War in Ukraine is a Distraction from what is Really Happening!
Commentary By: Gordon King
The war in Ukraine seems to be escalating by the day, as NATO and most of the world are backing and supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia. War is bad, people die, lives are destroyed, and many more are ruined. Yet the world seems to be pushing for war instead of trying to work things out peaceably, and instead of attempting to work with both sides, the world (for the most part) is further infuriating the leader of Russia (Vladimir Putin) to fight even harder!
I’m not here to tell you which side to support or not support, or if you should support any side at all. Both sides are bad, however, the world tells us that Ukraine is a peaceful democratic society, is that the truth? The situation in Ukraine is complicated. Ukraine put a president in power via a coup in 2014, with the help of the United States and NATO. Many of the Ukrainians are Nazis (Azov battalion), fighting in the war. President Zelenskyy has banned opposition parties. The Ukrainian government has been committing genocide, killing its own people for years such as in Donbas. There have also been reports recently of Ukraine using its own citizens as human shields against the Russians. So, this is who most of the world wants to support? Why? Why such support for Ukraine when it obviously is wicked and evil and is committing such atrocities against its own people?
The United States invaded many countries over the past couple of decades, where was the outcry from the world? Other nations are at war even now, where is the outcry and support from the world? The hypocrisy is amazing!
Follow the money and the WEF. This war in Ukraine is being used as a tool my friends, a tool to further along the Great Reset! It’s also being used as a distraction from what is going on in the rest of the world. Ukraine is part of the New World Order, Zelenskyy is a graduate of the “Young Global Leaders” program of the WEF (World Economic Forum), and it’s been reported that Vladimir Putin is as well, however, he would have been too old at the time the program even started. Valdimir Putin is not going along with their plans, he is a nationalist.
War equals money, war equals power, war equals control, and war distracts us from other things. As people are now focused on the Ukrainian war their eyes are taken away from what surrounds them. They now seem oblivious to the state of their own nation.
In America we have many crises and many more arising. Our Southern border is open for anyone to cross, with very little if any resistance, illegals are crossing by the hundreds of thousands! This creates a burden upon our system, our economic system, healthcare system, housing, food, etc., but also our safety and well-being, not to mention the influx of illegal drugs. Did you know that we now have the highest number of deaths in America due to drugs? It is being reported that Fentanyl is now the number one killer of Americans. Although I would argue that it may just be the number 2 killer with the Covid-19 injections being number one!
Our rights are being stripped away from us every day, yet most don’t seem to care. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs due to the Covid mandates, Covid injections are still being pushed by the government even though there are more and more reports each day that they are killing us. Many people have chosen to take their own lives by suicide then to continue on in this world, not to mention the psychological harm that it has done, especially to young children!
Inflation, created by our own government, is getting worse by the day. Many people cannot afford higher prices at the pump or for food, housing, energy to heat their homes, and it’s getting worse. America was energy independent under President Trump, but now energy dependent under Biden! And what does Biden do? He blames Russia for our problems and takes no responsibility at all! What are the suggestions from the government? Ride the bus, drive less, just work from home! And don’t worry, the government is coming to the rescue once again, just wait patiently for your gasoline stimulus checks!
Threats of food shortages plague the world, as fertilizer shortages have increased. Yet, the world is more concerned with the war in Ukraine, rather than mass famine in the world. So, what will the government do next, food stamps for everyone?! But where will the food actually come from if it isn’t there in the first place? It’s also been reported that the government paid farmers to plow under their crops instead of sending them to market, as well as dairies being paid to dump their milk!
Healthcare has become a dictate from the state, people have lost their right to treatment of their choice. The Covid pandemic (plandemic) and the mitigation techniques used are weapons against the people. They tell us that they are for our own good, yet they are doing just the opposite! Not only are they killing and maiming people, but they are dividing us against each other.
The Global Elite know just what they are doing, and it’s all a part of the Great Reset! Tear down society so that it can be rebuilt to their liking, to their agenda! Not only rebuild society, but depopulate the planet while they are doing it, via Covid-19 injections and war! Focus people’s attention on the war in Ukraine so that they will be oblivious to the actions that they are taking against us.
So, what’s next? I can see it coming my friends, I can see it coming. Digital IDs, vaccine passports, digital currency, UBI (Universal Basic Income), healthcare controlled by a World Government, increased security measures meant to further take away our freedoms. More control of us by the Elite.
Destroy the middle class until there is only the Elite and the impoverished class, the peasants. Take from them until they have no more, so that they must rely on the government for all things. Remember the saying of Klaus Schwab: “You will own nothing and be happy”, and “You’ll eat much less meat” — Meat will be “an occasional treat, not a staple, for the good of the environment and our health.” Sure, we will own nothing, we will eat much less meat, but what about them? They will own everything and eat whatever they want whenever they want!
The war in Ukraine is being used as both a distraction and a tool against us. Being used as a distraction so that we are unaware of what is really going on, used as a tool to institute their plans of world domination! The Ukranian president is pushing for the New World Order, he is a proponent of it, and has plans in place for a digital ID, passports, social credit system, UBI, and digital currency already in place via their Diia app.
Why are so many people infatuated with the war in Ukraine when we have so many detrimental crises in our own nations? Why is it that our own governments choose to ignore our own disasters and focus on Ukraine? Why is there now such a growing hatred of Russians as there is for the unvaccinated? Coincidence? They will tell us that the instability in Ukraine along with the Covid pandemic (plandemic) are causing a need for stability and sustainability in all sectors of our lives, economics, healthcare, housing, food, energy, transportation, education, security, etc. It’s all a plan my friends, a plan to change virtually every aspect of our lives!
Don’t be caught off guard, don’t be caught sleeping, know the truth!
The world is changing as the Elite tell us that it will, but is it really for the better, is it really for our own good?! The closer that they get to achieving their goals the closer we get to the beginning of the Tribulation period!
Look up my friends, for your redemption draws near!
ENTREPRENEURS vs. POLITICIANS – SOVEREIGN KINGDOMS vs. ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT
Could it be that the tide is turning for entrepreneurs to be accepted by an overwhelming majority to the political platform? With all that is revealed recently, and many corrupt politicians and bureaucrats facing indictment, perhaps it's time to let the entrepreneurs take the helm. Think Hunter Biden & Co, Burisma and Ukrainian connection.
We all saw what an entrepreneur could do for a country for a short time that has gone down in history as triumphant by many, all to be destroyed in one year when a political puppet with his cronies seized power in what many considered as a coup d'état.
Many entrepreneurs are stepping up to thwart the dictator-driven hierarchy that is not even an elected official. Such as the World Economic Forum headed by Klaus Schwab pushing for a one-world government, one kingdom of a new world order where "you will own nothing and be happy." And where all governments across the world are answerable to it.
One entrepreneur and investor, Peter Thiel, is stepping down from the board of Meta (Facebook) with a focus on helping elect Republican candidates that support former President Trump's strategies. Candidates such as J.D. Vance and Blake Masters, also entrepreneurs, will be directly backed by Mr. Thiel for the 2022 midterm elections.
These non-politicians have all the hallmarks of entrepreneurship; they are critical thinkers and innovative individuals who focus on real people's lives and do not follow the dogmas that have manifested over the last few decades. They can empathize with their constituents on a simpler level; delivering their message the people can understand and follow through with positive action is just one example of what they would bring to the table.
On the other hand, politicians deliver lip service with an agenda that suits them rather than society. We've seen it play out, especially in the last two years, in such a blatant fashion that it’s incredulous. Some politicians are also ignorant of emerging technologies to the point where they are apathetic and show disdain for fear of losing their grip on power.
Some Get It – Some Don’t
Their skewed perception of world affairs results in poor, even detrimental decisions for us ordinary folk worldwide. In a recent congressional testimony based around interest rates, Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, was in the hot seat where questions were asked about crypto.
Senator Elizabeth Warren rants about how corporations are causing inflation and how Russia is evading sanctions by using cryptocurrency in the second hearing. She even slammed cryptocurrency exchanges for refusing to sanction regular Russians; Powell stated that it was outside of his area of expertise.
Senators Jack Reed and Kyrsten Sinema voiced their concerns regarding the global trend away from the US dollar, explicitly noting that some superpowers have accelerated their abandonment of the dollar in the wake of the Russia/Ukraine war. It’s most likely the superpowers saw that Central Bank assets are fair game for sanctions.
Kyrsten also confirmed that US politicians are becoming concerned that their sanctions against Russia are doing more harm than good to the dollar. And Jerome essentially said that the damage to the dollar depends on how long this situation lasts.
It seems the FED may have found itself backed into a corner that it can't get out of easily. As much as it's tried to stay neutral and avoid becoming politicized, politicians have been unscrupulous in using the dollar as a political weapon against International opponents.
Notably, the international community has known this for some time, and many have been trying to move off the dollar for years. Many wars were started to preserve the American dollar as the reserve currency. When Moammar Gaddafi created an evaluated currency for Africa, western military power went to Libya and assassinated Gaddafi.
When Saddam Hussein announced in Iraq that he would no longer accept the US dollar for oil, two months later, the war broke out in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein was murdered. The current conflict has accelerated this process, giving the edge to crypto and its benefits because it can be used to cut through the corrupt and fragile fiat financial system that is failing in every capacity.
Some countries such as El Salvador have realized that fiat currencies are futile and have turned to adopt currencies that aren't controlled by any other nation. Currencies that maintain their value and can't be turned off for any reason.
Jerome Powell’s testimony indicates that fiat currency’s days are numbered. We are heading towards a trend of decentralizing national currencies, and for many, favorably in the form of cryptocurrencies and not a Central bank-run digital currency. (CBDC)
Below is a snippet of the essential points of the second hearing relating to crypto from Guy at Coinbureau.
To watch the full video of Guy breaking down Powell's testimony of both hearings into its most critical parts, giving you his take on what this could mean for the markets, click here. – 30mins.
The SWIFT System Weaponized
Since the sanctions on Russia by certain western countries and corporations, including the globally used SWIFT system. Founded in 1973, Belgium-based SWIFT is used by banks for cross-border financial transactions. It facilitates trillions of dollars of payments between 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries making it the backbone of the international financial transfer system.
The Central Bank of Russia has since permitted its largest bank, Sberbank, to act as a cryptocurrency vendor to circumvent sanctions imposed by the U.S and E.U and a way to avoid the massive downward pressure exerted on Russia’s ruble.
The above decision, along with other contingencies such as India purchasing oil from Russia using rupees instead of dollars. And Saudi Arabia is working on selling oil to China in yuan instead of dollars.
It’s worth noting that most of the world has not joined the sanctions against Russia, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Israel, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Pakistan.
In 2014, Russia launched the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), a Russian alternative to SWIFT. In 2015, China launched the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), a Chinese alternative to SWIFT. CIPS processed around $12.68 trillion in 2021. CIPS has 1,280 financial institutions in 103 countries and regions.
Combine the Russian System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) with the Chinese Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), and you see the foundation of a new Russian-Chinese cross-border payment system bypassing SWIFT speeding up global de-dollarization.
Interestingly, Russia has the ruble, which is fully backed by gold, unlike fiat with no intrinsic value except faith, trust, and acceptance of the people in their governments. India, China, and Russia have long had a different monetary system apart from SWIFT.
As recently as November 16, 2019, Vladimir Putin said,
“The Dollar enjoyed great trust around the world. But, for some reason, it is now being used as a political weapon to impose restrictions. They’ll collapse soon. Many countries are now turning away from the Dollar as a Reserve Currency.”
What is happening here is that some misinformed or even corrupt self-serving decisions are giving rise to a multi-polar world, which is quite the opposite of a one-world government. In effect, the countries that have sold out to the United Nations supporting their Agenda 21/30 are creating their own demise.
Are You Ready For Some Truth Bombs?
An award-winning journalist, and former newscaster, Lara Logan, drops a few truth bombs in this interview that rocks the world. The alternative media exposes the NWO, EU, US, NATO, the UN, CERN, the WHO, the CIA, the MOSSAD as all one big snake pit connected up the dark evil pyramid of the elite.
You are not hearing this on mainstream media as they are facilitating the agenda and narrative of corrupt politicians whose thoughts and strategies are a polar opposite to entrepreneurs with life experience and a humanitarian approach.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be . . . The People cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe."
Thomas Jefferson
The Crypto Industry Takes A Firm Stand. More Entrepreneurs Stepping Up
The dollar as the Reserve currency all countries align is diminishing rapidly. The cry for regulation of cryptocurrencies by corrupt governments shows the corruption and mutiny within organized financial system bodies like the SEC, revealing how protected Bitcoin and Ethereum are.
Some governments asked entrepreneur and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to block Russian media outlets from its Starlink satellite broadband service. In a tweet he sent out on March 5th, Musk declared the company would not comply with the request "unless at gunpoint." According to Musk, the demand hadn't come from Ukrain, and he added, "Sorry to be a free speech absolutist."
The sanctions to squeeze Russia's economy and sever the country from the global financial system have forced companies and financial firms to halt business. But many of the world's largest crypto exchanges – including Binance and US-based Kraken and Coinbase refused to ban Russian clients, despite a plea from the Ukrainian government.
They said they would screen users and block anyone targeted by sanctions. The standoff illustrates the ideological difference between the traditional financial sector and the world of cryptocurrencies, whose origin lies in the ideal of liberty and distrust of governments. The crypto exchanges argued that cutting off a whole nation would counter Bitcoin's ethos of offering access to payments free of government oversight.
A Turning Point In History And The Rise Of Kingdoms
The world’s state of affairs may look bad to some, but it's a turning point in history, with Russia now seeming to lead the way out of the Matrix, leaving behind the corrupt financial system and mainstream media. This is perhaps the start to implementing a free world outside of the matrix of the cabal that we have been trapped in for centuries.
We now have what can be considered separate kingdoms of sovereignty emerging that are all fundamentally on the same page and supporting each other. It includes social media marketing cryptocurrency ecosystems that can help an expanding community in times like these where the world has reached a level of volatility unprecedented.
Unlike the tech giants, Markethive will not be or will ever be involved in sanctions that hurt people at the very core. Every individual from every country is welcome to the sovereign kingdom of Markethive and escape the tyranny that surrounds it but will not penetrate it.
Aptly recognized as the Ecosystem for Entrepreneurs, Markethive stands for freedom of speech, critical thinking, self-expression, and liberty, cultivating the entrepreneurial spirit to keep it alive. Perhaps it’s time to get the entrepreneurs back into government—empaths with substance and have no agenda except to help humanity thrive.
An Individual Thinker – An Entrepreneur Of Medieval Times
I will finish off with a quote from Roger Bacon, who was born in 1220 and died in 1294. A scholar with a background in experimental science, philosopher, educational reformer, he later became a friar and was subsequently condemned to prison for daring to speak his mind and his penchant for millenarianism.
He also predicted the hot air balloon, the flying machine, and the magnifying glass. He was the first person in the West to give exact directions for making gunpowder.
Bacon displayed prodigious energy and zeal in the pursuit of experimental science. His studies were talked about everywhere and eventually won him a place in popular literature as a kind of wonder-worker. Bacon, therefore, represents a historically precocious expression of the empirical spirit of experimental science. He is what I would call an entrepreneur of medieval times.
“True knowledge stems not from the authority of others, nor from a blind allegiance to antiquated dogmas, but instead is a highly personal experience. A light that is communicated only to the innermost privacy of the individual, through the impartial channels of all knowledge and of all thought.”
Note from Editor; This article is an alternative view to the mainstream narrative. After much research, I felt the need to put it out there. After all, there are two sides to every story.
The war in Ukraine is a war in real-time transmission, a war for information. And it is a war that raises two questions: Can an aggressor in the information age be forced into a quasi-digital military retreat? What good are the promises of the tech giants?
The power of shared images Images have power, information is effective – that's nothing new. Just how great this power can be is being demonstrated again and again these days – in both good and bad ways. This has mainly to do with the fact that in many cases it is unclear how much images can be trusted. Too often, there are posts that are manipulated, taken out of context, or just plain wrong. One of many examples is a video purporting to show the "ghost of Kiev." It shows a Russian plane being shot down. However, it is actually from a video game. Just recently, a video of the Ukrainian president apparently calling on his own soldiers to lay down their arms made the rounds. It quickly became clear that the video was a deepfake – fortunately not a very good one.
Taken as a whole, however, it is almost a harmless example of a war that has become a war in the information age. The attack on Ukraine began long before Vladimir Putin sent out the first tanks. Misleading information was the first decisive step towards the invasion of Crimea and the Donbass as early as 2014. Deliberately used to bend reality, not only with regard to Ukraine, but with regard to the entire world.
Russia has long dominated the information war For years, Russia has dominated this information war. This was also made possible by the social networks and their failure, indeed their refusal, to take action against this kind of disinformation. Only now, against the backdrop of the military offensive, have the platforms reacted. Late, too late as many say, but perhaps with some effect. Because in the end it is precisely these networks on which the images can also develop their effect.
Selensky's communication battle against Putin The more or less direct communication of Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj alone could not be more different. While the Russian president, even when talking to his own ministers, only shows up at absurdly long tables (the background, by the way, is reportedly Putin's downright panic about a covid infection), Selenskyj can literally be experienced directly on the front lines. With every photo, every video, the images of the aggressor acting from the palace and the heroically resisting attacked person solidify. Selenskyj, meanwhile, already spoke directly to the people of Russia in an impressive way at the beginning of the war. That deepfakes are used as a means to discredit Selenskyj's powerful images comes as little surprise.
The importance of sovereignty over information channels should not be underestimated. It is not least about international support, whether in politics or business. Above all, however, the messages are directed at the people in the affected countries; it is about the morale of the soldiers, the willingness of the citizens to suffer. The Russian government is well aware of this. It is not for nothing that the Putin regime has now blocked Facebook, Twitter and a number of Western media sites. The official reading, in which, among other things, the term war is banned, is to be enforced by force. Nevertheless, more and more people in Russia are using social networks to inform themselves about the war against Ukraine. Protected network connections (VPN) are widespread in Russia, through which access to Facebook and Twitter is still guaranteed – even if this is often not legal locally.
Best documented war in human history The development also has to do with the fact that the conflict in Ukraine is likely to become the best-documented war in human history, as described by expert Daniel Johnson. Johnson writes, "What is coming out of Ukraine is simply not possible on this scale without citizens and soldiers across the country having easy access to cell phones, the Internet and, by extension, social media apps. A large-scale modern war is being broadcast live to the world minute by minute, battle by battle, death by death. What's going on is already horrific, if you look at the information that's already been released on the first day."
In this regard, the Ukrainian government is using social media in particular with a speed and virtuosity that does not make Putin's official propaganda spectacle look good. Selenskyj himself, in particular, has risen to the status of social media war hero in a very short time. Of course, he uses his experience as an entertainer, actor and director, and the staging (if it is one) always looks authentic: Selenskyj still gave his first speech in a suit, but he has long since been seen primarily in a military shirt. His videos are internationally oriented, he shoots in Ukrainian, Russian and English, with clear words without political clauses. As a result, the president gains hundreds of thousands of followers every day, and more than five million people already follow him on Twitter.
The impact of this presence should not be underestimated. Selenskyj increases the moral pressure on foreign countries and fights in his own country the false information deliberately spread by the Russian side, for example, about an alleged escape of the president.
Tech companies ask for help But it's not just politicians who are using their channels to draw attention to the situation in order to mobilize support for Ukraine. The country is also home to some well-known tech providers that have taken initiative in their own way.
Readdle comes from Ukraine and has apps such as PDF Expert or the Spark mail client, which is particularly popular with Apple users, among others. These days, Spark users repeatedly encounter a screen with the hashtag #StandWithUkraine and a request for support for the people in the country when they launch the app.
Mac Paw has gone one step further with its Cleanmymac suite. The menu icon now includes a Ukraine flag. The news info for the latest version says: "With this version we stop selling our products to users from Russia and Belarus. Ukraine is our homeland, and we want to protect it in any way we can. Despite the war, Cleanmymac is stable, and our team is safe. We try to keep calm, stay focused, and are optimistic that Ukraine has a peaceful future ahead of it in independence. And we are deeply grateful for all the incredibly encouraging news you have sent us."
Truth should save lives Another tech initiative is focusing on information. Consulting group One Philosophy and IT company Empat, with the help of volunteers, have launched the "We are Ukraine" website – a "collection of truthful information, facts, examples of Ukrainian resilience, and opinions from Ukrainian and world democratic leaders about the Russian invasion of Ukraine." The posts are designed to be shared as often as possible. The motto: "Save lives by spreading the truth about the Russian war on Ukraine."
The same approach is taken with different means by the Call Russia campaign. With the help of the website, Russian-speaking people living abroad are to be put in touch with Russians on the ground via telephone, so that they can then talk to them about what is happening in Ukraine. A guide for the conversations is provided, because they are unlikely to be particularly easy. "The call will be very difficult. People have been exposed to Putin's propaganda for too long, and it's not easy to change their minds," the website says.
The role of tech giants The longer the dispute goes on, the clearer it becomes that fundamental change will only be possible if the people of Russia force it themselves. For that to happen, it will almost certainly take the anger of the oligarchs, for whom sanctions are ruining business. But it will also require a lot of information among the population, information beyond Putin's propaganda. At this point, the tech giants and social networks in particular have a duty. They must now show what their promises of commitment to democracy and against disinformation are worth.
Google plays a role in this process that should not be underestimated. Google search results for Russian queries related to Ukraine have so far been dominated almost exclusively by a handful of well-known Russian pro-Putin propaganda publications such as Izvestia, Russia Today and Ria News, many Russian speakers complain.
Admirable actions such as those of Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova on linear television are the absolute exception. For Russian speakers, many of whom already feel isolated in information bubbles full of propaganda and conspiracies justifying the war, it is crucial that they have access to accurate, verified, and balanced information about the war if they seek it, writes SEO expert Olya Ianovskaia, for example. This, she says, is not the case at the moment. This is another reason why Putin's state narrative dominates the Russian Internet.
Other tech giants, meanwhile, have become more active. Facebook has restricted access to the accounts of major Russian media outlets such as Sputnik, Russia Today and gazeta.ru. Tiktok, for example, has begun removing video content posted on the platform by Ria News, one of Russia's largest news outlets.
Twitter is launching a version of its site as a Tor Onion service, optimizing it for the network to protect privacy and circumvent censorship. The Tor network has also been added to Twitter's supported browsers page.
Telegram plays a special role, if only because of its strong distribution in Russia and Ukraine. The company, founded by exiled Russian billionaire brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, has become "a key weapon in a digital propaganda battle," analyzes the British Guardian. The app has established itself as a leading news source outside of state-controlled media during the Ukraine war, becoming a 24-hour news channel for civilians, journalists and even the military. "We don't want Telegram to be used as a tool that exacerbates conflicts and incites ethnic hatred," Pavel Durov lets it be known, but otherwise leaves it at rather general advice: "Check the data posted on Telegram channels at this difficult time, and don't believe them."
Public pressure must grow If it were that simple, I'm sure we'd have fewer problems. But it isn't. Of course, someone like Pavel Durov knows that. The past shows that only public pressure by users can really bring about change. If the fight against disinformation is not to be left to the thoroughly commendable initiatives of pop singers and athletes, then this pressure must grow. In the best case, this will help to end the war in Ukraine more quickly. In the very best case, it even ensures a lasting change for the better. From today's perspective, that certainly sounds naïve. But there is a chance. And opportunities are there to be seized.
How Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Are Sidestepping The Russian Censors
As the Kremlin has tightened its grip on the world’s biggest tech companies and its own media, Ukrainian startups have turned to hijacking their own apps and tools to inform people in Russia and Belarus about the war.
Over the weekend, Kyiv-based stock images company DepositPhotos emailed clients with links to two collections of photos—one showing what’s happening in Ukraine
“Many people in Russia are not aware of what is really happening,” Vadim Nekhai, vice president of VistaCreate and DepositPhotos, tells Forbes. “And the origin of this idea is to send a message to all of the Russian people what’s really happening.”
Inside Russia, the invasion of Ukraine has been dubbed as a “special military operation” while the few remaining independent Russian media organizations have been threatened for reporting on the invasion and civilian casualties, according to Human Rights Watch. Moscow has also taken steps to rein in social networks, which have been throttled inside Russia over Meta’s crackdown on the Facebook pages of state-owned media. Russia has sought to pressure tech companies for years with fines for “illegal content” but a new law requiring companies to set up an office in Russia, will give the Kremlin even more influence.
When asked if Nekhai has heard back from anyone that got the email from DepositPhotos, he said the company received “mixed feedbacks,” but said about half of the people understand, but other complained that what’s said in Russia contradicts the reality of the situation.
“Even if a small percentage of our clients or users will actually listen, it will help,” he said.
The Ukrainian team behind viral face-swapping app Reface decided to harness its 200 million downloads to sidestep censorship about the war within Russia. The app has sent push alerts to around 2 million users in Russia with the message “Russia has invaded Ukraine”, with photos and information about the conflict, and videos created using the app are now watermarked with Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag.
“We understand that Russia has limited access to trustworthy media sources so we sent push notifications to all Russian users showing the real situation, and encouraging people to protest,” says Dima Shvets, CEO and founder of Kyiv-based Reface, which has been backed by Andreessen Horowitz.
Shvets says the app—which has been used by Elon Musk, Snoop Dog, and Dua Lipa to overlay their faces onto some else’s in videos and photos—had earnt a wave of 1-star reviews for its campaign but the Reface founder was undaunted. “We are risking everything, we’ve already got a lot of 1-star reviews, but it’s such a small price to pay compared to our lives and freedom,” he says.
The war in Ukraine has also inspired startups in other countries to take a stand. MessageBird, a Dutch Twilio rival, has cut off its Russian clients, along with British email marketing startup Omnisend, while money transfer service TransferGo also plugged the plug on Russia.
Along with the startups, other assistance has come from both tech giants and volunteers. And after a band of volunteer hackers began forming to help the invaded nation, websites for Russian websites including the Moscow Exchange and The Kremlin began going offline, leaving some to wondering who might be responsible. In the past few days, Ukraine has also called on companies such as Apple, Facebook, Netflix and Google to do more to assistant including cutting off business in Russia. Meanwhile, some supporters have given cryptocurrency as Ukraine’s official Twitter account asked for donations.
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is among those that have responded to Ukraine’s request. When officials asked the billionaire over the weekend to active his Starlink satellite internet dishes, he agreed. And today—less than 48 hours later—Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation, posted photos showing a shipment had arrived.
“The first batch of StarLink satellite Internet stations has arrived in Ukraine,” Fedorov wrote on Facebook. “Thank you Elon Musk and all the partners of free Ukraine! We continue to fight on all fronts!”
A big buzzword in the U.S. for a long time – with masses of literature, research and entire courses of study – entrepreneur describes above all an entrepreneurial spirit, a way of thinking and acting in a world that is constantly changing and thus always full of entrepreneurial opportunities. An entrepreneur is someone who recognizes these opportunities and seizes them in order to pursue them with so much entrepreneurial vision, passion, skill, and stamina that they become successful business models – which may then change the world once again.
This always requires a large portion of curiosity and the willingness to think in new ways, to rethink, and to think further or differently than others. In addition, the ability to act in the midst of great uncertainty, not to lose courage and to deal with risks or setbacks is often required. Entrepreneur is therefore also a spirit of progress that drives change and innovation in our society.
Now, one might quickly think of the big names in the innovation and startup scene – the usual suspects in today's global economy – who have turned our entire culture upside down with their business ideas. This goes from Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos to Mohammad Yunus, who established a new concept of poverty alleviation with microcredit – and of course these are just a few of the famous cases.
Of course, these are impressive stories, but the fact is that anyone with the entrepreneurial spirit described can be an entrepreneur! There are countless such people all over the world, but we will never read about them in the newspaper. An entrepreneur is someone who develops and successfully implements an innovative business model.
What innovative entrepreneurs do for the economy: they are engines of change, creative creators and visionaries, and they often develop sustainable reforms even while governments and international bodies are still struggling to find suitable solutions. In short – they are indispensable for a better world.
Every innovative business model that is developed and successfully implemented belongs to them – even if it is on a very small scale. It is the entrepreneurial spirit behind it that counts in order to be considered an entrepreneur. This also means that you don't need a business degree or an MBA, because as an entrepreneur you don't manage the existing, but rather take care of the creative development of the corporate world
In Ukraine, an air of social credit with the Diia application
If the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has put these two countries at the forefront of the international scene, we have learned that the second city is a digital champion. In a logic of digitizing and centralizing everything, the government launched in 2020 an application called Diia which brings together identity card, passport, license, vaccination record, registrations, insurance, health reimbursements, social benefits, and more. . A model that we only knew so far in China with the famous social credit.
Ukraine is the champion of digital identity with the Diia app
This had been mentioned for a long time, then precipitated by the COVID crisis, governments want to move towards the digitization of everyday life by bringing together almost all services on the telephone. While the European Union had announced a test to digitize the vaccination record (see official PDF), wallet and identities in 2018, Ukraine was very quick to react with a Diia application deployed by the government there almost two years ago. Since then, the platform has continued to evolve.
Ukrainians can download Diia and store a whole lot of official information there as mentioned above, with the aim of being able to easily carry out most of the administrative procedures, which range from paying their taxes to renewing their identity papers, including the payment of his fines or the recovery of his social benefits. In all, nearly 50 services can be reached from the application and 9 official documents which have the same value as their paper counterparts. Eventually, it will soon be impossible to make an official request. Moreover, with COVID-19, the government has even announced that the payment of benefits will be conditional on the presence of a vaccination certificate. In addition, a program soberly named 'cash for vaccines' and launched by Volodimir Zelensky last year, intended 'to encourage people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and to support the sectors of the economy which have suffered the most. quarantine restrictions. From the age of 14, each person with a full vaccination schedule in the application received 1000 hryvnia (about 30 euros). When reality catches up with Orwell..
Ukraine therefore posed as the champion of digitalization before the war broke out at the end of February. At the start of 2021, it already claimed more than 4.5 million active users. But taking a closer look at what is currently being done, it turns out that Poland has a mobile application similar to that of Ukraine, which was launched at the end of 2019. This Polish app displays seven digital documents and allows users to identify themselves with a digital ID card in places where a paper passport is not legally required.
In the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, citizens can use electronic passports at airports for check-in and security screening. It's coming soon to the US thanks to Apple Wallet. In China, citizens have access to virtual identity cards integrated into a mobile application. Users can use it to identify themselves when they register in a hotel or to benefit from certain government services, with a points system that allows them to have additional rights in the event of “good behavior”. In Estonia, 70% of the population uses digital ID cards, while 99% of public services are available online.
What do you think of this transition to all-digital? Practical or worrying?
A Step In The Right Direction For The Crypto Industry
The narrative around BTC is constantly changing. First, BTC was seen as a risk-on asset correlated to the stock market. Then BTC was seen as an inflation hedge similar to gold. Now we’re seeing the narrative of BTC as uncensorable money emerge. So which one is it? Or could it be all three?
This week, we saw that long-awaited Executive Order finally issued. This had many people on the edge of their seats about what could be included, especially in the context of what was happening at the time, such as the Russian sanctions.
However, thanks to an initial leak of a statement from the Treasury, we got a glimpse into the tone it would be taking. An executive order would attempt to foster innovation in the space while maintaining investor protection.
When it was finally issued the day after, many in the space not only breathed a sigh of relief but were also pleasantly surprised. That’s because the tone set the previous day by Janet Yellen’s leaked press release was carried through with the Executive Order.
While there were still concerns about crypto being used for illicit purposes without sufficient oversight, Biden did say the rise of cryptocurrencies was “an opportunity to reinforce American leadership in the global financial system and at the technological frontier.”
There was quite a bit to cover in the EO, but here are some of the essential points:
No Bans or Regulations: Contrary to the FUD, there were no bans or knee-jerk reactions to curtail crypto use and adoption. The EO was specific in that more research was required to craft regulations better. Like regulations that could still foster innovation, as well as protect investors.
No new government bodies: Something else that was rumored to be in the works was a specific agency that would craft crypto legislation. This does not appear to be the case. However, there was a directive for federal agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the SEC, and the CFTC, to coordinate their efforts concerning their oversight of the crypto industry.
Research & Development on CBDCs: The EO stated that research on a US CBDC is encouraged with “the highest urgency.” This was on the back of the acknowledgment that over 100 other countries are already looking into CBDCs. More specifically, the EO will ask the Fed and any other relevant agencies or departments within the federal government to look at the possible risks of a CBDC and the potential benefits.
As Kristin Smith of the Blockchain association said in a recent post, this is a major milestone for the industry in the United States.
“If you are bullish on the long-term possibilities for cryptocurrencies to transform many of the foundational services of our lives, then this recognition by the federal government of crypto's fundamental importance can only be viewed as an affirmation of that position.”
Kristen goes on to say that the crypto industry welcomes open dialogue. The debate is no longer whether crypto will survive; the discussion has shifted to encouraging responsible innovation and how the United States can maintain a leadership position in this innovation.
Kristin Smith is the executive director of the Blockchain Association, the Washington D.C.-based trade association representing the most prominent and reputable organizations in the crypto industry.
In the video, she talks with Coindesk about the outcome of the EO.
What is significant about this Executive Order is that it shows how the attitude and thinking have evolved within the administration. Biden has not been the most pro-crypto individual in the White House by any flight of fancy. Still, even he now realizes the importance of crypto innovation is revealing.
Not so long ago, policymakers typically viewed crypto with confusion, disdain, or apathy. Last year, Congress tried to quietly slip misguided Internal Revenue Service requirements on crypto entities into a bill as a pay-for provision to raise cash for the infrastructure bill. Now, the president of the United States is publicly saying that the federal government must do its due diligence before moving forward with new regulations.
Jerry Brito of CoinCenter also said that the Executive Order shows that the Federal government recognizes cryptocurrency as a “legitimate, serious, and important part of the economy and society, and I think it’s a good signal to serious people who’ve been holding back from getting involved.”
It’s in no small part thanks to individuals like Kristin and Jerry and their organizations who have been standing up for the industry in Washington. From the big battles over the infrastructure bill provision last year to this relatively positive Executive Order.
There are, of course, also those pro-crypto politicians who have been standing up for the industry since last year. These include the likes of Tom Emmer, Pat Toomey, and Cynthia Lummis, to name but a few.
While this is a victory for the crypto industry, there is still work to be done. There are still anti-crypto zealots who seek to hinder the industry’s progress, and there are still countries that have yet to appreciate this technology's value.
The recent historical events exposed to the mainstream, such as Canada’s tyrannical move to block payments and withhold bank accounts of the people fighting for their rights and crypto donations to war-torn Ukraine, show the world that crypto has a real purpose and really is unstoppable.
One More Positive Outcome For Crypto
Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, it was reported that the EU Parliament committee voted against a ban on the Proof-of-Work mechanism underlying popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
A proposal put forward by the EU’s Economic Monetary Affairs Committee failed to win approval that would have effectively banned the mining and transactions of energy-intensive cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
The topic of crypto energy consumption has been a controversial and spirited debate, especially with the growing demand for Bitcoin and other cryptos in this ever-expanding sector. As cited in this report, the crypto industry adopted the move to renewable energy and will continue to do so. Bitcoin will become 100% renewable when all other sectors become 100% renewable.
Some would argue there seems to be no credence to this proposal other than an anti-crypto sentiment by those who voted for it. (Pictured below) A final tally of the committee’s voting showed the proposed clause was defeated with 23 votes in favor, 30 against, and six abstentions.
“Bitcoin won that vote,” said Michael Saylor, chief executive of software company MicroStrategy, during a Monday webinar hosted by the Economic Club of New York. “You need energy to create real property.”
Markus Ferber, a lawmaker and the spokesman for the Europe People’s Party (EPP) in the committee, said the failed proposal sent a “clear signal” that the EU wishes to support the crypto industry as it grows.
Ferber explained,
“Banning ‘proof of work’ would have meant for the EU to become crypto no man’s land,” If we want to foster innovation, we should be open to new technologies, not banning them.”
In the 1990s, a novel technology called the internet was catching on and growing fast, so regulators suddenly had to grapple with how to address it. Ultimately, Congress passed legislation that provided clear rules and necessary protections.
The move gave technology companies the breathing room to create better products, and the evolution of the various systems in technology is something we’ve never seen before. If Congress considers the same for crypto as it did for the internet, then we could see a similar explosion of innovation.
That innovation could have a positive impact on communities. Crypto technology has the power to provide financial services to the unbanked and underbanked, give individuals control over their finances, make data storage secure, private, and autonomous. It can create sovereign ecosystems to uphold freedom, liberty, and financial sovereignty for all the right reasons.
What does human progress mean in times of technical progress? Is human progress still possible at all?
From being at the mercy of nature and its phenomena, we humans have become the rulers of the earth through technological progress. And what do we use this power for? We are destroying our Mother Earth with it. We evaluate the wonders of nature surrounding us solely according to the degree of usefulness for ourselves. Technical progress in itself is neither good nor evil. But we implement too many possibilities of technology without thinking about it. Meanwhile, the consequences of our actions are again turning against humanity. Climate change, with extreme weather patterns and phenomena, shows that the idea of control is an illusion. Pope Paul VI summed this up well back in 1971: "The most extraordinary scientific advances, if they are not accompanied by genuine social and moral progress, ultimately turn against man." It is now time for technical progress to be followed by social and moral progress, developed into a new ethic of solidarity among people and with nature.
SuperMarket
Thousands of inventions have led to the huge range of goods offered in today's supermarkets. Technological progress. But is it also human progress if I have to collect all the goods myself in a clumsy shopping cart? And not speaking a word to a single person? And when I no longer receive my favorite chocolate because a computer has calculated that it doesn't generate enough sales? And what if in the future I pay by reading in the prices with my cell phone, thus putting the cashiers out of work? And what if the wholesaler knows my shopping habits better than I do and thus steers me? And what if global markets are the real beneficiaries of technological progress? Is that why the weekly markets are popular again, because you are greeted and served there, have the vendor right in front of you and even get to know him over time? I think that is only (psycho)logical!
Possibilities
With technology, we can now do almost anything, but there is one thing we cannot do: stop it. It is unrealistic to think that people do not need technology or that they will one day turn away from it. The changes it has already brought about in our lives are too drastic. It's not as if we can't control the extent to which we consume technology. I can choose whether I go for a walk in the woods without my cell phone or whether I watch TV at home. It is a pity that technology is often used to the disadvantage of mankind and not to its benefit. Nevertheless, the advantages it brings us are immense, if we only think of medicine. Thanks to devices like the telephone or an X-ray machine, people can be saved. I am very grateful for technical progress and try to consciously distinguish between addiction and sensible use. It's certainly not always easy to find the right balance, but that's not only the case with technology.
Charity
Technical progress is a fact. Now the question: is there progress in terms of humanity? I state: Either people abolish slavery, put women on an equal footing with men, organize school for all, or they enslave, humiliate and mistreat women, exploit children, wage war. Obviously mankind does not have it easy with us humans! According to Darwin the strongest survive. But what is to happen to the weak? Are they, like the drones in autumn from the beehive, thrown out? It is probably not meant in such a way. Self-love and charity should be connected. But how do I succeed in this as an individual human being? And how does our society achieve this balance? I take a look at the Bible. In Apostle Paul, I read that there is a struggle for the heart of man. Man can only choose good or evil under a certain condition: He must accept his dependence on God and ask him for his help
Back in the fall, the US Treasury warned that cryptocurrencies threaten the effectiveness of sanctions. In fact, Bitcoin & Co. play a central role in the Ukraine war.
States have always financed wars with the help of more or less voluntary donations. With special taxes, for example, or with war bonds with promised interest. In this respect, Ukraine's appeal after Russia's attack is not unusual – if the government did not explicitly ask for cryptocurrencies.
"A shield for people"
"I still wouldn't call it a crypto war, more like a shield for people," says Alex Gladstein of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. He helped organize the appeal for donations for Ukraine – successfully: so far, the equivalent of almost 60 million US dollars in various cryptocurrencies has been collected for the war chest. "The Ukrainian government has used the money to buy military equipment to defend the country," Gladstein explains.But that's not all: "Crypto is also providing peaceful humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of people who have fled, been displaced or are suffering terrible economic conditions." For example, there are special funds to help civilians flee and provide them with food and fuel.
"Blacklisting doesn't help at all"
But the brave new crypto world also has its downsides, says Hanna Halaburda, a professor of economic technology at New York University. "Even before the Ukraine war, crytocurrencies have been used for good and for bad because they bypass government control and regulation," she said. "And in this conflict, it's again very clear: You can do better and worse things with crypto. "That's because cryptocurrencies are also being used in Russia – where they are being used to circumvent drastic sanctions imposed by the West. Thus, with the invasion of Ukraine, more rubles have been exchanged for bitcoin than ever before. "Let's take the oligarchs: They can exchange money into cryptocurrencies to get around sanctions," Halaburda says. It would be hard to prevent that. Because for that you would need, first, the addresses of the virtual wallets of these oligarchs. "Then you would have to – secondly – block them in all trading platforms. And thirdly, there are not only bitcoins; there are cryptocurrencies that are so protected that a blacklist is useless."
Access to cryptocurrencies unregulable?
As early as last October, the U.S. Treasury Department warned that cryptocurrencies posed a threat to the effectiveness of sanctions. Entire departments are now busy tracking down suspicious transactions.Trading platforms are not much help. "We are a private company," Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, for example, clarifies. "It's not our job to freeze the accounts of Russian citizens. That would go too far." Denying someone access to their finances is different "than no longer selling them shoes or camera lenses," Powell says. "We will only take such an extreme measure if we are forced to do so by the government. "Meanwhile, several thousand crypto accounts have been blocked under pressure from Washington, but most Russian oligarchs and Putin supporters likely continued to go unchallenged, says expert Halaburda. "Bitcoin, after all, was invented precisely to circumvent government regulations." The Bitcoin community could theoretically introduce blacklists now. But to do so, it would first have to coordinate, she said. "And then there are all the second-generation cryptocurrencies. So we're pretty much powerless to restrict the use of cryptocurrencies."
Could Solana Be The Answer To Decentralized Social Market Networks?
The Genisis Of The Blockchain Concept
The Blockchain concept was brought to light over 30 years ago by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta. They worked at Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), specializing in Telecoms research and development. As research scientists, they wrote a series of papers on cryptography, focusing on timestamping digital documents, and ended up creating a distributed immutable ledger. Some of their published materials and concept were adopted heavily by Satoshi Nakamoto in the 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper.
Image courtesy of Coingeeks Stuart Haber and W.Scott Stornetta
Haber and Stornetta were very influential and foundational in the development of the Blockchain we know today; however, almost every cryptocurrency blockchain today records transactions without reference to time. It took a few years, but someone eventually noticed that nobody was effectively keeping time in crypto and decided to do something about it.
Solana is the first blockchain crypto ecosystem to implement a timestamp mechanism by building a decentralized clock into its own native blockchain. Why is this important? Because Solana proves that it’s possible to be decentralized, secure, and scalable and shows that this can be done without using any layer two solutions like Ethereum 2.0’s Sharding protocol or Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
Solana is named after a beach slightly North of San Diego, in the US, where Solana cryptocurrency founder Anatoly Yakovenko worked for nearly 13 years as a software engineer at Qualcomm and was instrumental in developing the technology used in Andriod phones. Qualcomm is a Fortune 500 company specializing in software, hardware, and wireless technologies for mobile phones.
Initially, Anatoly was not a very big fan of cryptocurrency, and he wasn’t impressed with Bitcoin and was only slightly interested in Ethereum. That was until one strange night in 2017, with what he described as a “caffeine-induced fever dream,” Anatoly figured out how to improve cryptocurrency blockchains by time-stamping transactions. The analogy Anatoly uses to explain this process will help you understand how.
Anatoly Yakovenko’s Analogy
In time past, if two radio towers sent out a signal on the same frequency simultaneously, those signals would collide, and the result would be white noise. So, to combat this, radio towers began operating on a time schedule.
For example, the first radio tower would send out a signal on the 1st second, and the second radio tower would send out a signal on the 2nd second. Then the first tower would send out a signal again and so on. Cryptocurrency blockchains, such as Bitcoin, are currently operating like those old radio towers.
Sometimes, two different miners will produce a new Bitcoin block at the same time. The blockchain splits, and the longest of the two blockchains wins. Whichever of the two new chains produces a block first becomes the actual Bitcoin blockchain. The other one gets ditched by Bitcoin Miners, and all transactions on that chain get shafted.
This is where the terminology, “the longest chain,” comes in and is used for this temporary situation where you have two blockchains. As with the radio towers, this inefficiency could be fixed if everyone on the Bitcoin network worked in sync with a clock where each transaction could be timestamped.
While companies such as Google and Intel can timestamp data using a regular clock in their centralized servers, building a decentralized clock is not easy. Who would be the timekeeper on a decentralized blockchain? And what would happen if two or more parties had different timestamps for the same transaction?
Anatoly figured out that the same SHA256 mining algorithm used by Bitcoin could be tweaked to function as a decentralized clock. Combining this with an optimized proof of stake consensus would make it possible to process an insane amount of transactions per second while maintaining network security and decentralization.
Solana. Unique Technology In Current Blockchain Systems
So in November of 2017, Solana was born with the release of the Solana platform testnet in February 2018. The core Solana innovation is Proof of History (POH), a globally-available, permissionless source of time in the network that works before consensus. POH is not a consensus protocol or anti-Sybilmechanism but a solution to the clock problem.
Solana uses the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism to validate transactions, with Proof of History incorporated, and is a critical component of the proof of stake consensus. This protocol is a verifiable delay function that is repetitively outputted by the SHA256 algorithm.
This repetitive output functions as the ticking of Solana’s decentralized clock, which is used to timestamp transactions. Validator nodes take turns performing tasks on the Solana blockchain, including producing blocks.
Proof Of History Explained
The Solano Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and maintains the open-source project. Solana's scalability ensures transactions remain less than $0.01 for both developers and users.
Solana is all about speed, with 400 millisecond block times, and as hardware gets faster, so does the network. Solana is also censorship-resistant, meaning the network will remain open for applications to run freely and will never stop transactions.
Time Is Money In Your Pocket
The Solana project is highly complicated. So complicated that even crypto veterans hosting the Epicenter podcast had trouble wrapping their heads around it when they interviewed Anatoly.
At a glance, Solana is a high-performance Layer 1 Proof of Stake Blockchain. This means it does not need to use additional layer 2 Chains or solutions to handle transactions. Solana can process 50k to 65k transactions per second, making it the fastest Layer 1 cryptocurrency blockchain out there right now.
Like Ethereum, Solana is Smart contract compatible, meaning that developers can create new cryptocurrency tokens and decentralized applications on it. Solana already has over 250 projects and partners, including FTX, Tether USDT, USDC, Chainlink, BSN, and Serum.
At only 1000th of a cent to send a transaction, costing you just US$10 to send 1 million transactions on Solana’s blockchain, it’s no wonder many projects and applications are turning to the Solana ecosystem.
To put this in perspective, 1 million transactions on Ethereum today would cost you over US$300,000 worth of Eth, and that’s with the cheapest and slowest gas option possible. Solana's cheap transactions secret is in the POH and its verifiable delay function to the SHA256 mining algorithm, making it possible for all transactions to be timestamped.
This makes it possible for validator nodes on the network to organize transaction records after the fact without waiting for other validator nodes to check their records. On the Solana Blockchain, each new block produced is treated as a “tick” on this decentralized clock, and Solana’s clock ticks every 400 milliseconds.
The Secret To Fast Secure Transactions
So now we know how Solana organizes its data, but how can it generate so many transactions per second? A large part of this is due to Solana’s low barrier to entry to participate as a validator node on the network. To be a validator node on Solana, you need to stake their native SOL token. Here's the twist, though. There is no minimum stake required to be a validator node on Solana.
Compare this to the $70k you have to shell out to be a master node on Dash or the nearly $11k you need to become a validator node on Ethereum 2.0. Moreover, validator nodes on Solana fulfill all roles on the blockchain, and they are responsible for verifying transactions, storing transaction records, and generating new blocks.
For example, each validator node takes turns being the leader, which produces Solana blocks. Each turn lasts for four blocks, which is just 1.6 seconds, and the likelihood of being chosen to be a leader is proportional to the amount of SOL tokens you have staked. The fact that leaders change every 1.6 seconds makes it hard for a single validator node or even a group of validators to collude, attack or corrupt the network.
According to Coingecko, Solana has a total supply of 508 Million SOL tokens and a circulating supply of 320 Million.
Revealed in the Solana Climate FootprintAnalysis, Solana is already highly energy efficient. The most recent analysis from the Solana Foundation estimates that a single Solana transaction uses only 1,939 Joules, which is less than the amount of energy required to complete two Google Searches. That is the equivalent of leaving an LED lightbulb on (36,000 J per hour) for a little more than 3 minutes or running your refrigerator (810,000 J per hour) for about 11 seconds.
It is also notably much less energy than transactions on other Blockchains, such as an Eth 2 transaction (126,000 J), an Ethereum transaction (777,600,000 J), or a Bitcoin transaction (7,412,400,000 J) as researched by Digiconomist. However, I have another recent report that analyzes Bitcoin’s carbon footprint contrary to what some headlines purport.
2021 – A Big Year For Solana
As mentioned in Solana’s community update, in January 2021, when Solana was less than a year old, it had 10 billion total transactions, $100 million total value locked, (TVL) 360 global validators, and 70 total projects.
By December 2021, those numbers had taken off: 45.5 billion transactions, $11.4 billion (TVL), 1,328 global validators, and 5,145 total projects in the ecosystem, plus more than 1 million NFTs minted, 5,985 total public repos, and many more highlights.
The Solana blockchain can already host something as demanding as the Serum DEX, and Tether”s integration with Solana, along with many other high-profile major projects, is also a massive vote of confidence for Solana.
This is all thanks to Solana’s unique design. Its Proof of History mechanism takes its Proof of Stake consensus mechanism to the next level by timestamping transactions. The low entry barrier to becoming a staking validator node on the network is a huge selling point.
Combine these two elements with the fact that the validator nodes frequently take turns producing blocks and fulfilling other roles on the Solana Blockchain, and you have a recipe for scalability, decentralization, and security for all types of projects.
The company had a humble beginning; it was not propped up by hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital investors who wanted to turn a quick profit. It’s good to see that Solana does not appear to be heavily influenced by venture capital funding, which has been a significant issue for many other crypto projects.
It Takes A Special Blockchain To Cater To Social Media
Some blockchains have shied away from integrating social media platforms for several reasons. One is the amount of data and content generated on a platform, and many are not technologically able to cope with such a vast application or protocol.
Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Cardano, had an interesting conversation with SingularityNET CEO Ben Goertzel on decentralized social media. Although they are not ready for a platform like Markethive or even recognize it yet, they describe Markethive!
They speak of the dynamics and what’s needed to integrate a decentralized platform on a Blockchain. They analyze the shortcomings of Minds and Steemit, Facebook, and Twitter, stating that incentives are crucial, and it's always been an incentives problem.
“If you show that in a free market system you can achieve great wealth, or at least the prospect of great wealth by building a system of a certain design, then you'll end up getting a lot of it. The incentives models being aligned so that people can actually make money and produce money and do useful things with the system.”
The solving of top-level control issues by introducing a decentralized, AI-guided rating and reputation system that is self-policing and fosters a healthy level of interaction. It would also create a breeding ground for positive, creative, and beneficial content in which people's minds are being nudged toward positive growth.
Charles stated,
“You have to solve all three of those with one protocol design and one incentives design. And if you do that, then it's going to be this massive beacon that will attract tons of people to come in and start working on an augmented system and evolve it.
And it doesn't matter if it starts very small. It'll go very viral and eventually get to that Tesla-style hockey stick when Tesla figured out the entire model. Plenty of battery-powered cars before, but their particular model was the one that everything came together and then it had exponential growth.”
Because of Solana’s POH method, it can horizontally scale the rest of the blockchain, the same way that operating systems and databases scale their software. Each Solana team member has over a decade of experience working in operating systems GPU acceleration. Compilers, networks, etc., giving them extensive and deep experience optimizing software.
Solana is based on scaling software with hardware, with the vision of building the world's largest decentralized, single chart blockchain. The only way to do that is by scaling all the core technologies with hardware.
Scaling the Blockchain in this way delivers a cheap cryptographic base for financial transfers and, more importantly, outside of finance. It is a way for Solana to build a better web experience for social media communities regarding micropayments.
Also, advertising-based revenues can be relinquished for social networks, leading communities to generate value by self-expression, creating their own content, and growing the network and the connections within the community, creating a better world for all.
Listen to Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder and architect of Solana, explain its submission to the Reddit Scaling Bake-Off.
Anatoly explains the team will work tirelessly to make sure that they can roll out the features Reddit wants for the entire 430 million Reddit user base. They aim to build the best possible experience for their communities to issue cryptocurrencies and have an open Smart contracts platform that is fully programmable.
Anatoly believes that technology can handle large crypto-based communities, and they’re just getting started. There is so much more to the Solana project. It’s all laid out in the Solana Documentation on its Website. https://docs.solana.com/introduction
Markethive is also working tirelessly to bring a beacon of light in these relentless dark times of the world. It is a monolithic project arming itself with complete autonomy on every level, rendering it impervious to the wicked tyranny that currently assails civilization globally.
There are various aspects of Markethive’s arsenal being forged simultaneously and will be ready for the millions seeking refuge and reclaiming their sovereignty. We now have our sovereign merchant account and preparing for our crypto wallet.
Solana and its technology look favorable as the conduit to assist in making Markethive the go-to for an alternative and autonomous, a censorship-free platform providing all components of social media, marketing, broadcasting, publishing, eCommerce, and business facilitation. A cottage industry economy for people from all walks of life to thrive.
Markethive also had a humble beginning and no prominent venture capitalists. It is built by the people, of and for the people. It is an ecosystem for entrepreneurs, and it’s the rank and file, the community that will profit, sharing the prosperity and abundance of every level of humanity.
Stay informed of Markethive’s progress as we make headway with the rollout of our new advanced system. A Divine fortress where evil cannot penetrate. Come to the weekly meetings every Sunday at 10 am Mountain Time, and you will find the invite link in the Markethive calendar.
This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
War in Ukraine is a Distraction from what is Really Happening!
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