I always get excited when I see projects that integrate both blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. Now, I’m feeling even more intrigued because I came across a project that not only merges blockchain and AI but also involves the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. It’s interesting! I’m going to explore Aperture Finance and see how it is working to revolutionize the DeFi space. To understand Aperture Finance, we first need to grasp the concept of AI-powered intents. In the DeFi sector, many processes can be quite complex.

Aperture Fore-play🔹

Often, users have to switch between different platforms to complete trades or manage other financial tasks. This can be time-consuming and cumbersome. Aperture Finance addresses this challenge with an innovative solution called AI-powered intents. But what exactly are AI-powered intents? They are designed by Aperture Finance to simplify the complex processes involved in decentralized and digitalized finance. Instead of needing to jump between multiple platforms, AI-powered intents streamline these actions, making the user experience much smoother and more efficient.

AI Powdered Intents

In essence, these intents abstract away the complexity, allowing users to focus on their financial activities without dealing with the technical hurdles. So, with Aperture Finance, you’re not just getting access to DeFi—you’re getting a seamless experience where complex processes are made easy. It removes the need for users to worry about the technical details, making DeFi more accessible to everyone. For example, Liquidity Intents allow users to specify parameters like price thresholds and acceptable swap impacts when interacting with liquidity pools (such as Uniswap V3).

💠💠💠

Noteworthy is the fact that these techniques cut across advanced execution and pricing mechanisms previously reserved for professional trading firms. Aperture’s system then automates the execution, finding the most favourable results via AI-driven simulations.

🔷 🔷 🔷

Manning Aperture's system is its AI-powered solver network, consisting of : Decentralized Network of Solvers, the network that receives user intents (such as adding liquidity or swapping tokens) and proposes transaction flows. Each transaction flow is simulated and ranked by Aperture’s smart contracts based on parameters like pricing and execution efficiency. AI-driven smart solvers perform these simulations, finding the best route for a transaction, ensuring that each user’s financial goals are met optimally, without them having to manually manage the complexity of each trade.

At The Heart

In the list of their innovations is another one in a higher echelon. It is no other than the IntentsGBT, an AI powered User interface simplifying interactions with DeFi protocol. Thus innovation basically allows users to make natural Langage inputs. Users can articulate their financial goals in plain language, and the system translates these into a domain-specific language (DSL) that solvers can understand. Example: A user might state, "I want to add liquidity if ETH drops to $1,800," and the system will translate this intent into the necessary DeFi operations to achieve that.

(don't mind the rumpy-dumpy word😂).

I don't know if anything is clicking in your memory right now, I mean…you should be seeing how helpful this is…😉 —this approach democratizes advanced DeFi strategies, making them accessible to both expert traders and newcomers alike. Aperture finance takes their innovation extra mile, by offering a suite of advanced tools designed to streamline DeFi interactions: Intent API, allowing developers to integrate Aperture’s intent framework into their own applications, creating hassle-free DeFi solutions.

Advanced Tools

Uni V3 Tools: tools that leverage Uniswap V3’s advanced liquidity features, providing users the opportunity to set dynamic parameters like price range rebalancing.

🟦🟦🟦

The native token of Aperture finance is $APTR, and it is a utility token. What are the use cases?Governance$APTR token holders can stake their tokens to participate in governance. Their individual voting power depends on both the amount of staked tokens and their staking history. Governance decisions include:<ul><li>Adjusting platform fee parameters.</li><li>Partnerships and token swaps with DeFi protocols.</li><li>Tokenomics and distribution schedules.</li><li>Deployment of Aperture DAO treasury capital.</li><li>Incentives for community builders and third-party developers.</li></ul>

$APTR

Payment for Platform Fees $APTR tokens can be used to pay fees where users will be offered a 5% discount compared to payments in Ethereum or other tokens. These tokens are burned immediately after use, and periodic reports will disclose the total number of burned tokens. Solver Slashing Third-party Solvers (Solver DAOs) must stake $APTR tokens to deploy on the Aperture Solver Network. Solvers with the best performance are rewarded. On the other hand, those involved in malicious acts or failures will be penalised by slashing their staked tokens.

Risk Coverage Liquidity provision in risk coverage pools on platforms like Nexus Mutual, InsurAce, and Unslashed is incentivised by Aperture finance. This is to mitigate potential risks like bridge failures or security vulnerabilities. Aperture aims to enhance its DeFi ecosystem by fostering growth, transparency, and community engagement, with the launch of $APTR.

It is also worthy to note that Aperture’s revenue model is based on fees, with two main solutions currently: 1. Liquidity Intents (Uniswap V3, PancakeSwap V3)Fee: $0.15 + 0.07% of the swap amount required for automated rebalancing, recurring rebalancing, reinvestment, and position management. 2. Swaps (ApertureSwap)Fee: 0.15% on specific pairs (Manta L2).Revenue is allocated thus:20% to $APTR token stakers.80% to the Aperture DAO treasury. This fee split can be adjusted based on governance decisions or community feedback that is, before governance launches.

Revenue

Aperture Finance is committed to revolutionizing DeFi through AI-driven innovation. They plan to further develop their in-tent GPT and enhance their SolverDAO, continuously pushing the boundaries of blockchain and DeFi innovation to create seamless user experiences.

While some may have questions or concerns about Aperture Finance, there’s optimism around its potential. Personally, I’m bullish on Aperture because simplifying processes will make DeFi more accessible to both newcomers and experienced traders. This focus on ease of use will help democratize their products, ensuring they aren’t controlled by a small group of experts, but available to a wider audience. Dyor<a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/aperture-finance/">CoinMarketCap</a> <a href="https://medium.com/@aperturefinance/apertures-litepaper-5c988ead5b78">Aperture on Medium </a><a href="https://youtu.be/sJQ4Uj8OvfM?si=dadyshAn1VLkh4PX">Aperture on CoinMarketCap YT video</a>

NFA :: DYOR

I got so thrilled by this project, I couldn't resist learning about it.

crypto

Cryptocurrency

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

product

Product & Design

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

softwareengineering

Software Engineering

Aperture Finance (41)

BIP 39 stands for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 39. When you hear BIP 39, think of mnemonic phrases or seed phrases. It's either you choose to think of mnemonics or you choose to think of seed phrases. Initially for Bitcoin, BIP 39 was and still is a proposal, as the name suggests, outlining the standards for creating and backing up a cryptocurrency wallet using a mnemonic (memory-friendly) phrase. That's a definite definition. Think of it as a strategy to ensure that private keys are easily stored and easily committed to memory if need be.

Definite Definition

Remember, I said that this proposal was originally for Bitcoin, however, because of its effectiveness and simplicity, it is now used in various other blockchains. Imagine having a bag (crypto wallet) where you store your valuables (cryptocurrencies) and the only way to open the bag and access your valuables is by knowing a randomly generated string of letters and numbers. BIP 39 makes it possible that those string of letters and numbers can be easily stored, remembered, and used to recover your wallet(s) by converting them to a list of memorable words.

BIP 39 Doings

that cryptocurrencies are not stored in wallets?If crypto wallets aren't storage spaces, then what are they? A crypto wallet is just an application that stores your private and public keys so that you can be able to access your crypto tokens in the blockchain. The private key is secret, and that is why we're always asked not to reveal our private keys. They are, in fact, PRIVATE, literally. They're the gateway to our funds. Public keys are literally, PUBLIC. They are your wallet addresses, so someone that wants to send funds to you will need your public keys…in other words, your wallet address.

Did you know...

If you have a bank account, the public key is like your account number. When someone gets your account number, they can't use it to access your account. On the other hand, your password or pin to access your account, and in most banks for making transactions, is likened to your private key in the crypto space. Of course, you don't want to share that with anyone because you know that with that they can access your account and siphon your hard-earned money. Many cases have occurred where individuals lost access to their crypto due to losing private keys (the secret string of characters).

Analogically...

This is a bad omen.And that is what BIP 39 has come to solve, helping us generate a seed phrase, which is easier to store and recover.Actually, the discourse of BIP 39 will require us to look at two different types of wallets:Deterministic and Non-deterministic walletsDeterministic wallets: As the name suggests, these wallets allow the creation of multiple crypto accounts using a single mnemonic phrase. This means that, by restoring the wallet with the same phrase on any device, all accounts linked to that phrase will be accessible.

🔻🔻🔻

Think of it as rooms in a house, but they all have the same key.Reiterating, if you use BIP 39 to create a wallet on your computer today, and you switch to a phone next year, as long as you enter the same seed phrase, your accounts (like account 1, 2, 3…) will appear in the same order. Non-deterministic wallets: These wallets generate private keys for each account without using seed phrases, making it harder to back up. One will need to store each of the keys differently, and this can become cumbersome. Think of it like trying to memorize different passwords for each building in your house.

💢💢💢

First off, it starts by generating a random set of numbers called Entropy. The number of bits in the entropy (128, 160, 192, 224, or 256) dictates how many words will be in the seed phrase (12, 15, 18, 21, or 24 words). Then, the entropy is converted to binary ones and zeros which the computer can understand. Using a predefined set of 2048 words, where words are carefully selected to avoid confusion (e.g., "there" and "their" won’t both appear on the list), each group of binary digits corresponds to a word. For example, converting "011011" to "apple," "110010" to "banana," and so on.

How does BIP 39 work?

The random binary string is then turned into a list of easy-to-remember words (the seed phrase).The last word in the seed phrase acts as a Checksum, like an inbuilt security feature. It ensures that the seed phrase hasn’t been mistyped and helps verify its integrity, meaning that the last word can’t be randomly chosen by you—it’s generated by the computer for accuracy. Once you have the seed phrase, the wallet can reconvert it back into the private keys for your crypto accounts whenever it is necessary.You can recover the same wallet on any device using this seed phrase.

Mnemonic phrases are so important because writing down long strings of numbers and/or letters can lead to mistakes; however, using words can make it easier to store and remember. For instance, it is easier to remember “banana, apple, car, goat” than to remember “64523649844524.”

Significance?

BIP 39 is highly secure because no matter what device or software you use, you always get the same wallet setup if you input the same seed phrase, hence, it's deterministic. It's a one-way process, such that once the private keys are created from the seed phrase, there’s no way to reverse the process and figure out the original seed phrase. It is highly improbable that any two individuals can accidentally generate the same seed phrases, hence, it is collision-resistant.

Security Features

Despite these security features of BIP 39, vulnerabilities can arise from human errors where someone might accidentally type their seed phrase into a phishing website or store it in a place that others can access. This begs the need to keep your private keys offline and private.

⭕⭕⭕

Brute force attacks can actually be used to guess someone's seed phrase. But... it is also very unlikely. Brute force refers to trying different combinations of words, and for a 12-word seed phrase, there are 5.44 by (10 to the power of 39) different possibilities.Even with the fastest computers available, it would take billions of years to guess a 12-word seed phrase by brute force.

Overall, because BIP 39 simplifies the creation and securing of crypto wallets, it has become a widely adopted standard. One just needs to keep a list of words safe instead of managing complex cryptographic keys, making crypto more accessible and user-friendly for newbies and OGs alike.PS:The height of it all is to keep 'em keys safe and secure. Write it down somewhere, keep those potatoes safe, and never share the chips with ANYONE—or you could send yours to my DM 😂. <a href="https://youtu.be/vi4cPN_4VPc?si=v4carOiCOmieAz9X">Dyor</a>

♨️♨️♨️

I asked someone to write about it so that I can learn it, but he didn't, so I did.

cybersecurity

Cybersecurity

computerscience

Computer Science

BIP 39 (J22)

Special thanks to Veritasium for making this informative video. Veritasium is a YouTube channel that is geared at finding out the truth about concepts, phenomena, and whatever there is in the world, one at a time. Do well to check it out, and subscribe—you'll surely not regret it. Quick Response (QR) codes are a type of two-dimensional barcode that store information in a grid of black and white squares.

An Element Of Truth

Unlike traditional barcodes that only store data horizontally, QR codes store data both horizontally and vertically, giving them a much higher capacity to hold information—up to thousands of characters in comparison to the 12 digits a barcode can hold. The origin of QR codes can be traced to Morse codes. Morse codes were created in the 1800s, using dots and dashes to communicate letters through electrical pulses. This basic idea of encoding information into symbols birthed barcodes in the 1950s, which used lines of varying widths to encode numbers.

Morse

As time went on, barcodes became essential for tracking and identifying products. But there was a problem… Companies that wanted to store and track more information, such as tracking where products come from or embedding URLs, couldn't do that because barcodes had limited storage capacity. Now, we will see why QR codes were invented. Sometime in the 1990s, someone became frustrated with scanning multiple barcodes on auto parts, as that was a slow and inefficient repetitive process. That individual is the enigmatic Engineer Masahiro Hara, who at the time worked in the Japanese company DENSO.

Barcodes → QR Codes

Inspired by the Japanese board game Go, he thought of extending barcodes into two dimensions, making a grid of data instead of lines. This new grid format allows for far more data storage in less space and can be scanned from different angles, leading to the creation of QR codes.

Chinese x Japanese x Korean

Now, this is the technical part of QR codes. Let's see the basic components of any QR code: The three large squares in the corners, which help the scanner know the orientation of the code, making it readable from any angle. They are called the POSITION MARKERS. The lines connecting the position squares (like zebra crossings), which help the scanner detect how large the grid is; they are called TIMING STRIPS. Small squares within the code, which help adjust for distortion when the QR code is viewed from different angles, called the ALIGNMENT PATTERNS.

Parts?

The Data consists of the rest of the small squares (black = 1, white = 0), which encode the actual information in binary (1s and 0s).

When you scan a QR code, the camera breaks it down into ones and zeros (binary code). This binary sequence is then decoded to reveal the text, link, or other information stored within the code. Each character in a QR code is encoded using an ASCII encoding system, similar to how Morse code assigns a number to each letter. For example, the word “HELLO” would be broken down into binary like this: H = 72 (in binary: 01001000) E = 69 (in binary: 01000101) L = 76 (in binary: 01001100) O = 79 (in binary: 01001111) These binary codes are then arranged in the grid of the QR code.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SCAN A QR CODE?

It's worth noting that a mathematical technique known as the Reed-Solomon error correction is used to design QR codes to be error-tolerant. (Have you read about BFT? Does this ring a bell?)This is to say that a QR code can still be scanned successfully, even if part of the code is damaged or dirty.

You Could Read About BFT, I Wrote About

QR codes can be set to four different hierarchies of error correction:Low (7%): Up to 7% of the code can be damaged. Medium (15%): 15% of the code can be damaged. Quartile (25%): 25% of the code can be damaged. High (30%): Up to 30% of the code can be damaged or obscured, but it will still work. This system is what makes it possible for logos or designs to be incorporated into QR codes. If a portion of a QR code becomes unreadable (due to damage or a misprint), error correction kicks in.

Echelons Of Tolerated Errors

Analogically, imagine you send a message that includes numbers. Before sending it, you also add a few extra numbers (just like adding spare parts) that allow the receiver to double-check if there were any mistakes. When the receiver gets your message, they can use these extra numbers to detect errors (wrong numbers or missing numbers) and even fix them. In QR codes, the error correction system allows the missing or incorrect parts of the grid to be recrafted. This is why you can scan a QR code that’s partially damaged or dirty.

Error Correction

Since we have understood that QR codes store more data than barcodes, how much data can they store? The amount of data a QR code stores depends on the size since they come in different sizes. Version 1 QR code is a 21x21 grid, capable of holding about 25 alphanumeric characters. Version 40, the largest-sized QR code, has a 177x177 grid and can hold about 4,296 alphanumeric characters or 3 kilobytes of data. For an IRL instance, you can store an entire URL, a small document, or even a simple game within a QR code!

Data Capacity

Countries like China use QR codes widely to make purchases through their indigenous apps like WeChat and others like Alipay. I can't relate to this though, lol. Accessing links is now easier with QR codes. You don't necessarily need to type it in. I have actually done this a whole lot of times. Physical menus and tickets have been replaced with QR codes in many restaurants and event venues. I once registered for an event and received a QR code as my ticket. Manufacturers can use QR codes to track product history, origin, or even shipping routes, as well as monitor the authenticity of products.

Use Cases

In essence, QR codes are pivotal as they have bridged the gap between human needs and machine efficiency, simplifying many processes in our digital worldRemember, a fellow human like me and you invented it from something unlikely. So stay motivated and curious! DYOR <a href="https://youtu.be/w5ebcowAJD8?si=GQkT-3kAdaZsCQr-">YouTube</a> <a href="https://x.com/Xhesra/status/1839722220962103359">BFT</a><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code">WIKIPEDIA</a>

When Veritasium uploaded the video on YT, I was amazed. I thought it best to write about it.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

QR codes (T10)

When you hear Arcium, think of “using encrypted data without decryption.” Full stop.

This is basically what Arcium has come to do in the web3 space. A little story: I and my 4 friends want to create a secret recipe for an amazing soup. We all want to work together, but we don't want to reveal our personal ingredients for the soup. Thinking of how to solve the problem? We get a magical box. We all put our ingredients in the box, and the box produces the soup for us. This way, we made an amazing soup, using our top-notch secret ingredients without revealing what those ingredients are.

Story As Usual

Analogically, my friends and I are institutions that may want to collaborate together. The soup could be any useful result for which we are working together, e.g., training an AI model for diagnostic purposes. The secret ingredients represent sensitive information, like personal information from patients' medical history and stuff. Last but not least, the magic box is ARCIUM.

Critiquing The Analogy

Definitively, Arcium is the first parallelized confidential computing network empowering developers and applications to flexibly access trustless, verifiable, and performant computing power. Think of it as a worldwide supercomputer using cutting-edge cryptography to allow encrypted data to be processed securely without exposing (decrypting) that data. Fundamentally, Arcium aims to solve the problem of “how sensitive data is processed in the web3 space.”

<a href="https://x.com/yrschrade">Yannik Schrade</a> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannik-schrade?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app">LinkedIn</a> <a href="https://x.com/manzgoeggel">Lukas Steiner</a> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-ste?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app">LinkedIn</a> <a href="https://x.com/julian_arcium">Julian Deschler </a> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliandeschler?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app">LinkedIn</a> founded Arcium in the year 2022 in Baar, Switzerland. PS : embedded link is to X profile

Founders Connect And Year Founded

Data is at the core of everything we do online. From browsing the web to making online purchases or sharing files, our data can exist in three states: At Rest: Stored on a device, like photos or videos on your phone. In Transit: Moving from one place to another, like when you send an email. In Use: Being processed, like when a computer calculates your taxes. Some people already know how to protect data when it’s at rest (using passwords) or in transit (using SSL encryption), but data in use has traditionally been hard to secure.

LET'S SEE THE WORKINGS OF ARCIUM.

Conventionally, when you send data—say an email, a photo, or a text—it has to be decrypted before being processed, and this leaves it vulnerable to hacks. Arcium ensures that data remains encrypted even while being processed, making it highly secure.

Where Arcium Steps In.

Multi-Party Computation (MPC), which is like having multiple people work on different pieces of a puzzle without anyone seeing the full picture, is one of the technologies employed by Arcium to ensure this protection. Using this analogical explanation for MPC, when the pieces are brought together, the puzzle is solved without anyone knowing what the entire puzzle looks like. Other technologies used include Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs).

I have already explained analogically how MPC works, but here is another analogy according to Whiteboard Crypto: Let’s say five healthcare companies want to work together to build an AI model for cancer diagnosis. They all have patient data, but sharing it directly is illegal or risky due to privacy laws. Instead, they break the data into smaller, meaningless pieces and distribute these pieces among each other. None of the companies have access to full data, but by combining their pieces, they can train the AI without compromising any patient’s privacy.

WBC's Analogy

As of the time of documentation, Arcium has no native token. Some notable investors in Arcium include:<a href="https://www.x.com/greenfield_cap">Greenfield Capital</a><a href="https://www.x.com/cbventures">Coinbase Ventures</a><a href="https://www.x.com/HeartcoreCap">Heartcore Capital</a><a href="https://www.x.com/LongHashVC">Longhash VC</a>L2 Iterative Ventures, Staking Facilities, Smape Capital, and Everstake. Check out this <a href="https://x.com/Echoeweb/status/1788806946893509076">tweet by Echoesweb</a> for more on the investors

Investors

It can be used for secret voting in DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), where no one can see how you voted, but the system remains verifiable and trustworthy. With Arcium, players can play on-chain games like poker, where players’ hands are kept confidential without relying on a central server. In situations where DeFi users want to keep their trades private, Arcium makes provision for things like encrypted order books—a way to keep trade details secure, preventing market manipulation.

Some use cases for Arcium:

Arcium provides opportunities for companies to train AI models using sensitive data like patient information or financial data without ever revealing that data to anyone else, revolutionizing the healthcare and finance landscape, where privacy is critical.

Although Arcium is based on the Solana blockchain, it aims to expand to other chains, bringing massive innovation to sectors like AI, finance, gaming, and even government services in the future. In summary, Arcium is revolutionizing how we think of data security, making it feasible and seamless for businesses, developers, and even regular users to use and share data safely in ways that were previously impossible. <a href="https://youtu.be/mj24WOShyC8?si=wBK7YKf_c5q-awZv">DYOR, do your own research</a> <a href="https://docs.arcium.com/">Arcium docs</a>

A Look Ahead

YANNIK SCHRADE

LUKAS STEINER

JULIAN DESCHLER

I watched the YT video by Whiteboard crypto and decided to write.

Arcium (BC9)

It's hard to reach conclusions in our world. Someone once said that people don't like to think because if they think, they will reach conclusions, and conclusions are not always pleasant. Although this analogy doesn’t perfectly fit what Byzantine Fault Tolerance is, it highlights something crucial in this discussion: reaching conclusions, or in other words, achieving consensus.

Helen Keller 👀?

We will take a look at what Byzantine Fault Tolerance is, exploring what it means for a system to be Byzantine Fault Tolerant. We might even delve into the Byzantine Generals Problem and the different varieties of Byzantine Fault Tolerance. Let’s start with a little story:Some kids want to either go fishing or play console games. They must agree on which one to do because it has to be a collective decision. However, there's an issue. Some kids are troublesome and treacherous.

Story Story?

They don't care about the group decision. They're only looking out for themselves, and in fact, they don't want to go fishing or play console at all. They also don’t want the event to succeed, and for any event to be successful, all the kids must be present. These treacherous kids start convincing some others to play console instead of going fishing. Then, they go to a different group of kids and tell them to go fishing instead of playing console.

If each group of kids does what they’ve been told by these troublemakers, the event will fail. This is an analogy to explain the Byzantine Generals Problem.When you hear BFT, just think of the special property of a blockchain that allows it to continue working properly, even if some nodes are faulty or malicious. Now, let’s get technical… The Byzantine Generals Problem was hypothesized by Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak, and Marshall Pease in 1982.

The Story Cont'd

Technically, Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) refers to the ability of a distributed system to tolerate Byzantine faults. A Byzantine Fault occurs when a distributed system receives conflicting information, making it impossible to reach a decision or take a unified action. The Byzantine Generals Problem is a well-known analogy used to explain this fault. Imagine multiple generals, each commanding an army, planning to either invade a city or retreat.

BFT, And The Generals

Success requires all generals to act together—either invade or retreat—but the challenge arises when some generals act maliciously, sending conflicting orders. Some might tell others to invade while planning to retreat themselves. To prevent failure, the loyal generals must find a way to agree on a plan, even if some messages are false. In blockchain systems, the generals represent computers or nodes, while the malicious actors or faulty components are analogous to the traitorous generals.

Traitors...

A system that continues to function correctly, even when some nodes fail or act maliciously, is said to have Byzantine Fault Tolerance. In centralized systems, BFT is unnecessary because decision-making is controlled by a central authority. However, in decentralized systems, like blockchains, where no central authority exists, BFT is essential to keep the network running smoothly, even when some participants try to disrupt it.

There are many ways to solve the Byzantine Fault (or Byzantine Generals Problem), especially in blockchain systems, where consensus mechanisms are widely used. Here are some notable solutions: <ol><li>Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT)</li><li>Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT)</li><li>Federated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (fBFT)</li><li>Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (aBFT)</li><li>Synchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance</li><li>Tendermint Consensus</li><li>Q/U Protocol</li><li>Honey Badger BFT</li></ol>

Tackling BF.

Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) This solution is common in blockchain technology today. Here, when a node receives a transaction, it broadcasts the transaction to other nodes. If the majority of nodes confirm that the transaction is valid, it gets validated and added to the blockchain. pBFT operates efficiently when fewer than one-third of the nodes are faulty or acting maliciously.

Now, let's take a look at five of these solutions:

Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance In dBFT, not every node needs to agree on every transaction. Instead, the network elects a smaller group of representatives (validators) to handle transaction validation. These representatives are chosen by the nodes and can be voted out if they act maliciously. This system is democratic and reduces the complexity of reaching consensus across large networks

(dBFT)

Federated Byzantine Fault Tolerance fBFT works based on trust groups. Smaller groups, called federations, are established within the network. Each federation reaches consensus internally, and then the different federations coordinate to reach consensus across the entire network. fBFT simplifies the consensus process by breaking it down into manageable, smaller groups.

(fBFT)

Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance aBFT is used in systems where there is no guaranteed communication time. Even when messages between nodes are delayed or lost, consensus still needs to be reached. aBFT employs sophisticated algorithms to handle these delays, making it more flexible than Synchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance, which requires strict time guarantees for message delivery.

Synchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance In contrast to aBFT, Synchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance requires a reliable communication system, where nodes work based on a known, guaranteed message delay. Nodes act within this time limit, and if a message delay exceeds the expected timeframe, the system can respond to prevent faults from disrupting the network.

sBFT? 👀

Wow…we've come a long way. I hope this article has been able to educate you about the not-so-talked-about Byzantine Fault that Blockchains overcome in order to serve us the way it does. Do you think this solutions are reliable enough to mitigate the risk posed by the Byzantine Generals Problem? Thank you for stashing knowledge for yourself.

Closing Remark

Took me two days. Let's keep stashing knowledge.

BFT (J20)

Salesforce is a SaaS (Software as a Service) company. It's an IT firm that helps businesses manage their relationships with customers. They have acquired numerous companies and don’t plan to stop anytime soon as they continue expanding the cloud technology landscape. Yeeeehhhhh!!! Today, it's Salesforce! <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/salesforce">Salesforce LinkedIn</a> | <a href="https://x.com/salesforce">Salesforce on X (Twitter)</a> But what is Salesforce? Is it to sell by force? Or maybe the forces that drive sales? Or is it just another term for digital marketers? Let's demystify this bogglesome word.

KEY FACTS

Think of Salesforce as a company that helps businesses keep track of their customers. That’s its core. Salesforce fundamentally helps businesses to: Keep track of important customer details like contact info, past purchases, and communication history. Sell products. Market new offerings. Assist customers with their problems. Analyze data to make better business decisions—and more.The best part? Everything is done online. Businesses just need to log in and do whatever they need without installing software or managing servers or hardware.

Wen Asked...

Remember when we discussed cloud computing? Remember SaaS?Yes!!! Salesforce is exactly that—a software as a service. Salesforce is an American IT, cloud-based company specializing in helping businesses manage customer relationships through their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. It also offers tools to assist businesses with: Sales E-commerce Marketing Customer service App development Analytics

With about 72,682 employees as of 2024, Salesforce was founded by Marc Benioff (former Oracle executive) <a href="https://x.com/Benioff">Marc Benioff on</a> X | <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbenioff?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_mweb&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile">LinkedIn</a>, Parker Harris <a href="https://x.com/parkerharris">Parker Harris on X </a>| <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/parker-harris-451040211?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_mweb&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile">LinkedIn</a>, Dave Moellenhoff <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-moellenhoff-b139?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_mweb&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile">LinkedIn</a>, and Frank Dominguez on February 3, 1999. The company's headquarters are in Salesforce Tower, San Francisco, California, with Marc Benioff serving as Chairman and CEO. In 2024, Salesforce realized $34.86 billion in revenue and an accruing net income of $4.136 billion<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce"> (Wikipedia).</a> Salesforce’s corporate culture is rooted in the Hawaiian concept of “Ohana,” meaning family.

Overview

Through its cloud platform, Salesforce provides a wide array of services, including: E-commerce solutions for online businesses. Customer support software to enhance customer service. Marketing automation tools to streamline marketing efforts. Data analytics and software creation tools. Sales automation tools to help businesses manage and improve their sales processes.

Value they offer?

Quip (collaborative productivity software) Heroku (cloud application platform) Acumen Solutions (business consulting) Tableau (data visualization software) MuleSoft (data integration software) Slack Technologies (business communication), and more.

Notable subsidiaries

Globally, Salesforce operates in 110 offices, including prominent cities like Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, and Tel Aviv. After its establishment in 1999, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, and Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET, invested early in the company.Salesforce experienced rapid growth despite coinciding with the challenges of the dot-com bubble. With its notable "end of software" marketing, Salesforce gained traction, increasing its revenue from $5.4 million in 2001 to over $100 million by 2003. That same year, Salesforce held its first Dreamforce conference.

Let’s take a look at how far Salesforce has come ⤵️

In 2004, Salesforce went public on the NYSE under the ticker CRM, raising $110 million. In 2006, it launched IdeaExchange, an innovative platform for customer feedback. During the same period, it acquired Sendia, a mobile web service, for $15 million, and Keiden, an online advertising service. In 2007, Salesforce acquired Moral, a software for content management. By 2008, Salesforce made significant strides by acquiring Intranet for $31.5 million, getting added to the S&P 500 index, and switching its servers from Sun Microsystems to Dell servers running on Linux.

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Upon reaching $1 billion in annual revenue in 2009, Salesforce introduced Service Cloud, designed for customer service management. This was also when the company began investing in startups, which eventually led to the creation of Salesforce Ventures (SFV), headed by John Somorjai. Salesforce Ventures supports startups, especially those focused on cloud computing. In 2010, Salesforce acquired Jigsaw, a cloud data service, for $142 million, Heroku for a whopping $212 million, and Activa Live Chat.

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In 2011, Salesforce acquired Dimdim, a web conferencing tool, for $31 million, along with Radian6, a social media tracking software for $340 million, and RYPPLE, a performance management tool. In 2012, Salesforce continued expanding, acquiring Buddy Media (social media marketing) for $689 million and GoInstant (browser collaboration) for $70 million. Despite these accomplishments, the following years saw even more mind-boggling expansion. In 2013, Salesforce partnered with Oracle and acquired ExactTarget (email marketing) for $2.5 billion.

⛓️⛓️⛓️,

In 2014, Salesforce launched the Salesforce1 fund via Salesforce Ventures to support startups building mobile applications. That same year, it acquired RelateIQ (data) for $390 million and launched Trailhead, a free learning platform. The Salesforce UK data center was also established that year to comply with European data regulations. In 2015, Salesforce acquired SteelBrick (software) for $360 million.

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Salesforce's acquisition spree continued into 2016. It acquired Demandware (e-commerce) for $2.8 billion and Quip (word processing) for $750 million. Salesforce also integrated an AI model called Einstein into its services. To meet data residency requirements in certain countries, it began using Amazon Web Services.

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In 2017, Salesforce acquired Sequence (user experience design), followed by MuleSoft (cloud services) for $6.5 billion in 2018, as well as Rebel (email services) and Datorama (AI marketing). As of August 2018, Salesforce Ventures had invested $1 billion in 275 companies, including notable names like: CloudCraze (e-commerce) Figure Eight (artificial intelligence) Forter (online fraud prevention) FinancialForce (automation software)

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That same year, Salesforce expanded its support for startups by launching the Japanese Trailblazer Fund, investing in Japanese startups. In 2019, Salesforce made a massive acquisition, purchasing Tableau (data analytics) for $15.7 billion. Salesforce also made significant investments in companies like: Domo (data visualization) SurveyMonkey (online surveys) Twilio (cloud communications) Dropbox (cloud storage) DocuSign (e-signature services)

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In 2020, Salesforce joined the prestigious Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing ExxonMobil and remaining there to date. This year also saw the stepping down of Co-CEO Keith Block, leaving Marc Benioff as the sole CEO.

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A Hallmark Year: Salesforce made its largest acquisition ever by acquiring Slack (office messaging) for $27.7 billion. During the same period, Salesforce appointed Bret Taylor as co-CEO. However, the company also laid off about 8,000 employees (10% of its workforce) due to over-hiring during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Salesforce Ventures saw investments generating a $2.17 billion annual gain.

2021

In 2022, Salesforce acquired Troops.ai (Slack-bot maker) and Airkit.ai (AI customer service apps). The company ranked 126th on the Fortune 500 list, reporting $26.49 billion in revenue, marking a 25% increase from the previous year. In September, Salesforce also became the world’s largest enterprise software company by ranking 61st globally in terms of market value at $153 billion.

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In 2023, Salesforce doubled the size of its Generative AI Fund from $250 million to $500 million to support AI startups. During the same period, Co-CEO Bret Taylor stepped down. Salesforce also laid off an additional 700 employees and acquired Spiff (commission management). Talks to acquire Informatica were held but later abandoned. Salesforce ranked 491st on the 2023 Fortune 500 list.

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In 2024, Salesforce continued its acquisition streak by acquiring Own (backup solutions) for $1.9 billion, along with PredictSpring and Tenyx. They also launched Einstein Copilot: Health Actions, an AI assistant for healthcare tasks like managing appointments and patient data.

🧊🧊

Salesforce has come a veeeeery loooooooong way! Salesforce’s acquisitions have played a critical role in keeping the company ahead in the cloud technology space. Ultimately, Salesforce remains pumped for more acquisitions, innovative solutions, and pioneering revolutions in the tech industry, especially in cloud computing and cloud technologies.Thank you for reading 🫰You're visionary

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business

Business

Salesforce (TC6)

DYOR

Imagine a situation where machines can learn like humans, solve problems like them, and make predictions… It's wild, but guess what? It's already happening. Welcome to the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI)—a powerhouse for data analysis, aggregation, sequencing, and any process you can think of that requires data. This is the world where computer programs, or algorithms, are trained to process data, provide solutions, and make predictions.

Jus' Imagine

Okay, put it this way: An AI model is an algorithm trained to perform tasks by processing data. Making predictions and providing solutions are examples of these tasks. Pretty simple, right? So, the next time you hear "AI models," think of: task-performing, trained computer programs. You should also know that AI models are the backbone of modern tech. From your smartphone’s voice assistant to the recommendations you get on YouTube, TikTok, or Netflix, everything is powered by an AI model.

Deep Learning Models (DLM) Machine Learning Models (MLM) Supervised Learning Models (SLM) Unsupervised Learning Models (ULM) Reinforcement Learning Models (RLM) Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) Transformers

Types of AI Models

Let’s dive into each of these, one by one. I’ll use initials; it’s not conventional, but it adds a bit of flair (smile). DLMInspired by the human brain, Deep Learning Models use neural networks to process large amounts of data. They are especially efficient in tasks like image recognition and understanding sounds and languages. MLMThink of them as students learning from examples. Machine Learning Models are designed to learn from data and improve their performance over time.

DLM & MLM

SLMSupervised Learning Models learn from labeled data. For example, if you give them pictures labeled as Bitcoin and Ethereum, they will learn to distinguish between the two and identify them correctly. ULMUnsupervised Learning Models, on the other hand, don’t rely on labeled data. They find patterns in unorganized data, grouping similar objects together—like organizing pictures based on color or shape. RLMReinforcement Learning Models learn by interacting with their environment and receiving rewards or penalties, similar to how a game AI might learn strategies through trial and error.

SLM x ULM x RLM

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