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MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Arctech, the globally renowned solar tracking solution provider, demonstrated its unwavering dedication to the Australian renewable energy landscape at the prestigious All Energy Australia 2023 event, held at the Melbourne Convention Center on October 25th and 26th.

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Arcanys

arcanys

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can hardly be called emerging in 2019. For the last decade, domains of all sorts have been leveraging them, and speaks to the fact. Today, ML and AI create value for organizations across Consumer Services, Automotive, Agriculture, Retail, Healthcare, and other major industries. the visualization by McKinsey Global Institute As businesses realize these technologies are a boon, the demand for machine learning consulting companies is skyrocketing, which predictably influences the supply. In such a way, today’s IT market is literally larded with ML vendors tackling projects of any scope and budget. To help you make your way through this enormous and diverse offering, we assembled a list of today’s most trustworthy vendors of machine learning consulting and development services. Our IT market analysts assessed an extensive range of companies according to the following objective criteria: Proven machine learning expertise Prior projects: size and complexity Diversity of business domains served Client references Speed and quality of customer service As a result, we got a list of 30 companies worthy of attention. For readers’ convenience, we present the vendors in descending order. 1. Itransition A recognized custom software development company, Itransition has delivered 1,500 projects over the span of its 20-year market presence. With more than 2,000 IT experts on board, the company has served 810 clients from 30 countries. Among the ML services the company provides there are data mining, natural language processing, computer vision, robotic process automation, and machine learning consulting. To deliver its ML solutions, Itransition uses such technologies as Python, R, Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. Location: Denver, CO Established: 1998 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Expedia, Xerox, Toyota, eBay, PayPal, Shell, adidas Other, non-ML services: custom software development, CRM consulting, ecommerce development Website: https://www.itransition.com/ 2. Tooploox EU-based Tooploox has around 100 skilled experts on board. For seven years of the company’s operation, they delivered 150+ successful projects. Tooploox is a machine learning consulting company using this technology to deliver computer and 3D vision, sensor fusion, deep learning, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and other ML-related services. The company has expertise with other emerging technologies, such as blockchain. Location: Wrocław, Poland Established: 2012 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: CoinDesk, DTS, ING, Spire Health, Group Nine Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, product design Website: https://www.tooploox.com/ 3. Skim Technologies London-based Skim Technologies is an internationally recognized machine learning consulting company delivering a wide range of related services. The company’s data scientists offer chatbot development, custom ML model creation, and NLP engineering. Skim Technologies also delivers AI workshops as well as ML and AI consulting services. Location: London, United Kingdom Established: 2014 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Jones Lang-Lasalle, Breast Cancer Care, Quant Insight Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting, custom software development Website: https://www.skimtechnologies.com/ 4. ThirdEye Data US-based ThirdEye Data has been delivering its ML development services for nine years. The company specializes in chatbot development, custom ML algorithms, and machine learning consulting. Among the data science technologies the company works with, there are Spark, TensorFlow, Caffe, and others. Location: Santa Clara, CA Established: 2010 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Microsoft, Amazon, Nokia, Ford Direct, Getty Images, Amgen Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting, cloud consulting Website: https://thirdeyedata.io/ 5. Chatbots.Studio As its name implies, Chatbots.Studio is a company focusing on AI-powered chatbot development. It builds multichannel conversational platforms, automates business processes, and designs conversations. The company’s technology stack includes React, Redux, Angular 6, Node.js, Express.js, Botkit, and others. Location: Lviv, Ukraine Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Visa, Unibot, Aldi, Digital Flex Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://chatbots.studio/ 6. Azati Software Since 2001, Azati's experts have cooperated with 330 clients globally. Among the ML competencies of the company there are supervised and unsupervised learning, distributed computing, natural language processing, digital signal processing, and machine learning consulting. Azati’s tech toolkit includes CuDNN, Scikit Learn for Python, and Tensor Flow. The company mainly targets clients in the Insurance domain. Location: Livingston, NJ Established: 2001 Project budgets start at: $1,000 Key clients: MedPro Group, SequenceBase, Casio, Thomson Reuters Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://azati.ai/ 7. Hidden Brains Since its foundation in 2003, Hidden Brains has cooperated with clients from 107 countries. The company delivers AI, ML, deep learning, and data science services. It also specializes in developing natural language processing software. Hidden Brains also delivers chatbots, including those for Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack. Location: Ahmedabad, India Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: McAfee, Raymond, Maxtor, SanDisk Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.hiddenbrains.com/ 8. InData Labs Established in 2014, InData Labs houses 50+ data scientists, engineers, and analysts. The company develops ML algorithms and natural language processing solutions. Besides, InData Labs specializes in computer vision and predictive modeling. The company's stack includes Python, SpaCy, TensorFlow, Keras, and more proven languages and frameworks. Location: Minsk, Belarus Established: 2014 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Captiv8, Flo Health, Wargaming Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting Website: https://indatalabs.com/ 9. Arcanys Since 2010, Philippines-based Arcanys has been delivering its ML and AI services to clients from all over the world. The company specializes in sentiment analysis, recommender systems, and image recognition. As one of its cooperation models, the company provides dedicated teams of highly experienced data scientists and developers. Location: Cebu City, Philippines Established: 2010 Project budgets start at: $100,000 Key clients: General Electric Korea, Enfo, Payment Logic, L’Oreal, Spinetix Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.arcanys.com/ 10. MobiDev Since 2009, MobiDev’s IT experts have delivered 350+ software solutions. While headquartered in the US, the company provides its services globally. MobiDev uses the following machine learning technologies: Python, R, C++, Go, TensorFlow, ONNX, and Keras. MobiDev’s mobile ML toolkit includes Core ML, TensorFlow Lite, and Cafe2Go. On top of that, the company provides machine learning consulting. Location: Atlanta, GA Established: 2009 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Verizon Media, Comcash, Quality Bridge, SmartTab, SMS Group Other, non-ML services: IoT development, web development Website: https://mobidev.biz 11. Spire Digital For over 20 years that Spire Digital has been providing IT services, it has cooperated with 600+ global customers. Among the ML and AI development services the company offers, there are natural language processing, supervised and unsupervised learning, and sentiment analysis. Also, Spire Digital creates chatbots for Facebook Messenger, Slack, Skype, and Cisco WebEx. Location: Denver, CO Established: 1998 Project budgets start at: Undisclosed Key clients: TomTom, Lockheed Martin, US Navy, USDA, Western Union Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.spiredigital.com/ 12. Icreon New York-based Icreon is a digital innovation agency mostly targeting medium-sized businesses. The company uses AI and ML technologies to create innovative applications, platforms, and ecosystems. The company’s technological expertise in ML includes Amazon Web Services, Azure, Caffe2, Google Cloud, Keras, and more. Location: New York, NY Established: 2000 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: National Geographic Channel, FOX Movies, Harry Winston, Nokia Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://www.icreon.us/ 13. Miquido For eight years, Miquido's team has successfully completed more than 100 projects, including in machine learning. The company offers solutions for AI-based personalization, predictive and behavioral analytics, and churn prediction. Miquido also develops chatbots. Recognized by Deloitte as one the fastest growing companies in Europe, Miquido also offers UI/UX design creation and mobile apps development. Location: Kraków, Poland Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Skyscanner, Abbey Road Studios, HelloFresh Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.miquido.com/ 14. Neoteriс Founded in 2005, Europe-based Neoteric offers a wide range of ML solutions, including predictive analytics, recommendation engines, NLP, robotic process automation, and machine learning consulting. The company also specializes in such AI platforms as SaaS Manager, SoapBox, AppOrchid, and RapidSOS. Location: Gdańsk, Poland Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: LunchBadger, Arvata, IT Trans Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://neoteric.eu/ 15. Unicsoft Established in 2005, Unicsoft employs more than 100 specialists in emerging technologies and software development. Within its ML tech stack, the company offers development of predictive and behavioral analytics solutions, neural networks, and recommendation engines, among other ML applications. The company also delivers consulting services, and maintenance of existing ML platforms. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key Clients: Hoodifood, Executive Eye, GOFORIT, Intellica Group Other, non-ML services: blockchain Website: https://unicsoft.com/ 16. Abto Software With 12 years of its market presence, Abto Software’s has worked with 200+ global customers. Specializing in AI and ML, the company offers custom enterprise solutions for advanced and predictive analytics, virtual assistants, recommendation systems, and intelligent business process automation. Abto Software works with the following tools and frameworks, among others: TensorFlow, Keras, Caffe, OpenCV, and AWS. Location: New York, NY Established: 2007 Project budgets start at: Undisclosed Key clients: Just Answer, Skybow, Medikit, Up Great Other, non-ML services: web development, enterprise app modernization Website: https://www.abtosoftware.com/ 17. Accubits Technologies, Inc. US-located Accubits started in 2012 and has already cooperated with 140+ clients. The company’s ML capabilities include development of conversational and classification tools, video, image and text analytics solutions, as well as predictive analytics software. Besides, Accubits offers machine learning consulting. The company’s experts work with NumPy, PHP, Python, SpaCy, Spark, and several other platforms. Location: Vienna, VA Established: 2012 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key сlients: Dubai Land Department, Smart Dubai, Eduvalue, Landmark Other, non-ML services: blockchain, custom software development Website: https://accubits.com/ 18. BotsCrew Established in 2016, BotsCrew is a global leader in chatbot development, delivering to mid-sized companies and startups. BotsCrew has its own enterprise chatbot platform that is ready to be customized and optimized according to customers' needs. Besides the proprietary platform, the company offers development of voice assistants and IoT bots. Location: London, United Kingdom Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Ailira, IVA, ReVA, Dr. Dean Other, non-ML services: None Website: https://botscrew.com/ 19. STX Next Founded in 2005, STX Next is a custom software development company that specializes in streamlining IT solutions with AI and ML technologies. The company’s main technological advantage is in its exceptionally skilled Python developers. For 14 years on the market, STX Next has delivered over 250 successful projects. Location: Poznań, Poland Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Seerene, Verve, Hogarth WW, Pixomondo, Unity Technologies Other, non-ML services: web development, custom software development Website: https://stxnext.com/ 20. Dogtown Media California-based Dogtown Media specializes in delivering mobile applications, enhanced with ML and AI technologies. Besides ML-powered mobile apps, the company provides machine learning consulting. For the last eight years, Dogtown Media has brought to life at least 200 applications. Location: Venice Beach, CA Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Google, Lexus, United Nations, Citibank, Red Bull, YouTube Other, non-ML services: mobile app development, IoT development Website: https://www.dogtownmedia.com/ 21. Sigmoidal Sigmoidal is a New-York-based consultancy specializing in machine learning and data science, mostly for companies in Finance, Trading, and Pharma. The company integrates these technologies into web and mobile applications and APIs. It also offers solutions for NLP, computer vision, and predictive analytics. Location: New York, NY Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $1,000 Key clients: Undisclosed Other, non-ML services: business intelligence consulting Website: https://sigmoidal.io/ 22. Cyber Infrastructure Established in 2003, Cyber Infrastructure is a custom software development company with 100+ clients worldwide. Its ML expertise includes development of virtual assistants and chatbots for a variety of domains. Cyber Infrastructure also provides machine learning consulting and employs Python, Java, C++, Lisp, and R as its primary ML and AI stack. Location: San Francisco, CA Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Mannatech, Bell Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://www.cisin.com/ 23. Azilen Technologies US-headquartered Azilen Technologies has 250+ IT experts on board distributed across four offices worldwide. They employ ML technologies to deliver customer service, survey, and informational bots. On top of that, the company delivers facial recognition and predictive analytics solutions. Location: West Bloomfield, MI Established: 2009 Project budgets start at: $25,000 Key clients: Samsung, Pizza Hut, Sodexo, ICICI Bank Other, non-ML services: custom software development Website: https://www.azilen.com/ 24. Stermedia Stermedia has been delivering its ML and data science services since 2007. The company’s dedicated teams of data scientists and software architects design ML algorithms and models for extracting knowledge from big data sets. The company also provides NLP solutions and uses such technologies as TensorFlow and Keras, to name just a few. Location: Wroclaw, Poland Established: 2007 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key Clients: Family Fabric, WorkService, ISOK Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://stermedia.ai/ 25. Belatrix Having five offices with 600+ professionals all around the world, Belatrix is one of the most fast-evolving machine learning consulting companies on the market today. Its machine learning experts have a proven track record of building various solutions, from predictive modeling to communication automation. Location: Mendoza, Argentina Established: 2003 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Disney, Adobe, AOL, FIS, Chatman Financial Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://www.belatrixsf.com/ 26. DataRoot Labs DataRoot Labs is an agency focusing on ML and AI development. It delivers full-cycle ML software development, including project evaluation, machine learning consulting, strategy development, architecture, integration, and support. Besides, DataRoot Labs helps enterprises with digital transformation with AI at the core. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 2016 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: Servers.com, Everad, ABM Cloud, Cargofy Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development Website: https://datarootlabs.com/ 27. Softengi Since 1995, Softengi has completed 900+ projects for clients across six continents. The company’s ML services include chatbot engineering and NLP algorithms. For these purposes, Softengi uses R, Hadoop, and Python, among other tools. Location: Kiev, Ukraine Established: 1995 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: Boeing, Zeppelin, Enviance, OneRoof Energy Other, non-ML services: custom software development, AR/VR development, IoT development Website: http://softengi.com/ 28. Waverley With 27 years of software development experience, Waverley is a company housing 370K talented engineers. Among other services, they offer ML-centric solutions such as data clustering and unsupervised algorithms. On top of that, the company offers NLP and computer vision solutions and chatbots. To deliver ML products, Waverley’s engineers use Java, Python, Scala, and R. Location: Palo Alto, CA Established: 1992 Project budgets start at: $50,000 Key clients: Mozilla, Qualcomm, Swisscom, American Express Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development, IoT development Website: https://waverleysoftware.com/ 29. Imaginovation Founded in 2011, Imaginovation is a software development agency that has successfully completed 300+ IT projects of various complexity. As for ML and AI, the company develops recommendation and effectiveness assessment engines as well as solutions for speech and text processing automation. Location: Cary, NC Established: 2011 Project budgets start at: $10,000 Key clients: MetLife, Nestle, UNC Pembroke, Contractor Score Other, non-ML services: custom software development, mobile app development, web development Website: https://www.imaginovation.net/ 30. E2logy Established in 2005, E2logy has delivered 300+ projects to businesses of various sizes. Being a leading Amazon Web Services and Azure AI vendor, the company develops ML algorithms and chatbots. They also offer machine learning consulting. In addition to their ML services, E2Logy brings custom IoT solutions to its global customers. Location: Ahmedabad, India Established: 2005 Project budgets start at: $5,000 Key clients: McMillan Publishers, Polaris Industries, Vodafone Other, non-ML services: custom software development, web development Website: https://e2logy.com/ This was a full list of the top 30 machine learning consulting companies in 2019. If you cooperated with any of the presented vendors, please do get in touch and share your story.

Top 30 Machine Learning Consulting Companies

Top Custom Software Development Companies

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, November 21st, 2024/Chainwire/--Arcana Network is thrilled to announce the launch of the Arcana Wallet Beta, now available on the Chrome Store, setting a new standard in blockchain accessibility and user experience through its pioneering Chain Abstraction Protocol. Built as the first Externally Owned Account (EOA) wallet to leverage Chain Abstraction, Arcana Wallet enables a frictionless, multi-chain experience where users can spend assets across Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism seamlessly, with 20+ new chains coming soon. The Chrome Extension wallet is available at www.arcana.network/wallet Unified Balance: Spend Your Assets Held Across Chains, in 1-click, Without Bridging Arcana Wallet offers a range of features designed to eliminate fragmentation and provide users with streamlined access to decentralized finance. Through Arcana’s Chain Abstraction protocol, users can now manage their aggregated USDC, USDT, and ETH balances across multiple networks, all in a single wallet interface, and spend these funds instantly on any supported chain without the need for bridging. “At Arcana, our goal is to reimagine blockchain usability by abstracting the complexities that come with multi-chain interactions. Arcana Wallet delivers an intuitive and effortless experience that allows users to engage with dApps across chains, without technical barriers” said Mayur Relekar, Founder & CEO of Arcana Network. Key Features of Arcana Wallet Unified Balances: Arcana Wallet aggregates assets into a single balance across supported chains, allowing seamless spending without bridging. For example, users holding USDT on Arbitrum and Optimism see a combined balance ready to spend on Polygon or Base.
EOA Wallet-Based Orchestration: Users can bring their existing EOA address or create a new one, ensuring self-custody. Funds stay in the user’s wallet, without locking up or requiring deposits to another address, maintaining asset security and cross-app accessibility.
Universal Address Accessibility: Unlike wallets needing app-specific setups, Arcana Wallet retains assets within one wallet, making them accessible across all apps—even those without native chain abstraction support.
Efficient Gas Payments: Gas fees can be auto-funded in stablecoins (USDT or USDC), eliminating the need to hold native tokens on each chain. Arcana’s optimised protocol keeps gas fees up to 10X lower than traditional solutions that use smart contract accounts.
Near-Instant Cross-Chain Transactions: Arcana Wallet’s architecture allows transactions to execute within seconds, making it one of the fastest cross-chain transaction tools available. Users can spend assets on multiple chains with one-click transactions, benefiting from improved liquidity and usability. Expanding dApp and Chain Compatibility At its Beta launch, Arcana Wallet supports popular dApps, including Uniswap, Aave, Polymarket, Hyperliquid, and Jumper, with compatibility for additional applications and chains on the horizon. From currently supporting Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum, the protocol aims to scale support to +20 EVM and non-EVM L1s, L2s, and appchains. Allowing users to manage funds from any of the integrated networks, it will mark a significant step toward a unified blockchain ecosystem. Arcana’s Chain Abstraction SDK To cater the developer community, Arcana Network is also launching the Chain Abstraction SDK, enabling developers to implement Arcana’s Chain Abstraction features in their own dApps. The SDK is intended to provide a versatile toolkit for developers to build chainless user experiences and simplify blockchain interactions for end users, helping to grow Arcana’s vision of a unified Web3 UX. Joining the Arcana Community As the Arcana Wallet Beta moves through its Testnet phase, feedback from users and partners will help shape the next generation of blockchain interactions. Users can download Arcana Wallet from the Chrome Store and experience the power of Chain Abstraction: Arcana Wallet Chrome Store About Arcana Network Arcana Network is a leading Chain Abstraction Protocol, powered by an Appchain, with the mission to transform the Web3 UX. Since its inception in 2021, Arcana Network has introduced products that make web3 effortless, with more than 4 million wallets generated, 500,000 active users, and 6 million transactions to date. The upcoming Chain Abstraction Protocol built on a Cosmos Appchain and powered by $XAR, is the next evolution in simplifying Web3. $XAR is the utility token that captures protocol fees, secures the network, incentivises early adopters, and rewards resource providers. Arcana Network’s innovative technology is backed by prominent investors, including Balaji S., Polygon founders, John Lilic, Santiago Roel, and investment funds such as Woodstock, Fenbushi, Republic, Polygon Ventures, DCG, LD Capital and others. Website | Twitter | Telegram | YouTube Contact Marketing Manager Andria Efstathiou Arcana Network andria@arcana.network This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, November 21st, 2024/Chainwire/--Arcana Network is thrilled to announce the launch of the Arcana Wallet Beta, now available on the Chrome Store, setting a new standard in blockchain accessibility and user experience through its pioneering Chain Abstraction Protocol. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, November 21st, 2024/Chainwire/--Arcana Network Built as the first Externally Owned Account (EOA) wallet to leverage Chain Abstraction, Arcana Wallet enables a frictionless, multi-chain experience where users can spend assets across Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism seamlessly, with 20+ new chains coming soon. The Chrome Extension wallet is available at www.arcana.network/wallet www.arcana.network/wallet www.arcana.network/wallet Unified Balance: Spend Your Assets Held Across Chains, in 1-click, Without Bridging Arcana Wallet offers a range of features designed to eliminate fragmentation and provide users with streamlined access to decentralized finance. Through Arcana’s Chain Abstraction protocol, users can now manage their aggregated USDC, USDT, and ETH balances across multiple networks, all in a single wallet interface, and spend these funds instantly on any supported chain without the need for bridging. “At Arcana, our goal is to reimagine blockchain usability by abstracting the complexities that come with multi-chain interactions. Arcana Wallet delivers an intuitive and effortless experience that allows users to engage with dApps across chains, without technical barriers” said Mayur Relekar, Founder & CEO of Arcana Network. “At Arcana, our goal is to reimagine blockchain usability by abstracting the complexities that come with multi-chain interactions. Arcana Wallet delivers an intuitive and effortless experience that allows users to engage with dApps across chains, without technical barriers” said Mayur Relekar, Founder & CEO of Arcana Network. Key Features of Arcana Wallet Unified Balances: Arcana Wallet aggregates assets into a single balance across supported chains, allowing seamless spending without bridging. For example, users holding USDT on Arbitrum and Optimism see a combined balance ready to spend on Polygon or Base. EOA Wallet-Based Orchestration: Users can bring their existing EOA address or create a new one, ensuring self-custody. Funds stay in the user’s wallet, without locking up or requiring deposits to another address, maintaining asset security and cross-app accessibility. Universal Address Accessibility: Unlike wallets needing app-specific setups, Arcana Wallet retains assets within one wallet, making them accessible across all apps—even those without native chain abstraction support. Efficient Gas Payments: Gas fees can be auto-funded in stablecoins (USDT or USDC), eliminating the need to hold native tokens on each chain. Arcana’s optimised protocol keeps gas fees up to 10X lower than traditional solutions that use smart contract accounts. Near-Instant Cross-Chain Transactions: Arcana Wallet’s architecture allows transactions to execute within seconds, making it one of the fastest cross-chain transaction tools available. Users can spend assets on multiple chains with one-click transactions, benefiting from improved liquidity and usability. Unified Balances: Arcana Wallet aggregates assets into a single balance across supported chains, allowing seamless spending without bridging. For example, users holding USDT on Arbitrum and Optimism see a combined balance ready to spend on Polygon or Base. EOA Wallet-Based Orchestration: Users can bring their existing EOA address or create a new one, ensuring self-custody. Funds stay in the user’s wallet, without locking up or requiring deposits to another address, maintaining asset security and cross-app accessibility. Universal Address Accessibility: Unlike wallets needing app-specific setups, Arcana Wallet retains assets within one wallet, making them accessible across all apps—even those without native chain abstraction support. Efficient Gas Payments: Gas fees can be auto-funded in stablecoins (USDT or USDC), eliminating the need to hold native tokens on each chain. Arcana’s optimised protocol keeps gas fees up to 10X lower than traditional solutions that use smart contract accounts. Near-Instant Cross-Chain Transactions: Arcana Wallet’s architecture allows transactions to execute within seconds, making it one of the fastest cross-chain transaction tools available. Users can spend assets on multiple chains with one-click transactions, benefiting from improved liquidity and usability. Expanding dApp and Chain Compatibility At its Beta launch, Arcana Wallet supports popular dApps, including Uniswap, Aave, Polymarket, Hyperliquid, and Jumper, with compatibility for additional applications and chains on the horizon. From currently supporting Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum, the protocol aims to scale support to +20 EVM and non-EVM L1s, L2s, and appchains. Allowing users to manage funds from any of the integrated networks, it will mark a significant step toward a unified blockchain ecosystem. Arcana’s Chain Abstraction SDK To cater the developer community, Arcana Network is also launching the Chain Abstraction SDK, enabling developers to implement Arcana’s Chain Abstraction features in their own dApps. The SDK is intended to provide a versatile toolkit for developers to build chainless user experiences and simplify blockchain interactions for end users, helping to grow Arcana’s vision of a unified Web3 UX. Joining the Arcana Community As the Arcana Wallet Beta moves through its Testnet phase, feedback from users and partners will help shape the next generation of blockchain interactions. Users can download Arcana Wallet from the Chrome Store and experience the power of Chain Abstraction: Arcana Wallet Chrome Store Arcana Wallet Chrome Store Arcana Wallet Chrome Store About Arcana Network Arcana Network is a leading Chain Abstraction Protocol, powered by an Appchain, with the mission to transform the Web3 UX. Arcana Network Arcana Network Since its inception in 2021, Arcana Network has introduced products that make web3 effortless, with more than 4 million wallets generated, 500,000 active users, and 6 million transactions to date. The upcoming Chain Abstraction Protocol built on a Cosmos Appchain and powered by $XAR, is the next evolution in simplifying Web3. $XAR is the utility token that captures protocol fees, secures the network, incentivises early adopters, and rewards resource providers. Arcana Network’s innovative technology is backed by prominent investors, including Balaji S., Polygon founders, John Lilic, Santiago Roel, and investment funds such as Woodstock, Fenbushi, Republic, Polygon Ventures, DCG, LD Capital and others. Website | Twitter | Telegram | YouTube Website Website Twitter Twitter Telegram Telegram YouTube YouTube Contact Marketing Manager Andria Efstathiou Arcana Network andria@arcana.network This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here here here

Arcana Network Launches Chain Abstraction Wallet, Ushers In a New Era Of Multi-Chain Transactions

Arcana Network stel Chain Abstraction Wallet bekend, lei 'n nuwe era van multi-kettingtransaksies in

Arcana Network führt Chain Abstraction Wallet ein und läutet eine neue Ära von Multi-Chain-Transaktionen ein

Arcana Network lanza una billetera Chain Abstraction que marca el comienzo de una nueva era de transacciones multicadena

Arcana Network lanseeraa Chain Abstraction Walletin, joka aloittaa moniketjuisten transaktioiden uuden aikakauden

Arcana Network lancia il portafoglio Chain Abstraction, inaugurando una nuova era di transazioni multi-catena

アルカナネットワークがチェーン抽象化ウォレットをリリース、マルチチェーン取引の新時代を先導

Arcana желісі көп тізбекті транзакциялардың жаңа дәуірін бастайтын тізбекті абстракциялық әмиянды іске қосады

Arcana Network запускает кошелек Chain Abstraction, открывая новую эру многоцепочечных транзакций

Rrjeti Arcana lançon portofolin e abstraksionit zinxhir, fut në një epokë të re të transaksioneve me shumë zinxhirë

ኣርካና ኔትወርክ ሰንሰለታዊ ኣብስትራክሽን ቦርሳ ኣበጊሱ፣ ሓድሽ ዘመን ናይ ብዙሕ ሰንሰለታዊ ትራንዛክሽን ኣበጊሱ

Arcana Network zanjirli abstraksiya hamyonini ishga tushirdi va ko'p zanjirli tranzaktsiyalarning yangi davrini boshlab beradi.

Arcana Network 推出 Chain Abstraction 钱包，开启多链交易新时代

I recently spoke with Co-Founder & CEO, Mayur Relekar. During our discussion, we explored the current challenges within the Web3 space, focusing on the imperative for solutions that resolve user-centric issues and the necessity to expand Web3's accessibility beyond the crypto-native audience. Arcana Furthermore, we discussed the future of Web3, emphasizing the crucial roles of innovation and industry maturation. Hope you enjoy it! Hello, Mayur. Thanks for joining me in this conversation. Let’s start off with your origin story and how you came up with Arcana. Hey, Dan. It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me. I have worked in tech for the last 18 years. I am from Bangalore in India which is known as the Silicon Valley of the East. So, after the first few years in Indian “big” tech, I had to startup. It was almost like a rite of passage. I had two startups between 2010 and 2013. One was in the cloud telephony space, and the other was e-commerce. Both didn’t see great success, to be honest, but I learned some invaluable lessons along the way. Most importantly, I learned that I was in love with technology, particularly platforms. I’ve always found it beautiful, almost elegant, that the cost of reproduction of a digital product or service was almost zero, and platforms especially epitomized this. I continued to work in tech, and then fast forward to 2017 which is the year I discovered blockchains and Bitcoin and Ethereum. The technical aspects were all-consuming, but I was completely enamored by the philosophy behind their existence. In what almost this moment of clarity, I knew my life’s work lay here, in this direction. In 2019, after having spent a few years building and voraciously learning about this burgeoning technology, my co-founders, Aravindh and Abhishek, and I decided we ought to build something real in this space. It felt like a calling, felt like it would be a disservice to all the knowledge we’d gained and how we collectively felt about the space if we didn’t do it. So, we took the plunge. Our forte has been to ideate, visualize, and realize products fairly fast. In Q3 of 2019, we built and took to market a PoC of a decentralized storage solution to market. We then realized nobody cared about decentralized storage! But we had built all this tech, so we ended up dogfooding it to build a browser extension that allowed you to send end-to-end encrypted attachments in your email. While doing so, we realized that a lot of things we did to make this product delightful to users could be generalized. By combining the latest in applied cryptography and our know-how of building useful products, a platform to help people and teams build useful products that could attract the masses was there to be built. That is how Arcana was born. What are some of the existing problems in Web3 preventing widespread adoption? Over the last few years, we saw a lot of products getting built in the Web3 space that are Vitamins, at best. They are nice to have but don’t really solve any problems. A mildly differentiated fork of Uniswap, yet another NFT collection but this time with a frog or apps built “for the culture” are valiant attempts, but we need to get past this. We need to build Painkillers. We need to build apps that solve real user problems and many of them. Another problem I’ve noticed is many of us in Web3 build only for crypto natives. As long as it’s something novel, then great, but if we want adoption, we have to start to look at all user personas that qualify as being internet savvy. If you talk to such users, for example, gamers, most will tell you that the UX in Web3 just sucks. Downright sucks. Most non-Web3 people entering the space still don’t know how to create a wallet or, more importantly, manage their private keys properly. Not to mention transactions, which often add much more friction due to high gas costs, steep learning curves, unfamiliar processes, etc. Developers face a hard time integrating such features into their applications, mainly due to the absence of a robust and intuitive UX stack. We’re bridging this gap—it’s key to onboarding the next one billion users to Web3. For example, we built , which enabled Web3 platforms (or anyone) to send crypto via email or by using their Twitter ID. It gives a massive adoption boost, besides showcasing the potential of Arcana’s holistic stack. SendIt Since you mentioned SendIt, can you tell us more about it? What other products are you building? Very recently, in an interview with Lex Fridman, Brian Armstrong said “Action produces information. Keep doing stuff”, he further goes on to mention he borrows this line of thinking from a Paul Graham quote where he says “Startups are like sharks, if they stop swimming they die.” SendIT was more or less thought up along these lines where we simply wanted to showcase an app built on top of our SDKs that end users could interact with, and perhaps devs could learn more about the things that can be built with Arcana. Sending crypto to someone is a great way to introduce them to the crypto world. So we thought why not build something where users can do this, but the flow would not involve newbies figuring out what wallets are or having to deal with seed phrases? Can we make a PayPal for crypto where users can send crypto to an email ID? That was the genesis, and we set ourselves up with a lofty goal of getting 50k users in 2 months. We got 50k users in 6 days, 100k in 12 days. Today, we have upwards of 500k users who have performed around 1.5M transactions in 2 months! By launching SendIT, we not only ended up building a Web3 consumer app with insane traction but also learned so much about our backend, all our metrics on our other products, our socials, and our docs, all of them shot up. So I’d say what Brian Armstrong said is 100% true and something we will vehemently abide by in the future. Speaking of the future, we have some very exciting stuff brewing in the Arcana kitchen. We are soon to be launching our Gasless SDK in partnership with Biconomy, we have an NFT checkout feature coming soon, we have our app chain going live with its test net, and so much more… To wrap things up, please tell us where you see Web3 in the next five to ten years. The eternal optimist in me believes the future will all be frogs, llamas, flying unicorns, and rainbows. But the pragmatist in me feels like we are at an inflection point. On one side, we have a deep bear market amplified by geo-political unrest + grim macroeconomic outlooks, and on the other side, you have an industry that has seen many projects die and smart, talented people leave for greener pastures or jail! All the ingredients for the perfect underdog story where the handful of high integrity, hardworking teams have to answer the call to really innovate. Innovation that leads to adoption. There are clear signs that we, as an industry, are becoming more mature. Echo-chambers are being rejected, and product lead teams are coming to the fore, placing the users and their needs first and then starting to build products that address those needs. Idealism is being rejected with acceptable trade-offs being made with usability and user experiences taking center stage. These are strong foundations to build on top of and attract builders and users alike. Money will follow.

Making Web3 Resilient & User-Friendly With Mayur Relekar

Of the Empire of the Persians

Microtransactions have been a big part of the gaming industry over the last few years. They can come in all shapes and sizes, from the most common cosmetic effects, such as skins for your characters, all sorts of accessories and housing if that’s something on the game, all the way to the often controversial pay-to-win - or pay-to-fast - transactions. It is a business model that not only offers revenue to sustain free-to-play game developers, but is also used on huge titles from AAA companies, and all combinations in between. The point of this text is not to discuss whether or not microtransactions should be a thing in gaming, if they should be used only in ways that do not interfere with gaming mechanics, which companies should use them, nor the particularities in legislation and the fact that some countries have banned certain types of microtransactions. All that is intended is to provide some context and certain ideas and stay open to the possibility and thoughts brought by those reading it, after all, a paradigm change rarely, if ever, happens with a single person's point of view. Valve and Epic: Battle Pass Perspectives on DOTA 2 and Fortnite It's almost impossible to discuss business models in gaming without talking about the great behemoth casting its dark shadow over us all. And then there's Valve on top of it. Jokes aside, Gaben Newell's company did something remarkable almost two decades ago when Steam was released. The way Steam was able to bring together developers and players, creating opportunities for new games to be discovered and almost extinguishing physical media for PC games was something else. For years Valve reigned alone, and indie developers or massive companies had to follow their will to sell their games, or else. Of course, some tried to create other solutions and substitutes for Steam, but it wasn't until 15 years later, in December 2018, that a real alternative appeared when Epic Games released its Epic Store. Let's not talk numbers right now, it's a fact that Steam is still way bigger and holds a huge amount of games titles more than Epic, but for the first time, some developers have an alternative, with Epic's better rates in sales and even more than that when studios used their proprietary gaming engine, Unreal. The fact that these two companies have a and , makes them, in my opinion, perfect for observing small decision changes that impact their community. That takes me to two of the crown jewels of these companies: Valve's DOTA 2 and Epic Games' Fortnite. Store Side Game Development Side It's important to observe that the two games have hugely different demographics, mechanics, and universes. For that reason, I will not talk about Epic's borderline magic abilities to create skins in partnership with any company and/or personality. The focus will be on the differences and similarities between the companies' Battle Passes, and just a bit on their general cosmetics store. Fortnite: Seasonal Battle Pass Fortnite's Battle Pass was reworked in Chapter 2: Season 7 (June, 2021-September, 2021), and since then, it follows this formula: 100 levels, divided into 10 pages, each with 10 rewards. After the 100 levels, there are 100 more levels where players can get Bonuses Rewards, usually alternate styles for already owned skins. Check below: Seasons on Fortnite usually last around 3 months, with some lasting slightly less or more. They are wrapped around the lore of Fortnite and have quests that earn players experience points (XP). There are all kinds of quests, some explore the lore of the game, others are "daily" or "weekly" quests that are just mechanical stuff players have to do in their matches. All levels need the same amount of XP, players can buy levels in order to get their rewards faster if they so want, but it's important to note that playing Fortnite and doing the quests daily for around 30min to 1 hour and a half, during the season, will surely get you all the rewards from the Battle Pass and likely a lot, if not all, of the Bonuses as well. Trust me, I'm not even good at the game. In April 2022, sportskeeda published an showing how much would be needed to get all the rewards of the Battle Pass in Fortnite. Since each level costs around 150 V-Bucks (Fortnite Currency), in order to get all 100 levels one would need to get 14,850 V-Bucks, since after purchasing the Battle Pass, for 950 V-Bucks, you already unlock level 1. Considering the rates of the currency, one would spend close to $100 to get all the rewards. If you add the 100 levels from the Bonuses Rewards, it goes up to around $200. article DOTA 2: The International Battle Pass Dota's Battle Pass, formerly known as The International Compendium, was released for the first time in 2013 as a way to reward players and members of the community and also increase the prize pool of The International (TI), basically Dota's World Cup and also the highest paying esports event in the world. This collaborative way of increasing the prize pool for TI was a huge success, with prizes going from $1,600,000 on the first edition to a whopping $40,018,195 last year alone. One can figure then that Battle Pass in DOTA was a huge deal. It was released once a year, with all sorts of quests, special game modes, cosmetics, skins, special effects, etc. While at some point most of the rewards were already completed, if players kept leveling up their Battle Pass, they would get some unique rewards on the highest of levels, such as even a real - TI's trophy. miniature of the Aegis of Champions The release of the Compendium was that big moment when players felt that not only they were participating in the game they loved so much, but they also were rewarded because of it. The first three Compendiums were not based on levels; instead, they were focused on goals for the International Prize Pool. Only the first one didn't reach all the goals, the other two did it with ease, and the last one went 3.5 million dollars more than the highest tier Valve created. From 2016 onward, the Compendium became the Battle Pass, focusing on levels that rewarded the players with all sorts of rare/unique skins that would, for the most part, only be available then. Some could be traded or gifted later, but would never be in the game store. It was an interesting change, that felt welcomed by the community for the most part. Battle Passes had more than 2000 levels, but the biggest rewards were around level 200~300, and going beyond that were special cosmetic effects that would vanish after a time period. At some point though, around 2019, Valve decided that Arcanas - DOTA's most sought skins that completely change the hero's model, voice, and skins - would be released on the Battle Pass as well, and if one couldn't get them at that point it would never be able to. As if that was not problematic enough, the huge bummer for DOTA's community was the fact that it was virtually impossible to get the Arcana on the Battle Pass without paying for it with real money. The number of levels one could get without it, only playing the game, would never be enough. Before that, the next hero to receive an Arcana was voted by the community on the Compendium and the prized skin would come later at the game store, for everyone to purchase at any time, for the standard price of $34.99. With this 'update' on their decision-making, Arcanas would be prized around level 330 of the Battle Pass, but not spending money players could get only around 111 levels. This number is not precise though, because there was a random reward that could get players from a quarter of a level up to 10 levels in one go, so if you're lucky enough... The values to get the Arcanas on the last two Battle Passes, which were in fact Seasonal, not contributing to The International prize pool or any other improvement to the pro scene, were quite similar to Fortnite's price to get all the rewards, , depending on if the player wants to get the prize right away or get the max number of levels for free before spending their money. around $75 to $150 Do game characters dream of virtual clothing? I hope readers are still with me after this not-so-small exposure. My point from here on out, is to bring some facts and some conjectures, that I hope are good enough ideas that can make the microtransaction market a bit fairer with its real users, the gamers. A big element of both Fortnite and DOTA's Battle Pass is FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), since players are aware that the only chance they will have to get some skins is " ", they go crazy in order to obtain the skins they want. I'm not personally a big fan of this model, but I can for sure claim that it works, my wallet is a sad witness of it, and I would bet an Arcana that some readers have suffered with it as well. now It's important to note that there's a big difference, at this point in time, between Steam and Epic, and that is Steam's Community Market. For those uninitiated, the Community Market is where Steam users can sell their skins to other users for "real money". It's indeed real money, but you can only use it on the Steam Store, and more than that, every and each transaction on the Market has a fee that Valve takes. It's not possible to trade, sell, or gift Fortnite skins that you already own (it is possible to gift to a friend skins that are on the game store). But in DOTA there's a whole economy that occurs in the Community Market and even on third-party sites where people trade their skins for real money outside of Steam, a practice that is not permitted but it's highly overlooked. But maybe another strategy could work out in order for these huge companies still earn obscene amounts of money. And that is . Epic and Steam have their on blockchain gaming at this moment, Valve is seemingly against it on their platform (though Mir4 is still there), and Epic claims to welcome games on their store, but not a single one is there yet. blockchain own perspective Blockchain Gaming Play-to-Earn games, built on the blockchain, have a strong claim: to give ownership of game resources back to their players. That is a double-edged blade since many started to see them as investments instead of games, but that is something I would prefer to get in-depth in another article, what should be noted here is that just like cryptocurrencies, P2E games are going downhill in their value and players recently. Even though shows that the activity in this first quarter of the year has grown 2000% compared with last year, and investments are still happening, one can notice that few are the projects that are capable of keeping their players for more than a few months. DappRadar Report This is not to say that they will all fail, that the projects are not interesting, and that the games aren't fun. The point is that if all projects are following more or less the same model, then maybe they should start to think differently. Blockchain is not a "new" technology, but it is new in regard to its presence in day-to-day life. Like all new technologies, it takes a while to learn what are the best applications to it, most of the time the first idea is not the best idea. The Titan's Embrace But what if companies like Valve and Epic, instead of rejecting or welcoming this new technology, embrace it? What if, for instance, Valve develops its blockchain, transforming game skins in NFTs? They don't need to do this with ALL their skins, they can do this for the ones with limited marketability, special ones, as the P2E game do. Blankos The implications of such a decision, at a first glance, could be that of players feeling to have real ownership of their stuff, knowing that if at some point they need to leave their gaming community, all the investment they did would not be lost unless they went after shady marketplaces that negotiate accounts. Another point is that players will continue to be aware of skins scarcity. These big companies would still be able to use the FOMO strategy, skins will only be available during their Battle Passes period, the number will not get any higher after that time, so it's as exclusive as before, but people will be able to sell it if they want to. For Valve this would mean staying a pioneer in the game industry, being the bastion they so much like to be, and showing how to use blockchain in gaming legitimately. They would also be able to continue to get its chunk out of transactions by applying as many gas fees as they wanted to. For Epic Games this would mean opening up a new universe of possibilities for their already immense skin portfolio on Fortnite. They would not only keep producing their skins, but be able to show other developers that they really stand by their claims of supporting blockchain games, and will continue to earn from skins of past Battle Passes as they are traded on their chain. I would love to see a game like those portrayed on Korean Webtoons, where the game currency can easily become real-world money and people can decide if they want to work as an IT tech or as a blacksmith in a VR game. I know that I would craft the best items around. But maybe it's not the time to put finances and games together, maybe we should address certain social issues in the physical world first. Regardless of that, I believe that "simply" mixing successful, well-known, current games from great industries, not intending on transforming them into an investment but simply by giving players the awareness that their money is respected and they are purchasing a real asset, could be the first step into P2E right now and rebranding NFTs as something useful and good, not a scam.

Paradigm Change: Microtransactions

`[Credit: www.dota2.com]` In 2021, Dota 2’s annual tournament exhibited a prize pool of , coming at the top as the highest cumulative prize pool ever recorded in the history of eSports. Out of the $47.7 million, Team Spirit, the winner of Dota 2 Championship (The Super Bowl of Dota 2) took home $18.2 million. The rest was distributed among runner-ups and the rest of the tournament members. $47.7 million The International ranked second and third in leading eSports games by cumulative tournament prize pool of $21 million and $17 million respectively, and other popular ones such as , and managed to accumulate less than $10 million for tournament prize pools in 2021. CounterStrike: Global Offense and Battlegrounds League of Legends, Fortnite Call of Duty While the amount of cash prizes for eSport players is substantial, the Dota 2 prize pool is undoubtedly bigger, estimated by 55%, compared to the rest of the online multiplayer games. When did it get this big? where is the money coming from? and how do these players get paid? These are fair and common questions that get asked for a game that you can download and play for free, and on the other hand, something you can master and make a living (if you are really really good). International Brief History As the name suggests, is a sequel of the first version of this multiplayer online battle area (MOBA) game created by Blizzard Entertainment. Before Dota 2 was its own game, Dota was just a community-created mod for and the later expanded version . While the feature a single-player campaign mode that follows a couple of protagonists and their storyline, the mod version, Dota, features a MOBA approach where it is played in matches between two teams of five players. Defense of The Ancients (Dota 2) Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Warcraft III: Frozen Throne Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne Since Valve’s Dota 2 is an adaption of the Dota mod, it practically consists of the same objectives, and mechanics such as choices of heroes, items, maps, and gameplay. The big differences include the user interface, matchmaking, graphics, and aesthetics. Each player chooses and controls a hero based on the team’s strategic approach while also considering agility, strength, intelligence, and most importantly, their powers. A strong team consists of heroes with the ability to carry (lead), support, initiate a battle, escape, etc. The main objective of the game is to defend your ‘Ancient’ and destroy your enemies ‘Ancient’. A lot more goes into this in-between so it’s better to check out this if you’re interested. beginner’s guide to playing Dota 2 Dota 2 and its Monetization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSFPIwMEq4 In 2011, opened doors to the first in Germany, unveiling the new and improved Dota 2 and surprising worldwide audiences with its staggering prize pool. 16 professional teams were invited from all over the world to compete in the tournament. Team Na’Vi won the first-ever taking home $1 million in front of a sold-out stadium and up to half a million online viewers. The rest was history. Valve International $1.6 million International The following decade saw massive spikes in the tournament viewerships, fan base, and live-event tickets, which kept raising the prize pool. The game also kept improving its nuts and bolts over the years. Although it’s a free game, it sells extra items to enhance its aesthetics and gamers’ visual experience such as cool apparel sets called “Arcanas”, costumes, map designs, and diverse voice narrations. Lastly, Valve introduced the Compendium, now known as “International Battle Pass”, which grants access to tournament and event features and a wide variety of earnable cosmetic items. All these elements contributed to the exponential growth of the tournament prize pool over the years and hence, the competitors’ salaries. Prize money from tournaments is not the only way the eSports gamers make their living. Apart from the tournament earnings, Dota 2 professionals as well as other eSports gamers have found a steady source of income through signing with an organization, individual sponsorships, and live streaming. Just like any other sports, team organizations scout the best talent to sign, provide them with a salary, and invest in their next potential win. Once you’re a reputable talent, companies look forward to making you the face of their upcoming brand. Furthermore, live-streaming your games on Twitch and Youtube attracts millions of fanbase, followed by a hefty paycheck. Add all these up, and you have a well-rounded and salaried eSports professional. What contributes to Prize Pool? The International The picture above is an “Immortal” costume set for the hero Invoker, selling for $251.17 in Dota 2’s in-game store. Since Dota 2 is a free-to-play game, nothing you buy can change the performance or outcome of your game. Instead, it enhances your visual experience as your heroes are draped with heavy cosmetics, aesthetic looks, and cool apparel. Out of the vast options of things you can buy in the store such as costume sets, map designs, and voice narrations, only certain purchases go towards the ever-increasing prize pool of the such as the International Battle Pass. International, The 2013 tournament held in Seattle was the first time Valve introduced the International Battle Pass, which was referred to as the ‘Compendium’ at that time. This in-game digital purchase was designed for the fans to engage in the tournament and the professional teams while also allowing them to directly support the tournament. For every Compendium purchased, 25% of the proceeds would be added to the International’s prize pool. International The Compendium provided players with qualifier predictions and polls letting the community decide which players would qualify for the All-Star match. Furthermore, all Compendium owners would receive newly created ‘Immortal’ items, a category of cosmetic items with custom ability items, effects, and animations (like the Invoker set shown above). Over the years, as the Compendium evolved to become the , it featured even more sophisticated rewards than the last time, and with the engaged fan base, the prize pool kept growing exponentially. International Battle Pass Besides the International Battle Pass, the live event tournament tickets also highly contribute to the prize pool. For the 10, the ticket cost started at around for the first and second half of the group stage, $240 for the playoffs, and around $355 for the entire event. Every year, the event sells out the stadium to an average of 15,000-20,000 audience members. International $60 International From Laughing Stock to Media Craze eSports haters: "Why would you watch a game when you can just play it?" also eSports haters: * * sits down and watches a football game In 2011, when Justin.tv launched a spinoff platform called TwitchTV that broadcasted live gaming competition for the video game communities, everything changed. Twitch would become the most popular streaming platform in the world and eSports viewership numbers would explode. The League of Legends World Championship went from having 1.2 million viewers in 2011 to 32 million in 2013. Dota 2 was also part of this trend that brought Twitch to its full potential. These games spread like wildfire across the world fueling the demand for eSports competition. When the mainstream media and eSports started rubbing shoulders for a few years, ever gaining attention and news headlines, it also aroused confusion and became a laughing stock for everyone who couldn’t wrap their head around the concept of watching people play video games or eSports. While some news reporters debated whether they consider eSports a ‘sport’, TV personalities such as Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the eSports community for watching others play video games and calling it a waste of time (which he received tons of backlash and schooling for from the gaming community). What Jimmy Kimmel and other critics failed to understand was that eSports had become a legitimate part of the entertainment business and not just a subculture in the gaming community. This quickly turned around as multiple celebrities and huge organizations started advocating for eSports. Utah Jazz basketball player Gordan Hayward was seen defending the eSports industry as well as the gaming community and its success over such a short period of time. By the end of 2016, eSports welcomed a plethora of notable organizations and athletes such as the Philadelphia 76ers, Sacramento Kings, Magic Johnson, and Shaquille O’Neil as new investors in the eSports industry. Now, investing in this space has become the norm, so much so that sports teams have started partnering with eSports teams, making it a multi-sport team organization. In 2018, Dota 2’s Team LGD officially partnered with the French football giant Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), now known as . PSG.LGD What started as a bunch of video game enthusiasts gathering to play games together in a room has turned into a spectator sport and a worldwide phenomenon with sold-out stadiums where millions of fans come and watch the professionals go at it for a substantial amount of prize money. The global eSports industry is expected to reach by 2027 growing faster than ever with a rate of , which is an exciting opportunity for gaming companies, investors, and game-enthusiasts alike. $3.6 billion 21.3%

Dota 2: An eSports Sensation 

Dota 2: una sensación de eSports

Dota 2 : une sensation eSport

Dota 2: एक ईस्पोर्ट्स सेंसेशन

Dota 2: eSports センセーション

Dota 2: uma sensação de eSports

Dota 2: Cảm giác thể thao điện tử

Dota 2：电子竞技的感觉

Listen, you need to try Deathloop. Even if you typically shy away from shooters, I promise it’s worth the effort to experience this genre-breaking title, with best-in-class design, better than expected storytelling and acting performances. I’m here to help you get started. Trust me, you’ll thank me later. Developer Arcane (creators of the Dishonored series and Prey) are well known for making intricate shooters that weave stealth and superpowers into a superb problem solving playground, where you can approach any situation in a near-infinite number of ways. Here are some Deathloop gameplay tips and tricks to get you started. Deathloop Plot Deathloop follows protagonist Colt, who is in charge of security at the island of Blackreef. Blackreef is home to a zany group of Visionaries and Eternalist who have figured out how to time-loop themselves into a day of raucous debauchery and hedonism. You are hunted every day by a rival assassin Juliana, who along with the inhabitants of Blackreef, find insatiable pleasure in your death every day. You must help Colt break the time loop by killing all of the 7 Visionaries in one “loop”. It’s a ridiculous video game and it is arguably Arcane’s best work yet. Deathloop Gameplay Tips and Tricks: Starting Strategy 1. Just play. Seriously. The key to enjoying Deathloop, especially early on, is to just enjoy yourself a bit. Remember that you’re stuck in a time-loop and you will always come back. The beginning of the game is a good time to play around with different play strategies. Practice being stealthy and see how far you can get in an area without getting caught. Try using your hackamajig (a device Colt uses to hack nearby objects) to mess around with items like radios, sirens and turrets to cause distractions and mayhem, even if it backfires. Hell, try running and gunning a bit and see what you can get away with. (Select Hackamajig by D-pad, and hack objects with L1 when in range) Eventually, you will get special powers via “Slabs” which are carried by Juliana and the other Visionaries that will absolutely change the game and probably your play style. Get a sense of what you can do without these and you’ll feel more prepared to add on another layer to this already deep game. 2. Don’t worry about exploring too much. It’s easy to get lost or in over your head-- both of which can be frustrating in your first couple hours in the game. All of the areas can be meticulously combed over later, so you won’t be missing anything. You’ll probably find it more helpful to just get through the main story beats, get your first good weapons and at least one power Slab. Then you can start exploring. Best Weapons for Deathloop Nailgun If you aren’t familiar with this weapon, it can feel cumbersome and useless. Trust me, it is a game changer. You can silently take out an enemy in one shot, which is essential when playing stealthily. How to Use the Nailgun The key to using this weapon is you need a full charge (hold the trigger for a couple seconds) and you need to hit the target in the head. Be aware of your surroundings. You may have a clear shot on an enemy, but there’s still a chance to raise an alarm if any Eternalists are within sight of your target. If they see their friend go down, or stumble across their remains, you’ll be in trouble. Be patient, take enemies one at a time and consider using environmental distractions to single out your prey. This will go a long way in helping you assassinate your foes undetected. Upgrading this weapon's accuracy over distance or the recoil with trinkets will make this weapon even more deadly over a longer distance. If you don’t have any upgrades, no sweat, just get as close as possible to ensure you don’t miss. You have to plan out your shots and movement with a Nailgun, so it tricky. But, with a little practice you’ll be a menace in the shadows. is The best place to find this weapon early on is in Colt’s apartment in Updaam (you’ll go there in the main story). Next to his computer there is a blue-tier nailgun, allowing for two trinket slots. Eventually, you can find a purple-tier nailgun with three slots and an added perk, like a sonar that tags all enemies in an area after you kill an Eternalist. This gun just gets better and better. Sniper This one is harder to get, but is absolutely worth the trouble to nab early. The sniper is a legendary weapon, which will only be obtainable after discovering it’s questline. Luckily, once you unlock the quest, it isn’t terribly difficult. Once you have the sniper, you don’t have to worry about running and gunning so much. Being able to take out enemies from a safe distance is an invaluable commodity (after you have cleared your immediate area of raving Eternalists with your nifty nailgun and stealth takedowns of course). It’s much easier to chip away at an area without getting overwhelmed. Especially with an invisibility slab, you can make a substantial dent in a group of enemies before anyone can figure out where you are. Shotgun or Heavy Machine Gun or Submachine gun The final weapon you need in your arsenal is truly whatever you feel most comfortable using to get out of a pinch when you find yourself surrounded. With a nailgun and a sniper, you can safely take care of a majority of enemies up close and at a distance. But, when shit hits the fan, you’ll need something to help you with crowd control in a firefight. Shotguns, heavy machine guns and subs will all be effective in that you don’t have to be terribly accurate to take care of business. Whatever weapon suits you will be fine, but I would lean towards a shotgun or submachine gun as they will both use different ammo types than your other two weapons. However, even when using a heavy machine gun, (which also uses large caliber ammo like the sniper) I rarely found myself scraping for ammo. Just be conscious of picking up ammo whenever you spot it. Deathloop Gameplay Tips and Tricks: The “Reset” Cheat Okay, I’m not really proud of this one. There is a chance that you can reset your segment of the timeloop after death if you quickly close the game before Colt croaks. I mean, you know when you’re gonna die most of the time so you can do this early if you know you’re in the weeds. Reload the game and you’ll restart the same portion of the loop. I don’t necessarily recommend doing this often, if at all. Any information you gain even in death will continue on to the next loop, just your weapons, slabs and residiuum will be lost. That being said, I did this quite by accident (after rage quitting the game after dying holding the aforementioned legendary sniper when Julianna rudely invaded my game) and resetting the loop sincerely helped my enjoyment of the game early on. So, use this in a pinch if you want before they patch this sweet bug. The Best Slabs for a Newbie A key component to Deathloop gameplay is the use of diverse power Slabs. Slabs are essentially super-powers that Colt can gain from Blackreefs Visionaries after killing them (including Juliana). They require residiuum infusion in order to be carried over into subsequent loops and you can use three different slabs at a time. One slot is already taken by an essential Slab you automatically gain in the beginning of the game, which allows you to respawn twice upon death. That leaves two slots to fill. After killing a visionary and swiping their Slab, you can opt to kill them again in a separate loop and instead gain an upgrade to their given slab, along with their special weapon, an assortment of trinket upgrades and residiuum. Going after these visionaries a couple of times will do wonders for your arsenal, and it’s a good idea to beat a visionary a few times to grind out an ability Slab, residiuum and upgrades. Here are the best slabs for starters to focus on and upgrades you should be looking for: Aether Slab (Egor Serling, Complex in the Evening): Aether is by far the most useful for getting you out of trouble. With this ability, you will become temporarily invisible. You can safely assess potential threats by using your invisibility to scope out areas and tag enemies before engaging. With enough patience and tactfulness, you can take out a group of enemies fairly easily without notice. If you end up in a sticky situation from a firefight, the Aether slab is a great way to save your skin. High tail it out of trouble, turn invisible and find a place to hide until the Eternalists stop looking for you. , while you are invisible, you are absolutely still audible… meaning if you’re running around or firing a loud weapon, you’ll be pretty easily detected. Take things slow. A word of caution Best upgrades: If you stop moving, the Aether slab doesn’t drain energy. This is indescribably helpful. You could stay permanently invisible if you just stay still. You can easily get out of trouble and you’ll have WAY more time to plan your next moves. And, get plenty of time to line up a shot with your nailgun or sniper rifle. Ghost: Killing an eternalist while Aether slab is activated erases their remains. It’s much easier to avoid being found out without leaving remnants of your kills everywhere. This might not seem like much, but it’s a perk. Erase: huge Nexus Slab (Harriet Morse, Karl’s Bay in the Morning): This one is a little weird, but oh-so fun when used right. With this slab you can throw an orb of sorts at an enemy which highlights them with a ball of light around their head. If they are close enough to another enemy, the light will connect between them, which means that if you damage one of them, all connected enemies receive the same damage. This allows you to take out multiple enemies at once with little effort. It’s a great way to thin a large group of enemies quickly if you're in trouble. Or if you’re going the stealthy route, you can more efficiently take out a few eternalists at a time. You’ll be less likely to alert other enemies and you’ll be able to clear areas much faster. Best upgrades: Enemies create their own chains. Meaning, hit one Eternalist with Nexus and they will connect to others, creating a web of death. You can take out a large group of enemies with one shot if timed right. Influence: Attraction makes your Nexus projectile home in on enemies making it easier to hit your target. Parasite gives you health for every enemy you kill with Nexus. Whichever suits your fancy, either of these two are quite helpful as a second upgrade alongside Influence. Attraction or Parasite: Shift Slab (Charlie Montague, Updaam at Noon): The Shift slab is great if you want peak mobility. With this slab, Colt is able to teleport a short distance. This is incredibly helpful in that you will be temporarily invisible, so that you can transfer from places of cover safely past Eternalists, turrets and cameras. You can even safely pass through infared tripwires for alarms and mines. You also will gain access to hard-to-reach areas. Traversing rooftops and tight spaces opens up the game so much more--you can gain a positional advantage over enemies, explore hidden areas and escape tough spots with this versatile slab. Aside from the Aether slab, this is arguably the most useful. Best upgrades: When Shift is activated midair, time is paused briefly. This upgrade gives you a lot of wiggle room when doing a more elaborate jump. That brief window of time makes Shifting into tight spaces much more manageable, and prevents you from making mistakes. Airborne: Shift reaches farther. Fairly self explanatory. This upgrade really opens up the map for you. Especially the sweet rooftops. Reach: Deathloop Gameplay Tips and Tricks: How to Deal With Juliana Of all the Deathloop gameplay tips and tricks I can provide for you, this is arguably the most helpful. Turn Online mode off for god's sake. Humans are terrible and way too fucking good at this game. As someone who hasn’t seriously played competitive shooters since vanilla Destiny and Halo Reach, I haven’t in my life found myself so quickly eviscerated in a video game before. By turning Online mode off, Juliana becomes AI controlled, which is still a substantial threat, but much more consistent and manageable. A few things to note about Juliana: You will know when she invades your game when the big red letters read: , keep your wits about you Julianna is on the hunt She will plant an Antenna that you will need to hack in order to escape through the tunnels, most of the time, she will be coming from the direction of the antenna which will be noted by an icon on your UI You will know that Juliana is close when and come into your game. Start looking around until you locate her. For me, she often would be coming from up high (rooftops, etc.) dialogue text audio Let her come to you, there’s no time limit. So, find a spot you feel comfortable defending and wait to see if she shows up. If she doesn’t, slowly navigate the map. If you alert an Eternalist, chances are Julianna is not far behind. When you see Juliana’s dialogue on screen, heads up. She’s very close. YOU ONLY HAVE TO KILL HER ONCE. She will take quite a bit of damage to take her out compared to an Eternalist goon, but remember you (hopefully) have a revive or two left in your loop. I can’t tell you how stressful it is to have Julianna come after you when you’re in the middle of an awesome run, with tons of slabs, upgrades and weapons on the line if you die. That part of the risk-reward of this game. Julianna will definitely kill you in this game, just accept it. is That being said… Final Tip: Get Comfy Killing Juliana in the Loop Especially early on, when you have less to lose, you will get a random slab, purple-tier weapon, purple-tier trinkets and a butt-load of residiuum. It’s immensely helpful and often will get you a slab that could arguably be easier to obtain than some of the Visionaries. Julianna is also arguably the toughest enemy you’ll face on their own. So, it can be a good skill check to be a little aggressive and look for a fight. As long as there aren’t too many other enemies helping her out. Final Thoughts As the game fleshes out and you get more comfortable, take all of my advice with a nice big grain of salt. These Deathloop gameplay tips and tricks are more guide rails to help you have a good time sooner, while keeping you from rage quitting one of the best games of the year. I think the more you divert into your own playstyle, the more fun you will ultimately have. Deathloop is about discovery. But, getting a little headstart for those unfamiliar with Arkane’s unique game style can be essential to a newcomer's enjoyment. I used a couple of guides, along with hours of maddening trial and error that almost made me pull my hair out and throw my controller through a window. However, once I got into Deathloop, it hooked me in a way video games haven’t in a very long time. Hopefully, something I learned helps you and makes your experience learning this game even more enjoyable than mine. It truly is worth it, because there’s a wonderful video game behind Deathloop’s high bar for entry. More in Gaming: Time-Loops and Roguelikes: Unlikely Teachers in a Post-Pandemic World 6 Best Grand Theft Auto Mods: Fix The Definitive Edition Will Xbox Cloud Gaming be Successful?

Deathloop Gameplay Tips and Tricks: Best Weapons, Cheats and Strats for Newcomers

The rise of blockchains has made it easy for developers to come up with exciting and innovative decentralized apps. Of all the distributed ledger technologies like Bitcoin, Solana, Ethereum, etc., the most widely used blockchain is Ethereum, and there are reasons for this. Its ecosystem of tooling, developers, investors, and infrastructure has caused a surge in DeFi/NFTs/Gaming volume and transactions. It offers high-level programmability and flexibility. Ethereum proved to the world that blockchain could do so much more than verify currency transactions. It's the true definition of decentralization, facilitating the building of DeFi projects. However, there are still apparent downsides of using Ethereum for deploying projects, or any Layer 1 or 2 blockchain for that matter. It offers little to no support for data management which is central to building robust consumer apps. Decentralized storage platforms bridged a lot of this gap but still proved to be insufficient. Before the rise of decentralized storage platforms, traditional cloud storage systems ruled the world. Storage systems, such as Dropbox and Google Drive. Despite their popularity over the last decade, there are still some bottlenecks. For instance, traditional storage platforms utilize cloud storage servers, so data is stored centrally. This leaves them at risk of and This can lead to a lack of access to the user's data. This is where comes to play. cyberattacks service downtime. decentralized storage of a few years ago resulted in the loss of over 87M user data. Equifax data loss cost almost $400M. The main cause of this loss is due to the central storage servers being used. Apart from data loss, the restrictive nature of these service platforms due to their centralized nature hindered users from doing certain things. This contributed to the rise of decentralized storage platforms, such as Arcana Network. Facebook Cambridge data leak So, What is Decentralized Storage? The term "decentralization" has become a common word since the start of the last decade. Of course, it's self-explanatory; it implies the absence of a centralized authority. It is the transfer of authority from a centralized body to a Peer-to-Peer system where each user is in control of his assets and network. With decentralized storage, data isn't stored centrally but stored across different nodes in the blockchain network. What is Arcana Network? Arcana Network runs on its blockchain, independent of a large centralized entity. Have no central storage. With you can store your files without relying on any large centralized entity that undermines the importance of privacy and security. Arcana Network, Recently, Arcana reportedly raised up to $2.3M from leading investors within the  blockchain industry led by Republic Crypto and Woodstock Fund, with participation from Digital Currency Group (DCG), Sahil Lavingia's SHL Capital, Hyperedge, Fenbushi, and LD Capital. The fundraising event also saw some private investors participate, such as Ganesh Swami of Covalent, Ajeet Khurana, and Nishal Shetty of WazirX. The fundraiser will be used to deepen Arcana's global penetration, strengthen its product portfolios, and launch its native token XAR, planned for 2022. Challenges Faced in the DApp Space and How Arcana Tends to Solve Them , they all share the same issue that has been prevalent in the ecosystem. Ethereum, for example, has an inadequate storage option, security issues with off-chain data, and the lack of effective data management, which makes it susceptible to hacks and theft since it relies on either Layer 2s, or off-chain data. Despite the rise of blockchains Even Ethereum 2.0 hasn't offered much in terms of data management and data privacy. Scalability still poses an issue. From what it looks like, Ethereum 2.0 was mainly developed to solve the issue of gas fees, a prevalent problem in the Ethereum Network, neglecting other key areas. Arcana solves this gap that a pure decentralized storage platform or Layer 1 Blockchain like Ethereum is not capable of. When we think of privacy as a benefit of decentralization, just storage doesn’t fulfill that benefit because the entire flow of data from user onboarding, storing, defining permissions, managing access, verifying identity, and securely managing keys needs to be handled to ensure privacy and security of data. Arcana solves this through its privacy stack of Auth, IAM, KMS, and Storage that ensure users can be seamlessly authenticated, generate keys, encrypt data, define access policies, securely manage keys that belong to users and their data, build identity, and share/delete data, all on a decentralized network. Arcana's EVM model will eliminate these issues and give developers no cause to worry about data theft, breach of privacy, or lack of adequate storage options, while still being compatible with Ethereum and other Blockchains that are EVM compatible. According to CEO Mayur Relekar, providing data security and assuring developers of privacy are two non-negotiable features that every stack development platform must possess. Arcana Network offers an incredible experience to developers and users and aims to eliminate some of these issues prevalent in the space. It gives the developers power to revoke, delete, verify users' actions with the keys, and do a host of other things on the platform. While the motto of Arcana is to provide data security, offer more storage, and improve privacy, the network solves the complexities of building DApps on a blockchain. This accelerates app development, encourages versatility and interoperability. By interoperability, developers can port their projects from blockchains, like Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance, to Arcana effortlessly. Also, developers can deploy their DApps on the platform at a reduced transaction rate. How Arcana Network Is Different from the Rest In a nutshell, Arcana Network aims to address the problems of traditional cloud storage systems and other blockchains by: Ensuring that users can perform end-to-end encryption with private keys to block unauthorized access. Ensuring that data is spread out over multiple nodes to minimize data loss and theft. Eliminating high costs of storing data. Ensuring that multiple copies are stored on different nodes. This prevents bottlenecks on central servers, accelerating download speeds. Currently, Arcana is planning to launch its native token XAR soon for participants and will be looking to invest in building a community of app developers that will have access to its various tools. Arcana’s efforts towards community building focuses on evangelizing Web3 and crypto, so more developers, founders, and users enter the ecosystem.

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