Spike is a B2B Generative AI and Data tech startup for the Digital Health industry. It provides health and fitness data interpretation-as-a-service on top of user-generated data from Wearables and IoT devices. Spike provides 3 Core products: 1) API aggregation (access to 200+ sensors via a single API) 2) Data pipeline (managed-ETL tool allows to get data in low-code and fast) 3) GAI-based Health Data Interpretation SDK (plug&play AI for text-based health observation or interpretation for their end users) Data from wearable sensors, smartwatches, IoT devices are actively used throughout the healthcare industry. That said, only a portion of the industry knows how to leverage the data to its potential. Using Spike, you can integrate this data from commercially used optical, electrical, electrochemical, and electromechanical sensor types. These devices extract biometric data such as heart rate variability, calories, blood pressure, glucose and cortisol levels, and others. Spike enables you to import these metrics directly into your cloud via a managed ETL service while providing AI tools for recommendation and prevention.

Spike

Move over, Dr. House. There's a new medical genius in town, and it doesn't even have a stethoscope. Spike, a Silicon Valley startup that focuses on data technology and artificial intelligence (AI), just landed $3.5 million in seed funding. Its mission? To give healthcare AI, which is set to reach $148 billion by 2029, the brainpower it needs. The oversubscribed investment was co-led by Practica Capital and TheVentureCity, and a who's who of tech investors joined the party, including CEAS Investments, Plug & Play Ventures, Geek Ventures, and Axel Springer Porsche (APX). Spike is ready to supercharge product development, expand into new markets, and cement its status as a medical director in the AI health technology field. So, what's Spike's secret remedy? Its B2B solution allows developers to add AI superpowers to their healthcare apps. Spike aims to cut development time and costs to a fraction of what they used to be and connect to the data collected by hundreds of medical, wearable, and IoT devices. Think of Spike's API as a health data buffet, offering insights from over 300 sources – from your trusty Fitbit to high-tech medical devices. It's the fuel that powers Spike's AI algorithms to deliver personalized healthcare solutions smarter than a med school grad (well, almost). "Advancements in retrieval-augmented generation AI mean that LLMs are no longer taking a 'best guess,' but are now able to seek out specialized context, producing outputs that are much more accurate and considerably less prone to hallucinations," Povilas Gudzius, CEO and co-founder of Spike, said. "By incorporating this technology on top of Spike's high-quality health data API, we're enabling our clients to easily leverage these tools and improve the health of millions of end users." Spike vs. the Goliaths, with a RAG, not a Stone Sure, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have their AI health data solutions. But let's be honest: They're like old-school doctors who still use pagers. Spike is the young, energetic upstart shaking things up. Google Cloud Healthcare API provides access to healthcare data and offers AI and machine learning tools for building healthcare applications. Amazon HealthLake is a HIPAA-eligible service that helps healthcare organizations store, transform, query, and analyze health data. And Microsoft Azure API for FHIR enables the exchange of healthcare data using the FHIR standard and offers AI tools for building healthcare applications. So while the megaliths in the room are busy managing massive cloud infrastructures, Spike is laser-focused on healthcare. They're not just aggregating data; they're curating it, ensuring it's top-notch and tailor-made for the unique needs of the medical world. And Spike uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), a technique for enhancing the accuracy and reliability of generative AI models with facts fetched from external sources. RAG helps AI models avoid embarrassing "hallucination" moments by cross-checking their answers with real-world facts. Think of it as a reality check for AI, ensuring its answers are as accurate as a doctor's diagnosis. This makes AI more reliable, less prone to making things up, and ultimately, much more useful in the healthcare world. "We are utilizing health expertise networks and curated in specialized context databases in RAG AI infrastructure," Gudzius said. "RAG AI allows us to incorporate these problem-specific sources effectively and makes the LLM responses more grounded. The design of the RAG AI infrastructure and domain-expert curated medical content allows us to further innovate in developing the 'Trustworthy Health AI.'" All of this technology doesn't mean Spike can scrimp on security and privacy. Like the Big 3, it has to make strong commitments to regulatory protection, especially with searches for AI in healthcare being orders of magnitude higher than searches for AI safety. "Spike takes data security and privacy very seriously, so our infrastructure products follow strict GDRP, HIPAA, and CCPA regulatory guidelines," Gudzius said. "From the technical perspective, we are also adopting specific techniques to prioritize data privacy. For example, we have built our data access layers that provide limited control to the LLM agent while handling data acquisition logic and complying with regulatory requirements. As the quality and volume of individuals' health data grows, there's a huge need to develop and innovate regulatory-compliant techniques for private health data-to-LLM interactions like that." The Future of Healthcare: Spike's Prescription This $3.5 million isn't just pocket change; it's the catalyst for Spike's grand vision. They're not just building AI tools but trustworthy AI tools that are as reliable as your favorite family doctor (but hopefully with a better bedside manner). They're expanding their reach to include everything from electronic health records to genomics data. "We believe in a future where health data volume will grow exponentially driven by the improvements in sensor hardware," Gudzius said. "These sensors include optical, electrical, and electromechanical sensors from wearables, IoT devices, and other sources like EHRs and lab tests. We are well positioned to capture this potential because our team has extensive experience working with data acquisition and a scientific background in Health AI. Our edge is ensuring we provide the capabilities of these emerging non-diagnostic technologies to our clients in a safe and regulatory compliant way." Spike imagines a future where AI isn't just a buzzword; it's an integral part of healthcare, improving patient care and making those dreaded doctor's visits a little less dreadful. A version of this article was originally published on Dataconomy and is republished with permission. Move over, Dr. House. There's a new medical genius in town, and it doesn't even have a stethoscope. Spike , a Silicon Valley startup that focuses on data technology and artificial intelligence (AI), just landed $3.5 million in seed funding. Its mission? To give healthcare AI, which is set to reach $148 billion by 2029 , the brainpower it needs. Spike set to reach $148 billion by 2029 The oversubscribed investment was co-led by Practica Capital and TheVentureCity, and a who's who of tech investors joined the party, including CEAS Investments, Plug & Play Ventures, Geek Ventures, and Axel Springer Porsche (APX). Spike is ready to supercharge product development, expand into new markets, and cement its status as a medical director in the AI health technology field. So, what's Spike's secret remedy? Its B2B solution allows developers to add AI superpowers to their healthcare apps. Spike aims to cut development time and costs to a fraction of what they used to be and connect to the data collected by hundreds of medical, wearable, and IoT devices. Think of Spike's API as a health data buffet, offering insights from over 300 sources – from your trusty Fitbit to high-tech medical devices. It's the fuel that powers Spike's AI algorithms to deliver personalized healthcare solutions smarter than a med school grad (well, almost). "Advancements in retrieval-augmented generation AI mean that LLMs are no longer taking a 'best guess,' but are now able to seek out specialized context, producing outputs that are much more accurate and considerably less prone to hallucinations," Povilas Gudzius, CEO and co-founder of Spike, said. "By incorporating this technology on top of Spike's high-quality health data API, we're enabling our clients to easily leverage these tools and improve the health of millions of end users." Spike vs. the Goliaths, with a RAG, not a Stone Spike vs. the Goliaths, with a RAG, not a Stone Sure, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have their AI health data solutions. But let's be honest: They're like old-school doctors who still use pagers. Spike is the young, energetic upstart shaking things up. Google Cloud Healthcare API provides access to healthcare data and offers AI and machine learning tools for building healthcare applications. Amazon HealthLake is a HIPAA-eligible service that helps healthcare organizations store, transform, query, and analyze health data. And Microsoft Azure API for FHIR enables the exchange of healthcare data using the FHIR standard and offers AI tools for building healthcare applications. So while the megaliths in the room are busy managing massive cloud infrastructures, Spike is laser-focused on healthcare. They're not just aggregating data; they're curating it, ensuring it's top-notch and tailor-made for the unique needs of the medical world. And Spike uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), a technique for enhancing the accuracy and reliability of generative AI models with facts fetched from external sources. RAG helps AI models avoid embarrassing "hallucination" moments by cross-checking their answers with real-world facts. Think of it as a reality check for AI, ensuring its answers are as accurate as a doctor's diagnosis. This makes AI more reliable, less prone to making things up, and ultimately, much more useful in the healthcare world. "We are utilizing health expertise networks and curated in specialized context databases in RAG AI infrastructure," Gudzius said. "RAG AI allows us to incorporate these problem-specific sources effectively and makes the LLM responses more grounded. The design of the RAG AI infrastructure and domain-expert curated medical content allows us to further innovate in developing the 'Trustworthy Health AI.'" All of this technology doesn't mean Spike can scrimp on security and privacy. Like the Big 3, it has to make strong commitments to regulatory protection, especially with searches for AI in healthcare being orders of magnitude higher than searches for AI safety . searches for AI in healthcare being orders of magnitude higher than searches for AI safety "Spike takes data security and privacy very seriously, so our infrastructure products follow strict GDRP, HIPAA, and CCPA regulatory guidelines," Gudzius said. "From the technical perspective, we are also adopting specific techniques to prioritize data privacy. For example, we have built our data access layers that provide limited control to the LLM agent while handling data acquisition logic and complying with regulatory requirements. As the quality and volume of individuals' health data grows, there's a huge need to develop and innovate regulatory-compliant techniques for private health data-to-LLM interactions like that." The Future of Healthcare: Spike's Prescription The Future of Healthcare: Spike's Prescription This $3.5 million isn't just pocket change; it's the catalyst for Spike's grand vision. They're not just building AI tools but trustworthy AI tools that are as reliable as your favorite family doctor (but hopefully with a better bedside manner). They're expanding their reach to include everything from electronic health records to genomics data. "We believe in a future where health data volume will grow exponentially driven by the improvements in sensor hardware," Gudzius said. "These sensors include optical, electrical, and electromechanical sensors from wearables, IoT devices, and other sources like EHRs and lab tests. We are well positioned to capture this potential because our team has extensive experience working with data acquisition and a scientific background in Health AI. Our edge is ensuring we provide the capabilities of these emerging non-diagnostic technologies to our clients in a safe and regulatory compliant way." Spike imagines a future where AI isn't just a buzzword; it's an integral part of healthcare, improving patient care and making those dreaded doctor's visits a little less dreadful. A version of this article was originally published on Dataconomy and is republished with permission. A version of this article was originally published on Dataconomy and is republished with permission. published on Dataconomy

Spike Aims to Give Healthcare AI a Brain Boost and Outsmart the Tech Giants

Welcome to my meet the entrepreneur Interview Series, where I interview impactful leaders and ask them to share tips and techniques that have benefited them, both in their personal and professional lives. This interview is with , Co-Founder & CEO of . Dvir Ben Aroya Spike About Dvir: Dvir has over 20 years of executive experience leading technology and internet companies. As an entrepreneur, he is passionate about creating SaaS businesses and nurturing them throughout their entire lifecycle. When he's not talking about how to improve modern communication, you can find him surfing with friends or running after his three boys. How Do You Deal With Stress And Anxiety? It is important to know that within any industry, there are good and bad days–with that being said, I always try to allocate time to things that help me relieve stress. For me, this is through sports. Wave surfing is my form of relaxation that makes me feel centered. Along with sports, another thing that helps me destress is spending time with family; it's good to take a break and keep things in proportion. Your Tips For Aspiring Entrepreneurs? No matter where you are in your business journey, it will always feel like you have a million tasks to tackle on a daily basis. One tip would be to always prioritize tasks that will have the maximum impact on your business. Things will come your way fast, and you will need to know how to use your time wisely in order to meet your end goals. Another tip is to surround yourself with like-minded and knowledgeable entrepreneurs who constantly push you to learn, grow and think differently. Who Would You Like To Meet For Lunch and Why? Salesforce Founder and CEO Marc Russell Benioff. Salesforce, a leading CRM cloud-based software company, disrupted the market and created the software SaaS vertical. Benioff highlights how his experiences and past history are a big factor in his successes today, and I would find it interesting to sit and learn how his past experiences led him to shape Salesforce. What Is Your Favorite Book Or Movie Recommendation? The High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil: . This book gives good advice and key lessons for startups and entrepreneurs. https://growth.eladgil.com/book/introduction/welcome-to-the-high-growth-handbook/ What Habit Has Contributed To Your Career? Perseverance. Things don't come easily; sometimes, you need to fail 100 times in order to succeed once. I make it a habit to show up and keep trying no matter what the outcome. When You Hear About Other Famous Entrepreneurs, Is There Any Entrepreneur Who Specifically Caught Your Attention? Throughout my career, I have met many entrepreneurs and interesting people who have taught me new and innovative things. If I had to choose one who specifically caught my attention, I'd say the CEO of Zoom, Eric S. Yuan. He was able to take a technology that has been around for years and turn it into something extremely successful based on feedback from his customers and audience to ultimately connect the world. Is There a Specific Business Philosophy That Has Helped You? To constantly listen to feedback– from customers, team members, and your community. Things are versatile and ever-changing; it is important to constantly evolve and accept change to align with growth. About Spike: is the world's first conversational email app. They are upgrading the way SMBs work. Spike's goal is simple: bring all communication -- emails, chats, calls, team collaborations, tasks, everything -- to one place. It's what teams have been looking for in productivity and messaging apps, but easier and all from your inbox. Spike Spike works on top of any existing email (O365, G suite, and IMAP) and is available on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows & Web. Also published . here

Meet The Entrepreneur: Dvir Ben Aroya, Co-Founder & CEO, Spike 

During refinement a team member says: . She warns we should not start working on the feature before doing a spike. ”I have no clue how to build this feature” Mentioning spikes often creates confusion in a team. Every team member has their own opinion about what a spike is and the right time to use one. I was part of teams that wanted a spike for almost everything they worked on. I also worked with teams that rarely used spikes. Both approaches were suboptimal. When is using a spike appropriate? Before we expand on when and how spikes should be used, let’s talk about the origin of the term ‘Spike’. The term spike stems from Extreme Programming (XP) and has it’s roots in rock climbing. When rock climbing, you sometimes cannot climb further because there is nothing to grab on to. To climb further, you need to drive a spike into the rock surface. The spike does not move you closer to the top, but . forges a path for you to continue climbing on A spike in software development serves a similar purpose. Spikes help to move forward when . knowledge is lacking to build something When should you use a spike? Backlog refinement is all about removing uncertainty and creating common understanding. Lack of knowledge is the starting point in refinement. So, it is important to understand when using a spike is appropriate or overkill. In product three types of uncertainty are discussed with the development team: backlog refinement Why do we need to build this? Purpose uncertainty. What do we need to build? End uncertainty. How can we build it? Means uncertainty. At the start of refinement, everything is unclear. After refining a feature, all three types of uncertainty should be sufficiently clear to be able to estimate the feature. If your team does not use estimates, you should be able to split the feature up in sprint-sized chunks. Sometimes everything is clear, except how to build a feature. If the team has no idea how to build the feature, then the work cannot be accurately estimated. It cannot be split up to fit in a single sprint either. The risk of building a technical solution that is unfeasible increases. Now is the right moment to use a spike. When the team has no idea to build a feature, then planning a is appropriate. how spike A spike is an investigation the team has to perform they can start working on the feature it relates to. The outcome of the spike needs to be explicitly defined up-front. before A spike is usually time-boxed. This means the investigation is over when the time-box expires, regardless whether the spike outcome is met or not. A time-box helps to manage time and prevent endless research without results. By definition, research is more open-ended and divergent than delivering something. When a spike is completed (with or without the time-box expiring), there are two options: You have enough information on the technical solution to proceed. You can now estimate the feature. If your team does not use estimates, you have enough information to split the feature up in chunks that take less than a sprint. The investigation fails to provide enough information on the technical solution to proceed. Work cannot be started yet, unless the risk of being unable to finish the feature in a single sprint is accepted. Sometimes people make the distinction between functional and technical spikes. The only difference is the type of research. A is planned when it is unclear how to build something. A is planned when more information is needed to decide what to build from functional perspective. technical spike functional spike Now that you have basic understanding about what a spike is and when you should use one, let’s discuss 6 common mistakes teams make when using spikes. 1. Performing a spike when many other things are unclear If the purpose of the backlog item or how it should work are unclear, then you are better off reducing these types of uncertainty first. Otherwise, how can you be sure that a spike is necessary? With a better understanding of the problem, you give the team more freedom to come up with a suitable technical solution. Uncertainty in the ‘why’ and ‘what’ propagates to the technical solution. Maybe there is a different way of solving the problem your team does not consider, because they do not understand the problem well enough. 2. Using spikes for implementation details you can figure out as you go along A spike should give your team confidence it can build a feature and split it up in chunks that fit in a sprint. It should not be used to figure out every little detail before you can work on a feature. Some teams will use spikes to nail down all details. They believe that everything needs to be crystal clear before you can work on a feature. The team wastes time researching implementation details that could be figured out as you go along. As a result, sprints alternate between research and delivery work. The time-to-market of features increases. Features requiring a spike will take at least two sprints to deliver, because you need to do the spike one sprint before. If the team is confident it can finish the spike and feature it belongs to in a single sprint, why do the spike at all? Figuring out implementation details during the same sprint you perform the work is more effective. You minimize waste, hand-overs and doing up-front analysis. The feature will also be released sooner, allowing you to process valuable market feedback earlier. 3. Doing spikes before considering to reduce scope When a team member says a spike is necessary, you should try to understand what technical part makes the solution difficult. If possible, just remove the difficult part from the functional scope. Just pick up what is easy first and worry about the hard part later. This way the feature can be estimated and picked up without any preceding spike. Sometimes just by starting to work on a feature the team acquires enough knowledge to work on the difficult part. If this is not the case, then at least you will have more knowledge before doing the spike. 4. Not defining a clear spike outcome Before working on a spike, the expected outcome of the investigation should be clear. By making the expected outcome clear, you prevent your team from being unable to move forward even though the spike has been completed. What is the information you need to research in order to move forward? Should it be a working proof-of-concept? Or is a document that describes the technical solution good enough? What will give the team enough confidence to move forward? 5. Executing a spike long before you need it Analysis work many sprints before you start working on a feature is waste you should try to prevent. When an spike has been completed, the outcome is fresh. As time passes on, spikes become stale just like food. Stale food is not enjoyable and neither are stale spikes! The system landscape may have changed so much, the spike is no longer relevant. It might also be that the feature is no longer important, because it no longer fits the direction of the product. As time passes on, the team loses knowledge it gained through the spike. The team will need more time to understand the outcome of the original investigation. You should try to plan a spike as close to the moment you want to pick-up the backlog item to minimize all these different kinds of waste. 6. Planning spikes without digging deeper When your team keeps asking to plan spikes, this could point to bigger problems the team is facing, such as: Knowledge the team misses in specific areas or a single team member having most of the knowledge. Legacy systems that are very difficult to maintain or adjust. Nobody feels comfortable estimating the work. If this keeps on happening, it may pay off to get to the bottom of these problems . To see if there is something you can do to prevent these spikes from being necessary. Maybe it pays off to refactor some parts of the system instead of performing the spike. It could also be you just need to plan a knowledge sharing session, so the team gains knowledge about part(s) of the system or a specific framework. Spikes help manage uncertainty, but should be used sparingly Spikes should be exceptions, not the rule. You should ask these questions before deciding if a spike is appropriate: Does the team understand the problem well enough to come up with the best solution? Get everything else that is uncertain, as clear as possible, before you decide a spike is necessary. Uncertainty in why we are building something and what we need to build propagates to the technical solution. Is the spike really necessary? Sometimes you can figure out the technical details as you go along. Some uncertainty is to be expected. Is the team suffering from a waterfall mindset or is the spike justified? Can the scope be reduced to move what is difficult out of scope? This way you can start working on the feature without a spike. After finishing the feature, sometimes you will have gained enough knowledge to work on the difficult part without a spike. If you still need one, then at least you will have more knowledge before starting the investigation. Did the team define a clear expected outcome in the spike? The expected outcome of the spike needs to be clear to minimize the chance of failure. Will the feature where the spike relates to be picked up soon? Spikes become stale. Changes in technical landscape or business priority may make spikes obsolete. So plan spikes as close to the actual work as possible to prevent waste. Is the excessive usage of spikes not symptomatic of bigger problems? Dig deeper to find out what problems your team is facing. Then make a decision if it is better to use a spike or spend time to address the root cause.

6 common mistakes when using spikes

**GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, March 28th, 2024/Chainwire/--**March DEX volume on Sui stands at over $2.88B – up more than 49% from February – with decentralized exchange Cetus and wholesale liquidity layer DeepBook leading. Sui, the fast ascending Layer 1 blockchain offering industry-leading performance and infinite scaling, continued to demonstrate its blistering DeFi growth by cementing its place in the top ten of all chains by weekly DeFi volume, registering over $830M of trading over the most recent seven days of data available on and $224M in the latest 24 hours. DeFiLlama The volume growth comes as the chain has amassed several DeFi milestones since the start of the year, including surging past $700M in total value locked (TVL) earlier this week – up over 1900% since October – and dominating outflows from Ethereum via Wormhole during multiple seven-day periods this year. Sui is also setting the standard for network reliability during periods of high network traffic. In the first four months of its mainnet, Sui completed 65.8M transactions in a single day—the most of any blockchain ever, while throughout its existence, the network has never had an outage or experienced degraded performance. These milestones reflect how Sui’s underlying technology, which features an object-centric model, horizontal scalability, the increasingly popular, developer-friendly Move programming language, and recent breakthroughs such as zkLogin and zkSend, enables developers to create products that solve real-world challenges at scale. Sui’s technology has also attracted top projects and developers which are increasingly choosing to build on Sui. Most recently, , a protocol developed by the team behind Solana’s largest lending protocol, Solend, launched in its first expansion outside the Solana ecosystem. Ondo Finance’s treasury-backed assets also recently made their way into the ecosystem, while decentralized derivatives exchange left Arbitrum for Sui. Suilend Bluefin DeepBook, Sui’s fully on-chain order book, which is part of the Sui Protocol, has experienced a substantial volume increase in March as DeFi on the network continues to flourish. The CLOB saw over $940M in volume since the start of the month, and over $289M of trading in the last week alone, as it continues to provide deep liquidity to all DeFi protocols and traders on Sui with ultra-low, predictable transaction costs and sub-second finality. “From the Move language to its object-centric architecture, Sui’s technology is unique in the industry and enables a level of innovation that is attracting partnerships, protocol expansions, and independent developers—all building solutions that leverage the Sui network,” said Greg Siourounis, Managing Director of the Sui Foundation. “Sui’s surging metrics in DeFi indicate definitively that in an industry which is currently surging and primed for cutting-edge technology and practical, real-world applications, Sui is increasingly the platform of choice.” Contact Sui Foundation media@sui.io This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here.

Sui Spikes In Weekly DEX Volume, Joins Top 10 Of All Blockchains

Donald Trump, the former president of the U.S., saw an increased interest in his NFT collection after being arrested and charged at a Manhattan court. Reports suggest that Trump Digital Trading Cards sold 47 tokens within 24 hours of his arrest marking, an increase of over 400%. Contents Trump NFT Sales Rise The trading volume for the billionaire’s Trump Digital Cards collection has increased astronomically by more than 220%. Reports from some news outlets maintain that sales of $75,000 worth of Trump NFT were recorded within a day! As the number of sales of transactions went up, the collection’s price witnessed a similar occurrence.  Over 60 consumers bought the tokens within half a day, and a 4.3% increase left its cheapest NFT priced at 0.47 ETH, which is currently the equivalent of $908. Ironically, Trump used to be a loud disparager of crypto, most significantly, BTC. I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air, he famously tweeted back in 2019. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1149472282584072192?s=20&embedable=true Barely three years later, in 2022, he launched his personal NFT collection. His collection has been so successful lately that someone who went by “paraguanads.eth” purchased a card with Trump holding a rifle, draped in an orange hat for 0.687 ETH (the equivalent of $1,333). In addition, Trump’s accomplishment further boosted the overall NFT market capitalization by 7% to 21,150 ETH. The Trump Digital Cards, minted on Ethereum and Polygon, and released in 2022 for $99 each, didn’t take long to get sold out. They also came bearing gifts, as buying 45 NFTs enables customers to meet him for golf or dinner at the Mar-a-Lago club he owns. However, how did all of these come about? Why was Trump arrested? Donald Trump, who is the first ex-American president to be charged to court, was criminally indicted in New York over 34 felony cases for allegedly forging business records. He argued his innocence and pled not guilty to the allegations. He allegedly fabricated business records over hush-money payments involving him and an ex-porn actress, Stephanie Clifford, also called Stormy Daniels. Trump was said to have been in an extramarital affair with her, who asserted that they were once in a sexual relationship as far back as 2016. This occurred during the 2016 presidential campaign, and knowing fully well that this could hurt his ambitions, he decided to settle her quickly and quietly. His lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 for her to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that prevented her from publicly speaking about the matter. Incidentally, Cohen pleaded guilty to an excessive campaign charge in 2018. He further disclosed that he made this payment on behalf of Trump, who was aware of and ratified it. Trump’s NFT collection enjoyed a historic and astronomical rise, but it remains to be seen what comes of it. Also published . here

Exploring the Spike in Trump's NFT Sales Following His Arrest

While Slack has been dominating the domain of enterprise communications for a long time, more innovative alternatives have emerged that revolutionize how we maintain communications in the workplace and not only. takes e-mail into the current digital reality and equips your inbox with every productivity tool you need; it is the ideal hub for corporate communications. Spike With Spike, all the information you need to complete your task is included in a single stream, so you can finally stop hopping between applications. Spike's conversational e-mail combines conventional e-mail with instant chat, hence avoiding convoluted e-mail chains. With real-time chat and real-time collaboration, you will have superior interactions and a more human communication experience. Spike is available for iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Windows, and the Web. It is ideal for anybody seeking an effective and convenient method of communication because of its user-friendly design and various capabilities. Exploring Conversational Capabilities Slack is a messaging application that streamlines communication between teams. Well, the difficulty is that Slack is designed for internal teams, making it challenging to communicate with other parties, such as new customers and enterprises. In addition, it overcrowds communication channels and adds yet more application to the numerous already present. This might induce tension and disarray by increasing the amount of time spent switching between communication applications. Since its beginning, Spike has been committed to becoming the most effective corporate communications platform. So far, Spike has been embraced by some of the world's top organizations, including Fiverr, Zoom, and Shopify, and more than 150,000 teams and over 1.5 million users have enhanced their e-mail experience with Spike. Furthermore, Spike converts your current e-mail account into a streamlined conversation platform, while everyone else continues to get your e-mail in its original format. You may sort by contact as opposed to a topic, allowing you to see the whole thread history for any contact you have ever e-mailed! Rather than installing yet another chat program, it is incorporated within your e-mail. You may establish group conversations, collaborate on Notes, and synchronize your calendar across various e-mail accounts. Searching Features Overall, the free Slack account only allows users to see the 10,000 most recent messages. If you have a Pro account or above, you get access to the whole chat history and may search for any term or phrase inside the talks. This allows you to easily find what you are looking for, whether it is something for a team project or a specific document. Spike, unlike Slack, offers a Super Search that enables you to find any term, phrase, note, document, or file sent or received in the inbox. Even in group conversations, you can quickly and easily see all files in each thread. Additional Characteristics With Spike, there is a multitude of tools to explore, including unified calendars, team papers, and project management monitoring. Spike integrates them all into one platform accessible on your computer, mobile device, and online. Switching between a dozen distinct applications to complete a task costs time, energy, and resources. Spike, accessible wherever you are, enables a seamless workflow to keep team members on track and engaged. Moreover, Spike's built-in e-mail notetaking function makes it much simpler to write brief notes from inside the app without leaving the platform. Spike: The Future of E-mail & Digital Communications Well, Spike has you covered regardless of whether you need to communicate with friends, family, or colleagues. Therefore, give it a go and check out this breakthrough platform by accessing the following link: https://www.spikenow.com/

How Spike Replaces Slack as the Leading Communications Tool

“I’d get a message once a week that someone had used my picture. And then it just snowballed. They were stealing money and defrauding them using my image.” said Tom Ernsting, who is an Instagram model. This is catfishing in general and it’s been happening on major social media platforms. Catfishing Is Pathetic and Disrespectful Catfishing is a term used when a stranger pretends to be someone else and hides their social media information. For instance, boys who pretend to be girls online or the other way around, which is way more common. Now, strangers are using pictures and private information of another person to scam other people online, make money out of false relationships or tarnish a celebrity’s reputation. Catfishing was coined in 2010 and has become increasingly common since then as connected devices are more pervasive now. In February 18, 2021, the police arrested a fraudulent group in Manhattan, who was involved in catfishing and made . $55 million What is the Point of Catfishing? The simple answer can be: making money from false relationships, but we will drill down to the main catfishing reasons. If a person is lonely, depressed, and has no social connections in real life, he is more likely to get involved in catfishing to boost their self-esteem. Some people are trolls and use false identities to tarnish people’s reputations. Catfishing in this way can be out of pure jealousy. Taking revenge on a person you hate or despise can be another reason for catfishing. You can find a lot of catfishing cases that include an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband. People who don’t identify themselves as male or female might also create a false identity online to discover their sexuality. Examples of Catfishing 1. Falling in Love With a Scottish Model Who Turned Out to be Her Friend Laura Anderson, a Scottish star in a reality TV show Love Island, had a similar catfishing experience. She shared a story about a guy who thought he was in love with Laura after three months of exchanging text messages, but it turns out to be a stranger. She was shell-shocked that how easy it is to fool online users and create an Instagram story about the whole problem. 2. Catfishing My Best Friend for 10 Years Michonne shared her story about talking to a guy on Myspace who was lovely and obsessed with tattoos. However, the guy never showed up for a date or a hangout plan. That guy is also a friend of Michonne’s girlfriend, Amanda, who was actually catfishing Michonne for many years. 3. Faking It Big Time on TikTok Here is another catfishing problem that is way too common that we know. Individuals can create a profile and fake themselves as a celebrity or a self-help Guru to mint money from lonely individuals. The Effects of Catfishing Catfishing can take a toll on your mental health. Imagine a person who was emotionally attached to a stranger online, shared his inside feelings, and the stranger turns out to be an impostor. Catfishing can hurt your mental space, and the worst part, you will lose trust in humans. Further, there is also an element of embarrassment and financial loss. A scammer online can fool you easily if you are using dating apps and ask you to invest in crypto coins or real estate investments. All of this happens after weeks of back and forth communication between two people. Catfishing is scary, and there is no direct way to figure out if you are being catfished or not. Some Red Flags That You Are Being Catfished If your new online friend or crush is talking to you every day, here are a few signs you should be wary of and ensure you are not a victim of catfishing: Refusing to start a video call or face-to-face conversation Creating a sob story or shady back up story to start a relationship Sharing professional pictures on social media, Snapchat, or Instagram Avoiding a date night or an in-person meeting Expressing love and affection without getting to know you first How to Avoid Being Catfished With a wide array of online dating sites and apps available, catfishing a person is easier than before. People no longer mingle or hook up in a bar; they use dating apps and swipe right to meet new people. According to a survey, more than 30% of people online have been catfished. If you want to avoid being catfished, here are a few tricks you need to learn: Ask family and friends If you have started talking to a stranger online, the easiest way to find out if he or she is real is to ask your close loved ones or friends about them. There might be a person in your social circle who is catfishing you, and asking your friends can be super helpful. Search their picture on Google A Simple Google search can give you an insight about into a stranger is legit or not. If a person is talking to you online, you can save his or her and search it on Google. If the person is fake, you might see another name below the picture or find it online in many cases. The process is called reverse image search and it is easy for anyone to do it. Look for clinginess Most catfishers try to exploit people via dating apps like Tinder, Bumble or Mingle because they know people are vulnerable when it comes to love. This is where you should be wary of anything that smells fishy. If a stranger online is being too clingy and love struck, he or she is faking it in most cases. Further, if they confess love and emotions way too early, it is a big red flag. Video call them If you are talking to a stranger online for quite a few weeks now, ask them to a video call to see if he or she is real. In this way, you will find out the reality of your situation. However, if you are talking to a catfisher, he won’t agree for a video call or personal pictures and might share senseless stories. Don’t be afraid to ask them online their real name or where they work at. A real person won’t hide personal information! Believe your instincts Sometimes, you have to trust your basic instincts. As humans, we are hardwired to sense danger or trouble, you should go with your guts. If you think a stranger online is not what you imagine, the best route is to block them or ignore their texts. Why is Catfishing Still Common When People Know the Red Flags? Some people are lonely and depressed. They have no one to talk to, so catfishers try to befriend them online and exploit their loneliness and depression. The easiest way for catfishers and scammers to target is online dating apps. Besides people finding real love and relationships, many lonely people are just looking for someone to talk to and share their personal feelings. As we are getting restricted to our houses more, the usage of online dating is skyrocketing. Therefore, people are still being catfished because they are lonely and need company. Why Did People Start Catfishing Scams during the Pandemic? The COVID-19 pandemic forced people to stay in their homes and maintain social distancing. Many people were lonely and isolated (including me) and looking for something fun to do. Many people started creating NSFW groups and fake identities to fulfill their desires. Because there was nothing else to do at home, creating a fake identity and catfishing people was exciting for many people online. There was a story on Reddit where a catfisher confessed that he started catfishing people out of loneliness and boredom. The person remained anonymous and said that he created a fake NSFW account of a girl and talked to many desperate people online, including male, female, and other genders. It turns out loneliness and boredom is the root of all catfishing problems. Be Wary of Catfishing Scams We hope now you have a clear picture of what’s happening online and how people are being catfished. And, this guide can help you prevent any catfishing or online scams and make you aware of the online dangers.

How to Not Be a Victim to the Catfishing Pandemic Spike 

As communities worldwide grapple with the reality of an extended , Internet usage has, understandably, significantly increased. As more and more countries are forced into lock-down in an effort to curb the spread of the deadly virus, the growing number of people forced into working remotely and finding online entertainment is seeing the Internet absolutely explode. In fact COVID-19 has pushed up Internet use by a whopping 70 percent in some countries while streaming services are up by more than 12 percent, . COVID-19 induced lock-down figures last month revealed The Internet is getting overwhelmed. And, while Internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast, Vodafone, Verizon and Telefónica have been building their networks for years to account for increased demand, they never anticipated it would happen quite so suddenly. Enrique Blanco, CTO at Telefónica, a Spanish telecommunications company, said that growth the industry had expected to take a year is “happening over days”, due to COVID-19. “Increased consumption of digital content from mobile apps to free TV streaming and gaming has already been observed in China and Italy,”a statement by Omdia, the tech research arm of Informa Tech, said. “Online streaming services provided by brands such as Netflix and now Disney+ are likely to see 12% growth, while Ecommerce will be the other sector that will see a revenue boost as a result of the pandemic, adding $175 billion in revenue in 2020, which represents a 5% increase.” But while growth is usually seen as a good thing, things in the digital space aren’t exactly golden. The Internet is buckling under the pressure of unprecedented heavy use, and some ISPs are . ISPs look after a number of very important Internet-related things including Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting, Usenet service, and colocation. In other words, ISPs are the guys tasked with making sure you can access the Internet whenever you like, as well as routing Internet traffic, resolving domain names, and maintaining the network infrastructure that makes Internet use possible. Without ISPs, there would be no Internet. But amidst staggering rates of Internet use, we are beginning to see service providers strain under the pressure. struggling to deal with the additional demand for connectivity In Italy, , Internet traffic increased by 109.3 percent over the roughly one-month period from February 20 to March 31, while download speed decreased by 35.4 percent. In India, the mean fixed broadband speed has been steadily declining since the beginning of lock-down too. one of the nation's worst hit by the global coronavirus pandemic "When networks are under usage strain like they are in this unprecedented time of lockdown in India due to COVID-19, it is natural that they experience some level of slowdown. It is important to note that while the Internet itself should handle elevated usage, there may be impacts to speed as people continue to move their daily activities increasingly online. While the core of the Internet remains stable, some ISP networks may struggle to keep up,” CEO of Ookla, a web service that provides free analysis of Internet access performance metrics, , said. As per the latest Ookla's Speedtest Global Index report, the mean download speeds on fixed broadband have decreased from 39.65 Mbps in February to 35.98 Mbps in March - a direct result of increased global Internet use. Doug Suttles A few weeks ago, five of Spain's major operators (including Orange and Vodafone) warned that services could potentially soon collapse amidst a 40 percent spike in traffic through IP networks and 50 percent hike in voice calls. At around the same time, Netflix recognised it couldn’t continue to keep up with the growing demands of viewers while not impacting other Internet capacities, and so in a bid to support the sudden growth in streaming. Apple TV+, Disney+ and Amazon have followed suit. it reduced its streaming bit rates Interestingly, ISPs are coping at varying levels depending on the location of traffic congestion. which looked at the Internet congestion of Australia's major cities from February up until March 30, exposed huge differences in the speed from city to-city. It found that Internet speed was strongest in Perth, while Canberra and Melbourne were experiencing the worst average Internet congestion, according to data supplied by Monash University. A recent study led by KASPR datahaus, The good news is there are . If Internet users are struggling to get speedy and efficient Internet, and they are approaching the end of a contract, it is possible to swap to a new provider free of charge. However doing that won’t necessarily guarantee enhanced quality of Internet speed. options in the ISP space The other good news is, current effects on Internet speed are entirely regional, and we have already seen the worst of it. Speeds are unlikely to decrease much more, as most places around the world have already been issued stay-at-home orders. In other words, the most extreme cases of speed degradation have already occurred.

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