that they list in . time limit 1 hour the order of decreasing importance The game meets the minimum requirements stated above. The UI is intuitive and doesn’t require additional instructions. The code is well-structured, compact, and easy to read. Tests are proving the correctness of the developed program and its components. The game can handle incorrect input. The UI is convenient. The code uses modern language features and libraries. Ok, great, the requirements are clear. Everything looks pretty simple and its time to start building the code! It shouldn’t be too tricky… Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash How I Know How To Prioritize Things As soon as I’d read the document with requirements, my thoughts were: . I wanted to build something fancy and interactive. Up to this moment, I’ve developed many CLI tools, and simple terminal experience wasn’t enough. So I chose the library to make things interactive and convenient. (I know, it could sound strange to talk about “convenience” of a terminal-based interface, but still…) Hey, the basic gameplay of a Tic-Tac-Toe game is very trivial so let’s focus on the UX and handling the input at the beginning, and then build the rest of the game logic curses There is one small question here: Here is a small snippet to explain what I am talking about. The code below shows the simplest program to interactively with a breakpoint. How would you debug a program that controls the terminal? curses curses

def main(term):
    term.clear() i range( ):
        # to debug after curses mangled the terminal
        breakpoint()
        term.addstr(i, , f )
    term.refresh()
    term.getkey() __name__ == :
    curses.wrapper(main) import for in 10 try 0 'String: {i + 1:d}' if '__main__' View codes on Github here Looks nice, right? Until you try to run it. Having an interactive UI wasn’t a strict requirement, as you see from the list shown above. Still, this thing drained my attention and a considerable part of the allocated time. When you run this snippet, it not shows you what you could expect. As you have probably already guessed, the take control over the terminal session, and when a debugger tries to render its interface, things are . curses totally broken Not a something you would like to see when running a debugger I’d spent a whole lot of time trying to set things up and deal with a broken debugger. Sure enough, the precious minutes wasted without bringing any value to the developed program. The most interesting thing here is that having an interactive UI wasn’t a strict requirement, as you see from the list shown above. Still, this thing drained my attention and a considerable part of the allocated time. It Is Easy To Refactor This God-Class Later After I’d gave up my attempts to tame the terminal, I started building the game logic. The main class called (yes, a pretty unusual name for a class that manages the game) was responsible for storing the board state, switching the active player, and managing the whole game process. Game As you already know, I was running out of time, so I’d tried to focus on the building working solution and put off the refactoring for the very end of the process. After some time, the was responsible not only for the gameplay but also rendered the board, including a few hard-coded constants and so on. Without notice, my class became responsible for . Game Game everything Ad-hoc solutions and quick patches had led to the avalanche of bad code without time to fix it Expectation vs Reality from the world of Computer Programming So as you can guess, I didn’t have enough time to factor out this AllmightyGame class into something more manageable and light-weighted. It becomes a great illustration of instead. Ad-hoc solutions and quick patches had led to the avalanche of bad code without time to fix it. It seems that distinguishing the clean code from the ugly one is a more simple thing than spotting how it from one category into another. God-class anti-pattern slowly slides Writing Tests Takes Too Much Time An ugly game logic class, a fragile UI, and the time given to complete the task is almost over. Not bad for such a “simple” thing! How can we safe a bit of time to fix all this mess? Which part of the software development process seems to be the one we can easily drop without much consequences? The answer is unit tests! The code is so compact that you can see every class and function; we can safely jump straight into application logic coding instead of writing these extra functions, right? Wrong. Even with the simplistic and trivial programs, you need You still need to write some to run your program, and you are going to execute it very often during the development process. These entry points are precisely the thing tests give you. somehow verify that your input generates a valid output. entry point The tests not only don’t add too much overhead to your code, but they also bring many benefits to the development process, even for pretty simple, toy programs Moreover, writing tests has a significant effect on your API building process: it forces you to decouple modules and untangle pieces of your system. See the snippet below. You need to verify that game logic works, and the most straightforward way to do so is to pass the game state from outside. Then you only need to call your winner checking function and see if it works as expected. Otherwise, you would need to run the game UI, and type turns manually. Even for small game states, it would steal a few seconds of your time on each run, not talking about testing bigger boards. pytest

@pytest.mark.parametrize( , [ , , ])
def test_game_has_winner(state):
    game = Game(state)
    assert game.has_winner() = state_from_string(state)

    def has_winner(self):
        pass  # check rows, columns, and diagonals

def state_from_string(line): [list(row) row line.split( )] import 'state' 'ooo|x.x|..x' 'xo.|xo.|x..' 'x..|.xo|o.x' : ( , ): . class Game def __init__ self state self state return for in '|' View codes on Github here Therefore, the tests not only don’t add too much overhead to your code, but they also bring many benefits to the development process, even for pretty simple, toy programs. I believe there is an opposite tendency actually: the tests could even and help to make it better. One should think twice before shrinking testing to save time. speed up the development process Lessons Learned Sure enough, this little story was written not to tell you how to deal with terminal rendering troubles or write puzzle games. It is musing about Software Development in general. One could find this “parable” quite shallow with lots of obvious mistakes I’d made. Well, good for you! You are a much better developer than I am. Nevertheless, I decided to share this failure with the rest of us who feel confident and experienced but sometimes forget about such “mundane things” like deadlines, KISS, and MVP. Tight time limits and perceived task’s simplicity could play a bad joke of you, and I am talking not only about test tasks but the daily development process as well. So let’s go through the lessons we can learn from this story. If you don’t have a working product, everything else doesn’t make much sense. I’ve seen similar things in my carrier when a company starts with building fancy customized dashboards, a bunch of cross-platform applications, tries to account all possible edge cases when it would be more beneficial to focus on the minimal logic and not to spread the efforts. Don’t put the horse before the cart. It becomes evident when you’re given just an hour to complete the task. Such a short period highlights things that are true for a broader scope as well. Moreover, long development timespan can easily hide the issue. Being busy doesn’t imply making progress. Tests can’t guarantee the absence of bugs, but they force you to separate the code into smaller fragments, decouple submodules, inverse dependencies, and in general, write a cleaner API. It is a pretty good method to structure the thinking process and better understand the requirements. Try to use test-driven development approach whenever it’s possible. At least, at the very beginning of the development process. Even when the task seems to be super easy, resits the urge to combine its implementation with the learning of a new framework. Go with the technologies you know best. You should keep the convenience of the users in mind but make of it an ultimate goal probably not a good idea. This point has lots in common all the previous ones. Following accidental requests from your customers, you tend to ignore testing, making ad-hoc changes, hacking the codebase, and essentially “overfitting” the quality of your product. Don’t put the user’s convenience before the clean code. Many of these things could seem obvious and many times repeated. (Not talking about plenty of great books). Nevertheless, I believe that every of us has a chance to fall into the same trap, and it is a good idea to remind yourself about these simple observations every once in a while to be in a good fit and make better decisions. Have you ever had similar experience during your developer’s carrier? Or if you’re an employer, which kind of tasks you prefer to give to your candidates? What do you think about such type of “stress-testing”? Would be glad to hear your thoughts!

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During the high tide that was 2017, when Bitcoin and Ethereum knew no limits, its growth coincided with an explosion of cryptocurrency based projects which were all looking to raise funds with the help of this new hybrid capital sourcing strategy called an . ICO No name tech companies and startups from across the globe were raising millions in a matter of weeks without having to pitch in front to Angel Investors or VC’s and signing away a percentage of their equity. This access to global funding was unprecedented and inspiring, to see a community come together and support projects but the real issue was the problems these projects were aiming to tackle. While it seemed great in theory when it came down to the practical implementation many of these cryptocurrency projects failed to deliver a viable MVP that could compete or disrupt markets. Cryptocurrency and blockchain is still a highly speculative asset with very few practical use cases that can compete with centralised solutions currently available. While I have no doubt, these projects will be constrained by the limitations brought on by the scalability trilemma I do think that cryptocurrency needs to find a sector where it can consistently provide real-world value and use. Since the bear market hit, talk of cryptocurrency has gone quiet with many projects going back to the drawing board and working on limited budgets. I do however see an opportunity for cryptocurrency to grow in a sector that has been grossly under-serviced by current options. Paying for content, curation and engagement The internet has long been perceived as a place where any user can gain access to information for free, and while this concept is an admirable one and one we should look to strive for in future, it is not a model that can continue to scale. Having an internet publication or being an online content creator doesn’t come without expenses and to this point operating costs were covered either by sponsored content, advertising monetisation, investment and lastly donations. Peer to peer tipping Peer to peer tipping or donations relies a lot on the good nature of man and a high level of altruism since you as the creator push out your content and hope that a portion of those who value your efforts will reward you for it. While this is the purest form of tipping and translates nicely from real life practices the problem with tipping in cryptocurrency at the moment is the fact that many investors at this point still want to HODL in the hope of making short term returns instead of trying to use their currency regularly to trade. A self-publishing site content site that seems to favour this principle and allows users to tip content creators in Ethereum is already in the works. You can see it play out on a website called, Cent — . https://beta.cent.co/ Tipping from a reward pool To get uses used to handing out digital tips without having to give out there own money some sites are trying to give its users power of the money it earns and helping distribute it through a central reward pool. A self-publishing site content site that seems to favour this principle has released and allows users to tip content creators in Ethereum based token called Bounty (BTNY). You can see it play out on the site, Publish0x — . https://www.publish0x.com/ Tipping from a stake reward pool Stake based rewards allow investors to purchase and hold an amount of cryptocurrency which gives them relative access to distributing currency from the reward pool. So while your stake is safely locked away, you get access to an amount based on how much stake you hold. You can then use your allocated reward pool access to tip other content creators. A self-publishing site content site that seems to favour this principle has released and allows users to tip content creators in the blockchains native currency STEEM or SBD (STEEM backed dollars). You can see it play out on the site, Steemit — . https://steemit.com/ While the methods I’ve mentioned above are limited to one site some communities are looking to provide cross-platform crypto-based tipping initiatives on sites like Twitter, Reddit and Discord with the use of , Reddcoin or LikeCoin. DogeCoin Free internet services or free the internet of monopolies While I’m personally not sure which tipping method is the best or if it needs to be a combination of tipping and direct donations that will be the winning formula, I do think this is a step in the right direction for the internet as a whole. Just as we are used to paying for information in the real world via books and newspapers, we need to transition this behaviour onto the internet. If we do not, we will continue to give more power to these free information aggregators like social media giants Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This will only strengthen their monopoly and allow them to dictate the narrative towards there benefit, it’s filters and biases will also go so far, and we’ve seen the dangers the echo chambers these sites create as well as the ease of manipulating their systems with the rise of fake news. If we are going to demand the right to enjoy high quality, fact-checked original content we will need to pay for it, and with cryptocurrency, it gives us a universal method of rewarding those who take the time to produce good content. Content can then be rewarded on merit and not by the number of views and ad impressions it gets, eliminating the need for click bait strategies and another unscrupulous journalistic behaviour. The tip of the iceberg While cryptocurrency still looks for a place to achieve scale and mainstream adoption tipping could be the one area that it can take a foothold. It has been neglected by centralised services and is by no means a monopoly at this point. I think that the growing need for independent, unbiased content and the tipping trend can be combined with cryptocurrency and could be the springboard the sector never wanted but needs to become a viable mainstream trading medium. About the author Che is a Cape Town based tech enthusiast and digital marketer and blogger by trade with a keen eye for cryptocurrency and emerging tech trends. He is also the co-founder of , A South African online community designed to promote local entrepreneurs, SME’s and startups. nichemarket

Dogecoin

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Will digital tipping become cryptocurrencies first real-world use case?

We attended a fascinating talk by Amy Webb who is a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern school of Business, on the 2019 Emerging Tech Trends Report. By Andy Eva-Dale This covered how the report connects 315 current tech trends and then future 2034 scenarios and the likelihood of these playing out. We also attended a workshop on building APIs (Application programming interfaces) for Growth from the authors of the O’Reilly book Designing Web APIs Brenda Jin and Saurabh Sahni; who are both currently working for Slack. This covered the fundamentals of APIs with real world is examples and bugs from Slacks code. The team handed out their book throughout the workshop. In addition to going into the different types of APIs and their implementation, it also covered some any tips to market your APIs and reach the masses. ‘the only way we are going to get to a place that we’re all happy in the future is if we’re all making smarter decisions in the present’ — Amy Webb Whilst at SXSW 2019 we attended a fascinating talk by Amy Webb who is a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern school of Business, on the 2019 Emerging Tech Trends Report. She has given successive talks on the Tech Trend Report at the last two SXSW events. This overview of the 2019 Emerging Tech Trends Report; builds out scenarios based on connections between 315 keys tech trends. Amy went through 16 of the trends highlighted in the report grouped into Cognitive Services (Dark Blue), Genomics (Light Blue), Natural UIs (Light Green), Biometrics (Yellow), Wearables(Pink) and Data Privacy (Dark Green); these are show below: She then ran through several real work examples for each of the 16 trends. I thought some of the most interesting of which was around Biometrics and Wearables. Amy gave an example that has recently been in the press, Walmart looking to put Biometric sensors in shopping trolleys to read customers temperature, heart rate, the speed and force with which you push the trolley etc. Then Walmart could then determine any given customers emotional state, whether they are angry or frustrated; as a result, they could send a shop assistant to come help. On the wearables front; Apple are looking at Biometric yoga leggings. How good would it be to know if you are doing the down dog correctly? Watch full talk here Source: Wareable The report itself contains 48 hypothetical future scenarios for the year 2034 based on the links between the 315 trends. Each scenario contains an Action Matrix based on the degree of Catastrophic certainty and impact; to advise your organisation whether it should Act Now, Keep Vigilant Watch, Inform Strategy or Revisit Later. The scenarios are then split out into three possible framings ‘Optimistic’, ‘Neutral’ and ’Catastrophic’. Then the report predicts the likelihood of each framing becoming reality.She then went through several of the scenarios from the report. One that really caught my imagination was around biometrics. Here are the three framings and likelihood for this trend in the year 2034: : Data collection is transparent, people understand how, when and where we are being monitored. It’s the end of passwords! No more two-factor authentication! No more boarding passes, physical credit cards, or driver’s licenses! Biometric scanning is safe and secure. Technology enriches our lives! Privacy is dead… but we’re ok. Optimistic (10% likely) : We preserve the status quo. Consolidation follows. Biometrics data gets locked into just a few technology providers, our data isn’t interoperable — WE aren’t either. Lots of bugs, authentication is annoying, we get hacked in new ways Neutral (50% likely) : Companies actively work AGAINST protecting our biometric data. We have no idea where our data is or who owns it. Regulation comes fast, Splinternets give way to protected biodata zones. Walmart’s shopping carts can’t cross state lines. There is a new economic and social class system. Rich people buy premium services to anonymize their biodata. Everyone else has their biodata mined, refined and productised. Authoritarian countries create universal genetic databases to monitor their citizens. Catastrophic (40% likely) Source: Vivint Smart homes: Who rules the roost? I found the idea of the utopian optimistic future, shame it’s the least likely of the three framings! The most terrifying scenario looks at our future smart homes, here again are the framings and the likelihoods: : Our devices work across platforms and are truly interoperable. Our families intermingle with Google, Amazon and Apple easily. They help us save time and energy. We are nudges into better, healthier lifestyles. Smart homes are safe and fun! Optimistic (0% likely) : We continue to this path without big changes. We soon realize that we can’t change our home / office / school operating system the same way we do our mobile OS’s (Even that is hard!) We’re frustrated, spending more money than we want and have very little choice. Neutral (30% likely) : You’re living in either a Google, Amazon or Apple home — and so is all of your data. You don’t understand how decisions are being made about and for you. Your smart home makes decisions that you wouldn’t. The microwave decides you should be on a diet and won’t let you eat popcorn. The washer decides you can get another day out of those jeans. Your garage decides you should walk to work. Catastrophic (70% likely) Source: Reddit This is scary right; but I have to agree with the report it’s hard to see anything but a catastrophic future without more corporations between the worlds tech giants; history has taught us this is extremely unlikely. In the future its highly likely that all of our lives will be controlled by the big 9 global tech giants (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and IBM) and there is very little we can do about it. If you were as fascinated as me by this report; the full report can be views or downloaded from here. The moment your arrive at Austin airport the cities slogan greets you with ‘Keep Austin Weird’. Originally published at www.tangent.co.uk . Please click on the applause button to recommend this article to your friends! You can also check out our website and posts on Twitter , Linkedin and Instagram . Don’t forget to signup to our newsletter for more inspiration. via our site

Amazon

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Garage

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Emerging Technology Trends at SXSW 2019

If our approach to cyber security is working, why in 2019, are we reading about hacking, social engineering and data breaches every day? Every day? I know it’s , but we all know in the industry that many of the successful attacks can be prevented. Unfortunately, “PEOPLE” are the weakest link in the chain of our security solutions. And unfortunately, telling PEOPLE not to open emails from people they don’t recognize doesn’t stop them from… you know,… opening emails from people they don’t recognize. And telling them to “check the URL” is the single worst piece of advice you can give to anyone. easier to attack than it is to defend Below are domains that are available right now for purchase. Buy one and then get yourself a free SSL cert from Let’s Encrypt. That will fool 99.9% of everyone you test, including security professionals. Can you see what’s wrong with the domains below? If like me, you get 99% in ‘feature detection’ aptitude tests, you’ll be able to spot the difference, eventually. Unfortunately you can probably tell from my poor writing skills, that I tested average to below average in English. 🥴 Did you spot what’s different about the domains? Below is a funny thread I found on Reddit that summarizes the problem with today’s anti-phishing awareness training techniques. Awareness training is important, but you get my point. 🤣 If existing email security solutions that use massive threat intelligence systems work well, why are the five bullet points below true in 2019? When speaking to people at RSA, it was apparent that most companies are focused on blocking threats. And many of the companies on display, collaborate beautifully by sharing knowledge, technology and techniques, so together, we can tackle these challenges. I absolutely love how collaborative the cyber security world is. But is this enough? Is it working? Do we need to stop and think differently? known It’s 2019 and we are only now starting to see the Web being encrypted — but there’s still a very long way to go. It’s only now that Let’s Encrypt, a non-profit initiative, is helping to create “a more privacy-respecting Web”. But as . I’ve discussed in previous posts, that introduces other challenges Even organizations that use five solutions from five different security vendors say that Phishing remains a serious concern for them. And while these systems may block over 95% of spam and threats, it only takes one person to open one link that goes to the wrong site or downloads the wrong software. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, here’s a post I wrote in April 2015 “ ” — most people at the time didn’t even know what a WebView was and today, almost every mobile app opens links inside the WebView instead of the native browser. How are we detecting and preventing malicious links from being opened or shared inside Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, Slack, WeChat, WhatsApp…? How WebView has weakened the TCB of the Web infrastructure We read about a hack or data breach everyday 90% of data breaches start with Phishing 59% of ransomware attacks originate with phishing emails 91% of all malware is delivered by email 93% of Phishing sites have a padlock thanks to automatically issued DV certs Are we proud of these stats? How I came to learn that chasing after the Phishers is like chasing Moby-Dick In summary, I learned that we were doing it wrong. In this instance I’m referring to MetaCert, and not us cyber geeks as a collective. In June 2017 MetaCert was approached by a number of crypto currency companies to help bring a stop to the outrageous Phishing scams on Slack — they were happening every 5mins, literally. MetaCert was the only company with an anti-phishing security integration, for which I own foundational patents. More specifically, I own patents for anti-phishing and anti-malware detection and prevention inside mobile app WebView using an API for URI detection techniques. It’s impossible to detect a phishing or malware link inside a mobile app without using this technique. I digress, but I’m simply highlighting some personal insights to show that this stuff is all I’ve been thinking about for a while — even though our website is terrible and doesn’t tell you anything. So I made a risky call and decided not to execute a go-to-market strategy for our enterprise customers to see if we had a good product/market fit, in favor of addressing the immediate need of people who were losing their money every 5 minutes. Again, literally because the Slack bot reminder was set to repeat attacks every 5 minutes in many instances. This was a big risk because our customers included IBM, Sage, SAP, NTT Security, AppDirect, Blackhawk Network and about 900 other companies. I had no idea at that time, if they appreciated the utility and whether they were willing to pay for the solution or not. But what can I say? I didn’t know if there was utility, because I had no way of knowing if we were actually preventing attacks from happening. Crypto was rife with phishing problems, and in public communities, so I knew we could achieve demonstrable, measurable success. It took three months of further product iteration to get it right, as threat actors were using techniques that we couldn’t have predicted when building our solution for enterprise customers — they were using Slackbot Reminders, DMs and the incoming webhook API. Our integration ended up automatically deleting messages that contained a malicious link with a DM sent to an admin so they knew what had happened. Finally, we nailed product/market fit. MetaCert was installed across almost every crypto company worldwide and like turning off a tap of water, Phishing was completely eradicated, with zero attacks today. And naturally, soon after the attacks stopped, crypto customers decided that they no longer needed our service. But that’s another pain point in the life of a startup trying to find its way in the world of big amazing competitors. 🤦‍♂️ Along the way, we built a very passionate community of over 7,000 members who would immediately (and still do today) report new attacks, which MetaCert would classify within minutes, and then blocked by our products across every company in real time — all while the Google Safe Browser API is fast asleep. I sometimes wonder if Google’s API is addicted to sleeping pills it’s that slow — they’re too big for comfort so I don’t mind naming them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we built a solution that could detect and prevent every new attack. That’s the problem I came to learn the hard way. We didn’t make it impossible for threat actors to scam people. We just made it less attractive to attack our customers and by doing that, we made Slack a less attractive platform, as it became more difficult for them to gain momentum before being caught and blocked. Imagine if you could achieve the same success for every customer using email. 🤔 I predicted that threat actors would migrate their efforts to a less secure platform. I recommended to the crypto ecosystem that they remain on Slack as by then, it had become the most secure platform for communities and companies who want to connect with other companies, as Phishing was now a thing of the past. I specifically warned them that if they moved to Telegram, threat actors would move there with their scams. Guess what happened? Crypto companies moved to Telegram to build their communities as it became the new cool tool in town. And of course, the threat actors migrated with them and started their shenanigans yet again. $1.6bn was stollen in 2018 alone. So, MetaCert built a security bot that’s now protecting over 1.3 million crypto people across 1,300 groups on Telegram. And I’m pleased to say that phishing has stopped there too. But what about email? All of this work and more, taught us that no matter what we do to detect and protect people from new threats, it’s technically impossible to stay ahead of the bad guys — they’re just too smart and most people are easy prey. It’s impossible to protect 99% of the people 99% of the time. At that time, we didn’t have a security solution for native email clients (but we do now, and they are mind blowing!), so we asked ourselves; “if we were to invent how we do things at our core today, what would that look like?” — similar to what Apple did when they re-invented how we listen to music with the AirPods. Apple didn’t design tangle-free wires. They removed the problem by changing the narrative. The AirPods is arguable one of the best products launched since the first iPhone, if not the best. We answered that question with a social experiment that started in December 2017, involving a new way to present Website identity with new visual indicators. I will explain what happened next in follow up posts. But suffice to say, we learned the hard way over a period of 2 years, while protecting the most widely targeted people on the planet, by an order of magnitude, that trying to detect threats alone, isn’t the answer. It helps, and it’s very important, but it’s not the answer. new Dear cyber colleagues, we need to rethink this stuff. While we opted for Google’s search algorithms over Yahoo!’s carefully curated listings back in the day, perhaps we need to consider going back to URL curation. Perhaps we need to curate what is verified as “safe”, and assume everything else is either hostile, or part of the — content we shouldn’t care about. long tail Perhaps we should ignore the long tail and focus on the head. What do you think?

Geeks

A rhetorical question about the effectiveness of our security solutions

W hile the Bitcoin boom may have given blockchain the wings to fly, this emerging technology has managed to soar to new heights all by itself. As it has flown higher, further, faster, it has been fueled by qualities unique and sublime, one of them being the so-called trait of immutability. Blockchain’s widely lauded immutability entails that data once entered cannot be modified by unscrupulous actors, or anyone for that matter. While this may sound like the perfect way to send the auditors packing, we cannot help but wonder: is blockchain’s supposedly perfect immutability too good to be true? What is Immutability in Blockchain? Before dissecting the issues that threaten to derail the golden promise of immutability, we must briefly have a look at what it is, how it works. Each block of information, be it facts or transaction details, is processed using cryptographic principles so that a hash value, represented by an alphanumeric string, can be generated for that block. Each block bears the hash value, or digital signature for not just its own block, but also the one previous to it. This process ensures that all the blocks are retroactively chained together quite inexorably. This aspect of the blockchain is responsible for making sure that nobody can break in and change the data recorded in one block without effectively dismantling the entire system. Given that blockchain is developed as being decentralised and distributed, a consensus reached between the numerous nodes that store a copy of the data, is responsible for making sure that a single version of truth is maintained. No single entity has overarching control and any changes must be simultaneously reflected in all the node servers involved. However, even such a robust mechanism is not without its challenges. Threats to Blockchain’s Immutability. The first chink in this shining armour is the possibility of a 51% attack. In blockchain networks supporting transactions, like the Bitcoin blockchain or any blockchain underlying a cryptocurrency, this could translate to being a “double spending attack”. We have already mentioned that this decentralised form of technology has no single entity pulling all the strings of a network. Yet, if miners band together in a group and become strong enough to amass a majority of the hashing power, it can spell doom for the immutability factor of a blockchain. Today, with the rise in mining marketplaces and the ability to rent out mining capacity, it is becoming increasingly easy to orchestrate such an attack. It may be slightly more difficult and expensive to execute in the case of large blockchain networks, especially those run using the proof-of-work consensus protocol (like Bitcoin) because of the sheer amount of hashing power it would require to bring them down. Even so, the smaller coins and blockchain startups seem to be at definite risk, as exemplified by the double spending attacks waged on , , Monacoin and so on. Bitcoin Gold Litecoin Cash By modifying the transaction data that was supposed to be “immutable”, the attackers managed to reverse high-value transactions and spend those amounts for a second time. Keeping the gains of the attackers in context, there have been several attempts to calculate the amount required to launch a 51% attack on various well-known cryptocurrency-oriented blockchain networks. As revealed by researchers like NYU’s Joseph Bonneau and tracked by websites such as , the cost of attacking a small-scale blockchain network may be quite little for the amount of access it promises. For example, according to the latter, the cost of attacking the Litecoin blockchain for an hour is about $39,018, which can be recouped if enough high-value transactions are tapped into and reversed. https://www.crypto51.app Another new challenge that is threatening to strip blockchain of its prized trait of immutability is the power of quantum computing. Very recently, top managers of tech behemoth have stated that quantum computing can potentially reverse engineer public keys of blockchain networks to find the private keys with which to break in to the system. IBM As per , the vice president of blockchain and digital currencies at IBM, it is a “real and credible threat” that is likely to affect nearly 50% of all blockchains. A while back, even the had drawn attention to the problem, suggesting that it would be mere “child’s play” for powerful quantum computers to shatter the cryptographic protection standing at guard. Jesse Lund MIT Technology Review So, What Is the Solution? To tackle the blockchain bully that is 51% attack, experts often suggest building a stronger protocol, and using consensus algorithms like Proof of Stake (because it is more difficult to stake a majority of tokens on a network than rent out a majority of computing power) or delegated Proof of Stake. Yet, none of these solutions seem to be quite foolproof enough to combat the enormity of the threat at hand. As for the risks posed by quantum computing, many have recommended the addition of quantum cryptography to the basis of blockchain. Del Rajan and Matt Visser of the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand have suggested using quantum particles entangled in time to construct the blockchain architecture itself, so that each particle can record all preceding history in a way that prevents hacks. Even so, the latter solution is quite futuristic in nature and we can hardly guarantee that there will never be another technology to disarm a quantum blockchain too. As of now, it would be advisable to remain mindful of the risks that underlie the benefits of blockchain technology and try to build robust structures that hackers find harder to catch up to.

Ask me Anything

Is Blockchain Really Immutable?

The members of Outkast have parlayed their hip hop careers into decades-long endeavors that extend beyond the music industry. Most recently, Big Boi performed 2004 №1 hit “The Way You Move” at the Super Bowl, alongside Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and Sleepy Brown, the latter of whom sang on the original version. While reading Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit” recently, I learned the story of their smash hit, “Hey Ya!” This song’s unique trajectory to success could teach us about blockchain adoption, I thought. “The Power of Habit” “People listen to Top 40 because they want to hear their favorite songs or songs that sound like their favorite songs. When something different comes on, they’re offended. They don’t want anything unfamiliar.” Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit In his book, “ ,” Charles Duhigg addresses how change makes humans uncomfortable. The Power of Habit He describes how “Hey Ya!” by OutKast was projected to be a massive success, but fell short when initially aired. It was later discovered that it was so radically different from what listeners were used to, they changed the station upon hearing it. Enter the “sandwich model.” This entailed radio stations playing, say, a Celine Dion song, followed by “Hey Ya!”, then another hit song. They sandwiched “Hey Ya!” with well-known and popular songs of the time. “Hey Ya!” gained traction and won many accolades. The story of “Hey Ya!” is similar to the current state of the blockchain. Cross Border Payments & Remittances Cross border payments and remittances amount to in excess of $20 trillion dollars in value on an annual basis. The infrastructure currently in place to move money globally is severely dated. The current leader of cross-border payments, SWIFT, subjects users to high fees and can take up to 3–5 days to settle. Migrant workers lose on average more than 10% in fees when sending money back home, which sometimes forces them to work a second job or give up days off to make up the extra funds. These fees can put a large strain on families relying on their relatives working abroad. Ripple Ripple the issues of speed and cost that currently plague the cross border payments. “If I want to move money from here (San Francisco) to London, the fastest way is to fly there,” said Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO. “We can stream video from the space station, but I can’t move my own money from A to B, especially for international payments, but that is also true for domestic transfers.” addresses RippleNet transactions are completed in 3–5 seconds, and cost mere fractions of a penny. (0.00001 XRP, or 0.0000029 USD at the time of writing) Ripple works directly with banks and financial institutions. Consumers will not have to interact directly with the technology, but they will benefit from the reductions in time and cost. Web Browsing Users generate valuable information when they use the apps created by technology corporations. The Amazons, Facebooks, and Googles profit from this. Users receive no compensation. Google currently aggregates more than 1 billion monthly active users spread across seven unique products. Brave Browser blocks ads and website trackers while paying content publishers 55% of the replaced ad revenue. Brave Software, ad partners, and browser users are to be allocated 15% of the revenue. Users would be able to donate their revenue share to content publishers through micropayments. Brave Brave is founded by Brendan Eich, a co-founder of Javascript. Its native ‘Basic Attention Token’ (BAT) allows users to tip websites and content creators. Metalyfe , a full web 3.0 enabled browser, is creating a portal for housing and monetizing data that its browsers collect. Users can leverage the ownership of their personal data. Lyfe Coin, the native currency of Metalyfe, allows earning for attention and data users offer. Metalye The economically incentivized browsing offered by Brave and Metalyfe leaves users with the opportunity to “Google” something and profit. “Since our inception, we have always a human-centric approach,” said Sameer Pirani, founder of Metalyfe. “We are focused on creating a unique and customized experience for each individual user. As we move towards Web 3.0 and the advancement of AI and data science, the facilitation of augmented curated experiences will be part of the new digital world.” BitTorrent The concept of decentralized applications pre-dates blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The first mainstream iterations of dapps were peer-to-peer file sharing and hosting networks such as Napster, Limewire, eDonkey and BitTorrent. BitTorrent, acquired by the blockchain startup Tron for $140 million, is currently the largest player in the distributed computing architecture space. It claims to have 170 million users at the time of the sale, and to move approximately 40% of the world’s internet traffic on a daily basis. Tron looks to implement cryptocurrency into the already successful BitTorrent infrastructure, instantly porting the BitTorrent community onto the blockchain. The hosting and sharing operations of BitTorrent will remain more or less the same. Users will now have the means to spend and earn cryptocurrency on the platform. The existing BitTorrent protocol requires a file to be shared to the system in order to download another file, with no incentive to keep the file there once the download is complete. BTT will allow users to pay for a file to be sent to them and for additional bandwidth to increase the download speed. By incentivizing file hosts to keep files on the network longer, the user benefits from overall faster download speed and more files on the network. BTT looks to use economic incentive in order to bolster the performance of the whole network. File providers are incentivized to support the network by continuing to host their files and are rewarded in BTT for doing so. The more files available on the network, the faster the overall download speed. “The BitTorrent speed product we described in the whitepaper is about accelerating BitTorrent downloads, so if someone has a torrent, and you want to get pieces of it, you can get it more quickly with the token,” said Justin Knoll, Project Atlas Lead, which is currently working on the project to connect BitTorrent to blockchain. “Via cryptocurrency, Tron has created an economic model that permits value transfer and increased performance within the existing BitTorrent infrastructure. Users continue to seed and download files, with the added benefit of rewards and speed.” Sandwiching the Blockchain Blockchain has amazing potential, but it’s currently too unfamiliar for most people to adopt. Just as “Hey Ya!” was sandwiched between popular songs, blockchain needs to be presented alongside existing architecture and operations to offer familiarity. The projects mentioned in this article target clear and relatable issues. They’re not alone. Take Flipp for instance. They’re creating a new user experience that features a vertical scroll found on social networking and dating sites (such as Tinder). “The Flipp mobile app now features a vertical scroll experience which allows shoppers to consume the content they love in a natural and instinctive way,” the company said in a press release. They work in the background, enabling and empowering the user to do more through blockchain, but not explicitly changing the user experience.

Abroad

Alongside

Instantly

Target

What Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” Can Teach Us About Blockchain Mass Adoption

Technology has turned the restaurant industry into a zero-sum game. The food & beverage industry operates on razor-thin margins, where delivery apps such as DoorDash and GrubHub take a 20% service fee on each order, . On top of that, there exists every other foodie app hustling to sell advertising space online. leaving little profit left for restaurant owners Food is at the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Required for energy production in multi-cellular organisms, humans cannot exist without it. Blockchain micropayments will revolutionize the food review industry because it will satisfy every level of Maslow’s hierarchy. Existing food review mechanisms sufficiently satisfy the bottom three layers of the pyramid. They help consumers identify safe and secure places to eat, while also giving them a sense of belonging within the community. Until now, the model has been broken, without any mechanism to satisfy the top two layers of the hierarchy. To achieve full satisfaction, a rewards mechanism must be in place, that is sufficiently perceived as valuable by most of the user base. This concept came to fruition, while stuck in a remote part of Jerusalem with my friend Rob. We realized that nobody in Israel uses Yelp, and Instagram was terrible for discovering new local delicacies in a foreign country. is a successful 25-year old entrepreneur from South Florida. He started out flipping electronics, eventually buying himself into the world of BurgerIM franchises with a solid footing on the corporate level. Robinson Aguado By creating a user interface that highlights photos of food as the primary stream, barriers to usage will be reduced across language barriers. Blockchain can also turn ad dollars into rewards for content creators, eliminate opportunities for negative reviews, and revolutionize the food tech industry with micropayments. The Existing Ecosystem Colu: A new decentralized payment system for local communities The State of Isreal is widely known as a . Inventions such as Waze, Mobileye, and flash drives have spawned from this young state. However, when it comes to mobile payment technologies they have been far behind the curve. It can be baffling to see that such a technologically advanced economy, has such a low adoption of payment protocols such as Apple Pay. startup nation Colu , which came to the rescue to solve this issue. By creating an unrivaled user experience, they began to partner with local businesses to create a mobile payment system. Users load fiat to their wallet and spend money by scanning a QR code. Colu is the local business focused startup What I really like about them, is that they took a human-centric approach to solve a problem in their community, before implementing a true blockchain solution. Currently operating in 4 cities (Tel Aviv, Haifa, London, and Liverpool), they boast the following adoption metrics: Approximately 200,000 users Approximately 2,000 businesses which accept Colu payment Approximately 300,000 monthly transactions taking place Their long term strategy is to work with municipalities to create incentive tokens for the greater good, redeemable at local businesses. For example, say a city wants people to recycle more. Citizens can earn Colu tokens for “good behavior,” which supports the greater good of the municipality. Appics: Next generation social media powered by Steemit The team over at Appics is as a rewards-based social media network. Their goal is to merge lifestyle, passion, and user-generated income inside a single mobile application. making headways Their model is to give 65% of revenue to content creators, 25% to curators, and 10% to sustain the network. The split is decided proportionally to likes. Unlike Instagram, likes are weighted based on the users’ ethos. For example, likes from Beyonce Knowles has more clout than a like from Timmy Oppenheimer. Similar to Facebook and Instagram, there is no opportunity to give a bad score. Positive feedback enables paying users more of an incentive to continue paying for the service because nobody wants to pay to be trolled. The network runs on a modified version of the Steemit blockchain. that was one of the first to bring social networking to the blockchain community. Their tokens are inflationary to meet demand. This means that over time, more tokens are created therefore making it a long term depreciating asset. It will be interesting to see how they play out. Steemit is Reddit style dApp The Simplicity of Yelp, Blended with the Influence of Instagram A mockup of what a food gram would look like As mentioned in my previous article, . blockchain is in desperate need of human-centric design Yelp’s success is predicated on two factors. The simplicity of the user experience, and the phenomenal training they provide to their advertising sales team. Training managers there are some of the best in the world, while their product team has mastered the ability to listen to consumers. On the other hand, Yelp has been losing a lot of their market dominance to competitors in the space. , inviting users to become “Local Guides.” Similar to the approach of Yelp Elites, this boosts users into the hierarchy of self-importance at a more accessible threshold than Yelp. However, Instagram has become the biggest thorn in the side for both companies. Google has been marketing its Maps app as more of a local discovery tool In the age of the influencer, no platform has achieved greater success than Instagram. Their ability to reward users for engagement through likes, followers, and communal support, has skyrocketed them into one of the most powerful social tools for marketers. An entire ecosystem has developed for paid influencers, who utilize their social clout for monetary gains. Brands are able to connect directly to their customers, through paid partnerships with influencers who can charge upwards of $30,000 per post. When done correctly, these brand partnerships can lead to significant ROIs but are out of reach for most small to medium-sized businesses. is likely the most well-known food influencer in the world. Many of his posts are authentic reviews of food that he enjoys, while others are massive endorsement deals for fast-growing burger franchises. The old homage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, which is why his reach goes much further on Instagram than with any other platform. He is proof that people eat with their eyes, and while his page can be considered as a Food bible to some, users still yearn for the validation of their own inner circles for the photos that they post. The question is, what can be done to make people feel like their food posts are as valuable as his? FoodGod The Jackpot Model As of this writing, the . The odds of winning the big prize are slim to none, but the runner up prizes of $2 to $1 million are more within reach. The aspiration of potentially taking home the big prize is enough motivation for people to stand in line for hours, just for the opportunity to buy a ticket. The same goes for websites like Fan Duel or DraftKings. Users get drawn in by the big prizes but stay after winning the more attainable smaller prizes. Even Medium implements a similar model, where top contributors are taking home thousands of dollars per post, and the rest of us take home pennies on the dollar, and still love to write. Powerball jackpot sits at $625 Million In a blockchain based review system, content creators will earn micropayments as a proportion of ad revenue dollars spent by the local businesses they post about. For example, say Timmy posts a picture of a slice of cheese pizza from John’s Best Pizza to FoodGram. John’s Best Pizza happens to be a FoodGram advertiser spending $200 / month. Timmy sees that they are a verified advertiser through the app, which is a reason he took his business there. By posting a verified picture of his food there, Timmy earns a financial reward in proportion to the total number of other users who have posted photos there, relative to the restaurant’s ad spend. Due to the presence of micropayments, users are verified via their account information to ensure a restaurant owner doesn’t create a slew of fake accounts, to boost their own reputation. Payments would be processed in fiat at first, migrating into a blockchain based payment system as the infrastructure is developed. Based on existing post rates of traditional social media platforms, users could earn ~$20 / month, with top posters earning upwards of $10,000. Tying It Together The jackpot model applied to a blockchain based food review system, will bridge the gap between incentivizing reviews and maintaining authenticity. By giving users a status of self-worth and recognition though achieved earnings, they join a community which supports each other discover new restaurants that are safe and exciting to eat at. Micropayments will revolutionize the food review industry by creating a seamless user experience for brands to connect with customers. Utilizing the power of blockchain technology, the platform will give authority back to end users through a self-regulating mechanism, in which a proof of identity must be staked in order to reap the benefits. William Seggos is the CEO of . He specializes in helping startups develop human-centric blockchain strategies and works with luxury retail brands to drive e-commerce growth. He is also working on developing the first-ever blockchain powered sales enablement tool, . To get in contact, email him at chaincollectiveny@gmail.com. Stay hungry :) Blueglass Consulting Objectr.io

Discovery

Yelp Meets Instagram: How Blockchain Will Revolutionize the Food Tech Ecosystem

The first public blockchain -the bitcoin network is a little over a decade old. Since 2009 after Bitcoin blockchain went live just less than a year after the global market crash, we have since been faced with a deluge of cryptocurrencies whether they are coins or tokens. Fast forward to 2019, barely 2 years later after Bitcoin attained its all-time high, there are well over many of which may never escape obscurity yet the list keeps growing. 1600 cryptocurrencies Before 2017, bitcoin experienced its fair share of bashings from mainstream media, big banks such as and central banks of nations. With its ability to facilitate monetary transactions in a trustless manner, the threat to conventional institutions that have since time immemorial fiercely fought to maintain their control over people’s finance appears to be under serious threats. Every now and then over the years, we saw the price of Bitcoin dubbed the new “digital gold” fluctuate like mercury over every blow of the wind. From the to the Exchange hack and even the not peculiar to bitcoin but Ethereum, Bitcoin is said to have died many times and resurrected from the ashes. JP Morgan Silk road saga Mt. Gox DAO hack As the road to mainstream adoption becomes more and more convoluted each passing day, we have seen many established businesses like , the global freelance giant reneging on its support for bitcoin, debunking rumours of its plans to start accepting cryptocurrencies, the travel giant backing down, in the same year it started accepting bitcoin pulled the plug on it. Most of these industry giants citing volatility and delay in transaction confirmation as their major reason for hacking down on their earlier support for digital assets. It’s no news that bitcoin on chain transactions capacity hovers around 3 to 7 transactions per second with just 1 confirmation every 10 minutes while Lightning Network (LN) an offchain solution still in development touts to solve this problem promoting ultra fast and fee-less transactions via interconnected offchain payment channels. Fiverr Starbucks Expedia Stripe oving over to the crux of this article which bothers on the key reason most crypto related startups fail if you’re familiar with cryptocurrency projects and how most of them launch(ed) out, you could always draw similar patterns on how they all pilot their activities. From lustrous whitepapers to big plans, to a larger than life ecosystem where it will be employing multiple use cases of its tokens to disrupting multi-billion dollar industries, it’s actually a Scroll when reeled out which will require curation to save time in making any meaningful sense of it. many founders indoctrinate their community who have been seen to engage in nothing other than optimistic speculations on the price of the soon to launch , becoming overnight millionaires. Little wonder the phrases “when moon?”, “when Lambo?” became established in the crypto community even though they were grammatically offensive. M “We will be the next unicorn” unicorn What exactly is the key reason many of these projects have kept falling in their numbers? Having studied not less than 250 crypto startups as both an independent reviewer and working with a crypto review project, I found out one recurring factor common among all the failed projects my analysis covered. And it’s just this — Not focussing their attention on a core problem to solve. I’m sure by now your mind would have cast back to that project that reeled out about 15 use cases for its token whether symmetrical or diametrically unaligned and how robust its ecosystem will be. Some founders if not many even go as far as speculating on what the price of their tokens will be in the future. this has led to the dying off of most projects launching within the cryptospace. “in about 3–5 years from now our token should be worth $5 per token and our company worth around $300 million. We have it all thought out.” Digging deeper to investigate why what seems to be counterproductive is still being pigheadedly adhered to, let’s explore. A major enduring character of digital assets lies in their volatile nature. Cryptocurrencies jive about in their prices even the stablecoins said to be backed by fiat or scarce metallic resources like gold swing around. We saw this in and TUSD. Trying to solve volatility would be like sweeping off water from the seashore trying to get that place dried up. Hilariously I asked one of my client partners how he proposed stamping out volatility in the wake of the launch of his digital asset powered startup. He looked at me suspiciously as though I was out for his jugular, I said to him. USDT “Even Bill Gates or Elon Musk couldn’t do that with their share prices when the charts graphically danced around, so don’t think you can stamp it all out” Most founders have come to settle within themselves the indestructible presence of volatility inherent in crypto assets, therefore have sought to build as many use cases as they can within their token’s ecosystem to drive up demand together with a finite supply helping to either stabilize price or keep it in an upward trajectory over time. What we have always seen is a project having 10–20 use cases without even one of the use case being strong enough to establish that startup within its niche. In one of my recent articles where I talked about I spoke about the over bloated ambition most founders of tech startups within the blockchain industry portray which is hinged on unrealistic beliefs that they will solidify their presence. For most internet companies, profitability and survival hinge on adoption. Yes, adoption of your product or service and not the claims, whitepaper or hypes but everyday use of the product or service your startup is known to churn out. Adoption of blockchain related products or services in the mainstream hasn’t been quite easy especially with the friction that exists with applications such as Metamask and a few other factors. Thanks to projects like Aave and Melonport who are braving the odds to make things easier with their innovative ways of building. Yet, it’s still long shot! Launching a Viable Tech Startup in the Blockchain Industry , When their counterparts in Silicon Valley is scrutinized, you see they are actually focusing on one core area. If you consider Facebook, though it has Messenger the business is still very linear, connecting Friends and Families. Instagram is just a Photo and Video depot. Telling stories with photos. We also have Twitter which is and has been a microblogging platform. What is Uber doing? What is Airbnb doing? Just the business of aggregation. They are exploring and exploiting the market of the Sharing Economy. Others which are doing businesses on multiple fronts actually started off with one and grew to where they are today. Google, for example, started off as a Search Engine. Now we have several offerings by Google. It was quite interesting that after Google was restructured with its parent company being Alphabet, it became very clear how much Google has grown from a Search engine to one of the world’s most valuable company. We also have Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Dell etc. These firms started focusing on core areas and then grew it before they were able to branch out to other areas. Startups who rather are not bogged down with one too many uses but seeking to onboard as many users they can on their core platform stand a better chance over their wandering counterparts. These Silicon Valley companies have built with the intent to accommodate everyday users of their platform with little or no friction without much differentiation of the varied functions their platforms afford their users. Looking at some of the relatively successful firms in cryptodom, Binance, Blockchain.com, Bitmain, Coinbase etc. These firms focused on the core area solving singular problems which have paid off as they are the go-to for those in need of quality service in their respective niches. An intending founder should take a cue from these. herefore as a Crypto Startup, in the wake of launch, it’s imperative you critically evaluate your offering(s) to see if you’re not just running after the of aggregating multiple use cases which isn’t of much significance. Also if already running your own firm, the story of how Instagram became what it is today after stripping off features which weren’t needed will help in defining where you need to go. Having multiple use cases as a project is not a bad thing necessarily but the execution and sustenance is what matters.While Founders may think each use case of the project can be spawn into its own separate firms, startups still have to understand that it’s in focusing of the heat of the sun via a lens can fire be produced. This is why . T unfortunate trend burning energy on the obviously unproductive is no sign of wisdom I consult with tech projects and startups in blockchain and others. Connect with me on . LinkedIn

Tether

AirBnB

Alphabet

Binance

Coinbase

Dell

Intel

Starbucks

Stripe

Uber

1 Key Reason Crypto Startups Fail!

I’m seeing the first full quarter of appreciation for many alt-coins. Appreciation is low but a turn around from what largely has been consistent declines for the life of alt-coins. This assumes this trend holds through the end of this month. Bitcoin will also appreciate this quarter if the same holds true. A few select Tokens: ETH moves directly with the volume of ICOs. . The new IEO (initial exchange offering) movement being touted as the second coming of ICOs may prove to do the same for ETH There is a high level of unsatisfied demand for IEOs. The gambling culture of crypto will fuel this. The wave will be nowhere near that of ICO’s. Because exchanges are pre-vetting the IEO projects on top of the hard lessons learned from poor quality companies behind all too many ICOs we’ll have increased quality in the IEO as an investment opportunity. Q2 is going to be exciting in crypto. This is my first-hand experience and information. I’m buying more bitcoin. I’m still wary of putting my own money on non-reputable crypto exchanges. Too many posts of people having trouble getting their money off of the exchanges likely due more to technical bugs more than intentional activities. Rapidly constructed, the technologies behind these exchanges is young and brittle while improving fast. Exchange support teams are having trouble keeping up with support requests. If you are a blockchain company this may be an optimal time to list your token on an exchange. My company Efficient Frontier an algo trading company in crypto provides market making services and strategic planning can help. If you are a listed ICO you should also contact us. chris@efrontier.io This is not investment advice. Do your own research. Thanks for reading! ;-) If you like this article you may be interested in this one as well Here is the blog maintained by the company I work for an algo trading market-making firm in blockchain/crypto Efficient Frontier If you would like an email alert for my next post sign up here.

Ethereum

Crypto markets show signs of a turnaround

Back when I started programming, there was no Git. I tried using a couple of times for some pet projects and the only thing I do remember about Visual SourceSafe is that the database would become corrupted quite often. Visual SourceSafe Visual SourceSafe — picture from https://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/VSSClient If you’re interested in some history about VSS and its issues, check out one of these two articles: Visual SourceSafe: Microsoft’s Source Destruction System Visual SourceSafe Version Control: Unsafe at any speed? When I started my first job, the team I worked in was using a company-internal source code control system called . Shortly after that, we moved the source code over to the that was using Team Foundation Version Control. At some point, this got rebranded or renamed to Visual Team Services (I might be wrong on this as it has been a while ago and I always referenced to it as TFS). Source Depot TFS Visual Studio Team Services — photo from docs.microsoft.com Later, we would eventually move to Git. At the beginning of my career, I was using Visual Studio heavily, and all source code control commands were available from the user interface (they were also available from the console, but most of the work got done in the user interface). One feature I liked about TFS was the ability to that could get easily shared with others. The equivalent of this in Git today is probably creating a branch and pushing it. For a little while, after I’ve started using Git, I’d still miss shelvesets, but once I got used to the way Git does things with branches the need for shelvesets went away. create shelvesets Git Aliases Ok, enough of history, let’s talk about Git aliases. I have a bunch of them in my .gitconfig file, but I don’t use all of them too often. I still like to use the GUI (I am using ), which is free for both Windows and Mac), especially for merges. Sourcetree Here’s the link to my full — note that most of these probably came from the repos I based my dotfiles on: .gitconfig file https://github.com/jfrazelle/mac-dev-setup https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles In addition to the aliases, I also have an alias set for the Git binary, so I don’t have to type all three letters, and I can only type g (huge time/type savings, I know :)). I’ve grouped the aliases below — note that there are way more aliases in my config file (related to finding stuff, diffing, merging, etc.), however, I probably never used them, and that’s why I haven’t mentioned them. I do most of the searching and merging in the GUI. Basic aliases These are mostly shortcuts, rather than more complicated commands. # View the current working tree status using the short format
s = status -s

# Clone a repository including all submodules
c = clone — recursive

# List all tags
tags = tag -l

# Lists all remote and local branches
branches = branch -a

# List remotes with URLs
remotes = remote -v Command below shows how you can clone a repo: g c [repo] Working with forks This is something you need to do quite often. I have two different aliases to do this — one merges the upstream master into local (origin) fork (fu) and the second one makes the fork even with the upstream master, discarding all local changes (fuf). # Merges upstream master into local (origin) fork
fu = !"git fetch upstream; git checkout master; git merge upstream/master"

# Makes the fork even with the upstream master, discarding all local changes
fuf = !"git fetch upstream; git checkout master; git reset — hard upstream/master; git push origin master — force" Branches I use an alias called go to either switch to an existing branch or create a new one if it doesn’t exist. This is one of those commands I use fairly often: # Switch to a branch, creating it if necessary
go = "!f() { git checkout -b \"$1\" 2> /dev/null || git checkout \"$1\"; }; f"

# Remove branches that have already been merged with master a.k.a. ‘delete merged’
dm = "!git branch — merged | grep -v ‘\\*’ | xargs -n 1 git branch -d" Commits Amend alias is the one I use if I want to add current changes to the latest commit (instead of creating a new commit): # Amend the currently staged files to the latest commit
amend = commit — amend — reuse-message=HEAD Do you have any favorite Git aliases that you’re frequently using? Thanks for Reading! Any feedback on this article is more than welcome! You can also follow me on and . If you are interested in learning more about Istio and Kubernetes, you should check out the book I am writing at Twitter GitHub www.learnistio.com.

Fetch

Work Faster With Git Aliases

Wallets are gateways to cryptocurrencies and, as the blockchain space has grown, the variety of wallets available has also grown. Most people who want to dabble with a small amount of crypto, start off their crypto journey by setting up hot wallets in the form of phone, desktop, or web application. Hot wallets focus primarily on convenience and are great for making coin transfers on the go. While hot wallets may be convenient, they force users to sacrifice security and the underlying basis of crypto: having complete control of one’s wealth. Thus, as people get a stronger grasp of blockchain technology and understand how to improve security of their Crypto assets, they either opt for hardware wallets, or even brain wallets. User Experience is Important Given that wallets are gateways to cryptocurrencies, the user experience they provide to new market entrants is of critical importance with respect to the growth of crypto adoption. This piece will take a look at the user experience of several popular wallets. Each section below will cover two main user experiences of a wallet: set-up and performing transactions. Here’s a summary: To securely setup a wallet, users must download a brain wallet application from GitHub or use an online tool. Once they’re offline, user can enter a salt and passphrase to generate a wallet (private key). The private key will be exposed and must be immediately stored securely. Brain wallets provide a one-type transactional facility as transacting will expose the private key to some web front. Therefore, any time coins are sent from a brain wallet, a new one has to be made. Brain wallets can be challenging to (securely) set up for those who lack technical know-how and provide close to zero positive UX features in terms of transactions. In addition, for each coin and for each public address of that coin you need to have a separate brain wallet. Brain Wallets: Hardware wallets, like Ledger, can be setup by connecting the wallet to a computer device that has downloaded the supporting software of the hardware wallet (like Ledger Live). After that, a pin is set on the hardware device to initiate its functionality. Next, users move along the steps presented in the supporting software till they are prompted to create a 24-word seed phrase that is typically written down somewhere. Once the seed phrase is approved, private keys are created and stored in the hardware wallet. Hardware Wallets: Next, applications, one for each blockchain, are downloaded on the wallet in order to receive and send transactions. Transactions are initiated on the supporting software, like Ledger Live, and are approved through the hardware wallets’ button-initiated commands. Hardware wallets have a lengthy set-up process, but the process is well-explained by their supporting software. Receiving and sending funds for the first time requires a lengthy process as support for each coin has to be individually set-up. A new kind of hardware wallet. To set-up a wallet with Bitfi, users head to the Bitfi Knox Dashboard to synchronize it with the Bitfi device. The process requires users to enter their Bitfi device ID into their Dashboard. Next, user will be prompted to choose a salt and passphrase on the device to create the wallet; no private keys are stored on the device. All coins are automatically supported by Bitfi so users can use the Dashboard at any point to initiate a transaction; the transaction has to be approved on the Bitfi device by signing the transaction with the salt and passphrase (the device will then calculate the corresponding private key). Bitfi: A Deep Dive into Wallet UX Brain Wallets Brain wallets, as the name may hint, provide users with memorable means of accessing their Crypto. Leading brain wallet providers like Brainwallet.io let users set-up a wallet in 3 ways: Users pick a memorable salt and phrase. Generic: Users can create a wallet that is accessible through personal information. Personal: Users create a wallet with the same set of access-points used for account log-in: username and password. Login: Set-up Once you’ve decided the memorable to your wallet, you can generate a wallet. keys Signing up to a brain wallet directly on a webpage, like brainwallet.io, is a mistake. The point at which the wallet is created, the private key is visible on a web-page, making it accessible to malware. The only proper way of creating a brain wallet is by downloading the source code of a brain wallet generator and running the software offline. This will allow a person to secure the private key. Once the set-up is complete, funds can be sent to the address, but if the wallet is used just for storage, it becomes a cold storage rather than a wallet for transactions, which stands in opposition to the entire functionality of a currency. Most importantly the brain wallet limits the user to just one public address. For example, let’s say you have 4 Bitcoin addresses, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tron, Stellar, and ten ERC-20 tokens. In this case you will need to create 18 different brain wallets (you will need to memorize 18 different salts and phrases). Therefore a brain wallet is only practical if you wish to store one currency at one address. Transactions Using the brain wallet for transactions is a challenge. Setting up a brain wallet on an offline software may be challenging to most people who have become adjusted to the conveniences of the digital age, however, the tech-savvy will breeze through the offline process. Using the wallet, on the other hand, will be a challenge irrespective of one’s technical know-how, and that’s due to the functionality of brain wallets: they are designed for a one-time use. Whenever a transaction has to be made, you’d have to enter the private key on some platform on the internet. This immediately exposes the key and adds vulnerability to the assets that had been protected by that key. Thus, each time BTC (or any other currency) held within a brain wallet has to be transacted, a new brain wallet has to be created to store the BTC that’s not transferred. Therefore, brain wallets are not optimal for transacting BTC or day-to-day use of the cryptocurrency. Brain wallets are realistically just a form of storage as transferring coins held within a brain wallet is extremely inefficient. It’s for this reason that brain wallets are not that popular; instead, most people that have become well-acquainted with cryptocurrencies opt for hardware wallets. Hardware Wallets There’s a number of hardware wallets on the market, one of the most popular is Ledger. This hardware wallets is a USB stick dedicated to the storage of private keys and they come with a set of buttons used to feed commands to the device. Hardware wallets allow users to store their cryptocurrency on a physical device and these wallets provide a somewhat convenient means for transacting. The drawback, though, is that hardware wallet secure private keys within the physical device. Most hardware wallets have a similar set-up process and transaction facility. Here’s a look at the user experience of Ledger Nano X. Set-up Once a user unpacks his or her Ledger, the device has to be configured. Users must head to Ledger’s website and download a software called Ledger Live. Once the software is running, the Ledger wallet has to be connected to a computer to sync it with Ledger Live. The following steps are undertaken for the synchronization: The buttons provided on the USB stick have to be pressed simultaneously. Next, users choose a pin code and then reenter it to confirm the chosen pin. After that, users are directed to write and confirm their 24-word seed phrase. Over the course of 15 to 20 minutes, users receive their 24 words, note them down on a piece of paper and store them in a secure location. Due to the volume of words, the seed is almost never memorized and users rely on either a household or third-party safety boxes for the security of their seeds. Once the seed phrase is collected, the Ledger provides users with a random selection of words and the users must correctly align each of their 24 words. The process can take at least another 15 to 20 minutes. This ensures users did not miss out on a word in case they get the seed confirmation wrong, they can go over the creation of a new seed phrase. If the seed phrase is properly confirmed, the device is ready for app installation. Now users begin the app installation. The device is connected to the laptop and Ledger Live verifies the legitimacy of the hardware wallet. Prior to app installation, users are prompted to choose a password to protect their Ledger Live data. Now the device can download applications each of which enables support for different blockchains. Once applications (read: support for blockchains) are downloaded, the buttons on the hardware wallet need to be pressed simultaneously for each downloaded application to complete its synchronization. After synchronizing support for each blockchain, users can access public addresses. To receive funds, users connect the hardware wallet and verify the address through the hardware. To verify each address, the two buttons on the hardware wallet must be pressed simultaneously. The addressed for each blockchain needs to be confirmed one by one. Transactions To make transactions with Ledger, the hardware wallet has to be connected to a computer with a cable which has installed the Ledger Live application. Once the hardware wallet is connected, users will be prompted to enter a pin code to unlock the device functionality. After that, users can access the Bitcoin application from the Live dashboard and select the Bitcoin option. send After that, a menu is prompted which allows users to select the amount of BTC they want to send, where it should be sent, and the preferred network fee. Once the data has been inputted, the transaction can be sent by confirming all the data on the hardware device through the buttons on the device. Summing up, to receive and send any coin the application of the specific coin has to be downloaded on the Ledger Live and then confirmed on the hardware device. At the time of transacting, the hardware device must be connected to a computer with Ledger Live and then the application and the wallet have to be unlocked. After that, transactions can be confirmed through the hardware device. Bitfi Bitfi is a new technology where the hardware never stores private keys (it is the only cryptocurrency wallet that does not store any private keys). Bitfi aims to elevate security beyond cold storage (as there is no storage at all) while also creating a user friendly interface to enable ordinary people to use it quickly and easily. Bitfi is unlike any hardware wallet or any wallet. It’s a technology that lets users create a wallet that can be accessed through a user selected salt (a salt is just a password but one that you already know like your social security number) and passphrase. The Bitfi device is a private key generator which turns your salt and passphrase into the appropriate private key at the time of transaction and the private keys do not exist in the device at any other time. In a way, Bitfi takes advantage of the brain wallet concept but in a very different way because: A single salt & phrase will generate private keys for an unlimited number of currencies so as in the above example with brain wallet, instead of having to create 18 different salts & phrases, Bitfi will secure all 18 assets with just a single salt & phrase. There is no downside of the single-use functionality that limits the usage to one transaction. Bitfi creates each transaction in an ultra secure environment and enables frequent payments without the need to store private keys on a physical device that can be lost, stolen, or seized. There is no possibility for the private key to leak because it only comes into existence for a fraction of a second to sign the transaction. Otherwise, private keys do not exist on the device or any data whatsoever. Once the device ID is entered, a notification is instantly delivered to the Bitfi device. After that, users are asked to enter their chosen salt and passphrase; both of these can be memorized (although you don’t have to and this is optional). The device will require that you reenter the salt and passphrase to ensure it was properly entered. A wallet is now created but no private keys will be stored within the device. Set-up is complete. Transactions A Bitfi devices innately tracks the value of all cryptocurrencies and digital assets stored within it. The device generates wallets for all supported cryptocurrencies at once, there isn’t a need to generate wallets for each blockchain one by one. Both the Dashboard and the Bitfi device will provide access to public addresses for all supported cryptocurrencies. These can be used to receive coins and tokens. All assets including ERC-20 tokens, are automatically tracked by the Bitfi device. ERC-20 assets are added in mere seconds by simply entering the contract address of the token. Sending coins requires approval from the Bitfi device. From the Dahboard, users can access the wallets associated with various coins. Once a wallet is open, users can click the option to initiate a transfer. When a transfer is initiated, users are asked to provide the target address, amount to be sent, and the preferred network fee. send Once the button is clicked, the Bitfi device will instantly receive a pop-up asking user to authorize the transaction by entering their salt and passphrase. send request The transfer is complete. Summary In testing all three wallets from set-up to conducting a transaction, Bitfi was demonstrably easier to set-up and use while providing a clear advantage in security due to the fact that the Bitfi wallet does not store private keys making crypto assets impossible to steal either online or off.

Comparing three popular wallets. The differences are greater than you might think.

Principles I’ve learned to have while going through my product management journey When I started working in my first company after university graduation, I had never thought of going into the path of becoming a product manager. I started as a delivery team member, who was responsible for creating and delivering customized products, i.e. mobile Apps, on behalf of clients I worked with. With a large variety of skill sets I obtained as a technical product specialist, I was using my best ability to discover a profession that I could continue to grow in that could create a much bigger impact. Eventually, a product team was formed within the company after a few rounds of investment funding was confirmed. I discovered that product manager could potentially be the role I was looking for — I could make an impact on not only a few clients that I worked with but a wide range of clients that used the product. My determination to become part of the product team had paid off with the blessing of my manager and the trust of the company, I became a junior product owner within the team, working with two other product managers. Working in a newly formed product team within a startup company, I placed myself in probably one of the most challenging positions, but at the same time a very important position for the company’s future. In this article, I want to discuss some key principles that I found very important for product managers and product owners, especially ones with little to zero experience, to have a higher chance in succeeding within the company. Build trust with the CEO and leadership team as early as possible Being a product owner, I was having the same work mentality as I did when I worked in the delivery team — to serve my direct managers and people I worked directly with. I identified needs within the team and filled in holes that the team lacked. I leaned on the information and updates from my direct manager and used those as my guideline to determine my priorities. Until I started taking more and more responsibilities on determining the product roadmaps for a specific team, I realized that the leadership team had so many opinions and suggestions on the product I worked with that I never heard about. I asked myself: “How do I get these feedback first hand, rather than through other media?”. Eventually, I discovered that I failed to build trust and a healthy relationship with the leadership team. There was always something that they discussed on the product that I did not know about. As a product owner, I did not actively communicate product ideas and feedback directly with key stakeholders, thus, failed to make informed decisions on the product. Reflecting on this, if I was to re-start this journey, building a great relationship with the leadership team would probably be the most important thing I have in mind. Pioneer the culture of product management As I was transitioning to become a product owner, there was no such culture of product management, nor agile methodologies. Everyone was working with the mindset of a service agency — to make whatever the clients asked for. There wasn’t any system to properly process asks and feedback of the product, as a result, it was impossible to get everyone on the same page how we, as a company, determined what to build next. This was where I felt that the product team should take the most responsibility of — to build a culture of product management within the company. Being part of the product team, it was our responsibility to educate everyone why product management is important to us, what product management is and how everyone should work together to transition from a service-based agency to a scalable product company. It took time to build a solid culture, but first, it came down to whether the product team and leadership team were aware of the importance of it and stood their ground on actively bringing awareness to the rest of the company. This brings up the importance of having a solid trust and working relationship between the product team and leadership team, once again. Seek mentorship and perspectives from product managers outside the company I was narrow-minded enough to think that my team, my coworkers, as well as clients who we worked directly with, were the only people I could seek perspective from in order to make the right product decisions. The fact is, there are always perspectives, ideas and suggestions that a third person would be able to provide that anyone who worked directly with the product wouldn’t think of. Thus, later on in my career, I started to ask individuals outside the company for their perspective in order to give me a different angle of looking at a problem. In addition to that, I discovered a whole lot of areas I could improve on by seeking mentorship from product managers who work in other companies. Leaning on a community that I had no direct stress from helped me to identify new ideas that I could implement in the company I worked with. My last advice to all novice product owners or managers who work in a fast-growing start-up company — your confidence directly impact how successful you are. You are the worst enemy of yourself, and no one including your team is responsible for your success. Stand your ground and do the best you can.

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive March 22nd, 2019

@mywaymyweiOscar W

@dimitar.vidolovDimitar Vidolov

@intelsohailSohail khan

@Jeremy NationJeremy Nation

@kapoorajay081Ajay Kapoor

@mina.downMina Down

@albertocuestacanadaAlberto Cuesta Cañada

@iliaIlia Zaitsev

@iliaIlia Zaitsev

@iliaIlia Zaitsev

@chekohlerChé Köhler

@tangentoneTangent

@Paul__WalshPaul Walsh

@vinay-nairVinay Nair

@tanveerzafarTanvir Zafar

@chaincollectiveWill Seggos

@victor-ugochukwuVictor Ugochukwu

@productmannChris Mann

@pjausovecPeter Jausovec

@SolidWaterH. S.

@felix_liFelix Li

@isudhanshu25sudhanshu kumar

@mywaymywei
Oscar W

@dimitar.vidolov
Dimitar Vidolov

@intelsohail
Sohail khan

@Jeremy Nation
Jeremy Nation

@kapoorajay081
Ajay Kapoor

@mina.down
Mina Down

@albertocuestacanada
Alberto Cuesta Cañada

@ilia
Ilia Zaitsev

@ilia
Ilia Zaitsev

@ilia
Ilia Zaitsev

@chekohler
Ché Köhler

@tangentone
Tangent

@Paul__Walsh
Paul Walsh

@vinay-nair
Vinay Nair

@tanveerzafar
Tanvir Zafar

@chaincollective
Will Seggos

@victor-ugochukwu
Victor Ugochukwu

@productmann
Chris Mann

@pjausovec
Peter Jausovec

@SolidWater
H. S.

@felix_li
Felix Li

@isudhanshu25
sudhanshu kumar