Secure Code Warrior is an innovative platform that will change how companies identify, use and train security talent in their development communities

Secure Code Warrior

Remember the good old days (read: pre-pandemic) when scaling your app meant adding more servers, like piling bricks on a Jenga tower? Yeah, good times. But just like that shaky tower's inevitable collapse, managing infrastructure the old way meant unavoidable chaos. Enter , the superhero swooping in to save the day, transforming infrastructure into code and bringing order to the wild kingdom of deployments. GitOps Managing servers, configurations, and deployments was a tangled mess. We juggled spreadsheets, memorized cryptic commands, and prayed every update wouldn't trigger a digital apocalypse. GitOps changes the game by treating infrastructure like any other code – living in source control, versioned, and managed through familiar workflows: boom, instant peace of mind. As per Gene Kim, Founder of DevOps Enterprise Summit: GitOps is the natural evolution of DevOps, bringing infrastructure into the same world of version control and automation that revolutionized software development. It's the missing piece for truly continuous delivery and a key enabler for faster, more reliable deployments. So, How Does This Magic Work? GitOps is all about declarative configuration. Instead of manually configuring servers one by one, we define our desired state in a Git repository. Think of it like a blueprint for your infrastructure – you describe what you want, not how to get it. Then, become the magic paintbrushes, reading your blueprint and automatically translating it into reality. Boom, the infrastructure deployed (and updated!) like clockwork. CI/CD pipelines Term Definition Impact Declarative Configuration Describing what you want your infrastructure to do, not how. Think blueprints, not instruction manuals. Simplifies deployments, reduces errors, and enables easy version control. CI/CD Pipelines Automated workflows that transform Git changes into real-world infrastructure updates. Think paintbrushes bringing blueprints to life. Streamlines deployments, ensures consistency, and facilitates rapid iterations. Single Source of Truth One central repository (Git) containing all infrastructure states. Think the master blueprint, never scattered scraps. Eliminates configuration drift, enhances visibility, and simplifies troubleshooting. Reconciliation The process of comparing the desired state (Git) with the actual state (deployed infrastructure) and making adjustments. Think of it as the construction foreman ensuring everything matches the blueprint. Maintains infrastructure stability, catches configuration drifts, and automates corrective actions. Rollbacks The ability to easily revert to previous versions of your infrastructure. Think of it as an undo button for your digital world. Reduces risk, facilitates experimentation, and provides safety nets for deployments. But Wait, There's More! GitOps tools like ArgoCD and Flux act as the construction foremen, ensuring your infrastructure aligns with your blueprint. They continuously compare the desired state in your Git repository with the actual state of your resources, automatically making any necessary adjustments. It's like having a robot army constantly checking and double-checking, ensuring your infrastructure never strays from your vision. GitOps vs. Other Infrastructure Management Approaches Approach Pros Cons Manual Scripting Offers granular control and familiar tools. Error-prone, inconsistent, and difficult to scale and collaborate. Configuration Management Tools Automates deployments and centralizes configurations. Can be complex, vendor lock-in, limited flexibility, etc. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Declarative approach, version control, reusable modules, etc. Requires coding expertise; can be challenging to debug complex configurations. GitOps Combines benefits of IaC with CI/CD pipelines, unified view, and a single source of truth. Higher learning curve and requires a deeper understanding of Git and tooling. And the Benefits? Oh, Where Do We Even Begin? No more surprise server meltdowns. GitOps provides a single source of truth for your infrastructure, minimizing manual errors and fragile configurations. Stability: Need to scale up? Down? Deploy a new feature? Just update your Git repository, and boom, your infrastructure magically adapts. Agility: Gone are the days of crossed fingers and nervous deployments. GitOps automates and standardizes the process, making consistent, reliable deployments a reality. Reliability: Developers and operations teams can finally work together in harmony, using the same tools and speaking the same language (code!). Collaboration: Need to know what's happening in your infrastructure? Just peek into your Git repository. Version history, rollbacks, everything's right there, transparent and organized. Visibility: Let's Be Honest! The world of software development is already complex enough. Wrestling with unruly infrastructure shouldn't be part of the package. GitOps is the key to unlocking a new level of control, agility, and peace of mind. It's about taking the chaos out of your deployments and letting your code do the talking (or rather, the building). So the opinion of Kelsey Hightower, DevOps Advocate at Microsoft, elaborates it more clearly: Flux's flexibility and multi-cloud support make it a compelling choice for organizations running hybrid or multi-cloud deployments. Its focus on security and compliance further strengthens its appeal for enterprise environments. Use Case Benefits Complexity Blue-Green Deployments Deploy updates to a new environment first, then seamlessly switch over, minimizing downtime. Higher initial setup and requires additional resources. Canary Deployments Gradually roll out updates to a small subset of users to detect and fix issues before broader release. Requires advanced monitoring and rollback strategy. Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Deployments Manage infrastructure across different cloud providers and on-premises environments. Can be complex depending on chosen tools and cloud platforms. Automated Security Compliance Integrate security scans and compliance checks into the CI/CD pipeline, ensuring a secure infrastructure. Requires specialized security tools and expertise. Infrastructure Testing Test infrastructure changes before deployment within the CI/CD pipeline, enhancing stability and reliability. Adds additional testing overhead, and requires specific testing frameworks. So, whether you're a seasoned DevOps warrior or a newbie developer still figuring out the difference between a server and a hamster wheel, consider embracing GitOps. It's not just a trend; it's a paradigm shift, a portal to a more efficient, reliable, and, dare I say, enjoyable development world. Go forth, explore the possibilities, and remember, with GitOps, your infrastructure is no longer a beast to tame but a powerful orchestra conducting your digital symphony. Don't Forget: Experiment with GitOps on a single application or environment before diving headfirst into your entire infrastructure. Start small: ArgoCD, Flux, Terraform – the GitOps ecosystem is vast. Pick tools that align with your existing workflows and needs. Choose the right tools: GitOps bridges the gap between developers and operations. Work together to define your infrastructure as code and reap the benefits together. Embrace collaboration: Wrapping It Up! By following these tips and embracing the power of GitOps, you can conquer the chaos, orchestrate your infrastructure with precision, and build a digital empire that stands the test of time. Now, go forth, and code with confidence!

GitOps: From Chaos to Control - Managing Infrastructure Like Code

The world of front-end & back-end development has fundamentally changed a few years ago. Gone are the days of specialized & siloed front-end and back-end teams. The specialized teams & people have been replaced by full-stack developers who can do both effectively. This approach is cost-effective for startups, as they need fewer people to realize their visions. However, a critical question often comes: which JavaScript server-side runtime should you choose as the foundation for your next venture or a significant project? There are two major contenders in the JS runtime space: , the undisputed king, and , the rising star. Node.js, the battle-tested environment, powers industry titans like Netflix, Uber, PayPal, and NASA. Its vast ecosystem, packed with mature tools and libraries, is evidence of years of complex real-world deployments. Node.js Deno Additionally, NPM enjoys 85 million downloads per week, with over 1.5 million published packages available. This complete ecosystem arms developers to rapidly build and deploy applications, making Node.js their primary choice for fast-paced startup work. Of recently, Deno has recently emerged as a worthy challenger, built grounds up with a focus on security, modern design, developer productivity, and cutting-edge features. Deno showcases itself as a reliable and innovative contender. Deno has been ideated and developed by the creator of Node.js, the great Ryan Dahl, making it a credible choice for serious projects. Though, nowhere near Node.js in terms of popularity, Deno has witnessed a 5x user growth surge in 2023. Whether you’re starting to build a product or new services, choosing the right JS runtime that supports your long-term vision is extremely important. In this article, we’ll try to find the answer to this critical question: Which runtime should I choose for my next venture or a significant project? There are certain situations where Node.js is perfect, while there are other cases where Deno’s innovative features are more useful. When Should You Choose Node.js? Node.js, the emperor of the server-side JavaScript runtimes, has been reliably helping startups and big players since its inception in 2009. Conceived by Ryan Dahl, it led to a transformative era, pioneering the concept of event-driven, non-blocking I/O architecture within the JavaScript domain. This new design empowered developers to build real-time, scalable applications, a stark contrast to the synchronous designs of that time. Throughout its evolution, Node.js has consistently risen to the challenges, solidifying its position as a leading runtime choice. Its robust ecosystem, an ever-expanding NPM registry with over 1.5 million packages, provides a collection of pre-built modules and tools, that serve diverse development needs. The NPM package repository, downloaded over 85 million times weekly, proves Node.js's widespread adoption and versatility. Beyond its extensive ecosystem, Node.js offers key features that prove highly advantageous for startups that like to start quickly and stay competitive: Node.js's single-threaded, event-driven architecture minimizes
resource consumption, enabling efficient operation on minimal hardware. This scalability
makes it an ideal choice for startups requiring cost-effective solutions during their initial
growth phase. Lightweight and Scalable: The non-blocking architecture facilitates real-time interactions and
data exchange, making Node.js ideal for building chat applications, streaming services, and
interactive dashboards. Real-Time Capabilities: The availability of numerous NPM packages enables rapid application prototyping and development. Startups benefit from accelerated development cycles, allowing them to quickly test and iterate on their ideas, gaining a crucial edge in the fast-paced tech market. Not only startups, but giants like PayPal have also used Node.js for creating rapid prototypes. Rapid Development: Furthermore, Node.js powers a diverse range of successful companies, showcasing its practical applications across various industries. Giants like Netflix, Uber, and PayPal leverage Node.js’s strengths to deliver seamless user experiences and handle complex backend operations. This industry validation serves as a reassuring indicator of Node.js's reliability and real-world effectiveness. Sir Isaac Newton, the famous English scientist, once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” If Node.js has been a trustworthy & reliable warrior for tech giants, then it’d surely help the startups. Regarding reliability, Node.js excels in uptime and stability, as shown by Netflix's 99.99% uptime rate, achieved in part through Node.js's efficient handling of concurrent requests. On the plus side, Node.js's rich ecosystem makes it the best choice for startups seeking agility, scalability, and rapid development. Its widespread adoption (used by over 50% of professional developers), impressive uptime statistics, and industry validation further reinforce its reliability and trustworthiness. As a startup founder, you can trust Node.js with closed eyes. While Node.js offers numerous advantages, it's important to consider alternatives like Deno, particularly due to concerns about a noticeable lack of innovation in the Node.js world. In recent years, Node.js has rapidly gone from being an innovator to playing the catch-up game with Deno (or Bun). To get an idea about what Node.js has been up to in the last two years, here is a list of the most notable features from their major and minor release notes: V8 software updates Web API support Experimental permissions model Integrated test runner etc. While the number of features itself has been modest, most have been introduced to catch up with Deno. In conclusion, as a startup founder, if you are satisfied with Node’s direction, reliability, and trustworthiness, you should choose Node.js for your next venture, project, or service. However, if you’re looking for a modern, reliable platform, backed by credible names, that could also offer you innovative features, you should take a look at Deno. When Should You Choose Deno? In contrast to Node.js, Deno leads the innovation in the JavaScript server-side field. Deno introduced a permission model that secured the runtime from the ground up. Its revolutionary "no modules by default" philosophy eliminates entire classes of vulnerabilities. By requiring explicit permission to access resources like the file system or network, Deno shields your applications from many potential attacks. This inherent security advantage gives startups peace of mind, allowing them to focus on building their vision without the constant shadow of cyber threats. The innovative permission model isn’t the only thing that Deno has brought to the world. Deno also champions modern design principles. Built upon Rust, a blazing-fast and memory-safe language, it offers exceptional performance and stability. Furthermore, its innovative use of TypeScript eliminates the need for transpilation, streamlining the development process and leading to cleaner, more robust code. These advances, coupled with Deno's commitment to staying ahead of the curve in terms of standards and features, ensure that your startup remains equipped with cutting-edge tools for building resilient and future-proof applications. Despite its relative youth, Deno has witnessed a meteoric rise in adoption. With over 90,000 GitHub stars and a 5x user growth in 2023, it's visible that developers are recognizing its potential. Leading technology companies like PayPal and Dropbox have adopted Deno for internal projects, further validating its reliability and practicality. The most techie name using Deno for their next-gen project is Slack. Not limiting innovation to the Deno runtime, the Deno company also introduced a serverless JS runtime called Deno Deploy. Deno Deploy, a revolutionary cloud platform built upon the Deno runtime, elevates the game for startups seeking agile and secure deployments. It removes the complexities of server management, offering a serverless environment where your code runs directly on the edge locations closest to your users. Additionally, Deno Deploy seamlessly integrates with the core Deno ecosystem, guaranteeing familiar tooling and a smooth development experience. With its built-in authentication, deployment snapshots, automated rollbacks, and a list of exclusive features, Deno Deploy provides a robust and secure foundation for your startup's journey. Beyond its core strengths, Deno continually offers an innovative array of features tailor-made for the fast-paced startup environment: Deno seamlessly exposes the web APIs your developers are already familiar with, minimizing onboarding friction and accelerating development cycles. Deno originally came up with the idea of supporting the browser web APIs in server-side runtimes that enabled developers to use the familiar APIs in server-side code immediately. Web API support: Deno KV, a distributed key-value database built on Deno, empowers startups with lightning-fast data storage and retrieval. Its globally distributed architecture ensures low latency and high availability, making it ideal for caching user data, storing application config, or powering real-time applications. Startups benefit from Deno KV's effortless scalability, allowing them to handle surges in traffic without infrastructure headaches. KV: Deno cron empowers you to schedule tasks with precision. It is like a cron service in the cloud. It is intelligent enough to skip overlapping tasks. Cron: Deno Queues elevates your startup's development game by orchestrating background tasks with ease. This built-in queuing system allows you to offload time-consuming processes like data processing, email sending, or image resizing, freeing your main application thread for smooth user interactions. Queues: Queues scale effortlessly, ensuring your startup can handle surges in demand without compromising performance. Deno Fresh, a server-rendered framework built for Deno, empowers startups with lightning-fast performance and developer agility. Its minimal, component-based approach enables clean, maintainable code. Server-side rendering delivers SEO-friendly content and avoids client-side dependencies, ideal for initial growth and global reach. Hot reloading enables instant updates without page reloads, boosting developer productivity and user experience. Fresh: While Node.js remains a dominant force, Deno's rapid rise demonstrates its potential to disrupt this world. Its commitment to security, modernity, developer needs, and continual innovation offers startups a worthy alternative, one that empowers them to build with confidence, agility, and a secure foundation for the future. Conclusion , the emperor of server-side runtimes, has amassed widespread acclaim for its reliability and robust ecosystem. Node.js Its longstanding presence within the industry gives inherent trust and confidence in its capabilities, further strengthened by its adoption by industry leaders who leverage its power in powering mission-critical products. However, off recently, Node.js seems to have a lack of visionary direction and innovative momentum. , a recent entrant to the arena, was initially viewed as a direct competitor to Node.js. However, Deno has strategically distinguished itself by prioritizing the implementation of out-of-the-box functionalities characterized by novel and innovative approaches. Deno Deno Deploy, a serverless platform facilitating swift and secure deployments, serves as a prime example of this commitment to cutting-edge solutions. Deno Cron, empowering the automated orchestration of tasks, and Deno Queues, fostering seamless asynchronous workflow, further exemplify Deno's focus on enhancing developer flexibility and facilitating project scalability. These integrated tools present a compelling proposition for startups seeking agile development methodologies and robust, future-proofed solutions. , the optimal choice between Node.js and Deno relies on a critical analysis of the particular demands and aspirations of each project. While Node.js offers the reassuring comfort of established reliability and industry validation, Deno boasts a refreshing wave of innovation and built-in functionalities tailored for agile development and rapid growth. Ultimately

Which JavaScript Runtime Should
You Choose for Your Startup?

Somebody's Trying to Tell Me Something

In 2001, Microsoft launched Halo: Combat evolved alongside its tie-in novel , authored by Eric Nylund, who then wrote in 2003 and in 2006. Since then, nine other authors have contributed novels to the series, adding more lore to the ever-expanding universe of Halo. One of these authors is Troy Denning, who wrote works such as and The Fall of Reach First Strike Ghosts of Onyx Halo: Last Light, Halo: Retribution, Halo: Oblivion, Halo: Shadows of Reach. About Troy Denning is an American fantasy and author and game designer who has written over two dozen novels, including , and . In this exclusive interview, Troy sheds light on how he became an author, his past projects as a game designer, and some exciting things to look forward to in his latest book, . Troy Denning science fiction The New Jedi Order: Star by Star Waterdeep Halo: Outcasts When did you start writing stories? I think it was in the eighth grade, so probably about the age of 13-14. Our English teacher assigned us to keep a journal, but writing daily entries about chores and ski team practice seemed boring. So I just started to write stories instead. What made you want to start writing? If it was a book, what was it? I guess I became interested in writing because I was an avid reader from a young age.  I would get sucked into worlds created by Asimov, Heinlein, Tolkien, Burroughs and began to imagine my own versions. At first, my worlds were pretty derivative of whatever I happened to be reading, but as my archive expanded, so did my imagination. It wasn’t long—maybe three or four years—before the worlds in my head began to seem fairly original (at least to me), and I started to feel like I had something worth putting on paper. You know, I would read something by Clarke or Leiber and think “I could do that!” Of course, I couldn’t. The mark of a true master is making their work look effortless, and that was certainly true of the authors I was reading. It took fifteen years, a B.A. in English, and eight years of experience as an editor and tabletop game designer before I published my first novel. What does your writing process look like? What kind of routine do you have, and how does it help you? Two of my favorite books on writing are by Terry Brooks, and On Writing by Stephen King. Both authors are (obviously) masters of the craft, but about the only thing their processes have in common is they write every day for AT LEAST a few hours.  Otherwise, their processes are almost opposites. King is a wanderer. He just starts writing and sees where the story takes him. Brooks is a mapper. Before he starts, he likes to know where the story is going and how he’s going to get there. Sometimes the Magic Works When I started out, I was more like King. I just started and let the story take me where it wanted. It’s incredibly fun, but you end up wandering down a lot of box canyons and having to backtrack to keep the story moving forward. If you have the time and self-confidence to handle the bad turns, it can produce some truly marvelous results. That’s how I wrote the Prism Pentad (Dark Sun) and Pages of Pain (Planescape).  But I also have a drawer full of unfinished books that I couldn’t figure out how to fix. More importantly, when I shifted from working with people who knew me personally (as the editors for the Dungeons & Dragons stuff did) to people who were contacting me to write for licensed Intellectual Properties (IPs) such as Star Wars and Halo, the process needed to be a lot more structured. Those books are part of a major publishing program that ties into other mediums such as movies, TV, games, comics, etc. There are usually well over a dozen decision makers (publishing house editors, continuity editors from the IP, executives, marketing people). They can’t just say, “write a book featuring the Lady of Pain” (as was the case for Pages of Pain) or “give us a five-book series set in that game world you just designed” (as was the case with the Dark Sun books).  Everybody needs to agree on the story in advance, and that requires detailed outlines. So now, I work more like Brooks does. I construct detailed outlines before I write the first word of the first chapter. All of the editors and executives and sometimes even the marketing people make suggestions and offer notes, until we finally have something we all agree on. By the time we’re finished, I have a very clear picture of the story arc, the character arcs, the settings, and most of the other story elements. That isn’t to say that nothing ever varies from the outline, because it often does. But when that happens, we have a common map, and we can all agree on the changes I need/want to make. (Or do something even better, which often ends up being the case after everyone offers input). What would you say is the hardest part of writing a novel? For novice/young writers, finishing what you start is always the hardest part. They lose confidence in what they’re doing, because they haven’t been through the revision process and don’t understand that the first draft of any novel is just raw ore. It takes time and effort—a lot of both—to run that draft through the crusher and flotation tanks and smelt out the gold. For me, the opening is always the hardest part. It’s where you raise the story question, introduce the characters, establish atmosphere, and set tone. The first chapter of a good novel does an incredible amount of work, and by the time I sit down to write it, I have a clear concept of how ALL of that stuff is going to work. But getting the concept onto the page? That can be a struggle. It’s not unusual for me to spend a month or more just getting a first chapter I’m happy with. But once that foundation is laid . . . I wouldn’t say the rest of the book writes itself, but it’s a lot easier. Throughout your career, you’ve written several books for various sci-fi and fantasy settings. Which universe did you enjoy writing for the most and why? What was your favorite book in that series? Boy, that’s a loaded question . . . and one I can’t answer simply. Writing a book takes a LOT of time and energy, and if you’re just doing it to fulfill an assignment, you’re doing it wrong. If it’s just work, you can find a lot of jobs that reward you better for your time. The truth is, I loved all the properties I wrote for, or I wouldn’t have done it. I went to work for TSR Hobbies straight out of college because I loved Dungeons & Dragons, and in addition to the work I did as an editor and game designer, I ended up writing twenty novels for them.  Eventually, the opportunity to work on something I loved even more—Star Wars—came along, and I wrote twelve novels for them. Then Disney bought Lucasfilm and I didn’t love where the line was going as much, but I’d started to explore the Halo universe and was really falling in love with it. So when Ed Schlesinger called to see if I’d be interested in doing a Halo novel, it was an easy yes. In addition to your novels, you’ve also worked as a game designer. What past projects are you most proud of? I would have to say the Dark Sun setting, which I conceptualized with Timothy Brown, Mary Kirchoff, and Brom, and wrote with Timothy Brown.  It’s a rough, gritty, campaign world set in an environmental wasteland (yes, it IS a warning about global warming and unchecked environmental damage), and it reflects my love of sand-and-sorcery fantasy like Conan. In Halo: Outcasts, we see the Sangheili society under Cortana’s rule. What was it like describing a society, which once prided itself on its culture of honor and strength, brought to heel by its new overlords? I probably have a different take on martial culture than a lot of readers. Any society that needs a code of honor to regulate its violent interactions is two things by definition:  a) violent, and b) probably not all that honorable. If there wasn’t a fair amount of violence, the society wouldn’t need to regulate it. If warriors were inherently “honorable,” there would be no need for a code. They would just naturally behave with honor. So, when I look at the Sangheili, I see a fairly violent species that, at some point in its past, was so ruthless it developed a code of honor to keep from tearing its society apart. Now, what happened to their ruthless streak? Did it just go away? Nature doesn’t work that way. The ruthless streak is still there. It’s just sublimated to an external code of honor. The thing about sublimation is it’s imperfect. Sublimated traits manifest themselves in other ways. And that’s how the Sangheili kaidons have been portrayed in lore. They’re scheming, sneaky warlords maneuvering to secure their own interests. Once they have the advantage, they usually find a way to justify any amount of underhanded violence in the name of “honor.”  So, when I look at Sangheili culture, I tend to see parallels with Feudal Japan, and the Arbiter’s struggles in unifying the Sangheili are very much akin to that of a feudal emperor fighting to control his shoguns. We are also introduced to an Oath Warden, Crei ‘Ayomuu. Can you tell our readers about Oath Wardens and their role in Sangheili culture? An Oath Warden is basically a bounty hunter who takes contracts to enforce agreements on behalf of other Sangheili. They are unique in Sangheili culture in not considering themselves bound by the warrior code of honor, which frees them to use any means necessary to fulfill their contracts. At the same time, they follow their own code, which they claim to be far more strict than that of the warriors. The thing is, only Oath Wardens know whether that’s true, since only Oath Wardens are allowed to know their code. Halo: Outcasts also focuses on Spartan Vale, a member of Fireteam Osiris from Halo 5. What was it like writing for a character that hasn’t gotten much attention since the events of Hunters in the Dark and Halo 5: Guardians? I enjoyed it. In various pieces of Vale’s background lore, there are hints of a complex, engaging character with the potential to play a much larger part in the Halo Universe than she has so far. I enjoyed building on those hints, to create someone who I hope the readers will want to see more of. What else can Halo fans look forward to in your latest book? We’ll revisit some characters from Halo Oblivion, learn a few of Netherop’s secrets, and explore some very ancient lore. You often write for pre-established universes (Halo, Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons). Have you ever considered writing something in your own setting? If so, what would it look like? I have a drawer full of partially-completed spec projects in various settings. There are sand-and-sorcery fantasies, contemporary thrillers, and near-future SF in there. Fortunately/unfortunately (it’s a bit of both), the media tie-in contracts have kept me too busy to complete them. When an offer for a cool project that will definitely be published comes in, the cool project that might be published loses out. Sigh . . . maybe when I retire! Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? Sure: 1) write every day; 2) write because you love it, not because you want to “be” a writer; 3) don’t count on making a living as a writer; only a very small percentage of us do, and the percentage who make a good living is even smaller; 4) study your craft; read books like On Writing by Stephen King, Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks, Story by Robert McKee . . . really, anything about writing that you can get your hands on; 5) editors are your friends; even if you’re not ready to publish yet, hiring an independent story editor to mark up a short story or a chapter of a work-in-progress will teach you a LOT about writing.

An Exclusive Interview w/ Troy Denning, Author of Halo: Outcasts

Una entrevista exclusiva con Troy Denning, autor de Halo: Outcasts

Une interview exclusive avec Troy Denning, auteur de Halo : Outcasts

हेलो: आउटकास्ट्स के लेखक ट्रॉय डेनिंग के साथ एक विशेष साक्षात्कार

『Halo: Outcasts』著者、トロイ・デニング氏への独占インタビュー

Uma entrevista exclusiva com Troy Denning, autor de Halo: Outcasts

Một cuộc phỏng vấn độc quyền với Troy Denning, Tác giả của Halo: Outcasts

《光环：流放者》作者 Troy Denning 独家专访

Ethereum Is Scaling! Ethereum has seen an explosion in innovation and usage in the last few years. The “Defi summer” of 2020 was the blossoming of decentralized finance, later followed by the success of NFTs reaching the mainstream world. While it was a great party for the Ethereum community, it has also made obvious the scaling limitations of Ethereum. High transaction fees have priced out many users and led them towards alternative Layer 1 blockchains which often make trade-offs with security and decentralization to achieve more scalability. But Ethereum is not giving up on scalability! Ethereum 2.0 will enable a higher transaction capacity, but also, and maybe more importantly, we’ve seen the emergence of Layer 2 scaling, and specifically the idea of a , which is already unfolding before our eyes. rollup-centric roadmap for Ethereum The goal of Layer 2 scaling is to move Ethereum activity off-chain, on second layers. Rollups are a type of Layer 2 solution where the idea is to execute a batch of transactions on the L2 and post them on Ethereum in a compressed form called “rollups.” Obscuro is an L2 rollup solution, alongside Arbitrum, Optimism, StarkWare, Zksync, and others. It means Obscuro users will enjoy fast and cheap transactions. But there’s another dimension to Obscuro that sets it apart from other rollups solution. The Other Battle Scalability has been rightfully identified as the main battle, which Obscuro is proudly fighting alongside his brothers in arms. But there’s a lesser-known battle taking place in the Ethereum world, a darker one, one we don’t talk about as much. Sometimes, we hear frightening rumors and echoes. It is fought in the underworld and the dark forests. The enemy is hidden, invisible, and everywhere, lurking, creeping over us, breathing in our necks, waiting for us to make a mistake. One single mistake, one second of inattention, and it might already be over for us. This is the battle for privacy. And there’s been many casualties. Identity Leaks The more innovations on Ethereum, the more ways you can leak details about yourself and your financial activities. And those details can be used by attackers to target you. NFTs are a good example. It’s hard to resist the temptation of showing off your newly minted NFT or cool ENS domain on social networks, but this effectively links your Ethereum address with your social profile and makes yourself a target of hacking, identity theft, mugging, kidnapping, and blackmailing. For example, . He was one click away from losing $160 million. He linked his social profiles with his ENS domain pointing to an address containing over $160 million in ETH. this seasoned Ethereum user tells a daunting story He was then targeted by a sophisticated social engineering attack which took weeks to unravel and trap him. In the end, he had the lucidity to check the code and escaped, but if we envision billions of people using Ethereum one day, this type of attack will be devastating. In Web3, there is no social safety net to save you from these situations. While there’s a certain level of confidentiality guaranteed by the pseudo-anonymous nature of public blockchains, this is mostly an illusion of privacy, since most on-ramps and off-ramps in and out of Web3 are done via centralized exchanges, which store the real identities of their customers. Web3 services are also a privacy black hole because RPC providers expose users’ IP addresses and other metadata even when no transaction occurs. They could potentially link addresses between themselves and even link them to real identities, and store or share this information. Additionally, non-private transactions are susceptible to aggressive data-mining and harvesting techniques that certain advertising firms use to target non-consenting individuals while abusing their personal privacy. MEV Ethereum transactions are visible to anyone in the mempool before they are executed. It means they can be front-run and value can be extracted from them, a practice known as . The mempool is a scary MEV (Maximal Extractible Value) Dark Forest, and monsters are real. There’s a wide range of MEV attacks, and the MEV monsters are constantly finding new and terrifying ways to extract value from users. If you’re a regular Ethereum user, chances are you’ve already been exploited by MEV, maybe unknowingly. It can be as simple as forgetting to set your slippage on a DEX like Uniswap, and there’s likely a horde of ready to feast on your transaction. sandwich bots By some estimates, front-running was valued at $1.4 billion annually in early 2021. We’ve seen how the public nature of smart contract blockchains like Ethereum makes them a very adversarial environment, not very suited for mainstream adoption. Paradoxically, Web2 is in some ways more private than Web3. While you have to trust a centralized entity in Web2, you generally don’t expose your data to the whole world like you do when you use Ethereum. But friends, hope is not lost! Obscuro: Let There Be Light! Obscuro is combining state-of-the-art scaling knowledge with battle-hardened encryption technology to create an EVM-compatible environment with low gas fees and confidentiality. Not only does Obscuro scale Ethereum, but it also offers encryption thanks to a powerful weapon: the TEE. TEE stands for Trusted Execution Environment. It’s a Secure Enclave found in CPUs where you can execute fully confidential computation. It’s a black box. Obscuro leverages Secure Enclaves to create an optimistic-based roll-up solution on Ethereum where smart contracts are confidential. This is how Obscuro enlightens the dark forests of Ethereum: within Obscuro, your privacy is protected by default, and the mempool is hidden; MEV monsters can’t hurt you there. To our knowledge, there is only one other brave warrior attempting to fight for privacy with an L2 roll-up solution on Ethereum; it’s Aztec and they are using zero-knowledge technology. Obscuro developer Tudor Malene explains in why he thinks Secure Enclaves is a better-suited weapon to achieve general-purpose privacy. this post This battle for privacy is not unique to Ethereum, and Obscuro can count on some solid allies like Secret Network on Cosmos and Phala on Polkadot. Together they are the three muskeTEErs of privacy, united by the TEEs they use to slay their enemies. A New World We’ve seen how Obscuro keeps you safe from the lurking threats of the Ethereum world, but privacy is not just about keeping you safe and protecting your identity, it’s also about enabling new blockchain use cases and inviting new participants to take advantage of Web3. Financial markets present a compelling environment where privacy is needed to prevent inadvertent disclosure of positions and front-running of trades. In traditional markets, , and are commonly used to exchange assets in a private manner. dark pools OTC trading, sealed auctions Obscuro is an ideal platform for those use cases to bloom and onboard a new class of institutions and individuals to Ethereum. Obscuro is also a welcoming place to empower businesses because they rely on privacy to prevent competitors from seeing valuable proprietary information like supply chain partners, investment strategies, primary sources of profit, etc. And maybe it’s in the where the full potential of confidential computation is unlocked, who knows? As a general-purpose privacy solution, Obscuro allows entire smart contracts to be hidden. metaverse And there are a lot of exciting ways to experiment with NFTs and gaming when you can hide the code. With Obscuro, we could make a game where players earn loot boxes NFTs and can exchange them on a market, even if they’re unopened. We need the private computation of Obscuro to prevent people from looking at the NFT metadata and seeing exactly what’s inside the boxes. Loot boxes and nested NFTs: We can build on-chain versions of classic games like or where it’s essential your opponent doesn’t know your strategy or your cards. Poker Battleship As an artist, you can hide exclusive content in your NFTs, which only the owner of the NFT is able to see. Exclusive content: : We can deploy the entire plot of an adventure game or a treasure quest on-chain, and no one will be able to look up the storyline in the code to cheat! Game lores : We could imagine an NFT collection where attributes evolve based on any blockchain or real-world event, and no one could predict the changes because the code is private. Let’s say you’ve minted a character that looks basic at first, but you realize he morphs into a wolf every full moon. Wow, you’ve actually minted a super rare werewolf! Shapeshifting NFTs And certainly, a myriad of other use cases we haven’t even thought about. Obscuro welcomes new and creative ways to leverage scalability and privacy. If you have an idea, let us know! Find Out More If you’re interested in learning more about , check out our or dive into our . Chat with the community on and follow us on . 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