D1 Brands is one of the fastest-growing eCommerce companies in all of North America

D1 Brands

Ignite tournaments a play-to-earn esports startup raises funding has raised $10 million in funding from key investors to develop the world's first mobile play-to-earn ("P2E") esports tournament and broadcasting platform. A $3 million seed round headed by Yield Guild Games and Ascensive Assets, with participation from Mechanism Capital, Arca Funds, Skyvision Capital, and several funds and angel investors, was completed in December 2021, resulting in a total of $10 million raised. Ignite Tournaments Animoca Brands, Infinity Ventures Crypto, and Moon Holdings Fund led a $7 million strategic round in February 2022. These new investors have decades of expertise in both conventional and blockchain gaming. Brian Lu, Founding Partner at Infinity Venture Crypto, said: Krystal and I were both competitive gamers, ranked #1 globally in different MZ games—I became the Emperor in Game of War, and Krystal was the #1 defensive “trap” player in Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire. It’s clear to me as both a former competitive gamer and VC investor that Ignite Tournaments will completely transform competitive mobile gaming. I am co-leading this round because I want to see Ignite Tournaments add that immense value to all games worldwide; to both IVC’s game portfolio and beyond. Genesis Block Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Longhash Ventures, ROK Capital, Huobi Ventures, Akatsuki, MH Carnegie, D1 Ventures, Ghaf Capital, and Morningstar Ventures are among the other strategic investors. Angel investors included Jeffrey "Jiho" Zirlin, co-founder of Axie Infinity, and Looren Roosendaal, co-founder of Ember Sword and PlanetQuest. Through its capacity to transform any pre-existing mobile game into a play-to-earn game, Ignite Tournaments' platform combines conventional gaming with web 3.0. By making P2E event organisation tools available to players all across the globe, their concept would alter the esports business and decrease the entrance barrier. Payments are made in bitcoin and NFTs, staked for more incentives. Web 3.0 infrastructure is also being developed to increase esports rewards. What is eSports? A multi-billion dollar industry? The world of organised, competitive video gaming is known as eSports. In games like Fortnite, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Madden NFL, players from various leagues or teams compete against one other. Millions of fans across the globe watch and follow these gamers, whether they attend live events, watch on TV, or follow them online. Viewers may watch their favourite gamers play in real-time on streaming platforms like Twitch, and this is often where popular players grow their following bases. As difficult as it may be for fans of conventional sports leagues such as the NFL or the NBA to believe, eSports operates similarly at its top levels. In reality, the NBA conducted a draught in April to prepare for the debut of its upcoming eSports league, which will be based on the basketball-themed NBA 2K game series. During the draught, 102 professional eSports players were chosen, with all fanfare and fanfare usually reserved for players on the court. This is a valuable industry, not just for gamers but also for marketers and video game developers. The event in Jacksonville included Madden 19, a game from the long-running EA Madden franchise. The EA Madden Franchise has sold over 130 million copies and generated over $4 billion in revenue since its beginning over three decades ago. Like conventional athletes, eSports players may earn a lot of money: Millions of dollars in prize money may be won in tournaments, and the winning teams' players are usually shared evenly. That means the best players in the world may easily make seven figures in a year. Ticket purchases for these contests help teams and event organisers as well. What was the name of the 2017 League of Legends tournament? Ticket sales brought in $5.5 million. Following the incident, EA Sports cancelled the subsequent three Madden Classic qualifying events to examine safety standards for contestants and spectators, according to a press statement. eSports will continue developing as a business — and leisure — for the foreseeable future, based on the statistics and the inevitable cultural trend. By the end of 2018, 1.6 billion individuals, or more than a fifth of the world's population, will have some awareness of eSports. Give it some time if you haven't heard anything about eSports. It is unavoidable that it expand worldwide and culturally. Catch all the breaking news, and Don’t forget to like the story! Disclaimer: The purpose of this article is to remove informational asymmetry existing today in our digital markets by performing due diligence, asking the right questions, and equipping readers with better opinions to make informed decisions. The writer holds Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Solana and Cosmos. The writer has a vested interest in the story.

Ignite Tournaments raises $10 Million for Building Play-to-Earn Esports Tournament Infrastructure 

Many companies decide to outsource their IT tasks to better use their resources and get access to an external talent pool. Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when choosing an IT outsourcing provider. The biggest asset of a company is its human capital. Building an all-around capable and motivated team is the task of utmost importance for any business. However, this is a task that might take years to be completed, and certain tasks (like designing, managing and maintaining the IT infrastructure) must be done from the day one. Outsourcing such work to a trustworthy contractor is the way to go in the modern fast-paced business world. IT outsourcing is not merely an option anymore, it is rapidly becoming the main way of doing business for many companies, both startups and established enterprises alike. IT outsourcing benefits are multiple and cannot be underestimated: An IT outsourcing company can provide a ready team of highly experienced professionals that can begin working on your project at once When working with an IT service provider, the businesses are protected by and , meaning the issues will be solved in a timely manner and no information leaks will occur SLA NDA Outsourcing helps saving costs and shortens the time to market for your product, as an experienced contractor provides the team with an established workflow and honed skill set, which increases the chance of finishing the project in time and within budget. These benefits might seem too good to be true, aren’t they? Well, this all applies if the IT outsourcing provider you choose is a trustworthy partner, able to fulfill their obligations. Alas, sometimes this is not the case and there are the 5 mistakes the businesses must avoid: Don’t go for the cheapest offer Don’t go for the shiny brand Don’t go for multiple contractors Don’t split the workflow and tasks Don’t expect the contractor to do the work forever Let’s elaborate on the meaning and the possible harm of these mistakes, so you will better understand how to choose the right IT outsourcing provider. Mistake №1: Going for the cheapest offer You want the outsourcing tasks to be done by skilled specialists for a fraction of the cost. However, paying too little implies a great risk of employing a sub-par team. Thus said, choosing a reputable IT service provider with an affordable pricing is the wisest move to make. Mistake №2: Going for the shiny brand It’s good and sound to be working with the that boasts delivering support to Samsung, Toyota or Deutsche Bank. The point is, these enterprise customers will always be a priority for the outsourcing team working with them, so if something major happens with their systems, this case will receive the utmost attention. Naturally, all the other tasks will be halted or postponed until the major client’s crisis is resolved. managed services provider The only way to avoid this situation is avoiding working with the shiny brands altogether, opting for middle-range companies instead. In this case, the partners do not turn into numbers and all the requests are treated with equal attention, thus ensuring fulfilling the obligations under SLA. In addition, working with industry leaders makes their contractors used to large checks and they quite often raise their prices substantially. Mid-sized contractors don’t fall for such approach and keep their pricing reasonable. Mistake №3: Going for multiple contractors The older representatives of the C-suite might choose not to store all eggs in the same basket and hire multiple contractors. While this approach might work with providing the office supplies or purchasing the uniforms and helmets separately for construction workers, this can never work with the IT services. To ensure there is no interruption in the user’s experience, one IT service provider should handle all IT-related requests. In addition, the contractor might hire subcontractors so your requests will go through a rather complicated chain of intermediaries before being fulfilled. Partnering with a company that provides the full range of the needed services is the best way to streamline the workflow and ensure the stability of the service delivery. Mistake №4: Splitting the workflow and siloing the tasks For example, let’s take DevOps-as-a-Service realm and imagine your servers are provisioned, run, backed up and maintained by one trustworthy contractor, while the code QA is performed by another reputable firm. When a new batch of code is submitted for testing, the DevOps engineers provision a build environment for it and create a ticket for the QA team to test the code, and the process is on halt until the QA specialists either approve or reject the code due to bugs. This can take merely a few minutes, but any delay on the QA side impacts the workflow of two other teams. This is why going for end-to-end services when one team is responsible for the whole workflow is the only way to ensure the services are delivered without unneeded bottlenecks and delays. Mistake №5: Leaving all the work to the contractor While outsourcing is a powerful tool, it does not remove the need to build an in-house team over time. You can rent the skills of the specialists to do the one-time job, yet if your project aims to be a long-term one, you will need to have a team of talents who know all the nuts and bolts of the system and are able to work on its maintenance and continuous improvement. A hired workforce will perform their duties according to the SLA, yet they will not devote any more effort than necessary to your project. A good contractor will surely put some effort in training your in-house specialists to use the systems they provide, or provide some advice on their improvement, as removing the cause of problems once and for all is better than continuously dealing with the consequences. Final thoughts and a free advice on 5 mistakes to avoid when choosing an IT outsourcing provider Even keeping in mind all these points, it is still rather complicated to find a trustworthy IT outsourcing partner. How to choose the right IT outsourcing provider then? We recommend looking for unbiased reviews from reputable rating companies like Clutch, Glassdoor and others. Asking for the reviews from the customers mentioned in the portfolios of said IT service providers can also help, as the unsatisfied customers are quick to tell the truth of an unreliable contractor. It is also wise to look for the IT outsourcing market leaders, as these companies are sure to work under SLA, NDA and provide 24/7 diligent support. We wish you the best of luck with finding a suitable and reliable IT outsourcing provider for your business. Just avoid the aforementioned 5 mistakes and you will be on the right track! Initially, I’ve posted this story on my company’s blog — https://itsvit.com/blog/5-mistakes-%D1%81hoosing-it-outsourcing-provider/

5 Mistakes When Сhoosing an IT Outsourcing Provider

232 Stories To Learn About Product

JSWorld Conference 2022: Part II

DEXs (decentralized exchanges) have become increasingly popular within the cryptocurrency world in recent months, as they provide traders with an alternative to centralized exchanges that essentially hold and control user funds. Today’s popular DEXs are still blockchain specific, with Ethereum-based solutions leading the charge; and has since exploded both in popularity and valuation, with a current market cap of around $16 billion. Uniswap was deployed to the Ethereum mainnet back in November 2018 and is another leading DEX platform running on Ethereum. Binance Smart Chain and Polygon (formerly Matic) have since emerged with various DEX solutions on their respective blockchains, including PancakeSwap and QuickSwap, offering users alternatives to Ethereum’s sometimes high GAS fees and long transaction times. Sushiswap was later forked from Uniswap The Polkadot blockchain is the lovechild of once Ethereum core developer Gavin Wood and is one of the most exciting blockchains to have emerged in recent years; the ever-expanding Polkadot ecosystem has over 250 projects (including dApp platform Plasm, Smart Contract platform Moonbeam and Operating System parachain Clover) on its innovative parachain infrastructure that is supported by Substrate. Referred to as the ‘blockchain of blockchains', Polkadot enables private and public blockchain apps to exchange data in a trustless and decentralized environment. With the eyes of the blockchain community fixed on , there will undoubtedly be an influx of both platform participants and traders on the platform in the coming months. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that in order to give users a place to trade the various tokens that power projects built on Polkadot and it’s parachains. Polkadot’s crowd loan (PLO) events DEXs are today being built throughout the ecosystem Below are four promising platforms and protocols that offer Polkadot users decentralized token swapping functionality and a lot more besides. Polkadex With a mainnet launch scheduled for Q3-Q4 2021, Polkadex looks to bridge the gap between DEX and CEX, enabling users to utilize features that are traditionally only available on centralized platforms, such as margin trading, but in the self-sovereign DEX environment that sees them keep complete control of their funds at all times. Built on Substrate, the order book-based DEX is more than just a simple swap protocol, as it also enables users to place market orders and limit buys/sells, as well as trade their assets for fiat or even delegate their assets to third parties for use with bot trading and the likes. Central products and features within the Polkadex suite include: Orderbook The Polkadex Orderbook can support up to 500,000 transactions per second with low latency, made possible using its unique TEE architecture, and is the flagship product of the Polkadex platform. The order book supports both Ethereum and Substrate-based assets; the Polkadex team will connect to Ethereum via Snowfork, a trustless bridge, and, once complete, users will be able to lock up their assets in Ethereum and trustlessly bridge liquidity to Polkadex. PolkaIDO Polkadex IDO is a one-stop-shop efficient solution for all the activities from conducting the fundraise to listing tokens on Polkadex exchange fully on-chain. The IDO platform will be the easiest way to deploy tokens and distribute them among IDO participants. Teams will receive an end-to-end product that allows them to create tokens, bridge to other networks, list in the Orderbook, conduct IDOs and also finally migrate to their own blockchains later on in the project’s development. It’s a full governance-driven DAO using on-chain randomness to select lucky participants. Polkapool Polkapool tackles the often unmanageable Gas fees and transaction times that plague traders on the Ethereum network with the introduction of feeless swaps; as a DEX AMM (automated market maker) inspired product, Polkapool also eliminates front-running with fast transaction fees on the Polkadot blockchain. Polkapool will also take advantage of Polkadex’s cross-chain bridges and allows for interoperability between tokens and liquidity on different blockchain networks. Polkadex’s “Fluid Switch Protocol” helps investors to park funds and earn interest as part of its Perpetual Liquidity Mining program powered by blockchain rewards, making sure that Polkadex can offer traders and liquidity providers continuous liquidity and eradicating slippage issues. Trading Bots + Fiat On-Ramp Polkadex low latency Orderbook also allows for high-frequency and algorithmic trading, with users able to set buy and sell orders through third-party bots whilst still retaining custody of their funds. Bots will handle both institutional and retail customers. Polkadex also plans to introduce a fiat on-ramp function with Polkadex Fiat, meaning that DeFi users will have more options to choose from when exchanging their assets. The platform aims to make powerful trading tools more accessible to DeFi users while maximizing liquidity and cross-chain support. Polkadex received funding from Web3 Open Grants Program and is also partnered with CMS, Cluster, Blocksync Ventures, Existential Capital, and others. “At Polkadex we are combining the benefits of centralized and decentralized exchanges to create a revolutionary decentralized cryptocurrency trading platform built for newcomers, experienced DeFi users and institutional traders alike.” Zenlink Zenlink is an exciting Polkadot-based cross-chain DEX that enables users to swap any crypto asset across Polkadot’s parachains seamlessly and safely. with the introduction of a powerful DEX module and aggregator that any Polkadot-based project can utilize for themselves. Zenlink aims to build a “cross-chain DEX network” Zenlink differs from others on this list, as it essentially has the power and functionality to connect the liquidity of all projects and parachains built on Polkadot; amongst the main products, Zenlink offers a pluggable DEX module that allows different parachains to have DEX capabilities with just one-click. Zenlink consists of two innovative core products: Zenlink DEX Protocol Zenlink DEX protocol is the underlying cross-chain DEX protocol for parachains to interoperate and share liquidity pools. It is built on the XCMP protocol developed by a team led by Gavin Wood, Founder of Polkadot. The cross-chain protocol on Polkadot can be compared to the traditional TCP/IP protocol. The XCMP protocol is similar to the data link layer on TCP/IP, which solves the transmission function of the indiscriminate perception protocol between each chain (route). Zenlink DEX Protocol is similar to the application layer on TCP/IP. As long as a parachain implements Zenlink DEX Protocol, it can share all the liquidity pool of parachains on Polkadot. Zenlink DEX Protocol introduces into the Polkadot ecosystem a simple yet powerful and highly versatile pluggable DEX Module, that gives parachain project teams the power to access and offer DEX capabilities to users. Notably, the ability to replace and upgrade Zenlink DEX modules means that systems can be easily customized and improved with minimal friction for project teams. The Zenlink DEX Protocol will be implemented in three forms: Module, WASM, and EVM. Cross-Chain Capability and Liquidity Sharing Once the Zenlink Module is deployed on a Polkadot-based platform or parachain in a “plug-and-pull” style, projects can connect with others and share liquidity across the entire network, representing an exciting move forward for the Polkadot ecosystem as a whole. Liquidity pools are formed in each parachain after deployment of the Zenlink Module, with a powerful DEX Aggregator then opening the liquidity pool across parachains to enable liquidity sharing between the DEX Module on different parachains. Zenlink promotes more overall growth in the ecosystem and encourages robust connections between Polkadot’s various parachains with the introduction of liquidity sharing capabilities; sharing of the DEX orderbooks across parachains also means a smooth and superior trading experience for users in the Polkadot ecosystem as the overall platform steps further into the limelight. to power the DeFi products that are being built with its cross-chain DEX modules. Zenlink also integrates Chainlink’s price oracles Zenlink DApp The Zenlink DApp is a front-end interactive product that ensures a smooth user journey and a “one-click” trading experience. By performing actions on the back end, such as path searches for trading pairs that may not yet be supported, the Zenlink DEX DApp takes the logic out of the hands of the user and enables a simple and unified trading experience with low slippage and rapid transaction finality. The Zenlink DEX Protocol and, having already partnered with several parachain , Plasm Network, Phala Network, and Math Chain, the Zenlink team are on a mission to unite the many pioneering projects being built on Polkadot in a bid to unlock the liquidity that is currently siloed within each of the parachains within the DOT ecosystem. The project has already received two Web3 Foundation grants, the second to develop the DEX smart contract implementation, which is open-source in line with Polkadot’s ethos of a decentralized web and also secured a $1.1M angel round of funding that was led by Continue Capital, Hashkey, D1 Ventures, IOSG Ventures, and Youbi Capital. will be integrated into Shiden and Bifrost soon according to recent team updates auction-winning projects such as ChainX “As an important protocol layer project in the Polkadot DeFi stack, Zenlink will play a key role in connecting the huge liquidity of the Polkadot DeFi ecosystem, such as helping parachain projects to deploy DEX and achieve liquidity sharing with one click, linking all DEX aggregation liquidity on the Polkadot.“ Polkaswap Hosted on the SORA 2.0 network, Polkswap’s DEX is another project supported by the Web3 Foundation Grants Program and it’s focus on interoperability looks to connect the rest of the blockchain development world with the Polkadot ecosystem as a non-custodial liquidity aggregator and cross-chain AMM DEX. Behind the colourful and friendly branding of Polkaswap sits a powerful product aiming to bridge the gap between the broader crypto landscape and the quickly growing Polkadot ecosystem; Users can add tokens from the Polkadot ecosystem as well as from other blockchains to the platform’s exchange, opening up a world of new trading opportunities for both ERC-20 tokens and assets from any other blockchain that can be connected to Polkadot. Built on Substrate with scalable Hyperledger Iroha v2 and written in Rust, Polkaswap looks to offer users rapid transaction finality and lower gas fees than Ethereum-based DEXs. Open Source Development Polkaswap’s codebase is open-source and anyone can add liquidity sources by making contributions to the Polkaswap codebase. The project has been contributed to by , a Japanese firm and “global technology company delivering blockchain-based solutions for enterprises, universities, and governments”. Soramitsu Polkaswap is constructed upon , which utilizes Substrate and includes bridges to many other blockchains, including Ethereum and Bitcoin. SORA Network is looking to have its own parachains for Polkadot and Kusama and will have its own set of validators in the future. The Soramitsu team are the developers behind SORA Network and have also developed solutions such as Kagome, a C++ implementation of the Polkadot Host, and the  C++ Filecoin implementation. They are also collaborating with the National Bank of Cambodia to develop Bakong, an integrated fintech payment system. SORA Network The PSWAP Token The native PSWAP token was introduced after community governance and serves as a utility and governance token used to reward liquidity providers on the platform. PSWAP tokens are burned with transactions and decrease in supply over time, with a 0.3% fee (the same as Uniswap) for every swap used to buy back tokens; new PSWAP tokens are minted to reward liquidity providers. Rewards to liquidity providers started at 100% of burned trading fees but will gradually be reduced to 35% of daily burned tokens after 5 years. Polkaswap’s native PSWAP token was not made publicly available via IDO but instead was rewarded to users who provided liquidity for specific Sora.farm pairs over several months. In total, 3.5 billion PSWAP tokens were issued as farming rewards, with further tokens distributed through the build-up of reserves in the token bonding curve for SORA v2 and issued as rewards to market makers on the Polkaswap DEX. Peer-to-peer fiat to crypto transactions and fee-less transactions are some of the releases outlined on the Polkswap roadmap in the coming months. “Polkaswap is a non custodial AMM DEX designed uniquely for the Polkadot ecosystem and the interoperable future. Polkaswap aims for liquidity, security, convenience and a user-friendly interface, where an immediate exchange of assets can take place.” KaruraSwap Karura is not only a DEX-focused platform being built within the Polkadot ecosystem but is a scalable, EVM-compatible DeFi suite that was founded by the . The platform offers an array of DeFi applications such as a trustless staking derivative named liquid KSM, a multi-collateralized stablecoin backed by cross-chain assets named kUSD, and an AMM DEX trading platform. The DEX specifically was successfully launched and near the end of July 2021. Acala Foundation went live for trading on Polkadot’s canary network Kusama Karura Swap between an expanded selection of token pairs away from centralized exchange listings. New tokens can be quickly added to Karura Swap through governance; fresh trading pair listings are approved through governance, and pairs can be added quickly to the platform without the need for intermediary or centralized involvement. Karura Swap's novel design that was inspired by the (first introduced by Uniswap) also allows for users to transact in illiquid markets, enabling the swap of any token to any other token in a single transaction provided there is a path between the two. allows for users to trade directly “constant product formula” TVL (total value locked) on , with an initial TVL of over $3.4 million USD locked in by utilizing a “Bootstrap feature,” which allows a liquidity sandbox for trading pairs. This warm-up period essentially encourages a pool to reach adequate liquidity before going live, also aiming to tackle frontrunning and market manipulation. KaruraSwap hit $35.65M on August 9th 2021 conducted by Kusama recently with 501,000 KSM  (equal to over $100 million USD at the time of writing) raised by the Karura and Polkadot communities. As part of what aims to be a complete DeFi package, Karura enables users to swap, borrow, lend, earn, and more all in one spot. Karura won the first Parachain Slot Auctions “Karura Apps offer the ability to trustlessly trade tokens without intermediaries through Karura Swap. Karura Swap is a trustless, automated market maker (AMM)-style decentralized exchange on the Karura network. Karura Swap supports the ability to trade native Substrate tokens and ERC-20 tokens.” Conclusion The future of Web3 is seemingly unstoppable, and the cryptocurrency world is sure to benefit from the various solutions and products explored above, with several pioneering projects now offering DEX functionality within the Polkadot ecosystem. Although some are offering different solutions than others, the overall goal to incentivize growth within the blockchain industry remains the same, and the above projects are shining examples of what can be achieved when utilizing both Polkadot’s and Kusama’s exciting infrastructure. What is the DEX solution on Polkadot that gets you most excited right now? Let me know on Twitter!

DEX on Polkadot? Here are 4 projects to Consider

Home Automation does what it says - It enables various smart devices around the home to work together in an automated way based on instructions/configurations. Home automation can be achieved using IoT/Smart devices. IoT is a network of devices, devices that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies with the sole purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices over the internet. IoT enables devices to interact, collaborate, and learn from each other's experiences just like humans do. Some of the examples of IoT devices are below. Connected appliances. Smart home security systems. Smart Switches. Smart Locks. Smart Energy Meters. Below are a few day-to-day activities which I automated Turn on the water motor when the water supply starts. Lights Automation and Home Intrusion Detection. Using an Automatic shut-off valve directing water flow. Turn on/off lights and fans in the living room In this blog post, I will explain all software, tools, devices, services that were used by me for achieving the top two automation flows. Home Automation has three components. Hardware. Software/Apps. Communication Protocols. Hardware like (Water flow sensor, Pressure sensor, Temperature sensor, Door sensor, PIR sensor, Water level sensor). 1) Sensors I used a Water flow sensor, Door sensor, and PIR sensor. boards like (Arduino UNO, Wemos D1 R2, RaspberryPi Zero). We can connect the mentioned sensors to these boards and send the key data to the hub. 2) ESP8266 I used Wemos D1 R2 which contains a Wi-Fi chip. Flashed this device with Tasmota and connected it to the local hub. Sonoff is a brand of low-cost (5$) Wi-Fi switches that can be used for controlling main-powerline connected appliances like lights, pumps, heaters, etc. They consist of the ESP8266 Wi-Fi Chip plus additional circuitry. and are made by ITEAD Studio, which also makes a collection of home automation products. 3) Sonoff devices. We can operate these devices using the mobile app. The user sends a signal to a smart device to turn on or off a light, which in turn sends that signal directly to the cloud. Cloud servers understand, process the data, and take necessary action for the targeted home appliance. For Example, consider the Philips Hue bulb. When we turn on the bulb from the mobile app. It sends the request to the Philips cloud server and the cloud server sends the request to the edge device (bulb) to turn on. Alternatively, we can flash these devices with open-source firmware like Tasmota and configure the devices for connecting to our local gateway or hub. Home Assistant is one such software that provides a platform/Gateway/Hub functionality. which can act as a cloud server. I am using 10 Sonoff devices. Few of those are running with default firmware connected to manufacturer cloud and few devices are flashed with Tasmota firmware connected to the local hub. smart plug. 4) TpLink - 433Mhz RF receiver module is low power consumption, high sensitivity radio receiver module. It uses internal software decoding and data decoding circuits. Few examples are - Door sensor, PIR sensor transmits an RF message. The bridge captures the RF message and sends it to the cloud server for further processing. 5) Sonoff 433RF Bridge For my use-case, I have flashed the firmware of the device with OpenMQTTGateway (OMG) and configured it to send data to the local hub for further processing of the data. Softwares – Wrote an embedded C program and installed it onto Wemos D1 R2 board. The code measures the water flow rate and publishes the flow rate as an MQTT message on a specific topic to the MQTT broker which is running on Hub. 1) Embedded C programs I replaced this implementation with Tasmota firmware - OMG supports basic 433mhz/315mhz protocols & infrared (IR) with which we can turn old dumb devices - "smart".  and has the lower cost advantage when compared with Zwave or any other sophisticated protocols. OMG is evolving and its recent addition is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and LORA. 2) OpenMQTTGateway (OMG) In my use case, it enables to: Receive MQTT data from a topic and send RF 433Mhz signal Publish MQTT data to a topic related to the source of the 433Mhz signal. – Node-Red is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services in new and interesting ways. It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single click. The core of Node-RED is Node.js. 3) Node-Red I created a couple of data-flows using this software - IFTTT derives its name from the programming conditional statement “if this, then that.” It provides a software platform that connects apps, devices, and services from different developers in order to trigger one or more automation involving those apps, devices, and services. There are numerous ways you can connect all your services and the resulting combinations are called “Applets”. Applets connect two or more services together and help you do something that you couldn’t do with just one service alone. 4) IFTTT Here are just two “if this then that” automation you can run with IFTTT: If you make a call on your Android phone, then a log of that call is added to a Google Spreadsheet. If you add a new task to your Amazon Alexa to-dos, then it will be added to your iOS Remainders app. I implemented few applets in IFTTT, one of them sends a mobile notification with the message “Water supply started” and another applet to turn on "Water motor". - Tasmota is custom firmware that is available for ESP8266 based devices allowing for web, timer, OTA firmware updates, and sensor support. Tasmota allows ESP8266 based devices to be controlled via HTTP, MQTT, and KNX allowing for any home automation integration. 5) Tasmota – Home Assistant is an open-source home automation system. It supports RaspberryPi, uses Python with Hassbian OS. It has simplified automation rules that developers can use to build their home automation product saving them thousands of lines of code. Home Assistant acts as a central smart home controller hub that features all common conditional statements, creator functions to control any modern home automation platform. It also includes gateway and bridge (Protocol converters) for devices and services using different IoT technologies. 6) Home Assistant If you want complete control of your devices then the use of a home assistant is recommended and it also has great community support and robust integrations solutions for multiple smart devices. Some of the integrations are mentioned below. Alternatives of Home Assistant are OpenHAB (written in java), Calaos, FHEM, Domoticz, EEDOM, etc., With references from the Home assistant community portal. I could run Home Assistant on a RaspberryPI and configured a few integrations like MQTT broker, NodeRed, IFTTT, PushOver (for sending push notifications to mobile), Tasmo-Admin, motionEye. Communication Protocols. Zigbee is a wireless protocol that operates in a mesh network. It uses a device to relay a signal to other devices, helps in strengthening and expanding the network. Zigbee can be built-in dimmers, door locks, thermostats, and more. It’s used on WeMo and Philips Hue. Zigbee- Zwave is similar to Zigbee, Z-Wave is an open-source mesh network protocol. Technically speaking, the main difference between the two is the data throughput – Z-wave is slower than Zigbee, however, it requires less energy to cover the same range as Zigbee. SmartThings and Lowes Iris use Z-Wave. Z-Wave- Infrared is one of the simplest and most reliable protocols, normally offering one-way communication. It’s the number one choice for remote controls, like the one for your TV. Infrared- Bluetooth is a short-range (around 10m) wireless protocol often used on phones, headphones, and speakers. Its adaptive frequency hopping system detects existing signals, such as Wi-Fi, and negotiates a channel map for the Bluetooth devices in order to minimize interference. Bluetooth- fast and reliable wireless communication, with a range of around 25m. Wi-Fi- RF is very common. Instead of sending out light signals, an RF device transmits radio waves that correspond to the binary command for the button you're pushing. A radio receiver on the controlled device receives the signal and decodes it. Sonoff RF 433Mhz bridge is a receiver. Radio Frequency (RF)- Automation 1: Turn on the water-motor when the water supply starts. Once the water supply starts my automation-goal is to perform the below actions. Send a push notification to my mobile saying the water supply started. Turn on one of the water motors. Activate the loud voice-alarm device at home. Activate a shut-off valve device, which directs water to the tank. Flow Sensor and Wemos The flow sensor is connected to wemos(with Tasmota firmware). The flow sensor is connected to GPIO14 pin, power pin, and ground pin of the wemos device. On the same wemos device I configured MQTT, Wi-Fi, which will publish a telemetry message every 30 seconds. The payload of the message is going to be a timestamp and the pulse counter value. When water flows through the sensor, it increments the counter and publishes the message to the hub. Hub with Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi Using Node-Red integrations on Home Assistant, I created two data-flows on Node-Red. In the first flow, a subscription to the MQTT topic using the MQTT node is configured, which receives the telemetry message every 30 seconds. The message is fed to a function node which checks the counter value. If the value is greater than 20 it allows the message to pass through other nodes in the flow. After successful validation, a push notification is sent and the water motor is turned-on, Below data-flow explains its working: Node-red IFTTT triggers call the webhooks associated with an applet. IFTTT sends requests to the Pushover server which in turn sends a push notification to mobile. IFTTT also sends a trigger to the Sonoff cloud-server to activate the sonoff connected water motor. In my IFTTT account, I configured both sonoff and pushover server account details. Flow1 In the node-red flow 2. Every day at 6 am below actions are performed- The hub resets the flow sensor valve to 0 by restarting the wemos device. Turn off the shut-off valve. Flow 2 Automation1 Images Installed wemos device in an IP65 rating case. Flow sensor connected to the wemos device. Configured flow sensor in wemos device. Module. Tasmota considers it as a sonoff basic device. There are similar screens for configuring Wi-Fi and MQTT broker details on the device. Sonoff Device Automation 2: Lights Automation and Home Intrusion Detection In this automation, all devices communicate with the local hub and external pushover server. The door sensor is fixed to the main entrance door and the PIR sensor is fixed near the stairs. Goals that I want to achieve with this automation. Turn on the staircase and balcony lights at sunset. Turn off lights at 21:30 pm. Turn on/off lights for only 5mins between 09:30 PM to 06:00 AM using PIR sensor/Door Sensor Intrusion alert via push notification from 09:30 to 06:00 AM via PIR sensor if stairs are used The Home Assistant sun integration will use my current location to track if the sun is above or below the horizon. Based on this data it will turn on lights at sunset and turn off those lights at 09:30 PM every day. Sensors The Door sensor and PIR sensors transmit RF signals. Door sensors transmit when the door is opened and the PIR sensor transmits an RF signal when it detects any object within its range. Both these sensors work under the 433Mhz band. Sonoff RF bridge When these sensors transmit RF signals it gets captured by the Sonoff RF bridge. The purpose of the bridge is to consume RF signals and convert them to a unique code that gets published using MQTT protocol to MQTT broker over a topic. Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi MQTT broker is running in the hub. For the bridge to transmit data to the local hub instead of its cloud server. I used OpenMQTTGateway (OMG) firmware and it is connected to wifi. In the hub, few automation flows are configured. These flows get activated based on the current time and if they receive the MQTT message containing that unique code transmitted by the bridge. This confirms that either of the sensors got activated so the hub executes the configured actions in the flow. IFTTT Connection Using IFTTT extension on Home-Assistant, a trigger is sent to the webhook which in turn activates an applet The applet sends a push notification to mobile with the message “Intrusion detected”. Sonoff dual-channel device Both the lights are connected to a Sonoff dual-channel device running Tasmota firmware and this device is also configured as a switch in the hub. Automation 2 References Below are sample automation scripts are written for Automation 2. Sample configuration written in Home Assistant. There are similar configurations for other integrations like IFTTT, Pushover, TasmoAdmin, Tuya, Motion-Eye, and Custom Sensors. TasmoAdmin showing all Tasmota running devices. Home page of a home assistant after user login. Additional Implementations All the devices can also be activated using Google Home or Amazon Echo using voice commands. As I have a public IP and my edge router is configured with all required Port forwarding/NAT configurations to access this Home Assistant web UI from outside my home. All my IoT edge devices are connected to a different subnet which provides some kind of security as well. Home Assistant web application is Progressive Web App (PWA) which means it can be accessed as a mobile app once we open it in a browser. Closing Thoughts In this blog, we have seen a couple of IoT automation flows that are actively used, observe how a device communicates with other devices and how it reacts without user intervention. These smart solutions can be easily implemented for any household. I will be happy to share my knowledge and experience. and do share your thoughts/opinions/suggestions. I am available in messenger. Needless to say, I learned many concepts by doing this project, some of them are mentioned below: IFTTT. Webhooks. MQTT. Node-Red. Home Assistant. Arduino programming. Different sensors and their uses. How to flash firmware into ESP8266 microcontroller boards. OpenMQTTGateway. Tasmota. Working on Solenoid valve. Progressive web Application RTSP protocol. Used this protocol to configure my IP cam in Home Assistant. Types of IoT communication protocols. The other plus side of this implementation is power and cost savings and it helped my parents to manage daily chores with less/no strain. I installed these applications in their mobiles and taught them how to manage the IoT devices. Also published on: https://medium.com/@rakesh362/home-automation-using-the-internet-of-things-iot-59f11e16c283

A Beginner's Guide to Home Automation with the Internet of Things (IoT)

Recently, at the invitation of , I traveled to Poland to attend the and present a keynote sharing the Zest success story and how we earned our first 100k users. Mick Griffin 2019 Pipeline Summit While preparing for the Summit, I made an offer via social media to share the deck with anyone who was interested. Around 200 of my friends and colleagues said: Send it to me. But once I finished my keynote, I realized that just sending the deck wouldn’t give them the full story. To be truly helpful to my peers, I need to share the “how we did it” story that inspired the deck (which you can view ). So, I pulled together my notes from the Pipeline Summit speech to create the following article. here [[ ]] You can find the open-for-all deck here Community has always been at the core of everything we do here at Zest and that community has been the fuel that has powered our journey. And, to keep our community strong, our core values include the open sharing of knowledge. In my keynote, and in this piece, I share my knowledge about what Zest is and why we created it as well as how Zest grew from a professional knowledge-building platform into the foundation for a 100k-strong and growing community of professionals dedicated to self-learning and professional growth. When we launched Zest, we were on our own. We bootstrapped the company from zero to 30k users. Then, last year, we closed a pre-seed round that gave us the runway to take the Zest tribe to the next level. This summer, we released and crossed the 100k user mark and the was born. Zest for mobile Tribal Self-Learning Movement Creating a community-driven, knowledge-building platform for professionals and teams Ignorance is the path to extinction. As the world moves forward, those who stand still will be left behind. Knowledge has become the currency of a new world economy built on rapid-fire innovation and industry shifts. And, as we explain in , our mega-guide for self-learners, those who fail to pursue knowledge are destined for extinction. The Anti-Extinction Roadmap for Modern Professionals But those of us who continually develop our professional knowledge will thrive. We identify and acquire new skills to move ourselves and our professions forward ensuring our survival and the survival of our craft. We are gladiators in the fight against ignorance and information overload. My co-founder, , and I created Zest because we had a need and we saw that our peers shared this need. What we needed was a tool to help us win the battle against ignorance. Idan Yalovich You see, in the Web 2.0 world, information is plentiful. But time remains finite. When we tried to find quality information to grow our professional knowledge, we encountered too much-unfiltered information. The result of this information overload was that before we could begin consuming information, we had to waste valuable time trying to separate the useful from the useless. Instead of advancing our knowledge, we were losing productivity. The problem caused by content overload We understood that the ability to gain knowledge is essential for the survival of modern professionals. So we began to work on a solution: Zest. Zest is a knowledge-building platform for modern professionals. Like a Spotify of professional content, Zest filters, classifies, personally matches, and delivers content to each user on-demand. Zest’s unique user content curation and filtration process–and the human touch provided by the Zest tribe–is what makes it the solution to content overload. Products without users are doomed. Solutions that don’t facilitate user success are doomed too To support effective and efficient professional growth, the Zest AI associate engine builds custom micro-learning paths that deliver individualized content selections to each user based on their personal profile and stated goals. The content from which each custom learning path is built is sourced by members of the Zest community. This content curation by real people who are members of the Zest tribe and your professional peers is the first touchpoint in the Zest content filtering process. Next, the content is filtered through Zest’s machine learning algorithms which distill and classify the content, discarding content identified as low-quality. Once only high-quality, community-approved content remains, Zest’s AI matches individual pieces of content to each user or team based on their profile characteristics and stated goals and preferences. Zest users get the informative, actionable content they need, delivered when they want it. Community participation for mutual benefit a.k.a. network effects is central to Zest’s solution. The contributions and feedback of each new member make the product better for everyone. My recipe for going from 0 to 100(k) users Taking Zest from zero of 100k users (Zesters) was a gradual process. Each step in the process added a new element to the whole. And like a layer cake, missing one of these elements results in a different final result. So, the following sections describe my 4-layer recipe for perfectly balanced (and tasty) user growth. 0–5k Zesters: Be a (nice) human The first layer is “Be a nice human.” Forget what you’ve been told about doing things that scale and automating everything and focus on personally connecting with your users. Just be yourself. How simple is that, eh? As we spoke with our colleagues and friends about Zest, we learned that they were tired of talking to machines. They wanted to feel the warmth of our hands on their shoulders They wanted to know that there were humans just like them who were building this product. So, in the first few months after we launched, I personally communicated with thousands of users via email–no automation. When users submitted content to Zest, they received an email response from me explaining why their content had been accepted or rejected. As a result of this personal interaction, I created real relationships with and got to know those early adopters. I learned their lingo, discovered their pain points, and received their feedback–the good and the bad–about our product. I was able to help people I’d never previously met find jobs and consult with them about their daily professional struggle. The people I connected with became a tribe of power users who spread the word about Zest to their colleagues who then did the same. These early users are still active on Zest today. If this is not scalable, then what is? Set the tone with vulnerability, authenticity, and transparency Being human means that we have to set the right tone of voice (TOV) for our brand as well. The Zest TOV is one that communicates vulnerability, authenticity, and transparency (VAT). Our goal is to stay humble and deliver real value through each contact. To achieve this goal, the VAT methodology guides all of our communications with users from emails to blog posts. Vulnerable doesn’t mean you need to be cheesy, though. This article, , is an example of how our VAT communication strategy looks in practice.In the piece, Idan details how we killed our newsletter because we believed it wasn’t good enough. It was a one-newsletter- fits-all product rather than being the kind of hyper-personalized content our users expected. Also, we made one too many mistakes in the way we delivered the newsletter, so we decided to kill it and explain why in a very public way. Good for our KPI’s, bad for our users–we’re killing our newsletter A year later, we launched a new super-customized newsletter: UpSkill. UpSkill delivers custom-selected content to each subscriber based on their Zest activity and profile. This “anti-newsletter” delivers the kind of hyper-personalized experience that our users deserve. As for authenticity, our social posts are designed with this value in mind. Our text and creatives, such as the ones we use to introduce new team members, are casual and unpolished and allow users to see the real people behind Zest. Our VAT methodology doesn’t just apply to user communications either. When we started our pre-seed fundraising efforts, we created an open dashboard for all investors which displayed our KPIs. The dashboard included metrics that demonstrated our successes and not so successes. We chose to reveal both the good and the bad because we wanted to attract investors who shared our values and vision. The dashboard’s messaging invited like-minded investors to become a part of our journey. What happened after we published this dashboard? It was shared and discovered by potential investors around the world. More than 700 of those investors contacted us and we found the right travel companions for the next leg of Zest’s growth. As an added value, the larger Zest community also appreciated our willingness to share these early-stage, internal statistics. 6k to 20k Zesters: Switching on the machines, but gently After we got to ~5k users, we felt that it’s time to switch on the machines and use more automation in our user-facing efforts. After all, there were only so many emails I could send in a day and we didn’t want to keep users waiting for feedback. We didn’t abandon our VAT style when we switched on the machines, though. Our automated email texts were based on the tens of thousands of 1 on 1 exchanges we had previously shared with users. These correspondences informed our TOV and the content of our automated communications. Our new set of emails also went beyond delivering my personal feedback on users’ suggested content or answering their questions. Now, we were focused on using our communications to drive further growth by making our users feel successful, appreciated, and part of a community. To improve our chances of success, we introduced each new email gradually and tested everything to gauge our users’ responses. Of course, introducing automation wasn’t the only step we took to grow Zest from 6k to 20k users. How we developed the Product-[X] Fit methodology During this second phase of growth, we also focused our energies on one of the key factors that determines the success or failure of any startup: that elusive unicorn known as product-market fit. This process added an entirely new set of layers to our growth strategy and required us to change both our mindset and workflows. We began by breaking down our main goal into smaller, more manageable segments. Using this methodology, “product” becomes “features,” “market” becomes “Zesters.” Our workflow begins with the development of a feature that we then test with a few of the power users. This is the feature-user fit step. Then we iterate. The next step is to achieve feature-tribe fit. In this step, the feature is introduced to either the entire Zest tribe or a large beta helpers group to gain further feedback. Then we iterate. Only after we’ve completed this process for our product’s features do we move forward with product fit which repeats the same steps of testing the product with power users, then the full tribe or a beta testing group. By taking each feature and the product as a whole though this multi-stage process of evaluation and iteration, we achieve our ultimate goal which is strong product-market fit. Defining product-market fit starts with a retention-first mindset and clear retention KPIs I’ve explained how we achieve product-market fit. But how can you know when you’ve achieved it? There are lots of definitions of product-market fit. But I think that most of them are pure fluff. Our methodology requires data. You can’t claim to have achieved a goal if you can’t quantify it. To determine if you are achieving growth, I recommend that startups track their retention rates. Good retention can grow your user base. Great retention can explode it. Zest’s growth indicator KPIs include our Day 1, Day 7 and Day 30 retention rates, Power User Curve, daily and monthly active users, and the behavior of select cohorts over time. We track D1, D7 and D30 retention to see how many users are coming back to the product after their first introduction and how sticky the product is. Power User Curve analysis allows us to keep an eye on our most engaged and active users. These are the users who are most likely to be our brand advocates and drive our growth. Evaluating the DAU to MAU ratio reveals how important our product is in the lives of our users. How many of those who use the product at least monthly use it daily? Cohorts analysis to see the behavior of our users over time. This information helps us identify trends in user behavior and assess the impact of product additions and updates. Adopting a product-led growth strategy Yes, I know it has become the latest industry buzzword, but it’s not just buzz for us. Product-led growth is our strategy because we are a product-first company. This means that product defines our roadmap, core KPIs, and is responsible for generating user acquisition. Marketing then steps in and supports the product roadmap. These product-market fit methodology and product-first mindsets are the guiding principles upon which Zest’s growth strategy was built. Here’s what that strategy looks like within the product. Helping Zesters to adopt the product and the community Once our mindset was aligned, it was time to grow a community. We wanted our users to understand how important they are to the company and how they function as an integral part of the Zest solution. We have implemented several strategies to grow the Zest tribe and strengthen our community. Here are three examples I really like: Infinitely onboarding our users Making the content contribution process transparent Building bonds between users Infinite onboarding Our onboarding process is simple, unique and a little bit surprising. We want our users to notice that this isn’t your usual onboarding experience. We also wanted them to feel a sense of accomplishment. So, each step in our onboarding walkthrough is accompanied by a success message. In the above image, you can see what happens after you accomplish the first step in the onboarding: A success message pops up and takes you to YouTube. What makes it “infinite” is that each time you open the app, different time- or action-based events may trigger new messages which allow you to discover new app features or revisit ones which you have not used for a while. This process provides Zesters with a lot of micro “AHA!” moments and increases their product appreciation levels. Transparent content contribution process Content contributions from engaged users are the heart of Zest. So, we wanted to make the process of contributing content as transparent and frictionless as possible. Once a user suggests content, they can check its status at each step in the distillation process. Users can also find out when the content they contributed will be published or, if it was rejected, they can view the reason. A transparent and accessible contribution process aligns with Zest’s product and brand propositions and enhances the process’s credibility. Building bonds between users Creating networks within Zest is a core brand activity. To build bonds and lay down the foundations for an internal social network, we added a “Thank a fellow Zester” feature that allows users with the tap of a finger to send a thank you message to a Zester they believe contributed a valuable piece of content. Zest users can also follow fellow Zesters and receive alerts when someone they follow has contributed new content on Zest. These elements of the Zest product all reinforce our commitment to community and the formation of lasting relationships with and among our users. But that’s not the end of our journey. Next, our team needed to prepare itself for the ride from 20k to 100k engaged and active Zest users I encourage you to read yourself and share it with your team. It combines learning theory with practical applications in a way that allows you to implement strategies that will improve your productivity and understand why those strategies work. The Roadmap Now please take a deep breathing and get ready for the next phase of Zest journey- our growth from 21k to 100k+ users — and discover how the strategies we used to transition from creating a solid foundation of early users to focusing on growth at scale.

D1 BRANDS

d1brands.io

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

D1 BRANDS

EVERGREEN INDEX #3396

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

D1 Brands WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!

D1 BRANDS

d1brands.io

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

D1 BRANDS

EVERGREEN INDEX #3396

RELATED COMPANIESRANK

STORIES ABOUT D1 BRANDS

Representing this company? Click here to claim and customize this page!

D1 Brands WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!