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At Vodafone, we are known for our technology, but the truth is, it is humanity that drives our business forward. With the global pandemic raising so many questions for tech brands, it has highlighted the leading role that we need to play. We believe that, when working together, humanity and technology can find the answers and create a better future for all. Working at Vodafone is all about helping people feel ready to benefit from new technology. We bring the future to even the most remote places, using technology to help families in disaster zones, showing young people that a phone is not just for fun and thinking about technology that doesn’t even exist yet. More than 35 years ago, we made the first-ever mobile phone call, we sent the first SMS in Britain and have been changing the lives of billions of people ever since. Now, we are using smartphones to fight cancer, big data for social good, and we aim to connect over 250 million people to our next generation networks by 2025. We are passionate about building a workplace where you can truly be yourself, share inspiration, embrace new opportunities, thrive and make a real difference to people and our planet. We are known for our technology, but it is humanity that drives us forward. What are you passionate about? #TogetherWeCan

Vodafone Turkiye

vodafone

<strong>Vodafone</strong> has reinforced its commitment to roll out 5G Standalone technology to rural Wales as part of its proposed merger with Three UK.

Vodafone commits to 5G technology roll-out plans in rural Wales

SUBJECT: Snail mails without consent, I want to be forgotten! Dear Vodafone, I have been receiving these postal mails from you on a regular basis: No Logo. Vodafone is printed in small size as the return address. Often, I accidentally opened them. Just to find something like this: snail mail SPAM at its best There is no one-click unsubscribe in snail mail for technical reasons. I get that. . They couldn’t answer my question, as I am not even a client. YES, I have been receiving these mails without being a client. And I would like to know why. So I wrote a Data Subject Access Request e-mail, according to , to your data protection officer: I asked your service team on Twitter GDPR Hey folks, it seems you have data stored on me. Why? Where did you get it from? A few days later I got two snail mails back (this time with a clearly visible logo on the outside). This is the first one: Vodafone I read that you are using my address solely for the purpose of marketing and you have received it from a company called: “Global Consumer Database Service LTD” — what a strange generic name. After some online research, I am pretty sure that this is a letter box company. It was , my request was done only two days after, but the SPAM had happened before. incorporated on the 26th of October 2018 It’s registered on an escrow director. I found him , many with and registered on the same postal address. I also found and even a . to be connected to 350+ companies in the UK similar names multiple posts complaining about SPAM / Phishing e-mails newspaper article on a police raid due to internet frauds made in his name Dear Vodafone, I have the feeling that something is not right there. I would like to know the background of all this. Are you working with crew of criminal spammers, with or without being aware? Or are you just using the same letterbox-company-as-a-service as some spammers? If so, why? How did my postal address ended up in your database? I usually don’t participate in promotional contests. Was it some sort of web scraping? Did Amazon sell my address? Was there a data leak somewhere? Under which circumstances was my address traded to you? Is this a common practice and everyone is doing so? But let’s come back on the second letter: It says: To make sure that I will not receive any more marketing mails, you need to store my postal address in a database. I totally get that this kind of blacklist is the safest implementation to avoid any future mailings, as you are probably planing to proceed to purchase further postal addresses for marketing purposes. What about my right to be forgotten? I see you are only making sure to exclude me from future mailings but I still don’t want you to store any data on me. Dear Vodafone, here is my proposal for you: Stop following dark patterns. Don’t buy illegally obtained address pools to bombard citizens like me. Have a second look at the marketing letter shown atop: Don’t you agree that the overall visual appearance and copy is annoying? I cannot imagine any sane person saying: “WOW, that’s a cool offer!” The letters themselves are hurting your strong brand. Get people interested in what you have to say and they will subscribe. I am founder of small business myself. . I am not the biggest GDPR fan but I totally see the value here. We invested a lot of time to comply with the European General Data Protection Regulations More privacy please! Thanks for reading! Sincerely yoursƒrank

Dear Vodafone, please respect my privacy

DePIN Tackles the World’s Most Entrenched Industries

DePIN বিশ্বের সবচেয়ে প্রবেশ করা শিল্পকে মোকাবেলা করে

DePIN nimmt sich der am stärksten verankerten Branchen der Welt an

DePIN aborda las industrias más arraigadas del mundo

DePIN s’attaque aux industries les plus implantées au monde

DePIN दुनिया के सबसे अधिक स्थापित उद्योगों से निपटता है

DePINは世界で最も定着している産業に取り組む

DePIN은 세계에서 가장 확고한 산업을 다루고 있습니다

DePIN aborda as indústrias mais arraigadas do mundo

DePIN решает проблемы самых укоренившихся в мире отраслей

DePIN Dünyanın En Köklü Endüstrileriyle Mücadele Ediyor

DePIN giải quyết các ngành công nghiệp cố thủ nhất thế giới

DePIN 应对全球最根深蒂固的行业

225 Stories To Learn About Money

84 Stories To Learn About Finance And Banking

, the leading financial media company for next-generation investors, is excited to announce a robust lineup of speakers that includes the world’s top investors, founders and entrepreneurs for its annual Nov. 14 in New York City. Benzinga Future of Digital Assets Conference This must-attend event promises to be the largest gathering of digital asset companies and institutional investors, offering a year's worth of networking opportunities in one day. Forge partnerships and build winning investment strategies. This event is where global power players, Wall Street money managers and blockchain visionaries meet and manifest a dynamic, future-forward Web3 marketplace. The Future Of Digital Assets conference will be preceded by the Nov. 13. Both events will be held at Convene at 225 Liberty St. in Manhattan. Benzinga Fintech Deal Day & Awards “We're gearing up for a monumental event this November. The lineup is unmatched, and we will truly be charting the course for how Wall Street and digital assets work with and against each other,” says Luke Jacobi, president of Benzinga. Benzinga’s impressive roster of speakers continues to grow daily. Some highlights include: Brett Harrison, Founder, CEO, Architect Richard Widmann, Head of Strategy Web3, Google Cloud Luca Netz, CEO, Pudgy Penguins Caitlin Long, Founder, CEO, Custodia Bank Mark Yusko, CEO, Chief Investment Officer, Morgan Creek Capital Management Keith Grossman, President of Enterprise, MoonPay Gracy Chen, Managing Director, Bitget David Palmer, Chief Product Officer, Vodafone Brooke Stoddard, VP, Client Team, Grayscale Investments Alex Salnikov, Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer, Rarible Abhishek Saxena, Investment Principal, Polygon Ventures Bobby Zagotta, CEO, Bitstamp USA, Global Commercial Officer, Bitstamp USA To see the full agenda with speakers, go here. Organizations sending speakers to this year's events include BlackRock, BNY Mellon, DTCC, OCC, State Street, Société Générale, Hedera, Citi, BMO, Dow Jones, Northern Trust, Franklin Templeton, Amazon, S&P Global, VanEck, Google, Fireblocks, Invesco, Moody’s, and EDX Markets, to name a few. The countdown to the Future of Digital Assets event has begun! With limited spaces remaining, now is the time to secure your spot and be part of a groundbreaking experience that promises networking, learning, and insights into the evolving world of digital assets. Register here. For more information, visit the . Future of Digital Assets event page Benzinga’s Fintech Deal Day & Awards | November 13, 2023 | Convene in NYC Use code HACKERNOON20 for 20% off tickets. . Get tickets here About Benzinga Benzinga is a leading content provider to global brokerages and media outlets, including Yahoo, MarketWatch, and Insider. Benzinga delivers high-quality, low-cost, and timely content directly to users through newswires, analytics software, and other data services. In addition to its core product portfolio, Benzinga hosts thought leadership, networking, and educational events to assist investors, founders, and operators in the next stage of their growth.

Build Wealth In Alternative Investments at Benzinga’s Future of Digital Assets Conference

Let's learn about via these 23 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Ripple /Learn Repo 1. Ripple Is Orders Of Magnitude Better Than SWIFT GPI and Correspondent Banking Protocols ripple vs sec might go on for a few months or years but there is no denying the wonder that is the ripple infrastructure in comparison to swift gpi 2. What are the differences between Bitcoin and XRP? Bitcoin's maximum supply is 21 million and XRP's maximum supply is 100 billion. The difference is that all XRP were created on the first day... 3. Pixelated Cryptocurrency GIFs: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) Hacker Noon has a new Giphy account. Our first 30 GIFs have created over 2.2 million views. Our first three cryptocurrency GIFs are the three coins with the highest market cap: 4. NFT Marketplace Entrepreneurs Seek to Cut Out the Middleman Right now, NFTs are at the peak of hype: Bored Ape #8585 just sold for $2.7 million, the NFT NYC conference was attended by Quentin Tarantino and Busta Rhymes, 5. Blockchain Developers' Report Q2 2020 An in-depth analysis of developer data revealing a year of meteoric rises and falls 6. The XRP Crisis Is A Reminder Of The Bitconnect Days 7. Crypto research of the July 2019 cryptocurrency activity Corindex July 2019 crypto report is comprised of parsed data on key cryptocurrency exchanges. Indicators, specifically designed by this crypto analytic platform, are calculated past the analysis of the blockchain network of various crypto assets. To best approximate the overall state of the cryptocurrency market, the report shows data only on the top cryptocurrencies with the largest capitalizations, and, occasionally, currencies that showed biggest relative changes by one indicator or another over the analyzed period. The report contains nine chapters, each of which encompasses the changes to its designated indicator over the analyzed period. 8. Only XRP and Bitcoin will be Safe if Ripple Wins SEC lawsuit In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple, leading to a chain of events that threatens XRP and Bitcoin. 9. Coupling: The One and Only Software Designing Problem A root cause analysis of all failures of our software will find a single culprit with multiple costumes. The enemy is always there. Many times disguised as laziness, sometimes simplification, and very frequently with the optimization outfit. 10. How Does Ripple (XRP) Fare Against The Rising Tide Of Stablecoins? Once Ripple was identified as the incumbent to a brave new world of practical cryptocurrencies. Speculation was rife that Ripple’s XRP coin had the potential to overtake Bitcoin in terms of usage and utilise its swift and cost-effective transaction framework to take the world into the future of practical digital currency. 11. Know These Things Before Investing In XRP Before investing in XRP, you should know these things. XRP at 100 dollars can be possible but it would take several years. You can invest in the other cryptos. [12. XRP and ETN: Two approaches to helping people in developing countries](https://hackernoon.com/xrp-and-etn-two-approaches-to-helping-people-in-developing-countries-h76wo3zxb) Cryptocurrencies saw their inception just over 10 years ago after the creation of Bitcoin so in reality, digital currencies are still at their very early stages. Many cryptocurrency experts believe it will take another ten years before this form of currency goes mainstream. 13. Where and How To Buy Ripple (XRP)? It is XRPL that makes it possible to validate Ripple transactions in an average of three to five seconds. 14. Introduction to Ripple: The Story Behind XRP The company’s name behind the XRP crypto – Ripple – is often used to describe the digital currency XRP. 15. My Thoughts on Ripple (XRP) and Its Run-in With The US SEC Is XRP centralized? Yes, it is. Does that matter? YES, IT DOES! 16. How Metcalfe's Law Influences Blockchain Adoption And Innovation The Metcalfe effect has a substantial impact on the blockchain industry, shaping the adoption and expansion of blockchain technology. 17. The Battle Between Private and Public Blockchains Computers, Internet, and Mobile Phones The earliest known citation on the Internet is dated to 1986. It was attributed to Thomas J. Watson and posted in the signature of a poster from Convex Computer Corporation saying — “I think there is a world market for about five computers”. “Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works” — argued by Clifford Stoll, computer scientist in a featured article titled “The Internet? Bah!” published in Newsweek magazine. The go-to mobile business plan of Vodafone projected could sell only 1 million phones. All these prove that there is a tendency to underestimate the real impact and commercial potential of technologies as there are no existing realistic use cases developed, or the technology is not mature yet to unleash it’s true potential. 18. 2021 will be the year when DeFi and banks finally learn to work together The 2020 version of DeFi looked like a radical and frankly weird alternative to legacy banking. But in 2021, we might start moving to DeFi v.2 – one that banks and corporations can embrace. However, it will be very different from the sushi swaps and yield farming crazes that we've seen so far, with bank-friendly projects like Cryptoenter taking the lead. 19. Alternatives To The Bitcoin Blockchain Attempting To Answer The Scalability Question The battle for the place of the most scalable cryptocurrency has been going on for a long time – this is an eternal competition in the world of cryptocurrencies. 20. GAME of CRYPTOS [Chapter 3] — New CryptoKingdoms are born. It is the year of the Lord of 2013. 21. A Brief Look Into Ripple (XRP): Banks, Pre-mines, and Lawsuits tldr; This post is a brief look into the different aspects (good, bad, and ugly) of the XRP token and Ripple Labs, the company. It is important to separate the two while also investigating the indisputable overlap between the token and the company. 22. Should You Buy Ripple (XRP) in 2021? Compared to Bitcoin, XRP (also known as Ripple, its parent company) is not as well-known to the average person. 23. Distributed Ledger Technology and Blockchain When Combined With No-Code Abstracting away the technical complexity of blockchain components, Joget DX empowers non-coders to rapidly build decentralized applications (DApps). Thank you for checking out the 23 most read stories about Ripple on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

23 Stories To Learn About Ripple

82 Stories To Learn About Digital Payments

There’s an awful lot of sunk cost fallacy on display across Web3 initiatives and companies that were sold on the platform dream as a way to win the hearts and minds of the consumer and drag them kicking and screaming into the decentralised world. NFT . They failed They failed because nobody really gives a crap about the tokenization of pictures and other such stuff or having a Coinbase account with their crypto betting slips in one place once the novelty wears off. The stickiness isn’t there nor is the fabled utility that lasts beyond a brand’s attempt to ignite some kind of interest in its Web3 strategy. But what people do care about is the convenience to pay and access services with the idea that their privacy is taken care of at the same time their identity is. Apple understands this and there were clues buried in the press releases centering on the unveiling of the Vision Pro headset. Apple ID will become accepted by businesses as proof of age and identity. “Present an ID to businesses using iPhone and Apple Wallet. Starting this fall, businesses will be able to accept IDs in Apple Wallet — no additional hardware needed. This will streamline their ability to securely check a customer’s age in person for things like alcohol purchases, or to verify a customer’s identity at checkout for car rentals, and more.” Seems digital identity is moving forward with or without Web3 or . I fully expect to follow suit with an Android version later but this points to something far bigger that everyone seems to be missing the point of. blockchain Google The wallet itself will become central to pretty much every Web2 and Web3 initiative for years to come but it’ll be more than just a folder for identity documents and credit cards. Let’s take a deeper look why. You can trust me, I’m your Telco is trialing what they call a ‘super cookie’ — carrier-level user tracking that takes place on the device for ad targeting. Apparently, it is intended to be impossible to bypass from within the web browser settings or through cookie blocking or IP address masking. Vodafone Vodafone assigns a fixed ID to a user based on someone’s phone number. Through an API, website operators would then be able to call up this identifier to exactly see what websites this user has visited and create a profile to display targeted ads. “A unique ID would allow for monitoring our entire digital lives. These schemes are totally unacceptable, and the trials should be stopped. Democracy is not for sale.” — Patrick Breyer Are you f*cking kidding me Vodafone? Despite consumers wanting to try and claim back some semblance of data sovereignty pretty much everyone else is trying to find ways around this to continue to track and hoover up the information needed to sell advertising. There was and I guess still is a glimmer of hope from the originator of the web itself but the whole idea and marketing of it has been fumbled more than a drunk goalkeeper wearing Teflon gloves. Do me a Solid, Tim When Tim Berners-Lee announced a new protocol and project for the building blocks of a new web and foundation for privacy I rolled my eyes. A long time ago I wrote about how privacy was dead — we really need to move on from this conversation because that horse bolted long ago. But when I looked at the recently it sparked an idea and I’m not sure even Tim is aware of the potential here. Solid Project Solid describes itself as a that lets people store their data securely in decentralized data stores called Pods. Pods are like secure personal web servers for your data. specification Any kind of information can be stored in a Solid Pod. You control access to the data in your Pod. You decide what data to share and with whom (be it individuals, organizations, and/or applications). Furthermore, you can revoke access at any time. To store and access data in your Pod, applications use standard, open, and interoperable data formats and protocols. Dearest Tim, it’s a fucking wallet mate. This is literally what Web3 and digital identities are crying out for and you blew the marketing. Apple’s idea of biometrics held at the device level tied to a digital wallet that not only holds identity but payment information is the start but imagine the wallet becoming a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) enabler for the masses by stealth. A wallet holding verified information about a user, including personal preferences, acts as the custodian between that data and any service accessing it. For example, if a user wants to access a product or service that has an age restriction then the wallet need only provide a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when asked if the user meets the criteria — there is no longer a need to provide a date of birth and give away a piece of personal data. Can the user afford to pay for the service — another ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question. There’s no need to actually pass across credit or debit card information anymore, the payment and transmission of money, whether via Fiat or Cryptocurrency, is the only important factor. In fact, the whole point of should have been to avoid having to continually plug your financial information into every fucking website and app every time you want to buy something and then risk getting scammed, defrauded or having your credentials stolen because the provider has weak as piss security. Open Banking I find it incredibly odd and a prime example of sunk cost thinking that instead of building a trusted wallet. By 2022, it had credit cards in the U.S. and cards in the rest of the world and there’s some majorly flawed thinking that the consumers who use their services give a toss about decentralised applications to look at cryptocurrency exchanges and NFT collections all day long and yet here we are. Mastercard wants to launch a dApp Store 249 million 725 million “The idea hinges upon selling developers on building on Mastercard’s permissioned blockchain, which the company has positioned as capable of transforming its payments capabilities. The first round of such apps will be powered by “tokenized bank deposits.” Granted this isn’t aimed at the end user but you can’t argue against a captive consumer audience that large that trusts its spending with a credit card provider as a missed opportunity to introduce them to the concept of a real digital wallet alternative to Apple or Google that can protect more than their money. Who is this dApp store for? And who in their right mind actually asked for the fucking thing, it’s like the Mastercard execs went on an Ayahuasca retreat with the folks at Solana. Non-Fungible Tokenism NFT collections are garbage. They are useless as a brand concept especially if they carry a financialization element to them because it’s no longer about the brand but about making a speculative killing in the short term. That’s exactly what happened with Starbucks Odyssey which should have been a shining example of Web2 meets Web3 but ended up being a lame marketing exercise. Imagine if Starbucks understood that its loyalty app is really a wallet solution in disguise. The fact that Starbucks holds more customer deposits than some banks should have smacked the exec in the face with a lukewarm coconut milk mocha. Matthew Sweezey of Salesforce gets it in his latest post. LinkedIn Not tokens as currency, or collectibles, but tokens as composable business services. Where your Insurance token isn’t just proof you have it, but a portable business service. Token goes into your Apple Wallet and you go to the token to get services, no app or website needed. No new log in or password needed. Beyond that they are composable. Tokens are really just passports and verification that you own and have access to a particular product or service. They hold the required levels of information needed that slip into a wallet and the wallet as ultimate custodian acts as the ZKP arbiter of truth and trust. Biometrics will feature heavily which means that devices are key here. Apple’s new Iris biometric strategy for Vision Pro points to using that information in conjunction with Fingerprint ID, Face ID, Voice ID as a means of providing a total and consistent security strategy across its hardware ecosystem which will be attractive for wallet providers. If you have your device stolen then nobody is really getting access to that digital vault with all your credentials in it. Having a secondary or backup strategy for this is critical for identification, payments and access to services (I was with someone recently whose phone ran out of battery and they couldn’t open their bloody Tesla). Anyone wanting to interact with a customer will call on the wallet for the verification and receive literally that ‘yes’ or ‘no’ back. The user finally has control, and Web3 has achieved not only data sovereignty but has denied access to data that are not necessary. It’s unfortunate for Matthew that looking over the current Salesforce offering suffers greatly from that sunk cost platform decision. Web3 NFT Cloud Champagne Taste, Beer Wallet In the end, it's going to come down to this — who do you trust with your wallet? Someone like Apple or Google? Someone like your bank? Starbucks? Your airline? A third party? Who wins in this space is the company that not only has your trust but the trust of the network. And it’ll be a company that puts that front and centre of any strategy not the technology behind it. Also published here.

Users Will Vote With Their Wallets to Decide Who Wins Web3

কে Web3 জিতবে তা নির্ধারণ করতে ব্যবহারকারীরা তাদের ওয়ালেট দিয়ে ভোট দেবেন

Benutzer stimmen mit ihrem Geldbeutel ab, um zu entscheiden, wer Web3 gewinnt

Los usuarios votarán con sus billeteras para decidir quién gana Web3

Les utilisateurs voteront avec leurs portefeuilles pour décider qui gagne Web3

वेब3 कौन जीतेगा इसका फैसला करने के लिए उपयोगकर्ता अपने बटुए से मतदान करेंगे

ユーザーは財布を使って投票し、Web3 の勝者を決定します

사용자는 Web3의 승자를 결정하기 위해 지갑을 사용하여 투표하게 됩니다.

Usuários votarão com suas carteiras para decidir quem vence Web3

Kullanıcılar Kimin Kazanacağına Cüzdanlarıyla Oy Verecek Web3

Người dùng sẽ bỏ phiếu bằng ví của họ để quyết định ai thắng Web3

用户将用钱包投票来决定谁赢得 Web3

We're happy to announce that our new open-source project, Globalping, is officially launched and available to everybody. Test global latency, ping from any corner of the globe, troubleshoot routing issues, and even investigate censorship worldwide – . all completely free The Globalping Platform Globalping is a robust platform with a vast network of hundreds (and soon thousands!) of probes running in different countries and cities worldwide. While most of these probes are Docker containers, we also offer (mini ARM computers) to our valued donors and occasionally give them away for free. hardware probes The probes are hosted by our users in their homes, offices, and servers they control. Once a probe is online, it connects to the Globalping API, updates itself, and waits for events – all without user input. Rest assured that the probes don't allow incoming connections or open ports. They also don't require a dedicated IP address, so NAT users can still contribute. However, to prevent abuse, we have a limit of one probe per public IP. Thanks to this global network of probes, anyone can make measurement requests via the Globalping API. For example, to run a traceroute from ten European locations, the platform considers all online probes registered in Europe, issues the event to run a local traceroute to ten random probes, and reports the results in real-time. How Can You Use Globalping? If you're a developer looking to create tailored integrations and tools, the is for you. For everyone else, we are working on a range of official integrations that focus on simplicity and usability – some of which are already available. Let's take a closer look at them! Globalping API Want to give Globalping a try? Check out the web tools on our website to send your first network commands via the Globalping platform. Globalping CLI We've designed the to make running measurements and tests a breeze with effortless ways to script automated tests using bash. Globalping CLI tool To get started, on your machine: we support all major Linux distributions, MacOS via Homebrew, and Windows via Chocolatey. Alternatively, you can download new versions directly from our GitHub page as binaries. install the CLI tool (Still, we recommend using a package manager to ensure you get updates automatically.) After installation, you can use the CLI tool like any other of your regular local tools. Specify a network command and a location from which to run it, and you'll get a response instantly: $ globalping ping jsdelivr.com from Germany
> EU, DE, Magdeburg, ASN:3209, Vodafone GmbH
PING  (172.67.213.229) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 172.67.213.229 (172.67.213.229): icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=19.6 ms
64 bytes from 172.67.213.229 (172.67.213.229): icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=19.8 ms
64 bytes from 172.67.213.229 (172.67.213.229): icmp_seq=3 ttl=57 time=17.0 ms

---  ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 402ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 17.049/18.791/19.774/1.235 ms You can also redirect the output to a file and even request the raw JSON output for easier parsing. Globalping Slack App Love the idea of Globalping, but wish it was more accessible to your less tech-savvy teammates? Wouldn't it be great to use it for collaboration within your team? We've got your back and have developed the official to do just that! Globalping Slack app To get started, install the app in your Slack workspace, and use the command or mention the bot to run a command. Then, the app responds by posting the results in the same channel or group chat. /globalping @globalping Since it utilizes the same user-friendly format as our CLI tool, the transition is seamless. With the ability to run tests in Slack threads by mentioning the bot, you can actively collaborate with your team in critical moments like outages or troubleshooting CDN routing issues. We believe this will make our Slack app an indispensable tool for network engineers, DevOps, and technical support teams! Roadmap Today's launch marks only the beginning of Globalping's journey, and we have many new and exciting features in the works. Here are just a few of them: Probe management dashboard and additional limits for users running a probe API token management system Continuous monitoring of public Internet infrastructure including detailed CDN and DNS performance data Many, many more integrations and tools! , where we collectively contribute to making Globalping a powerful and user-friendly platform. Join us on Github We are super grateful for the support of our donors and contributors and look forward to a great time collaborating on making the Internet faster for everyone!

Globalping - A Community-Powered Global Network Testing Platform - Is Officially Live!

¡Globalping, una plataforma de prueba de red global impulsada por la comunidad, está oficialmente disponible!

Globalping - Une plateforme de test de réseau mondial alimentée par la communauté - est officiellement en ligne !

ग्लोबलिंग - एक समुदाय-संचालित वैश्विक नेटवर्क परीक्षण प्लेटफॉर्म - आधिकारिक तौर पर लाइव है!

Globalping - コミュニティ主導のグローバル ネットワーク テスト プラットフォーム - が正式にリリースされました!

Globalping - uma plataforma de teste de rede global alimentada pela comunidade - está oficialmente no ar!

Globalping - Nền tảng thử nghiệm mạng toàn cầu do cộng đồng hỗ trợ - Chính thức hoạt động!

Globalping - 社区支持的全球网络测试平台 - 正式上线！

Hi, HackerNoon Fam! My name is . First, I’m a woman, proud Ukrainian 🇺🇦, and HackerNoon contributor. Daria Volkova Also, I’m the Business Advisor and Brand Marketing & Communications Expert for Web3 products. I’m an Ambassador of Blockchain, AI, and crypto. My journey in this field began in 2017. Many things have happened since that time! And more awaits ahead! This article is dedicated to the topic of Women in Tech. It's important to talk about women in technology to set an example for other women and inspire them to make career changes and personal growth. So, I want to share my story and hope it will be helpful to the community. Tell us about yourself! I am a creator. I have created ideas, projects, and brands all my life. And this article is also created by me to make me closer to you, dear reader. I started my career in 2013 as an intern creator at the international advertising agency Havas. Then, I learned to develop advertising campaigns, write video scripts and slogans, and manage the video and radio production process. After Havas, there were three more agencies where I grew to become a leader, expanding my portfolio by working with major international brands such as Shell, Danone, Vodafone, BNP Paribas, and others. In 2017, after finishing work in advertising, I entered blockchain and crypto because I wanted to meet new career challenges. My friends asked me to help them with product marketing and PR for several blockchain and crypto products. It was necessary to learn quickly how brand building & PR work in the crypto industry, what mining is, why Bitcoin is so valuable, what tokenomics is, and how to write a whitepaper for blockchain startups. Oh! There were exciting and exhausting times, full of new information! After that, I started my career in the blockchain field, working on projects on both sides - product companies (CeFi, DeFi, crypto exchange, L2 blockchain protocol) and marketing agencies. My husband and I ran our product marketing and design agency, Pink Lions, and worked with fintech, blockchain, and educational products. In 2023, I work with different clients, attend professional events, and develop my educational project on business development and marketing in web3. As part of this project, I run a in English, write articles and conduct lectures. YouTube channel Also, I help my motherland, Ukraine, to resist Russian aggression with the help of regular donations to charitable funds. At the beginning of the invasion in 2022, I spent several months buying protective equipment for my colleagues who went to the front. I wouldn't wish anyone to experience this, but it was essential to do and a worthwhile endeavor. Additionally, I provide informational support and, in every possible way, contribute to increasing the recognition of the brand of Ukraine in Europe and the USA. By the way, thank you HackerNoon Team, for supporting the initiative #StandWithUkraine by adding blue-yellow colors to your interface 💙💛 What tech are you most excited/passionate about right now and why? I’m in love with . I like the philosophy of it, and I’m sure this technology has already greatly influenced society and will influence it even more in the future. Blockchain Blockchain, and products created on its basis, such as DeFi, are changing the way people interact with each other and people with organizations—more freedom of choice and more transparency in processes. However, blockchain has an ethical dilemma, at least for now. Humanity is not ready for absolute transparency and fixing everything in the blockchain. For example, a friend and I recently discussed creating a product on the blockchain to collect information about a person or company and build a reputation. This is a good idea in a business context because it will give consumers more information about the product and its creators. But blockchain reputation leaves no room for error and can play a cruel joke about a personal brand. Also, I like the idea of the because household appliances or cars can become much more convenient and usable. They can adapt more to our life, and that's cool! Internet of Things However, there can be a distortion here, too, if these things do not become assistants but shape our life and habits for us. What tech are you most worried about right now and why? I'm always a little worried when I see wild hype around technology. People are starting to go crazy and create as much content as possible around this technology without considering its relevance. In 2017-2018, many businesses did ICO and issued their tokens without thinking about how appropriate it was for their business model and future use of funds. As a result, scammers appeared, which disappeared after the end of crowdfunding. Likewise, the hype surrounding the NFT in 2021 created a giant bubble where art was mixed with ignorance. Now, in 2023, I see such excitement around AI tools, specifically Chat GPT. The world is divided into those who are entirely fascinated by technology and those who are afraid of the revolution of machines. Therefore, I favor treating any technology with a cool head and responsibly. What are your hobbies and interests outside of tech? I love detective stories! And the scarier and blacker the plot, the more interesting. That is why Norwegian Jo Nesbø and Frenchmen Jean-Christophe Grangé, and Antonin Varenne are among my favorite writers. Detectives are probably an opportunity to pump up my ability to build cause-and-effect relationships and distract myself from reality. As a Ukrainian living during the war, I know that reality can be scarier than any plot in a book. Also, I like to take pictures. I usually photograph architecture or landscapes. I run a photo blog on , where I already have more than 50,000,000 views of my photos. Here are some of them: Unsplash YouTube is my hobby closely related to the profession. I run a to share my opinion, experience, and best market practices on business development and promoting brands in web3, Blockchain, and crypto. Here is one of my videos: YouTube channel https://youtu.be/693TAMeyPJI?embedable=true Why do we see this huge gender gap in the tech industry, and how can we reduce it? It's no secret that the difference in the ratio of women to men in the tech industry is large. This is because women did not have access to STEM for a long time (until the 20th century). Women were brought up to become good wives - they had to cook deliciously, look good, and be able to entertain their husbands with songs and music. A woman doctor or astronomer was considered an outsider and an upstart 😐. Today, thanks to the Internet, in most countries (except Afghanistan, Iran, and a few other Arab and African countries), women have the same access to knowledge as men. This makes it much easier to get an education and accelerates the inclusion of women in the economy and competition with men in careers. Many men do not like it. Because they see women not as a partner but as a competitor. Ambitious women are not liked by some women who want to keep "traditional values" and be housewives. No one in the world is against men achieving success - it seems natural. But women face all kinds of condemnation or criticism when they declare themselves. The flip side of ambitious women is perfectionism. Social networks cultivate the image of a successful mother in business who "does everything." To build a successful career in a company or own a business, be attractive, give birth to several children, cook deliciously, be fun and interesting, and do all this before 30. This is the ideal image of a modern "successful woman". The fact is that it is practically unreal. All women who strive for success want to be successful in everything - in careers, relationships, and motherhood, and have time for their hobbies. This causes impostor syndrome and a desire to improve oneself and to be constantly productive. Women need to overcome impostor syndrome and give themselves a chance to try many things in their careers before starting a family and giving birth. I'm against forcefully increasing the percentage of women in the tech sector. This devalues the efforts of other women who got into work thanks to their hard and soft skills. As a woman, I want to be judged on my achievements, not condescended to because of my gender. Who is your tech idol? Why? Unfortunately, no such famous names as Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, or Changpeng Zhao exist among women in web3, Blockchain, and crypto. It’s an industry problem, but we can hardly say that women don’t have access to technology. The issue is that this industry seems quite risky or unknown to many women. For example, there are a lot of women in banking and classical finance, as it is a more stable and traditional industry. However, I highlight the following women’s examples of successful careers in the blockchain/crypto industry. (Co-Founder of Tezos) Kathleen Breitman (Founder and CEO HaunVentures and board member of Coinbase, ex-general partner at Andreessen Horowitz crypto division) Katie Haun (Co-Founder & CEO of Optimism) Jinglan Wang (Co-Founder of DressX) Daria Shapovalova (Executive Director at the Ethereum Foundation and an advisor to Kraken) Aya Miyaguchi (Head of the ECB, crypto-friendly EU official) Christine Lagarde If we analyze the activities of the most successful women in crypto, most occupy business positions, not technical ones. Many ladies are now involved in business development, marketing and sales, and managing operational activities. I know some female Solidity developers and cryptographers, and they are still an exception because more men occupy similar positions. This is the situation today, but the percentage of women in tech is increasing yearly, which is a good trend. But not enough. Here is the article with the . According to the data, we need 130 years to close the gender gap in tech. statistics on Women in Tech Do you have any advice for aspiring girls who want to join the field? Two main points to joining the growing web3 industry: niche interest and network development. You must be interested because there is a lot to learn! And getting to know people and improving your software skills is critically important. I recommend creating more educational programs where ladies can understand the benefit of the knowledge. I want women planning to join the blockchain and Web3 industry to know that it is possible to do so at any time and not be afraid to change careers, even during a bear market 🤗

A Woman in Web3 and Proud Ukrainian: The Inspiring Story of Daria Volkova

How a Warm Beer Defined the Notion for Non-Fungible Tokens in 2015

Cómo una cerveza tibia definió la noción de tokens no fungibles en 2015

Comment une bière chaude a défini la notion de jetons non fongibles en 2015

2015 में कैसे एक गर्म बीयर ने अपूरणीय टोकन के लिए धारणा को परिभाषित किया

温かいビールが 2015 年に非代替トークンの概念をどのように定義したか

Como uma cerveja quente definiu a noção de tokens não fungíveis em 2015

Làm thế nào một bia ấm xác định khái niệm cho các Token không Fungible vào năm 2015

2015 年热啤酒如何定义不可替代代币的概念

There are many types of proxies: datacenter, residential, ISP and so on.  Each type of IP address is used for a different purpose. For example, datacenter IPs are good when you need to bypass a ban, while residential proxies will be great for arbitrage bets. In this article we will talk about mobile proxies. You will find out what their features are, what tasks they are suitable for and where to buy them. So let’s start. What Are They? Mobile proxies are IP addresses from mobile carriers such as Vodafone, O2, AT&T and so on. Mobile proxies together with residential proxies are considered the most reliable. The reason the addresses are reliable from operators is: there are millions of users, and only a few thousand of IP addresses. Therefore, multiple users are assigned to the same IP address. This is beneficial to proxy users, since social media and websites ban such IPs much less often, as blocking one IP will prevent multiple users from accessing resources at once. In mobile proxy there is a constant IP address rotation - IP changes every few minutes depending on tariff and proxy service (5, 10, 30 minutes). How Are They Different From Datacenter Proxies? Server proxies are always static, meaning that they only have one IP address. In the case of mobile IPs, the addresses change at a certain interval. Some pools of server IPs are blacklisted on certain resources. Mobile proxies are nearly impossible to blacklist. If the server IP gets blocked by the anti-fraud system,  it usually bans the entire subnet. Mobile IPs are banned one by one. In addition, mobile addresses are more trustable, as we said above. What are they useful for? Greater trust from web resources and constant IP rotation allows you to perform the following tasks: Bulk account creation. The IP changes every couple of minutes, which is very convenient; Mass-liking and mass-following on Instagram and other social networks. The social network anti-fraud system will identify you as a regular user who's just using the phone. And the main goal is anonymity. Mobile proxies will hide your real IP address, and web resources will not even suspect you of using a proxy, as it can be, for example, with datacenter IP addresses. Please note: to become anonymous, just using a proxy is not enough. You need to hide / change other parameters - WebRTC, for example. To hide normally in 2022, you need to use an anti-detect browser. If you are not a carder or a scammer, setting up a proxy and disabling WebRTC in the browser will be enough. Where to Buy: Top Proxy Services In this list, I’ve collected 16 best proxy services. 1. RSocks 41 countries, 74 cities The number of GEOs: From 1 day Rental Period: 5/10/30 minutes Rotation: AliPay, Bank cards, WMZ, Bitcoin, Ethereum. Payment systems: Yes RSocks.net API: Site: By purchasing mobile proxies from RSocks, you get unlimited 3G/4G/5G data traffic. Technical support service works 24/7, ready to answer at any time. There is a trial period, which is a huge advantage. You don't need to buy a proxy to test it. Take a trial and use it for 1 hour. RSocks also has a referral system: you get from 10% to 20% for purchases made by referred customers. 2. SOAX 100+ The number of GEOs: Monthly subscription Rental Period: From 90 seconds to 5 minutes Rotation: Bank cards, PayPal, WebMoney Payment systems: Yes API: soax.com Site: In Soax, you don't buy proxies individually - you pay for traffic. The GEO selection is impressive, but the price tag is pretty high. Technical support speaks both in English and in Russian. Soax can give out 100 MB proxies for trial but you will have to pay $1.99. For every client you refer, you earn 7% of their purchases. 3. Oxylabs 100+ The number of GEOs: Monthly subscription Rental Period: Per request Rotation: Bank cards Visa/MasterCard, Bank transfers, AliPay, PayPal Payment systems: Yes API: oxylabs.com Site: For you - 20 million mobile IP addresses around the world. Choose any country that suits your purposes. Technical support at Oxylabs works 24/7 - contact them at any time. In addition, an account manager is assigned for you to help resolve issues. If it's offline, the system will connect you with another employee. 4. Bright Data 100+ The number of GEOs: Monthly subscription Rental Period: Per request Rotation: Bank cards, Bank transfers, AliPay, PayPal, Payoneer, American Express Payment systems: Yes API: BrightData.com Site: Former Luminati provides PC software and browser extension. With their help, you can switch between geos, view and disable proxies with one click. Unfortunately, they respond to tickets in a formulaic way, so it's better to contact them on the live chat. There is a trial period of 7 days. During this time, you will have time to evaluate the quality of Bright Data proxies and decide whether they are suitable for you or not. 5. IPBurger 100+ The number of GEOs: Monthly subscription Rental Period: Every 30 minutes Rotation: Bank cards, PayPal, BTC Payment systems: Yes IPBurger.com API: SIte: 9.3 million - that's how many 4G/5G mobile IPs IPBurger has. Geos from all over the world are available for you. Buy the one that best suits you. You have to wait a long time for a response from technical support. Support is busy - this is the message that pops up in the livechat window. At the same time, you need to indicate the reason why you contact support, why you choose a proxy, etc. All this takes time, it is easier to find all the information yourself. 6. HydraProxy 100+ The number of GEOs: 1/2/7/30 days Rental Periods: Every 30 minutes Rotation: Bank cards, Crypto BTC, ETH, LTC, XLM, XRP, BAT, MKR, DAI, PAX, USD-T, USD-C. Payment systems: Yes API: HydraProxy.com Site: HydraProxy is a budget-friendly service. The prices here start from $2.95 per port. Proxy service offers proxies of America. The range includes absolutely all the states. Choose any that you need. Hydraproxy refunds within 24 hours of purchase. The proxy rotation happens every 30 minutes, but you can set your own interval. 7. LTESocks 8 The number of GEOs: day/week/month Rental Periods: Per request Rotation: Bank cards, payments to Privatbank or Monobank cards, SEPA/IPAN transactions in euro, any crypto Payment systems: Yes LTESocks.io API: Site: LTESocks adds new geos to its assortment every month. Support is online 24/7 and responds within minutes. Questions are read carefully. A huge plus of the service is the ability to pay for proxies with any crypto. But the proxies are not activated immediately - only from 9.00 to 22.00 on any day. If you paid during non-working hours, the proxies will appear in your account as soon as the working day starts. 8. AstroProxy 12 The number of GEOs: : From 1 day Rental Period : Automatic or per request Rotation Bank cards, YouMoney, Perfect Money, AdvCash, Dash, ZCash, Qiwi Payment systems: Yes API: AstroProxy.com Site: In AstroProxy, you pay for data. How much you spend, so much you pay. Thanks to this payment model, you decide when and how much to use a proxy. You can use all the data traffic in a day, or you can use it in a month. However, there is a drawback in AstroProxy - support does not work 24/7, so you have to wait until the morning if questions arise at night. 9. ProxyGuys 26 cities of the US The number of GEOs: day/week/month Rental Periods: By timer or per request Rotation: Bank card, Amex, Discover, BTC, LTC, ETH, BCH, USD Payment systems: Yes API: ProxyGuys.com Site: ProxyGuys offers mobile 5G proxies of the United States. The service offers a package both with several cities and with one. The arsenal of the service includes 26 cities of America - buy any that you want. ProxyGuys offers a 25% discount to those who buy mobile IPs in bulk. ProxyGuys also offers a free plugin for Chrome and Mozilla to switch between IP addresses of this service in one click. 10. Proxy-Cheap 11 The number of GEOs: Month Rental period: From 1 minute to 1440 depending on the GEO Rotation: Bank transfers, Visa/MasterCard cards, BTC Payment systems: Yes API: Proxy-Cheap.com Site: From Proxy-Cheap, you can purchase proxies of the United States and Europe. But there is a nuance: locations are either there or not. For example, there is a location, Lithuania, and a month later it's gone. The service offers to test the IP address for an hour to determine whether the Proxy-Cheap IP suits you or not. There is no refund in the service. 11. One Dash Proxy 10+ The number of GEOs: From 3 days Rental period: By timer or per request Rotation: Robokassa, Unitpay, Tinkoff, CloudPayments, Coinbase, Cryptonator Payment systems: Yes API: Proxy-OneDash.com Site: OneDash Proxy offers mobile IP addresses from Europe, as well as Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Technical support, although working 24/7, responds pretty slowly - within an hour. There is no maximum proxy rental period - choose the required number of days yourself. 12. Proxy-Seller 7 The number of GEOs: From 1 week Rental period: From 5 to 30 minutes depending on the location Rotation: BitCoin, MTS, Beeline, Privat24, WebMoney, Qiwi, Bank cards, Sberbank Online, Alpha click, PerfectMoney и YouMoney Payment systems: Yes API: Proxy-Seller.com Site: Proxy-seller offers proxies for periods ranging from 1 week to a year. This is very convenient, especially if you need a proxy for a couple of days. But there is also an unpleasant moment: you immediately buy a proxy, there is no test period, however the service makes a refund within 24 hours after the purchase. The proxy is also replaced with another one if there are any problems with the current IP. 13. Frigate Proxy 6 The number of GEOs: From 4 hours to 30 days Rental period: Per request or every 4 minutes Rotation: Bank cards, YouMoney, QIWI, WMR, WMZ, LiteCoin, Bitcoin, Fk Wallet Payment systems: Yes API: Frigate-Proxy.ru/en Site: The service provides elite and shared mobile proxies. Elite are divided into: private. Access is open to all sites, one user per modem; semi-private. Access is only to a specific social network / platform. There are several users per modem. Online support on weekdays from 6.00 to 23.00 UTC and from 7.00 to 21.00 UTC on weekends. This is not always convenient, because if the issue arises at night, you will have to wait for the morning. Technical support answers quickly, but does not always read questions carefully. For purchases of referred customers, you get 10% forever. 14. Coronium 3 The number of GEOs: day/week/month Rental periods: By timer or per request Rotation: BTC, Visa/MasterCard bank cards Payment systems: Yes API: Coronium.io Site: Coronium.io offers 4G/LTE proxies. There are only three countries in the assortment: the United States, Lithuania and the UK. The support works 24/7, so all issues can be resolved at any time of the day or night. Coronium.io offers not only a one-time payment, but also a subscription. Pay monthly for the proxies that you use. 15. AirProxy 1 The number of GEOs: Month Rental period: Per request Rotation: Bank card, Bank transfers, crypto Payment systems: Yes API: AirProxy.io Site: AirProxy provides premium LTE/4G proxies. The service issues a test IP for 72 hours for 9.90 €. This is an Italian company, so all proxy servers are in Italy. This narrows the user base of the service, so only explore AirProxy if you need Italian mobile proxies. The crypto payment method is available after the first payment with a bank card or bank transfer. 16. The Social Proxy 5 The number of GEOs: Month Rental period: By timer Rotation: Bank card, PayPal, American Express Payment systems: Yes API: TheSocialProxy.com Site: It is up to you to decide how often the IP address will change. The service provides a trial for 24 hours - try mobile 4G proxies from The Social Proxy and see if they are suitable or not. The seller offers quite high prices for a proxy - 90 euros per month. You can use up to 5 proxies per day and change the region no more than twice a month. How to create your own mobile proxies? You can buy mobile proxies, or you can create your own. It is available to every user, it is not necessary to have any super skills. Using the Mobinet service, this can be done in several steps: Download and install the app. In the user panel on the website you can find the Add Device button and enter a six-digit code. In the My proxies section, click Add proxy. Specify the necessary parameters: destination, device, traffic limit, lifetime of the IP address. Technical requirements: OS - Android 8 and above, SIM card with mobile Internet. Mobinet is a service that Internet users use to create mobile proxies. Mobile IP addresses are generated both with and without rotation. An unlimited number of proxies can be configured on one device: it all depends on the performance of the phone. Mobinet technical support works 24/7 - ask questions at any time if you have any. Conclusion Now you know about the benefits of mobile proxies over server ones. Our rating will help you decide on a quality supplier right away, rather than sorting through ten sellers and not wasting your time. Choose the proxy service that suits you best and test its IP addresses. Try Mobinet if you want to set up your own mobile proxies instead of using someone else's. Disclosure : This story was submitted to HackerNoon by an independent contributor. Hence the information contained therein has also been researched and compiled independently.

Mobile Proxies: What Are They, When're They Needed, and Where to Buy Them

IP geolocation technology has been around for a long while. It is the only non-intrusive tool a service provider can use to estimate the geographical location of online visitors. IP geolocation has proved itself as the main driving engine for delivering location-based services such as content localisation, digital rights management, customer targeting and fraud detection. But how accurate is an IP Geolocation lookup? Can we trust it to make critical business decisions? IP Geolocation accuracy has been one of the heavily debated topics for many years across many platforms. We can find many complaints on forums such as IP addresses not showing the correct location or only country-level data being reliable. One of the most popular myths is that the IP Geolocation is inaccurate because it is based on public data and that it usually points to the organisation’s headquarter location rather than the real user’s location. The reality varies widely because not all IP Geolocation services are made the same, and they often utilise different technologies to source their data. The goal of this article is not to compare different IP Geolocation providers. Check out the Daily IP Geolocation Accuracy Report for various service providers. We address the fundamentals of IP Geolocation and then explains the best accuracy and outcomes we can theoretically expect out of ‘perfect’ IP Geolocation. It then outlines conceptual limitations we should be aware of, and to what extent we can trust the data we receive. IPv4 is here to stay When we refer to an IP Geolocation, we are considering the IPv4 address space first because most of our web traffic is still coming from IPv4 addresses. IPv6 was created to solve the global shortage of IPv4 address space by providing a whopping 2128 extension. However, it has not happened even though two decades have passed since it was introduced. There are many reasons why IPv6 is not taking flight. The main reason is probably the most surprising one – there isn’t a real shortage of IPv4 addresses, after all. Well, to some extent there is, as it is almost impossible to get some for free anymore even if it is vital for your business. It has just become a cherished commodity, and it is here to stay. How is it possible, you may wonder? There are only a limited number of 2^32  or roughly 4.3 billion addresses available on IPv4, so how can they accommodate over 7 billion internet hungry people on our planet and allow for enormous expansion into the IoT space? Surprisingly - yes, it can, and it currently does it for even substantially less than that! First, despite the theoretical maximum of 4,294,967,296 IPv4 addresses, not all are allocated for public internet use. And then, out of those allocated, how many do you think are being actively used? Remarkably, there are currently merely 2.9 billion publicly routable IPv4 addresses servicing our entire internet! Visit our online for up-to-date figures. IpV4 address space monitoring And this is whilst there are: more than 4.5 billion home internet users in the world over 300 million active websites over 3.5 billion smartphone users in the world over 7 billion IoT devices and it is growing millions of public IP addresses utilised by the global network infrastructures So how is that even possible? It is because we only need a dedicated, publicly routable IP address when we require two-way communication such as when we need to be able to reach out at will and also to receive incoming connection requests from the outside world. However, most of our internet activities are perfectly suitable for one-way communication only. For instance, when we browse the internet, we initiate the connection ourselves, and we don’t expect websites or other web service providers to stay actively connected to our device. We even hope they don’t, otherwise, it would give rise to significant security challenges. Websites, on the other hand, are not expected to reach out or initiate a connection. And since websites work with hostnames, it is perfectly suitable to hook them up behind a shared IP address. Theoretically, it is possible to put all of our over 300 million worldwide active websites behind a single anycast IP address, or just a few of them for redundancy. It will be even much more effective to protect them from cyber attacks that way. Cloudflare is an excellent example of how this can work. Technically, there are plenty of technologies already available to share an IP address when providing one-way communication. We use Network Address Translation (NAT) at home or in small offices, proxies at larger organisations, and name-based virtual hosting for websites, to name a few. We tend to classify IP addresses as static (yours forever) or dynamically allocated (yours for a limited time). However, we often don’t get an IP address assigned to us exclusively. We only temporarily make use of it, and possibly even share it with other remote peers simultaneously. Cellular operators, for example, often implement Carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) and make use of small IP address blocks to cater for a large active customer base. Technically, they assign a pool of IP addresses available to them to a section of their network, and mobile users are only making use of an IP address to get access to the internet, the same as it was with a proxy, for example. The connection is strictly one-directional, there is no way an outside world IP address can initiate a link back to the mobile device using that address. This maintains robust security and reduces the number of public IP addresses required. The downside, however, is that the old and widespread assumption that every single IP address has a single device behind it and therefore can be tracked down to an exact geographical location is not valid anymore! Therefore, when we consider IP Geolocation, we must first consider how an IP address is being used. Static IP addresses A static IP address’s geolocation is the easiest to get right. Regardless of the exact method that helps IP Geolocation providers to source their data, there is one common overarching principle. IP Geolocation is always evidence-based. It could be public RIR data, self-published geofeeds, actively sourced measurements or otherwise processed information or an end-user reported or otherwise obtained IP-location pairs. Any way you put it, it is always about a piece of field evidence or at least a clue from data received. Not all evidence data is correct, it could be a way off, just like a faulty report of a GPS device’s location, for example. The quality of an IP geolocation service always relies on what data they have access to and how they handle it. Therefore, when we’ve got a fresh, valid, and highly precise geographic location as a piece of evidence for a static IP address used by a stationary device – the resulting IP Geolocation accuracy can be scarily accurate – often up to a few meters away. This is why BigDataCloud deliberately obscures the provided location coordinates slightly by rounding it up to the nearest kilometre — essentially capping the maximum accuracy down to within one square kilometre. Hence, IP Geolocation is not suitable for identifying the exact location of a user. Furthermore, it should not be as accurate as it can be because we must also respect the privacy of the IP address end-users. Dynamically allocated IP addresses. A dynamic IP address is an IP address that our Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns to us temporarily. The only noticeable difference between a static allocation and a dynamic one is that with the static one, we are promised that the address would not change as long as we maintain the contract. In case of a dynamic assignment, it may vary, as often as we reboot our router or even more, depending on the ISP’s policies. Some ISPs could enforce address changes as often as every few hours and others let us have the same address for months even if we reboot our router occasionally. The longer the same IP address remains at the same physical location, the better chance that an IP Geolocation service provider can pick it up and locate it as accurately as a static IP address. But what happens if the IP address we’ve just got was spotted previously at another location? Yes, the IP geolocation results will be off. But, by how much? Let’s now turn to how this will affect the accuracy of the IP Geolocation. A dynamic IP address usually comes from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) allocation. Just like we’ve got our home computer receiving a local private IP address from our home router using DHCP. There is also a router at our ISP’s network, which is responsible for our section of the system. This router, in turn, has a pool of IP addresses it can allocate to customers. These IP addresses could be sequential, resembling a single network block, or even a list of several blocks. Sometimes these blocks can be as small as a single IP address. This is precisely why the IP geolocation data granularity is so important. The ‘perfect’ IP Geolocation service must support up to a single IP address granulation - just a side note. Noticeably, the network router which is servicing us directly is essentially responsible for our section of the network, and most often this section resembles a very distinct geographical boundary - a service area. Therefore, the maximum IP Geolocation error we should expect when using an IP address which was witnessed and noted somewhere else is the maximum distance from our physical location to the outermost end of the boundary of that area. The service area or confidence area as we call it at BigDataCloud is a critically important piece of information which can tell us where else the IP address of interest can potentially be allocated if it was assigned dynamically. We must consider it if the resulting decision we make upon IP geolocation data is substantial. Screenshot of maps showing the estimated point location and confidence area (service area) of the respective IP addresses generated using BigDataCloud’s IP Geolocation API . You can check your IP address here . For instance, if we grant or ban access to services or decide on a likelihood of e-commerce fraud, we should definitely include the service area in our considerations too. A location point estimation might not be enough as it is only an estimate which is usually based on the latest or the most likely (frequent) location for it. Cellular networks The IP address allocation by a cellular network operator can loosely resemble a fixed network, ISP dynamic allocation. However, there are at least three noticeable differences which can make IP Geolocation much more challenging for mobile networks. The device behind an IP address is not necessarily a stationary one. We can sometimes drive several hundred kilometres and still be using the same cellular network assigned public IP address. We often do not have access to a full IP address, as we are only ‘riding on it’, sharing it with other, often very remote customers elsewhere. Cellular network operators can often consolidate several internal network sections giving them a shared internet access point with the same shared pool of IP addresses available. This can make the service areas for the cellular address blocks significantly bigger. Therefore, what is the outcome we should expect from a ‘perfect’ IP Geolocation service for cellular originated IP addresses? Unfortunately, even a theoretically ‘perfect’ IP Geolocation service can’t always estimate the correct, up to the moment location for every IP address on a cellular network Even the cellular network operators themselves often don’t have this data in real-time. They may be able to tell better which customers are using which IP address, but not exactly where they are. Most likely, they cannot without digging deep into their internal logs. Hence, as a first step, it would be beneficial for businesses if the IP geolocation providers could just indicate whether an IP address of interest belongs to a cellular block or not. A straightforward way of doing this is checking if the enterprise that services this IP address also operates a cellular network like Vodafone, AT&T etc. But this would not always be helpful because some of these companies run mixed services. Hence, we should be able to detect cellular networks regardless of the ASN announcing them. The next critical point for IP geolocation services is the service area of a cellular network even though it can be a substantially large one. Some cellular operators can extend their allocation for the same pool of IP addresses to areas often as big as the whole country. This means that an IP address within the cellular network can be used by a mobile customer practically anywhere within the servicing country. Hence, it is critical to know this if we need to make an important business decision based on IP Geolocation. Hosting Another essential categorisation applicable to an IP address is to distinguish between those that are servicing a human-operated device directly, or just a middlebox server or a bot. At BigDataCloud, we tend to categorise these as and networks. Consumers Hosting Hosting is the overarching term we use to describe all sorts of unattended computers such as those that usually run from data centers and also offices or private properties. Hosting network IP addresses are essentially those which power public websites, mail servers, VPN services, TOR, proxy and many lawful and also malicious applications. Residential proxy or VPN networks, for example, often reside on benevolent IP address blocks announced by ASNs which belong to legitimate ISPs or even cellular network operators. BigDataCloud also detects these and marks them as Hosting too. Most of the Hosting IP addresses are static allocations. Edge cases There are some outliers with all the above cases, and the next sections define how IP Geolocation would be expected to handle these. Roaming cellular When we arrive in a foreign country and turn our roaming data on, we can find that, surprisingly, the websites we visit still recognise us as never leaving our home country. We can often continue using the same IP address even though we are thousands of miles away! How is that possible? Most if not all mobile network operators worldwide tend to 'tunnel' their remote customers' traffic back to their home networks. This way, they can better control the billing of their super costly data services. Technically, this is very similar to a VPN that tunnels our traffic back to our home networks. It makes IP Geolocation extremely challenging for roaming customers. On top of a regular CGNAT where several scattered mobile customers can share the same IP address for their internet use, roaming will add a chance that some of these could be shared anywhere in the world. What can we expect from a perfect IP Geolocation service in this case? BigDataCloud is often able to recognise IP addresses used overseas. However, keeping in mind that there is a strong possibility that the same IP address is simultaneously allocated at the home country as well, we decide to ignore that data and report on the home country user's location instead. VPN, TOR, PROXY and other anonymisers We often see internet users taking extreme measures to mask their real IP addresses. There are zillions of services available out there to help them hide. Usually, these services are offered as a safer option to surf the internet, a very questionable claim, to say the least. We can only wonder why people tend to trust a ‘no street address’ and ‘no phone number’ company listed on some remote island more than their home ISP for handling their private communication and data. These services are vastly overused in the free parts of the world. Anyway, regardless of their motives, we must respect their choices. Even if it was possible to recover the real IP address and the current location of the user, we see IP Geolocation services often reporting on the estimated position of the middlebox IP address instead of the real end-user one. Conclusion IP Geolocation is categorically not suitable for tracking the exact geographical location of a person or device. However, in the majority of cases, it can assuredly give crucial insights into the geographical area the IP address is being used. The various supporting information such as the confidence area, network type and risk factors can make the IP Geolocation based upon business decisions very robust and trustworthy. Also published at https://www.bigdatacloud.com/blog/how-accurate-can-ip-geolocation-get

IP Geolocation Technology: How Exact is a Pinpoint? 

A Short History of The Commercial Internet: From Mosaic to Web3

Top Software Development Companies 2022 That Are Growing Fast

Wallets are an integral part of any crypto platform and must possess the capability to accommodate an influx of users in real-time. The wallets support an array of leading crypto tokens and blockchain products. Are you browsing the web for top cryptocurrency wallet development companies? Acquire the list of top development companies in one click. Go through the rundown of top crypto wallet development companies. Here is The List of Top 20 Crypto Wallet Development Companies WorldWide Below listed companies are hand-picked by the experts. Go through the list, read the company description and select the best partner for your business needs. - Crypto Wallet Development Company in the USA RisingMax RisingMax is a trusted crypto wallet development company that has been in existence for a long time. The team has deep expertise in Machine Learning, Blockchain, and Big Data. The company helps startups validate ideas and build business-led solutions. The team prioritizes delivering an excellent customer experience via a pro-active and dedicated team. Its portfolio sheds light on the richness of services in developing cryptocurrency wallets for startups, medium scale, and large enterprises. Till date, RisingMax has worked on over 200 projects and most of them have gained popularity amongst the users. The reason why our tech experts have listed it among the most reliable crypto wallet development companies is its past record of project deliveries and client reviews. Minimum Project: $10,000+ Hourly Rate: $25 - $49 / hr Employees: 10 - 49 Founded:  2015 - Crypto Wallet Development Services Company Suffescom Solutions Second on our list of the best crypto wallet development companies is Suffescom Solutions. The team has more than 200 experts working on different projects serving multiple industries. The team has developed various crypto exchange platforms that require the integration of crypto wallets. Having mastered technologies like & AI, the team has left no stone unturned in becoming one of the most renowned crypto wallet development companies. Blockchain It leverages technology to make the businesses generate more revenue via the solutions that it develops. Suffescom serves organizations operating at different levels— small, medium, and large. Minimum Project: $10,000+ Hourly Rate: $25 - $49 / hr Employees: 250+ Founded:  2011 - India Based Cryptocurrency Wallet Development Company BlockchainWebDevs BlockchainWebDevs bags the third rank on our comprehensive list of the most sophisticated cryptocurrency wallet development. Our team of experts constantly reviewed the service provider and analyzed the website that has client testimonials and reviews. It is clear from the testimonials that the company is rising to become the top crypto wallet development service provider. With a team of over 100 experts, BlockchainWebDevs is moving forward towards helping clients across the globe in developing the most appropriate crypto wallets. The company exhibits following a startup-oriented approach, which includes choosing the right tech stack to meet client expectations and fulfill their business goals. Minimum Project: $25,000+ Hourly Rate: $25 - $49 / hr Employees: 50+ Founded:  2015 - Blockchain Wallet Development Company Accenture Accenture was one of the earliest to arrive in the Blockchain market and cryptocurrency development services. Their rock-solid experience and in-depth knowledge in the field has made the company’s presence felt across the globe. The company’s dedicated Blockchain experts have helped several clients in launching their Blockchain-based businesses successfully. Accenture’s crypto wallet development services match the industry standard and help clients own the solutions they want. Its services are powered by over 200 tech experts who have expertise in different domains. Minimum Project: 100000+ Hourly Rate: $150 - $199/hr Employees: 1000+ Founded:  1989 - Cryptocurrency Wallet Development Services SAP SAP offers the best-in-class cryptocurrency wallet development services. Having a team of extremely talented cryptocurrency developers, the company specializes in assisting clients to make their own crypto wallets. The service provider’s rich portfolio of projects tell that the team focuses on developing highly scalable, reliable, and secure crypto wallets. SAP is popular for sticking to regulatory standards followed by the finance industry. The experts make sure that they comply with consumer protection standards and . anti-money laundering Minimum Project: 50000+ Hourly Rate: $100 - $149/hr Employees: 1000+ Founded:  1972 - Cryptocurrency Wallet Developer Labrys Lybras specializes in delivering secure and reliable cryptocurrency wallets for the safe management of crypto-assets. The crypto wallet development service provider has developed various crypto wallets that are based on categories like platform, currency type, private key storage method, and access. The service provider follows agile methodology for development processes and this is why the company has earned a reputation in the market. Minimum Project: 50000+ Hourly Rate: $150 - $199/hr Employees: 10 - 49 Founded:  2017 - Crypto Wallet Development Firm in USA Unicsoft Unicsoft is a trusted crypto wallet development company. The company offers blockchain, fintech, and cloud software solutions to drive business outcomes for startups and organizations worldwide. Their technical team is well versed with rapidly changing technologies and ready to go the extra mile to meet customers' expectations. Clear communication, agile development process, and fintech expertise set them apart from others on the list. The software development company has provided services to many well-known clients such as Bloom Protocol, Vodafone, Stoop, and Unicsoft, to name a few. Other than a crypto wallet, the company also offers services such as Technical Consulting, Product Management Consulting, Engineering Solutions, and Design Solutions. Minimum Project: 50000+ Hourly Rate: $50 - $99/hr Employees: 50 - 249 Founded:  2015 - Crypto Wallet Development Company From US Chop Dawg Chop Dawg is a blockchain and crypto wallet development company from United States. The company provides complete crypto solutions such as centralized & decentralized exchanges, software development, and end-to-end tailored blockchain solutions. Forward-thinking insights, fintech expertise, rigorous research, and clear communication is how they are helping different size businesses worldwide. The technical team at Chop Dawg is well-informed about the leading fintech solutions such as AI, ML, blockchain, DeFi and offers both web and mobile-based solutions. The company has successfully delivered more than 450 projects and served hundreds of clients from healthcare, fitness, education, retail, eCommerce to fintech. Minimum Project: 50000+ Hourly Rate: $150 - $199/hr Employees: 10 - 49 Founded:  2009 - Blockchain Wallet Development Company ICON Worldwide With over six years of experience, ICON Worldwide is a trusted name in providing blockchain, crypto wallets, and defi solutions worldwide. The company’s areas of expertise include , Enterprise Portals, Cryptocurrency Wallets, Machine Learning, to name just a few. Hyper Ledger The software development company is well known for its technical expertise and customer-centric  development approach. Within a short period of time, the company has developed a great understanding and partnerships with US and UK-based companies. Their fintech expertise, together with the unparalleled business approach, is how they are taking businesses worldwide toward the next wave of digitization to foster growth and drive positive change. You can even check their online reviews feedback and see what their clients are saying about their services. Minimum Project: 50000+ Hourly Rate: $150 - $199/hr Employees: 10 - 49 Founded:  2007 - Whitelabel Crypto Wallet Provider INC4 Since its inception in 2010, INC4 has been actively involved in crypto and related technology. The company offers a wide variety of services ranging from mining pool development, blockchain supply management, crypto wallet management, to name a few. Their development team is well versed with the latest technologies such as AI, , blockchain, centralized and decentralized. ML With their fintech expertise and innovative tools, they are helping startups and businesses worldwide to stay in front of the innovation in their field. INC4 services include - Blockchain Development, Smart Contract, Tokenization, , NFT, Blockchain consulting, dApps. The technical team leverages their in-depth market knowledge to solve complex development tasks to deliver exceptions to their worldwide customer base. DeFi Minimum Project: 10000+ Hourly Rate: $150 - $199/hr Employees: 10 - 49 Founded:  2013 Technoloader Technoloader is a crypto wallet development company that offers a wide array of fintech services to customers worldwide. Their services include blockchain development, supply chain development, cryptocurrency exchange and wallet development, and hyper ledger blockchain development. Technoloader development team is familiar with leading finance languages and technologies such as AI, ML, Reactjs, Nodejs, blockchain technology. Other services include Website Design and Development, Software & Mobile Development, Digital Marketing (SEO, SMO, PPC, ASO, ICO, Cryptocurrency Marketing), etc. Go through their clients' reviews, feedback, and testimonials to understand the quality of their services. Minimum Project: 10000+ Hourly Rate: $150 - $199/hr Employees: 10 - 49 Founded:  2013 Mobiloitte Mobiloitte is a reliable crypto wallet development company offering services to startups, SMEs, and large enterprises. Their expertise includes technologies such as blockchain, , AI, ML, web, and mobile software solutions. Started in 2004, the software development company has completed more than 5,000 projects. IoT Their technical team is helping the organization to digitize their Customer Experience, Project Management, Human Resources, Support Services, Assets management, MIS with their wide array of services. With their in-depth expertise and knowledge of fintech technologies, the crypto wallet development company solves complex tasks and delivers exceptions to their customers worldwide. Minimum Project: 25000+ Hourly Rate: < $49 / hr Employees: 250 - 999 Founded:  2004 Osiz Technologies Osiz Technologies is one of the supreme crypto wallet development companies that has a dedicated team of cryptocurrency developers to build crypto wallets for storing all business transactions in an efficient manner. The company’s work speaks for itself through the client reviews and testimonials. Having over 900 clients worldwide, it houses more than 250 professionals who constantly work to meet the client requirements. Minimum Project: 25000+ Hourly Rate: $25 - $49/hr Employees: 50 - 249 Founded:  2009 SAG IPL SAG IPL has completed over 1000 projects and has expert crypto developers to create a powerful and highly secure cryptocurrency wallet for multiple blockchain projects. The company has good experience in crypto wallets that are protected with cutting-edge security mechanisms, including 2FA and mobile passwords/fingerprint and support for multiple currencies. NFT marketplace development The company has developed the best-in-class Blockchain solutions, , and crypto-wallets to help businesses secure and manage their digital assets. smart contracts Minimum Project: 35000+ Hourly Rate: $25 - $49/hr Employees: 50 - 249 Founded:  2009 BitExchange BitExchange has developed a variety of products in different industries, and its Blockchain development team has developed state-of-the-art Cryptocurrency-powered products ranging from cross-border payments systems to Blockchain-powered referral marketing platforms and payouts management systems. It has worked on various crypto wallet development projects and the client testimonials reflect a lot about the team’s professionalism. Minimum Project: 35000+ Hourly Rate: $25 - $49/hr Employees: 50 - 249 Founded:  2009 Sara Technologies Established in 2007, a US-based company has offices in San Diego, Oakland, and Albuquerque. The company provides technologically advanced software, mobile, and web development services to worldwide clients. The company has proficiency in developing projects in blockchain, decentralized applications, and crypto wallet development services. Sara Technologies develop highly secure and reliable single and multi-cryptocurrency wallets like DESKTOP WALLET, MOBILE WALLET, HARDWARE WALLET, and WEB WALLET. The company also developed different Cryptocurrency exchanges such as centralized exchange, decentralized exchange, and hybrid exchange. Minimum Project: 35000+ Hourly Rate: $25 - $49/hr Employees: 50 - 249 Founded:  2007 Lime Chain Founded in 2017, Lime Chain has the expertise to deliver web and mobile cryptocurrency wallet projects. The company delivers both custodial and non-custodial wallets for safe crypto payments integration. The leading Blockchain and DLT solutions company has delivered 100+ projects, 120+ Smart contracts in production, and has worked 700+ Hours of Blockchain & DLT consulting. Lime Chain uses Programming languages - JavaScript, , Go, Solidity, Node.js, and Frameworks - Angular React, React-Native, Ionic to develop cryptocurrency wallets. The company focuses on accessible and user-friendly wallets to remove the blockchain complexity and UX hurdles. TypeScript Minimum Project: NA+ Hourly Rate: $99/hr Employees: 50 - 249 Founded:  2014 QSS Technosoft QSS Technosoft is the most trusted cryptocurrency wallet development company with over 12 years of experience. They help startups, mid-size, and large-scale businesses to take their step in the right direction. The company leverages the latest technologies, skilled resources, and high-end expertise to build customized cryptocurrency wallet development in line with business requirements. QSS Technosoft offers full-fledged cryptocurrency wallet services, including Decentralized wallet development, Mobile/web wallet development, desktop wallet development, etc. Cryptocurrency wallet development services by QSS integrated with advanced features, high-end security, and user-friendly design to offer exceptional user experiences. Minimum Project: $10,000+ Hourly Rate: < $99 / hr Employees: 50 - 249 Founded:  2010 Sparx IT Sparx IT Solutions is coming a long way as a crypto wallet development company. They came into existence in 2007 now have a staffing of 900+ employees. The company has already delivered multiple projects and worked on various projects globally. The developers and the programmers have a perfect combination of experienced employees and talented and dedicated youths. The management welcomes every type of project, either a startup or venture of an established company. The reviews from their clients say much about their perfection towards their dedication and commitment to deliver projects without delay. Their motto is ‘Ideate, Innovate, Create,’ which inspires them to serve their clients over the years. They are also offering the service of mobile app development, blockchain development, DApp development, website development, hybrid and wearable applications. Minimum Project: $50,000+ Hourly Rate: < $25/hr Employees: 250 - 999 Founded:  2007 Oodles Blochchain Next on the list is Oodles Blockchain which is doing great in crypto wallet development. The company began in the year 2017 and set up new benchmarks for its competitors in a very short period of span. Excellent developers, designers, and programmers available in the company give their best to the client. We took the research about the company in-depth and enquired more about the reviews of the clients, the retention rate of the company is about 50%. The reviews of their clients say much about their excellent services. Apart from developing a crypto wallet, the company also provides the development of  Ethereum applications, cryptocurrency development, STO development, etc. Minimum Project: $50,000+ Hourly Rate: < $49/hr Employees: 250 - 999 Founded:  2017 Bottom Line: We hope to have brought you the most useful list of the leading crypto wallet development service providers. Make the best decision by choosing amongst these companies if you are high on the thought of developing your own crypto wallet.

Top 20 Crypto Wallet Development Companies & Services Providers

What is Mobile Money? For the uninitiated, Agency Banking/Mobile Money has blown up across Africa and Asia in the last decade. Pioneered by telecom service providers like Vodafone and Safaricom with in Kenya in 2007, the global Mobile money market now processes over in transactions yearly. mPesa $490bn Mobile Money or Agency Banking is the generic term used to refer to the technology that facilitates the movement of money between individuals and businesses who may not have a Bank account domiciled at a traditional bank. This may be in terms of CICO (Cash-in-cash-out) transactions — where a customer might exchange cash (cash-in) for electronic value or vice versa. Mobile Money transactions can be completed in many ways. One way is with the use of a mobile device to move money to individuals or businesses who have a mobile phone number and are on the same telecom network — this is the most common form of Mobile Money transactions in East and West Africa. Mobile Money transactions can also take place via Mobile Money Agents — individuals who are licensed by a Mobile Money Service Provider to collect cash deposits and provide cash-out services on the company’s behalf. In most cases, these individuals acquire the licenses, devices and set up stalls using their own capital. In the United States, a cashier at your local Walmart or Walgreens can be considered a mini Mobile Money Agent since they can collect cash deposits and add the equivalent dollar amount to your CashApp app with the CashApp PaperMoney feature. Why Mobile Money? Around and over own a bank account. That means, more than half of young Nigerians do not own a bank account and are thus excluded from formal financial services. This presents a huge opportunity for Mobile money and Agency Banking platforms to bring the unbanked and underbanked into formal financial services. 40% of Nigerians aged 15 Since 2010, the number of Banks per capita (100,000 adults) in Nigeria has dropped from . For context, the number of Banks per capita in the US is 32. On the surface, the reduction in the number of physical banks might seem great since the internet and mobile phones are now widely available. 7 to 4 Many banks have found ways to lean out their operations by introducing internet and mobile banking services — a testament to the level of innovation within the Nigerian financial technology space. In Nigeria, thanks to , inter-bank transfers are completed nearly instantly. I’ve previously recorded a time of 2 seconds from the time I hit send on my Kuda app to receiving it in my UBA Bank account. This is not the same experience in other parts of Africa — in the Ivory coast, for example, Bank to Bank transfers can take up to 3 days to settle. NIBSS The CBN (Nigeria’s Financial regulator) has also initiated several policies to encourage individuals to go cashless. Despite these advancements in the financial services space in Nigeria, when we look a little closer look into the situation of things, the CBN tells us that the amount of cash in circulation in October 2021 ($7.3 billion) compared to the same period the month before — proving, once again, that cash is still king and a major portion of the population still like to transact in cash. The love for cash based transactions is also prevalent in Vietnam, where over . While we believe that a major portion of the Nigerian population is only comfortable with cash, we believe that with the widespread adoption of mobile phones, better technology can be deployed to bring more people into formal financial services by meeting them where they are i.e without the need for formal banks; cue — and . rose by 4.6% to 3 trillion naira 80% of transactions are cash based Mobile Money Agency Banking In Nigeria, the volume of POS transactions processed in 2021 alone was over and the sector continues to grow year on year. Over the next decade, and with the continuous innovation and investments surrounding mobile money, we should see more and more people being able to access basic financial services bearing in mind that they may never own a bank account at a traditional banking institution. The big bet is on Mobile Money services to accelerate this future. $8bn With that said, Let’s take a look into how a typical Mobile Money or Agency banking transaction works. How does Mobile Money/Agency Banking Work? Mobile Money transactions can be completed in a number of ways: Sometimes, they are completed using a mobile phone over a mobile network, Other times, they’re completed using a card issued by a Digital bank or a traditional financial institution and a Mobile POS Terminal. In many cases, they’re completed with an Agent receiving cash from a customer and making a transfer from their mobile phone to the wallet/bank account of the recipient. Regardless of what method is used, transactions are usually completed within 5 mins — a testament to the innovation that has occurred within the space. When a transaction is completed using a mobile phone alone, your phone number serves as your account number, and your wallet/account balance is stored on your mobile device — either via the app or via a menu option on your mobile phone added by your telecom provider. Getting on the mPesa network is as simple as buying a sim from Safaricom. With your sim in your mobile phone, you’re ready to participate in the mobile money revolution. You can begin transacting with other users and Businesses on the mPesa network. With a mobile phone as cheap as $5, you can pay bills, send money to other mPesa users, take a loan, and more. In rural areas without Banks or where the closest bank is too far away from residents, mobile money Agents (mPesa Agents in this case) facilitate cash deposits and withdrawals — think of a human ATM. Here’s a walkthrough of a transaction at a typical Mobile Money Agent. Picture a Shop owner running a small business that sells groceries. At the end of the day, this Customer takes all the cash they’ve received from their daily sales and walks to the nearest Mobile Money Agent close to them — usually, these Agents are much closer to the customer’s location than a physical Bank. The Shop Owner takes the cash they’ve collected to a Mobile Money Agent who collects the cash and deposits the same value in the customer’s wallet less the transaction charges. The Shop owner is happy — they have value in their wallet which they can use to purchase more goods or send to their family member’s wallet on the same telecom network in a neighboring city. The Mobile Money Agent is also happy since they’ve made a commission for processing that transaction. In most of Sub-saharan Africa, this is how most Mobile Money transactions go. In Nigeria, it’s a little different. The most common trend in the last few years has been a network of Agents spearheaded by giant payment companies or MMOs (Mobile Money Operators) such as , , Paga, , and more. Typically, these MMOs deploy Mobile POS terminals that Agents can use to start their own Agent Banking business. Opay Moniepoint Xpressteller With increasing innovation in this space, MMOs have started to deploy android based devices that can process card transactions and print receipts. These devices can also be used to pay bills, purchase airtime, perform inter-bank transfers, and more — meaning that the customers of these Agents can perform all the services they’ll typically do at a traditional bank at a Mobile Money Agent. Ivory Coast has the largest population of adults with a Mobile Money account in all of West Africa — at 75%. In stark contrast to that, only 20% of the adult population owns a Bank account. What’s the difference between a Mobile Money Agent and a POS Agent? Traditionally, in most of West Africa and East Africa, Mobile Money has been a medium for carrying out financial transactions where the store of value is in a on a mobile phone device linked to a customer’s mobile phone number. Transactions are facilitated on the network of the Telecom operator’s the user is subscribed to — popular options include MTN in Benin Republic, Oranje in Guinea and Safaricom in Kenya. wallet In Benin Republic for example, where MTN’s MoMo is dominant, users move money around using their MoMo wallet which can be done using an App on their Mobile device or using from their mobile phone. MTN processed with only a quarter of the entire population of Benin Republic as active users! USSD shortcodes $709m in transactions in July of 2021 To paint a better picture, over 11m Mobile Money accounts were registered in 2021 compared to 2m Bank accounts proving the mass adoption of mobile money. Until recently when the Central Bank of Nigeria (Payment Service Bank) licenses to Telecom Operators in Nigeria, MTN was unable to replicate their MoMo model in Nigeria. Since obtaining that license, MTN has registered MoMo (short for Mobile Money) as a payment bank in Nigeria and are beginning to scale their Agent network across the country. With Telcom companies now playing in the financial service space, it means more competition for the likes of TeamApt’s MoniePoint, Opay and Palmpay amongst others — who are Mobile Money Operators but not telecom service providers. For MTN, the numbers are already there since they have the . awarded PSB largest subscriber base in Nigeria At , we think about Mobile Money a little differently. Because of the variations in how Mobile Money operates around the world, we like to think about Mobile Money in the sense of mobility — we see Mobile Money as any digital system that allows the banked, underbanked and unbanked to participate in financial services by removing/reducing the barriers to participation associated with traditional financial institutions; this may be via the use of Mobile POS terminals, Mobile Phones that double as POS terminals, QR codes linked to QR Cards/Mobile Devices (like in the case of ) or scan to pay apps. Moni Wave Mobile Money Looking at Mobile Money and thus Mobile Money Agents in this way, allows us to build a suite of products to cater to Mobile Money Agents and their lifestyle. How much does a Typical Mobile Money Agent Make? Revenue earned by Mobile Money Agents can vary swiftly from place to place. While some areas are high volume and high traffic — consider a market for example, other areas may be high volume but low traffic. In a busy market, a Mobile Money Agent is likely to process over 100 transactions within a day with high volumes. On the other hand, in a residential/commercial area under development, a mobile money Agent may not see a lot of foot traffic but may process a high volume of transactions as vendors and contractors move money around. In Nigeria, we’ve seen that Mobile Money Agents are able to do an average turnover of N2.4m (~ $5000) a month. Assuming normal charges on transactions, a Mobile Money Agent may earn around N3,500 (~ $8) per day which works out at roughly N100k ($215) a month. With more float, and/or with a better location, Mobile Money Agents can 10x their earnings. In Benin Republic, a Mobile Money Agent can earn around CFA70k depending on the number of transactions they complete and the Agent’s location. On average, in the Nigerian market, the cost of acquiring a Mobile POS Terminal is around N20k — N25k(~$54). Besides the cost of acquiring a terminal, Mobile Money Agents will also need to get a location for their business and may need to pay rent for the space. In our experience, many Mobile Money Agents use existing Mom and Pop outlets — which may or may not belong to them —  as their primary place of Business. Starting a Mobile Money Business in Africa is not all rosy despite all the innovation occurring in the space. For one, individuals interested in starting their own Mobile Money/Agency Banking outlet need working capital to get started — this working capital may not be readily available, in which case they’d need to take a loan from friends and family since a traditional Bank will not offer them that level of credit without collateral. Besides the issue with working capital, in Benin Republic, setting up shop as a MoMo Agent can take anywhere from 2–4 months due to the paperwork and bureaucracy involved. There’s still room for more innovation within this space. Mobile Money transactions are still expensive in many parts of Africa and is one of the companies tackling this problem with up to 70% lower fees on Mobile Money transactions. wave Wrapping Up To wrap up, we’ll continue to see innovation in the Agency Banking and mobile money space across Africa as technology companies find ways to help the banked, unbanked, and underbanked access financial services through Agency Banking networks or as we like to call them at Moni — human ATMs. Recently, Moni was admitted into Y Combinator’s . Our approach to lending is different. We’re aware of the major problem Mobile Money Agents face across Africa - float or working capital for their businesses. At the same time, we are also aware that traditional institutions may be unable to provide credit to Mobile Money Agents because they’re unable to satisfy the Bank’s credit requirements. YC W22 batch At , we provide credit/float/working capital to Mobile Money Agents using a CoFi (Community Financing) model based on their social reputation. Our model allows Agents to facilitate more transactions thus ensuring that they earn more and prosper! Moni Also Published here

Mobile Money: The Key to Financial Inclusion in Emerging Markets

The cost of data breaches to businesses in 2021 broke the record. The Cost of Data Breach Report, , finds that the average cost of damage among respondents (537 companies in 17 countries) reached $4.24 million - the highest cost in the last 17 years. published by IBM Of the total number of incidents, 44% involved the personal data of users. Leaks pose huge reputation and financial risks. It is hard to forget , which paid a record $5 billion fine for leaking users' private information. And Facebook is not alone - in the last year, , , , and other giants have joined the club. These companies were fined for violating the EU General Data Protection Regulation. the story of Facebook Amazon WhatsApp Vodafone You do not have to be a giant corporation to fear leaks or attacks just because you do not collect this much data. Data about an individual is the most valuable. IBM estimates that each lost record will cost the company $180 in 2021. This cost will only increase in the future. So you need to learn how to create a secure mobile application and avoid risks. Identifying whether your app is safe You can do the safety audit in several ways: Internal audit - conduct your own pen-test or analysis of the application's security; External audit - include cyber-security specialists in the audit. Security analysis and pen-testing are two different things. During a pen-test, the attacker attempts to find a vulnerability and exploit it to cause maximum damage. In the security analysis, the goal is to cover as many threats as possible using the most tools. Both tools, however, rely on the same requirements - the security standards. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is an independent, international, non-profit organization. OWASP compiles and publishes the top 10 vulnerabilities in digital products every year. OWASP As an open initiative, the project issues no certificates. Even so, OWASP is today the standard in cyber-security all over the world. In order to assess the safety of your product, you should use the top 10 OWASPs. External cyber-security experts also use these guidelines. Every three to four years, the rating is updated. Here's what it looked like in 2021: FamilyGo experience: detecting threats and fixing them Our security analysis of the mobile application will be used as an example to show what threats the scan can uncover and how they should be handled. FamilyGo The application includes a GPS tracker, messenger, task manager, SOS button, radio, and baby monitor. In a nutshell, it provides everything you need to communicate with loved ones and solve everyday problems: monitor the safety of children and stay in constant contact with relatives. No data is stored on the server, nor is it transferred to developers or third parties. Because all data is encrypted and stored on users' devices, only participants can access it. We want to create a completely secure space where loved ones can communicate without being invaded by strangers. E2E encryption based on Signal protocol protects the transmitted information. Information is transmitted via asymmetric encryption - a pair of public and private keys is generated for the sender and recipient, without which the correspondence cannot be decrypted. The private key is stored on the phone and is never shared. To get started, no phone number or other details are required. The application generates an anonymous login automatically after installation. Adding members to the chat is as simple as sending them an invitation code or scanning a QR code. How the Audit was Conducted An information security audit is essential to the project. We wanted to build an application that was as secure as possible. Thus, we decided to conduct a comprehensive analysis with the help of external experts. Android and iOS versions, as well as the API, have been tested. All work has been done using a "black box." This means the cyber-security experts did not have access to the application code. The audit revealed the following: 12 vulnerabilities in an Android application: 2 are high, 3 are medium, and 7 are low risk; 12 vulnerabilities in an iPhone application: one is high, 6 are medium, and 5 are low risk; the API used by the mobile application has 2 low-severity vulnerabilities. Taking a Breath This is where we pause to explain the meaning of these degrees of risk. Audits help both to identify vulnerabilities and to categorize them according to the level of risk they pose. OWASP defines three categories of vulnerability: high, medium, and low: High - Vulnerabilities can lead to remote access, the execution of arbitrary code by an attacker, and the disclosure of confidential information; Medium - Vulnerabilities have limited impact, but can be exploited to obtain sensitive information, which, when combined with other vulnerabilities, allows for remote access; Low - do not pose a direct threat, but can be utilized to collect information and develop attack vectors. Everything is simple in theory. The application is unsafe if a vulnerability exists, and the issue needs to be resolved. A high vulnerability is very bad, you must act immediately. Low - also not very good, but tolerable, can be reduced to some extent. In reality, the audit results are much more complicated. Vulnerabilities: causes, risks, and remedies OWASP classifier is somewhat like a "spherical cow in a vacuum". It is a great concept, but unreal. You can create a highly secure application by using the checklist above. The ideal patient, however, is a dead one. Be prepared that vulnerabilities from the checklist that are related to your application's architecture and business logic will not be regarded as vulnerabilities when you check it against OWASP. Let's say you have a food delivery application that OWASP says is insecure because it includes a 4-character pin code. Although in terms of common sense, who needs an 8-digit password to protect a list of favorite cheeses? The OWASP classifier found 12 vulnerabilities in the our application. Of these, only two were really serious and critical. Ten vulnerabilities could hardly be considered vulnerabilities: they either contradicted the business logic or could not be repaired conceptually. Two critical vulnerabilities: The password generation algorithm is insecure (medium risk). This vulnerability was associated with the generation of a random login value. We have changed the algorithm to completely prevent data repetition; Storage of sensitive data in local storage is insecure (high risk). Using this vulnerability, the auditors were able to access the database on the phone using the key that was stored in the RAM. We have fixed this problem by changing the mechanism and making it dynamic. Major Outcomes Here is a summary of what the audit found and what problems were corrected. The audit identified 12 vulnerabilities: one obsolete component - was not repairable; two superuser rights and ROM data - partially fixed; nine threats were completely fixed, despite the inconsistencies, redundancy, and apparent failure of these threats on our application. Why did we do that? Our team felt it was crucial to create a product that protects user data as much as possible. There is no 100% secure, unhackable application. When you pick up your phone or log on to your computer, the threat immediately appears. In this case, only the cost of hacking determines the level of security. The more difficult it is for an attacker to gain access to your data and the more expensive the attack, the more secure the application. When a super level is achieved, it is easier to take you captive and find out everything on your own than to break all the defense systems. In the light of our security analysis and the results of the study, we can proudly state that FamilyGo has nearly reached the point where hacking is pretty much meaningless - accessing user data is too expensive. Conclusion: A few tips for securing your app Tip #1 - increase your own expertise. As practice shows, an external audit may not always be relevant to your project. Train developers and help them improve their skills. Create internal checklists and standards before every release. Tip #2 - monitor the situation constantly. If a new function is implemented, immediately check whether it meets the requirements, if there is a memory leak. Check for updates to the operating system and libraries at least once a year. Tip #3 - don't neglect external evaluation. You shouldn't assume that the OWASP requirements don't correspond to reality at all, and you can do it on your own. In addition to looking at the product from the point of view of business logic, it is also necessary to consider it from an independent standpoint. A comprehensive audit can help you identify the shortcomings you might not have noticed otherwise. Tip #4 - get ready to invest. At least 30% of the budget should be allocated to the development of internal competencies, the hunt for security specialists, penetration tests, and analyses. Our own experience shows that security is indeed very expensive. When you work with the product, keep this in mind, because hackers can cause much more damage.

OWASP Audit: How to Make Sure Your App is Secure

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