Joystream is an open source platform, with an open blockchain at its core, powering multiple video streaming Apps

Joystream

If you’d have googled dao only like 5 years ago, the majority of search results would have been about taoism (also known as daoism). It is an ancient philosophy and religion, that arose in the 6th century BCE in China. According to the , “The Tao can be roughly thought of as the flow of the Universe or as some essence or pattern behind the natural world that keeps the Universe balanced and ordered”. If you google it now, the results are mostly about “member-owned communities without centralized leadership”. Wikipedia Nowadays, things change very rapidly not only in Google search, which just reflects these changes. People create new forms of organization, invent new technologies and improve different spheres of life. But what we want to achieve is balance, we want to live in harmony with self, others, and nature. In the rapidly changing world it is getting more and more difficult to gain balance, and traditional organizations, which lack flexibility and can’t quickly adapt to changes, are beginning to be replaced by more flexible forms. That’s how the waterfall model was replaced by agile frameworks in software development. That’s how traditional business models are starting to be replaced by DAOs, a new experimental form of making business, which appeared due to the invention of blockchain. Balance in your life and the DAO In taoism the balance is summarised in Yin and Yang principles, which see the world with complementary forces, such as light and dark, active and inert, or hot and cold. They are everywhere in our lives. When we notice somebody goes to extremes, we want to go to the opposite extreme in an unconscious attempt to restore the balance. Here we need to remember that restoring the balance does not mean rejecting the opposite point of view, which only makes things worse. It is just adding color. If everything is getting too black, add white. If it’s all white, add black. The truth is always somewhere in between, and when you see the world in all its colors, you feel so alive and inspired… That’s what DAOs do. It’s not only about business and making money. What they try to do is to create a well-balanced organization that is like a self-evolving organism, and thus to get maximum efficiency and inspiration for all its members. In this ideal world, nothing should be imposed. Everyone should be heard, everyone’s opinion matters. Very much unlike boring centralized organizations, whose important decisions are driven by one person or a group of people, who often care only about money. DAOs still have a long way to go. Many of them are still insufficiently decentralized and have inconvenient tools for operating and decision-making. But it’s very interesting to see how they appear and evolve, the speed with which they gain devotees is impressive. My DAO experience It’s been a year since I participate in . Joystream is trying to build a decentralized video platform owned, controlled, and operated by its users. To involve people in its building and governance, it announced a Founding Members Program and is planning to allocate 20% of mainnet tokens to its participants. The program is very generous, but requires quite a lot of time and diving deep into things. For me, this experience started with pure curiosity, but gradually I became more and more devoted to the idea and philosophy of a DAO in general (I didn’t even know anything about DAOs before). Joystream DAO It’s like a job but gives you far more opportunities for self-expression and far more freedom. You can participate in working groups (devoting as much time as you want), choose Council members and even become a consul yourself, make proposals and suggest your ideas, create Bounties, and participate in them. For all these activities you get reputation and thus influence, testnet tokens, and if you achieve a Founding Member status, which usually takes several months of work, you will also get an allocation of mainnet tokens. The more you contribute, the more you’ll get! During my year’s involvement, I participated in several working groups, worked as a consul, did some translation tasks, made research and videos, and suggested different ideas. We had a lot of discussions and sometimes even quarrels, we formed political parties and debated with each other, we lost some participants during the stagnation phase and then acquired even more interesting contributors. But what was always the most important is the joy (that’s why it is Joystream, needless to say). You participate because you like it and you can always leave if you lose your joy. It’s not only about Joystream, it is about every DAO. Of course, some part of the motivation is always money, but it’s never the most important thing if you got involved in the DAO. The mission of the company, the way, and then just the process itself are becoming a real driving force. Joystream currently has a little more than 100 Founding Members, but they aim for something like 200, which still gives a lot of time and opportunities to contribute, so you can try yourself. Since the beginning, they tested two different models of the program and are still making a lot of improvements and experiments with everything. The goal is to create an effective and viable DAO by the time of mainnet, which is planned for December 2022. And in the mainnet, things are going to be even more exciting, because the budgets will explode, so a lot of money will be at stake — the total fundraise is roughly $13m at a $60m valuation. Imagine this sum will be governed entirely by token holders! Your money, your rules Joystream DAO has raised some money. It is not such a big sum compared to some other DAOs. If you open the “ ” page on Coinmarketcap, you’ll see that the biggest DAO project, Uniswap, has a 5 billion market cap. Almost the same as McDonald’s Japan, which currently has a capitalization. For May 2022, the top 5 DAO projects have already reached a 1 billion market cap. Top DAO Tokens by Market Capitalization $5.28 billion New DAOs are being formed as you read this article. A lot of money is in the hands of DAO participants. Let’s see what they’ll do with them!

DAO Philosophy and Business: My Experience With the Joystream DAO 

221 Stories To Learn About User Experience

175 Stories To Learn About Dao

Gifs have already become an integral part of our culture. Though they've been around for some time (in fact, this format was released in 1987, according to the ), they’ve become especially popular and trendy with the widespread of social media platforms and messengers in recent years. Nowadays, gifs are even studied by the scientists and are used in marketing campaigns. For example, Chanel used this image format their email marketing in 2017, as you can see below. Wikipedia But this gif is obviously the bad example - it’s boring and does not convey strong emotions, which gifs are usually associated with. The wealthy and serious audience of Chanel is not the best target for experimenting with strong emotions and jokes. In general, gifs appeal more to tech-savvy millenials, and really help brands to connect with them. That’s why these animated pictures became so popular in the crypto space, they are even converted to NFTs and are sold for big money. For example, this NFT gif of Nyan Cat for 300 ETH (nearly $474000 even in the current bear market): was sold Do you still have doubts about gifs importance? I was reading reviews of HackerNoon on Glassdoor, and accidentally saw : “Team members don’t use enough GIFs in the Slack channel, this must be improved immediately”. This was stated as the only cons of the company in September 2020, so maybe things have improved since then… this One platform to rule them all If you made a gif and want to share it with your friends, you can just upload it like you do with your images and videos, or you may choose to store it online to allow other people to use it. There are several popular platforms for publishing your gifs: Giphy, Tenor, Tumblr, Gfycat… But Tenor has one important advantage - impressive network of partners, who embeds it to their platforms. Do you know that if you publish your gif on , it will be featured on gif search everywhere: on Twitter, Discord, Telegram, Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook? Maybe also on other platforms, as I named only those which I tried myself. tenor.com Only recently did I know about it, because as a worker of marketing group of Joystream DAO I was researching competitors and stumbled upon Call to Action Initiative, organized by a Hive marketer. In posts like he encourages community members to reply on the chosen tweet for Hive promotion. Then he says that he created a gifs library on Tenor, which can be used in these replies to catch more attention. this I thought it was a good idea to create such a library for Joystream, too. There were only 2 or 3 gifs related to Joystream, if you search on Tenor or other apps using it (on Telegram, for example). So I made some gifs and started to upload them on Tenor… Is it really Google? It was a very bad user experience, with quite a lot of bugs during the process (I will not describe all of them). For one thing, there were triple notifications for every gif: “Congrats! Your gif is now being featured in joystream!”. But when I searched by the tag #joystream, I could not find any of them. Instead, there were other gifs, unrelated to the keyword. For example, gifs tagged as #stream or even #hyeongseop (a South Korean duo, it turned out). A few days later some of my gifs did appear among the first results by the tag #joystream. I shared my excitement with community members, and some of them used them on Telegram (they were easy to find by the keyword “joystream”). But after a few more days, they disappeared again. I am talking about , by the way, if you think there is someting criminal in them. these gifs I studied Google Terms of Service (yes, the platform belongs to Google) and Tenor Additional Terms. Am I violating this: “You must not use Tenor for any commercial purpose or for the benefit of any third party”? Seems unlikely, as I’m not selling anything, I’ve just added some gifs with Joystream logo. I am definitely complying with the rules. They have a lot of gifs with Youtube logo, for example. There is just something wrong with their search algorithms. Ok, the keyword “joystream” might be used by a person who is looking for a “stream of joy”, and not for the Joystream DAO. But even in this interpretation, search results are far from perfect. I also experimented with another keyword, “Gleev”, which is the name of a video platform under construction. I made a gif with Gleev logo and uploaded it to Tenor, but it’s also somewhere in the bottom of search results for #gleev, so low that I could not find it. Instead, gifs under the tag #glee are shown first. These search algorithms imperfections are strange, given the fact that Tenor is owned by Google, which is a search engine giant. Why do we need an alternative In its current state, Tenor is very inconvenient to use by crypto community - there is a good chance you won’t find what you are looking for, using its search. Because of this, a lot of gifs created by the crypto community are just getting lost after their publication on Discord or somewhere else (as a Bounty task, for example), and are never used again. With this in mind, I decided to look for Tenor alternatives on blockchain, but surprisingly, I didn’t find any. Surprisingly, because there are already so many different crypto projects, including video platforms and NFT marketplaces, but there is still no crypto “online gif search engine and database” (the definition of Tenor on ). Some ecosystem projects make it possible to create such a platform on their blockchains (Joystream is just one example), but nobody has ever tried to do it. Wikipedia If a good blockchain alternative to Tenor would be created, would Elon Musk, who has recently bought Twitter, replace Tenor by it on this platform? Well, he might, given his love of blockchain. Would other social media platforms and messengers follow? They always follow the trend, and crypto is becoming a trend indeed, so why not?

The Lord of the GIFs: Why We Need a Decentralized Tenor

or decentralized autonomous organizations have become one of the most powerful and widespread applications of distributed ledger technologies. DAOs Being an innovation based on blockchain technology, DAOs are transparent, auditable smart contracts intended for the purpose of coordinating groups of individuals, with a vested interest, in making governance decisions on a unified subject matter. Typically consisting of parameters relating to proposing, voting, and implementing structural changes to an application’s codebase or operational system, DAOs can be built around any arbitrary purpose. They are vehicles for the dissemination of power and the coordination of a distributed group of people around a common interest. DAOs redefine the model of arriving at social consensus. Traditionally group structures existed in a hierarchical “master-slave” model where a central organizer(s) was tasked with execution and demanded to be trusted. DAOs supersede the traditional model by providing three key functional benefits Displace hierarchical structures with horizontal ones. This is where the D in DAO comes in. Power over organizations is no longer centralized, rather, it is proportionately distributed amongst all participating members. This minimization of reliance on a single entity results in a more efficient flow of processes and strengthens the relationship between involved parties. It’s crucial to note that there is still some element of centralization risk present in DAOs, namely in the form of developer/deployer key controls. Equal opportunity for access By removing arbitrary hurdles of involvement present in legacy organizations ( ), DAOs create a more inclusive, equitable playing field for talent to be attracted to. While capital does play a role in power accrual, some models of governance reward activity over assets, allowing for less financially equipped people to earn their stake in an organization. no government approval or degree required Value/Capital allocation As an organization, a DAO must have something of value over which to govern. That is why, nearly every DAO will have a treasury ( wallet) that belongs to its community. With a hard-coded set of rules revolving around its utilization/management, individuals can influence how/what those funds are used for. This is evolutionary in terms of the depth of stakeholder involvement. Think about this from the standpoint of something like Apple. Shareholders may be entitled to owning a portion of the company and some of its earnings, but they have no say in how Apple uses its war chest of money. multisig *There can be arguments made from both sides whether it is good or bad, but the point here is that with a DAO it is at least possible. Different Types of DAOs: DAOs can be seen as modern-day business structures in cyberspace (the internet). Whereas in the real world, a business can be set up as an LLC or INC; in cyberspace, businesses are set up as DAOs. But the need for coordinating people spans far beyond just business. Venture DAOs Also called investment DAOs, these organizations pool capital from their members and act as pseudo-asset managers. Intuitively perfect for this function due to the inherent transparency of blockchain, as of April 2023, Venture DAOs alone are holding north of $3 Billion USD in their treasuries (not including the value of deployed capital). Examples of Investment DAOs: BitDAO Protocol DAOs This is the most widespread model for DAO governance. Used by nearly every relevant DEFI project, protocol DAOs exist as the backbone systems of decentralizing the ownership of software applications. Examples of Protocol DAOs: Compound, UniSwap, MakerDAO Service DAOs A mixture of talent agencies and freelance platforms, service DAOs exist for the purpose of finding providers skilled in their crafts and then connecting them with those in need of such services. Think of service DAOs as job marketplaces. Although, services can extend to unique on-chain functions such as smart contract audits. Examples of Service DAOs: TalentDAO, RooTroop, WGMI, DeveloperDAO, MetaVerse Collector DAOs Arriving on the scene after the rise of NFTs, collector DAOs are exactly what they sound like. Organizations that aggregate funds from their community members to purchase valuable on-chain objects. Those objects are then deposited into a vault owned by the DAO and in turn, provide exposure to its members. Examples of Collector DAOs: SharkDAO, Pleasr Grant DAOs GrantDAOs are for virtuous empowerment. Funds are drawn together and community members allocate the money for causes relating to helping bootstrap promising projects. This is a nuanced model that accrues its own value vicariously by carefully fostering innovation towards protocols that it is itself involved in. , Examples of Grant DAOs: GitCoin MetaCartel Media/Entertainment DAOs Everything from gaming and video streaming to art IP and advertisement networks this structure of DAOs is geared for creativity and content creation. , Examples of Media DAOs: , Bankless RugDAO, JoySteam StudioDao Social DAOs Popular model of organization for minimally financial causes, social DAOs are focused on the inclusivity of as wide an audience as possible, basically a glorified social media platform. Building one can be made possible through the use of traditional Web 2 social platforms and a multi-sig wallet with a few ETH. Examples of Social DAOs: Friends With Benefits DAO OS — Operating Systems Operating systems are purpose-built protocols that enable other organizations with tooling to deploy their own DAOs. In order to uphold their integrity, these operating systems are also structured and run as DAOs. , Examples of DAO Operating Systems: Aragon, Colony, DAOstack, DAOhause Tally, XDAO DAO Governance Models: Whenever a DAO is set up there must be some way to specify membership and inclusion; this is generally done through one of two ways: tokenization and/or contribution. At the heart of a DAO exists its token. Commonly associated as being units of account and instruments of value/influence; in the case of DAOs, tokens represent proportional shares of the right to participate in voting. However, organizations are well aware of the possible capital constraints that can exclude promising members from joining on the merits of being able to acquire tokens alone. Therefore, incentive system rewards for active participation have become a popular tool for token emission, allowing people without money a chance to earn their way into a DAO through their efforts. Once tokens are acquired and users can participate in a DAO, there are three general models for their involvement: Automatic/Direct This is the most desirable form of governance as it involves all users independently, directly participating in all activities. Once a consensus threshold level is reached, the smart contract will automatically execute the specifications without the need for a single authority to intervene. Delegated A model that has long been utilized for consensus mechanisms in distributed systems, delegation is something vaguely similar to representative democracy. Here, community members offload their responsibilities to other community members and trust them to make decisions on their behalf. Important note, tokens are not given to other members, only their weight equivalent in influence. Multisig/Treasury A model that slightly goes outside of the natural execution automata of smart contracts, multisig governance refers to the allocation of funds into the hands of the most financially apt and trusted participants of the community that reveal their identities publicly. So even if there are 10,000 voters passing a vote, they will not be able to influence the treasury without the involvement of the multisig entities. The main reasoning behind this formulation is to deter malicious anonymous entities from subverting the system for financial gains and the minimization of inadequate voting on behalf of the community. (If a DAO control $100 million USD and some proposal garners 6,000 of 10,000 votes to spend $90 million USD on minting random NFTs, it would be best if a smaller patch of clear-minded participants never executes on that.) Legal Implications of DAOs Being products of geo-neutral software systems, many assume that DAOs are not subject to the same regulatory frameworks as traditional businesses. That has not been completely the case. Government organizations, namely the CFTC, have actually offloaded the burden of legal implications onto the shoulders of the token holders and the developers possessing the private keys for conducting upgrades ). (for example with bZx & Ooki It is still unclear as to how things will pan out, but as it stands, decentralized autonomous organizations are slowly materializing into hybrid traditional organizations. Some authorities around the world have begun to acknowledge DAOs as real-world entities by providing legal frameworks to recognize DAOs as equivalent to LLCs. In any case, the future will be digitized, we can sit in uncertainty trying to figure out how the legal system may integrate with DAOs, or we can understand these systems better and do something awesome with them and then have governments catch up to us retroactively. Let’s opt for the latter. Closing thoughts From the very first iteration of the “The DAO” which raised >$150 million USD and caused the infamous hard fork split of Ethereum in 2016, to today's recognition by nation-states as legitimate entities, the landscape of DAO is quickly evolving. AI technologies have captured the fantasies of mankind, and their applications have found direct, meaningful ways to integrate with blockchain. Delphi Labs has put out a whitepaper in which it sees the synthesis of ) to advance upon the shortcoming in the portion of existing DAOs by introducing artificial agents. DAOs with AI (called BORGs Autonomy There is no doubt in my mind that DAOs as a sector/metric for the representation of growth in the digital economy will continue to flourish and empower people around the world with the freedom to pursue radical new ideas. Stay interested. Stay involved. There is a renaissance taking place, and everybody who can rise above the noise of negativity is invited to participate. We are no longer at the beginning, but damn, we are still so early. See you all on the other side 🥂 Also published . here

How DAOs are Transforming Social Coordination and Governance

About a year ago, I was working on a project at my previous job. The goal was to set up a reliable message queue. Most people might go straight to RabbitMQ, and I almost did too. But I decided to look for something different. That's when I came across NATS JetStream. After working with it for the past year, I can say it's truly impressive. It's fast, it can handle a lot of data, and it fits well with cloud systems. Today, I'll walk you through how to use NATS JetStream with a Golang app. By the time you finish reading this article, you'll be able to implement a robust and fast message queue. Message queues For those who are not familiar, what are message queues? In the real world, message queues help systems talk to each other without getting overwhelmed. For example, when you order something online, your order might go into a message queue before it's processed. This way, even if many people order at the same time, the system can handle it smoothly. Message queues are key for making sure data gets where it needs to go, especially when things get busy. Project requirements For my project, I had a clear list of needs when it came to selecting a message queue: : It was crucial that our messages stayed safe. We couldn't afford to lose them due to network glitches or if a server needed to restart. In simple terms, once a message is in the queue, it should stay there until it's processed. Durable Queues : Sometimes, there can be small issues or temporary errors when a system tries to read a message. I needed a way to send these messages back into the queue so they could be tried again later. This ensures that no message gets left behind because of short-term problems. Retrying Messages : As our system might get more users and data, I wanted our message queue to grow easily with us. Horizontal Scaling With these requirements in mind, I began my search for the perfect message queue solution. Possible solutions When searching for the right message queue, I explored several options. Here's a brief overview: : I didn't dive too deep into these. They're older and seem to lack current support. Gearman, Beanstalkd, and similar : It's favored by many small businesses. However, I found it a bit slow. Setting the HA (High-available) cluster requires real expertise. Plus, it lacks the ability to “requeue” a message with delay. RabbitMQ : It's excellent for PubSub and storing KV data. But as a queue system? Not the best. If Redis is set to store all messages, it slows down drastically. Redis : It's a strong choice for event streaming. But it’s not the best choice for message queues. For instance, how can I requeue a message? Apache Kafka : It looked promising and fits the needs of large organizations. It met most of my criteria. Yet, horizontal scaling isn't straightforward. It demands a large infrastructure and a skilled team, which felt excessive for my project's scale. Apache Pulsar Finally, I stumbled upon NATS JetStream. It seemed to align perfectly with my requirements. How NATS JetStream fits to requirements To understand how NATS JetStream works, I made some simple code and did tests. Here's what I learned: : : Setting Things Up I made two simple Golang CLI tools One for sending messages (NATS publisher) ...
publishedTotal := 0
for i := 0; i < 30000; i++ {
	subject := "test_subject_name"
	_, err = jetStream.PublishAsync(subject, []byte(strconv.Itoa(i)))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("publish: %w", err)
	}

	publishedTotal++
}
fmt.Printf("published %d messages\n", publishedTotal)
... One for fetching messages (NATS consumer) ...
totalReceived := int32(0)
for {
	func() {
		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 3*time.Second)
		defer cancel()

		msgs, fetchErr := jetStreamSubscriber.Fetch(1, nats.Context(ctx))
		if fetchErr != nil {
			if errors.Is(fetchErr, context.DeadlineExceeded) {
				return
			}

			log.Printf("sub fetch err: %s\n", fetchErr)
			return
		}

		for _, msg := range msgs {
			ackErr := msg.Ack()
			if ackErr != nil {
				log.Printf("sub ack err: %s\n", ackErr)
			}
			totalReceived++
			log.Printf("total received: %d\n", totalReceived)
		}
	}()
}
... Durable queues With these tools ready, I checked a few things: : Sending Many Messages : What if I send thousands of messages all at once? Question : The consumers took all the messages in. Nothing was lost. Answer : Sending Without Consumer : What if I send messages but there's no one to consume them? Question : When a consumer is ready, it receives all the messages. Answer : NATS Server Issues : How do consumers act if the NATS server stops? Do they try to connect again when NATS is back? Question : Yes, consumers connect back to NATS by themselves when it's working again. Answer : Unread Messages and NATS Problems : What about messages sent to NATS but not consumed, and then NATS server turns off? Question : If NATS starts working again, all the waiting messages are consumed. This is because NATS keeps messages safe on the computer's storage. Answer NATS showed excellence aligning our first requirement. Let’s check out how it can send messages back to a queue. Requeue In NATS JetStream, requeuing a message that has encountered a problem is straightforward. You can achieve this by calling the function available in the message API. Invoking ensures that the message is sent back to the queue, effectively providing a second chance for it to be processed at a later time. Nak() Nak() Another feature that adds to the utility of NATS JetStream is the ability to requeue messages with a custom delay. This functionality comes in handy when dealing with tasks that are deferred and need to be carried out after a certain period has elapsed. For example, if you have a notification system that must send alerts at specific intervals, you can use this feature to schedule these messages accurately. Two requirements are nailed. There is one more important point about scalability. Horizontal Scaling When it comes to horizontal scaling, NATS JetStream makes the process relatively simple. Setting up a cluster involves running multiple NATS servers with JetStream enabled. All that's required is to specify the same and define the routing paths between each node in the configuration. cluster_name I added an example of docker-compose.yml file to run a local NATS cluster: version: "3.5"
services:
  nats1:
    container_name: nats1
    image: nats
    entrypoint: /nats-server
    command: --server_name N1 --cluster_name JSC --js --sd /data --cluster nats://0.0.0.0:4245 --routes nats://nats2:4245,nats://nats3:4245 -p 4222
    networks:
      - nats
    ports:
      - 4222:4222

  nats2:
    container_name: nats2
    image: nats
    entrypoint: /nats-server
    command: --server_name N2 --cluster_name JSC --js --sd /data --cluster nats://0.0.0.0:4245 --routes nats://nats1:4245,nats://nats3:4245 -p 4222
    networks:
      - nats
    ports:
      - 4223:4222

  nats3:
    container_name: nats3
    image: nats
    entrypoint: /nats-server
    command: --server_name N3 --cluster_name JSC --js --sd /data --cluster nats://0.0.0.0:4245 --routes nats://nats1:4245,nats://nats2:4245 -p 4222
    networks:
      - nats
    ports:
      - 4224:4222

networks:
  nats:
    name: nats What adds to the utility is that you can connect to any node within the cluster, whether from a publisher or a consumer application, and it just works seamlessly. This implies that the system is designed to handle varying load distributions, routing the messages effectively irrespective of which node you are connected to. It was clear to me that NATS JetStream aligned with all my requirements perfectly. Pros and nuances I spent considerable time with NATS JetStream and can outline its strengths and limitations based on my experience: Pros : NATS JetStream is more than just a message queue system. It offers a variety of features that I'll elaborate in the next articles. Broad Functionality : Being written in Go, the source code is accessible and provides insight into undocumented functionalities. This is particularly useful for Go developers who want to delve deeper into the system. Go-Based : The performance metrics for NATS JetStream are impressive, making it a reliable choice for high-throughput scenarios. Strong Benchmarks Nuances : One thing to be aware of is that NATS ensures 'at-least-once' message delivery. As a result, your consumer logic must be idempotent to handle such cases. 'At-Least-Once' Delivery : While the documentation is generally good, it doesn't cover all configuration options. Sometimes, you'll need to go through the SDK code to understand certain functionalities fully. Incomplete Documentation : This could be seen as both a pro and a nuance. The SDK handles reconnections automatically, which means you don't have to code this logic yourself. Built-In Reconnection Logic Performance The performance benchmark was conducted by , where NATS JetStream was compared with other popular message queues like Apache Pulsar and RabbitMQ. It's important to approach these results with a degree of skepticism, as the company is known for its affinity towards Apache Pulsar. They themselves noted that they faced difficulties in configuring NATS JetStream for the benchmark, which could potentially skew the results in favor of their preferred system. Steamnative NATS JetStream – During our tests, we attempted to follow the recommended practices for deliverGroups and deliverSubjects in NATS, but encountered difficulties. Our NATS subscriptions failed to act in a shared mode and instead exhibited a fan-out behavior, resulting in a significant read amplification of 16 times. This likely significantly impacted the overall publisher performance. Conclusion After working with NATS JetStream for an extended period, several aspects of the system became apparent: Easy configuration. High performance. Broad functionality. Beyond its capabilities as a message queue, NATS JetStream also functions as a message broker for event-streaming, PubSub, and synchronous Request-Reply message bus. While this article provides an initial overview, I plan to discuss the diverse features of NATS JetStream in more detail in future articles. This will include a closer look at its specific functionalities and how they can be applied in different scenarios. References NATS JetStream Publisher/Subscriber demo code Comparison of NATS, NATS Streaming and NATS JetStream Implementing NATS JetStream as Queues in Golang Steamnative performance benchmark Steamnative performance benchmark (detailed)

NATS JetStream — a New Way to Create Resilient Message Queue

is an excellent key-value distributed database used internally by Kubernetes and managed by the CNCF. It's a great option, and that's the reason why Apache APISIX uses it too. Yet, it's not devoid of issues. etcd First, some mention scalability, but one can expect this from a distributed data store that values consistency. Another issue may be the need for more familiarity with etcd. It's relatively new, so your Ops team may need help operating it correctly while having decades of operating MySQL or Postgres. Finally, only a few etcd users are aware that it lacks maintainers: In the last few months, primary maintainers G.L. (Amazon, announcement) and S.B. (Red Hat) have stopped actively participating in the project. This leaves the project with only one active and two occasionally-reviewing maintainers, M.S. (Google),  P.T. (Google), both are relatively new to the project (1 month and 1 year of tenure) and S.P.Z. (IBM). Other maintainers are either dormant or have very minimal activity over the last six months. . The project is effectively unmaintained (emphasis mine) -- Google Groups of Kubernetes Steering Committee, March 2022 For all those reasons, you may prefer to use a standard SQL database with Apache APISIX. In this post, I'll show how you can use MySQL. The kine project It would be a lot of effort if each product had to introduce an abstraction layer and different adapters for both etcd and other databases. kine is a project that aims to offer a translation step between etcd calls and other implementations: Kine is an etcdshim that translates etcd API to: SQLite Postgres MySQL NATS Jetstream Features Can be ran standalone so any k8s (not just K3s) can use Kine Implements a subset of etcdAPI (not usable at all for general purpose etcd) Translates etcdTX calls into the desired API (Create, Update, Delete) -- Kine (Kine is not etcd) In essence, kine is a Go library that translates etcd calls to the datastore you want (among those implemented). Yet, using kine directly is a non-trivial effort. Fortunately, , the company that gave Apache APISIX to the Apache Software Foundation, provides a component already focused on APISIX usage. api7 ETCD adapter ETCD adapter wraps kine to be APISIX-specific: ETCD Adapter mimics the ETCD V3 APIs best effort. It incorporates the kine as the Server side implementation, and it develops a totally in-memory watchable backend. Not all features in ETCD V3 APIs supported, this is designed for Apache APISIX, so it's inherently not a generic solution. -- ETCD adapter Two things of note: At the moment of this writing, the adapter supports either local in-memory storage or MySQL It's available as an embeddable library but also as a standalone component Therefore, we can design our architecture as the following: Demo Let's implement the above architecture with an additional admin UI over MySQL. I'll use Docker Compose: version: "3"

services:
  apisix:
    image: apache/apisix:3.4.0-debian                         #1
    volumes:
      - ./config.yaml:/usr/local/apisix/conf/config.yaml:ro
    ports:
      - "9080:9080"
      - "9180:9180"
    depends_on:
      - etcd-adapter
    restart: always                                           #2
  etcd-adapter:
    build: ./etcd-adapter                                     #3
    volumes:
      - ./adapter.yml:/etcd-adapter/conf/config.yaml:ro       #4
    depends_on:
      - mysql
    restart: always                                           #2
  mysql:
    image: bitnami/mysql:8.0                                  #5
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root
      MYSQL_USER: etcd
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: etcd
      MYSQL_DATABASE: apisix
  adminer:
    image: adminer:standalone                                 #6
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      ADMINER_DEFAULT_SERVER: mysql
    depends_on:
      - mysql Latest version of Apache APISIX, yeah! To avoid any failure with dependencies between containers, restart until it works. Kubernetes's manifests would involve health checks still needs to provide a container. We need to build from the source code api7.ai Override the default configuration file with a context-specific one The regular MySQL image didn't work for me. Let's take the one from Bitnami Adminer, formerly known as PHP myAdmin, will help to visualize the database state ETCD-adapter's configuration looks like this: server:
  host: 0.0.0.0                 #1
  port: 12379

log:
  level: info

datasource:
  type: mysql                   #2
  mysql:
    host: mysql                 #3
    port: 3306                  #3
    username: etcd              #3
    password: etcd              #3
    database: apisix Bind any IP since Docker will assign a random one Implementation type. The default is ; we need to change it. btree As configured in the file docker-compose.yml Finally, here's Apache APISIX configuration: deployment:
  admin:
    allow_admin:
      - 0.0.0.0/0
  etcd:
    host:
      - "http://etcd-adapter:12379"   #1 Use this etcd instance, which is the adapter Testing Now that we are set let's test our system by creating a route: curl -H 'X-API-KEY: edd1c9f034335f136f87ad84b625c8f1' -X PUT -d '{                                          
  "methods": ["GET"],
  "uris": ["/get"],
  "upstream": {
    "nodes": {
      "httpbin.org:80": 1
    }
  }
}' http://localhost:9180/apisix/admin/routes/1 We can now get it: curl -H 'X-API-KEY: edd1c9f034335f136f87ad84b625c8f1' http://localhost:9180/apisix/admin/routes/1 We can also check via the Adminer interface that it has been persisted via MySQL: Unfortunately, we need to stop at this point. Getting all routes doesn't work: curl -H 'X-API-KEY: edd1c9f034335f136f87ad84b625c8f1' http://localhost:9180/apisix/admin/routes {"header":{"revision":"1689689596"},"message":"Key not found"} Worse, using the route fails: curl localhost:9080/get {"error_msg":"404 Route Not Found"} Conclusion etcd is an excellent piece of infrastructure Kubernetes uses, but there might be better choices in some contexts. Worse, it might become a security threat in the future - or is already one, because of the lack of maintenance. Being able to move away from etcd is a considerable benefit. kine offers an etcd-compatible facade and multiple implementations. Using kine with Apache APISIX requires some adaptation effort, already done in ETCD-Adapter. Currently, ETCD-Adapter is not feature-complete (to say the least) and requires more love. That's why it was not donated to the Apache Foundation yet. If you're a Go developer and are interested in the project, feel free to subscribe to the to offer your help. Apache APISIX mailing list and/or join our Slack The complete source code for this post can be found on . GitHub To go further: Kine ETCD Adapter "Goodbye etcd, Hello PostgreSQL: Running Kubernetes with an SQL Database" Originally published at on July 23rd, 2023 A Java Geek

Apache APISIX Without etcd?

Times are changing faster than we ever thought possible. It seems like every morning I wake up and there is a brand new revolutionary technology or political movement creating massive ripples in the world. As , and as leaders in general, we need to take the future very seriously. We live in a world that's changing at breakneck speed, and leadership has never been more crucial. entrepreneurs In business, things don’t stop moving, so if we can’t keep up and adapt on the fly, then our business is doomed. So as we gear up to dominate the next decade, we need to be aware of the challenges that lie ahead for leaders. It's time to strap on our boots and prepare ourselves to tackle the obstacles that are coming our way. , an HBS professor, I picked his brain about leadership. In my recent conversation with Bill George He has studied it his entire life and gave me a lot of insight into what it takes to make a great leader. One of the most interesting ideas we touched on that inspired me to write this week's newsletter, was the idea of the challenges leaders are going to face in the future. The world is changing at an unprecedented rate, and as a leader, it’s vital to keep a pulse on things that could be coming down the pipeline. So in this newsletter, I'm going to break down the most pressing challenges that leaders will face in the next ten years. From technological disruption to shifting demographics, we'll cover everything you need to know to stay ahead of the game. Buckle up, because it's time to get real about the future. Study The Past To Predict The Future As the futurist Alvin Toffler once proclaimed, "You've got to think about 'big things' while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction." One way we can incorporate this wisdom is through a deep, immersive study of the past to make informed predictions about the future. Amid the dizzying speed of technological innovation, shifting market landscapes, and ever-evolving consumer preferences, it becomes crucial to take a step back and look to history. In a world that often seems besotted by the 'new,' remember that history often rhymes if it doesn't repeat itself. In fact, there are two salient reasons to for a better grip on the future: detecting patterns and trends, and gaining comprehensive contextual understanding. delve into the annals of history Unearthing Patterns and Trends Historical analysis serves as a treasure trove of patterns and trends that can provide us with invaluable insights. A systematic review of past events and data can arm us with the understanding of what strategies and approaches were effective and those that led to fiascos. Take, for instance, the infamous s. During this period, an insatiable investment frenzy in Internet-centric businesses led to a market situation where the emphasis on actual profitability was lost in the dust. Many of these businesses folded, leading to enormous financial losses. An analysis of this scenario reveals the perils of speculation, unsustainable growth expectations, and poor due diligence. Such knowledge is invaluable in spotting similar warning signs in emerging markets and enabling more prudent investment strategies. dot-com bubble of the late 1990 Gaining Holistic Contextual Understanding A secondary, yet equally important, benefit of historical study is contextual understanding. When we dissect past events and situations from different perspectives, we stand to gain a more nuanced view of the conditions that led to specific outcomes. By understanding the contextual intricacies, we can anticipate how a similar confluence of factors may precipitate comparable outcomes in the future. Take the example of the . A calamitous period in global economic history, the Depression was the result of a potent cocktail of factors: unfettered stock market speculation, widespread bank failures, and insufficient governmental checks and balances. Recognizing these as catalysts of a cataclysmic economic downturn, we can stay vigilant against policies that could potentially create a similar risk scenario. Great Depression of the 1930s The past serves as a powerful compass for the future. Its stories, lessons, and patterns help us navigate the complex landscape of the present and prepare us for the future. As Mark Twain said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." By studying these historical rhymes, we can make more informed decisions and create a future that learns from the past rather than repeating it." What To Look Out For In The Future As we've navigated the lessons from the past, it's time to cast our gaze towards the future, specifically in the realms of business and leadership. The coming decade holds a multitude of challenges, and success will hinge on the ability to adapt to monumental shifts. Here are key trends you should watch as we navigate the tumultuous tides of change: Technological Disruption As we stand on the brink of a technological revolution, we face a future that's hurtling towards us at breakneck speed. Advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other emerging technologies are not merely twinkles on the horizon; they're meteor showers poised to reshape the landscape of business and leadership. They're driving us into a future where the only option is to adapt, innovate, and conquer. Navigating this labyrinth may seem daunting, but let's remember that within these challenges lie immense opportunities - golden threads woven into the very fabric of this disruption. It's about breaking free from the anchor of complacency and setting sail on the voyage of continuous learning, evolution, and growth. It's about turning these winds of change into the jetstream that propels us forward. Here's your compass: Fully immerse yourself in the waves of emerging technologies. Make it your business to understand these dynamic trends, not just as abstract concepts but as tangible tools of transformation. Dedicate time for learning sessions, tech-trend roundtables, and meaningful discussions with tech experts. As the adage goes, knowledge is power, and in this case, it's the power to propel us into the future. Dive into the Digital Deep-End: In the era of rapid technological change, the traditional playbooks of business strategy need to be rewritten. Instead of a culture that tiptoes around change, we need one that somersaults into it. Nurture an environment where teams are inspired to take calculated risks, experiment with new ideas, and see the potential of technology as a catapult rather than a cliff. Cultivate a Culture of Innovation: As the tech landscape evolves, so too must our skill sets. Partner with academic and professional institutions to develop personalized learning paths that cultivate the necessary skills within your teams. This not just equips them to ride the tech wave but also empowers them to be the wave-makers of the future. Equip Your Team for Tomorrow: Shifting Demographics With the turn of the century, we've seen the demographics of our world shift like pieces on a grand, global chessboard. An aging population in some regions, a youth surge in others, and cultural and ethnic diversities blossoming everywhere - these are not mere statistical changes. They are evolving narratives that hold the power to shape the marketplace of the future. As leaders, we need to take the pulse of these changes, understand the new rhythms, and adapt our strategies to the beats of these evolving demographics. It's about striking the right chord with our audience, not just echoing their sentiments but also resonating with their unarticulated needs and desires. Here's how we can orchestrate this: Stay acutely aware of the shifting demographic patterns, be it the changing age dynamics or cultural shifts. Listen to their stories, understand their unique needs, and tailor your products or services to fit snugly into their narratives. It's not just about market satisfaction; it's about crafting a customer experience that feels personal and purposeful. Get a Pulse on Your Audience: The diversifying cultural fabric of our world presents a beautiful mosaic of opportunities. Learn the intricate patterns, appreciate the uniqueness of each culture, and weave these insights into your organizational strategy. Fostering a diverse and inclusive team can be your guide here, enabling you to connect with a wider audience and open the floodgates of untapped markets. Embrace Globalization: Demographics are dynamic; they're the tides that shape the shorelines of our markets. Stay flexible and responsive to these changes. From altering your business model to customizing your strategies, keep your hands on the wheel of adaptability. In the end, the key to thriving in a shifting demographic landscape is not just about riding the wave, but learning to steer and shape it in your favor. Stay Agile: Climate Change As the sun rises on the 21st century, we find ourselves in an era where the call to action on climate change has never been louder or more urgent. The footprint of our businesses on this planet is casting a longer shadow than ever, making it imperative to step into the light of sustainability. What was once a moral and ethical responsibility has now become a critical business imperative. Ignoring it would be like turning a blind eye to the rising tide. Embracing it, on the other hand, opens doors to a new realm of possibilities - cleaner operations, sustainable solutions, and a future that is not just prosperous but also habitable. It's about steering our businesses from a short-term, profit-focused perspective to a long-term, sustainability-driven one. The green revolution is not coming; it's here. And here's how we can take the reins: Embed sustainability into the DNA of your business. From opting for renewable energy sources to reducing waste, there are myriad ways to transition into a greener business model. This won't just help shrink your carbon footprint, but also sprout opportunities for cost reduction and efficiency. Think Green, Act Green: As consumers become more conscious about their ecological footprint, businesses must meet them on this green pathway. Strive to design products and services that are not just high on quality but also low on environmental impact. It's not just about delivering to market demand; it's about paving the way for a sustainable future. Meet the Eco-Consumer: In the era of green innovation, keeping your eyes and ears open to the ground can give you a head start. Be it cleaner technology, sustainable supply chain practices, or eco-friendly packaging solutions, being informed can be the first step towards being innovative. Stay One Step Ahead: Globalization In the grand theater of business, the curtains have lifted on a new act - globalization. Our world has shrunk into a global village where businesses can traverse continents at the speed of a click. This new act, however, comes with its own set of rules and cues. Crossing borders is not just about geographical distances but also cultural gaps. It's about understanding foreign landscapes, respecting their nuances, and blending our strategies to fit these new molds. But let's remember that within these challenges lie untapped markets, potential partnerships, and a world of opportunities. It's about viewing the world through a wide-angle lens and turning the globe into your playground. Here's your playbook: The first step to playing the global game is understanding its rules. This involves getting a firm grasp on the laws and regulations of the international markets you wish to enter. Collaborating with local partners or hiring experts can serve as your guiding beacon, helping you navigate the complex maze of global business. Get Acquainted with the Rules: As businesses expand across borders, they must also expand their cultural understanding. This means cultivating cultural sensitivity, promoting clear and open communication, and celebrating the diversity that is intrinsic to the global marketplace. It's about building teams that are not just fluent in languages but also in cultures. Bridge the Cultural Divide: New markets are like uncharted territories waiting to be explored. Be proactive in identifying these opportunities, build robust networks with local businesses, and don't hesitate to venture into unfamiliar terrains. Globalization is not just about surviving in the global market; it's about flourishing and growing. Seize the Opportunity: Talent Management Talent management in today's rapidly evolving business landscape isn't just a strategic element - it is the cornerstone of organizational success. In an age where competition for top talent is fierce and retaining them is a Herculean task, it's about time we flip the script. Today's workforce isn't just hunting for good paychecks, they are yearning for purpose, growth, and recognition. It's about leading your company towards a horizon where talent is not just managed but celebrated, engaged, and inspired. Here's your map to the talent management territory: Creating a vibrant, inclusive culture is a surefire way to attract top talent. By fostering an environment that values creativity and innovation, you pave the way for a workforce that is not just productive but also dedicated. It's about building a workplace that is a melting pot of ideas, a platform for growth, and a harbinger of positivity. Craft a Compelling Culture: Employee engagement is the secret sauce that retains top talent. Encourage open dialogue, provide ample opportunities for skill development, and ensure a healthy work-life balance. It's about helping your employees feel a sense of belonging, a sense of achievement, and a sense of purpose. Keep the Engagement Meter High: Position your organization as an employer of choice. A strong employer brand that aligns with your company's core values can be a powerful talent attractor. It's about amplifying your strengths, sharing your success stories, and showcasing what sets you apart from the rest. Be a Talent Magnet: Cybersecurity In the digital realm where businesses are bolstered by technology, the dark shadow of cybersecurity threats looms large. Cybersecurity is no longer a mere item on the IT checklist - it is the very armor that can shield your business from dire consequences. In this era of frequent data breaches and sophisticated cyberattacks, keeping your cyber-guard up is not an option; it is a mandate. But let's not just view cybersecurity as a defense strategy; let's consider it as a robust foundation upon which a business can safely innovate, evolve, and thrive. Here's how to gear up: Your digital assets are the treasure troves that cybercriminals are after. Ensure they are fortified with state-of-the-art cybersecurity measures. From firewalls and encryption to timely security updates, make sure your digital fortress is impregnable. Safeguard Your Digital Fortress: Having a comprehensive incident response plan in place is a business imperative. From identifying the breach to containing the damage, your plan should be a well-choreographed sequence of actions that can minimize the impact of a cyberattack. Be Battle-Ready: Your employees are your first line of defense against cyber threats. Equip them with the knowledge and tools to recognize potential threats and respond promptly. After all, cybersecurity is not a one-time project; it's a constant endeavor. Empower Your Human Firewall: Wrap-Up The challenges that leaders will face in the next ten years are complex and diverse. To succeed in this ever-changing world, entrepreneurs must be nimble, flexible, and ready to adapt at the drop of a hat. But, with proper preparation and forward thinking, not only can you be ready to survive in the future, you can be ready to thrive in it. If you want to hear more about this, . He has a lifetime of knowledge and insights, and this conversation is one of my all-time favorites! be sure to check out the full conversation with Bill That’s it for now; thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this article, I’d love to hear from you. Reply to this email or at me and I'll do my best to get back to everyone! tweet @ScottDClary The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's via the prompt "leaders on a mountain" AI Image Generator

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