If you aren’t focusing on culture and diversity in your hiring in 2022, you are setting your company up to fail. Culture and diversity are arguably the two most important factors in determining whether or not your company succeeds today. It’s something we are constantly looking for in the current hiring climate, but is there a possibility of being able to emphasize both when looking for top talent? Some have argued that hiring for culture affects diversity and inclusion efforts. While it’s definitely a balancing act, it’s possible for you to have both. In this article, we discuss the benefits of hiring for both diversity and culture, the differences between culture fit and culture add, and what your company can do to measure culture and ensure a culture that promotes diversity. Benefits of Hiring for Diversity and Culture There’s a reason why both diversity and culture have become increasingly important for companies to consider. They are both attributed as being a major part of a company’s success. Whether you are hiring with a focus on diversity or culture, either is sure to benefit your hiring strategies if done properly. Hiring for diversity means hiring a wide range of employees who are different from one another. Whether this means they are of different races, different ages, or come from different walks of life, bringing a diverse team together will also bring together different and unique ideas. Diversity allows people to be more creative, . People who think differently will also be able to solve problems with creative solutions that a non-diverse group of people might not have thought of. leading to higher innovation Additionally, diversity is a huge deciding factor for young “Gen-Z” job candidates when accepting a job. This latest generation of employees entering the workforce is , so being able to attract and retain top talent will heavily depend on how diverse your hiring efforts are. the most diverse generation ever Hiring for culture also has its fair share of benefits for employers, including employee engagement and retention. Employees who love their company culture and feel that they are a good fit will be your organization’s biggest cheerleaders. They will let anybody and everybody know how great your culture is, leading to better brand equity with the general public. These employees will also work harder to do a great job, and if they love the culture they’ll probably stick around. If you don’t have to keep hiring new employees, you are also saving a ton of money on hiring and recruitment costs. Can We Have Both? Despite both culture and diversity playing such important roles within the hiring process, there have been a number of criticisms from workers saying that it’s impossible to have both. The main fear is that by hiring for culture fit, you are hiring candidates who all think, work, and might even look the same. This creates something called a where employees rely on groupthink and don’t have the capacity to think outside of the box. It may also hinder diverse job applicants from wanting to work for your company. “monoculture” While it’s true that culture fit can have a negative impact on your hiring efforts, this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Knowing where your culture is lacking and relying on culture add instead of culture fit will really help to avoid diversity issues. Emphasizing the importance of diversity within your culture also helps your company keep its focus on ensuring it. Additionally, be sure that you are constantly measuring your culture to see if it needs a push to get to where it needs to be. ‘Culture Fit’ vs ‘Culture Add’ When focusing on hiring for culture, there are two main strategies to choose between. These are called “culture fit” and “culture add”. While these two hiring strategies both focus on hiring candidates with culture in mind, they couldn’t be any more different when it comes to hiring new employees. ‘Culture fit’ is the process of hiring a candidate whose beliefs and values align with those of the company. When hired, these new employees will hit the ground running and fit perfectly into the current culture at your company. They should be able to get along easily with the rest of the team, and will probably think and process problems in a similar way. When done properly, hiring for culture fit can be quite successful, but there is a caveat. Hiring for culture fit sometimes encourages groupthink and hinders innovation within a company. When you who think similarly and have the same beliefs and views of the world, it doesn’t necessarily allow as much room for creativity and new ideas. If you are hiring people who think and work in the same ways, it may cause your company to plateau instead of grow. hire multiple people Alternatively, companies may opt to focus on hiring for ‘culture add’ instead. This process involves hiring new employees that may fit into your current culture, but have certain qualities that your culture may be lacking. For example, let’s say your culture isn’t as innovative as you’d like it to be. Your current employees might not necessarily value innovation, nor might they be inclined to have innovative ideas. By adding true innovators to your team, you are leading your culture in the direction you want it to go. Hiring for culture add is also far less likely to negatively impact your diversity and inclusion efforts. When hiring for culture fit, you run the risk of hiring “cookie-cutter” employees who are very similar to one another. You might also be discouraging diverse talent from applying to your company in your job posts. For example, let’s say you describe your culture as being focused on technology and digital solutions. These cultural keywords might turn older candidates away from your position, thinking they wouldn’t be a good fit. What these candidates add to your culture might outweigh not being the best cultural fit. While hiring for cultural fit isn’t always detrimental to diversity, hiring for cultural add gives you an opportunity to create a more diverse team while considering the culture at your company. It possible to have both. is Measuring the Immeasurable It might be hard to understand how you can measure something like culture within your organization, but it possible! There are a number of ways that companies can measure their cultures, although some do have their own individual challenges. is - employers can administer things like culture surveys and climate surveys to their employees to learn more about how their employees are feeling about the cultures they work in. It’s great to hear feedback about your culture directly from the source, but be mindful that employees could lie or they might not take the survey seriously. If it’s not mandatory, they might not take it. It’s also hard to follow up on results that you might find troubling. Employee Surveys - these are a great way to get employees together to honestly discuss any issues they are seeing within the organization’s culture to try and find solutions to the problems. They can also be used to follow up on survey results, although this is definitely an extra step. Focus Groups - these allow you to individually “check-in” with employees and ask them open-ended questions to help gauge your culture. They are not time-consuming, and they allow employees to talk honestly about cultural issues. Pulse Checks - while the above solutions assess behaviors, assessments take it one step further by assessing the beliefs of your employees - and they’re the only real solution when assessing culture fit and culture add in job candidates. Assessments like Bryq’s are able to measure an individual’s personality traits in order to match them to a company’s values. Behaviors can change, but beliefs won’t. Being able to assess beliefs first and measure behavior second really makes assessments invaluable in hiring for both diversity and culture. Assessments Talent assessments should be able to measure candidate personality traits through indicators like leadership qualities and innovation potential to help gauge whether or not a person aligns with your company culture, or to help you find candidates that will help your company’s culture grow in the direction it needs to.

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Does Hiring for Culture Affect Diversity?

Welcome to our Hacks: Decoded Interview series! Once a month, ’s speaks with people in the tech industry about where they’re from, the work they do and what drives them to keep going forward. Make sure you follow Mozilla’s blog to find more articles in this series and make sure to visit the Mozilla Foundation site to see more of our org’s work. Mozilla Foundation Xavier Harding Hacks Meet Seyi Akiwowo ( ) pronounced Shay-ee Aki-wo-wo Seyi Akiwowo’s reputation precedes her. Akiwowo is the founder of , an organization that seeks to end online abuse. Akiwowo is a graduate of the London School of Economics. She’s delivered talks at TED, European Parliament, the U.N. and more and was elected a councillor for the Labor Party in East London — the youngest Black woman ever to do so. Glitch We spoke with Seyi over video chat to learn about what drives her, why she does what she does and what she’d be doing if not battling trolls online for a living. All that in this month’s Hacks: Decoded. Where do we even begin? What do you consider to be the starting point of your story? I’d start with my love for the internet. When you’re in this anti-troll, human rights space, you’re pitched as anti-tech and anti-change and it’s simply not true. It’s because I’m such a lover and fan of the internet, I do what I do. I’m part of the ’90s, Microsoft-PC-with-the-big-back-and-a-CD-drive generation. I had dial-up internet and spent huge amounts of time on MSN and MySpace. There were times I was home alone, my mum out trying to make ends meet, my dad not around, and the computer was my outlet. I adored all of it. The worldwide web was my friend. It was my connection to the rest of the world, all while in a small council flat in East London. It was when I appeared in a that went viral that I learned what it meant to be a black woman online. I realized, “Oh, there are people that don’t know me and do not like me and are telling me that they don’t like me in very violent ways.” So I’d say my journey starts with the love of the internet and innovation. When you’re in this kind of anti-troll, human rights space, you’re kind of pitched as anti-tech and anti-change and it’s not [true], it’s because I’m such a lover of the internet is the reason I do what I do. video How does where you’re from influence what you do now? I went to a very good university but the mix of social classes felt almost like a class war! Going to university was the first time I ever felt othered. I didn’t feel it growing up. I grew up in Newham in East London and I didn’t really realize I was from a poor area. There’s such beauty and safety in that, but there’s also a glass ceiling without you really realizing it. I grew up with an entrepreneurial spirit and we just made do with what we had and we just were still excellent with the minimum we had. I see how that translates to nowadays. I can really make £1 of funding go far at Glitch! My working-class bargain hunting roots really helped me be frugal with money. It’s interesting how when you throw a Black woman into the mix, people don’t know how to act. Off the internet but specifically on the internet too. It is, something I’ve been thinking about a lot is that the internet doesn’t need to be this bad if we just listen to Black women many many years ago. If we think about some of the Black activists or campaigners or even the Black women that were just minding their business but got forced into this issue because of their lived experience, like myself. Folks at Facebook, Twitter, Google who weren’t listening — you have and Michelle Ferrier. Michelle is a journalist who, after a hate campaign, started to help other journalists and women. Sydette Troll Busters You’ve got on Twitter who I remember learning a lot about her experience on social media and she just wasn’t listened to. I think white men not only have the privilege to make things and get a lot of venture capital and raise a lot of money to make these huge products and break and fail. That’s one. But they’re also privileged in their echo chamber bubble that they didn’t have to listen to Black women. And it was only until it started affecting white middle-class upper-class Hollywood that we started paying closer attention to this issue. Angry Black Lady You’re saying something a lot of us know. Black women encounter harms on these platforms that a white guy may not necessarily encounter. And yet, most of the leadership at these companies are not black women, they’re mostly white men — a group of folks who may not realize how bad these problems are. Why do you think that is? When will it change? I really don’t know and I think it’s a conundrum that isn’t unique to the tech space. You see it everywhere. You see it in conversations in policy discussions about domestic abuse or refugees and you do not have the community that faces it the most, in those conversations. That’s the whole reason I went into politics because decisions were being made about my community that’s predominantly people of colour, we have such a high transient population, one of the most diverse boroughs in the world, and yet the council did not look like its community. It’s a phenomenon that’s existed in so many places and it’s even worse in tech because you’re seeing such the direct harm it’s having tenfold. But it’s everywhere. The erasure and the lack of dignity and respect Black folks and people of colour are given. Issues have to become mainstream enough for people to act on that. Black Lives Matter had to become mainstream enough for people to finally listen. It’s a lesson for all of us. How do we make sure there is someone in the room who is more, in relative terms, a more minoritized community than you. How do we make sure that we’re allies offline and online? How are we making sure we’re building community and sharing that legacy and our knowledge and our playbooks and our capital? So that more people from minoritized communities come together. What’s been the most challenging thing about founding and running Glitch? When you’re a Black founder CEO in a predominantly white charity sector and tech sector, things are just different. I’ve taken meetings where it’s supposed to be a prospective funding meeting about our work and before we can even give the pitch the first thing the prospective funder says is, “If Black lives really matter—” raises eyebrows, confusedly Exactly. So he says, “If Black lives really matter, why are you all not getting the vaccine?” It feels like someone is putting you in an ice bucket or flushing your head down a toilet, comments like that, microaggressions too, are a jarring reminder that you don’t belong here. It’s like you’re finally at the table, and someone has banged your head against that very table as if to say “you’re stupid for thinking you can be here.” I think those are moments that really bungee-cord pull you back to reality, That’s what’s really tough. Really, really, really, tough. And I think I got lost in negative thoughts this summer where I thought, “I don’t belong, I don’t know what I’m doing. This privilege of being CEO — how do I use it?” and overall just a massive loss of confidence. And everything. And I think that’s been really tough. Wow. I’m still stuck on this “If Black Lives really matter—” guy. Seyi, what did you want to be when you grew up? Trolls attacked you online because you made a viral video online so you rose to the occasion and fought back. There are folks out there who don’t grapple with trolls, out there living their truth without a care in the world. What did that look like for you? What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a dancer. I wanted to be the next Ciara. I wanted to be in Missy Elliot’s videos. I was like, ‘Move over, sis!’ What’s your favorite Ciara song? Goodies. Classic. Back to trolls, what’s a topic regarding online abuse that you wish you saw people talk about more? The topic of social media whistleblowers and how we should be less worried about making Facebook and Twitter look bad and more about holding them accountable. More specifically, what does this do in the way of changing the system? We shouldn’t have to keep relying on brave individuals who generally tend to be women and women of colour who really put themselves out on the line. I don’t want this to be the trend where we get small bits of reform. We need to have the media holding companies to account, not looking to make Mark Zuckerberg the bad guy because then the narrative becomes ‘when he leaves everything will be sorted out’ and that is not the case. Seyi, you have the longest resume I’ve ever seen in my life. What motivates you to keep going? I’m not, I don’t think I want to “keep going” anymore. I grew my organization by 50% in terms of income and more in terms of staff and diversified our income streams before we hit the two-year mark — during a pandemic! I’m ready to rest, I’m ready to sleep more, I’m ready to do work that is still great with minimum viable effort. That’s the sweet spot I’m looking for. — You can keep up with Seyi and Glitch’s work right and support their special Christmas fundraiser for a safe internet . here here First published here

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An Interview with Seyi Akiwowo, Founder of Glitch - an Organization that Seeks to end Online Abuse

There is a new hot employee benefit in town. Some public companies which offer have recently made “one-time” adjustment grants to employees as share prices fall. The phenomenon has been pronounced among , where many workers count restricted stock units as a crucial part of their total compensation package. stock-based compensation technology companies Technology stocks have been affected by increasing concerns about inflation, and the Nasdaq Composite, the tech-favorite stock market index, has dropped more than 9% since the start of 2022. Robinhood has taken steps to reduce possible attrition among its 3,400-strong workforce due to its recent stock performance. According to verified Robinhood professionals on the professional social network Blind, the stock-trading app granted equity to new employees who started at the company after its debut on Nasdaq on July 29, 2021. Employees who started at the company before July 2021 have mostly retained the value of their initial new-hire grants, explained a verified Robinhood employee on Blind. The grant price for these employees might be $15 per share or even lower, depending on their tenure. Despite its popularity among retail investors, shares of Robinhood have struggled since its . The company’s shares traded 8% lower at the end of its first day of trading, and the share price is down 84% from its all-time high of $85 as of Jan. 19, 2022. initial public offering How much stock are Robinhood employees receiving? Robinhood’s “one-time” adjustment grants new hires additional stock over the next 24 months to help employees “break even.” “The new equity is adjusted by how much your equity is below your target today,” a verified Robinhood employee said on Blind, referring to an employee’s initial equity grant as a new hire. The equity grant is not retroactive, which means any differences or potential losses since an employee’s start date and Robinhood’s adjustment may not necessarily be accounted for. A Robinhood employee shared a hypothetical of an employee who received an offer for $300,000 in total compensation and joined in July 2021. If the hypothetical employee now earns $200,000 because of the difference in Robinhood’s share price over the last six months and their offer letter, they will receive an additional grant of $100,000 each year for the next two years. The grant is intended to “reset” an employee’s pay to the promised $300,000 amount in the offer letter going forward. Robinhood’s one-time equity adjustment grant differs for each employee depending on their offer letter’s promised compensation. In the hypothetical, the employee set to earn $300,000 each year would have suffered a pay cut of $50,000 because of the lost value of the stock ($100,000 per year) divided by their half-a-year tenure. The bottom line Professionals should consider factors outside of base salary to determine their total compensation package. If offered, stock-based compensation, such as stock options or restricted stock units, can be an attractive benefit and lead to potentially life-changing windfalls. However, stock-based compensation involves risk. Share prices can be impacted by the company’s past performance and prospects for future growth and external factors if shares are publicly traded on a stock exchange.

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In Firefox 95, we’re shipping a novel sandboxing technology called — developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of California San Diego and the University of Texas — that makes it easy and efficient to isolate subcomponents to make the browser more secure. This technology opens up new opportunities beyond what’s been possible with traditional process-based sandboxing, and we look forward to expanding its usage and (hopefully) seeing it adopted in other browsers and software projects. RLBox This technique, which uses WebAssembly to isolate potentially-buggy code, builds on the we shipped last year to Mac and Linux users. Now, we’re bringing that technology to all supported Firefox platforms (desktop and mobile), and isolating five different modules: , , , and [1]. prototype Graphite Hunspell Ogg Expat Woff2 Going forward, we can treat these modules as untrusted code, and — assuming we did it right — even a zero-day vulnerability in any of them should pose no threat to Firefox. Accordingly, we’ve updated our to pay researchers for bypassing the sandbox even without a vulnerability in the isolated library. bug bounty program The Limits of Process Sandboxing All major browsers run Web content in its own sandboxed process, in theory preventing it from exploiting a browser vulnerability to compromise your computer. On desktop operating systems, Firefox also isolates each site in its own process in order to protect sites from each other. Unfortunately, threat actors routinely attack users by chaining together two vulnerabilities — one to compromise the sandboxed process containing the malicious site, and another to escape the sandbox [2]. To keep our users secure against the most well-funded adversaries, we need multiple layers of protection. Having already isolated things along trust boundaries, the next logical step is to isolate across functional boundaries. Historically, this has meant hoisting a subcomponent into its own process. For example, Firefox runs audio and video codecs in a dedicated, locked-down process with a limited interface to the rest of the system. However, there are some serious limitations to this approach. First, it requires decoupling the code and making it asynchronous, which is usually time-consuming and may impose a performance cost. Second, processes have a fixed memory overhead, and adding more of them increases the memory footprint of the application. For all of these reasons, nobody would seriously consider hoisting something like the XML parser into its own process. To isolate at that level of granularity, we need a different approach. Isolating with RLBox This is where RLBox comes in. Rather than hoisting the code into a separate process, we instead compile it into WebAssembly and then compile that WebAssembly into native code. This doesn’t result in us shipping any .wasm files in Firefox, since the WebAssembly step is only an intermediate representation in our build process. However, the transformation places two key restrictions on the target code: it can’t jump to unexpected parts of the rest of the program, and it can’t access memory outside of a specified region. Together, these restrictions ( ) between trusted and untrusted code, allowing us to run them in the same process largely as we were doing before. This, in turn, makes it easy to apply without major refactoring: the programmer only needs to sanitize any values that come from the sandbox (since they could be maliciously-crafted), a task which RLBox makes easy with a . make it safe to share an address space including the stack tainting layer The first step in this transformation is straightforward: we use to compile Firefox, and Clang knows how to emit WebAssembly, so we simply need to switch the output format for the given module from native code to wasm. For the second step, our prototype implementation used . Cranelift is excellent, but a second native code generator added complexity — and we realized that it would be simpler to just map the WebAssembly back into something that our existing build system could ingest. Clang Cranelift We accomplished this with , which performs a straightforward translation of WebAssembly into equivalent C code, which we can then feed back into Clang along with the rest of the Firefox source code. This approach is very simple, and automatically enables a number of important features that we support for regular Firefox code: profile-guided optimization, inlining across sandbox boundaries, crash reporting, debugger support, source-code indexing, and likely other things that we have yet to appreciate. wasm2c Next Steps RLBox is a big win for us on several fronts: it protects our users from accidental defects as well as supply-chain attacks, and it reduces the need for us to scramble when such issues are disclosed upstream. As such, we intend to continue applying to more components going forward. Some components are not a good fit for this approach — either because they depend too much on sharing memory with the rest of the program, or because they’re too performance-sensitive to accept the modest overhead incurred — but we’ve identified a number of other good candidates. Moreover, we hope to see this technology make its way into other browsers and software projects to make the ecosystem safer. is a standalone project that’s designed to be very modular and easy-to-use, and the team behind it would welcome other use-cases. RLBox Speaking of the team: I’d like to thank , , and for their tireless work in bringing this work from research concept to production. Shipping to hundreds of millions of users is hard, and they did some seriously impressive work. Shravan Narayan Deian Stefan Hovav Shacham Read more about RLBox and this announcement on the . UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering website [1] Cross-platform sandboxing for Graphite, Hunspell, and Ogg is shipping in Firefox 95, while Expat and Woff2 will ship in Firefox 96. [2] By using a syscall to to exploit a vulnerability in the OS, or by using an IPC message to exploit a vulnerability in a process hosting more-privileged parts of the browser. First published here

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WebAssembly and Fine-Grained Sandboxing in Firefox 95

Last month, and I added an autocomplete search to , that allows you to quickly jump straight to the document you’re looking for by typing parts of the document title. This is the story about how that’s implemented. If you stick around to the end, I’ll share an “easter egg” feature that, once you’ve learned it, will make you look really cool at dinner parties. Or, perhaps you just want to navigate MDN faster than mere mortals. Gregor Weber MDN Web Docs In its simplest form, the input field has an event listener that filters through a complete list of every single document title (per locale). At the time of writing, there are 11,690 different document titles (and their URLs) for English US. You can see a preview by opening . Yes, it’s huge, but it’s not too huge to load all into memory. After all, together with the code that does the searching, it’s only loaded when the user has indicated intent to type something. And speaking of size, because the file is compressed with , the file is only 144KB over the network. onkeypress https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/search-index.json Brotli Implementation Details By default, the only JavaScript code that’s loaded is a small shim that watches for and for the search field. There’s also an event listener on the whole that looks for a certain keystroke. Pressing at any point, acts the same as if you had used your mouse cursor to put focus into the field. As soon as focus is triggered, the first thing it does is download two JavaScript bundles which turns the field into something much more advanced. In its simplest (pseudo) form, here’s how it works: onmouseover onfocus <input> document / <input> <input> <input 
 type="search" 
 name="q"
 onfocus="startAutocomplete()" 
 onmouseover="startAutocomplete()"
 placeholder="Site search..." 
 value="q"> let started = false;
function startAutocomplete() {
  if (started) {
    return false;
  }
  const script = document.createElement("script");
  script.src = "https://2r4s9p1yi1fa2jd7j43zph8r-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/static/js/autocomplete.js";
  document.head.appendChild(script);
} Then it loads which is where the real magic happens. Let’s dig deeper with the pseudo code: /static/js/autocomplete.js (async function() {
  const response = await fetch('/en-US/search-index.json');
  const documents = await response.json();
  
  const inputValue = document.querySelector(
    'input[type="search"]'
  ).value;
  const flex = FlexSearch.create();
  documents.forEach(({ title }, i) => {
    flex.add(i, title);
  });

  const indexResults = flex.search(inputValue);
  const foundDocuments = indexResults.map((index) => documents[index]);
  displayFoundDocuments(foundDocuments.slice(0, 10));
})(); As you can probably see, this is an oversimplification of how it actually works, but it’s not yet time to dig into the details. The next step is to display the matches. We use (TypeScript) React to do this, but the following pseudo code is easier to follow: function displayFoundResults(documents) {
  const container = document.createElement("ul");
  documents.forEach(({url, title}) => {
    const row = document.createElement("li");
    const link = document.createElement("a");
    link.href = url;
    link.textContent = title;
    row.appendChild(link);
    container.appendChild(row);
  });
  document.querySelector('#search').appendChild(container);
} Then with some CSS, we just display this as an overlay just beneath the field. For example, we highlight each according to the and various keystroke event handlers take care of highlighting the relevant row when you navigate up and down. <input> title inputValue Ok, let’s dig deeper into the implementation details We create the index just and . Because the user might type more while waiting for the network, it’s actually reactive so executes the actual search once all the JavaScript and the JSON XHR have arrived. FlexSearch once re-use it for every new keystroke Before we dig into what this is, let’s talk about how the display actually works. For that we use a React library called which handles all the interactions, displays, and makes sure the displayed search results are accessible. is a mature library that handles a myriad of challenges with building a widget like that, especially the aspects of making it accessible. FlexSearch downshift downshift So, what is this library? It’s another third party that makes sure that searching on titles is done with natural language in mind. It describes itself as the “Web’s fastest and most memory-flexible full-text search library with zero dependencies.” which is a lot more performant and accurate than attempting to simply look for one string in a long list of other strings. FlexSearch Deciding which Result to Show First In fairness, if the user types , it’s not that hard to reduce a list of 10,000+ document titles down to only those that contain in the title, then we decide which result to show first. The way we implement that is relying on pageview stats. We record, for every single MDN URL, which one gets the most pageviews as a form of determining “popularity”. The documents that most people decide to arrive on are most probably what the user was searching for. foreac foreac Our that generates the file knows about each URLs number of pageviews. We actually don’t care about absolute numbers, but what we do care about is the relative differences. For example, we know that (that’s one of the document titles) is a more popular page than , so we leverage that and sort the entries in accordingly. Now, with doing the reduction, we use the “natural order” of the array as the trick that tries to give users the document they were probably looking for. It’s actually the same technique we use for in our full site-search. More about that in: . build-process search-index.json Array.prototype.forEach() TypedArray.prototype.forEach() search-index.json FlexSearch Elasticsearch How MDN’s site-search works The Easter Egg: How to search by URL Actually, it’s not a whimsical easter egg, but a feature that came from the fact that this autocomplete needs to work for our content creators. You see, when you work on the you start a local “preview server” which is a complete copy of all documents but all running locally, as a static site, under . There, you don’t want to rely on a server to do searches. Content authors need to quickly move between documents, so much of the reason why the autocomplete search is done entirely in the client is because of that. content in MDN http://localhost:5000 Commonly implemented in tools like the VSCode and Atom IDEs, you can do “fuzzy searches” to find and open files simply by typing portions of the file path. For example, searching for should find the file . You can do that with MDN’s autocomplete search too. The way you do it is by typing as the first input character. whmlemvo files/web/html/element/video / It makes it really quick to jump straight to a document if you know its URL but don’t want to spell it out exactly. In fact, there’s another way to navigate and that is to first press anywhere when browsing MDN, which activates the autocomplete search. Then you type again, and you’re off to the races! / / How to Get Really Deep into the Implementation Details The code for all of this is in the which is the project that builds and previews all of the . To find the exact code, click into the source code and you’ll find all the code for lazy-loading, searching, preloading, and displaying autocomplete searches. Yari repo MDN content client/src/search.tsx First published here

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How the autocomplete search in the Mozilla Documentation Works

Like any web browser, Firefox loads code from untrusted and potentially hostile websites and runs it on your computer. To protect you against new types of attacks from malicious sites and to meet the security principles of Mozilla, we set out to redesign Firefox on desktop. Site Isolation builds upon a new security architecture that extends current protection mechanisms by separating (web) content and loading each site in its own operating system process. This new security architecture allows Firefox to completely separate code originating from different sites and, in turn, defend against malicious sites trying to access sensitive information from other sites you are visiting. In more detail, whenever you open a website and enter a password, a credit card number, or any other sensitive information, you want to be sure that this information is kept secure and inaccessible to malicious actors. As a first line of defence Firefox enforces a variety of security mechanisms, e.g. the which prevents adversaries from accessing such information when loaded into the same application. same-origin policy Unfortunately, the web evolves and so do the techniques of malicious actors. To fully protect your private information, a modern web browser not only needs to provide protections on the application layer but also needs to entirely separate the memory space of different sites – the new Site Isolation security architecture in Firefox provides those security guarantees. Why separating memory space is crucial In early 2018, security researchers disclosed two major vulnerabilities, known as and . The researchers exploited fundamental assumptions about modern hardware execution, and were able to demonstrate how untrusted code can access and read memory anywhere within a process’ address space, even in a language as high level as JavaScript (which powers almost every single website). Meltdown Spectre While band-aid countermeasures deployed by OS, CPU and major web browser vendors quickly neutralized the attacks, they came with a performance cost and were designed to be temporary. Back when the attacks were announced publicly, Firefox teams promptly to keep our users safe. reduced the precision of high-precision timers and disabled APIs that allowed such timers to be implemented Going forward, it was clear that we needed to fundamentally re-architecture the security design of Firefox to mitigate future variations of such vulnerabilities. Let’s take a closer look at the following example which demonstrates how an attacker can access your private data when executing a Spectre-like attack. Without Site Isolation, Firefox might load a malicious site in the same process as a site that is handling sensitive information. In the worst case scenario, a malicious site might execute a Spectre-like attack to gain access to memory of the other site. Suppose you have two websites open – www.my-bank.com and www.attacker.com. As illustrated in the diagram above, with current web browser architecture it’s possible that web content from both sites ends up being loaded into the same operating system process. To make things worse, using a Spectre-like attack would allow attacker.com to query and access data from the my-bank.com website. Despite existing security mitigations, the only way to provide memory protections necessary to defend against Spectre-like attacks is to rely on the security guarantees that come with isolating content from different sites using the operating system’s process separation. Background on Current Browser Architecture Upon being launched, the Firefox web browser internally spawns one privileged process (also known as the parent process) which then launches and coordinates activities of multiple (web) content processes – the parent process is the most privileged one, as it is allowed to perform any action that the end-user can. This multi-process architecture allows Firefox to separate more complicated or less trustworthy code into processes, most of which have reduced access to operating system resources or user files. As a consequence, less privileged code will need to ask more privileged code to perform operations which it itself cannot. For example, a content process will have to ask the parent process to save a download because it does not have the permissions to write to disk. Put differently, if an attacker manages to compromise the content process it must additionally (ab)use one of the APIs to convince the parent process to act on its behalf. In great detail, (as of April 2021) Firefox’s parent process launches a fixed number of processes: eight web content processes, up to two additional semi-privileged web content processes, and four utility processes for web extensions, GPU operations, networking, and media decoding. While separating content into currently eight web content processes already provides a solid foundation, it does not meet the security standards of Mozilla because it allows two completely different sites to end up in the same operating system process and, therefore, share process memory. To counter this, we are targeting a Site Isolation architecture that loads every single site into its own process. Without Site Isolation, Firefox does not separate web content into different processes and it’s possible for different sites to be loaded in the same process. Imagine you open some websites in different tabs: www.my-bank.com, www.getpocket.com, www.mozilla.org and www.attacker.com. As illustrated in the diagram above, it’s entirely possible that my-bank.com and attacker.com end up being loaded in the same operating system process, which would result in them sharing process memory. As we saw in the previous example, with this separation model, an attacker could perform a Spectre-like attack to access my-bank.com’s data. Without Site Isolation, the browser will load embedded pages, such as a bank page or an ad, in the same process as the top level document. While straightforward to understand sites being loaded into different tabs, it’s also possible that sites are embedded into other sites through so-called subframes – if you ever visited a website that had ads on it, those are probably subframes. If you ever had a personal website and you embedded a YouTube video with your favourite song within it, the YouTube video was embedded in a subframe. In a more dangerous scenario, a malicious site could embed a legitimate site within a subframe and try to trick you into entering sensitive information. With the current architecture, if a page contains any subframes from a different site, they will generally be in the same process as the outer tab. This results in both the page and all of its subframes sharing process memory, even if the subframes originate from different sites. In the case of a successful Spectre-like attack, a top-level site might access sensitive information it should not have access to from a subframe it embeds (and vice-versa) – the new Site Isolation security architecture within Firefox will effectively make it even harder for malicious sites to execute such attacks. How Site Isolation Works in Firefox When enabling Site Isolation in Firefox for desktop, each unique site is loaded in a separate process. In more detail, loading “https://mozilla.org” and also loading “http://getpocket.com” will cause Site Isolation to separate the two sites into their own operating system process because they are not considered “same-site”. Similarly, “https://getpocket.com” (note the difference between http and https) will also be loaded into a separate process – so ultimately all three sites will load in different processes. For the sake of completeness, there are some domains such as “.github.io” or “.blogspot.com” that would be too general to identify a “site”. This is why we use a list of effective top level domains (eTLDs) to aid in differentiating between sites. community-maintained Since “github.io” is listed as an eTLD, “a.github.io”  and “b.github.io” would load in different processes. In our running examples, websites “www.my-bank.com” and “www.attacker.com” are not considered “same-site” with each other and will be isolated in separate processes. With Site Isolation, Firefox loads each site in its own process, thereby isolating their memory from each other, and relies on security guarantees of the operating system. Suppose now, you open the same two websites: www.attacker.com and www.my-bank.com, as seen in the diagram above. Site isolation recognizes that the two sites are not “same-site” and hence the site isolation architecture will completely separate content from attacker.com and my-bank.com into separate operating system processes. This process separation of content from different sites provides the memory protections required to allow for a secure browsing experience, making it even harder for sites to execute Spectre-like attacks, and, ultimately, provide a secure browsing experience for our users. With Site Isolation, Firefox loads subframes from different sites in their own processes. Identical to loading sites into two different tabs is the separation of two different sites when loaded into subframes. Let’s revisit an earlier example where pages contained subframes, with Site Isolation, subframes that are not “same-site” with the top level page will load in a different process. In the diagram above, we see that the page www.attacker.com embeds a page from www.my-bank.com and loads in a different process. Having a top level document and subframes from different sites loaded in their own processes ensures their memory is isolated from each other, yielding profound security guarantees. Additional Benefits of Site Isolation With Site Isolation architecture in place, we are able to bring additional security hardening to Firefox to keep you and your data safe. Besides providing an extra layer of defence against possible security threats, Site Isolation brings other wins: By placing more pages into separate processes, we can ensure that doing heavy computation or garbage collection on one page will not degrade the responsiveness of pages in other processes. Using more processes to load websites allows us to spread work across many CPU cores and use the underlying hardware more efficiently. Due to the finer-grained separation of sites, a subframe or a tab crashing will not affect websites loaded in different processes, resulting in an improved application stability and better user experience. Going Forward We are currently testing Site Isolation on desktop browsers Nightly and Beta with a subset of users and will be rolling out to more desktop users soon. However, if you already want to benefit from the improved security architecture now, you can enable it by downloading the Nightly or Beta browser from and following these steps: here To enable Site Isolation on Firefox Nightly: Navigate to about:preferences#experimental Check the “Fission (Site Isolation)” checkbox to enable. Restart Firefox. To enable Site Isolation on Firefox Beta or Release: Navigate to about:config. Set `fission.autostart` pref to `true`. Restart Firefox. For technical details on how we group sites and subframes together, you can check out our new process manager tool at “about:processes” (type it into the address bar) and follow the project at . https://wiki.mozilla.org/Project_Fission With Site Isolation enabled on Firefox for Desktop, Mozilla takes its security guarantees to the next level and protects you against a new class of malicious attacks by relying on memory protections of OS-level process separation for each site. If you are interested in contributing to Mozilla’s open-source projects, you can help us by filing bugs if you run into any problems with Site Isolation enabled. here Acknowledgements Site Isolation (Project Fission), has been a massive multi-year project. Thank you to all of the talented and awesome colleagues who contributed to this work! It’s a privilege to work with people who are passionate about building the web we want: free, inclusive, independent and secure! In particular, I would like to thank Neha Kochar, Nika Layzell, Mike Conley, Melissa Thermidor, Chris Peterson, Kashav Madan, Andrew McCreight, Peter Van der Beken, Tantek Çelik and Christoph Kerschbaumer for their insightful comments and discussions.  Finally, thank you to Morgan Rae Reschenberg for helping me craft alt-text to meet the high standards of our web accessibility principles and allow everyone on the internet to easily gather the benefits provided by Site Isolation. First published here

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An Introduction to Firefox’s new Site Isolation Security Architecture

More and more companies rely on digital technology such as websites, chatbots, and mobile applications to interact with their customers. The experience that the customer has with these platforms can make or break a company. According to one survey, . The solution to this challenge is an approach known as Intuitive UX Design. 70% of online businesses fail because of bad usability Why is intuitive UX design critical to your success? Having beautiful-looking user interfaces for your programs and mobile apps can help generate emotional responses from your customers encouraging them to interact with your technology. Unfortunately, a great-looking interface alone doesn’t guarantee a positive experience. One of the most critical elements to giving your customer a great experience is by creating an interface that is intuitive. Why is intuitive design so important? Users will quickly become frustrated with confusing or complicated UX designs. If your team receives a lot of questions from customers on how to find or access certain features of your technology, you could have a non-intuitive design. The goal should be to provide a UX that requires little to no training or instruction. Easy to Learn: If using a program or application is simple and intuitive, users will be more likely to spend more time using your program than your competitors. This helps build brand loyalty and increases profitability. Prolonged Use: An intuitive UX should not only provide the user with a seamless experience, it should also allow you to elicit certain behaviors. For example, strategic placement of certain elements can gently and naturally steer them toward profit centers such as CTAs (call to action) or prompts to access enhanced features. Better Control Over User Activity: Related Article: How is Quantitative Data Used in UX Research? Key elements of intuitive UX design Providing an intuitive interface can be quite simple if you use the right approach. Most companies fail at intuitive UX design because they provide information in a way that makes sense to them. Instead, try to get inside the minds of your users and create a design that anticipates their wants and needs. Your users may not be as technical or understand industry lingo as your internal team. By using the same terminology that your customers expect to see, it will be easier for them to find what they are looking for. For example, instead of saying “Technical Documentation”, you can simply say “Product User Manuals”. Use the Right Language: Try to anticipate the order that which users expect information to be presented to them. Placing high-click buttons or information at the top of the interface is better so they don’t have to scroll down looking for what they need. Place Objects in Logical Order: Grouping similar information and features together helps users find what they need quickly. This is especially useful if your interface is complex or requires a lot of details. Minimize Clicks – Design your UX in a way that helps users get to the information they need in the shortest amount of time and requires the fewest number of clicks. Segment Your Interface: Having too many options on the screen can cause cognitive overload. You want your user to spot the information they need or the next step quickly (1-2 seconds at the most). Use the Right Signifiers – Signifiers are graphical elements that help the user identify certain information or features. For example, the cog symbol often represents a settings or options menu while a magnifying glass can indicate a search field. Reduce Options: Using colors wisely can help the user navigate the UX. Green and blue are often associated with “submit” buttons. Red can indicate “cancel” or “go back”. You can also use color or bold fonts to draw the user’s attention to certain features or information. Colors: Your interface may have multiple views or layers. It’s important that your layouts, colors, and object placement are consistent so the user already feels familiar with each new page or view. Related Article: Be Consistent: Increasing the Business Impact of User Research Transform your platform with a leading UX design specialist At , we understand the power of creating user interfaces that are bold, simple to use, and engaging. Our team of seasoned professionals in product development and UX design is here to help you every step of the way. to find out how we can supercharge your customers’ user experience. Lean Discovery Group Book a 30-minute discovery call today Ethan, Founder of the Lean Discovery Group First published here

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Photo by on Trent Pickering Unsplash Ask a software developer, what is ‘good code?’ They will likely answer something along the lines of, “it’s clean or elegant code.” It’s likely this person will further list principles and as a way to legitimize cleanliness or elegance. SOLID design patterns I think the way this relationship dynamic is interpreted is wrong. What I mean is that SOLID and design patterns do simply imply good code. It’s actually the other way around. Good code precedes them. But it goes much deeper than that. not Boundaries As humans, we divide reality across arbitrary boundaries in relation to a context or point of view. These divisions are used to speak and relate to each other in a correct way. Where context defines correctness, and the expectations we project, on a boundary. What I mean is that the same tree is “seen” differently by a kid and a botanist. These boundaries are abstractions on which we project expectations. This is where comes into play. object thinking Its goal is to model a computer to satisfy these expectations. It equates objects to boundaries. As boundaries, objects are the elemental way to divide reality. This is where object thinking’s superiority lies in respect of procedural thinking. Indeed, the latter wants to model every boundary with data and algorithms. In other words, it tries to reduce an arbitrary boundary to another arbitrary boundary. models boundaries to reflect computers. While models computers to reflect boundaries. Procedural thinking object thinking This is the reason why the ‘object way’ beats the procedural way. I’m not saying that the latter is absolutely wrong. I’m saying that it’s better when boundaries are defined by data and algorithms. Newsletter Demo A sage once said: “a demo is worth more than thousands of words”. So, here we are. The example comes with real example of a request from a customer. In this context, he’s a newsletter manager. At first, he said that users should be able to subscribe to the newsletter. We asked in which way. He said that they must provide an email. Using we can translate this expectation in this way: object thinking interface Newsletter {
    Newsletter subscribe(Email anEmail);
} So, given the boundary a user can subscribe to it with . The goal is to satisfy user expectations (in this context) through interfaces. Newsletter anEmail Then he said that a user can also unsubscribe in the same way: interface Newsletter {
    Newsletter subscribe(Email anEmail);

    Newsletter unsubscribe(Email anEmail);
} Obviously, he also expressed the need to broadcast news to subscribers. Then we asked if he needs to authenticate in some way. He took it for granted. And he furthermore explained that he expects to access a protected area with a passphrase. Then we discovered that, that news describes a fact with words. So, we can reflect these expectations in this way: interface Newsletter {
    Newsletter subscribe(Email anEmail);

    Newsletter unsubscribe(Email anEmail);

    ProtectedArea protectedArea(Passphrase aPassphrase);
}

interface Passphrase {
    Boolean correct(String passphrase);
}

interface ProtectedArea {
    ProtectedArea broadcast(News news);
}

interface News {
    String fact();
} This means that provides access to a . And the latter broadcasts . Newsletter ProtectedArea News After some time wanted to add the possibility to subscribe to the newsletter with a telephone number. So, we asked if and are references through which to send text to a subscriber. anEmail aPhoneNumber He agreed, and he pointed out that they also identify subscribers. Then, he expressed the needs to count subscribers. This is a way to satisfy these expectations. I added some simple classes as examples: interface Newsletter {
    Newsletter subscribe(Reference aReference);

    Newsletter unsubscribe(Reference aReference);

    ProtectedArea protectedArea(Passphrase aPassphrase);
}

interface Reference {
    String id();

    Reference send(String text);
}

class Email implements Reference {
    // implements method that sends email
}

class TelephoneNumber implements Reference {
    // implements method that sends SMS
}

interface Passphrase {
    Boolean correct(String passphrase);
}

class SHA512Passphrase implements Passphrase {
    // implements method to verify correctness
}

interface ProtectedArea {
    ProtectedArea broadcast(News news);

    Subscribers subscribers();
}

interface News {
    String fact();
}

interface Subscribers {
    Long count();
} At this point, he seems fulfilled (until the next needs). Conclusion I started this article by saying that SOLID and design patterns do not imply good code. At most, good code implies them. How ‘good’ your code is, depends only on how much it adheres and reflects the domain. After all, we code for this reason. But when we introduce extraneous abstractions we reduce the goodness. Inevitably. It isn’t important if they respect SOLID principles, a design pattern, or whatever best practice. Because they’re extraneous they don’t intrinsically exist in the domain. So, they should not be in the code. For this reason, thanks to its goal, object thinking has a great impact on good code. As I said it aims to model the computer to reflect the domain we are facing. In this optic, we start first from a domain understanding. Perhaps patterns will emerge. Spontaneously.

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Photo by Ferhat Deniz Fors on Unsplash At its core, today’s world relies on digital technologies. Public infrastructure, transport, communication, business, government, finance, and healthcare depend on the synergy and stable functioning of IT environments at all levels. A single disruption in a link of IT processes may cause the entire system to fail, resulting in service unavailability. The downtime of banks and public institutions, for instance, leads to significant inconveniences for citizens. A major system disruption as a result of a cyberattack on an IT environment of a particular organization means the probability of critical data loss or theft. In turn, loss or leakage of data causes public image deterioration, unwanted reputational and financial consequences, and even legal fines for organizations due to noncompliance. What is a cyber attack? Who is a cybercriminal and a cyberterrorist? Where does a cyberwar start? What is cyber security and how to design it? In this post, we will explain what are cyberattacks, the main types of cyber threats, examples of cyberwar, and IT cyber security approaches. What is a Cyber Attack? In a broad sense, a cyberattack is the use of digital instruments to, for example, gain unauthorized access to IT environments, cause disruption, hardware malfunction, and corrupt or steal data. The type of instruments used to conduct an attack and the goals that the initiator pursues may vary, but the principle remains unchanged: A cyberattack is an attempt to intrude, damage, or disrupt digital or physical infrastructures with the use of software. Cyber Security Threats by Type Not all cases of cyber security breaches are the same. Three main categories of cyber threats include cybercrimes, cyberattacks, and cyberterrorism. We will highlight the differences between them now. Cybercrime Cybercrime includes the actions of individuals or organized groups who use digital instruments to attack computers or whole IT systems with the intention of financial profit and causing disruption. The most spectacular example of cybercriminal activity is the creation and spread of ransomware. The frequency and danger of ransomware attacks have been growing in past years, so solid ransomware protection is vital for corporate, personal, and any other critical data. Cyberattacks A cyberattack in its narrow sense is a category of cybercrime. Cybercriminals are mostly driven by financial goals or just having fun with casual users who are unaware of security breaches in their systems. Coordinated cyberattacks conducted either by individuals or organized groups, however, might have motivators other than direct profit: politics, corporate and state espionage, and gaining unfair competitive advantage for businesses are primary motivators here. Hackers paid by a particular company to intrude into a competitor’s IT environment and collect confidential data about intellectual property can serve as an example here. Cyberterrorism Cyberterrorists are criminals and attackers. Why are they distinguished as a separate threat category? Unlike regular criminals and organized hacker groups, terrorists target vital objects of public infrastructure to cause panic or fear among citizens. Cyberterrorists aim to disrupt the stable functioning of governmental services, banks, hospitals, power grid, and so on. Most frequently, the actions of cyberterrorists may be defined as elements of a cyber war. However, that is not quite correct. Cyberwar: Science Fiction or Reality? Many think that a cyberwar is either a fictional concept or something that much of humanity seems to expect in the relatively distant future. Fortunately, a full-scale cyberwar has not occurred so far. However, governments are analyzing cyberwar concepts, and some elements of a nextgen military conflict have already been tested in action. But still, how can we define a cyberwar? The word “cyberwarfare” can fit the use of digital means like viruses and hacking software by one state to attack the vital computer systems of another state to cause disruption, destruction, and even loss of life. Although there have been no confirmed cases of cyberattacks directly resulting in death yet, the use of computer programs by state-affiliated structures against the digital environments of a political rival to gain military advantage or achieve other goals has been around for years. One of the first known examples of a war going beyond the use of regular military force and entering cyberspace is the series of cyberattacks conducted during the short military conflict between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. Allegedly, Russian hackers took control over key sections of the Georgian web by rerouting traffic to Russian and Turkish servers and blocking or diverting the rerouted traffic there. This was the first publicly known case of cyberattacks synchronized with offensive army operations to achieve military goals. Another spectacular example of a cyberwar is the case of the Stuxnet worm, which is considered to be a specialized cyberweapon. That software is said to have been created by the USA and Israel to target Iran, though there is no direct proof of governmental involvement in the development of the worm. Stuxnet is remarkable for being the first-of-a-kind known software that was purposely created to damage critical physical infrastructure. More precisely, Stuxnet was created to cause a malfunction in the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used to automate electromechanical processes including the control of gas centrifuges for separating nuclear material. Stuxnet was confirmed to have compromised the PLCs used in the Iranian nuclear program equipment and caused damage by accelerating the centrifuges’ spinning and destroying them that way. Regarding cyberwar, one can only understand that the use of digital technologies, computers, and networks to gain an advantage over enemy military forces and rival states is not a hypothetical opportunity or fictional concept anymore. Cyberwar became a reality more than a decade ago. People not connected to the creation of cyberweapons can see only the tip of the iceberg. Ways to Bypass IT Cyber Security The multi-level complexity of IT infrastructures, protocols, connections, among other features, gives cybercriminals the chance to create different types of hacking tools and strategies to break into protected environments through the web. Those malicious tools and strategies generally fall into definable categories. Malware The variety of malware that hackers use to bypass digital security measures continues to expand. The most common malicious software types include: Viruses: self-replicating programs that attach themselves to clean files and spread across IT systems to infect nodes with malicious codes. Trojans: malware pretending to be regular software applications. Users unknowingly install trojans to their systems, and then unpacked malware codes start corrupting, deleting, or stealing data. Adware: software created for advertising purposes. Adware can be used to spread malware codes as well. Botnets: networks of infected computers used by hackers to perform actions online without the legitimate user’s awareness and authorization. Spyware: malware that infiltrates a system and starts snooping for sensitive data like passwords, email addresses, personal identification information, credit card numbers, among others. Ransomware: malware that encrypts user data and demands a ransom in exchange for the decryption key. Hackers may rely on a single type or combine multiple types of malware and approaches to plan and conduct a cyberattack. The digital security systems designed to protect IT environments are multi-layered, so criminals mostly come up with hybrid cyberattack tools. SQL Injection A structured language query (SQL) injection is used to get access and control to steal sensitive data from databases. A hacker uncovers a vulnerability in a data-driven app, and then exploits that vulnerability to intrude malicious code into the database via the SQL statement. If the injection is successful, the hacker gets unauthorized access to the data contained in the compromised database. Man-in-the-Middle Attack This type of cyberattack is frequently underestimated by regular users and extensively exploited by hackers due to that. The approach is simple: a hacker injects a malicious code into the device or network they want to attack in order to intercept the data sent through the compromised device. The most common example of a man-in-the-middle attack is infecting public Wi-Fi routers with spyware and then waiting for careless users to send their sensitive data like credit card information through one of those compromised routers. Hackers can acquire thousands of personal data records with this approach, and later sell them on dedicated darknet platforms. Phishing Phishing is one of the most common tactics used to trick legitimate users and create a breach for malware to sneak into the target IT environment. A hacker packs malware into a legitimate file such as (but not only) a Microsoft Word document, WinRar or 7zip archive, picture, or link. After that, the infected file is attached, for example, to an email pretending to be official or familiar, and sent to a receiver who is unaware of the threat. The recipient opens the email, views the attachment, and lets the malware code in the environment despite all the protection measures taken to secure the organization’s IT perimeter. Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attack Denial-of-Service and Distributed-Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are arguably the oldest cyber security threats that IT experts deal with. The idea of a DDoS attack is simple: a hacker aims to cause a service denial on a particular host or environment by sending an overwhelming volume of random data or requests to one of the nodes via the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). For instance, an enterprise system receives tens of thousands of newly registered users or millions of emails simultaneously. That means huge volumes of data that even high-end server hardware would be unable to process without performance lags. Most frequently, DoS attacks are conducted with the use of botnets - previously built networks of nodes that the hacker controls. A botnet can include hundreds or even thousands of devices that send millions of requests, files, or other data to the target server at the particular moment that the hacker defines. Due to the simultaneous activation of multiple computers to cause a critical node disruption, finding the DDoS attack source can be challenging. Digital Security Delusions Causing Danger In addition to the growing variety of potential cybersecurity threats and new system vulnerabilities bound to appear with the development of IT industries, several types of threats frequently remain out of sight. Even experienced IT security specialists need to be careful and vigilant regarding their approach towards digital security. The following delusions need to be taken into account: The Danger Comes From the Outside Many organizations falling victim to cyberattacks, losing data, and experiencing prolonged production downtime reasonably blame the outside hackers who break through the digital security of the organization’s IT perimeter. IT security specialists should keep in mind that cybercriminals often try to involve a person from the inside of an organization to simplify the attack. The insider can be either unaware of the consequences or acting purposely, but the defense is the same: protection against cyber attacks and data theft must be designed to effectively counter both outside and inside threats. We Know the Risks You don’t. The truth is, the attacker is always one step ahead of the defender. Just like generals always getting prepared for past wars, digital security measures can cover only the vulnerabilities that have been discovered so far. Additionally, the probability of human error, especially on the part of system administrators or even CTOs, is always a random risk factor that can lead to the creation or exposition of weaknesses at any moment. Consequently, countering every possible threat and closing all breaches with a guarantee of total security is unreal. Attack Vectors are Covered Cybercriminals are regularly coming up with new malware strains, updating old malicious codes, finding new targets, and more sophisticated infiltration approaches. Nowadays, Linux systems, Internet of Things (IoT) and operation technology (OT) devices, and cloud IT infrastructures in Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, and other environments can become cyberattack targets. "Our Organization Isn’t a Target" Any organization or individual present online, either informing, providing services, or making products, can become the target of a cyberattack. It does not matter if the organization or person has commercial, non-commercial, or governmental origins and purposes. You never know a hacker’s intention. Therefore, building an effective IT protection system is obligatory for any device and system with an enabled Internet connection. What is Cyber Security? Contemporary cyber security covers the entire set of practical measures applied to protect sensitive information and critical systems from digital attacks. An effective digital security approach ensures: Authorized access to data Data integrity Data availability Data theft prevention Proper hardware functioning IT infrastructure stability To maximize the effectiveness of cyber protection measures, solutions able to protect the IT environment and data from both inside and outside threats must be implemented. Apart from reliable passwords, antiviruses and firewalls, there are other common practices that should not be neglected if you want to maximize your protection of sensitive data and avoid disruption. Best Practices for Reliable Cyber Protection The points below may seem to be basic requirements for ensuring against cyber attacks. However, these basic rules are most frequently forgotten. By applying common digital security practices, you can significantly enhance your IT infrastructure’s resilience to cyber threats. End-User Education An uneducated computer operator is among the primary targets for hackers. When your colleagues are unaware of potentially dangerous online objects, then hackers can exploit the digital security breach open after a colleague’s click on an untrustworthy link, email attachment, or browser ad. An educated operator is the most solid cyber security solution. Eliminating human errors entirely is beyond reality, but you can explain threats to colleagues and minimize the chance for accidental security breaches to appear that way. Principle of Least Privilege Regardless of whether your IT operators are aware of threats or not, the principle of least privilege (aka PoLP) should be kept for computer cyber security purposes. When you can prohibit an action inside the IT environment without preventing a person from doing their job well, that action should be prohibited. Thus, hackers won’t be able to reach critical data after they gain access to a computer or account with a lower security level. Arguably the best strategy to keep the principle of least privilege is to rely on a role-based access model. Role-based access solutions enable you to configure permissions for particular groups of users. Then, you can manage the users in groups and give every user only suitable access rights. Without the need to configure accesses for every separate user, the probability of human error during configuration significantly decreases. Digital Threat Monitoring Software Revealing threats instantly after they appear is as important as the secure IT perimeter. When you have a cyberattack warning solution in place, the probability of a stealthy malware code injection can be drastically reduced. Moreover, when you are notified about an attack right after someone tries to conduct it, you can react instantly to prevent unwanted consequences before your cyber protection falls. Data Backups Usually, data is the most valuable asset, and organizations use digital security measures to prevent data loss. Successful cyberattacks mostly cause disruptions in IT environments and provoke the loss of data. When hackers bypass digital security systems and cause a data loss disaster, data backup is the only recovery option. Contemporary backup solutions enable you to back up and recover not only the data itself but also to rebuild the entire VM infrastructure directly from backups. Therefore, with an adequate backup strategy, you can minimize the downtime of your organization’s services and avoid critical data losses. Conclusion A cyber attack is the use of digital tools via cyberspace with the aim to disable or damage hardware, gain additional computing resources for further attacks, steal, corrupt, or delete data. Hackers can have different purposes. For example, regular cybercriminals are usually driven by financial profits and focus on attacking careless individuals and business organizations. On the other hand, cyberterrorists mostly aim to cause panic or fear among citizens by causing disruptions in critical services and structures such as healthcare, banking, or the electric grid. As cybercriminals and cyberterrorists are remaining active and generating new approaches towards their illegal activities, cyberattacks can be a threat to any individual or organization. A cyberwar is not a myth but a part of reality, too. With malware strains spread out all over the web, the cyber security meaning for any IT environment is hard to overestimate. Reliable cyber protection is vital for businesses, public infrastructure systems, government services, and individuals who want to prevent data loss and theft. To have a solid digital security system, you should: Remember that anyone can become a target of a cyberattack; Counter both insider and outsider threats; Make sure end-users know about the main malware intrusion channels; Follow the principle of least privilege (PoLP); Monitor your IT environment for malicious activity; Do regular backups; Avoid thinking that you have everything covered; Regularly update your security solutions.

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Below is an essay exploring Advanced Bioengineering that replicates life. The value of the 1982 film Blade Runner — an epic cinematic masterpiece — goes beyond the gloomy aesthetics of rainy LA and magnificent score by Vangelis. Blade Runner is fundamentally a contemplation of bioethics. Ridley Scott, inspired by legendary writer Philip K. Dick, depicted how the ability to create human identical synthetic beings called replicants put into question the very notion of humanity. Lab-synthesized body parts, assembled into living beings which could breathe, think, eat, bleed and die, resembled humans so closely that, once replicants obtained memories, the already blurred line between “us” and “them” became nearly ungraspable. The replicants could, however, outperform humans in several ways. Their genetic makeup was modulated to give them superior strength, speed, agility, resilience, and intelligence. Replicants did have two major disadvantages — their life span was as short as four years and they couldn’t feel empathy. Neither of these traits prevented humans from abusing replicants as off-world laborers, combat soldiers, and sex slaves. The explorers of the ethical limitations and benefits of genetic engineering will always have new challenges to meet, and adopting new definitions and beliefs is a natural part of the scientific game which tests the community’s rigidity of views. For instance, the discovery of made it difficult for us to continue to refer to DNA as just given how fluid gene expression turns out to be. epigenetics “the instruction book of nature” These kinds of humbling discoveries keep reminding us that no matter how much we know — the day when we feel that we know enough may never come. Nature may never be fully understood but it can be fully experienced, therefore we will keep testing and building new things in this playground. Is it possible to engineer humanoids that are “more human than humans” and what are the must-haves for anyone who would attempt to synthesize human-like life in a lab? Before we go over the replicants’ manufacturing lifecycle, I want to give credits to the group of scientists that in 2021 synthesized what is known to be the first programmed organic creatures. Those “living machines” a.k.a. Xenobots were created using a simulation run by a supercomputer and using some few thousand cardiac and skin cells from a Xenopus laevis frog, which the bots got their name from. The function of cardiac cells is to generate force and motion, and skin cells typically envelope and protect other tissues. Just these two types of tissue, structured and assembled creatively, were enough to generate a new life form that could move independently in a dish, move objects out of its way, reproduce, and then with an additional set of cells, could also obtain memory. Described superficially (roughly), the creation of xenobots looked something like this: The bots have to move and have enough force to be able to move other objects. 1.The functionality for a synthetic biological organism is decided. Do cardiac and skin cells provide what is needed for movement? 2.Cell types that could best fulfill that functionality are chosen. How do we arrange these cells to ensure they can and will perform the desired actions? 3. Computational modeling is performed. . 4.Cells are assembled according to the model’s predictions Cells are released into a test environment. The process is far more complex and resource-intensive, but it essentially boils down to one question: “How to arrange these atoms to make them behave the way I want?”. The rest is a matter of how hard you are willing to try. The team behind the Xenobots’ creation recently founded which aims to further the work related to creating living machines. The Institute of Computationally Designed Organisms If Xenobots are possible, human-like living machines could be possible, too. The process of synthesizing a replicant will look similar to the creation of Xenobots, but the level of complexity will increase significantly. Process of Synthesizing a Replicant The functionality for a synthetic biological organism is decided. Replicants’ genetic makeup needs to meet certain phenotypic criteria (increased muscle strength, intelligence, healing etc.) — so base human DNA will be modified for this genetic enhancement using genome editing techniques available today. Aside from generating a DNA update, we need to map out all the biological processes of the future replicant, including those associated with cognition which will also be based on what we know about such processes in humans. studies the mechanisms underlying the exclusively human ability for speech and abstract thinking. Cognitive neuroscience Those mental events need to be quantified, which is the topic of an ongoing debate among the greatest minds in the field of artificial intelligence about how complexity of the human mind can be expressed computationally. and express interesting views on consciousness and on its computability. Roger Penrose Marvin Minsky Penrose believes in new physics one day unveiling the mysteries of consciousness. Minsky seems to believe that we should not shy away from the complexity of the human ability to think and perceive, and evetually, giving machines structures replicating processes in the mind, machines’ output will be fairly similar to humans in terms of perception. Without a doubt, gathering qualitative insights on the human mind is a hard challenge to accomplish. is currently used for harvesting quantitative data on processes in the brain, and this process is called . Multiphoton microscopy neuroimaging were discovered roughly 20 years ago and have already enabled regenerative medicine to create organic human tissue of any type. Cells are selected. Induced pluripotent stem cells The cells can be instructed to differentiate into skin, heart, neuronal tissue… whatever you tell them to become. . This requires the capacity to perform high-fidelity system dynamics simulations. It is difficult to simulate processes of biological systems, especially sophisticated ones because such interactions are not always fully understood and are non-linear. Computational modeling is performed However, technology like AlphaFold’s that can will provide synthetic biology with some shortcuts in the design of novel biological organisms. predict protein folding will deepen the understanding of the mysterious and beautiful dynamics of organic life, and accelerate the possibility for high scale simulations to take place, which will likely be made using quantum computers. Quantum biology The replicant will be created using a combination of bioprinting technologies and bioink containing induced pluripotent stem cells (those mentioned earlier that can be programmed to differentiate into any type of cell). develops programmable materials and 4D printing. Cells are assembled according to the design generated by the computer model. MIT Self-Assembly lab 4D “In 4D printing, the resulting 3D shape can morph into different forms in response to environmental stimulus, with the 4th dimension being the time-dependent shape change after the printing. It is therefore a type of , wherein after the fabrication process, the printed product reacts with parameters within the environment (humidity, temperature, voltage, etc.) and changes its form accordingly” — programmable matter Wikipedia. This illustrates how material with embedded transformation from one shape to other acts. video This additional dimension in 4D printing combined with color coded bioink of tissue preprogrammed to respond to electromagnetic radiation of certain frequencies will resolve the orchestration problem of bioprinting complex multilayer tissue and tissue vascularization. Have a look at this video: A 3D bioprinting method invented at the Wyss Institute and Harvard SEAS embeds a grid of vasculature into thick tissue laden with human stem cells and connective matrix. Printed within a custom-made housing, this method can be used to create tissue of any shape. Once printed, an inlet and outlet own opposite ends are perfused with fluids, nutrients, and cell growth factors, which control stem cell differentiation and sustain cell functions. By flowing growth factors through the vasculature, stem cells can be differentiated into a variety of tissue cell types. 3D printing already today can be performed at nano scale. The Product Life Cycle of Replicants will Have Four Main Phases: 1. Research, Design and Prototyping. — development of the biological replicants 2. Production — uploading general skills such as motion, perception and speech as well as a combination of job based skill sets. 3. Programming — evaluation of assembly quality and skills set. 4. Testing Once a humanoid is made, it will need to learn how to move and do other day-to-day things that humans normally learn throughout childhood. That being said,by the time replicants can be created, rapid task-oriented programming via brain-computer interface will give replicants the possibility to learn basic as well as task-specific skills quickly. Regardless of how and when the technology will advance far enough to create replicants, we still face the question “Of whether a constructed being should count as a person?”

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Many of the world’s innovators stress the importance of ‘Huge Thinking.’ Broken down, the principles for Huge Thinking encompass both and . But what exactly are the ‘First Principles Thinking’ and ‘Scientific Method for Problem Solving’? First Principles Thinking (FPT) Elon Musk’s Scientific Method for Problem Solving Often described by Elon Musk (on podcasts such as Lex Fridman’s ), the FPT and Scientific Method for Problem Solving methods use reverse engineering to find solutions to complex problems and drive workplace innovation. interview Many great thinkers have successfully used these concepts, including military strategist John Boyd, entrepreneur Elon Musk, Philosopher Aristotle, and inventor Johannes Gutenberg. The purpose of this blog post is to outline the principles for Huge Thinking (HT) by describing what FPT and Elon Musk’s Scientific Method for Problem Solving are, how they work, the techniques for establishing first principles, and more. Let’s get started! Defining Elon Musk’s Scientific Method for Problem Solving Elon Musk is one of the most successful entrepreneurs to have ever existed. He organizes the way for some of the best inventions, including Tesla and SpaceX. Musk has discussed the scientific method several times, but here is how he expressed it to : Rolling Stone “Ask a question.” “Gather as much evidence as possible about it. “ “Develop axioms based on the evidence, and try to assign a probability of truth to each one.” “Draw a conclusion based on cogency in order to determine: Are these axioms correct, are they relevant, do they necessarily lead to this conclusion, and with what probability?” “Attempt to disprove the conclusion. Seek refutation from others to further help break your conclusion.” “If nobody can invalidate your conclusion, then you’re probably right, but you’re not certainly right.” Closely related to this concept is the FPT. This concept has proved effective in solving problems. Let’s see more below: Defining FPT In simple language, involves actively questioning every assumption you believe to be about a specific scenario or problem – and then coming up with new solutions and knowledge from scratch. It’s the only approach to thinking that encourages you to think for yourself. First Principles Thinking ‘true’ You see, many people reason by analogy. That is, they build knowledge and solve problems based on prior beliefs, assumptions, and widely held ‘best practices’ approved by most individuals. And while this problem-solving method may work in most scenarios, it limits individuals’ innovation abilities. This is different for FPT, however. Essentially, the concept enables you to innovate and solve complex problems in a manner that no one else can understand. It makes you an innovator and inventor. Here are steps recommended by Elon Musk for using the first principles thinking: You’ll need to break down the problem into fundamental principles. It’s the best way to uncover the truths about your problem or challenges. Instead of following the traditionally accepted methods of solving your problems, you should ask yourself several questions to help you uncover the truths. Step #1: Break down the problem: This step involves identifying and writing down assumptions to your challenges. That is, how is the problem solved? Step #2: Identify your assumptions: After identifying and breaking down your problem and assumption into their basic principles, you can create a new insightful solution. Step #3: Create new solutions from scratch: First Principles in Action Here is an example of the FPT used by Elon Musk: Elon Musk always had the goal of developing an electric car. But investors always told him that battery packs are too expensive, making it hard to develop an electric car. According to Musk, this assumption was familiar in history. When cars replaced horses, people had assumptions like, “gas is too expensive” or “it’s logically impossible to supply gas to all cars.” So, gas was mainly the central problem in the invention of cars. But a solution was found, and we have cars running on fuel today. Using FPT, Musk was able to identify the battery as the central problem to the invention of electric cars. So, he used the following steps to identify a solution to the otherwise complex problem: Step 1: Break Down the Problem What is the battery made of? Nickel, carbon, aluminum, lithium, cobalt, etc. How much money does each material cost? Step 2: Examine the Assumptions Among the assumptions surrounding the battery include: The batteries can only be acquired from certain vendors It costs $600 per KwH (1KWH = 100 miles in an electric car). Step 3: Create Solutions Musk came up with several solutions to the problem, including: Secure long-term supplier agreements to reduce prices. Purchase bulk raw materials and manufacture batters in-house. Hire engineers and scientists to develop new battery technology. Manufacturer batteries at large scale From this, we can tell the role of the FPT concept in innovation. FPT and Innovation Many of the most outstanding ideas and inventions in history have resulted from breaking things to the first principles then creating more effective solutions to the key parts. For example, Johannes Gutenberg created a printing press using a combination of a screw press – used to make wine – and movable type, ink, and paper. The screw press and movable type had existed for years, but no one ever thought to use their constituent parts to develop different technology. Thanks to the FPT used by Gutenberg, we now have printers that solve the problem of information sharing and movement. Likewise, we have so many problems that we can develop great inventions by breaking them into basic truths. FPT and Musk’s scientific problem-solving method allow individuals to gather information from different fields to create innovations. Challenges in Reasoning for FPT Yes, FPT is easy to describe but difficult to practice. Among the main challenges to first principles, thinking is the human tendency to optimize rather than . form function Here is a perfect example for this problem: In ancient Rome, soldiers would carry food and other belonging using leather bags. They had many vehicles with wheels, which they used while traveling across the countryside. And yet, no one ever thought to combine the bag and the wheel to make a rolling suitcase. The first rolling suitcase was invented in 1970 by Bernard Sadow. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, people would use leather bags for school, hiking, travel, etc. Before 1970, only a few improvements had been made to these bags – zippers added in 1938, nylon backpacks made in 1967, etc. Innovators just made slight improvements to the bags. No innovations, just iteration. And that’s the challenge that faces reasoning from first principles thinking. People focus more on building better forms of a product and not the function. It’s the same with a vehicle today. Most inventors look to improve the vehicle’s appearance and performance rather than how it can promote a greener world. The Bottom Line Principles for huge thinking are the most effective strategies for breaking down complex problems and generating original solutions. Based on these principles, the best way to develop ideas is to break things down to the basics. Without a solid grasp of the fundamentals, the chances are that you won’t master the details that make the difference at elite levels of competition. This post equips the reader with information on first principles thinking, including what it is, how it works, its benefits, and more. Reading it will enable you to become a great thinker. In the next post we will tackle design thinking and how these both tie in to the growth mindset. Good luck, stay thinking big, and share this with your friends and family if you found it helpful! ***For more on first-order principles thinking, please see: *** , fs.blog jamesclear, Axios, evannex Similar Articles: Design thinking for collaborative problem-solving and brainstorming This was initially published on my blog, , and I hope it brings some value to your life and how you look at problems. Consider or and stay tuned for more short educational pieces at the intersection of culture, technology, science, and world news & politics that mainstream mass media rarely covers. Huge Thinking following us on Twitter like us on Facebook

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Thinking Like Elon Musk Means Thinking Bigger Than Big: Huge

In the past few years, the crypto marketplace has shown its precise efficiency and potential to the world, from being concealed, underrated digital currency to shaping a new economy of today’s digital era. In the crypto domain, many marketplaces came and gained value, which took them decades, but NFTs have secured the prime position in just a few months. From the beginning, an NFT platform has gained crypto investors’ interest and made them desperate to own exclusive NFTs. You must be thinking, what exactly is NFT proposing to its investors? The NFT has proposed a way for its investors, who are artists and other professionals, to present their work in the form of . It indeed has driven a certain diversion in the digital currency (crypto) era by making people work on mining/minting their own NFTs. NFTs NFT minting is a process of making digital arts a part of the Ethereum blockchain, which is highly secured, or in other words, tamper-proof. Minting NFTs is like minting metal coins and circulating them into the marketplace. Its stats are growing along with the dependencies of the NFT marketplaces. New NFT marketplaces are emerging quickly, but among them, choosing the right one is essential rather than just selling your art pieces. For this, you need to select a suitable platform meeting your NFT art by considering the marketplace representing the fee and type of blockchain it uses. Without wasting more time, let’s dive into the best NFT marketplaces to choose for your NFT art representation. Top NFT Marketplaces: OpenSea: Art, Photography, Music, Sport, etc. NFT Type: Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer OpenSea NFT Marketplace? Provides almost all types of NFTs to buy and sell Accepts 150+ cryptocurrencies Uses highly secured blockchains OpenSea is a very old and the most trusted NFT marketplace. You can also think of it as an Amazon marketplace but with NFTs. It is very handy when it comes to creating an OpenSea NFT account, starting NFT minting, setting, and browsing other NFTs. OpenSea makes it easier to gain market capitalization in a commendable way, like making it its own market. A recent survey shows that OpenSea has become a marketplace of $13 billion net worth. According to the experts, OpenSea can create great insights and bids for the minted NFTs. Rarible: Art, Photography, Games NFT Type: Ethereum, Flow, Tezos Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer NFT Marketplace? Three options in blockchain Owned by a community Low carbon and gas fees Rarible is another widely used NFT marketplace due to its adaptive features for minting an asset and user-friendly interface. It offers royalty features to its NFT creators. According to a recent survey, the Rarible marketplace is worth $14 million. It uses its specialized token RARI and allows users to get votes on platform upgrades and become an essential part of platform modernization. Its supported blockchain type Ethereum is indeed carbon footprint-free but costly, whereas Tezon offers low fees around $0.50 but is more focused on artistic collections. Among the blockchain types, Flow offers the lowest fees (near to zero) for the minting process, which is also known as ‘Lazy Minting’. Flow is also known as proof of stake blockchain, offering minimum/lower carbon footprints as compared to Ethereum. Rarible provides a considerable secure marketplace for arts, creating new NFTs, which also includes Adobe. Foundation: Fine art, digital art, 3D art, and photography NFT Type: Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer Foundation NFT Marketplace? Artists-centered NFT marketplace Well-curated and exclusive NFTs Offers high-quality NFT art pieces You can also refer to Foundation NFT Marketplace as a club of artists where you can find high-quality and exclusive art pieces curated by a selected community of artists. In one year of the journey, the Foundation community has gained a capital of $163,263.94. As it is an exclusive marketplace, to be a part of this, the artist must get an invitation from its community artist, where each member only gets one invite to use. In the process to sell NFT arts, artists get 85% of the share, where 10% of the share is distributed in the secondary sales. If your requirement is to get authentic NFTs and art pieces, then Foundation is the best creative NFT marketplace to get exclusive deals and arts. Nifty gateway: Digital Art, Authentic-curated drops NFT Type: Ethereum, Gemini Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer Nifty Gateway? Buy arts with fiat currency Uses limited Open Editions Nifty Gateway is an elite NFT marketplace, highly focused on Minting NFTs than listing. Recently, Nifty has become a marketplace selling the expensive NFT bundle worth around $91.8 million, created by Pak. It shows that minting NFTs in this marketplace is a path to get the limelight in the crypto marketplace with articles and more chances to get high trades quickly. Axie Infinity Market Games NFT Type: Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer Axie Infinity Market? Focused on gaming technology Efficient NFT marketplace Axie Infinity is a gaming asset-exclusive NFT marketplace, where gaming platforms are minted as assets. It is one of the expensive NFT marketplaces under gaming NFT type and popular among crypto ménage people. It gets market capitalization in billions every year. NBA Top Shots Sport NFT Type: Flow Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer NBA Top Shots? Sports-centered Lower carbon footprints and platform fees Highly secured NBA Top Shots is the best sport-centered NFT marketplace, getting the finest values for sport-based NFTs, specifically Basketball. It uses a unique set of drops, which does not allow to mint creative NFTs but lets investors buy and sell sport-based NFTs. Its assets get the finest values, leading the platform to magnificent growth. At present, its market worth is around $.1.9 billion. Decentraland Estates, Avatar wearables, and names NFT Type: Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer Decentraland NFT Marketplaces? Stocks the best kind of digital goods Offers high-profit ratio Tamper-proof Decentraland has brought the revolution in the digital currency trading platform. This platform creates a huge difference in the NFT marketplace, allowing users to build a huge virtual community as the technical wrap. Minting NFTs in Decentraland offers a futurist way to enter into the crypto era, offering META worlds, which is a new concept but gaining attention and popularity very quickly. SuperRare Digital art NFT Type: Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer SuperRare NFT Marketplace? Offers well-curated and rare art pieces Fine gallery mode Impressive editorial blog window When it comes to getting an art gallery-like mood, SuperRare NFT marketplaces come first in the mind of crypto investors. It is known as the art-first marketplace that offers authentic, credible, and curated-artistic pieces to the users, which is beyond meme-friendly-to-the-moon art. The recent survey shows that it has reached the market revenue of $2 Million with NFT sales. For creators/artists, the SuperRare NFT marketplace is the best platform to get a better value for their art. Binance NFT NFTs, Crypto NFT Type: Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer Binance NFT Marketplace? Low marketplace feed (1% only) Large and highly secured community Accepts Fiat currency Binance NFT is a leading NFT & crypto exchange marketplace, backed by its own blockchain called Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum. Many crypto enthusiasts consider this marketplace as future-proof due to its popularity and security reasons, as well as exclusive partnership deals and events. It becomes easy to access and bid on the Binance NFT marketplace with Binance Tokens (BNB), ETH, and BUSD. BakerySwap: Games, Artworks, Collectables, Pets NFT Type: Binance Smart Chain (BSC) Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer BakerySwap NFT Marketplace? Minimum wages on NFT trades (0.30%) Marketplace fee 0.01 BNB for NFT minting Collaborated with Binance NFT marketplace having bright future BakerySwap is the first decentralized crypto currency marketplace, having a bright future, which contains $195 million+ of net market worth. It has its own NFT marketplace, allowing users to mint their own unique NFTs and sell them at a better value. Thus, many crypto enthusiasts consider BakeySwap as the best and most reliable NFT marketplace for NFT minting. Async Art: Programmable Art NFT Type: Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer Async Art NFT Marketplace? Elegant digital art Supports a wide community of creators and owners Offers Blueprints of arts Async Art NFT marketplace was founded in February 2020, which mainly focuses on non-fungible artworks. Here, each curated artwork is made with Masters and Layers, where Masters are purely NFTs, and Layers make the alterable art. The layered structure allows investors to purchase a particular layer of the art, which means different layers of the same art piece can be owned by multiple users, who can also contribute to changing the artwork. Because of this type of ownership, this marketplace says, “here, everything is ‘Tokenized’”. The Blueprints feature of this marketplace enables artists to opt for generative projects in the vein of the Bored Apes. MakersPlace: Fine Arts, Commercial Arts NFT Type: Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer MakersPlace? Buy artworks made by renowned artists Impressive collection of art Exclusive & Rare NFTs MakersPlace offers an authentic and rare collection of artworks and NFTs created by established artists and creators. It allows users to bid for exclusive NFTs from the likes of Damien Hirst, Robert Liefeld, and Christie’s auction house. It enables artists to digitally sign their artwork backed by blockchain, which then numbers authentic editions for creating scarcity. It means that even if someone downloads a copy of it, the copy cannot gain the authenticity of the art piece as it doesn’t contain the digital signature of the artist. KnownOrigin: Art & Photography NFT Type: Ethereum, Mint, and more. Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer KnownOrigin NFT Marketplace? Exclusively curated NFTs User-friendly marketplace KnownOrigin is the oldest NFT marketplace, offering rare and collectible NFT artworks. Its NFT drop feature enables artists to control the art piece releases, for example, Seth Tillett’s Jean Michel Basquiat photo collection. The number control creates the scarcity of the artwork and boosts up prices. As it uses many blockchains, users can choose the one meeting their fee budget and carbon footprint requirements at the time of bidding. It provides support to community messaging and offers advice on NFT drops and sales, which includes keeping secondary sales in a separate marketplace. Zora Art, Music, Animation, Media, Text, Web, and more. NFT Type: Ethereum Blockchain: Why Should You Prefer Zora NFT Marketplace? Artists and creators-centered Authentic sale Supports real-world collections as NFT sales Zora NFT marketplace has begun its journey with an artist-specific platform like Foundation but now has pivoted into the open marketplace for all types of users. It is a user-friendly marketplace allowing to place perpetual bids for all users on all available digital currency. Zora auctioned off RAC’s Boy album in both digital and physical copies. It offers physical items to super-fans; for instance, Jeff Staple, a Nike designer who sells a limited edition of trainers on this marketplace. Solanart : Multi-collections of NFTs, including Crypto Apps NFT Type :  Solana Blockchain Why Should You Prefer Solanart NFT Marketplace? A massive collection of NFT art pieces Considerable marketplace fee Solanart is an NFT marketplace based on the Solana blockchain, which contains a massive collection of NFTs. At present, it has Degenerate Ape Academy, Aurora, SolSand, Alpha Gorillas, Shadowy Super Coder, Goblin Army, Nyan Heroes, and Soul Dogs as its TOP collections. It usually charges a 3% of marketplace fee to the users on the artwork selling price of every auction. Final Words Here listed, all NFT marketplaces offer the best value to your artworks, but in order to get the assumed price at a minimum fee, you’ll have to check the platform specialization, focus, fee structure, efficiency, and community type. blockchain Want to know more about NFTs or have any specific queries related to NFT? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

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The US Federal Reserve just released its long-awaited Central Bank’s Digital Currency Report (CBDC). Not surprisingly Privacy is one of the Fed’s main concerns. The report : says “Initial analysis suggests that a potential U.S. CBDC, if one were created, would best serve the needs of the United States by being privacy-protected, intermediated, widely transferable and identity-verified” The Fed’s concerns are indeed valid. While blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum are censorship-resistant and free from any central intermediation, they are nonetheless public. It is the very fact that they are Public that renders them Trustless. While no third party is in control of one’s data, as is the case with a traditional bank, all transactions are public from the get-go. Even though they are linked only to a wallet address, and not an identity, behavioural patterns can quickly be established. Even sophisticated hackers using technology such as mixers will always leave an electronic money trail. Just ask the perpetrators of the infamous Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack . Within days, the FBI recovered the bitcoins from the ransom payment. Information leakages when using blockchains are inevitable just as they are on the internet. While interested parties might not find your identity, they will certainly have you profiled. In 2016, Zooko Wilcox and Zcash used Zero Proofs Knowledge (ZKPs) to try and remedy the Privacy Paradox. are a cryptographic method by which a prover can convince a verifier that a given statement is true, without conveying any additional information to the verifier ( ). ZKPs Wikipedia While ZKPs’ Proof of Concept appeared in the 80s, they were highly inefficient due to their size. Zcash was implemented on Bitcoin’s codebase and shares many similarities, from its capped monetary supply to its Proof of Work (POW) consensus mechanism. The main difference was the implementation of ZKPs, more precisely ZKsnarks which allowed for transactions to be either fully shielded or partially disclosed. While Zcash succeeded in making ZKPs small and efficient enough to allow transactions to be fast, cheap, and private simultaneously, there still exists one major flaw in their implementation: . Toxic Waste Toxic Waste refers to a set of random numbers generated during the set-up phase to build the Public Parameters which later allow users to construct and verify private transactions. Think of it as a Private Key, albeit for the whole network. Anyone in its possession would essentially be able to make counterfeit Zcash, thus taking us back to square one on the Double-Spending problem. To circumvent this flaw the team underwent what they referred to as multi-party computations ceremonies. Participants, each in isolation around the world, performed computations used to generate the so-called . Public Parameters The Toxic Waste generated by those computations was then destroyed. The first ceremony occurred at the initial launch and a second one at a later network upgrade. The rationale is that all parties would have to be dishonest for the protocol to be compromised. Systematic risk however remained…What if they all colluded? Fast forward a few years, the Electric Coin Company (ECC), which launched and supports the development of Zcash, introduced . Halo not only removes the need for a trusted setup and the resulting Toxic Waste but also makes ZKPs recursive thanks to . Halo Amortization Schemes In other words, one can prove that they ran ZKPs that verify other ZKPs and so on... One cryptographic proof can verify an infinite amount of accumulated past proofs. This will allow nodes for example to verify a whole chain in a matter of seconds. It could also help arbitrary smart contracts to be more confidential by running the contract itself off-chain and only proving that a particular and identifiable set of conditions has been met. Only the resulting state transition is then run on-chain. Miners engaging in front-running activities such as MEV will have to reassess their business models. While yet to be implemented, Halo is available to everyone as open-source, and it is no wonder ZKPs are also at the centre of Ethereum’s scalability solutions. They will allow for most of the large computation and data to be kept off-chain… If implemented at Layer-1 like the ECC intends to do with Zcash, Privacy and Scalability would both be made available to everyone ( ). Vitalik Buterin Whether Halo, , or other ZK technologies go beyond Proof of Concept and become an industry standard, or benefit the ECC at all, remains to be seen. Nested Amortization More importantly, the ECC is proving that Privacy and Scalability are in all logic highly correlated and demonstrates the importance of long-term governance in blockchains that are often too static. Despite much initial criticism, the ECC has recently taken the decision to break the industry norm and reward its own and other development teams with 20% of every block reward. While many crypto projects have fallen victim to the which is unfortunately omnipresent in an Open-Source and decentralized world, the ECC has not. Tragedy of Commons It has proved that the self-funding of key resources like governance and development might be a necessary evil in a world where technology is little defensible.

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Privacy Scales Better: Understanding Zcash, Zero Knowledge Proofs (zKP) & Electric Coin Company

Is it a pipe dream to work with major record labels and not cut revenue by being present on major streaming platforms? Emery Kelly's case proves it’s possible. Today's article will attempt to explore how the 23-year-old artist caught the eye of millions of people on Twitter and Instagram, as well as the admiration of fans in the United States, Asia, and the crypto community of Corite, a Stockholm-based digital music distributor aiming to transform the record industry through blockchain and NFTs. Having the same goals in mind It would be unfair to say that Emery Kelly owes his success solely to Corite. He has worked with Disney Music Group and Hollywood Records in the past. At the age of 22, when we began working together, he had already appeared in a Netflix series and released many songs as a member of the Forever In Your Mind band. However, his initial goal was to take his art to a whole new level. At our first meeting, he told us that he never stopped looking for opportunities to become an independent artist. We were all aware of how difficult it can be for an emerging musician to go through all the stages when dealing with large recording corporations. Emery knew we understood what he was looking for, and we saw his potential, noticing he could achieve much more with the right community's support. Playing fair and rewarding those who had faith in you The first and most important thing that drew Emery to the fan funding concept was the opportunity to reward his fans not just with a concert ticket, especially in the post-pandemic space, or a piece of merch, but to grant them a share of the future revenues generated by streaming in return for their backing and support. A few words on fan funding: this funding model eliminates intermediaries such as labels, agents, lawyers, and many other deal-makers, who typically charge up to 80% of the revenue that an artist makes. With the fan funding set up, you as an artist decides how much you are willing to share and get as a royalty advance, and you only share it with your true believers. And Emery got a chance to put it to the test when he released his debut single, "Gotta Know," which quickly and easily raised more than $4,000, out of which 5% went to Corite. Emery also decided to let half of the money raised go to a clean water initiative. Thus, fan funding not only deepens the artist-fan connection but can also aid in the resolution of some of the world's most pressing issues.** ** The origins of S.O.M.E and the NFT collection that bears its name Emery has worked for five long years to create his future album S.O.M.E, or Some of My Emotions. He’s had the support of people like David Phelps, Midi Jones, Dale Becker, Nathan Phillips, Freaky Rob, Daniel Richards, and Darryl “DC” Reid.. ** ** When attempting to explain the concept of "Some of My Emotions," Emery thinks of his songs as different ways of dealing with whatever life throws at you.** ** So we did our best to incorporate this concept into the collection of "emotional" glasses, created by Indian designer and illustrator Sinmon : anger, fear, boredom, admiration, joy, sadness, vigilance, and surprise. The Emotions are based on the Wheel of Emotions by Ph.D. Robert Plutchik who organized emotions in positive and negative and by intensity. Emotions can even blend together like colours, creating new emotions. Non-fungible opportunities for true believers Let's be honest. Nobody would refuse an autograph from their idol, and NFTs are the next step in this evolution. Without the involvement of external validators, a fan can purchase a piece of art that was created by an artist and will never fade. Emery's story is no exception. The release of the NFTs devoted to his future "S.O.M.E" album showed that digital merch is as powerful a tool as a traditional souvenir with a band's logo or singer's portrait. Furthermore, there were hidden extras as part of some of the NFTs and each came with a different level of Fan Power, which will be possible to redeem on the CO platform when its released. The Fan Power is a token that shows your engagement with an artist. . Moreover, the money raised from the sale of the NFT will be used to promote Emery’s single Gotta Know and further boost his chances of cutting through the noice when his album is released. On the day of the NFT drop, November 2nd, we all got to see how digitally-driven fan power transforms into a bright offline experience. Over the course of the NFT drop, Emery and Corite sold a total of 2,000 NFTs, which totaled over $200,000. A single tweet about the album, and the associated NFT drop received over 345,069 impressions, 16,000 reposts, and 10,000 likes. In total, the campaign generated 784,000 impressions. The NFT collection was supported by and 50 crypto influencers, including and , as well as respected music and NFT media outlets. Thus, all of the work put into this collection and the promotion ahead of the album has paid off. Coinmarketcap Ash WSB bull sayler Some advice for those just starting out Today's world, with its opportunities, demonstrates that no matter how many stars are born each year, there is still room for newcomers and always will be. Thanks to cutting-edge technologies, it is now possible to succeed without being filthy rich or making a killing. All it takes is the courage to speak up and the determination to persevere if the first attempt fails.

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How 22 Year-Old Emery Kelly, An Indie Artist Found Success with NFTs, Talent, and Social Media

A week ago, Twitter it is launching a service to showcase NFTs as profile photos. It is doing so by allowing users to link an account to a digital wallet, which itself uses an API to access the Ethereum Blockchain, where information about a “minted” image is stored. announced Twitter Blue The resulting profile picture takes the shape of a hexagon. . If that sounds like convoluted technobabble, trust your instincts Here’s why this new feature is problematic. The Beginning of the End for Privacy The Ethereum blockchain is fully public. However, what you might see when accessing it is nothing more than long strings of codes. With enough sleuthing using public information, it’s possible to link real people to wallets and transactions, but it takes some effort. This is a key feature of blockchain technology . Twitter is proposing to publicly link a to an . That means anyone will be able to see every transaction a person has made, as well as the current assets in their wallet. Twitter admits this publicly. person anonymous wallet “This means your Twitter account will be associated with your current and historical crypto wallet transactions and holdings, including all other NFTs in that wallet, because this information is all available on the public blockchain.” This is only a privacy worry if the person linking the NFT to their profile is using their real name on Twitter, from which a lot of information can be gathered. My issue is that people who have NFTs want to show them off. That’s a core feature of the NFT community, and there is no point in showing off anonymously. This is especially true for people who are giving Twitter money to use Twitter Blue. What would the ROI otherwise be? The problems begin here, but it is certainly not where they end. Scams & Cybersecurity insanity NFT aficionados are being . They tend to be aggressively middle-class, with some disposable income. They often showcase poor judgment, low social literacy (if my DMs are anything to go by), high tolerance for absurd risks, and are highly persuadable. It makes them perfect targets for . primed for scams social engineering schemes Twitter just allowed these people to put a target on their backs. Not only that, . And with a name often comes an address, an email… Scammers must be squealing with glee right now. but that target has their name on it Fans of the Hexagon will also have given their payment information to Twitter, to pay for the Blue features. If a user gets scammed today, they stand to lose a lot more than a few megaBONK tokens . Twitter seems to be well aware of the risks. They warn against scams at least 3 times in their one-page note about the launch. Twitter will never request funds from your crypto wallet. Twitter will never request your private key or seed phrase. It’s as if they can already see the writing on the walls. The Centralization has Begun Beyond privacy, another key feature of blockchain technology is decentralization. No one platform owns or controls the blockchain. , but it’s worth highlighting again in the context of Twitter’s announcement. Plenty has been said on the matter Only 6 wallets can be linked to a profile today (Argent, Coinbase Wallet, Ledger LiveMetaMask, Rainbow and Trust Wallet). These wallets all access the Ethereum Blockchain through the OpenSea API. That’s one company, centralizing access. Some might agree to give up privacy for decentralisation, but giving it up to yet again be at the mercy of a few entities is a lose-lose situation. Beyond this, Twitter ensures that only people who pay them monthly get to enjoy their NFTs pfps in a hexagon. This pay-to-play model goes against the core values NFT enthusiasts claim to espouse. Yet… I’m not hearing much outcry. . They have given up digital privacy, gotten nothing in return, and are even paying for that privilege Let the bullying begin...Again NFT fans (usually) are… not the most likable people (judging, again, from the DMs I receive). This, in part, has to do with the technology’s core concept. . An NFT is little more than a bit of cultural value on top of hundreds of acres of forest burnt to make electricity to create the fancy puzzles enabling the technology This makes these people targets for bullying, which should not be wished on anyone. Case and point, have been created to automatically mute or block anyone with an NFT profile picture : a handful of tools — a web browser plugin that lets you mute NFT avatars. Better TweetDeck — a filter line to hide NFT avatars in uBlock Origin. Hide in uBlock Origin — some user JavaScript to change the hexagon avatar frame to a poop emoji. HexaGone More importantly, it’s possible to send anything to a digital wallet. They’re publicly accessible. So, if a Twitter user bothers me, I can pay 40$ in gas fees to send them horrifying images, which will stay in their wallet unless they pay to have them removed. Women, in particular, are sure to love that feature… As discussed, this move from Twitter actively negates the few positives of Blockchain technology. Meanwhile, it does nothing to solve existing issues around NFTs. I can still right-click on an image, save it, mint it, and have it as a hexagon on my profile. The solution would be to only allow verified collections to be approved but… ? what about decentralisation . They are targeting proud, gullible people to get them to pay a subscription to show off images. This feature is a great move for Twitter shareholders and terrible news for everyone else Because they want to feel special. Because the world sucks and we’re too often reduced to a list of assets on hand. ? Is this the hill Jack Dorsey died on Good luck out there.

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2020 - Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year in AUTOMATION

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Entrepreneurship

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Future

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Twitter's  Hexagon NFT pfp: All Show With Unanswered Questions on Scams, Bullying, & Centralization

Crypto ETFs offer some advantages, but they aren't the right option for every investor. 2021 has been an extraordinary year for cryptocurrency investing. The total crypto market cap rose from around $775 billion on Jan 1 to $2.1 trillion at the time of writing. Over . 14% of American adults now own crypto When the SEC approved the first U.S. Bitcoin futures ETF in October, it was heralded as a big step forward for the industry as it made Bitcoin (BTC) more accessible to a wider group of investors. However, as you'll see when we unpack some of the pros and cons, many investors would be better off buying cryptocurrency directly. What is a crypto ETF? An ETF -- or exchange-traded fund -- is essentially a basket of assets such as stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, or bonds. ETFs are traded on exchanges, just like normal stocks. It's a popular way to build a diversified investment portfolio. Crypto ETFs hold cryptocurrencies. However, so far, the SEC has only given its blessing to Bitcoin futures ETFs. Futures are a type of derivative -- you're essentially buying a contract to buy or sell Bitcoin at a fixed price in the future. Three Bitcoin futures ETFs have been approved: The Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF Pros of investing in a crypto ETF You can invest in crypto from an ordinary brokerage account: A crypto ETF gives investors exposure to Bitcoin from their ordinary brokerage account. This will appeal to anyone who's reluctant to use a crypto exchange that doesn't follow the same regulations as a normal stockbroker. That said, ETFs are not their only option -- several online brokers already offer a limited selection of cryptocurrencies. There's less risk of hacking or exchange fraud: Another reason would-be crypto investors hold back is a . And here, ETFs offer a layer of protection. For a start, a Bitcoin futures ETF does not own the underlying asset, so there's less risk of theft. Plus, the platforms that trade ETFs are regulated and their activities are monitored. In many cases, you'd also be protected through if the brokerage went bankrupt. fear of hacks or fraud SIPC coverage There are tax advantages: Crypto taxes can be cumbersome and there's still some uncertainty over new rules that are due to come into effect in 2023. While there are tax implications for the new Bitcoin ETFs, reporting should be much more straightforward. A key tax benefit is that it's easy to hold a crypto ETF in tax-advantaged accounts such as a Roth IRA or 401(k). Whether you'd want to put a high-risk asset like crypto into your retirement fund is another question, but if you do, an ETF may be a good way to do it. Cons of investing in a crypto ETF You don't actually own the crypto: Bitcoin futures ETFs don't directly own any Bitcoin. And the ETF won't necessarily track the price of Bitcoin. Be aware that derivatives are complex financial instruments. If someone is nervous to buy cryptocurrency because they don't completely understand the mechanics, chances are, they also don't completely understand how derivatives work either. You'll pay ETF fees: Whether you're buying ETFs or cryptocurrencies, there are always fees involved at some point. Most cryptocurrency exchanges charge fees to deposit, withdraw, or trade -- or a combination of all three. However, very few reputable crypto platforms will charge you an annual fee for holding or managing your funds. In contrast, ETFs charge something called an expense ratio to cover the costs of administering and managing the fund. For example, if an ETF charges an expense ratio of 0.95% -- so for every $1,000 you invest, you'll pay $9.50 each year in fees. You can't spend or earn passive income on your crypto: Many people view cryptocurrency as an investment vehicle. But it is also a currency -- and crypto platforms offer various ways for users to spend their crypto assets, such as crypto credit or debit cards, or payment apps. Plus, there are several ways for buy-and-hold investors to earn passive income that aren't open to Bitcoin ETF investors. One is to stake cryptocurrencies and contribute to the overall security of the network. Rewards vary from token to token, but it is not uncommon to find APYs of 5% to 20%. Bottom line There are all kinds of ways to invest in cryptocurrencies, whether you buy directly from a cryptocurrency exchange, buy a Bitcoin ETF, or buy into funds or stocks with crypto exposure. Whichever option you chose, be prepared for volatility. Cryptocurrency investment is risky, however, you invest in it. Don't invest the money you need to meet other financial goals -- whether it's saving for your retirement or paying down debt.

Investing in Crypto ETFs: A Look At The Pros and Cons 

Remote work, digital nomads, decentralized teams, zoom calls, cross-border business, it's all now part of our work life. How come international payments are still taking days when they should take seconds? ** ** Banks: "We’ve been unable to process an incoming payment" One of our clients, I will omit their name for the sake of confidentiality and call them Finty, was receiving a payment from their client. Finty runs a small agency and is fully dependent on such incoming payments to pay their employees. The incoming payment is expected today and employees' payrolls should be cleared in 2 days. Instead of receiving an email saying "The transfer was successfully deposited to your account", the company gets an email saying "Please provide additional details on your transfer". Finty, of course, timely submits all the requested information. The payroll day comes and there's still no deposit. The company has to use "emergency" funds to do all the payouts. The next day the email comes, saying "your transfer was rejected" with a clarifying message saying "due to our and our payment partners’ policies, we’ve been unable to process an incoming payment". "due to our and our payment partners’ policies, we’ve been unable to process an incoming payment" Funds were indeed returned to Finty's client however transaction fees and currency conversion fees were never reimbursed. Finty suggested using cryptocurrency payments with USDT instead and had to discount all the fees that the client was never reimbursed. The crypto transfer took approximately 2 minutes. Finty received their funds and was able to do the rest of the payouts. Such delay in payments caused by Finty's bank wouldn't probably cause much trouble to a large company or corporation with a lot of liquidity on their accounts. However, it did cause Finty lots of inconvenience, extra commission, and additional inconvenience to their client that can also affect this business relationship. Some bankers will say "well, we're trying to fight against money laundering and other " but let's be honest. They are not likely to do a fully transparent bank transfer. illegal activities All those individuals and organizations that are trying to do illegal activities already know their way around the system. ** ** Money Laundering with EUR 300 (?) My friend told me another story, I found it a particularly great example of how ridiculous banks can be. Her friend was studying in one of the universities in France and had a bank account with one of the major banks. Like many students, he was running out of money and decided to ask his brother who was living in NYC to transfer him EUR 300. Imagine how happy he would have been to receive this money if only his french bank didn't reject the payment referring to "money laundering alert". How often criminals launder money with EUR 300 will probably remain unclear. Do You Want an Account? Here's 988 Papers & Forms to Fill In More than 30% of the world’s population is unbanked with a big number of countries hitting the mark of 70%. lack of trust in formal financial institutions and/or government, lack of papers to simply apply (e.g. people in certain areas in Myanmar don't have national ID), opening and maintaining costs, and some people live in remote areas where they can't even get to a bank. People can't get an account for so many reasons: It's also quite challenging for expats and remote workers to open international accounts. Switzerland and many European countries don't want to deal with the US residents and individuals/companies related to the USA as the country has stricter KYC and AML policies. Hong Kong has a list of restricted countries that includes Russia, for example, making it extremely difficult for residents of such countries to open an account (even if they have a business in Hong Kong). US banks would ask for additional papers, SSN (Social Security Number), and other things that expats might not have to open an account for. The Banking System Isn't Designed to Onboard the Unbanked Back in the days, when I was doing data science on a financial inclusion project at the UN, we were discussing how to bring more people to the financial sector. Having worked with lots of data on developing economies in Asia, I quickly realized that With ATMs being miles away, unaffordable commissions, unreasonable requirements, it's hard to imagine how banks are supposed to be attractive for an average person in developing economies. the banking system is not designed to bring the unbanked into the financial sector. Countries in Latin America, which I personally like to bring up as an example, have many stories on how banks were freezing accounts, taking away savings, and disabling US dollar accounts. Such centralized systems showed people that Thus we see such a low banking ratio in Latin America and such a growing cryptocurrency adoption. their money is owned by the bank, corporation, or a public institution, and can be taken away from them at any moment. Cryptocurrencies: a Way to Financial Freedom . Anyone regardless of their gender, race, age, citizenship, or any other characteristic can get a crypto wallet in minutes and start accepting/transferring money. Businesses can do cross-border payments without any unnecessary bureaucracy involved and pay their international employees quickly and with lower transaction fees. Cryptocurrencies are designed to give people financial freedom and independence solving inequality issues ** ** Banks are serving rich populations and corporations while cryptocurrency gives access to financing to anyone ** ** Banks are serving rich populations and corporations while cryptocurrency gives access to financing to anyone. I have talked about isusu payments in Nigeria, OTC markets in Latin America, group saving in Asia, and other cash-based . Whereas DeFi products are imitating such solutions allowing people to gain financial assistance and power. financing tools that were designed without banks by people within the Cash Economy It's a new era where “unbanked” will no longer mean financially excluded.

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The Internet Computer is a new computing platform that uniquely enables developers to reap the benefits blockchain technology offers without sacrificing performance.  This article is the first in a series of six articles outlining why developers should build applications on the Internet Computer.  This article will first briefly explain what the Internet Computer is, then it will summarize five distinct reasons why developers should build on the Internet Computer.  The remaining articles will each expand on one of the five reasons. What is the Internet Computer? The Internet Computer is a blockchain that weaves together the compute capacity of independent data centers around the world to create a decentralized “world computer” that is capable of hosting virtually any software imaginable.  The idea behind the Internet Computer is that software run on a blockchain has significant advantages over traditional software because it is highly secure and allows developers to make commitments in their code that they cannot later revoke. Although blockchains are typically viewed as far too expensive and slow to run anything but the most basic software, the Internet Computer uses novel cryptography and makes certain tradeoffs that allow it to operate at both a speed and cost that is somewhat comparable to cloud providers. The software runs on the Internet Computer in the form of “canisters,” which are bundles of software code and persistent pages of memory the code runs inside.  The code is in the form of WebAssembly bytecode, which can be compiled down from high-level programming languages such as Rust or Motoko (a new programing language created by the DFINITY Foundation). Canisters can be thought of as an advanced form of “smart contracts”—applications that run on blockchains like Ethereum. Canisters are similar to smart contracts because their execution is governed by a blockchain protocol.  This has two primary implications.  First, canisters and smart contracts are both tamperproof.  Traditional technology systems are insecure by default, so developers have to protect their systems using firewalls, VPNs, and other anti-intrusion systems. Even then, the systems are not totally secure: they are vulnerable in too many ways to fix completely.  Canisters and smart contracts, however, do not need any of the defenses traditionally used because they are secure by default: their state can be modified only through messages included in the blockchain. Second, unlike traditional software, canisters and smart contracts run autonomously.  In other words, the data and logic comprising an application run by themselves, without the need of a company to store and run them.  This uniquely enables developers to make strong commitments about their code: including that it will continue to exist even if the company that created it doesn’t. The reason canisters can be thought of as an form of smart contracts is because canisters have capabilities that go far beyond that of smart contracts.  For example, unlike smart contracts, after a canister has been deployed it can be edited by whoever controls it—giving developers a way to fix bugs in their code or add new features to their application.  Moreover, control of a canister can be “tokenized” and shared among any number of people.  This enables developers to create applications that are controlled by an arbitrarily large group of people. advanced Another example is that canisters have unique features that enable developers to scale their applications as needed.  Canisters, unlike smart contracts, have the ability to communicate with other canisters through asynchronous messages and to create new canisters. Those features—which aren’t present in any other mainstream blockchain that exists today—allow both the Internet Computer and the applications built on top of it to scale without bound.  Indeed, Facebook (for example) could theoretically run entirely on the Internet Computer, using millions of canisters running in parallel.  No other blockchain can say the same. Why Build on the Internet Computer? The Internet Computer is capable of running virtually any application imaginable: from something as simple as a bare-bones website to something as complex as an entire enterprise system.  But just because you can run an application on a specific computing platform does not necessarily mean that you should.  There must be benefits to doing so.  There are five main reasons to build your application on the Internet Computer. , the Internet Computer allows platform developers to plausibly promise that they will not revoke API access from applications that build on top of their platform.  Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all benefitted early on from third-party developers who built applications on top of their platforms. First Yet when those platforms reached maturity, they all changed the rules surrounding their APIs—throttling the very applications that helped them grow years before.  The precedent set by Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn means that application developers today think twice before building on top of the new generation of platforms because they know that they are actually building on sand if they do. The Internet Computer solves this problem because it has a feature that allows (but does not require) developers to designate their canisters’ APIs as “permanent:” meaning that can later revoke or even degrade access to them. nobody , the Internet Computer allows developers to use tokens to bootstrap network effects.  Internet platforms can be thought of as networks: the more users a platform has, the more valuable it is to each user.  That means, however, that new platforms with few users provide little utility. Second It is extremely difficult (and expensive) today for developers of new platforms to attract enough users to bootstrap network effects.  The Internet Computer offers a solution to this problem by allowing developers to reward early users with tokens.  Tokens can be anything: from fractional control over the platform to a currency used on the platform, to a piece of art unrelated to the platform (NFTs).  Awarding early adopters with tokens incentivizes people to join a platform before it offers utility by giving them a financial reward for doing so. , the Internet Computer enables developers to build applications that weren’t previously possible to build.  Applications built on blockchains are capable of doing things that traditional software can’t.  For example, blockchain applications can hold assets in the code itself—instead of just pointers to offline accounts. Third Other blockchains, however, are encumbered by constraints that make it prohibitively expensive to store data on-chain or use the blockchain to perform anything but the most basic mathematical computation.  By allowing developers—for the first time—to build virtually anything on a blockchain, the Internet Computer uniquely enables developers to build applications that couldn’t have been built before. , the Internet Computer greatly simplifies the tech stack for developers.  Because the Internet Computer is secure by default, developers who build on top of it need not use a firewall (or any other security solutions to which developers have become accustomed). Fourth Moreover, the Internet Computer acts as the complete tech stack: obviating the need for web servers, content delivery networks, external databases to hold state, or any other complexities that developers have had to use traditionally. , a significant amount of funding is available to developers who build applications on the Internet Computer, regardless of where they live.  The DFINITY Foundation—the organization that developed the Internet Computer—has pledged $220 million of funding in the form of grants to developers who build on the Internet Computer. Finally Separately, the DFINITY Foundation has also provided support for the “Beacon Fund”: a fund managed by Polychain Capital with additional support provided by Andreessen Horowitz.  And it has earmarked $10 million for “Achievement Unblocked”: a competition specifically for developers who build games on the Internet Computer. Outside of the funding available from the DFINITY Foundation, developers who build on the Internet Computer are able to obtain funding by creating and selling tokens that are associated with their application in some way. : . Disclosure The author of this article owns ICP, which is the native token for the Internet Computer

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive January 29th, 2022

Does Hiring for Culture Affect Diversity?

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An Interview with Seyi Akiwowo, Founder of Glitch - an Organization that Seeks to end Online Abuse

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WebAssembly and Fine-Grained Sandboxing in Firefox 95

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HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive January 29th, 2022

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@mozillaMozilla Contributors

@rickchenRick Chen

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@customerdiscoveryCustomerDiscovery.co

@raffaeleflorioRaffaele Florio

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@cryptonomiconCryptonomicon

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Mozilla Contributors

@mozilla
Mozilla Contributors

@customerdiscovery
CustomerDiscovery.co

@raffaeleflorio
Raffaele Florio

@valeryyy
Valery

@serkova
Serkova

@alij
Key Medium

@herewithravi
Ravi Prajapati

@blocksadvisors
BlocksAdvisors

@corite
Corite

@adrien-book
Adrien Book

@theascent
The Ascent

@obukhova
Elena Obukhova

@cryptonomicon
Cryptonomicon