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What is a race condition? I searched for a good definition of a race condition and this is the best I found: A race condition is unanticipated behavior caused by multiple processes interacting with shared resources in a different order than expected. This is quite the mouthful and it is still not very clear how race conditions show up in . Rails Using Rails, we are always working with multiple processes — each request or background job is an individual process that can operate mostly independently of other processes. We are also always working with shared resources. Does the application use a relational database? That's a shared resource. Does the application use some kind of caching server? Yup, that's a shared resource. Do you use some kind of external API? You guessed it — that's a shared resource. There are two example categories of race conditions that I would like to talk about and then touch on how to approach addressing them. Read-modify-write The read-modify-write category is a type of race condition where one process will read values from a shared resource, modify the value within memory, and then attempt to write it back to the shared resource. This seems very straightforward when we look at it through the lens of a single process. But when a second process comes up, it can result in some unanticipated behavior. Consider code that looks like this: class IdeasController < ActionController::Base

  def vote
    @idea = Idea.find(params[:id])
    @idea.votes += 1
    @idea.save!
  end

end Here we are reading ( ), modifying ( ), then writing ( ). Idea.find(params[:id]) @idea.votes += 1 @idea.save! We can see that this would increment the number of votes on an idea by one. If there was an idea with zero votes, it would end with having one vote. However, if a second request came in and read the idea from the database while it still had zero votes and incremented that value in memory, we could have a situation where two votes come in simultaneously — yet the end result is that the number of votes in the database is only one. This is also referred to as the race condition. lost update Check-then-act The check-then-act category is a type of race condition where data is loaded from a shared resource, and depending on the value present, we determine if an action needs to be performed. One of the classic examples of how this shows up is in the validation in Rails, like this: validates_uniqueness_of class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  validates_uniqueness_of :email
end Consider code that looks like this: User.create(email: "demo@example.com") With the validation in place, Rails will check if there is any existing user with that email. If there is no other, it will act by persisting the user into the database. However, what would happen if a second request was executing the same code at the same time? We could end up in a situation where both requests check to determine if there is duplicate data (and there is none) — then they will both act by saving the data, resulting in a duplicate user in the database. Addressing race conditions There is no silver bullet for fixing race conditions, but there are a handful of strategies that can be leveraged for any particular problem. There are three main categories for removing race conditions: 1. Remove the critical section While this could be viewed as deleting the offending code, sometimes you can refactor the code so that it isn't vulnerable to race conditions. Other times, you can look into atomic operations. An atomic operation is one where no other process can interrupt the operation so you know it will always execute as a single unit. For the read-modify-write example, instead of incrementing the idea votes in memory, they could be incremented in the database: @ideas.increment!(:votes) That will execute sql that looks like this: UPDATE "ideas" SET "votes" = COALESCE("votes", 0) + 1 WHERE "ideas"."id" = 123 Utilizing this would not be subject to the same race conditions. For the check-then-act example, instead of allowing Rails to validate the model, we could insert the record directly into the database with an upsert: User.where(email: "demo@example.com").upsert({}, unique_by: :email) That will insert the record into the database. If there is a conflict on email (which would require a unique index on email) it will simply ignore the insert. 2. Detect and recover Sometimes you cannot remove the critical section. It is possible there may be an atomic action, but it doesn't quite work in the way that the code requires. In those situations, you can try a detect and recover approach. With this approach, safeguards are set up that will inform you if a race condition happens. You can either gracefully abort or retry the operation. For the read-modify-write example, this could be done with . Optimistic locking is built into Rails and can allow detection of when multiple processes are operating on the same record at the same time. To enable optimistic locking, you only need to add a column to your table and Rails will automatically enable it. optimistic locking lock_version change_table :ideas do |t|
  t.integer :lock_version, default: 0
end Then when you attempt to update a record, Rails will only update it if the is the same version it was in memory. If it isn't, it will raise a exception, which can be rescued to handle it. Handling it could be a or it could just be an error message reported back to the user. lock_version ActiveRecord::StaleObjectError retry def vote
  @idea = Idea.find(params[:id])
  @idea.votes += 1
  @idea.save!
rescue ActiveRecord::StaleObjectError
  retry
end For the check-then-act example, this could be done with a unique index on the column, then rescuing the exception when persisting the data. add_index :users, [:email], unique: true With a unique index in place, if data already exists in the database with that , Rails will raise an error and that can be rescued and handled appropriately. email ActiveRecord::RecordNotUnique begin
  user = User.create(email: "demo@example.com")
rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotUnique
  user = User.find_by(email: "demo@example.com")
end Idempotency In order to retry actions, it is important that the entire operation is idempotent. This means that if an operation is performed multiple times, the result is the same as if it was only applied once. For instance, imagine if a job sent out an email and it was performed whenever an idea's votes were changed. It would be really bad if an email was sent out for each retry. To make the operation idempotent, you could hold off sending the email until the entire voting operation was complete. Alternatively, you could update the implementation of the process that sends the email to only send the email if votes changed from the last time it was sent out. If a race condition occurs and you need to retry, the first attempt at sending an email might result in a no-op and it is safe to trigger it again. Many operations might not be idempotent — such as enqueueing a background job, sending an email, or calling a third-party . API 3. Protect the code If you cannot detect and recover, you can try to protect the code. The goal here is to create a contract where only one process can access the shared resource at a time. Effectively, you are removing concurrency — since only one process can have access to a shared resource, we can avoid most race conditions. The tradeoff though is that the more concurrency is removed, the slower the application can be as other process will wait until they are allowed access. This could be handled using pessimistic locking that is built in with Rails. To use , you can add to queries that are being built, and Rails will tell the database to hold a row lock on those records. The database will then prevent any other process from obtaining the lock until it is done. Be sure to wrap the code in a so the database knows when to release the lock. pessimistic locking lock transaction Idea.transaction do
  @idea = Idea.lock.find(params[:id])
  @idea.votes += 1
  @idea.save!
end If row-level locking isn't possible, there are other tools such as Redlock or with_advisory_lock that could be used. These will allow locking an arbitrary block of code. Using this could be as simple as something like this: email = "demo@example.com"
User.with_advisory_lock("user_uniqueness_#{email}"} do
  User.find_or_create_by(email: email)
end These strategies will cause processes to wait until a lock is obtained. So, they will also want to have some form of timeout to prevent a process from waiting forever — as well as some handling for what to do in the event of a timeout. While there is no panacea for fixing race conditions, many race conditions can be fixed through these strategies. However, each problem is a little different, so the details of the solutions can vary. You can take a look at which goes more into detail about race conditions. my talk from RailsConf 2023 About the Author Kyle d’Oliveira Kyle is passionate about turning abstract ideas into working pieces of software. He is a principal software engineer at . When not developing, Kyle enjoys amazing food and craft breweries near his home in Vancouver, Canada. Aha! — the world’s #1 product development software Also published here.

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belong to the semiconductor memory. ROM is the abbreviation of read-only memory, and RAM is the abbreviation of random access memory. ROM can keep data when the system powers off, and RAM is the opposite, a typical RAM is the computer memory. But sometimes we are not clear: what is the difference between Flash Memory and ROM and RAM? How much do you really know about memory, or RAM, ROM, and flash memory specifically? Here we will tell them in different aspects, this article will act as a guide to basic memories. ROM and RAM 1. What are the types of RAM? RAM Upgrade Guide - What You Need to Know 1.1 Static RAM (SRAM) SRAM is very fast and the fastest storage device to read and write currently, but it is also very expensive, so it is only used in demanding places, such as the first and second level buffer of CPU. 1.2 Dynamic RAM (DRAM) DRAM keeps data for a short time and its operation is slower than the SRAM, but it's still faster than the ROM. In addition, it's much cheaper than SRAM. The computer memory is DRAM. DRAM is divided into many kinds, the most common ones are FPRAM / FastPage, EDORAM, SDRAM, DDR, RAM, RDRAM, SGRAM, WRAM, and so on. DDR RAM, one of which is introduced here. DDR RAM (Double-Date-Rate RAM), also known as DDR SDRAM, the improved RAM, and SDRAM, are essentially the same, except that they can read and write data twice in one clock, doubling the speed of data transmission. This is the most used memory in a computer today, and it has a cost advantage, which in fact defeats another Intel memory~ Rambus DRAM. Many high-end graphics cards are also equipped with high-speed DDR RAM to increase bandwidth, which can greatly improve the pixel rendering capability of 3D accelerator cards. 2. What are the types of ROM? PROM (programmable ROM), is programmed once that can not be modified, this is an early product, now it is gone. EPROM (erasable and programmable ROM), is a kind of universal memory that erases the original program by ultraviolet radiation. EEPROM is electronically erased, very expensive, long writing time. For example, mobile phone software is generally placed in the EEPROM, when we call, some of the last numbers that are dialed are temporarily in the SRAM, but not immediately written in the call log (the call record is stored in the EEPROM). Memory is used to store data and programs that are currently in use (that is in execution), and the memory of the computer we normally used refers to dynamic memory (that is DRAM). The so-called "dynamic" in dynamic memory refers to when we write data to the DRAM, after a period of time, the data will be lost, so we need an extra circuit to refresh the memory. It works like this: whether a DRAM's memory cell stores 0 or 1 depends on whether the capacitor has a charge. 1 represents a charge, 0 represents no charge. But over time, the capacitance of 1 will discharge, and the capacitance of 0 will absorb the charge, which is why the data is lost. Taking refresh operation regularly checks the capacitor, if the charge is greater than 1/2 of the full charge, it is considered to represent 1, charging the capacitor fully; If the quantity of electricity is less than 1/2, it is considered to represent 0, and the capacitor is discharged to maintain the continuity of the data. 3. What is Flash Memory? Flash memory combines the advantages of ROM and RAM. It not only has the electrically erasable and programmable capability (EEPROM), but also can read data quickly without power loss (the advantage of NVRAM). This memory is used in USB and MP3. For the past 20 years, embedded systems have been using ROM (EPROM) as their storage device. However, in recent years, FLASH has completely replaced the position of ROM (EPROM) in embedded systems to store Bootloader and operating systems, or Program code or directly as the hard disk (U disk). At present, there are two kinds of NOR Flash and NAND Flash. NOR Flash reading is the same as the common SDRAM reading. Users can run the code loaded in NOR FLASH directly, which reduces the capacity of the SRAM and saves cost. NAND Flash doesn’t have a memory random read technique, which reads in the form of a block at a time, usually 512 bytes at a time, thus it is cheaper. Users cannot run program code on NAND directly, so many developers using NAND have to use a small NOR Flash to startup and run code. NOR Flash is generally used in small capacity because of its fast reading speed, and it is used to store important information such as operating systems. The most common NAND FLASH used for large capacity combines with embedded system DOC (Disk On Chip) and common "flash disk", which can be erased online. At present, the FLASH on the market mainly comes from Intel, AMD, Fujitsu, and Toshiba, and the main manufacturers of NAND Flash are Samsung and Toshiba. NOR and NAND are the two main non-volatile flash memory technologies in the market. Intel first developed NOR flash technology in 1988, which completely changed the situation in which EPROM and EEPROM dominated the world. Then, in 1989, Toshiba published its NAND flash architecture, emphasizing lower cost per bit, higher performance, and easy upgrades via interfaces like disks. But after more than a decade, a considerable number of hardware engineers still can not distinguish between NOR and NAND flash memory. Flash memory is often used interchangeably with phase NOR memory. Many in the industry are also confused about the advantages of NAND flash over NOR because in most cases flash memory is only used to store a small amount of code, and NOR flash memory may be more appropriate, while NAND is an ideal solution for data needed high storage density. NOR is the main non-volatile flash memory technology in the market. NOR is generally used to store a small amount of code, especially in code storage media. NOR is characterized by simple application, no special interface circuit, high transmission efficiency, it belongs to the in-chip execution(XIP, eXecute In Place), so that applications can run directly in (NOR) flash memory. No longer need to read the code into the system RAM. Low write and erase speed can be very cost-effective but affect its performance for a small capacity when it is 1~4MB. NOR flash comes with an SRAM interface and has enough address pins to access, it is convenient to store and use each byte. NOR flash accounts for the majority of the 1~16MB flash market. NAND structure can provide extremely high cell density and high storage density, and fast write and erase speed. The difficulty of applying NAND lies in the management of flash and the need for a special system interface. 3.1 Performance Comparison Flash memory is non-volatile memory and can be erased and reprogrammed on the memory cell block. The write operation of any flash device can only be done in an empty or erased cell, so in most cases, the erasure must be performed before the writing. In general, the NAND devices perform the erasure operation easily. But NOR requires that all bits in the target block be written as 1 before erasing. Since the NOR device is erased as a block of 64~128KB, the time to perform a write / erase operation is 5s. In contrast, the erasure NAND device is performed as a block of 8~32KB, and the same operation only needs 4 ms at most. The performance gap between NOR and NADN is further widened by the difference of block size in the execution of erasure. It is shown that for a given set of write operations (especially when updating small files), more erasure operations must be performed in NOR-based cells. Therefore, when choosing a storage solution, the designer must weigh the following factors: The read speed of NOR is a little faster than NAND, but the writing speed is the opposite. The 4ms erasure speed of NAND is much faster than that of NOR. Most writing operations need running erasure. The NAND erasure unit is smaller and the corresponding erasure circuit is less. 3.2 Interface Difference NOR flash has a SRAM interface, and enough address pins to address, and easy storage and program to every byte inside. NAND devices use complex I/O ports to serially access data, which may vary from product to product or from manufacturer to manufacturer. Eight pins are used to transmit and control address and data information. NAND read and write operations use 512-byte blocks, which is similar to hard disk management. Naturally, NAND-based memory can replace hard drives or other block devices. 3.3 Capacity and Cost The cell size of NAND flash is almost half that of NOR devices. Because of the simpler manufacturing process, the NAND structure can provide higher capacity within a given die size, thus lowering the price accordingly. NOR flash accounts for most of the 1~16MB flash market, while NAND flash is only used in 8~128MB products, which means that NOR is mainly used in code storage, and NAND is suitable for data storage, mainly used in CompactFlash, Secure Digital, PC Cards, and MMC memory cards. 3.4 Reliability and Durability One of the key issues needed to consider is reliability when using flashs media. For systems that need to extend MTBF, Flash is a very suitable storage solution. So the reliability of NOR and NAND can be compared between bit switching, lifetime (durability), and bad block processing. Service Life The maximum number of erasures per block in NAND flash memory is one million times, while that of NOR is 100,000 times. In addition, NAND memory has the advantage of 10: 1 erasure speed, 8 times smaller than that of the NOR device, and each NAND memory block has fewer deletions at a given time. Bit Switching All-flash devices are plagued by bit switching. In some cases (rarely, NAND occurs more often than NOR), a bit reverses, or its reversion is reported. One changing bit may not be obvious, but if it happens on a critical file, this minor failure could cause the system to shut down. If the existing wrong report, it may be solved by reading it a few more times. Of course, if the bit really changes, the error detection/error correction (EDC/ECC) algorithm must be used. The problem of bit inversion is more common in NAND flash memory, therefore, it is recommended that using NAND flash memory and EDC/ECC algorithm at the same time. But this problem is not fatal when storing multimedia information in NAND. Of course, if you use a local storage device to store an operating system, configuration file, or other sensitive information, you must use the EDC/ECC system to ensure reliability. Bad Block Processing The bad blocks in NAND devices are randomly distributed. There have been previous efforts to eliminate bad blocks, but they found that the yield is too low and the cost is too high. The NAND device needs to initialize the medium to detect the bad block and mark it. In the fabricated devices, the failure rate will be high if this treatment cannot be carried out by a reliable method. 3.5 Simple Operation NOR-based flash memory can be used very directly, can be connected to other memory, and can run code directly on it. NAND is much more complex because of the need for an I / O interface. Access methods for various NAND devices vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. When using NAND devices, you must write to the driver before doing anything else. Writing information to NAND devices requires that designers don’t write to bad blocks, which means virtual mapping is necessary all the time on NAND devices. 3.6 Software Support When discussing software support, a distinction should be made between basic read/write / erasing operations and higher-level software for disk emulation and algorithms of flash management, also including performance optimization. Running code on a NOR device doesn't require any software support. But using a NAND device, you usually need a driver, that is MTD(Memory Technology Driver). Both NAND and NOR devices need MTD when writing and erasing operations. NOR devices require less MTD, because many vendors offer more advanced software for NOR devices, including M-System 's TrueFFS driver, which is used by manufacturers such as Wind River System, Microsoft, QNX Software System, Symbian, and Intel. It also used to simulate DiskOnChip products and manage the NAND flash memory, including error correction, bad block handling, and loss balancing. The main manufacturers of NOR FLASH are INTEL and MICRO, which used to be the mainstream of FLASH products, but its market share now squeezed by NAND FLASH. Its advantage is that it can run programs directly from FLASH, but the process is complex, thus it is expensive. NAND FLASH's main suppliers are SAMSUNG and Toshiba, and it widely used in USB drives, memory cards, and MP3 players. With different processes, it has a larger storage capacity and is cheaper than the NOR FLASH. But also has the drawback, is unable to address runs the program directly, only used to store the data. In addition, NAND FLASH is very prone to bad blocks, so it is necessary to detect it by the related algorithm. NAND FLASH is used to store data and programs in laptops, but it must be started with NOR FLASH. In addition to SAMSUNG processors, other mainstream processors for laptops do not support NAND FLASH startup directly. Therefore, you must start the machine with a small piece of NOR FLASH, and run OS and other software through the NAND FLASH load into SDRAM. 4. Conclusion The DRAM uses the charge on the gate capacitor of the MOS transistor to store the information. Once the power is down, all the information will be lost. Because the grid will leak, it needs refresh operation to replenish the charge on these gate capacitors regularly. And every time the data is read out, it requires running the same work. This is called dynamic refresh, so it is called dynamic RAM. Because it uses only one MOS to store information, it can be highly integrated and can do a lot of work. SRAM uses registers to store information, so once the power is down, the data will be lost. But when the power supply, its data will always exist without the need for a dynamic refresh, thus it is called static RAM. The above is mainly used in the system with large capacity, does not need to recover data through refresh operation. Flash ROM uses the capacitor on the floating gate to store the charge to store the information, because the floating gate does not leak, so the information can still be saved after the power is off. Also because of its simple mechanism, it can be integrated highly, and the capacity can be very large. Flash ROM needs to be erased by electricity before writing, but in a different approach of erasure, EEPROM can be erased in bytes, and flash ROM can only be done in the sector. However, it can be written in byte units, mainly used for bios, U disk, and Mp3 devices that require large capacity and data storage when power is down. FAQ 1.What is ROM and its function? Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of storage medium that permanently stores data on personal computers (PCs) and other electronic devices. It contains the programming needed to start a PC, which is essential for boot-up; it performs major input/output tasks and holds programs or software instructions. 2. What are the four types of ROM? MROM (Masked ROM) ... PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory) ... EPROM (Erasable and Programmable Read-Only Memory) ... EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read-Only Memory) ... 3. What is a RAM in a computer? RAM stands for random-access memory, but what does that mean? Your computer RAM is essentially short-term memory where data is stored as the processor needs it. This isn't to be confused with long-term data that's stored on your hard drive, which stays there even when your computer is turned off. 4. What is flash memory used for? Flash memory is a long-life and non-volatile storage chip that is widely used in embedded systems. It can keep stored data and information even when the power is off. It can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. Flash memory was developed from EEPROM (electronically erasable programmable read-only memory). 5. Is Flash memory a RAM or ROM? RAM is Read-Only Memory. Unlike RAM, ROM is persistent storage. ... Flash Memory is one category of ROM i.e Electrically Erasable Read Only Memory (EEPROM). 6. What is flash memory and its types? Flash memory is a type of erasable read-only memory (EEPROM) that clears and rewrites data in chunks for fast, energy-efficient access and rewriting. Flash memory, or flash storage, is non-volatile, which means it remains viable even without an active power source. Previously published at https://www.kynix.com/Blog/Tutorial-The-Difference-Between-Various-Memories.html

Differences Between RAM, ROM, And Flash Memory: All You Need To Know

Diferencias entre RAM, ROM y memoria flash: todo lo que necesita saber

To start with, this is a tricky topic, where I might find people in conflict with my perception but after all when isn’t conflict a promising act. Conflict by its meaning is a disagreement where one holds an entirely opposite perspective and surely does one defend it as if it was their very own life at stake. I think that is a beauty of it, perhaps lasting for a long time that is unexpected or usual. I would put it as my experience to suggest that I have seen people get excited and enthusiastic about doing something. It can be an idea or a project or anything that they either want to achieve in life or a common goal to which one puts an effort. The phenomenon that can be instantly noticed is that the excitement or the enthusiasm does not last very long, it is as if a bubble started gulping with air and before it reached its potential where it should have held, it just bursts into nothingness. The pattern repeats very often and has been repeating for much longer than I really thought it would. This is what triggered me to write for it in the hope that maybe someone other than myself is experiencing a similar act of time. The current COVID-19 pandemic is a great setback, as we go through it, seeing and feeling what a pandemic is. I think, unknowingly our society had another pandemic embedded into it, which to this day, hasn’t been much noticed and no cure developed for it.  I would call that pandemic, the society’s algorithm for literally categorizing everything possible. This attempt of categorization is backed by the idea of understanding, the happening but I would like to add that such attempts of categorization have crept into our skin by fueling concepts such as racism, radicalism, and hierarchies. There is a category, I myself would specifically want to talk about, it is the category of the doers and the thinkers where one does and the other does not. In my opinion, the word the thinkers are totally out of context to the word doers, therefore, I would like to replace the word with doers and the no doers because thinking is a requirement for enabling one to do something, imagine doing something without thinking, it would simply not fit but somehow the comparison has been accepted by the majority that those that think simply are unequipped to do anything. Let’s talk about the no doers a little. The question at pace would be, how does one do something to become a no doer? A no doer would seem like someone moving through a river but ending nowhere. Someone who seems to pass by something but still remains there. In a more general perspective, an illusion of movement yet it remains there. Now with reference to such a definition, there is a lot around me and perhaps you, people, places, ideas, abilities, and life that would seem fitting to it. Yes, it is fitting, like those people might have met 3 years back, and they were at a position in a company, and today they still are there but when you ask, they just seem to complain that they are unable to do something about it or perhaps they are doing but the result cannot be seen. It is as if they are stuck in an endless loop of time that just repeats and repeats. The repetition is what can be termed as a pattern. A process that leads to the same result no matter what changes. I think some might term that insanity, trying to do the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. Let’s try defining, what a doer is. A doer should be the opposite of a no doer. The opposite would say that a doer would seem like someone not moving through the river and yet ending somewhere. Now to me this river really makes context, it is the river where people want you to just go with the flow, not oppose it whereas my question is if you want to be a doer, you shouldn’t be in a river where everything is about to go with the flow. From a general perspective, a doer would have no illusion of movement, therefore it doesn’t remain at a single point. A doer is someone constantly in motion, either at one point or another but not the same point where it as reached does it reach again. A doer is like what we say about lightning, that which does not strike the same place twice. Therefore, doers are unpredictable, and this unpredictability in anything is what I call power. There is no pattern to it, the doership of one’s struggle. I have a little dilemma that I have observed, it is the idea of predestination. I would say it is a theory, that all one does and will is fixed and no matter what he or she does, it cannot change. Think of an industrialist, a businessman of the dark ages. One who is smart, cunning like a fox, and a great observant. One who is dramatic and has touch of dictatorship to him. One who is power-hungry and has discovered how much man is inclined to find answers in the abyss of the unknown element of life. Now, these characteristics boiled together will make one wary of competition and because of this fear of competition one needs to stay on top of the food chain. He will surely use the idea of predestination to socially restrict his peers and society because that is the only way, he can ensure that the power struggle stays within his lineage. The idea of predestination fixates one in what one cannot be and what one should be i.e defined by systems and people around him. Once fixated, he or she repeats becoming a pattern, and patterns produce the same result over and over again while the human nature in this pattern expects something different. To find a different place in life, one that is better than what you think you currently have, one needs to break the pattern, and to break the pattern, one needs to adapt to doership and leave behind the idealogy of no doers that prisons people to restrictions. Earlier, I did mention that the word thinkers was out of context, you are not born or predestined to fixation, you can always think out of it, and change the current result. Man’s ability to learn out of situations is what makes him truly unpredictable, unpredictable as lightning does not strike the same place twice. So by violating, the law of predestination set by some fanatic person from the dark ages, you become the embodiment of free will, a  will that is powerful beyond measure, to give you whatever you desire. Reference https://www.dictionary.com/ https://unsplash.com/ https://www.pexels.com/

Doers Vs No Doers: An Analytical Approach

Pandora's box has been opened.  Bitcoin has proven that decentralized tech can be used to push back against oppressive regimes.  But that's not just important to monetary policy. In the next several years or decades, it is likely that more and more projects spring up that are decentralized and open source, a combination that is the dystopian leader's nightmare. Bitcoin's relative success as a project can be pointed to as inspiration to anyone wishing to build software that can be used to empower individuals and take back control of their human right's.  Gun advocates have always had a strong history in this, but the advances in 3D printing are accelerating their efforts. The ability to teach others to 3D print with code and tools enabled by code is making home gun manufacturing easier, cheaper and faster.  This is an important advancement in the ability to defend oneself in a way that cannot be stopped or censured by the policy idealogues of the day. As 3D gun printing projects gain steam and become more successful in reversing the infringement on the right's of the individual, other projects will begin experimenting with other ways to accomplish this goal focused on other essential human right's. Obviously, there are tons of experiments with tech focused on protection of Freedom of Speech, but the "successful" use cases of this are typically chat applications with end to end encryption and other privacy enhancing features. Eventually, I suspect we will see platforms aimed at replacing the large social platforms that exist today, which have had numerous issues with censorship. Open source and decentralized tech, where anyone can participate in the project without permission, are only going to grow stronger, faster and more relevant in the future.  Many of these may find ways to build on top of Bitcoin or adjacent to it. As more and more people opt-out of the old financial system, they'll begin looking for ways to increase their personal autonomy and freedom.  That will naturally lead to new, interesting projects that will help others do the same. The point is this - as humans become more skilled at cooperating with one another and continuously reducing the friction involved in participating in projects, humans will gain more rights that are far less likely to be infringed, because the code behind their efforts will be decentralized, open source and unstoppable. That's what Bitcoin is at it's core and you should expect this trend to continue. Why is this important?  Because cyber-attacks are becoming more prevalent, defending against them more difficult and nation states are realizing they are unable to defend effectively.  Ransomware is becoming more targeted and tailored to their victims, which are typically local governments or small businesses. Because effective defense is so hard, many governments are using these attacks as opportunity to infringe on rights even more.  The encryption backdoor debate is back in full swing again and politicians are using fear, manipulation and a lack of understanding of privacy from private citizens to push for these policies.  If they are successful in this effort, it will undermine the security and privacy of all. It's rare that governments will admit mistakes or take responsibility for them, so when the encryption backdoors backfire, they will find more reason to reduce privacy and security further, in the name of "National Security". This will only be fuel to the fire for Freedom Tech.  The need for that tech will increase rapidly and see fast adoption.  Individual's rights have been slowly trickled away over a many decades and Bitcoin is only the beginning of what will become a massive shift in how we build, use and deploy tech in the future. Bitcoin is proof that these methods can be used effectively to give back the rights to the individual.

Bitcoin is the bastion of Freedom Tech

Thoughts on Decentralization and what a Centralized Future Might Hold A History of Centralization The internet is like a country broken into several kingdoms. It started as a large pool of tribes and rag-tag communities, but a few parties realized what was being generated by these figurative villages. At which point they either intentionally or unintentionally took control of that resource: data. It’s happened throughout history, the larger and more organized communities realized they could gain resources and power by acquiring new territories. So they did. History is a bloody tapestry of conquests, crusades, and wars fought over whatever the flavor of the century was in terms of resources. Land, silk, salt, gold, there’re plenty of reasons to pillage. The same thing has been happening over the past few decades with the internet, except its occurred on digital real estate. There hasn’t been much bloodshed, because the resource of the decade is data. The internet has become an oligopoly, where the king you bow to is determined by the activity you logged on to perform. Search? Lord Google Purchasing? Queen Amazon Information? Warlord Wikipedia Entertainment? Viscount YouTube Music? Sir Spotify Do you get the picture? I’m not saying the companies above completely control their industries (except for Google), but in most of the categories above there are only a handful of key players controlling their entire subset of digital business. “Every word of every email sent through Gmail and every click made on a Chrome browser is watched by the company. ‘We don’t need you to type at all,’ [Google co-founder Eric] Schmidt once said. ‘We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.’” It’s almost as if we’ve begun to associate progress with centralization. As if to evolve and progress in technology, arts, etc, there needs to be centralized organizations to facilitate. Think about how prevalent the term “One Stop Shop” has become in marketing language and copywriting- we value the benefits centralization bring, we’ve been taught to do so. Who cares? Centralization is only a scary concept when you think about it. The thing is, no one really thinks about it. No one thinks about it because we were given all this great and shiny stuff for free. All these wonderful internet services that make our life more simple at the cost of publicizing our online identity. We rarely stop and wonder what a future where our every move can be predicted might look like, we rarely stop and wonder about the consequences of extreme centralization. Regardless of whether or not you’re a content creator and actively trying to craft a digital persona, or if you’re just casually surfing the web without any intention beyond short term entertainment: you have an online profile. There’s one that Google has created on you, one that Facebook has, Twitter, you name it. They curate the journey you take every time you log onto your computer and open a web browser. The content you consume is fed to you by an algorithm that predicts what you want to see based on your past consumption. Youtube wants you to spend as much time on their platform as possible, the best way to do that is to give you videos that they’re confident you’ll enjoy. In an attempt to serve you, they create a for you. content bubble The intent behind the algorithm isn’t malicious, it’s to provide a better service to the customer, you. The long term results, however, are a little terrifying. A world of people who are only fed information that confirms their own biases. So which content bubble will the person who teaches my children be raised in? What Does Decentralization Really Mean? Before we go any further, let’s take a moment to address what decentralization really is. There are a wide variety of definitions out there and plenty of overused diagrams that make efforts towards explaining the term, but none truly capture the concept as whole. Vitalik Buterin released an article a while back where he touched on the topic of decentralization and the several incorrect definitions that are circulating the internet. Here’s a direct quote where he discusses the different types of decentralization possible. — how many is a system made up of? How many of those computers can it tolerate breaking down at any single time? Architectural (de)centralization physical computers — how many ultimately control the computers that the system is made up of? Political (de)centralization individuals or organizations — does the that the system presents and maintains look more like a single monolithic object, or an amorphous swarm? One simple heuristic is: if you cut the system in half, including both providers and users, will both halves continue to fully operate as independent units? Logical (de)centralization interface and data structures You can find the original article below, I highly suggest reading it! _“Decentralization” is one of the words that is used in the cryptoeconomics space the most frequently, and is often even…_medium.com The Meaning of Decentralization He goes on to list a few examples to better explain the concept: Traditional corporations are politically centralized (one CEO), architecturally centralized (one head office) and logically centralized (can’t really split them in half) Languages are logically decentralized; the English spoken between Alice and Bob and the English spoken between Charlie and David do not need to agree at all. There is no centralized infrastructure required for a language to exist, and the rules of English grammar are not created or controlled by any one single person (whereas Esperanto was originally invented by , though now it functions more like a living language that evolves incrementally with no authority) Ludwig Zamenhof Blockchains are politically decentralized (no one controls them) and architecturally decentralized (no infrastructural central point of failure) but they are logically centralized (there is one commonly agreed state and the system like a single computer) behaves While Vitalik focuses on the technical benefits of decentralization, I tend to think of the societal benefits: although they go hand in hand. Better system architecture and organization will lead to societal benefits. If we take these same concepts and apply them to society, our human world as it currently exists, it has interesting implications for how the way we organize ourselves economically and governmentally might be improved. As well as points out the flaws of our current centralized systems. The Diminishing Returns of Centralization The internet does a great job of creating this sense of personalization, like each individual who uses the internet is going on a unique journey specific to them- when in reality, the biggest commonality between all humans is that we all think we’re unique. Sorry to rain on your parade, I’m sure you’re special, but I guarantee with the right data points I could create a target market of (at an absolute minimum) 5 million people who will perform almost the exact same actions as you on specific websites and platforms. The same purchasing habits, the same reading habits, the same games you play, hell even how far you make it into porn before you decide you're “finished”. It’s all for the sake of simplicity. Simplicity is velocity, and humans are all about speed these days. My main problem with this, the reason for writing this, is that this faux-personalization and simplicity will operate the same way as everything else does, with diminishing returns. Eventually, we’ll hit a point on the bell curve where the returns no longer reach the end user and are solely accrued by those providing the services. Those “free” services we’ve been using for years and years. Not realizing we’re feeding data on what we: eat, live, shop, watch, and masturbate to, directly to companies that can profit from that information. It’s all fun and games until PornHub predicts your next weird fetish before you do. I hope we don’t hit that point. To me, that means that we’ve created so many relevant content bubbles that society fits easily into, that there is no more individuality at all. All content is fed through specific funnels to specific audiences, all quality is determined by algorithms that determine what content is seen by the masses. Life imitates art far more than art imitates life because art is too busy trying to appeal to the Youtube search algorithm. Which is a damn scary thought. If life imitates art, while art is constantly trying to conform within what centralized content distribution channels consider “appropriate” or “good” content, then our current path can lead to a world where life has become an imitation of what search algorithms believe humans want to see- it’s mental masturbation. A constant loop of self-fulfilling content being dictated by what different search algorithms decide is most likely to retain attention. So, Why Decentralize? Because right now we haven’t reached the extreme end of the spectrum. We still have time. The great barrier of our generation won’t be a plague or a world war, it will be having to remain intact and humane while power completely shifts to corporations and centralized entities who then are challenged by the vast majority as soon as they realize their powerless and broke. We need to decentralize to avoid a small group of organizations dictating everything we consume, produce, or utilize. I think the steps leading up to a cultural shift to decentralization (if decentralization doesn’t occur naturally) will be something like this: Micro Communities Become Idealogical Bubbles Larger companies gain more power than governments (except for monarchies and communist nations because they’re essentially 1 gigantic centralized business) Faux-Paradise occurs: technology advances to a place where enough data has been accumulated and there is enough infrastructure for us to live, please forgive me, “our best lives”. Everything will be easy, everything will be connected, everything will be monitored, everything will be controlled. I think we’d be happy with the results of centralization to a point. Extreme centralization would allow seamless interoperability which will be cool as hell. It’s just that extreme interoperability will require either extreme decentralization or extreme centralization- and we’ve seen how much luck we’ve had with extreme cooperation in the past. The question of whether or not you personally believe humanity needs to start shifting towards decentralization comes down to your values. I find myself struggling to truly determine my own ideology. I can be a hypocrite, I preach about privacy & security but unlock my iPhone with facial recognition. That being said, I value free thought, independence, and what little sense of individuality we currently have. I value the future we’re creating and the hopes I have that it’s one I’m not ashamed to have contributed to.

Decentralize or Die — Art Imitates the Algorithm

The title of this article might very well be the only reason why you are here. You may not know me, nor have read any of my previous articles, and you may be wondering who I am to even have an opinion in this space which is already so filled with every ‘blockchain expert’ and ‘experienced crypto trader’s’ opinions already. Chances are, you’re reading this either thinking this will be a breath of fresh air, as I flame all the crypto shiller’s out there, or you are fuming as you are expecting this to be packed full of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt). Now, down to the core of this post, what do I mean and why will cryptocurrencies die? When I say ‘cryptocurrencies will die’, I’m not saying the $100 billion dollar industry is going to disappear and we are all going to lose our money. I mean, I’m just as invested in this industry as the next guy, I even left my safe full time job to work this industry full time. No, what I am saying is that the cryptocurrency market, industry and environment that we have seen in the past is going to cease and be replaced with a new system and framework. Within the existing environment and understanding of this industry there are many misconceptions and poorly constructed ideologies grown through ill-educated individuals and groups. I’m not here to address each misconception or argue against certain ideologies, but rather I’m here to enlighten your eyes to a new world which we are stepping into. What have we built Whenever people ask me what I do for work, I always think, ‘Now how do I explain it to you?’. If I say I work in the blockchain industry, there are two main responses: either & . Either response clearly means I need to do some more explaining before I even come to describing my exact role. Essentially, the mainstream media’s image that they are portraying of our industry is still revolving around the concept of cryptocurrency as a sole purpose and goal. I would argue that this is in part due to the last 24 months where we had the incredible price increases and conception of hundreds of new altcoins/new projects and many scams, followed by ‘the great depression’ where ‘everyone lost their life savings’. At least this is what most people think of when they look back over the last 2 years. In reality, it wasn’t ‘the great depression’ but rather a massive and much needed correction. I mean, Jan 2017 to Jan 2019, and we are still up almost 1000% in . ‘Huh? What’s that?’ ‘Oh, you mean bitcoin?’ Gobal marketcap There is already a great misconception about cryptocurrencies in general, and a large portion of the blockchain community has had a part to play in this misconception with the focus that has been placed on cryptocurrencies, trading and price speculation, instead of blockchain technology. This view has started to change in many of the serious projects, but needs to continue. Because there was such strong focus on cryptocurrencies, any price fluctuation was promoted or condemned far out of proportion. As I alluded to above, the common views held were, if there was a price rise, then everyone is going to be millionaires through the sacrifice of the lesser knowledgeable public trying to enter the industry. If there was a price dump, then this has just confirmed the unsustainable and scammy view that is associated with cryptocurrencies — It is only good for criminals and scam groups, which are criminals anyway. It’s all about the money There is another idealogy that, as an industry, many of the individuals have developed. That is, blockchain technology is here to support cryptocurrencies. At the end of the day, the success of blockchain technology will come down to how well we can provide a use case for cryptocurrencies. This has stemmed from the drive of many of the projects and individuals who are here to make money without understanding the fundamentals of blockchain technology. Now, don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with making money (or wanting to make money), that is a key driver for a large percentage of businesses all over the world. The problem is when you want to make money without understanding the industry of which you are getting involved in. This is what happened in 2017 and as a result we now sit with an ICO graveyard where the figures vary between 50–80% of ICO’s having died out one year later. So, now what? I have just described to a large degree, the environment we have been living in over the last 24 months, when the first wave of blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies flowed throughout the world in a global way. But I believe we have now turned a corner, we have survived the reckoning, we have made it through the refining fire. A large majority of projects who were destined to fail have already done so, and now we are left with a refined (albeit, smaller) range of blockchain related projects who have now proven a few key points. Yes, there will still be projects that fail, but these are of a much lower percentage and are often not from lack of trying, knowledge or planning; but simply due to the fact that creating a start-up is a highly challenging task. What have we proven? Blockchain projects are emerging from the ashes So, what exactly have the surviving projects proven by not only surviving but thriving in this tough environment? Firstly, it has now been proven that there are serious people in this industry, serious people with real, trustworthy and clear intentions. I don’t think many people would realise just how tough you need to be to push through the last 12 months. Aside from the fact that creating any startup is a highly challenging task, regardless of the industry; but doing this when more projects than not are failing around you, you see your token/coin value fluctuate greatly (if you have one), and seeing the negative views from many sources, both within and without the industry, can bring even strong men to their knees if they don’t have the right support and strategies in place. All those that have survived are of a certain character which you need when driving adoption of a new industry. I have the strongest respect for these people and this is what leaders from other industries will look for. “…creating any startup is a highly challenging task… doing this when more projects than not are failing around you… can bring even strong men to their knees if they don’t have the right support and strategies in place.” The next thing that has been proven is that the projects are set up with clear business strategies, safety-nets, funding, and purposes. I would suggest it goes hand in hand, you need solid and purposefully driven people as well as well developed and sustainable business strategies and goals. The last thing that I suggest has been proven in the last 12 months, are real use cases for blockchain technology, not cryptocurrencies. The stigma is still largely revolving around the finance industry and that we are here to disrupt it and replace centralized institutes and banks. The facts say different. Last year I created a that are looking into or already implementing blockchain research projects. I came up with a from around the world. Many of these use cases are using blockchain technology but not even touching the concept of cryptocurrency. And when they do use cryptocurrencies, they are used as a support component, not the fundamental driver to the system. list of banks and financial institutes list of over 220 institutes Looking forward We will start to see stronger adoption in this new year as the focus shifts from blockchain supporting cryptocurrencies, to cryptocurrencies supporting blockchain. It will be harder to fool the public as many fake projects have been washed away. Not only that, but many of the get rich quick investors have also fallen off the crypto bandwagon. What we will see die off is the concept of cryptocurrencies for the sake of cryptocurrencies. There will no longer be room in this industry for fake or poorly developed projects (cryptocurrencies). This isn’t a step back because we have taken the wrong path, but rather it will be stepping forward, out of the refining fire into the polishing factory. We will soon be ready to start spreading in a serious manner throughout mainstream industries. In the first half of this year, we will start to see the launch of a few well developed projects. We’ll also start to see an increase in the partnerships or collaborations between existing enterprise giants and the blockchain industry. There will be a push for dapps (decentralized applications) to appear like normal apps running on windows, OS, and android with user-friendly interfaces.This integration will blur the line between dapps and apps, allowing users to utilise the benefits of blockchain without realising it. So what I mean, is the current paradigm or ideology regarding cryptocurrencies will die, the ability to create scams and get away with it will die (slowly), the understanding of cryptocurrencies as the primary development of the blockchain industry will die. And there is a high chance a few more cryptocurrencies will die too. But in this death, there will be something new and exciting born, we are in the dying days of the age of ‘cryptocurrencies for the sake of cryptocurrencies’. Welcome to the age of blockchain! If you like what you’ve read, be sure to follow my and for more posts blog twitter

Betting on Cryptocurrencies Now Is Not Necessarily A Bet on Blockchain

In this Developer Spotlight, we sat down with Ben Packer, a web developer who focused on natural language processing prior to turning his talents toward web development for non-profit initiatives. Ben serves as the Director of Technology for , an initiative aiming to elect 535 new members of Congress. Check him out on or , and enjoy the Q/A. Cosmic JS Brand New Congress Twitter LinkedIn I’ve been programming for 4 years now, but only full-time professionally for 3 months since I graduated college. I’ve done a bit of everything, previously focusing on natural language processing before turning to web development. How long have you been building software? **What is your preferred development stack?**I’ve used lots of MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, Node), but have recently made the switch to Elixir + Phoenix + Postgres, which is what I’ve done all of my Cosmic based development with. Despite the JS in the Cosmic JS name, Elixir’s been a great fit due to its built-in in-memory storage solution, called “ets” (Erlang Term Storage). This, combined with Cosmic’s web-hooks, has let me serve Cosmic-based pages very quickly out of a cache without managing a separate external Redis or Memcached instance. You can find our Elixir Cosmic wrapper and cache solution . here **What past projects are you most proud of and why?**My work with and has been building the tools required to effectively run a large scale and modern grassroots political campaign. I feel very fortunate that I get to focus and do this political work full-time, rather than volunteer and split my headspace as many developers do. Before working with Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, I developed an open source online meeting platform called , which uses WebRTC technology to bring the experience of breakout groups common in physical meetings to your browser. Brand New Congress Justice Democrats assemble I’m also very happy that I’m able to develop all of these solutions in the open with an A-GPL license attached. Once our tools are mature and ready to be re-purposed, we’ll have reduced the costs of running grassroots political campaigns for other organizations and future campaigns, who will be able to self-host what we’ve developed at a fraction of the cost of traditional campaign software services. Talk a little bit more about your process for building apps. How is building apps for political or idealogical causes different than other client work? **What are some technologies you are excited about that you are using today, or want to learn more about?**Cosmic has made it much easier for me to enable the non-programming parts of our organization to configure the software I make, and to edit the content on our websites. Our use of it has evolved beyond a CMS to a general admin interface — we use it to , as a user whitelist for internal tools, to specify changing webhooks, etc. With Cosmic, after I recognize that a particular component of our website or process will need to change, I can implement a mechanism for that component to be edited or configured in a matter of minutes. manage a url shortener I don’t think that development for political causes is too different than more typical development — we move quickly, things break sometimes, etc. What may be different is that we have volunteers who contribute their own amount of time and/or expertise. If you have experience with Elixir, React, Node.js, or setting up AWS-based workflows and you want to help elect a congress full of individuals who support medicare for all, massive investment in our infrastructure and renewable energy, and refuse to take corporate money, send me an email at and we’ll find the best way for you to help. ben@justicedemocrats.com Our internal tools are built using React, Ant.Design (a React UI toolkit), and communicate with our server over Phoenix Channels (websockets), creating a snappy user experience. Staff members and volunteers will end up spending a lot of their time in these tools, contacting our supporters, managing events, etc., and so it’s important that they’re performant, with as few pain points as possible. For our world facing websites, I’d like to bring as much of the new web as I can to the political space. A lot of the things we’re encouraging supporters to do are collective action problems — individually ineffective, but collectively powerful, and it’s one’s belief that you’re all working alongside others that gives you the confidence to try. However, people are also overworked and worried about the future, including not only the future of our political system but also their next two weeks. So, it’s my hope that in the coming months we’ll be able to design experiences that not only inspire a sense of participation and belonging in collective political action, but that we’ll be able to deliver those experiences while you’re riding a bus and surfing the web on your friend’s old Android phone. To learn how you can contribute Apps, Articles and Extensions to the , contact us at . Cosmic JS Community support@cosmicjs.com

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