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INSTAFIT is an online fitness startup based in Mexico City and co-founded by international entrepreneurs Oswaldo Trava and Natalia Amaya. We make it exciting to work out from home by offering on-demand audio & video fitness classes that combine the guidance of a professional trainer, intelligent programming and fun social interactions to create a truly engaging experience for our users.

We make it possible to get professional fitness training from top coaches without leaving your home for less than half the price of the cheapest gym. 
 
We produce awesome long format workouts led by the world’s best trainers from yoga to functional training to treadmill workouts, with new content published every week and available offline for unparalleled flexibility

The InstaFit app was launched in late 2016 and has paying users in 37 countries. It has a 4.4 star rating, is the #1 ranked health and fitness app in 15 countries, and was selected as best of 2016 by Apple. The company attacks the region´s most important health issue, obesity, through the use of world class technology, creative marketing and lean startup practices in an internet market with a 5 year CAGR of over 30%.

InstaFit

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Naomi Dann, the girlfriend of Newcastle United's new signing Harvey Barnes reacted to his move from Leicester City on Instagram

Newcastle United star Harvey Barnes' influencer WAG Naomi Dann ready for 'new adventure' in city

With Bitcoin’s ETF approval and institutional participation set to reach record levels, particularly in liquid staking and Real World Assets (RWAs), the DeFi landscape is on the edge of a transformative shift towards a new era of financial innovation. The eventual approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF is expected to spur what could be the most significant DeFi Summer yet. This upcoming season will be different from the last, characterized by a surge in institutional investment across liquid staking (via Spot Ethereum ETFs), tokenization of RWAs, and sophisticated financial products. These developments are reshaping the DeFi investment landscape, with financial industry powerhouses like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan leading the way. The approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF will attract liquidity into the liquid staking sector and the DeFi ecosystem Ethereum’s edge over Bitcoin is its staking feature, enabling investors to earn yield. While a Spot Bitcoin ETF primarily offers a more accessible means for institutions to hold Bitcoin, an ETH ETF would extend this accessibility to liquid staking. This is expected to open new revenue streams for issuers and provide retail investors with opportunities to participate in staking without directly owing ETH, thereby easing entry into the crypto market and appealing to a broader range of investors. The liquid staking sector has already garnered attention from institutions, recognizing its advantages over traditional yield-earning methods like bonds. In liquid staking, investors can maintain liquidity through Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) even as their assets are staked and “locked up”. Historical trends suggest that institutional engagement in liquid staking will likely increase following the approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF. For example, following the Shanghai Upgrade, the largest staking platform for institutional investors recorded triple the number of deposits from the previous month, as it enabled the withdrawal of staked ETH for the first time. The approval of an ETH ETF is expected to amplify this interest, offering institutions a more straightforward entry point into Ethereum without the complexities of crypto exposure. Beyond liquid staking, an ETH ETF would benefit the entire DeFi ecosystem. Ethereum’s role as the backbone of DeFi means that increased institutional investment in its consensus layer, facilitated by staked ETH ETFs, could lead to broader interest in other DeFi sectors. Institutions, always in pursuit of new revenue opportunities, may be inspired by their successes in liquid staking to explore other areas like synthetic assets, and derivatives. The Tokenization of RWAs will attract the greatest levels of liquidity RWAs are already acting as a crucial link between traditional finance and the transformative blockchain sector. Witnessing an unprecedented rise, RWAs have grown from $100 million to $1 billion within just a year and are now in the position to become the eighth-largest sector in DeFi, surpassing even derivatives. This growth trajectory is attracting significant institutional interest, with notable examples including BlackRock offering tokenized shares, Goldman Sachs issuing €100M in digital bonds, and the US T-bills market reaching a valuation of US$617M. Despite their potential, DeFi yields often fall short in competing with the security of Treasury bills in the current environment, making investor attraction challenging. However, tokenization is emerging as a more effective method for unlocking liquidity compared to traditional forms of fractionalization. The integration of traditional assets with Web3 technology is a compelling real-world application of blockchain that cannot be ignored. As the market gears up for the next bull run, the adoption of tokenization is expected to gain momentum, particularly among institutional investors. Similar to the impact of liquid staking, the practical benefits of tokenization of RWAs are likely to spur increased institutional interest across DeFi sectors. As the financial landscape gears up for a significant expansion, monitoring the protocols and infrastructure that facilitate this transition becomes crucial, and in this scenario, RWAs are set to play a central role. Tokenization will allow more sophisticated products to come to fruition The ongoing evolution of tokenization is set to transform the realm of staking, broadening its reach to encompass traditional financial instruments like T-bills and bonds. This convergence of Web3 technology with traditional finance is set to simplify institutional entry, thereby drawing in more liquidity. In a financial landscape where interest rates are on a downward trajectory and liquidity is shifting towards more speculative markets, digital assets stand to experience substantial growth. This shift is leading investors to recognize the potential to access a comprehensive range of opportunities in a single location. For instance, tokenized treasury bonds offer monetary premiums while also allowing participation in liquidity pools and engagement in lending markets, providing exposure to high-yield opportunities, within the decentralized finance space, with assets like $ETH being prime examples. As the crypto industry and its offerings continue to develop, so does the sophistication of its user base. Today’s users, with their increasingly complex financial needs, are driving the market towards more mature offerings. There is a growing demand for sophisticated structured products built on yield-bearing assets, offering greater liquidity and more diverse investment options. Conclusion The approval of the Spot Bitcoin ETF was momentous. However, it serves primarily as a precursor to the approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF which is set to be the true catalyst for the coming DeFi Summer. With institutional backing, the TVL of the liquid staking sector is anticipated to increase. Institutions that are eager to capitalize on Ethereum’s yield-generating potential are expected to play a more active role in Ethereum’s consensus layer, thus deepening their involvement across the DeFi ecosystem. At the same time, the tokenization of RWAs is emerging as a dominant sector within DeFi. Already gaining momentum, institutions are recognising the advantages of tokenization over traditional fractionalization methods, particularly in its capacity to enable the creation of sophisticated financial products. The Bitcoin ETF approval has provided the necessary validation for this blockchain application, propelling it to the next level. This integration of Web3 technology with traditional financial instruments, such as T-Bills and bonds, is set to draw more institutional players into the DeFi space, further boosting liquidity and innovation. As we stand on the brink of these groundbreaking developments, the DeFi landscape is not only poised for growth but for a complete transformation, signaling a new era of financial innovation and opportunity. With Bitcoin’s ETF approval and institutional participation set to reach record levels, particularly in liquid staking and Real World Assets (RWAs), the DeFi landscape is on the edge of a transformative shift towards a new era of financial innovation. The eventual approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF is expected to spur what could be the most significant DeFi Summer yet. This upcoming season will be different from the last, characterized by a surge in institutional investment across liquid staking (via Spot Ethereum ETFs), tokenization of RWAs, and sophisticated financial products. These developments are reshaping the DeFi investment landscape, with financial industry powerhouses like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan leading the way. Bitcoin’s ETF approval institutional participation Ethereum ETF The approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF will attract liquidity into the liquid staking sector and the DeFi ecosystem Ethereum’s edge over Bitcoin is its staking feature, enabling investors to earn yield. While a Spot Bitcoin ETF primarily offers a more accessible means for institutions to hold Bitcoin, an ETH ETF would extend this accessibility to liquid staking. This is expected to open new revenue streams for issuers and provide retail investors with opportunities to participate in staking without directly owing ETH, thereby easing entry into the crypto market and appealing to a broader range of investors. The liquid staking sector has already garnered attention from institutions, recognizing its advantages over traditional yield-earning methods like bonds. In liquid staking, investors can maintain liquidity through Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) even as their assets are staked and “locked up”. Historical trends suggest that institutional engagement in liquid staking will likely increase following the approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF. For example, following the Shanghai Upgrade, the largest staking platform for institutional investors recorded triple the number of deposits from the previous month , as it enabled the withdrawal of staked ETH for the first time. The approval of an ETH ETF is expected to amplify this interest, offering institutions a more straightforward entry point into Ethereum without the complexities of crypto exposure. the largest staking platform for institutional investors recorded triple the number of deposits from the previous month the largest staking platform for institutional investors recorded triple the number of deposits from the previous month Beyond liquid staking, an ETH ETF would benefit the entire DeFi ecosystem. Ethereum’s role as the backbone of DeFi means that increased institutional investment in its consensus layer, facilitated by staked ETH ETFs, could lead to broader interest in other DeFi sectors. Institutions, always in pursuit of new revenue opportunities, may be inspired by their successes in liquid staking to explore other areas like synthetic assets, and derivatives. The Tokenization of RWAs will attract the greatest levels of liquidity The Tokenization of RWAs will attract the greatest levels of liquidity RWAs are already acting as a crucial link between traditional finance and the transformative blockchain sector. Witnessing an unprecedented rise, RWAs have grown from $100 million to $1 billion within just a year and are now in the position to become the eighth-largest sector in DeFi, surpassing even derivatives. This growth trajectory is attracting significant institutional interest, with notable examples including BlackRock offering tokenized shares, Goldman Sachs issuing €100M in digital bonds, and the US T-bills market reaching a valuation of US$617M. Despite their potential, DeFi yields often fall short in competing with the security of Treasury bills in the current environment, making investor attraction challenging. However, tokenization is emerging as a more effective method for unlocking liquidity compared to traditional forms of fractionalization. The integration of traditional assets with Web3 technology is a compelling real-world application of blockchain that cannot be ignored. As the market gears up for the next bull run, the adoption of tokenization is expected to gain momentum, particularly among institutional investors. Similar to the impact of liquid staking, the practical benefits of tokenization of RWAs are likely to spur increased institutional interest across DeFi sectors. As the financial landscape gears up for a significant expansion, monitoring the protocols and infrastructure that facilitate this transition becomes crucial, and in this scenario, RWAs are set to play a central role. Tokenization will allow more sophisticated products to come to fruition Tokenization will allow more sophisticated products to come to fruition The ongoing evolution of tokenization is set to transform the realm of staking, broadening its reach to encompass traditional financial instruments like T-bills and bonds. This convergence of Web3 technology with traditional finance is set to simplify institutional entry, thereby drawing in more liquidity. In a financial landscape where interest rates are on a downward trajectory and liquidity is shifting towards more speculative markets, digital assets stand to experience substantial growth. This shift is leading investors to recognize the potential to access a comprehensive range of opportunities in a single location. For instance, tokenized treasury bonds offer monetary premiums while also allowing participation in liquidity pools and engagement in lending markets, providing exposure to high-yield opportunities, within the decentralized finance space, with assets like $ETH being prime examples. As the crypto industry and its offerings continue to develop, so does the sophistication of its user base. Today’s users, with their increasingly complex financial needs, are driving the market towards more mature offerings. There is a growing demand for sophisticated structured products built on yield-bearing assets, offering greater liquidity and more diverse investment options. Conclusion The approval of the Spot Bitcoin ETF was momentous. However, it serves primarily as a precursor to the approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF which is set to be the true catalyst for the coming DeFi Summer. With institutional backing, the TVL of the liquid staking sector is anticipated to increase. Institutions that are eager to capitalize on Ethereum’s yield-generating potential are expected to play a more active role in Ethereum’s consensus layer, thus deepening their involvement across the DeFi ecosystem. At the same time, the tokenization of RWAs is emerging as a dominant sector within DeFi. Already gaining momentum, institutions are recognising the advantages of tokenization over traditional fractionalization methods, particularly in its capacity to enable the creation of sophisticated financial products. The Bitcoin ETF approval has provided the necessary validation for this blockchain application, propelling it to the next level. This integration of Web3 technology with traditional financial instruments, such as T-Bills and bonds, is set to draw more institutional players into the DeFi space, further boosting liquidity and innovation. As we stand on the brink of these groundbreaking developments, the DeFi landscape is not only poised for growth but for a complete transformation, signaling a new era of financial innovation and opportunity.

Institutions, Liquid Staking and RWAs Will Characterise the Next DeFi Summer

ইনস্টিটিউশন, লিকুইড স্টেকিং এবং আরডব্লিউএ পরবর্তী ডিফাই গ্রীষ্মের বৈশিষ্ট্য তৈরি করবে

Institutionen, Liquid Staking und RWAs werden den nächsten DeFi-Sommer prägen

Las instituciones, las apuestas líquidas y los RWA caracterizarán el próximo verano de DeFi

Les institutions, le jalonnement de liquidités et les RWA caractériseront le prochain été DeFi

संस्थान, लिक्विड स्टेकिंग और आरडब्ल्यूए अगले डीफाई समर की विशेषता होंगे

機関投資家、流動性ステーキング、RWAが次のDeFiの夏を特徴づける

기관, 유동 스테이킹 및 RWA가 다음 DeFi 여름의 특징이 될 것입니다

Instituições, Liquid Staking e RWAs caracterizarão o próximo verão DeFi

Институции, ликвидные ставки и RWA будут характеризовать следующее лето DeFi

Gelecek DeFi Yazını Kurumlar, Liquid Staking ve RWA'lar Belirleyecek

Các tổ chức, đặt cược thanh khoản và RWA sẽ đặc trưng cho mùa hè DeFi tiếp theo

机构、流动性质押和风险加权资产将成为下一个 DeFi 夏季的特征

While the COVID-19 pandemic has long faded into the rearview mirror, its lasting impact is still being felt on a widespread scale. For institutional investors, the global market volatility thrown up by an uneven post-pandemic recovery has thrown up fresh opportunities and risks throughout global markets. Although global growth has shown in the wake of the pandemic, an uneven recovery has been intensified by varying international responses to the health crisis, macroeconomic factors like historically high inflation, and the flare-up of geopolitical conflict in Europe and the Middle East. relative resilience In recent months, buoyed by exponential growth in the field of generative AI, the United States has been seen to outpace the likes of Europe and China. However, hopes of early Fed interest rate cuts in the US have been dashed due to lingering high inflation, and the prospect of a tumultuous and close-run presidential election in November may mean that no bloc is fully safe from uncertainty. What does this mean for institutional investors and discovering new opportunities in 2024? The answer may hinge on abandoning old reliances and building a more global outlook. Finding Value in Emerging Markets The impressive form of Sandglass Capital Management’s $262 million flagship fund last year underlined the quality of opportunities to be found in emerging markets (EMs). Returning a in 2023 through the purchase of high-risk government bonds in struggling nations like Sri Lanka, Ghana, Ukraine, and Greece, Sandglass’ returns through November were five times higher than the average in an index maintained by Hedge Fund Research. resounding 23% However, the performance of EMs is becoming increasingly convoluted, and hedge funds may be wise to look to the difficulties experienced throughout the Chinese economy as it struggles to keep up with market expectations. This has invariably pushed more institutions to look on a more widespread scale for opportunities within the world of investment opportunities throughout emerging markets. The view that emerging markets operate as a singular bloc like the European Union risks undermining the many key characteristics that differentiate across the landscape. While many share geopolitical risks and complex international relationships, they can be wildly different in their nature, and require plenty of exploration before institutions can act. Some of the many differences within emerging markets can include their respective roles as energy exporters or importers, and whether an economy is built on manufacturing or services. These can help to develop a more comprehensive understanding of markets and how they operate. For institutions with a more holistic overview of EM opportunities and risks, accessing a through real-time data centers can pave the way for stronger growth prospects as unpredictability continues to dampen the outlook across more traditional economies. full suite of global markets The Return of Risk 2024 is so far shaping up to become the year that risk appetite is returning to institutional investors. Much of this risk appears to revolve around exposure to global emerging markets, with March seeing the biggest rotation into EMs . since April 2017 According to , just under one-fifth of fund managers suggested that emerging market equities were set to become the biggest beneficiaries of US Federal Reserve rate cuts, ranking them behind only long-term growth prospects and value stocks in the survey. Bank of America polling The return of risk appetite throughout institutions is being driven by the expectation of a US economic recovery in 2024, but the uneven post-pandemic recovery still presents risks in the United States and beyond. In a recent survey charting the top global risks posed to economies in 2024, believed that extreme weather was the most likely to pose a material threat on a global scale during the year. However, pandemic recovery-related factors like a cost-of-living crisis and economic downturn accounted for a 75% combined share among respondents. 66% of the 1,490 respondents Other major concerns like an escalation of geopolitical conflict and generative AI misinformation or disinformation in an election year for many major economies also ranked high. For institutions seeking to level up their risk in emerging markets, sufficient due diligence must be conducted before building exposure. With headwinds continuing to loom, EMs carry a significant level of opportunity and danger for funds. Flocking to the Tropics One of the key areas in which hedge funds are looking for value appears to be within the tropics, as appetite for forex carry trades has seen turn their attention to the Brazilian real, Colombian peso, Mexican peso, and Indonesian rupiah with strong levels of upside. masses of market participants In cooler climates, a globalized FX drive can be found in the Hungarian florins’ newfound carry trade popularity, according to Bloomberg’s FX carry trade index, which measures the carry trade returns across various emerging markets. In Asia, global hedge funds have been , with institutions becoming infatuated with the nation’s growing depth and liquidity as a functional alternative to China’s ailing economy. seeking solace in India Recent players entering India’s markets include the Singapore-based hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital and Citadel Securities among various funds and brokers entering a frontier that had long been shunned by institutions due to taxation issues and the inability to hedge investments through short selling. Geopolitical Fragmentation Remains a Threat Although going global appears to be benefitting many risk-taking institutions already in 2024, leading asset manager BlackRock for the year that globalization is undergoing a ‘meaningful shift’ caused by geopolitical fragmentation and economic competition. warned in its outlook According to Trade Openness Index figures published by the BlackRock Investment Institute, trade integration since 2015 has begun falling at a rate that hasn’t been seen since the interwar period in the early 20th Century. This factor only adds to the level of complexity institutions are tasked with overcoming to flourish in the post-pandemic landscape. In a world that’s become increasingly unpredictable since the health crisis in 2020, market volatility is to be expected. For resourceful and risk-taking institutions backed by sufficient research, this presents a series of new opportunities throughout global markets. However, identifying and taking them will be a significant challenge in itself.

Why the Uneven Global Pandemic Recovery Will Lead More Institutions Into Global Markets Than Ever

With the crypto market soaring due to the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and recovering after this long-lasting winter, a slew of new users are joining in. On the eve of the , crypto believers and newcomers search for reliable and secure exchange platforms to buy and swap crypto assets with no headache. Bitcoin halving A veteran cryptocurrency exchange, has already earned the trust of over 6 million users worldwide. This instant exchange platform operates in 150 countries, lists 100,000+ trading pairs, and is trusted by a number of crypto industry leaders: Ledger, Trezor, Exodus, Tonkeeper, Tangem, and many others. Changelly Today, we invite you to take a deeper look into Changelly and its offerings to both crypto ninjas and newbies. By the end of the article, you will learn how the platform has become a market leader and how it is transforming the Web3 space in 2024. Swap Anything for Anything: Changelly at a Glance , a Hong Kong-based crypto exchange, has had a long presence in the market. It was launched in 2015 and has gone through numerous crypto winters and massive rallies. The platform demonstrates high liquidity, and among key features of Changelly, there is a wide listing with over 500 exchangeable cryptocurrencies and 100,000 trading pairs—you can swap literally anything for anything. Changelly Here are some other competitive advantages of the platform: Changelly does not store user funds and employs several high-level security standards and smart KYC verification (learn more about it ). Rock-solid security: here Users don’t need to go through mandatory authentication to access high transaction limits. Ease of authentication: Changelly has partnered with over 20 crypto trading platforms to deliver competitive crypto exchange rates. Best market rates: Average exchanges via Changelly don't take more than 10 minutes. Fast transaction speed: The Changelly mobile app feels incredibly smooth to use and has great reviews on the and as well as over 5 million installs. The platform also operates . Engaging user experience: App Store Google Play on the web Changelly often conducts promotion campaigns, like the current for in-app transactions. Generous offers: 0% service fee offer As a CeDeFi ecosystem, Changelly strives to combine the best technologies and attributes of both financial systems, granting innovative and convenient Web3-based products with lower fees, better security, accessibility, speed, and customization. Let’s dive into the details. Navigating Changelly: Seamless & Transparent Swaps As the global instant exchange platform nears nine years of market presence, Changelly seeks to constantly improve its features, user experience, and offerings to loyal and new customers. Meet new listings & trading pairs every week. Changelly's broad spectrum of exchangeable crypto assets is noteworthy, and they consistently demonstrate foresight by being among the first to list the most promising tokens and coins emerging in the market. Besides, Changelly connects with over 100 DEXs and 3 DEX aggregators, providing their own private liquidity and enabling users to trade thousands of DeFi tokens. Convert fiat to crypto. Changelly aggregates the best offers from a variety of trusted on-ramp payment providers, which include Moonpay, Banxa, Wert, and Simplex, to enable its users to purchase hundreds of cryptocurrencies with 50+ fiat currencies. Moreover, Changelly has recently introduced purchases of DEX tokens for fiat. Enjoy low fees & high exchange limits. Changelly offers one of the most competitive fees on the market—0.25% for crypto-to-crypto exchanges. All the fees are fully transparent and displayed in a separate section during the swapping process. Additionally, the platform's maximum and minimum exchange limits are $15 million and $10, respectively, the range meeting the demands of the majority of crypto users. Benefit from fixed & floating rates. As the crypto market is incredibly volatile, the ability to ‘lock’ a rate for the duration of the exchange can be an efficient safeguard against potential losses. Going with the flow has advantages, too: if the market turns green during your floating-rate swap, you might get more crypto than originally estimated. Deal with the live 24/7 customer support. Changelly has a dedicated help center: their multilingual support team is online 24/7 in chat and via email. The frequently asked questions and the most complicated cases are described in Changelly’s blog—for example, check the helpful immersive . Crush Course for learning crypto basics Easy Entrance to Web3 Community Partnering with the crypto industry’s big names, Changelly is generous with and beneficial activities, offers, and campaigns for its users. Anticipating the Bitcoin halving in 2024, Changelly has united forces with its prominent partners and Web3 industry leaders , , and , welcoming everyone to the on Cointelegraph with a selection of awesome gifts (like brand-new Apple Vision Pro) and valuable offers for crypto believers. educational initiatives Topper Tangem Zengo Bitcoin Halving Party Upon downloading the Changelly app, you will take advantage of 0% service fees for crypto exchanges. Follow Changelly’s socials to keep up to date with more opportunities: , , , and . X (Twitter) Telegram Instagram LinkedIn This story was distributed under HackerNoon’s  Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here: https://business.hackernoon.com/

Meet Changelly, the Leading Global Crypto Exchange Platform for Secure and Instant Swaps

নিরাপদ এবং তাত্ক্ষণিক অদলবদলের জন্য শীর্ষস্থানীয় গ্লোবাল ক্রিপ্টো এক্সচেঞ্জ প্ল্যাটফর্ম, চেঞ্জেলির সাথে দেখা করুন

Lernen Sie Changelly kennen, die führende globale Krypto-Austauschplattform für sichere und sofortige Swaps

Conozca Changelly, la plataforma líder mundial de intercambio de cifrado para intercambios seguros e instantáneos

Découvrez Changelly, la principale plateforme mondiale d'échange de crypto-monnaies pour des échanges sécurisés et instantanés

सुरक्षित और त्वरित स्वैप के लिए अग्रणी वैश्विक क्रिप्टो एक्सचेंज प्लेटफॉर्म चांगेली से मिलें

Changelly をご紹介します。安全でインスタントなスワップを実現する世界有数の暗号通貨交換プラットフォームです。

안전하고 즉각적인 스왑을 위한 선도적인 글로벌 암호화폐 교환 플랫폼인 Changelly를 만나보세요

Conheça a Changelly, a principal plataforma global de troca de criptografia para trocas seguras e instantâneas

Встречайте Changelly, ведущую глобальную платформу криптовалютного обмена для безопасных и мгновенных свопов

Güvenli ve Anında Swaplar için Lider Küresel Kripto Borsa Platformu Changelly ile tanışın

Gặp gỡ Changelly, Nền tảng trao đổi tiền điện tử toàn cầu hàng đầu về hoán đổi an toàn và tức thì

认识 Changelly，全球领先的安全即时交换加密货币交易平台

Recently I wrote an article where I wanted to compare a popular way of creating object instances with DotNet reflection to another. In that article, I put to see which had better performance. The result saw Activator.CreateInstance emerge as winner in one specific case — but another champion emerges: ConstructorInfo. Activator.CreateInstance head-to-head with Type.InvokeMember In this article, I’ll explain how you can get a ConstructorInfo reference using reflection in DotNet. I’ll also expand upon the benchmarks from the previous article, showing you the code and how the results turned out. Understanding ConstructorInfo From DotNet Reflection In DotNet reflection, we get a powerful set of tools for inspecting assemblies, types, and members at runtime. One of the key components of this reflective capability is the class, which belongs to the namespace. This is where all of the goodies are — ConstructorInfo System.Reflection Even the ones shown in this video that can be misused in the wrong hands: https://youtu.be/3Qstc-ND8Oo?embedable=true allows developers to obtain information about the constructors of a class, including their accessibility (public, private, etc.), parameters, and metadata. But one of the best parts, which we’ll be looking at in more detail, is that it enables the instantiation of objects dynamically at runtime without knowing their types at compile time. ConstructorInfo And the best part? We’re going to see that when we compare it to , it’s way faster. these other DotNet reflection mechanisms for making new instances Finding Constructors with Reflection in DotNet – Getting ConstructorInfo In this section, we’ll look at how we can first get instances so that we can leverage them later for object instantiation: ConstructorInfo Get the instances from types ConstructorInfo Find the right constructor … Profit! Something like that, right? Let’s check these code examples out! Get ConstructorInfo for All Public Constructors To retrieve all public constructors of a class, you can use the method without any parameters by using a instance of a particular type. This method returns an array of objects representing each public constructor defined for the class. GetConstructors Type ConstructorInfo Let’s see it in action in this code example: using System;
using System.Reflection;

public class SampleClass
{
    public SampleClass() { }
    public SampleClass(int i) { }
    protected SampleClass(string s) { }
    private SampleClass(int i, string s) { }
}

Type typeInfo = typeof(SampleClass);
ConstructorInfo[] publicConstructors = typeInfo.GetConstructors();

foreach (var constructor in publicConstructors)
{
    Console.WriteLine(constructor.ToString());
} When we’re thinking about dynamically invoking these things, it’s likely going to be the case that we don’t have the reference to the type though. But if we have the name of the type we’re interested in, we can use the following: Type typeOfInterest = Type.GetType("The.Namespace.Of.Your.Type.TheTypeName"); Get ConstructorInfo Including Private and Protected Constructors To get information about all constructors, regardless of their accessibility level, you can use the method with the parameter. This approach allows you to include non-public constructors in the results: GetConstructors BindingFlags ConstructorInfo[] allConstructors = typeInfo.GetConstructors(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

foreach (var constructor in allConstructors)
{
    Console.WriteLine(constructor.ToString());
} Keep in mind that if you watched the video I linked above, this starts to get into the territory of “Should I be doing this?”. Please strongly consider if you need to be accessing non-public things — Someone likely chose that access modifier for a reason. Get ConstructorInfo Matching a Specific Signature If you’re looking for constructors that match a specific parameter signature, you can use (notice that it’s singular). This takes in binding flags like we saw before as well as an array of types that you want to match. GetConstructorInfo Here’s how you could find constructors that take a single parameter: int // Specify the parameter types of the 
// constructor you are looking for
Type[] paramTypes = new Type[] { typeof(int) };

// Use GetConstructor with the appropriate
// BindingFlags and parameter types
var constructor = typeInfo.GetConstructor(
    BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance,
    paramTypes);

if (constructor != null)
{
    Console.WriteLine(constructor);
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("No matching constructor found!");
} Note that this method will return null when there’s no match, so ensure you got what you were looking for! Creating Object Instances Using ConstructorInfo Once we have a instance, we can start making object instances. This is what we’ll be benchmarking in the upcoming sections! ConstructorInfo In these examples, assume that we already have a instance called constructorInfo. We’d be getting this instance in any of the ways documented earlier in the article: ConstructorInfo object instance = constructorInfo.Invoke(null); The code above shows instantiating an object with a parameterless constructor. We pass in null for the list of arguments that would need to be provided — because there are none. Take note that the type we get back is an . If we have access to the type at compile, we could cast this instance to that type… But if we have access to the instance at compile time there are probably very few good reasons why you would be doing this in the first place. If you don’t believe me, wait until you see the benchmark results. object If we want to instantiate using a constructor that takes parameters it would look like the following: object instance = constructorInfo.Invoke(new object[] { 42 }); This code example shows a constructor with a single integer parameter defined being invoked with 42 as the single integer argument. ConstructorInfo Performance Benchmarks The moment you’ve all been waiting for! You might enjoy watching the video demonstrating these DotNet reflection benchmarks here: https://youtu.be/Djq7eMI_L-4?embedable=true BenchmarkDotNet Setup for Reflection Performance Much like the previous article, I’ve just added a couple of additional scenarios for the scenarios. I wanted to mention that I added TWO scenarios for each class, and that’s because I wanted to demonstrate the performance if you had to go instantiate AND find the back-to-back. I felt like this variation compared to already having the would be interesting to take note of. ConstructorInfo ConstructorInfo ConstructorInfo Here is the full code: //
// This code was written for the following Dev Leader content:
// https://www.devleader.ca/2024/03/14/activator-createinstance-vs-type-invokemember-a-clear-winner/
// https://www.devleader.ca/2024/03/17/constructorinfo-how-to-make-reflection-in-dotnet-faster-for-instantiation/
// https://youtu.be/Djq7eMI_L-4 
//
using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;
using BenchmarkDotNet.Running;

using System.Reflection;

BenchmarkRunner.Run(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());
//BenchmarkSwitcher.FromAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()).RunAllJoined();

public class ParameterlessClass
{
}

public class ClassicStringParameterClass
{
    private readonly string _value;

    public ClassicStringParameterClass(string value)
    {
        _value = value;
    }
}

public class PrimaryConstructorStringParameterClass(
    string _value)
{
}

[ShortRunJob]
public class ParameterlessClassBenchmarks
{
    private Type? _type;
    private ConstructorInfo? _constructorInfo;

    [GlobalSetup]
    public void GlobalSetup()
    {
        _type = typeof(ParameterlessClass);
        _constructorInfo = _type.GetConstructor(Type.EmptyTypes);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Constructor()
    {
        var instance = new ParameterlessClass();
    }

    [Benchmark(Baseline = true)]
    public void Activator_Create_Instance()
    {
        var instance = Activator.CreateInstance(_type!);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Type_Invoke_Member()
    {
        var instance = _type!.InvokeMember(
            null,
            BindingFlags.CreateInstance,
            null,
            null,
            null);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Constructor_Info_Invoke()
    {
        var instance = _constructorInfo!.Invoke(null);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Find_Constructor_Info_Then_Invoke()
    {
        var constructorInfo = _type.GetConstructor(Type.EmptyTypes);
        var instance = constructorInfo!.Invoke(null);
    }
}

[ShortRunJob]
public class ClassicStringParameterClassBenchmarks
{
    private Type? _type;
    private ConstructorInfo? _constructorInfo;

    [GlobalSetup]
    public void GlobalSetup()
    {
        _type = typeof(ClassicStringParameterClass);
        _constructorInfo = _type.GetConstructor([typeof(string)]);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Constructor()
    {
        var instance = new ClassicStringParameterClass("Hello World!");
    }

    [Benchmark(Baseline = true)]
    public void Activator_Create_Instance()
    {
        var instance = Activator.CreateInstance(
            _type!,
            new[]
            {
                "Hello World!",
            });
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Type_Invoke_Member()
    {
        var instance = _type!
            .InvokeMember(
                null,
                BindingFlags.CreateInstance,
                null,
                null,
                new[]
                {
                    "Hello World!",
                });
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Constructor_Info_Invoke()
    {
        var instance = _constructorInfo!.Invoke(new[]
        {
            "Hello World!",
        });
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Find_Constructor_Info_Then_Invoke()
    {
        var constructorInfo = _type.GetConstructor([typeof(string)]);
        var instance = constructorInfo!.Invoke(new[]
        {
            "Hello World!",
        });
    }
}

[ShortRunJob]
public class PrimaryConstructorStringParameterClassBenchmarks
{
    private Type? _type;
    private ConstructorInfo? _constructorInfo;

    [GlobalSetup]
    public void GlobalSetup()
    {
        _type = typeof(PrimaryConstructorStringParameterClass);
        _constructorInfo = _type.GetConstructor([typeof(string)]);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Constructor()
    {
        var instance = new PrimaryConstructorStringParameterClass("Hello World!");
    }

    [Benchmark(Baseline = true)]
    public void Activator_Create_Instance()
    {
        var instance = Activator.CreateInstance(
            _type!,
            new[]
            {
                "Hello World!",
            });
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Type_Invoke_Member()
    {
        var instance = _type!
            .InvokeMember(
                null,
                BindingFlags.CreateInstance,
                null,
                null,
                new[]
                {
                    "Hello World!",
                });
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Constructor_Info_Invoke()
    {
        var instance = _constructorInfo!.Invoke(new[]
        {
            "Hello World!",
        });
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public void Find_Constructor_Info_Then_Invoke()
    {
        var constructorInfo = _type.GetConstructor([typeof(string)]);
        var instance = constructorInfo!.Invoke(new[]
        {
            "Hello World!",
        });
    }
} ConstructorInfo Benchmark Results from BenchmarkDotNet The first set of results will be for the parameterless constructor: In the results above, we already knew that without using reflection, we get the best speed. No brainer here. BenchmarkDotNet says it’s so fast it can’t even measure it properly. But we’ll notice that is technically a smidge faster here than using , even if we already had the instance ahead of time. The results are very close, and I have seen this swing the other way. So overall, these two are very comparable in this situation. Activator.CreateInstance ConstructorInfo What happens if we need to use parameters though? The BenchmarkDotNet results above show that a classic style constructor taking in a single string parameter, is an order of magnitude faster than the other DotNet reflection options. Even if we need to look up the instance first, it’s still almost twice as fast as the other options! ConstructorInfo And of course, I wanted to see if primary constructors were any different in behavior: Based on the results above though, they’re right on par! Wrapping Up ConstructorInfo and Reflection in DotNet As we can see from the BenchmarkDotNet results, leveraging can be very performant! Only in the case where we’re dealing with a public parameterless constructor did it seem to be right on par with . Technically in this run it showed that it was a touch slower, but I’ve run these before and seen the opposite case too. Overall, you’ll want to consider if it makes sense for you to leverage this approach for creating object instances — but certainly don’t opt for reflection if you can easily just call ! ConstructorInfo Activator.CreateInstance new() If you found this useful and you’re looking for more learning opportunities, consider and check out my ! subscribing to my free weekly software engineering newsletter free videos on YouTube

Faster Instantiation With DotNet Reflection Using ConstructorInfo

The TechBeat: From Institutional Feast to Community Ownership: The Billion Journey of ZKFair (3/25/2024)

If you’re like most people in the tech and financial sectors, you should be concerned about the dark web. While business leaders and IT professionals work to protect financial institutions, those threats strike without warning and are often untraceable. Can you defend against them? What Do You Need to Know About the Dark Web? The dark web is a hub of illicit activities, contraband trade, and encrypted conversations. Access is largely restricted to evade regulators and law enforcement agencies. Search engines don’t index them, so you have to know of them to find them. If you tend to believe the experts, you should prioritize dark web threats. After all, working at financial services organizations feel concerned about them. They may not pose the most significant risk, but they’re hard to predict and trace. 99% of chief information security officers The Risks the Dark Web Poses to Financial Institutions Your main concern with dark web threats is the sale of stolen data like login credentials or answers to security questions. Since the online marketplaces where they’re sold are anonymous and fueled by cryptocurrency, those illegal transactions are all but untraceable. Cybercriminals might also trade-sensitive financial details online in exchange for something they view as more valuable. Sometimes, they even post it for free. Those situations should alarm you because they suggest you have an insider threat — and show whoever it is will waste no time leaking data immediately after exfiltration. Regardless of cybercriminals' goals, the dark web acts as a hub where they can organize, survey, and coordinate. Entire groups could meet regularly to discuss how they’ll attack you and you likely have no idea. Some dark web websites offer hacking-as-a-service to anyone willing to pay. They can distribute malware, launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, or deploy ransomware on demand. Since they act as third-party vendors for others, tracing them can be challenging, if not impossible. While most dark web threats revolve around cyber attacks, the more relevant ones involve financial fraud schemes. Cybercriminals can leverage stolen data and insider information to steal a person’s identity, impersonate an account holder, or take advantage of someone else’s credit benefits. Most of the time, you’ll have no idea your organization’s data is being stolen and sold to the highest bidder until afterward. Since dark web threat actors and silently monitor for vulnerabilities, a new cybersecurity incident can happen at any time. These anonymous, untraceable threats can strike when you least expect them. can remotely infiltrate your network systems The reality of these threats' risks to financial institutions should serve as a wake-up call. Unless you prioritize robust cybersecurity measures, your firm’s data — and its customers’ information — could soon end up on the dark web. What Financial Information Is on the Dark Web? You don’t have to look hard to find stockpiles and auctions for financial information on the dark web. Some of the most common are credit card numbers, login credentials, and bank account numbers. Personally identifiable information (PII) is also a big seller. Addresses, driver’s license numbers, full legal names, social security numbers, and birthdates account for some of the most common PII for sale — or trade — on the dark web. You’ll also likely come across supplemental details like income data and location because they help give cybercriminals context to hide their crimes better. How Banks Can Defend Against the Dark Web The deep and dark web account for , according to some estimates. How can you defend against those threats when they’re so massive? While it might seem unfeasible, it’s possible with the right tools and techniques. up to 95% of the internet Dark Web Monitoring Dark web monitoring is a technique where you search for your organization’s information on the dark web as if you were a potential buyer to gain insight into what cybercriminals seek from you. It also helps you to recognize if breaches have occurred. You monitor the available data, who’s selling it, and whether it’s been purchased. AI Anomaly Detection With artificial intelligence anomaly detection, you can spot and flag anomalies internally or for end users — like network access attempts or suspicious withdrawals — preventing breaches and account compromises. This tool is more accurate than typical fraud detection systems because it can recognize context. AI Pattern Recognition AI-driven pattern recognition enables you to analyze past and current instances of compromise to predict future trends. You can use it to identify potential weak points to prevent attackers from gaining entry. Alternatively, you can use it to stop end-user fraud. Authentication Measures Authentication measures like biometrics and multi-factor authentication prevent attackers from successfully using stolen or leaked bank credentials. When they can’t gain access, they become less likely to purchase your customers’ login information in the future. Password Protocols If you’ve ever worked on the end-user side, you understand businesses should never leave security up to their customers. Password protocols that and have never been used previously — in case of a past breach — strengthen cybersecurity. require more than 15 characters The Value of Novel Strategies for Counteracting Threats Your role in counteracting dark web threats can’t be overstated. Besides the potential impact of inaction — like reputation and financial losses — you stand to gain from crafting novel strategies. Modern, innovative techniques and tactics are the best defense against dark web threats because they put you one step ahead of cybercriminals. Take AI-driven approaches, for example — they’re among the best because they’re unconventional and versatile. When you use your expertise to produce novel strategies for counteracting dark web threats, you ensure the financial sector’s resilience against illicit activities, effectively defending it against legal issues and regulatory action that could permanently impact the industry. You also protect dozens — if not thousands — of real people. Defending Against Threats From the Dark Web Dark web threats are often challenging to find, trace, and prevent. However, the right combination of strategies, techniques, and tools can guide your efforts and enhance your cybersecurity resiliency.

The Dark Web and Banking: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

As the Cancun upgrade approaches, the call for the L2 Summer time is increasing. However, it is necessary to distinguish whether this is a feast for VCs, institutions, and whales; or an opportunity for the community, retail investors, and decentralization in general. ZKFair has decided to be the L2 of the people, with all participation rights belonging to the community. ZKFair is an EVM L2 ecosystem built by Lumoz, a Rollup as a Service (RaaS) provider. This L2 is a pioneer of its kind as the first Polygon CDK ZkRollup to be on Mainnet. Furthermore, Lumoz has implemented another successful chain which has been positioned as the top BTC L2 project by TVL amount (over US$3.8 Billion at the time of writing), Merlin Chain. The consistent focus on the creation of these new L2 ecosystems lies in returning L2 revenue to users in order to truly promote the popularization of rollups technology. ZKFair Launches with an IGO model ZKFair is determined to learn from Bitcoin's economic model, where transaction fees go 100% to miners. In contrast, Ethereum's L2 Rollups "skim" part of the fees paid by users, turning them into their profit source. This revenue-sharing system is not fair. In this regard, ZKFair was born to change this unfair revenue model. Since the real creators of the L2 Summer are the users, they should be taking all the profits. To reflect this narrative, ZKF tokens will be 100% airdropped to users. Furthermore, as a "channel" fee for a gas fee, ZKF will also be 100% returned to users. Recently, the market has responded positively, with ZKF surging 40% in one day and related PFPs skyrocketing by 180 times. 70 Days After Its Birth, ZKFair Sets Off From the Community Fairness becomes the industry spirit again, and the free and open crypto world returns. On Christmas Eve 2023, Lumoz decided to launch ZKFair in a Fair Launch mode, creating a unique IGO (Initial Gas Offering) paradigm. The core idea is that "participants receive token airdrops in proportion to the gas they burn through their chain transactions; the issuer then takes the gas paid by participants as the income for this token issuance." Double 100% Rebate, Leaving No Margin. Users obtain ZKF tokens through gas fees as a proof of work mechanism, which is different from the traditional "get it for nothing" approach, emphasizing fairness for everyone to participate. ZKFair sets its total issuance at 10 billion tokens, initially using USDC as the gas fee for airdrops and additional community rewards through mainnet interactions and transactions. Specifically, airdrops are divided into gas fee airdrops and community member distributions. To lower initial participation barriers, ZKFair allows using USDC as the initial stage’s gas fee for broader participation. After the mainnet launch, gas fees are returned to users. In repetition, the project redistributes received gas fees in USDC to give back to users, adhering so to a 100% fair launch principle without retaining or taking any form of tokens from the project side. To show support for the Bitcoin community, ZKF also distributed 5% of its tokens to members of the Ordinal inscription community. Additionally, 25% of ZKF tokens are airdropped to community members based on their contributions. ZKF is also used to incentivize staking. 75% of ZKFair's transaction fees serve as staking rewards, ensuring users receive proportional returns for contributing to the ZKFair network. From a fair launch, ZKFair grows robustly in the name of the community, considering community interests at every step and ultimately unleashing unparalleled upward growth power. Growing With The Community Unlike typical L2 communities, ZKFair's project team is the community itself. Adhering to 100% community ownership,  and within 70 days of its launch, ZKFair has launched multiple launchpads, including leading wallets like Bitget Wallet, and has received trading support from mainstream exchanges like Gate.io. Furthermore, ZKFair has surpassed its initial growth phase. Not only launching other launchpads but also serving as a project launch platform itself. Currently, five projects have entered the ZKFair Launchpool, with Merlin Chain being the most notable. By continuously launching high-quality projects, it will provide ongoing support for ZKF tokens. From Community Growth To Community Leadership ZKFair does have a development and support team, which is also part of the community. Driven by the community, ZKFair's TVL has reached $300 million, making it the highest among L2s developed using Polygon CDK and ranking in the top ten on L2BEAT. The rapid growth in TVL and token price is backed by ZKFair's continuous BD efforts. ZKFair regularly adds new partners every few days, including security cooperation with Go+ Plus and domain issuance with Space ID. As of now, ZKFair has at least 150 various ecosystem projects. According to ZKFair's previously announced roadmap, Q1 2024 aims to establish contact with 200 project parties and achieve cooperation with over 100+. The initial targets seem to be met. Moreover, on March 8th, ZKFair will co-host a large-scale ecological event with Lumoz, with the first round already attracting 25 project sponsors, totaling 30 million Lumoz points and 50,000 USDC for the prize pool. These points can be exchanged for Lumoz tokens in the future. It is worth mentioning that Lumoz is conducting a new round of financing with a valuation of US$120 million, with the investment amount already at its limit. The points given to ZKFair users are sufficient to prove Lumoz's support for ZKF. Based on the current market value alone, it has exceeded US$1 million. After 70 days of hard work, ZKFair now boasts over 200,000 community members. However, this is just the beginning. The future goal is to reach 1 million community members, at least US$1 billion in TVL, and break through the $10 billion market cap barrier for ZKF, creating a blockbuster L2 for everyone. According to ZKFair's Q2 roadmap, there will be a stronger collaboration with the BTC ecosystem. This will showcase the powerful alliance between ZKF and BTC. The BTC ecosystem is definitely the focus of this year, and the spirit of fairness is the most valued concept in the Bitcoin community. Just like ZKF airdropping to the Inscription community, ZKFair's entry into the BTC ecosystem will also aid in capturing ZKF’s value. Q2 2024: New cooperation with Lumoz RaaS's fresh ETH L2s to further empower ZKFair and $ZKF. Support cross-chain transfers and transactions of BTC ecosystem assets. Actively build the ecosystem, completing over 150 ecosystem projects, with a focus on DeFi, Game, and AI sectors. Continue to launch on more centralized exchanges. Sustain cooperation with Polygon Labs, optimizing ZKP generation and enhancing on-chain interaction experience. Achieving these goals will require a globalized approach. Following the ecosystem groundwork in February, key markets for expansion in Q2 2024 will include the United States, Hong Kong, Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Singapore, UAE, and China. Community Ownership and ZK Technology ZKFair belongs to the community, not merely as a marketing slogan, but out of confidence and composure derived from ZK technology. It's precisely because of the maturity of ZK-Rollup technology that Lumoz and the ZKFair development team believe that the community's self-sufficiency is enough to sustain it, thus focusing on market expansion. Technology And The Market Complement Each Other Compared to OP series rollup technology solutions, ZK series rollups are more often seen as Ethereum's medium to long-term scalability solution. However, current L2s face numerous challenges, such as cross-chain interoperability or being confined to specific domains, such as Loopring being regarded as a payment channel, etc. ZKFair, true to its name, is a project launched fairly under ZK technology, owned by the community. ZKFair, powered by Lumoz, utilizes Polygon CDK technology and Celestia DA. Lumoz, as an officially recognized CDK service provider by Polygon, has significant technological research and development capabilities. For instance, ZKFair uses a native cross-rollup communication protocol (NCRC), enabling atomic-level information exchange between multiple rollups. Users can directly invoke Ethereum dApps on ZKFair without needing to transfer assets across chains. Furthermore, ZKFair can communicate with other L2 Rollups, possessing cross-contract calling capabilities, thereby reconnecting the fragmented Ethereum L2 ecosystem. Choosing Celestia as the DA layer is also an economically driven decision. As a DA layer, Celestia will save more than a hundred times in gas fees compared to EigenDA or Ethereum itself, aligning more closely with community interests. Underneath its market strategy lies ZKFair's robust technological reserves. Only with such a foundation can ZKFair dare to hand over complete operational control to its users in the future, transitioning to community ownership. As mentioned earlier, ZKFair's community governance model initiates with a 100% token airdrop at mainnet launch, aiming to create a fair, just, and highly autonomous community environment, thus effectively addressing the unfair issues prevalent in existing ZK-Rollup projects. Pure technology must also be combined with effective token incentives; ZKF will undertake the heavy lifting of community governance. Regarding community self-drive, ZKF's functionality mainly focuses on staking and voting. Currently, ZKFair has launched its staking feature, allowing users to earn gas fee profit dividends by staking ZKF. In terms of specific allocation, 75% of the transaction fee profits are used to incentivize ZKF stakers, with the remaining 25% allocated to developers to encourage them to develop native apps on ZKFair. Currently, about 3.5 billion ZKF tokens have entered the staking system, distributing 630,000 USDC with a stable annual yield of around 15%. Out of these, 1 billion tokens are locked in Merlin Chain, strongly supporting ZKF's price and market value. Another aspect supporting ZKF's value is the FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation) data. With ZKF being fully circulated, its FDV represents its actual market value - a genuine reflection of value without discounting for locked circulations. The correlation between ZKF's FDV and TVL is also quite realistic. The larger the difference between TVL and FDV, the more tokens are not fulfilling their real potential. Additionally, the FDV/TVL ratio can indicate the extent of a token's overvaluation. With ZKF's ratio around 0.64 compared to StarkNet's 1.45, ZKF's FDV is not high, indicating potential for future growth Empowerment Is Endless, Creating the Premier On-Chain Launchpad ZKFair is controlled by the community, but mere community control cannot guarantee long-term project sustainability and governance quality. Thus, defining the community's tone is crucial. For example, Launchpool has chosen to establish a long-term partnership with Merlin Chain and has already reached the fifth round. Merlin Chain is not just simply raising funds from the ZKFair community, but will return some of the profits, forming a stronger binding relationship. Participating in the ZKFair Launchpool can earn 1% of Merlin tokens, which not only indirectly supports the development of Merlin Chain, but also serves as a demonstration for other project parties. Not only that, Merlin also represents the project discovery capability of the ZKFair team. Since 2024, ZKFair has been actively expanding in various tracks such as NFT, DeFi, infrastructure, gaming, and AI. On February 6, 2024, ZKFair collaborated with Element to launch the ZKFair Pass, limited to 20,000 pieces and sold out within 10 minutes. This was not just an NFT release but also included airdrop rights for all projects in the ZKFair Launchpool during February 2024. Continuing its momentum, ZKFair also launched the richer-benefit ZKfair PFP NFT; users holding PFP can participate in the ZKFair Launchpool at lower costs for more points. On March 2nd, the CyberArmy NFT series, based on the ERC-404 protocol, began selling on Element. With a total of 9999 pieces, they sold out in less than an hour, surging up to 150 times in value. Summary ZKFair began with the community and will return to the community. Everything created by ZKFair stems from the goal of empowering users. Current blockchain technology has developed excessively, with users' presence and value being obscured in many foundational products. ZKFair decides to rediscover them. With over 600,000 users on the chain, ZKFair has never abandoned its dream, persistently aiming for a market value of 10 billion. This is not an illusion but a proven path validated by Arbitrum, especially when ZK series Rollups are at a disadvantage in terms of TVL. Remaking ZK's glory is an unshirkable duty for ZKFair.

From Institutional Feast to Community Ownership: The Billion Journey of ZKFair

প্রাতিষ্ঠানিক উত্সব থেকে সম্প্রদায়ের মালিকানা পর্যন্ত: জেডকেফেয়ারের বিলিয়ন জার্নি

Vom institutionellen Fest zum Gemeinschaftseigentum: Die Milliardenreise von ZKFair

De la fiesta institucional a la propiedad comunitaria: el viaje de los mil millones de ZKFair

Du festin institutionnel à l’appropriation communautaire : le voyage d’un milliard de ZKFair

संस्थागत दावत से सामुदायिक स्वामित्व तक: ZKFair की अरबों यात्रा

組織的な祝宴からコミュニティの所有権へ: ZKFair の 10 億の旅

기관의 축제에서 커뮤니티 소유권까지: ZKFair의 10억 달러 여정

Da festa institucional à propriedade comunitária: a jornada de um bilhão de ZKFair

От институционального праздника к общественной собственности: миллиардное путешествие ZKFair

Kurumsal Bayramdan Topluluk Sahipliğine: ZKFair'in Milyarlarca Yolculuğu

Từ bữa tiệc thể chế đến quyền sở hữu cộng đồng: Hành trình tỷ đô của ZKFair

从制度盛宴到社区所有权：ZKFair的十亿之旅

**SHERMAN OAKS, United States, March 7th, 2024/GamingWire/--**Introducing a new era of simplified and flexible tools for monetizing and getting paid across the creator economy. Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, announces Xsolla Wallet, highlighting its commitment to empowering the global creator economy within the video game industry. Our mission is to provide equal access for developers, creators, and everyone in the creator economy with embedded finance solutions for the video game industry. The Xsolla Wallet is a game-changing solution offering embedded finance options specifically designed for developers and creators. The initiative helps developers overcome monetization and engagement challenges and simplifies the process of providing attractive incentives for creators. It enhances the efficiency and immediacy of their earning and spending experience while ensuring global compliance. Recognizing the complexities of managing successful global creator programs, Xsolla will help alleviate these pain points, enabling developers to focus on what they do best: creating engaging gaming experiences. For Developers: Xsolla Wallet simplifies access to embedded finance services and streamlines onboarding and compliance, integrating these critical aspects within the creators' wallet accounts. Simplify Creator Incentives: Tailored to ease the complexities of managing creator programs, Xsolla Wallet ensures developers can provide attractive and compliant earnings for creators across different regions. Ease Compliance Burdens: With integrated KYC (Know Your Customer) and tax interview services, Xsolla Wallet significantly reduces the complexity associated with global compliance, allowing developers to focus on innovation rather than administrative tasks. Expand and Accelerate Influence: Leveraging the vast reach of the Xsolla gaming ecosystem, developers can use the Xsolla Partner Network (XPN) to attract, manage and incentivize creators and influencers. For Creators: Xsolla Wallet empowers creators and influencers to pay, get paid, and manage earnings, transforming their content into viable revenue sources. Pay: Creators will have a direct, immediate, and convenient way to spend their earnings using the Xsolla Mastercard. Get Paid: Creators can choose an instant virtual Xsolla Mastercard, amongst other payout options, to enable easy and immediate access to their earnings. Manage Earnings: Creators can seamlessly aggregate their earnings from platforms. This means creators can manage diverse income streams, from merchandise sales to crowdfunding, in their Xsolla Wallet. "By bringing together our expertise and the Xsolla Wallet's embedded finance functionality, we are bringing developers and creators together in an unparalleled financial ecosystem tailored for video games," described David Stelzer, President of Xsolla. "We aim to provide an equal opportunity for every developer, creator, and influencer to have fast and secure access to ways to monetize their work in the global creator economy." “As a long-standing supporter of the video gaming community, Mastercard is thrilled to continue building on our partnership with Xsolla, delivering choice and value to creators and developers alike with the launch of the Xsolla Mastercard,” said Sherri Haymond, EVP, Global Digital Partnerships at Mastercard. “Together we’re enabling convenient, seamless payments options that add tools to developers’ toolkits, help solve challenges for creators and foster an inclusive gaming community for all.” Xsolla Wallet is a key component in a new suite of tools empowering game developers and creators. It reflects Xsolla's dedication to creating solutions that address content creators' immediate needs and foster a more supportive and productive environment for their creations through an embedded finance partnership with Paysafe and a card for creators partnership with Mastercard. "We are proud to strengthen our partnership with Xsolla to provide value and exceed customer expectations with our payment solutions, further enhancing gamers' playing and payment experience globally," said Aaron Gale, VP of Sales & Account Management, Video Games at Paysafe. "Every gaming experience starts with a payment, and we are dedicated to turning these transactions into part of the overall experience, to fuel the fun and champion customer engagement and loyalty." For more details about Xsolla Wallet, please visit: xsolla.pro/wallet About Xsolla Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch, and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue, and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in London, Berlin, Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, and cities around the world, Xsolla supports major gaming titles like Valve, Twitch, Roblox, Epic Games, Take-Two, KRAFTON, Nexters, NetEase, Playstudios, Playrix, miHoYo, and more. For additional information and to learn more, please visit: xsolla.com About Paysafe Paysafe Limited (“Paysafe”) (NYSE: PSFE) ( ) is a leading payments platform with an extensive track record of serving merchants and consumers in the global entertainment sectors. Its core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly through industry-leading capabilities in payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions. PSFE.WS With over 20 years of online payment experience, an annualized transactional volume of over $130 billion in 2022, and approximately 3,300 employees located in 12+ countries, Paysafe connects businesses and consumers across 100 payment types in over 40 currencies around the world. Delivered through an integrated platform, Paysafe solutions are geared toward mobile-initiated transactions, real-time analytics and the convergence between brick-and-mortar and online payments. Further information is available at . www.paysafe.com Contact Global Director of Public Relations Derrick Stembridge Xsolla d.stembridge@xsolla.com 919-971-7855 This story was distributed as a release by GamingWire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here.

Xsolla Debuts Xsolla Wallet To Provide Access To Embedded Finance Solutions And Instant Earnings

I recently spoke with , CEO and Co-Founder of . From a leadership position in the IDF to being a Principal at i3 Equity Partners, Bentzi has a wealth of experience spanning various industry verticals. In our conversation, we delved into the current state of institutional , the problems enterprises face when adopting crypto, and possible solutions. Hope you enjoy. Bentzi Rabi Utila crypto wallets Welcome, Bentzi. Let’s kick this off with Utila’s origin story and vision. Sure. Utila’s journey began with a realization that my co-founder, Sam, and I had after studying, experimenting, and building in the cybersecurity and asset management space for many years. Enterprises and institutional players are increasingly adopting digital assets like crypto. Especially since spot BTC ETFs went live and ETH ETFs became more evident than before. For context, we have secured transactions worth $3+ billion in the last six months or so. But there’s a big gap when it comes to secure, user-friendly, and versatile wallets or asset management infrastructure for these enterprises. They’re forced to rely on providers that are too complex and not flexible enough. Complicated and lengthy onboarding processes, sub-par UI/UX, steep learning curves are some of the major challenges for institutions trying to manage their crypto holdings efficiently. This can’t go on. So, we built Utila to offer a secure, no-fuss, self-serving, and all-inclusive wallet platform that understands and meets the demands of enterprise-grade crypto-asset management. You’ve been a proponent of non-custodial solutions for enterprises. Please explain why and how that’s significant. We say— But so far, we didn’t have the tools to help enterprises adopt and implement this powerful idea efficiently. not your keys, not your crypto. Entities with massive holdings have little or no control over their digital assets when working with legacy custodians. This slows them down and increases operational and counterparty risks. Privacy is also at stake in low-trust, multi-stakeholder environments where institutions mostly operate. Their interactions involve highly sensitive data, and even minor breaches result in tremendous costs—monetary and otherwise. Scalable, self-custody options, on the contrary, put enterprises in the driving seat. With platforms like Utila, they can enjoy the seamless, hassle-free nature of legacy asset management along with the security and robustness of cryptography, decentralization, etc. They get autonomy, above all, which is a big competitive edge in today’s world and business scenario. Did any particular technological development help enable self-custody at scale for enterprises? Yes, of course. Solving the so-called Trilemma was a core technical challenge. You couldn’t have security, scalability, and usability at once. Recently, however, innovations in Multi-Party Computation (MPC) changed the game. We fully capitalized on this opportunity to build Utila. Using MPC, we found a way to let enterprises generate ‘private keys’ and sign transactions securely without the hassle of Common Line Interface (CLI) and so on. That handles seamlessness under the hood. But an intuitive frontend was the other key piece in the puzzle. It wouldn’t be possible to build this a few years ago, mainly because we didn’t have developers with the required skill set. Now, we have talented people and tools to abstract complex mechanisms and create a rich UX/UI for users without giving up critical features. With that, we could combine the best of legacy and novel frameworks. The outcome: an end-to-end asset management ecosystem for crypto-native enterprises and institutions. Before we wrap, where do you see institutional crypto adoption in the next 3-5 years? And how would that impact the industry overall? I’m very bullish and for various reasons. We, as an industry, are focusing more on the fundamentals than short-term price movements and market dynamics. They’re important markers, no doubt, but there’s much more to blockchain and crypto than speculation. Especially if we want to build sustainable frameworks that last and actually contribute to a better, more equitable world. Utila, for one, is all about using innovation to redefine how value is created, stored, and transacted at scale. We take this mission very seriously because it can set new standards for the future. Institutional adoption is super important for crypto’s long-term success. While retail participation is the daily bread and butter, bigger entities help solidify the ground upon which new things are built. We’re currently in a similar position as Web2 was in the early-2000s. In the next 3-5 years, we’ll see a significant rise in crypto-based mass market use cases. That too, without the downsides of the Web2-led tech boom, i.e., security and privacy concerns, etc. But to achieve that goal, we must work together instead of against each other. Collaborative innovation is the cornerstone of crypto and Web3’s success.

Secure Crypto Asset Management for Institutions: A Discussion with Bentzi Rabi, CEO of Utila

pioneering software provider for financial institutions, has unveiled its all-in-one platform for high-speed crypto trading across popular exchanges. The "ultimate tool tailored to institutional teams and trading volumes" offers distinct advantages, eliminating hurdles like delays and market impact. DUBAI, UAE, February 27th, 2024, Chainwire/--Zent, a According to a , 2023 was the year when crypto markets became institutionalized. As the legal context evolves and spot Bitcoin ETFs signal regulatory approval, crypto appears on more organizational portfolios. Institutional allocations are growing, as evidenced by Coinbase’s recent . Goldman Sachs report survey Zent addresses the biggest challenges of institutional trading: hindered execution, slippage, fragmented liquidity, and the influence of open positions in public order books. Its unique benefits target three categories of corporate users — token issuers, funds, and traders. CEO Ilia Stadnik describes Zent's strengths: "Zent is a game-changer for crypto projects, supporting growth through quick and easy liquidity management. For crypto and traditional funds, Zent simplifies market entry, scaling, and portfolio and team management, bringing the utmost confidence. Lastly, for traders and their employers seeking seamless transactions across markets, Zent minimizes typical obstacles like market impact." Revolutionary feature: Order Rules At the forefront is a unique feature for smooth, delay-free execution: Order Rules. It splits large volumes into chunks of customizable size, executed at customizable intervals and going live at a price match. Thereby, institutional-grade trades remain essentially undetectable in public order books, eliminating market impact. Furthermore, all Order Rules are created and managed via a single user-centric dashboard. Zent empowers traders with user-friendly tools, while giving workspace owners an unrivaled agility of control with reassignable rights and limits, along with in-depth performance assessment in real-time and retrospect. According to Stadnik, "These benefits, alongside many other features, position Zent as the definitive one-stop-shop for institutional trading." Institutions may use Zent as a standalone product or leverage its capabilities through their existing workspaces. Zent API brings law latency Order Rule functionality to any in-house trading platform. To celebrate its official launch, Zent offers a free annual subscription for the first 3 clients onboard. Due diligence procedures apply. 30-day full access to all features free of charge is also available. Users can contact the team via the official website — . zent.pro About Zent Established in 2023, unites seasoned professionals with diverse backgrounds in crypto and blockchain, IT, and conventional and hybrid finance. It is led by CEO Ilya Stadnik, an accomplished executive leading tech and marketing teams for 10+ years, and Product Owner Michael Sapenyuk, who has headed trading education and software development projects for just as long. Zent For more information and updates users can visit Zent's . Linkedin Contact PR Manager Alisa Pargentanyan Zent alisa@zent.pro This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here.

Ultimate Crypto Trading Software: Zent Launches Innovative Platform For All Institutional Needs

Note: This solution requires ChatGPT 4. The Missing Piece ChatGPT lacks the ability to provide real-time date and time stamps within conversations. We depend on date stamps for almost everything we do on our devices, from photos, emails, text messages, to documents, etc. The absence of such a basic and useful feature is baffling. Date stamps would provide a clear and chronological context to any discussion. In a Hurry? See the ChatGPT Builder App in action: datestamp Sample Shared Chat Session Example as Displayed in Chat. datestamp Here is what does. datestamp USER:
What is capital of Canada?

ChatGPT RESPONSE:
*Talked to timeapi.io*
📅 2024-02-11 | The capital of Canada is Ottawa. Three Basic Shortcomings of ChatGPT Inside a conversation, unless you type it in manually, you are not aware of the date of the first response or the dates of subsequent responses. You don't know the or the of responses. creation_date revision_date Perhaps the most confusing behavior of ChatGPT is when you click on a conversation that is, say, two weeks old, it is moved to the top of the list under . You have no way of knowing whether it is a new conversation or a two-week-old conversation. Today You are unable to create a Table of Contents for a chat session with dates of each response. For long chat sessions, this would be helpful, especially if the first sentence of each response was prefixed by the date of that response. Fortunately, I've written a ChatGPT Builder app called that solves these three shortcomings. datestamp The Instant Solution: datestamp This can be done on desktop or mobile versions of ChatGPT 4. Steps Head on over to the : - or you can click on from the sidebar. ChatGPT Store https://chat.openai.com/gpts Explore GPTs Search for and select it from the list. Now you can chat as you normally do but with the features. Be sure to the timestamp API when asked by ChatGPT. datestamp datestamp Allow timeapi.io Now, type in a question, and you will see ChatGPT's response has been date stamped. That's all there is to it! Type to learn more or for a containg the date stamp and the first sentence or two from the response. /help /toc Table of Contents Hopefully you will do this in an - or my title was . instant click bait Using ChatGPT's New Feature @mentions Once you have used once, you be able to type in in any chat session on the desktop version. datestamp should @datestamp At the time of this article, using as a had some technical issues with ChatGPT. Perhaps they are still working on - it is a brand-new feature, after all. Warning: datestamp @mention @mentions Tips and Tricks datestamp On the iPhone ChatGPT App, you’re able to search all conversations. Try searching for a date like , and any sessions that have been automatically date stamped will be listed under search. 2024-02-10 In a very long conversation, you can create a Table of Contents with the first sentence of every response. Then, using , you can search the chat response you are looking for. Ctrl-F Using natural language, you can easily change the behavior and format of the date stamp and even ask for the time to be stamped after the date. Example: Add the current time to all time stamps and use Eastern Time zone. The of a conversation is the date of the first response. Consider copying the and adding it to the beginning of the name of the chat in the sidebar when you are renaming chat sessions. creation_date creation_date Creating Your Own Date-Aware App with ChatGPT Builder It is easy to build and customize your own ChatGPT Builder app. All the source code is available on GitHub and is MIT licensed, allowing for easy access and modification. date_stamp Here's how: Using the simple language , you can rapidly develop your own app. AImarkdown All source code and complete API information are available under the MIT license. Check out the example from the documentation: datestamp https://aimarkdown.org/chatgpt-builder Be aware that is in the early stages of development. Maybe someday, ChatGPT will natively support a simple structured language like for building apps and customizing ChatGPT. AImarkdown Language AImarkdown Don’t Be Fooled by ChatGPT Claiming Date Awareness It is true that you can ask ChatGPT for the current date, and it will often report the current date, but this is not reliable at all. If you visit the same chat session the next day and ask for the current date, don’t be surprised if ChatGPT gives yesterday's date. I've tried solutions like using Python or JavaScript, but to no avail. Even trying to fool ChatGPT will not work dependably. Oddly, ChatGPT seems unaware that it fails to handle this basic functionality. Currently, the only dependable way of getting current dates and times is to use an API inside of a - and that is exactly what does. are at the very bottom of tab. allow for calling APIs. ChatGPT Builder Action datestamp Chat Builder Actions Configuration Actions ChatGPT 4 Response to Shortcomings Rather than clutter this article with ChatGPT's full response to lack of date awareness, I'm providing a shared chat session. I don't fully understand it, but it is worth a read if you want to dig deeper into this issue. I will however, included a couple of main points that ChatGPT makes: ChatGPT Partial Response: : It's clear that, despite the many strengths of ChatGPT, including its ability to generate human-like text and engage in a wide range of topics, there are areas like date stamping where the user experience could be improved. Your feedback highlights an important aspect of interaction that could make the tool even more valuable and user-friendly. Acknowledging the Gap : While the current version of ChatGPT lacks real-time awareness and the ability to dynamically include date stamps in responses, your suggestion points towards a potential area for future development. Enhancements could include features that allow the model to recognize and mark the date and time of each interaction within a session, even if it's based on the system's clock rather than real-time internet-based clocks. Potential for Future Enhancements Complete Chat session at: Shared chat defending shortcoming Are Copilot and Gemini Advanced Any Better? The competitors seem to fair no better when it comes to date awareness. Microsoft Bing Copilot
Reports:
Today's date is always the same as the of the first response in a session. Similar issues to ChatGPT. creation_date Google’s Gemini Advanced
Reports:
Gemini responded with: Unfortunately, I can't pinpoint the exact date of my first response in this session. Conclusion The App not only fills a gap left by ChatGPT but also sets a new standard for AI-driven communication tools. By incorporating features like date stamping and a Table of Contents, it elevates the user experience, making it more intuitive and valuable for a wide range of users. Wouldn't it be nice if ChatGPT could show the and as information where the name of the chat session is on the sidebar? Unfortunately, this is impossible with ChatGPT Builder. datestamp creation_date revision_dated Give a try and enhance your ChatGPT experience. I look forward to hearing about your experiences and any feedback you might have. datestamp Also appears . here

How to Instantly Add "Date Stamps" In ChatGPT Conversations

China's economic challenges intensified at the beginning of this week, with the CSI 1000 index experiencing a decline of over 15% in the past five days. As highlighted in one of my recent , China's economy has been grappling with headwinds, which appear to have been exacerbated further last week when a Hong Kong court judge the liquidation of the indebted real estate giant, Evergrande. letters ordered Despite the Chinese authorities implementing various fiscal measures to stimulate it seems in current terms that there are still broader indicators of pain in the Chinese economy. What I’m paying attention to in regard to this is how the authorities will respond. In the most recent intervention following Monday’s downturn, authorities have taken steps to implement more extensive trading : restrictions Nearly 30% of all stocks in China have been halted Limiting investors' ability to short Hong Kong stocks Some investors are limited from selling their positions Some quant funds are completely banned from placing sell orders Other quants funds banned from cutting leveraged positions It remains uncertain whether these new measures will avert the ‘looming’ crisis, or if China’s PBoC will be forced to adopt looser economic policies. With the Fed still also yet to stop tightening measures the conundrum is: Who will blink first, China or the US? Bitcoin Enters Accumulation Phase Post ETF BTC’s price has been range-bound over the past week, trading between $42K and $43.5K as the excitement around the spot ETF approvals continued to cool down. However, it's noteworthy that net daily inflows have remained positive for the last seven consecutive trading days, with BlackRock and Fidelity taking the lead. Bitcoin ETFs in Top 10 for January Fidelity and BlackRock’s ETFs positions in the top 10 ETFs measured by inflows during January. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) claimed the eighth spot with an estimated $2.6 billion in net flows, while Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) secured the tenth place with $2.2 billion in net flows. secured Not too shabby for ETFs that launched less than a month ago! The Supply Shock Will Come… While it is still too early to predict precisely when the institutional adoption of will have a significant and long-term positive impact on the price, industry experts — the latest being ARK Invest — seem to agree that Bitcoin might be finally ripe for institutional adoption. BTC Here’s why: Bitcoin has outperformed every major asset over longer-term horizons Bitcoin’s correlation with traditional assets is low (0.27 over the past five years) Bitcoin could play a major role in maximizing risk-adjusted returns Industry Shakers El Salvador's Bitcoin-Friendly President Nayib Bukele Wins Re-Election Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador known for his support of Bitcoin, appears poised for another five-year term, as indicated by exit polls revealing his substantial lead shortly after the conclusion of Sunday evening's voting. Initial results on Monday morning showed Bukele securing 83% support, based on just over 70% of the ballots counted. While the official results are yet to be announced, Bukele has declared victory, asserting that he garnered more than 85% of the vote. Genesis Seeks Approval to Sell Nearly $1.4 Billion GBTC Shares Genesis, the now defunct crypto lending company, is seeking authorization to liquidate $1.4 billion in shares from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), and Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETCG). Originally used as collateral for a loan from Gemini, these shares became subject to foreclosure due to Genesis defaulting on its financial commitments. The legal ownership of these shares is still under dispute in court. Binance Code, Internal Passwords Leaked on GitHub A repository on GitHub publicly exposed a collection of sensitive information related to Binance, comprising code, passwords, and infrastructure diagrams. This data had been accessible for months before Binance identified it and requested a takedown to remove the information. Binance, however, emphasised that the exposed data “posed negligible risk to the security of our users, their assets or our platform.” Stay Updated - Follow me on Twitter! Enjoyed these insights? There's more where that came from. Follow me on for daily tidbits and updates. Twitter/X Also published . here

Chinese Markets in Trouble While Bitcoin’s Institutional Adoption Grows

Despite not exhibiting the immediate bullish response many had anticipated in the wake of the Bitcoin Spot ETF , Bitcoin's price has seen a remarkable surge of 100% over the past year. approvals However, the ETF approvals set a precedent for as an asset class, and with the next Bitcoin halving expected midway through April this year, there is plenty of reason to be positive about this year’s price development. Bitcoin Investors Expecting a Bullish 2024? Most predictions by institutions and experts within and outside the crypto sphere forecast that BTC will soar greatly in 2024. I have collected a large number of public calls and predictions, which I will present below. Institutional Forecasts CoinFund: $250,000 - $500,000 CoinFund, a prominent venture capital firm in the crypto space, holds one of the most bullish predictions. In an email to CNBC, Seth Ginns, the company's managing partner, mentioned that BTC could rally up to $500,000 in 2024. He cited factors such as an inverse correlation with the dollar and yields, BTC Spot ETF inflows, and the potential approval of Ether Spot ETFs later in the year. “Bitcoin has a strong inverse correlation with the dollar and real yields, and both are now going down. We also expect the follow through inflows post-launch of the BTC spot ETF, as well as growing excitement around the likely approval of ETH (ether) spot ETFs later in 2024, will be quite meaningful.” Bernstein: $150,000 Private wealth management firm Bernstein predicts that BTC could reach $150,000 by 2025. This estimate was based on the possibility of an ETF approval, which has now materialized. According to a note shared by Bernstein's analyst Gautam Chhugani last year, ETFs are expected to attract approximately 10% of Bitcoin's supply. “You may not like Bitcoin as much as we do, but a dispassionate view of Bitcoin as a commodity suggests a turn of the cycle.” Pantera Capital: $148,000 Pantera Capital conducted an analysis of the shift in the stock-to-flow ratio. The findings revealed that the upcoming halving in 2024 is poised to exert a more substantial influence on diminishing the new supply percentage (47%) compared to the 2020 halving (43%). “The next halving is expected to occur on April 20, 2024.  Since most bitcoins are now in circulation, each halving will be almost exactly half as big a reduction in new supply.  If history were to repeat itself, the next halving would see bitcoin rising to $35k before the halving and $148k after.” CoinShares: $141,000 Following the approval of a Bitcoin Spot ETF, the price might rally up to $141,000 within the next 12 months based on a Fund Flows Model published by CoinShares' Head of Research James Butterfill. The foundation of the model rests on a cautious assumption, as indicated by Galaxy's , suggesting that spot Bitcoin ETFs could constitute a market valued at $14.4 trillion. If merely 10% of the investors holding these funds decide to allocate 1% of their wealth, the resulting capital influx would exceed $14.4 billion in the first year. report Matrixport: $125,000 In a note sent out last year, Matrixport predicted that BTC's price will rally up to $125,000 by the end of 2024 based on previous cycle price actions. “Historically, the years when Bitcoin mining rewards were halved were generally bullish: 2012 (+186%), 2016 (+126%), and 2020 (+297%). As miners tended to hoard Bitcoins before each halving, prices increased by +200%, which would project Bitcoin reaching $125,000.” Standard Chartered: $100,000 Last year, Standard Chartered doubled down on its prediction that BTC’s price will hit $100,000 by the end of this year. Some of the factors cited as potential bullish catalysts by the bank include “turmoil in the banking sector in March this year that helped to “re-establish Bitcoin’s use as a decentralized scarce digital asset,” approval of a Bitcoin Spot ETF and the expected Bitcoin halving event. ETC Group: $100,000 According to ETC’s Group 2024 outlook, Bitcoin’s price could hit $100,000 this year. This prediction is based on several factors, including the halving, Bitcoin’s on-chain metrics, and the adoption curve. “Bitcoin’s on-chain metrics imply that BTC’s supply is significantly scarcer, and accumulation has been more pronounced this cycle than during the last cycle.” Bitwise: $80,000 Bitwise expects BTC's upward trajectory to continue into 2024, with the price surging past $80,000, based on two major catalysts: Bitcoin Spot ETF approvals and the halving event. “Bitcoin outperformed all major asset classes in 2023, rising 128% while the S&P 500 returned 21%, gold returned 12%, and bonds returned 2%.2 We expect that trend to continue in 2024, with bitcoin trading above $80,000 and setting a new all-time high.” VanEck: All-time High One of the 15 crypto market predictions by VanEck is that Bitcoin will climb back to its all-time high in Q4 2024. The main argument supporting this prediction is the political developments expected to take place; around 45% of the world’s population, including the U.S. will go into elections this year. “Bitcoin will climb a Presidential-sized wall of worry. The percentage of the global population voting in legislative and presidential elections will hit an all-time high above 45% in 2024. This high level of important elections augurs high volatility and the prospect of significant changes.” Messari: $600,000 in the long term In the 2023 crypto thesis report, Messari acknowledges that it might be difficult to predict BTC’s price in a shorter time frame. However, based on the ‘digital gold’ narrative, this crypto analytics firm predicts BTC’s price could eventually soar up to $600,000. “We probably won’t see another 100x for bitcoin, but the asset could easily outperform other established asset classes once again in 2024. Eventual parity with gold would yield a price per BTC of over $600,000.” Expert Insights Cathie Wood (ARK Invest CEO): $1.5 million by 2030 Following the approval of 11 Bitcoin Spot ETFs earlier this month, including the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, Cathie Wood recently reiterated in a CNBC interview that her base case scenario is BTC surging to $600,000 by the end of this decade or going higher to $1.5 million under more optimistic conditions. Arthur Hayes (Former BitMEX CEO): $1 million The former BitMEX CEO has consistently maintained a highly optimistic outlook on BTC. In a recent tweet, he predicted that BTC's price will reach $1 million, driven by a potential shift in policy by the Fed, which, in turn, could trigger a rally in risk-on assets. “At this point, there is no excuse not to be long crypto. How many more times must they tell you that the fiat in your pocket is a filthy piece of trash? Believe in the Lord, and he shall set you free.” Samson Mow (JAN3com CEO): $1 million A Bitcoin enthusiast since the early days, Samson Maw predicts that Bitcoin's price could soon surge to $1 million. This projection is based on various fundamental factors that he argues are yet to be priced in, including ETF approvals, the halving, increased nation-state adoption, renewed quantitative easing (QE), and the multiplier and Veblen effect. Michael Saylor (Microstrategy CEO): $350,000 As of December 2023, MicroStrategy owned a total of 189,150 Bitcoins, establishing itself as one of the largest BTC hodlers. The company’s CEO and Bitcoin enthusiast, Michael Saylor, anticipates that Bitcoin's price will increase tenfold once responsible custodians begin managing Bitcoin. This shift is already underway, especially with the approval of spot ETFs. Tim Draper (Venture Capitalist): $250,000 In an interview with Coin Bureau towards the end of last year, American Venture Capitalist Tim Draper reiterated his prediction that BTC’s price will soon hit $250,000. This estimate is based on Bitcoin’s underlying value proposition as an asset that can also be used for transactional purposes and its decentralized nature. “Having a bank and government decide on what currency is good is not as effective as having a bitcoin where there is a trusted third party, which is hundreds of thousands of nodes making sure the transaction was done properly.” Max Keiser (Bitcoin Community): $220,000 For a long time, Max Keiser has been calling for $220,000, and following last year’s price action and the looming macro uncertainty, he recently doubled down on this prediction. “Keep in mind, Bitcoin trades at these levels AFTER social unrest and societal breakdown are irreversibly causing havoc. You have to prepare for higher prices AND economic collapse.” Tone Vays (Crypto Analyst): $200,000 A renowned analyst in the crypto space, Vays has previously predicted that BTC could surge to $200,000 or higher sometime in 2025. However, in a recent analysis, he that BTC is likely to retrace back to around $39,000 before it can regain momentum. forecasted Mike Novogratz (Galaxy Digital CEO): All-time high Back in 2021, Galaxy Digital's CEO predicted that Bitcoin's price would reach $500,000 this year. And in a more recent interview with CNBC, Mike Novogratz stated that he expects the next milestone to be breaking the all-time high of $69,000 this year and wouldn't be surprised if BTC's price climbed even higher. Plan B: $16K-$65 range Based on the stock-to-flow model, Plan B estimates that Bitcoin’s price will hover around $16K-$65K during the 2024 halving, after which it will trade between $65K-$524K for the next four years. At 2012 halving most bitcoin was <$16. At 2016 halving most BTC was in $256-$1024 range. At 2020 halving most BTC was in $4k-16k range. At 2024 halving most BTC will be in $16k-$65k range. I would not be surprised if, in the next 4 years, most BTC will transfer in the $65k-$524k range. Larry Fink (Blackrock CEO): No specific target, bullish on fundamentals BlackRock's CEO, Larry Fink, is swiftly gaining recognition as a Bitcoin bull, and with the company securing approval from the SEC, it's unsurprising that his sentiments toward BTC are notably bullish. Here are some of his insights on Bitcoin from a recent interview with Fox: If you’re fearful of your government or worrying your government is devaluing the currency, then you could see this as a great potential long-term store of value. It’s like digital gold. It is a ledger, but it’s an international ledger that’s cross-border. It’s bigger than any government. The advent of the Bitcoin ETF is an example that we’re legitimizing this asset class. Stan Druckenmiller (American Billionaire): Bitcoin is worth an investment Speaking during the Robin Hood NYC 2023 Fireside Chat, Stan Druckenmiller expressed his opinion about Bitcoin, likening it to gold’s appeal as a store of value. “I’m 76 years old. I own gold. I was surprised that Bitcoin got going. But, you know – it’s clear that the young people look at it as a store of value because it’s a lot easier to do stuff with. The young people have all the money… So, I like them both [BTC and gold]. I don’t own any Bitcoin, to be frank. But I should.” Stay Updated - Follow me on Twitter! Enjoyed these insights? There's more where that came from. Follow me on for daily tidbits and updates. Twitter/X Also published . here

Bitcoin Price Projections 2024: Insights From Experts and Institutional Forecasts

STASIS, a trailblazer in the digital currency and stablecoin realm, has recently unveiled an innovative instant purchase feature for EURS, effectively bridging the 16 trillion euro market with cutting-edge blockchain technology. This development represents a pivotal moment in cryptocurrency accessibility and efficiency. Now, accessing crypto and DeFi is quicker than ever, with STASIS’ services requiring only a minute and a few simple clicks to get onboard. You can purchase up to 1000 EURS monthly with minimal effort! To get started, follow these simple steps: Enter your email on our registration page. Register your phone number. Link your wallet to our Web app. That's all! Your account is ready in just a minute! In-Depth Insights Users can now acquire up to 1000 EURS monthly in a remarkably short time. The process has been streamlined to a few clicks, involving simple steps such as email entry, phone number registration, and wallet connection via the Webapp. This feature is designed to cater to both seasoned crypto enthusiasts and newcomers, ensuring a hassle-free experience. Understanding the importance of cost-effectiveness in transactions, STASIS has dramatically reduced the commission fees. Now, all operations, including purchases and sales across all blockchains, are subject to a flat rate of 5 euros, making it more economical for users to engage in crypto trading and investments. The focus on user experience is evident in the quick and intuitive account setup process. New users can have their accounts operational within a minute, significantly improving traditional, more complex crypto platforms. To aid users in navigating the new feature, we made demonstrating the ease and speed of the onboarding process. a short video STASIS Future Plans "We are excited to push the boundaries of what's possible in the crypto world with our new instant purchase feature. We aim to make financial transactions not just faster but also less frictional, more accessible, and cost-effective for everyone. This is just the beginning of our journey towards making the digital economy more inclusive and user-friendly," shared the STASIS CMO Alex. Looking ahead, STASIS plans to continue innovating and expanding its services, focusing on enhancing user experience and integrating more features that align with the evolving needs of the digital finance community. Feel free to ask more about Stasis and EURS via the links below: I I I X LinkedIn Discord Telegram

STASIS Introduces Game-Changing Instant Purchase for EURS

STASIS EURS-এর জন্য গেম-চেঞ্জিং তাত্ক্ষণিক কেনাকাটার প্রবর্তন করেছে

STASIS führt bahnbrechenden Sofortkauf für EURS ein

STASIS presenta una innovadora compra instantánea de EURS

STASIS présente l'achat instantané révolutionnaire pour EURS

STASIS ने EURS के लिए गेम-चेंजिंग इंस्टेंट खरीदारी की शुरुआत की

STASIS が EURS の革新的な即時購入を導入

STASIS, 획기적인 EURS 즉시 구매 기능 출시

STASIS apresenta compra instantânea revolucionária para EURS

STASIS представляет революционную мгновенную покупку за евро

STASIS, EURS için Oyunun Kurallarını Değiştiren Anında Satın Alma Özelliğini Tanıtıyor

STASIS giới thiệu tính năng mua tức thì mang tính thay đổi trò chơi bằng EURS

STASIS 推出改变游戏规则的欧元即时购买

The introduction of blockchain technology brought a novel way to conduct financial transactions. Absolutely trustless, Bitcoin and other removed the need for users to rely on trusted third parties to send and receive money. However, that is limited to peer-to-peer transactions. decentralized digital assets Centralized institutions, like the ones in traditional finance, mushroomed to offer utility and convenience that otherwise don’t exist with self-custody and peer-to-peer transacting. Today, the Web3 industry comprises several centralized entities operating alongside decentralized implementations to provide users with a burgeoning ecosystem of finance and tokenized use cases. However, that poses critical challenges. The Woes of the Web3 Ecosystem Trusting institutions to hold and transact user value can lead to bad behavior propelled by the selfish motives of those operating said institutions. Due to that, many – institutional and retail – have their assets stolen. Look no further than the to know how things can go very wrong. Web3 users FTX fiasco The story does not change with any other centralized enterprise that looted its customers. Money-hungry founders adopt corrupt governance practices to part clients from their assets. The growing adoption of the asset type creates a massive need for honest governance practices. Decentralized Web3 protocols also face their own threats, with hackers looking to exploit the large amounts of liquidity they manage. Many protocols have fallen victim to cybercriminals attacking their storages and transactions to walk away with tremendous value. Regardless, the issues faced by centralized and decentralized Web3 platforms are beatable. And what is better than using technology to combat the issues faced by technological advancements that are blockchain and digital assets? Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology has become the answer to governance-related issues in the centralized and decentralized parts of the Web3 ecosystem. As MPC-based wallets get integrated into the asset storage infrastructures of centralized and decentralized platforms, the ecosystem is moving towards secure, efficient, and simplified institutional governance. The Governance Dilemma in Web3 The governance problems faced by digital asset institutions are nothing new. In fact, the issue of institutions and enterprises behaving poorly with user assets has remained a recurring theme throughout the existence of digital assets. Not using appropriate storage infrastructure, misappropriating funds for self-serving gains, and scamming clients outright have all been repetitive occurrences in the ecosystem. Poor governance in relation to asset storage and access has been why enterprises lose client assets to hackers or decide to steal the value themselves. Web3 protocols operating on decentralized models face governance-related issues as well. The wallets they use for storing and transacting assets and interacting with their user bases are vulnerable to internal and external threats. Like the large amounts of assets stored by institutions, protocol-related wallets attract bad actors in droves. The holes in asset transactions and storage security can allow hackers to have a field day and steal in the millions. If not obvious, such occurrences are related to how the protocols and institutions manage the assets. Relying on traditional single-signature wallets and even multi-signature (multisig) wallets is neither the safest nor the most efficient way to handle them. Single-signature wallets pose the . Essentially, hackers can access the funds stored in a single-signature wallet if they retrieve their private keys. issue of a single point of failure Despite using cold wallets that store private keys offline securely, over the more vulnerable online hot wallets, the threats posed by social engineering and phishing constantly loom. Bad actors can take advantage of the redundancies present with using cold wallets in the enterprise setting to penetrate through their high-level security. Then, there is always the issue of rogue players within the enterprises, taking advantage of the single point of failure possessed by single-signature wallets. How hard is it for an employee or anyone from the top-level management to misappropriate funds from their company’s wallets? All it takes is access to wallet private keys and the motivation to steal. While the most logical approach to evading such issues is using multisig wallets, they are not without their drawbacks. Multisig wallets require multiple keys in an m-of-n configuration to sign a transaction. That means multiple signatures get broadcasted on-chain, and when the required number of signatures are broadcasted, transactions get initiated from the . However, that poses security vulnerabilities. multisig setup Hackers who have narrowed down on protocol- or institution-related wallets can figure out the wallets signing the transaction and the number of keys required to sign any transaction. Over a long enough period, they can theoretically gain access to the needed number of wallet private keys to launch successful attacks. Similarly, corrupt organizational members can retrieve the private key information of their peers to take control of funds and manipulate transactions. Also, several key signing transactions increase transaction fees at the blockchain level. Furthermore, multisig wallets are not interoperable and often just support one chain. So, interacting with assets from different blockchains will require enterprises and projects to utilize multiple multisig setups. Keeping track of all those wallets and spending heavily on the numerous transactional requirements are not feasible. Single- and multi-signature wallets may be ideal for the average retail investor or user. But institutions need wallet solutions that are more secure and efficient without one canceling the other, which is usually a dilemma with anything blockchain-related. Introducing MPC Technology: A Paradigm Shift in Governance MPC technology is nothing new – it has been a staple of cryptography since the ‘80s. With developments in MPC technology and blockchain’s introduction, MPC has integrated into the functioning of digital asset wallets. MPC technology is used to create separate shards of data. These shards, when combined, can compute a specific result. During the computation, no information about any shard is revealed. MPC algorithms are designed to hide the sharded data of users from one another while revealing just the results of computations. Transposing this capability to digital asset wallet functionalities generates possibilities where multiple individuals, again m-of-n, can approve transactions. It might sound like how multisig wallets work, but several differences exist. The major one is MPC wallets not consisting of several private keys like multisig wallets. Instead, they work with one key divided into multiple shards. When all the key shards, or the needed number of shards, initiate a transaction, the algorithm computes the data from the shards to generate a transaction signature. This signature then takes the transaction on-chain for verification. The computation itself is executed off-chain. Thus, hackers cannot learn about the key shards responsible for initiating transactions from MPC wallets by looking at blockchain explorers. This security comes on top of that offered by the multiple key shards needed to initiate transactions. MPC wallets are, thus, highly resilient against cyberattacks. Several MPC wallet providers now also implement key refresh features, which allow MPC wallet users to generate new key shards after every transaction or set intervals. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for cybercriminals to gather information about the needed shards over a long period to make unauthorized transactions. Institutions and protocols relying on MPC wallets for asset storage can avoid cyberattacks better than with other wallet types. Attacks launched by internal threats are obviously also averted. , reigning in the ideal governance measures through distributed access to digital assets in the most secure way. MPC wallets prevent the possibility of initiating corrupt transactions MPC wallets also offer high levels of transparency to enterprises. Those in charge of enterprise storage have access to wallet transaction history, including information about the value transferred and members approving or declining the transfers. Such improvements push MPC wallets above multisig ones despite both wallet types allowing for distributed digital asset transactions. MPC wallets also offer increased efficiency compared to multisig wallets and cold wallets. They transmit a single signature on-chain, making transaction confirmation much faster than confirmation on multisig wallets. Also, their enhanced security allows institution personnel to store the key shards safely online. Because of that, institutions can transact digital assets much faster than cold wallets while achieving similar levels of security. While cold wallets are still the industry standard for concentrated asset storage and can also come in MPC configurations, institutions can utilize hot wallets in MPC configurations for enhanced security while maintaining the efficiency needed to provide instant liquidity for customers. Another advantage of MPC wallets is that they are highly scalable. Say enterprises want to increase or decrease the number of personnel possessing access to their MPC wallets. They can generate or delete additional key shards with ease. Furthermore, MPC wallets are interoperable with most blockchains. So, enterprises and protocols can store several crypto assets in these wallets without maintaining dedicated wallets for each blockchain. The benefits do not stop there. MPC wallets can easily be plugged into platforms, removing the need to rebuild parts of the platforms to accommodate MPC storage. With a long list of advantages, MPC wallets are the logical choice over other wallets for platforms managing multiple wallets in their infrastructures and committing high-value transactions. Their efficiency and scalability are unmatched. MPC Technology in Action: Practical Applications for Institutional Governance MPC wallet providers are making a cutting-edge difference to the dilemma of institutional governance in Web3. Let’s look at some wallet providers and custodians providing the best MPC solutions. Fireblocks Fireblocks is an industry-leading custodian known to address all kinds of digital asset storage needs. Their non-custodial MPC wallet solution is one of the easiest to integrate into applications and platforms. It operates with the natively developed MPC-CMP algorithm – a leading innovation in MPC-based asset storage. The algorithm is open-source and can be audited before implementation. Fireblock’s MPC offerings are compatible with 50+ blockchains and hundreds, if not thousands, of tokens. Signing transactions occur with some of the fastest speeds while using Fireblock’s MPC wallets. These capabilities have let the custodian process transactions collectively, moving over $4 trillion. Liminal Custody Liminal is a fairly new entrant in the segment but is witnessing rapid adoption. Over fifty crypto enterprises use its services, including banking-grade MPC storage solutions. It also boasts more than $550 million worth of assets under secure storage and has processed transactions collectively worth over $6000 million through its custody solutions. Liminal has achieved such feats by making the most difference in the MPC wallet segment with its increased security protocols. digital asset custody That involves enterprises setting up measures like transaction limits and whitelisting receiver wallet addresses. These processes occur through ceremonies where enterprise personnel accept or decline wallets during the whitelisting process and set limits on transaction values. Through truly distributed governance, Liminal’s MPC wallets transform institutional governance and set the benchmark for Web3. Blockdaemon Blockdaemon – one of the best-known MPC wallet providers, has offered such solutions since 2018. Interestingly, the company is the first to issue MPC-based custody solutions. Not surprisingly, its MPC wallet solutions are some of the most widely used today. Several crypto enterprises and traditional finance institutions rely on its digital asset storage offerings. The wallet provider’s solutions come fortified by its “Advanced MPC” technology, a self-developed MPC module securing wallets on multiple levels. Like the other entrants here, Blockdaemon’s wallets are secured through distributed signing capabilities by dividing private keys into shards. However, what makes them highly interesting is the use of MPC technology for transaction-related policies. Blockdaemon uses cryptography to store policy-related information with key shards. Policies are, thus, merged with the key shards, making transaction manipulation highly unlikely. Therefore, transactions are secured by MPC technology at two layers, bringing increased security and good governance. These industry innovators offer solutions embedded with to take institutional, enterprise, and protocol custody-related governance to the next level. Despite the more touted benefits of distributed and secure access and storage of assets, MPC wallets bring other benefits like accountability and transparency to governance trails. So, whether it is an enterprise or a web3 protocol, permitted stakeholders always know how funds are accessed and utilized. MPC technology The Future of Institutional Governance with MPC Technology There is no doubt that MPC technology is spearheading the much-needed transformation in institutional governance that Web3 requires. By merging security, efficiency, and distributed access, MPC wallets avert major issues with the concentrated asset storage of enterprises and protocols. The entire ecosystem can rest easy now that their assets are stored much safer against cybercriminals and internal exploits. With that level of safety, more institutional investors will begin interacting with digital assets. The enormous value they pump into the ecosystem will remain secured by the enterprises of their choice. Of course, the safety will also extend to Web3 protocols. MPC wallets handling their massive liquidity will come set with predetermined parameters and distributed signing to ensure only correct transactions occur. DAOs will also move to implement MPC wallets if they are not already. All aspects of the will undoubtedly benefit from MPC technology. With calls for increased security, transparency, and efficient governance practices from user communities and regulators, MPC wallets hold the potential to fill all existing gaps. Web3 ecosystem Conclusion Web3 platforms have always had evident governance and security problems. They mainly stem from how the platforms store digital assets. MPC technology’s integration in asset storage infrastructure addresses the related governance issues and improves security and efficiency in handling large amounts of liquidity. Thus, it is important to understand how MPC technology plays a role in making the ecosystem better. Web3 enterprises must adapt to the changing times to meet the desires of users and lawmakers, and integrating MPC wallets into asset storage infrastructures will help them do that.

How MPC Technology is Simplifying Institutional Governance

Based on the SEC’s recent lawsuits against high-profile crypto firms like Coinbase, the agency is likely to claim that Uniswap illegally offered unregistered securities to the public or that it failed to register as a broker or an exchange. The impending Uniswap lawsuit comes at a time when the crypto industry has loudly complained the SEC has been operating in bad faith when it comes to the sector, pursuing enforcement actions despite clear rules while failing to account for crypto’s distinct blockchain-based technology. This is not the first time that Uniswap Labs has faced legal issues - in a class-action suit filed against Uniswap Labs last year, they argued that the technology it had built was neutral—and that whether individuals used it for bad or for good was beyond its control. In a sophisticated ruling that described the nuances of DeFi in detail, a federal judge sided cleanly with Uniswap Labs, handing the DeFi sector a major victory. This, coupled with new regulations being set in place in the European Union, spells trouble for the world of DeFi. As Circle’s EU Strategy and Policy Director Patrick Hansen described it, “paying with crypto (for example to merchants) with a non KYC’d self custody wallet will be more difficult/banned depending on the merchants set up. This change, as well as the lower thresholds for anonymous cash payments, has unfortunately been agreed months ago.” Defi Must Be Regulated in a Defi Way MiCA is a regulatory framework proposed by the European Union to govern digital assets and their markets that came into force in June 2023 and will be fully applicable from Dec. 30, 2024. “The AMLR (Art. 58) now explicitly prohibits CASPs to provide anonymous accounts, meaning a custodial crypto business cannot provide services for anonymous users. This is already prohibited under existing AML rules anyway, so nothing new,” Hansen said. However, others warned that this could impact non-KYC custodial Bitcoin Lightning wallets like Wallet of Satoshi. Additionally, CASPs will not be able to provide accounts for privacy coins, though such practice is already widespread, and MiCA already prohibits crypto assets with built-in anonymization. In this new environment, it seems that DeFi and the very values and core fundamentals it stands for are under threat, but Fiat24 co-founder, Yang Lan, believes that regulation IS in fact necessary for decentralized finance. “I never believed that it would be possible for DeFi to continue operating in the way that it has, without much regulatory oversight. While I understand the attraction and appeal of protocols such as MetaMask and Uniswap, with their predisposition to anonymity for users, I don’t think that it is sustainable. Some form of client and investor protection is necessary in the space, and I believe it can be done in a DeFi way that does not impede too much on people’s right to privacy.” Defi Alternatives There are currently projects such as MicaPass, idOs, and Kinto, addressing the challenge by issuing Onchain IDs. These are stored on the public Ethereum BlockChain, in a decentralized way. They can't be hidden or deleted. No service or organization can remove your access rights to it. Another novice solution comes from Swiss fintech, Fiat24, offering a new and safer solution via their eponymous NFT. They are a fully regulated and licensed financial institution, governed by Swiss bank law, which means they can offer a different level of security in terms of the KYC performed. The NFT could be used to access various dApps and protocols, with the security of knowing that the connected users are not on any sanctioned lists, are over 18 years old, and have a valid passport as a credential. Other decentralized means of helping to regulate the space include: Emphasize the principle of "code is law," whereby the rules governing DeFi protocols are embedded in smart contracts.


Mandate rigorous auditing of smart contracts by independent third parties to verify their security and functionality.


Create regulatory sandboxes where DeFi projects can experiment with innovative solutions under regulatory supervision.


Encourage the formation of self-regulatory organizations within the DeFi community to establish best practices, standards, and guidelines for responsible behavior Nefarious actors still prevail in the world of crypto, but the majority of users are “good,” and don’t have malicious intentions. The people who are in DeFi for good deserve this delicate balance between anonymity and security, and it will become apparent with testing which solution provides the most comprehensive opportunity for a much-needed call for regulation in the space. Based on the SEC’s recent lawsuits against high-profile crypto firms like Coinbase, the agency is likely to claim that Uniswap illegally offered unregistered securities to the public or that it failed to register as a broker or an exchange. The impending Uniswap lawsuit comes at a time when the crypto industry has loudly complained the SEC has been operating in bad faith when it comes to the sector, pursuing enforcement actions despite clear rules while failing to account for crypto’s distinct blockchain-based technology. This is not the first time that Uniswap Labs has faced legal issues - in a class-action suit filed against Uniswap Labs last year, they argued that the technology it had built was neutral—and that whether individuals used it for bad or for good was beyond its control. In a sophisticated ruling that described the nuances of DeFi in detail, a federal judge sided cleanly with Uniswap Labs, handing the DeFi sector a major victory. class-action suit filed This, coupled with new regulations being set in place in the European Union, spells trouble for the world of DeFi. As Circle’s EU Strategy and Policy Director Patrick Hansen described it , “paying with crypto (for example to merchants) with a non KYC’d self custody wallet will be more difficult/banned depending on the merchants set up. This change, as well as the lower thresholds for anonymous cash payments, has unfortunately been agreed months ago.” described it Defi Must Be Regulated in a Defi Way MiCA is a regulatory framework proposed by the European Union to govern digital assets and their markets that came into force in June 2023 and will be fully applicable from Dec. 30, 2024. “The AMLR (Art. 58) now explicitly prohibits CASPs to provide anonymous accounts, meaning a custodial crypto business cannot provide services for anonymous users. This is already prohibited under existing AML rules anyway, so nothing new,” Hansen said. However, others warned that this could impact non-KYC custodial Bitcoin Lightning wallets like Wallet of Satoshi. Additionally, CASPs will not be able to provide accounts for privacy coins, though such practice is already widespread, and MiCA already prohibits crypto assets with built-in anonymization. In this new environment, it seems that DeFi and the very values and core fundamentals it stands for are under threat, but Fiat24 co-founder, Yang Lan, believes that regulation IS in fact necessary for decentralized finance. Fiat24 “I never believed that it would be possible for DeFi to continue operating in the way that it has, without much regulatory oversight. While I understand the attraction and appeal of protocols such as MetaMask and Uniswap, with their predisposition to anonymity for users, I don’t think that it is sustainable. Some form of client and investor protection is necessary in the space, and I believe it can be done in a DeFi way that does not impede too much on people’s right to privacy.” Defi Alternatives There are currently projects such as MicaPass, idOs, and Kinto, addressing the challenge by issuing Onchain IDs. These are stored on the public Ethereum BlockChain, in a decentralized way. They can't be hidden or deleted. No service or organization can remove your access rights to it. Another novice solution comes from Swiss fintech, Fiat24, offering a new and safer solution via their eponymous NFT. They are a fully regulated and licensed financial institution, governed by Swiss bank law, which means they can offer a different level of security in terms of the KYC performed. The NFT could be used to access various dApps and protocols, with the security of knowing that the connected users are not on any sanctioned lists, are over 18 years old, and have a valid passport as a credential. Other decentralized means of helping to regulate the space include: Emphasize the principle of "code is law," whereby the rules governing DeFi protocols are embedded in smart contracts. Mandate rigorous auditing of smart contracts by independent third parties to verify their security and functionality. Create regulatory sandboxes where DeFi projects can experiment with innovative solutions under regulatory supervision. Encourage the formation of self-regulatory organizations within the DeFi community to establish best practices, standards, and guidelines for responsible behavior Emphasize the principle of "code is law," whereby the rules governing DeFi protocols are embedded in smart contracts. Emphasize the principle of "code is law," whereby the rules governing DeFi protocols are embedded in smart contracts. Mandate rigorous auditing of smart contracts by independent third parties to verify their security and functionality. Mandate rigorous auditing of smart contracts by independent third parties to verify their security and functionality. Create regulatory sandboxes where DeFi projects can experiment with innovative solutions under regulatory supervision. Create regulatory sandboxes where DeFi projects can experiment with innovative solutions under regulatory supervision. Encourage the formation of self-regulatory organizations within the DeFi community to establish best practices, standards, and guidelines for responsible behavior Encourage the formation of self-regulatory organizations within the DeFi community to establish best practices, standards, and guidelines for responsible behavior Nefarious actors still prevail in the world of crypto, but the majority of users are “good,” and don’t have malicious intentions. The people who are in DeFi for good deserve this delicate balance between anonymity and security, and it will become apparent with testing which solution provides the most comprehensive opportunity for a much-needed call for regulation in the space.

DeFi Must be Regulated in a DeFi Way

A new podcast just dropped with Jim Keyes, CEO of both 7/11 and Blockbuster. I’ll break down his thoughts on fear and education. https://youtu.be/8ZoWQcnQSbc?embedable=true If you want to listen to the full podcast, listen on successstorypodcast.com or on YouTube. Remember Blockbuster? The video rental giant that seemed invincible, until it wasn't? What about 7-Eleven?  You know… those ubiquitous convenience stores slinging Slurpees and questionable hot dogs. Hold on a minute… these aren't exactly hotbeds of innovation, right?  Yet, here's the twist: the former CEO of BOTH these companies, Jim Keyes, has some seriously profound wisdom that every single one of us needs to hear. Jim, recently on the Success Story podcast, dropped a bombshell of a statement: "The antidote to fear is education." It seems obvious, but is it really? Let's break this thing down… The Disease of Fear Think about a scary moment.  Maybe a job interview, making a big decision, or a moment of public speaking. That pit in your stomach, those racing thoughts, the desire to just RUN? That's fear working its magic on you. Keyes explains what happens on a deeper level. Fear shuts down our higher-level thinking. It triggers that primal "fight or flight" response. We can't focus, we overreact, and we make terrible choices. This doesn't just happen at an individual level; it happens to entire societies.  Fear breeds anger, misunderstanding, conflict…all those things we desperately need less of. The Cure: A Different Kind of Classroom "Knowledge is the light you turn on, and you discover there's really nothing to be afraid of." Keyes says it with such conviction, but what does it really mean? Education isn't just about book smarts.  Don't get me wrong, IQ is valuable, but it's a tiny piece of the puzzle. Jim talks about two other critical ingredients: Emotional intelligence (EQ): Being aware of your emotions, understanding their impact, and managing them for better outcomes.
Character Quotient (CQ): This is about things like integrity, humility, and compassion. Our core values and how they shape our actions. Imagine a person with a high IQ but zero EQ and CQ.  That's a recipe for disaster. True wisdom, the kind that creates flourishing individuals and societies, needs all three.  This is the education Keyes is championing – an education of the mind and the heart. Alright, enough theory, right? Let's get to some examples... Remember the fear we talked about? Keyes isn't saying it magically goes away. But with education, we reframe it. Instead of a monster under the bed, it becomes a puzzle to solve, a challenge to overcome. Think about 7-Eleven.  Convenience stores aren't sexy. So, how did it become this massive success? Keyes saw fear driving huge companies to ignore a whole segment of the market. Busy people needed essentials at odd hours, and no one was serving them.  That's an opportunity born from addressing an overlooked fear. But what about Blockbuster, then? The video giant that, well, kind of exploded. Fear played a role here too. Fear of change, of the unknown. They saw Netflix coming, but instead of pivoting and embracing streaming, they doubled down on their outdated model. See the difference? Knowledge gives you options. If 7-Eleven had stayed scared of an unproven customer base, we'd never have those 2 a.m. snack runs. If Blockbuster had understood the shifting tides, they might still be here. It's Not Just About Business This "fear vs. knowledge" battleground is everywhere. People afraid of immigrants, of technology, of "the other."  Our society can feel like a minefield because so many are acting from a place of fear instead of understanding. Jim Keyes believes education is the solution, not  "feel good" slogans.  Understanding history, economics, sociology – these things dismantle the scary stories that keep us stuck. But Here's the Tough Pill to Swallow... Education, the real kind, is hard work. It takes effort and time. It's not passive. It challenges you to truly think, not just adopt a set of talking points.  We're in an age where instant gratification is king. That's the enemy of this kind of learning. Jim isn't talking about formal schooling only either. He's a huge proponent of lifelong learning. Reading, questioning, seeking out those who are different (those are often the best teachers!).  He compares it to aviation: You don't get a pilot's license and call it a day. It's a "license to learn" forever. I know you're probably thinking, ok, but what do I DO with this knowledge? That's a fair question, and here's where things get REALLY interesting… Fearless Opportunity Here's where Jim Keyes gets even more counterintuitive. He argues that disruptive change, the kind that terrifies most people, is where the true opportunities lie. Think about it – those who understand and harness something like AI, while others run away screaming, are the ones positioned to create miracles. This mindset shift is HUGE. Instead of seeing uncertainty as a threat, we see it as fertile ground. Think back throughout history: after war – rebirth. After economic collapse – new industries rise. It's not always pretty, but progress follows in the wake of destruction. This isn't some insensitive cheerleading though. There's a compassionate side to Jim's philosophy. When people's deepest fears are addressed through knowledge, we build better societies. Think poverty, crime, prejudice – these things fester in ignorance. The Challenge to You (and Me) Jim Keyes isn't saying we all need to become rocket scientists.  But there's a level of deliberate, focused learning we need to adopt.  Here's a few questions to get you started: Where are your fear-based blind spots? Do you automatically distrust certain technologies, cultures, or ideas?
What are you avoiding learning about? There's usually gold to be found in the things we find most difficult!
Who challenges your thinking? Do you surround yourself with people who simply echo your existing beliefs? That's an intellectual death trap. This isn't about being the smartest or most "woke" person in the room.  It's about cultivating a relentless curiosity and courage to venture outside your comfort zone. It's hard, but it's the ONLY way we evolve as individuals and as a society. A Final Note from Jim Jim Keyes isn't an inexperienced guy. He's seen decades of economic booms and busts, societal shifts, the birth and death of whole industries. His confidence in education comes from hard-won experience. I think that's important to remember. The path out of fear isn't a quick-fix, but it's the ONLY path that leads somewhere worth going. If you want to listen to the full podcast, listen on successstorypodcast.com or on YouTube. A new podcast just dropped with Jim Keyes, CEO of both 7/11 and Blockbuster. I’ll break down his thoughts on fear and education. https://youtu.be/8ZoWQcnQSbc?embedable=true https://youtu.be/8ZoWQcnQSbc?embedable=true If you want to listen to the full podcast, listen on successstorypodcast.com or on YouTube . successstorypodcast.com successstorypodcast.com YouTube YouTube Remember Blockbuster? The video rental giant that seemed invincible, until it wasn't? What about 7-Eleven?  You know… those ubiquitous convenience stores slinging Slurpees and questionable hot dogs. Hold on a minute… these aren't exactly hotbeds of innovation, right?  Yet, here's the twist: the former CEO of BOTH these companies, Jim Keyes, has some seriously profound wisdom that every single one of us needs to hear. Jim, recently on the Success Story podcast, dropped a bombshell of a statement: "The antidote to fear is education." It seems obvious, but is it really? Let's break this thing down… The Disease of Fear The Disease of Fear Think about a scary moment.  Maybe a job interview, making a big decision, or a moment of public speaking. That pit in your stomach, those racing thoughts, the desire to just RUN? That's fear working its magic on you. Keyes explains what happens on a deeper level. Fear shuts down our higher-level thinking. It triggers that primal "fight or flight" response. We can't focus, we overreact, and we make terrible choices. This doesn't just happen at an individual level; it happens to entire societies.  Fear breeds anger, misunderstanding, conflict…all those things we desperately need less of. The Cure: A Different Kind of Classroom The Cure: A Different Kind of Classroom "Knowledge is the light you turn on, and you discover there's really nothing to be afraid of." Keyes says it with such conviction, but what does it really mean? Education isn't just about book smarts.  Don't get me wrong, IQ is valuable, but it's a tiny piece of the puzzle. Jim talks about two other critical ingredients: Emotional intelligence (EQ): Being aware of your emotions, understanding their impact, and managing them for better outcomes. Character Quotient (CQ): This is about things like integrity, humility, and compassion. Our core values and how they shape our actions. Emotional intelligence (EQ): Being aware of your emotions, understanding their impact, and managing them for better outcomes. Emotional intelligence (EQ): Character Quotient (CQ): This is about things like integrity, humility, and compassion. Our core values and how they shape our actions. Character Quotient (CQ): Imagine a person with a high IQ but zero EQ and CQ.  That's a recipe for disaster. True wisdom, the kind that creates flourishing individuals and societies, needs all three.  This is the education Keyes is championing – an education of the mind and the heart. and Alright, enough theory, right? Let's get to some examples... Alright, enough theory, right? Let's get to some examples... Remember the fear we talked about? Keyes isn't saying it magically goes away. But with education, we reframe it. Instead of a monster under the bed, it becomes a puzzle to solve, a challenge to overcome. reframe Think about 7-Eleven.  Convenience stores aren't sexy. So, how did it become this massive success? Keyes saw fear driving huge companies to ignore a whole segment of the market. Busy people needed essentials at odd hours, and no one was serving them.  That's an opportunity born from addressing an overlooked fear. But what about Blockbuster, then? The video giant that, well, kind of exploded. Fear played a role here too. Fear of change, of the unknown. They saw Netflix coming, but instead of pivoting and embracing streaming, they doubled down on their outdated model. See the difference? Knowledge gives you options. If 7-Eleven had stayed scared of an unproven customer base, we'd never have those 2 a.m. snack runs. If Blockbuster had understood the shifting tides, they might still be here. It's Not Just About Business It's Not Just About Business This "fear vs. knowledge" battleground is everywhere. People afraid of immigrants, of technology, of "the other."  Our society can feel like a minefield because so many are acting from a place of fear instead of understanding. Jim Keyes believes education is the solution, not  "feel good" slogans.  Understanding history, economics, sociology – these things dismantle the scary stories that keep us stuck. But Here's the Tough Pill to Swallow... But Here's the Tough Pill to Swallow... Education, the real kind, is hard work. It takes effort and time. It's not passive. It challenges you to truly think, not just adopt a set of talking points.  We're in an age where instant gratification is king. That's the enemy of this kind of learning. Jim isn't talking about formal schooling only either. He's a huge proponent of lifelong learning. Reading, questioning, seeking out those who are different (those are often the best teachers!).  He compares it to aviation: You don't get a pilot's license and call it a day. It's a "license to learn" forever. I know you're probably thinking, ok, but what do I DO with this knowledge? That's a fair question, and here's where things get REALLY interesting… Fearless Opportunity Fearless Opportunity Here's where Jim Keyes gets even more counterintuitive. He argues that disruptive change, the kind that terrifies most people, is where the true opportunities lie. Think about it – those who understand and harness something like AI, while others run away screaming, are the ones positioned to create miracles. This mindset shift is HUGE. Instead of seeing uncertainty as a threat, we see it as fertile ground. Think back throughout history: after war – rebirth. After economic collapse – new industries rise. It's not always pretty, but progress follows in the wake of destruction. This isn't some insensitive cheerleading though. There's a compassionate side to Jim's philosophy. When people's deepest fears are addressed through knowledge, we build better societies. Think poverty, crime, prejudice – these things fester in ignorance. The Challenge to You (and Me) The Challenge to You (and Me) Jim Keyes isn't saying we all need to become rocket scientists.  But there's a level of deliberate, focused learning we need to adopt.  Here's a few questions to get you started: Where are your fear-based blind spots? Do you automatically distrust certain technologies, cultures, or ideas? What are you avoiding learning about? There's usually gold to be found in the things we find most difficult! Who challenges your thinking? Do you surround yourself with people who simply echo your existing beliefs? That's an intellectual death trap. Where are your fear-based blind spots? Do you automatically distrust certain technologies, cultures, or ideas? Where are your fear-based blind spots? What are you avoiding learning about? There's usually gold to be found in the things we find most difficult! What are you avoiding learning about? Who challenges your thinking? Do you surround yourself with people who simply echo your existing beliefs? That's an intellectual death trap. Who challenges your thinking? This isn't about being the smartest or most "woke" person in the room.  It's about cultivating a relentless curiosity and courage to venture outside your comfort zone. It's hard, but it's the ONLY way we evolve as individuals and as a society. A Final Note from Jim A Final Note from Jim Jim Keyes isn't an inexperienced guy. He's seen decades of economic booms and busts, societal shifts, the birth and death of whole industries. His confidence in education comes from hard-won experience. I think that's important to remember. The path out of fear isn't a quick-fix, but it's the ONLY path that leads somewhere worth going. If you want to listen to the full podcast, listen on successstorypodcast.com or on YouTube. If you want to listen to the full podcast, listen on successstorypodcast.com or on YouTube . successstorypodcast.com successstorypodcast.com YouTube YouTube

Education is the Boon to Fear — Insights from 7/11 & Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes

শিক্ষাই ভয়ের বর - 7/11 এবং ব্লকবাস্টারের সিইও জিম কীসের অন্তর্দৃষ্টি

Bildung ist der Segen gegen die Angst – Einblicke von 7/11- und Blockbuster-CEO Jim Keyes

La educación es la bendición del miedo: ideas del 11 de julio y el director ejecutivo de Blockbuster, Jim Keyes

L'éducation est une aubaine pour la peur – Aperçus du 11 septembre et du PDG de Blockbuster, Jim Keyes

शिक्षा भय का वरदान है - 7/11 और ब्लॉकबस्टर के सीईओ जिम कीज़ की अंतर्दृष्टि

教育は恐怖を和らげる — 7/11 とブロックバスターの CEO ジム・キーズ氏の洞察

교육은 두려움에 도움이 됩니다 — 7/11 및 블록버스터 CEO Jim Keyes의 통찰

A educação é a dádiva do medo - Insights de 11/07 e Jim Keyes, CEO da Blockbuster

Образование — благо для страха: выводы 11 июля и генерального директора Blockbuster Джима Кейса

Eğitim Korkulması Gereken Bir Nimettir — 11 Eylül ve Gişe Rekortmeni CEO'su Jim Keyes'ten İçgörüler

Giáo dục là nguồn gốc của sự sợ hãi — Thông tin chi tiết từ vụ 11/7 & Giám đốc điều hành của Blockbuster Jim Keyes

教育是恐惧的福音——7/11 和 Blockbuster 首席执行官 Jim Keyes 的见解

Authors:
(1) Yagci, Nurce, HAW Hamburg, Germany & nurce.yagci@haw-hamburg.de;
(2) Sünkler, Sebastian, HAW Hamburg, Germany & sebastian.suenkler@haw-hamburg.de;
(3) Häußler, Helena, HAW Hamburg, Germany & helena.haeuessler@haw-hamburg.de;
(4) Lewandowski, Dirk, HAW Hamburg, Germany & dirk.lewandowski@haw-hamburg.de. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Literature Review Objectives and Research Questions Methods Results Discussion Conclusion, Research Data, Acknowledgments, and References ABSTRACT When it comes to search engines, users generally prefer Google. Our study aims to find the differences between the results found in Google compared to other search engines. We compared the top 10 results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Metager, using 3,537 queries generated from Google Trends from Germany and the US. Google displays more unique domains in the top results than its competitors. Wikipedia and news websites are the most popular sources overall. With some top sources dominating search results, the distribution of domains is also consistent across all search engines. The overlap between Google and Bing is always under 32%, while Metager has a higher overlap with Bing than DuckDuckGo, going up to 78%. This study shows that the use of another search engine, especially in addition to Google, provides a wider variety in sources and might lead the user to find new perspectives. KEYWORDS Web search; search engine; web scraping; Google; source comparison INTRODUCTION Why should there be more than one search engine? While users may prefer one search engine over others for its usability, specialized features, or a more convenient integration into their technical environment, the question that interests us in this research is whether a user will benefit from using another search engine than Google when it comes to finding results from different sources. Our starting point is the fact that Google is the most-used search engine by far (StatCounter, 2022), that user to a large degree trust search engines to provide them relevant and useful results (European Commission, 2016; Purcell et al., 2012), and that only some users use another search engine in addition to Google (Schultheiß & Lewandowski, 2021). Users place great trust in search engines. This is reflected by the 91% of US users who said they find what they are looking for always or most of the time, and the 66% who believe search engines are a fair and unbiased source of information (Purcell et al., 2012). Furthermore, 78% of European internet and online platform users said they trust that their search engine results are the most relevant results (European Commission, 2016). Globally, users trust search engines more than any other source (including traditional news outlets) when it comes to news (Edelman Trust Institute, 2022) and users trust news found via search significantly more than news found on social media (Newman et al., 2021). As the Web is enormous and different search engines might prefer different sources, it is interesting to see whether the top sources shown in search results differ from one search engine to the other. It might be that an alternative search engine prefers results from "alternative" sources, e.g., in terms of political leaning or preferring noncommercial content providers. This all  comes down to whether alternative search engines are actually alternatives in regards to the results they display. If they were, possible benefits of using a search engine other than Google include finding different results, finding additional results, and finding more relevant results. No matter which of these goals a user aims to achieve, they will need other results than Google's. Therefore, it is interesting to see whether other search engines provide users with such results. There has been an ongoing discussion on alternative search engines and how Google's dominance in the search engine market can be broken. Approaches range from establishing single alternative search engines to building infrastructures for such alternatives (e.g., Lewandowski, 2019); also see Mager, 2014). With Google dominating the search engine market (StatCounter, 2022), it often seems that there are no alternatives at all. On the other hand, the number of alternative (or simply "other") search engines is often overestimated. Many seem-to-be search engines are merely search portals displaying results from a partner instead of generating the results from their own index. For instance, Yahoo and Ecosia get their results from Bing and can therefore not be considered search engines in their own right. But still, there may be other reasons for using a search engine without its own index. Some of the unique benefits alternative search engines advertise are privacy (e.g., Startpage and DuckDuckGo) or being a company investing its profits in environmental projects (e.g., Ecosia). Another type of search engine is the meta search engine (e.g., Metager). Such an engine sends the queries to several other search engines, then aggregates and re-ranks the top results. We deem it especially interesting whether such an approach will lead to a wider variety of search results, i.e., results from a more diverse set of sources. So, in the context of our research, we will consider any search engine that either has its own index or provides a unique selection and re-ranking of results from one or more indexes as an alternative search engine. We are especially interested in the differences in the source distribution; the relevance of the results is out of the scope of our research. More than 20 years ago, Introna & Nissenbaum (2000) argued that search engines as commercial operations tend to prefer big websites and, therefore, a portion of the Web, i.e., the smaller sites, remain hidden from view. Studies measuring what users select seem to confirm this: Goel et al. (2010) found that within Yahoo, only 10,000 websites account for approximately 80% of result clicks. It is important to note that this does not merely result from user preference for particular sources but that users predominantly select from the top results shown by the search engine. What is out of the immediate view of users will not be chosen (Lewandowski & Kammerer, 2021). It is striking that few studies have compared the results between different search engines in recent years. Older studies (see literature review section) overall found that top results from different search engines did not overlap too much. In this paper, we address how the top results of Google differ from alternatives and, therefore, whether it is worthwhile for a user to consider these  alternatives. If a search engine other than Google produced very similar results to Google, a user would not benefit much from using that search engine when source variety is considered. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license.
Lead image by Justin Morgan on Unsplash Authors: (1) Yagci, Nurce, HAW Hamburg, Germany & nurce.yagci@haw-hamburg.de; (2) Sünkler, Sebastian, HAW Hamburg, Germany & sebastian.suenkler@haw-hamburg.de; (3) Häußler, Helena, HAW Hamburg, Germany & helena.haeuessler@haw-hamburg.de; (4) Lewandowski, Dirk, HAW Hamburg, Germany & dirk.lewandowski@haw-hamburg.de. Authors: (1) Yagci, Nurce, HAW Hamburg, Germany & nurce.yagci@haw-hamburg.de; (2) Sünkler, Sebastian, HAW Hamburg, Germany & sebastian.suenkler@haw-hamburg.de; (3) Häußler, Helena, HAW Hamburg, Germany & helena.haeuessler@haw-hamburg.de; (4) Lewandowski, Dirk, HAW Hamburg, Germany & dirk.lewandowski@haw-hamburg.de. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Abstract and Introduction Literature Review Literature Review Objectives and Research Questions Objectives and Research Questions Methods Methods Results Results Discussion Discussion Conclusion, Research Data, Acknowledgments, and References Conclusion, Research Data, Acknowledgments, and References ABSTRACT When it comes to search engines, users generally prefer Google. Our study aims to find the differences between the results found in Google compared to other search engines. We compared the top 10 results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Metager, using 3,537 queries generated from Google Trends from Germany and the US. Google displays more unique domains in the top results than its competitors. Wikipedia and news websites are the most popular sources overall. With some top sources dominating search results, the distribution of domains is also consistent across all search engines. The overlap between Google and Bing is always under 32%, while Metager has a higher overlap with Bing than DuckDuckGo, going up to 78%. This study shows that the use of another search engine, especially in addition to Google, provides a wider variety in sources and might lead the user to find new perspectives. KEYWORDS Web search; search engine; web scraping; Google; source comparison INTRODUCTION Why should there be more than one search engine? While users may prefer one search engine over others for its usability, specialized features, or a more convenient integration into their technical environment, the question that interests us in this research is whether a user will benefit from using another search engine than Google when it comes to finding results from different sources. Our starting point is the fact that Google is the most-used search engine by far (StatCounter, 2022), that user to a large degree trust search engines to provide them relevant and useful results (European Commission, 2016; Purcell et al., 2012), and that only some users use another search engine in addition to Google (Schultheiß & Lewandowski, 2021). Users place great trust in search engines. This is reflected by the 91% of US users who said they find what they are looking for always or most of the time, and the 66% who believe search engines are a fair and unbiased source of information (Purcell et al., 2012). Furthermore, 78% of European internet and online platform users said they trust that their search engine results are the most relevant results (European Commission, 2016). Globally, users trust search engines more than any other source (including traditional news outlets) when it comes to news (Edelman Trust Institute, 2022) and users trust news found via search significantly more than news found on social media (Newman et al., 2021). As the Web is enormous and different search engines might prefer different sources, it is interesting to see whether the top sources shown in search results differ from one search engine to the other. It might be that an alternative search engine prefers results from "alternative" sources, e.g., in terms of political leaning or preferring noncommercial content providers. This all  comes down to whether alternative search engines are actually alternatives in regards to the results they display. If they were, possible benefits of using a search engine other than Google include finding different results, finding additional results, and finding more relevant results. No matter which of these goals a user aims to achieve, they will need other results than Google's. Therefore, it is interesting to see whether other search engines provide users with such results. There has been an ongoing discussion on alternative search engines and how Google's dominance in the search engine market can be broken. Approaches range from establishing single alternative search engines to building infrastructures for such alternatives (e.g., Lewandowski, 2019); also see Mager, 2014). With Google dominating the search engine market (StatCounter, 2022), it often seems that there are no alternatives at all. On the other hand, the number of alternative (or simply "other") search engines is often overestimated. Many seem-to-be search engines are merely search portals displaying results from a partner instead of generating the results from their own index. For instance, Yahoo and Ecosia get their results from Bing and can therefore not be considered search engines in their own right. But still, there may be other reasons for using a search engine without its own index. Some of the unique benefits alternative search engines advertise are privacy (e.g., Startpage and DuckDuckGo) or being a company investing its profits in environmental projects (e.g., Ecosia). Another type of search engine is the meta search engine (e.g., Metager). Such an engine sends the queries to several other search engines, then aggregates and re-ranks the top results. We deem it especially interesting whether such an approach will lead to a wider variety of search results, i.e., results from a more diverse set of sources. So, in the context of our research, we will consider any search engine that either has its own index or provides a unique selection and re-ranking of results from one or more indexes as an alternative search engine. We are especially interested in the differences in the source distribution; the relevance of the results is out of the scope of our research. More than 20 years ago, Introna & Nissenbaum (2000) argued that search engines as commercial operations tend to prefer big websites and, therefore, a portion of the Web, i.e., the smaller sites, remain hidden from view. Studies measuring what users select seem to confirm this: Goel et al. (2010) found that within Yahoo, only 10,000 websites account for approximately 80% of result clicks. It is important to note that this does not merely result from user preference for particular sources but that users predominantly select from the top results shown by the search engine. What is out of the immediate view of users will not be chosen (Lewandowski & Kammerer, 2021). It is striking that few studies have compared the results between different search engines in recent years. Older studies (see literature review section) overall found that top results from different search engines did not overlap too much. In this paper, we address how the top results of Google differ from alternatives and, therefore, whether it is worthwhile for a user to consider these  alternatives. If a search engine other than Google produced very similar results to Google, a user would not benefit much from using that search engine when source variety is considered. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Lead image by Justin Morgan on Unsplash This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. available on arxiv Lead image by Justin Morgan on Unsplash Justin Morgan on Unsplash

A Comparison of Source Distribution and Result Overlap in Web Search Engines

ওয়েব সার্চ ইঞ্জিনে সোর্স ডিস্ট্রিবিউশন এবং ফলাফল ওভারল্যাপের তুলনা

Ein Vergleich der Quellenverteilung und der Ergebnisüberschneidung bei Websuchmaschinen

Una comparación de la distribución de fuentes y la superposición de resultados en los motores de búsqueda web

Une comparaison de la distribution des sources et du chevauchement des résultats dans les moteurs de recherche Web

वेब सर्च इंजन में स्रोत वितरण और परिणाम ओवरलैप की तुलना

ウェブ検索エンジンにおけるソース分布と結果重複の比較

웹 검색엔진의 소스 분포와 결과 중첩 비교

Uma comparação entre distribuição de fontes e sobreposição de resultados em mecanismos de pesquisa na web

Сравнение распределения источников и перекрытия результатов в поисковых системах веб-сайтов

Web Arama Motorlarında Kaynak Dağılımı ve Sonuç Örtüşmesinin Karşılaştırılması

So sánh sự phân phối nguồn và sự chồng chéo kết quả trong các công cụ tìm kiếm trên web

网络搜索引擎中源分布和结果重叠的比较

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