Jamaat's three-day nationwide blockade, Inter-district terminals remained empty and long-distance buses were operating at night to avoid the risk of vandalism and arson attack. Nonetheless, bus terminal officials said passengers are also

3-day BNP blockade: Long-haul buses plying at night to avoid vandalism, arson

A bigger risk attributed to AI, is the possibility of development of self-controlled weapons, with the ability to harm and kill without human intervention.

Artificial Intelligence has potential to improve or destroy our future

Nepal's President, Ramchandra Paudel, emphasized the importance of officially opening up more peaks in the country for exploration during the 50th ann

Nepal's President Ramchandra Paudel suggests opening up more mountain peaks for climbers

Azimio leader Raila Odinga's staunch supporter Nuru Okanga has spoken hours after finishing his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations. Okanga was among the KCPE candidates who sat their 2023 exams which began on Monday.

Raila's vocal supporter Nuru Okanga speaks after finishing KCPE exams

Azimio leader Raila Odinga's diehard Nuru Okanga was among the 1.43 million candidates who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination this year. On Monday, 32-year-old Okanga joined candidates at Mumias Muslim Primary School, Kakamega County as a private candidate.

Raila Odinga diehard Nuru Okanga hopes for good results after finishing KCPE exams

Opposition leader Raila Odinga's diehard fan and 'barking dog', Nuru Okanga, is among the 1.43 million candidates sitting for the last batch of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam.

Raila Odinga diehard Nuru Okanga sits for KCPE at age 32

Vocal political activist, Nuru Okanga has revealed he went back to sit for KCPE exam so as to get a certificate to run for an MCA seat in the 2027 general election.

Nuru Okanga Says Wajackoyah Hired Private Teacher to Help Him Revise for KCPE: "I Expect 280 Marks"

Raila Odinga's die-hard fan, Nuru Okanga, is currently sitting for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations at Mumias Muslim Primary School.

Raila Odinga's Diehard Fan Nuru Okanga Sits for His KCPE Exams: "250 Marks Kwangu Iko Sawa"

Nuru Okanga: See Why Azimio's Staunch Supporter is Sitting for His KCPE Exams

Mary Porter Peschka, IFC Regional Director for Eastern Africa, said it gave US$65 million to fintech platform M-Kopa Holdings in Kenya to expand its financial services to under-banked consumers. The fund aims to increase access to finance for small businesses, boost energy access and drive gender inclusion.

IFC gives US$2,9bn to East African green businesses

Nuru

nuru

Welcome to HackerNoon Decoded: Data Science Edition—the ultimate recap of the stories, writers, and trends that defined your 2024! In Data Science, You Found Patterns No One Else Could See You don’t need to be neurospicy to enjoy a good dataset. You just have to be you 😉 If this was your top tech category, you’re part of the 2.94% of readers who know that data science isn’t just about crunching numbers—it’s about uncovering the secrets of the universe (or at least your user metrics). Dive into Your HackerNoon 2024 Decoded—Explore Your Data On Your Profile Page Now! Most Read Data Science Stories Here are the top 10 Data Science stories that totally took over 2024: Outlier Detection: What You Need to Know	Natalia by Natalia Ogneva
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Tech Media Bias Take advantage of this recap and catch up on some of the most-read stories, subscribe to your favorite writers, or start writing yourself— try this writing template. You too could make this list by next year! Thank You, Hacker! We want to take a moment to thank you for your continued support and for choosing HackerNoon as your go-to platform for all things tech. Your engagement, feedback, and passion for sharing knowledge have helped make HackerNoon what it is today. We're grateful to have you as part of this incredible community, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll achieve with us in 2025 and beyond! Curious about HackerNoon’s Global Decoded? Check out the blog post here! Dive into Your HackerNoon 2024 Decoded—Explore Your Data On Your Profile Page Now! Happy HackerNoon Decoded! Welcome to HackerNoon Decoded: Data Science Edition—the ultimate recap of the stories, writers, and trends that defined your 2024! In Data Science, You Found Patterns No One Else Could See You don’t need to be neurospicy to enjoy a good dataset. You just have to be you 😉 If this was your top tech category, you’re part of the 2.94% of readers who know that data science isn’t just about crunching numbers—it’s about uncovering the secrets of the universe (or at least your user metrics). 2.94% of readers Dive into Your HackerNoon 2024 Decoded—Explore Your Data On Your Profile Page Now! Dive into Your HackerNoon 2024 Decoded—Explore Your Data On Your Profile Page Now! Most Read Data Science Stories Here are the top 10 Data Science stories that totally took over 2024: Here are the top 10 Data Science stories that totally took over 2024: Outlier Detection: What You Need to Know	Natalia by Natalia Ogneva QA Checks for Big Datasets With Deequ & Statistical Methods by Akshay Jain Data Science for Portfolio Optimization: Markowitz Mean-Variance Theory by Andrey Kustarev Dealing with Missing Data in Financial Time Series - Recipes and Pitfalls by Vladimir Kirilin Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for Beginners—Part 1: Data Collection, Processing, and Account Structure by Asher Leveraging Data Granularity, Distribution, and Modeling for Effective Product Management by Gevorg Kazaryan Unlocking the Power of Data Lakes for Embedded Analytics in Multi-Tenant SaaS by Qrvey How to Specify Data Format in Excel with Python by Luca Liu Scaling Ethereum: Data Bloat, Data Availability, and the Cloudless Solution by Logos Beyond the Hype: How Data Annotation Powers Generative AI by Indium Outlier Detection: What You Need to Know	Natalia by Natalia Ogneva Outlier Detection: What You Need to Know	Natalia Natalia Ogneva QA Checks for Big Datasets With Deequ & Statistical Methods by Akshay Jain QA Checks for Big Datasets With Deequ & Statistical Methods Akshay Jain Data Science for Portfolio Optimization: Markowitz Mean-Variance Theory by Andrey Kustarev Data Science for Portfolio Optimization: Markowitz Mean-Variance Theory Andrey Kustarev Dealing with Missing Data in Financial Time Series - Recipes and Pitfalls by Vladimir Kirilin Dealing with Missing Data in Financial Time Series - Recipes and Pitfalls Vladimir Kirilin Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for Beginners—Part 1: Data Collection, Processing, and Account Structure by Asher Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for Beginners—Part 1: Data Collection, Processing, and Account Structure Asher Leveraging Data Granularity, Distribution, and Modeling for Effective Product Management by Gevorg Kazaryan Leveraging Data Granularity, Distribution, and Modeling for Effective Product Management Gevorg Kazaryan Unlocking the Power of Data Lakes for Embedded Analytics in Multi-Tenant SaaS by Qrvey Unlocking the Power of Data Lakes for Embedded Analytics in Multi-Tenant SaaS Qrvey How to Specify Data Format in Excel with Python by Luca Liu How to Specify Data Format in Excel with Python Luca Liu Scaling Ethereum: Data Bloat, Data Availability, and the Cloudless Solution by Logos Scaling Ethereum: Data Bloat, Data Availability, and the Cloudless Solution Logos Beyond the Hype: How Data Annotation Powers Generative AI by Indium Beyond the Hype: How Data Annotation Powers Generative AI Indium Top 10 Data Science Readers These readers couldn't get enough of Data Science content: These readers couldn't get enough of Data Science content: Lior Barak Varun Nakra Natalia Anufrieva Nuruddeen Sambo Karolis Didziulis @shadix0815 Linda Quinn @hacker-cm4ubmcw10001bz0f1jbohpp4 Madiha Khalid Matias Lior Barak Lior Barak Varun Nakra Varun Nakra Natalia Anufrieva Natalia Anufrieva Nuruddeen Sambo Nuruddeen Sambo Karolis Didziulis Karolis Didziulis @shadix0815 @shadix0815 Linda Quinn Linda Quinn @hacker-cm4ubmcw10001bz0f1jbohpp4 @hacker-cm4ubmcw10001bz0f1jbohpp4 Madiha Khalid Madiha Khalid Matias Matias Top 10 Data Science Writers These prolific writers shaped our content landscape: These prolific writers shaped our content landscape: Configuring Interoperability Learn Repo Alex Merced Anchoring Lior Barak EScholar Netizenship Computational Technology Tech Media Bias Configuring Configuring Interoperability Interoperability Learn Repo Learn Repo Alex Merced Alex Merced Anchoring Anchoring Lior Barak Lior Barak EScholar EScholar Netizenship Netizenship Computational Technology Computational Technology Tech Media Bias Tech Media Bias Take advantage of this recap and catch up on some of the most-read stories, subscribe to your favorite writers, or start writing yourself— try this writing template. 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Table of Links Abstract and 1. Introduction 1.1 Option Pricing 1.2 Asymptotic Notation (Big O) 1.3 Finite Difference 1.4 The Black-Schole Model 1.5 Monte Carlo Simulation and Variance Reduction Techniques 1.6 Our Contribution Literature Review
Methodology 3.1 Model Assumption 3.2 Theorems and Model Discussion Result Analysis
Conclusion and References 5. CONCLUSION The research findings have demonstrated that finite difference methods offer a powerful tool for approximating option prices and hedging parameters, especially in cases where closed-form solutions are unavailable or impractical. The asymptotic analysis conducted in this study has provided valuable insights into the convergence properties and accuracy of finite difference approximations, shedding light on the optimal choice of discretization schemes and grid sizes for different option contracts. Furthermore, the combination of finite difference methods and Monte Carlo simulation with variance reduction techniques offers a comprehensive approach to hedge error analysis in option pricing. By leveraging the strengths of both methodologies, financial practitioners can obtain more robust and reliable estimates of option prices and hedge parameters, thereby enhancing their risk management capabilities and decision-making processes. It is important to acknowledge the limitations of this study and areas for future research. While the asymptotic analysis provides valuable theoretical insights, further empirical validation is warranted to assess the robustness of the findings across different market conditions and asset classes. Additionally, exploring alternative variance reduction techniques and incorporating more sophisticated models of market dynamics could yield further improvements in hedge error analysis and option pricing accuracy. this study has advanced our understanding of the factors influencing hedge errors and provided practical tools for mitigating their impact on derivative pricing and risk management. As financial markets continue to evolve, the insights gained from this research will remain valuable for academics, practitioners, and policymakers striving to enhance the efficiency and stability of global financial systems. REFERENCES [1] C. W. Smith, “Option pricing. A review,” J. financ. econ., vol. 3, no. 1–2, pp. 3–51, 1976, doi: 10.1016/0304-405X(76)90019-2. [2] S. Guernsey, “an Introduction To the Black-Scholes Pde Model,” 2013. [3] B. Peeters, C. L. Dert, and A. Lucas, “Black Scholes for Portfolios of Options in Discrete Time,” SSRN Electron. J., no. 03, 2005, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.469022. [4] J. He, “A Study on Analytical and Numerical Solutions of Three Types of Black-Scholes Models,” Int. J. Trade, Econ. Financ., vol. 13, no. 2, 2022, doi: 10.18178/ijtef.2022.13.2.720. [5] A. S. Shinde and K. C. Takale, “Study of BlackScholes model and its applications,” Procedia Eng., vol. 38, pp. 270–279, 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2012.06.035. [6] Y. Zhang, “The value of Monte Carlo model-based variance reduction technology in the pricing of financial derivatives,” PLoS One, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 1–13, 2020, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229737. [7] P. L. Bonate, “A brief introduction to Monte Carlo simulation,” Clin. Pharmacokinet., vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 15–22, 2001, doi: 10.2165/00003088- 200140010-00002. [8] D. R. Tobergte and S. Curtis, “Importance sampling for high speed statistical Monte-Carlo simulations,” J. Chem. Inf. Model., vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 1689–1699, 2013. [9] E. C. Anderson and M. Stephens, “Importance Sampling and (MC)^3,” Sisg 2020, vol. 2, no. July, pp. 1–29, 2020. [10] I. N. Medvedev, “Vector estimators of the Monte Carlo method with a finite variance,” Russ. J. Numer. Anal. Math. Model., vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 231– 244, 2013, doi: 10.1515/rnam-2013-0014. [11] E. Saliby and R. J. Paul, “A farewell to the use of antithetic variates in monte carlo simulation,” J. Oper. Res. Soc., vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 1026–1035, 2009, doi: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602645. [12] P. W. Glynn and R. Szechtman, “Some New Perspectives on the Method of Control Variates,” Monte Carlo Quasi-Monte Carlo Methods 2000, pp. 27–49, 2002, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-56046-0_3. [13] W. Gustafsson, “Evaluating the Longstaff-Schwartz method for pricing of American options,” 2015. [14] L. Andersen and M. Broadie, “Primal-dual simulation algorithm for pricing multidimensional American options,” Manage. Sci., vol. 50, no. 9, pp. 1222–1234, 2004, doi: 10.1287/mnsc.1040.0258. [15] E. Wipplinger, Jim Gatheral: The volatility surface, a practitioner’s guide, vol. 22, no. 1. 2008. doi: 10.1007/s11408-007-0072-4. [16] M. Avellaneda and S. Stoikov, “High-frequency trading in a limit order book,” Quant. Financ., vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 217–224, 2008, doi: 10.1080/14697680701381228. [17] S. Mayoral, D. Moreno, and A. Zareei, “Using a hedging network to minimize portfolio risk,” Financ. Res. Lett., vol. 44, no. April, p. 102044, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.frl.2021.102044. [18] S. Gayathri Devi, K. Selvam, and S. P. Rajagopalan, “An abstract to calculate big o factors of time and space complexity of machine code,” IET Conf. Publ., vol. 2011, no. 583 CP, pp. 844–847, 2011, doi: 10.1049/cp.2011.0483. [19] M. S. H. Mojumder, M. N. Haque, and M. J. Alam, “Efficient Finite Difference Methods for the Numerical Analysis of One-Dimensional Heat Equation,” J. Appl. Math. Phys., vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 3099–3123, 2023, doi: 10.4236/jamp.2023.1110204. [20] I. R. Khan and R. Ohba, “Taylor series based finite difference approximations of higher-degree derivatives,” J. Comput. Appl. Math., vol. 154, no. 1, pp. 115–124, 2003, doi: 10.1016/S0377- 0427(02)00816-6. [21] S. Danho, “Pricing Financial Derivatives with the Finite Difference Method,” p. 237, 2017. [22] G. Connor and T. Lasarte, “An Introduction to Hedge Funds Strategies. Introductory Guide,” pp. 1–16, 2004, [Online]. Available: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/24675/1/dp477.pdf [23] M. Nurul Anwar and L. Sazzad Andallah, “A Study on Numerical Solution of Black-Scholes Model,” J. Math. Financ., vol. 08, no. 02, pp. 372–381, 2018, doi: 10.4236/jmf.2018.82024. [24] J. Akahori, F. Barsotti, and Y. Imamura, “Hedging error as generalized timing risk,” Quant. Financ., vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 693–703, 2023, doi: 10.1080/14697688.2022.2154255. [25] R. C. A. Oomen and G. J. Jiang, “Hedging Derivatives Risks - A Simulation Study,” SSRN Electron. J., no. May, 2005, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.302525. [26] K. A. Froot, “Hedging Portfolios with Real Assets,” J. Portf. Manag., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 60–77, 1995, doi: 10.3905/jpm.1995.409527. [27] H. E. LELAND, “Option Pricing and Replication with Transactions Costs,” J. Finance, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 1283–1301, 1985, doi: 10.1111/j.1540- 6261.1985.tb02383.x. [28] T. Hayashi and P. A. Mykland, “Evaluating hedging errors: An asymptotic approach,” Math. Financ., vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 309–343, 2005, doi: 10.1111/j.0960-1627.2005.00221.x. [29] J.-L. Prigent, R. Hentati, and A. Kaffel, “Dynamic versus static optimization of hedge fund portfolios: the relevance of performance measures,” Int. J. Bus., vol. 15, no. 156, pp. 1–17, 2010. [30] R. A. Jarrow, D. Lando, and F. Yu, “Default Risk and Diversification : Theory and Empirical Implications * Default Risk and Diversification: Theory and Empirical Implications Abstract,” no. 607, 2003. [31] S. Kim, D. Jeong, C. Lee, and J. Kim, “Finite difference method for the multi-asset black-scholes equations,” Mathematics, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 1–17, 2020, doi: 10.3390/math8030391. [32] D. Jeong, M. Yoo, and J. Kim, “Finite Difference Method for the Black–Scholes Equation Without Boundary Conditions,” Comput. Econ., vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 961–972, 2018, doi: 10.1007/s10614-017- 9653-0. [33] T. Guo, Black-Scholes Process and Monte Carlo Simulation-Based Options Pricing. Atlantis Press International BV, 2023. doi: 10.2991/978-94-6463- 010-7_75. [34] P. Glasserman, “Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineerring,” J. Chem. Inf. Model., vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 1689–1699, 2013. [35] Q. Jiang*, “Comparison of Black–Scholes Model and Monte-Carlo Simulation on Stock Price Modeling,” vol. 109, no. Icemci, pp. 135–137, 2020, doi: 10.2991/aebmr.k.191217.025. [36] E. Derman and E. K, “Stochastic Caclulus for Finance,” pp. 1–63, 2000. Authors:
(1) Agni Rakshit, Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, Durgapur, India (spiritualagnimath.statml@gmail.com);
(2) Gautam Bandyopadhyay, Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, Durgapur, India (gbandyopadhyay.dms@nitdgp.ac.in);
(3) Tanujit Chakraborty, Department of Science and Engineering & Sorbonne Center for AI, Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (tanujit.chakraborty@sorbonne.ae). This paper is available on arxiv under CC by 4.0 Deed (Attribution 4.0 International) license. Table of Links Abstract and 1. Introduction Abstract and 1. Introduction Abstract and 1. Introduction 1.1 Option Pricing 1.1 Option Pricing 1.2 Asymptotic Notation (Big O) 1.2 Asymptotic Notation (Big O) 1.3 Finite Difference 1.3 Finite Difference 1.4 The Black-Schole Model 1.4 The Black-Schole Model 1.5 Monte Carlo Simulation and Variance Reduction Techniques 1.5 Monte Carlo Simulation and Variance Reduction Techniques 1.6 Our Contribution 1.6 Our Contribution Literature Review Methodology Literature Review Literature Review Literature Review Methodology Methodology 3.1 Model Assumption 3.1 Model Assumption 3.2 Theorems and Model Discussion 3.2 Theorems and Model Discussion Result Analysis Conclusion and References Result Analysis Result Analysis Result Analysis Conclusion and References Conclusion and References Conclusion and References 5. CONCLUSION The research findings have demonstrated that finite difference methods offer a powerful tool for approximating option prices and hedging parameters, especially in cases where closed-form solutions are unavailable or impractical. The asymptotic analysis conducted in this study has provided valuable insights into the convergence properties and accuracy of finite difference approximations, shedding light on the optimal choice of discretization schemes and grid sizes for different option contracts. Furthermore, the combination of finite difference methods and Monte Carlo simulation with variance reduction techniques offers a comprehensive approach to hedge error analysis in option pricing. By leveraging the strengths of both methodologies, financial practitioners can obtain more robust and reliable estimates of option prices and hedge parameters, thereby enhancing their risk management capabilities and decision-making processes. It is important to acknowledge the limitations of this study and areas for future research. While the asymptotic analysis provides valuable theoretical insights, further empirical validation is warranted to assess the robustness of the findings across different market conditions and asset classes. Additionally, exploring alternative variance reduction techniques and incorporating more sophisticated models of market dynamics could yield further improvements in hedge error analysis and option pricing accuracy. this study has advanced our understanding of the factors influencing hedge errors and provided practical tools for mitigating their impact on derivative pricing and risk management. As financial markets continue to evolve, the insights gained from this research will remain valuable for academics, practitioners, and policymakers striving to enhance the efficiency and stability of global financial systems. REFERENCES [1] C. W. Smith, “Option pricing. A review,” J. financ. econ., vol. 3, no. 1–2, pp. 3–51, 1976, doi: 10.1016/0304-405X(76)90019-2. [2] S. Guernsey, “an Introduction To the Black-Scholes Pde Model,” 2013. [3] B. Peeters, C. L. Dert, and A. Lucas, “Black Scholes for Portfolios of Options in Discrete Time,” SSRN Electron. J., no. 03, 2005, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.469022. [4] J. He, “A Study on Analytical and Numerical Solutions of Three Types of Black-Scholes Models,” Int. J. Trade, Econ. Financ., vol. 13, no. 2, 2022, doi: 10.18178/ijtef.2022.13.2.720. [5] A. S. Shinde and K. C. Takale, “Study of BlackScholes model and its applications,” Procedia Eng., vol. 38, pp. 270–279, 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2012.06.035. [6] Y. Zhang, “The value of Monte Carlo model-based variance reduction technology in the pricing of financial derivatives,” PLoS One, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 1–13, 2020, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229737. [7] P. L. Bonate, “A brief introduction to Monte Carlo simulation,” Clin. Pharmacokinet., vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 15–22, 2001, doi: 10.2165/00003088- 200140010-00002. [8] D. R. Tobergte and S. Curtis, “Importance sampling for high speed statistical Monte-Carlo simulations,” J. Chem. Inf. Model., vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 1689–1699, 2013. [9] E. C. Anderson and M. Stephens, “Importance Sampling and (MC)^3,” Sisg 2020, vol. 2, no. July, pp. 1–29, 2020. [10] I. N. Medvedev, “Vector estimators of the Monte Carlo method with a finite variance,” Russ. J. Numer. Anal. Math. Model., vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 231– 244, 2013, doi: 10.1515/rnam-2013-0014. [11] E. Saliby and R. J. Paul, “A farewell to the use of antithetic variates in monte carlo simulation,” J. Oper. Res. Soc., vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 1026–1035, 2009, doi: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602645. [12] P. W. Glynn and R. Szechtman, “Some New Perspectives on the Method of Control Variates,” Monte Carlo Quasi-Monte Carlo Methods 2000, pp. 27–49, 2002, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-56046-0_3. [13] W. Gustafsson, “Evaluating the Longstaff-Schwartz method for pricing of American options,” 2015. [14] L. Andersen and M. Broadie, “Primal-dual simulation algorithm for pricing multidimensional American options,” Manage. Sci., vol. 50, no. 9, pp. 1222–1234, 2004, doi: 10.1287/mnsc.1040.0258. [15] E. Wipplinger, Jim Gatheral: The volatility surface, a practitioner’s guide, vol. 22, no. 1. 2008. doi: 10.1007/s11408-007-0072-4. [16] M. Avellaneda and S. Stoikov, “High-frequency trading in a limit order book,” Quant. Financ., vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 217–224, 2008, doi: 10.1080/14697680701381228. [17] S. Mayoral, D. Moreno, and A. Zareei, “Using a hedging network to minimize portfolio risk,” Financ. Res. Lett., vol. 44, no. April, p. 102044, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.frl.2021.102044. [18] S. Gayathri Devi, K. Selvam, and S. P. Rajagopalan, “An abstract to calculate big o factors of time and space complexity of machine code,” IET Conf. Publ., vol. 2011, no. 583 CP, pp. 844–847, 2011, doi: 10.1049/cp.2011.0483. [19] M. S. H. Mojumder, M. N. Haque, and M. J. Alam, “Efficient Finite Difference Methods for the Numerical Analysis of One-Dimensional Heat Equation,” J. Appl. Math. Phys., vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 3099–3123, 2023, doi: 10.4236/jamp.2023.1110204. [20] I. R. Khan and R. Ohba, “Taylor series based finite difference approximations of higher-degree derivatives,” J. Comput. Appl. Math., vol. 154, no. 1, pp. 115–124, 2003, doi: 10.1016/S0377- 0427(02)00816-6. [21] S. Danho, “Pricing Financial Derivatives with the Finite Difference Method,” p. 237, 2017. [22] G. Connor and T. Lasarte, “An Introduction to Hedge Funds Strategies. Introductory Guide,” pp. 1–16, 2004, [Online]. Available: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/24675/1/dp477.pdf http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/24675/1/dp477.pdf [23] M. Nurul Anwar and L. Sazzad Andallah, “A Study on Numerical Solution of Black-Scholes Model,” J. Math. Financ., vol. 08, no. 02, pp. 372–381, 2018, doi: 10.4236/jmf.2018.82024. [24] J. Akahori, F. Barsotti, and Y. Imamura, “Hedging error as generalized timing risk,” Quant. Financ., vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 693–703, 2023, doi: 10.1080/14697688.2022.2154255. [25] R. C. A. Oomen and G. J. Jiang, “Hedging Derivatives Risks - A Simulation Study,” SSRN Electron. J., no. May, 2005, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.302525. [26] K. A. Froot, “Hedging Portfolios with Real Assets,” J. Portf. Manag., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 60–77, 1995, doi: 10.3905/jpm.1995.409527. [27] H. E. LELAND, “Option Pricing and Replication with Transactions Costs,” J. Finance, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 1283–1301, 1985, doi: 10.1111/j.1540- 6261.1985.tb02383.x. [28] T. Hayashi and P. A. Mykland, “Evaluating hedging errors: An asymptotic approach,” Math. Financ., vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 309–343, 2005, doi: 10.1111/j.0960-1627.2005.00221.x. [29] J.-L. Prigent, R. Hentati, and A. Kaffel, “Dynamic versus static optimization of hedge fund portfolios: the relevance of performance measures,” Int. J. Bus., vol. 15, no. 156, pp. 1–17, 2010. [30] R. A. Jarrow, D. Lando, and F. Yu, “Default Risk and Diversification : Theory and Empirical Implications * Default Risk and Diversification: Theory and Empirical Implications Abstract,” no. 607, 2003. [31] S. Kim, D. Jeong, C. Lee, and J. Kim, “Finite difference method for the multi-asset black-scholes equations,” Mathematics, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 1–17, 2020, doi: 10.3390/math8030391. [32] D. Jeong, M. Yoo, and J. Kim, “Finite Difference Method for the Black–Scholes Equation Without Boundary Conditions,” Comput. Econ., vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 961–972, 2018, doi: 10.1007/s10614-017- 9653-0. [33] T. Guo, Black-Scholes Process and Monte Carlo Simulation-Based Options Pricing. Atlantis Press International BV, 2023. doi: 10.2991/978-94-6463- 010-7_75. [34] P. Glasserman, “Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineerring,” J. Chem. Inf. Model., vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 1689–1699, 2013. [35] Q. Jiang*, “Comparison of Black–Scholes Model and Monte-Carlo Simulation on Stock Price Modeling,” vol. 109, no. Icemci, pp. 135–137, 2020, doi: 10.2991/aebmr.k.191217.025. [36] E. Derman and E. K, “Stochastic Caclulus for Finance,” pp. 1–63, 2000. Authors: (1) Agni Rakshit, Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, Durgapur, India (spiritualagnimath.statml@gmail.com); (2) Gautam Bandyopadhyay, Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, Durgapur, India (gbandyopadhyay.dms@nitdgp.ac.in); (3) Tanujit Chakraborty, Department of Science and Engineering & Sorbonne Center for AI, Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (tanujit.chakraborty@sorbonne.ae). Authors: Authors: (1) Agni Rakshit, Department of Mathematics, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, Durgapur, India (spiritualagnimath.statml@gmail.com); (2) Gautam Bandyopadhyay, Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, Durgapur, India (gbandyopadhyay.dms@nitdgp.ac.in); (3) Tanujit Chakraborty, Department of Science and Engineering & Sorbonne Center for AI, Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (tanujit.chakraborty@sorbonne.ae). This paper is available on arxiv under CC by 4.0 Deed (Attribution 4.0 International) license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC by 4.0 Deed (Attribution 4.0 International) license. available on arxiv available on arxiv

Harnessing Finite Difference Methods for Enhanced Option Pricing

How a Herd of Models Challenges ChatGPT's Dominance: Conclusion, Discussion, and References

This paper is available on arxiv under CC0 1.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Salim Chouaki, LIX, CNRS, Inria, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris; (2) Oana Goga, LIX, CNRS, Inria, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris; (3) Hamed Haddadi, Imperial College London, Brave Software; (4) Peter Snyder, Brave Software. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Background Measurement Methodology Results Limitations Related Work Conclusion, Acknowledgments, and References Appendix 7 CONCLUSION In this paper, we presented the first systematic study of the privacy properties of the advertising systems of five popular search engines: Two traditional ones, Google and Bing, and three private ones, DuckDuckGo, StartPage, and Qwant. We investigated whether, and to which extent, search engines through their advertising systems, engage in privacyharming behaviors that allow cross site tracking. Despite the privacy intentions and promises of private search engines, our findings reveal the failure of privacyfocused search engines to fully protect users’ privacy during ad interactions. Users on all measured search engines, including the privacy-focused ones, are subject to navigation-based tracking by third parties. We find that all search engines engage in bounce tracking when clicking on ads, where users are sent through several redirectors before reaching the ads’ destination websites. While private search engines themselves do not engage in user tracking, their reliance on traditional advertising systems (Microsoft or Google) renders users susceptible to tracking by those systems. Although we cannot directly attribute this tracking to the search engines themselves, it is evident that they are enabling it through their reliance on Microsoft and Google’s advertising systems. Inspecting the privacy policies of the search engines in light of our findings reveals interesting disparities. While our results demonstrate that Microsoft is capable of tracking DuckDuckGo users when they click on ads, DuckDuckGo asserts that Microsoft does not associate ad-click data with user profiles. On the other hand, Qwant, which also relies on Microsoft advertising for a significant fraction of its ads, do not document the utilization of ad-click data by Microsoft and whether it is used to enhance user profiles. Similarly, StartPage explicitly states that clicking on ads subjects users to the data collection policies of other websites. Our study highlights the need for increased attention to privacy protection within the advertising systems of search engines. One potential solution to protect users’ privacy for private search engines would be to reduce their reliance on third-party advertising systems. Developing their own advertising platform could provide greater control over privacy practices, although the feasibility and complexity of such an approach remain uncertain. Alternatively, private search engines could collaborate with advertising systems such as Microsoft and Google, forging partnerships that proactively tackle privacy concerns. For instance, private search engines could negotiate agreements with the ad provider that prevent redirecting users who click on ads placed within private search engines to additional third parties. This approach would minimize the extent of third-party tracking, limiting it to the ad provider only. Moreover, search engines like StartPage and Qwant could follow the lead of DuckDuckGo by seeking agreements with advertising systems to prevent the use of ad-click identifiers for user profile enrichment. These proactive steps would enhance user privacy while maintaining advertising partnerships with larger platforms. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was supported in part by the French National Research Agency (ANR) through the ANR-17-CE23-0014, ANR-21-CE23-0031-02, and MIAI@Grenoble Alpes ANR19-P3IA-0003 grants and by the EU through the 101041223, 101021377, and 952215 grants. REFERENCES [1] Last accessed September 11, 2023. Ad Block engine in Rust. https://www.npmjs.com/package/adblock-rs [2] Last accessed September 11, 2023. Disconnect Entity List. https://github.com/mozilla-services/shavar-prodlists/blob/master/disconnect-entitylist.json [3] Last accessed September 11, 2023. DuckDuckGo seach engine. https://duckduckgo.com/ [4] Last accessed September 11, 2023. EasyList. https://easylist.to/easylist/easylist.txt [5] Last accessed September 11, 2023. EasyPrivacy. https://easylist.to/easylist/easyprivacy.txt [6] Last accessed September 11, 2023. MovieLens. https://movielens.org/ [7] Last accessed September 11, 2023. 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Privacy Risks of Search Engine Advertising Systems: Conclusion, Acknowledgments, and References

Let's learn about via these 57 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Ico /Learn Repo Talk-in' 'bout, hey now hey now I-ko, I-ko, un-day
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I bet-cha five dol-lars he'll kill you dead, jock-a-mo fee na-né Also, Initial Coin Offerings. 1. 3 Things Not to Do When Bitcoin is Going Down Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash 2. Understanding IBCO: Can Another Crypto-Funding Mechanism Yield Accountable Results? TLDR: IBCO is the new primitive for crypto projects funding, solving for the main issues of ICOs such as lack of accountability, lack of liquidity and flawed price discovery mechanics for the token itself. 3. My Journey in CryptoCollectibles (so far) A journey marked by crypto collectibles and highlights of lessons learned along the way. 4. Are NFTs the Next ICO Fraud? Want to buy virtual artwork for $1.98M? 5. Why Metaverses are the Next Big Trend After NFTs The Metaverse is a rocket ship that will propel the popularity and application of blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies to a whole new level. 6. Top 75+ ICO Marketing Agencies There are many stages to launching an ICO and the needs of the business vary depending at what stage they’re on. For each of these stages we’ve highlighted what services are needed and organized our Top 75 list according to their offered services across five main categories: 7. Raising Funds for Blockchain Projects is a Long and Winding Road Raising funding for blockchain projects presents many challenges. This article lists some of them. 8. 10-Step Checklist for Assessing an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Project Dye to the growing demand for educating new crypto investors, we’ve put together the following, 10 definitive factors for assessing a successful ICO project. 9. From Utility to Security: The U2S Model for Converting Shitcoins into Securities During the ICO era, a countless number of projects managed to rapidly raise capital in a short period of time. You probably know about those that managed to raise capital and just disappeared, never building a product promised to investors while their utility tokens became a burden for investors. It’s hard to admit but there is nothing you can do to change the historical outcome. 10. Top 3 Things You Need to Know About Initial Game Offerings (IGOs) IGO become one of the latest crypto trends in the crypto space with the rise of blockchain games or GameFi, and here are top 3 things you need to know about it. [11. 2017 Vs 2020 in crypto: any chance to replicate "success"?](https://hackernoon.com/2017-vs-2020-in-crypto-any-chance-to-replicate-success-ocm3zdo) It is not a big secret, that a lot of market players are trying to compare the current situation on the crypto market with the phenomenon we saw in 2017. Back then, in October, the BTC price was 2 times lower and ICO made the market super attractive for scammers (so as  DeFi now). Should we really be prepared for a rally starting from now? 12. Top 5 Methods of Running an Effective Cryptocurrency Exchange Anti Danilevski, KickEX CEO and founder, talks about Top 5 Methods of Running an Effective Cryptocurrency Exchange based on his own experiences in the field. 13. Number of STOs May Double While IEOs Will Almost Triple By Q4 2019 With regulators clamping down uncontrolled blockchain funding, I expect the number of ICOs to drop 90% from 980 registered in Q1 2018 to around 100–110 in Q4 2020. At the same time, regulatory compliance would allow STOs and IEOs to flourish. 14. My Blockchain Adventures in Africa In December 2017 I had an opportunity to discover the Kenyan based Nurucoin ICO and write up a spotlight article on it. As sometimes happens, I develop an affinity for the person/company that I talked to when putting these articles together and in this case, I kept in contact with CEO Isaac Muthui. I would answer questions for him and point out information to him that would be helpful for his project. After a couple months he invited me to come and visit their company in Kenya, they were interested in my opinions on technology they were building. I agreed to come because, why not, a trip to Africa. I wasn’t compensated for the trip or for this article, but my expenses were covered, I mention that in the interest of full disclosure. What I discovered in Kenya and about Isaac and the goals for Nurucoin, got me thinking in some extremely big pictures. 15. "Experience Imposes the Strongest Psychological Inertia" - Andrey Sergeenkov, Noonies Nominee Andrey Sergeenkov from Russia has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie in the Future Heroes, Technology, and Decentralization categories. Andrey has been nominated for four separate awards and is anxiously awaiting the day when DeFi becomes mainstream. 16. Mr. Market Meets Mr. ICO Ben Graham was a towering intellect. He wrote a book which has inspired legions of hedge fund managers and smaller investors to wealth, and quite interestingly, they all took the basic concepts laid out in this book, but applied them in radically different ways. Warren Buffett is Ben Graham’s best known pupil, but there are legions of others, the so-called “Super Investors of Graham and Doddsville”. 17. Get Used to Building a .Net core MVC Application on Mac Visual Studio Creating .Net MVC project using Visual Studio Mac 18. Saving Cryptocurrency from Scammers: Interview with Crypto Vigilante I think the ICO run is past us. We will not see a crazy market like we did in 2017. Scammers are very sophisticated and are always coming up with new ways to scam. 19. Can IDOs #RightTheWrongs of ICOs and IEOs? Crypto startups are stacking up to launch their IDOs on DEX platforms like Polkastarter, DuckSTARTER, SpacePort, BSCPad and a few other leading platforms. 20. A Safer Way of Investing in IDOs with Priority Projects Priority Projects - Kommunitas' way of making IGOs less risky and promoting high quality projects. 21. Life After ICO: 4 New Ways to Launch a Token The history and end of the ICO hype are well known: many projects turned out to be unfeasible or fraudulent, and many people lost their money. 22. What Crypto Should You Invest In? When you work in the blockchain space, you'll hear one question again and again, whether it's from your barber, your friends, or a social media DM: 23. Founder Interviews: Mohammad Mazen of Burency It is no longer a secret that the United Arab Emirates are technology pioneers, and their action plan for the development of Blockchain technology within companies and government has become a clear priority. 24. Blockchains for Crowdfunding It is no secret that Crowdfunding hold a tremendous potential in helping entrepreneurs and creators in pushing their projects forwards and gathering much needed financial resources. In 2018, The crowdfunding market size was valued at 10.2 billions dollars and was set to almost triple by 2025. 25. Everything Changes and Nothing Does… In the past few months, I have met and spoken to many people from the blockchain space. Enthusiasts, professionals, enthusiasts who pretended to be experts, people who were predicting the future of the decentralization and those who were super excited to hear about it for the first time… Moon and Lambo guys, crypto traders, blockchain startup founders…. people from the traditional finance who were telling me to run away before it’s too late because all this is just a bubble… 26. All About Initial DEX Offerings and Why They Matter A new method of investing in crypto startups is on the rise. Learn what an IDO is and how DeFi users and new projects are leveraging IDOs to reach new heights. 27. As ICOs Wane, Big Money Squeezes Out The Little Guy In 2017, the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) exploded onto the global scene and upended the traditional method of funding an early-stage business. For a while, many believed that we were witnessing the dawn of a more egalitarian financial era; one where anyone with a good idea and the ability to make it a reality could access easy money and a shot at success. As it turned out, it was too good to be true. 28. Looking Back At The Companies That Led To The ICO Boom One popular narrative about 2017's ICO mania says it was fueled by naive investors duped into throwing money at projects that were either incapable or had no intention, of delivering. 29. BTC, ETH, ICOs, and now - DeFi: How far Have We Come? Bitcoin caught the attention of technologists and anarchists alike following the 2008 Global recession. Ethereum took Bitcoin’s ‘Digital Gold’ status and gave us smart contracts. ICOs took smart contracts and gave us supply chain management solutions for problems that we never knew existed. 30. The Magic of Altcoins: How do I Know if a Coin is Worthy of Attention? There are more and more altcoins. But how do you know it's not a scam? How do you know if a coin is worth paying attention to? We tell you in this column. 31. How Does Pandemic Impact Company Valuation With the pandemic induced havoc, how is that the stock market is not down more? And what effect will the economic downturn have on the valuation of startups? 32. The IEO Gamble: Does it Raise Capital or only Trouble? Graphics by Regex SEO 33. Applying Complexity Theory to Valuation The last of three articles on corporate valuations and capital structures. 34. What Do Regulators and Investors Want To See In Your White Papers? In September 2017, the Office of Financial Conduct Authority of the UK (FCA) issued a warning about the risks associated with the ICO. In particular, they directly pointed out to the weak level of White Papers, and did describe it like the risk of the “imperfect documentation”. 35. Interview with @MarvinSteinberg On Asset Tokenization, Startups, Investors and More The concept of asset tokenization is still in its formative state, as companies are just coming to terms with the idea of capitalizing on blockchains to distribute shares and assets to interested investors. While this is a given, the concept is looking ever more likely to hit the ground running in 2020. This eventuality is bound to contribute to the potency of STOs as a fundraising mechanism for startups and established companies. 36. The Ugly Truth Behind IEOs and What to Expect in 2020 Let’s face it, you won’t be able to conduct a successful IEO unless you have a fully-operational and fully compliant prototype and unless you’ve clinched a listing deal with a major exchange with actual liquidity within its community of retail investors, and traders. 37. MO’s Algorithm: Efficient Way to Solve Offline Range Query Problems MO’s Algorithm aka Square Root Decomposition, a very efficient and easy technique to solve Range Query Problems (RQP). For MO’s Algorithm to work, the RQP has to be offline. In this post, we will understand about RQP, Offline RPQ, Naive Approach to solve RQP and an Efficient Approach using MO’s Algorithm. What is Range Query Problem? 38. Looking Back At ICOs At The Time Of The DeFi Hype Train Although I have been in the blockchain space for more than 3 years, I am not from tech, which is probably why this  post will be looking more into the story and the human aspects of ICOs. 39. IEO (Initial Exchange Offering): What Kind of Beast Is It? In 2016, ICO became the main way of financing innovation and blockchain startups. The first project, released on ICO, was Mastercoin in 2013. After it, thousands of projects attracted funding through the emission of tokens. According to ICODATA in 2017, the volume of investments raised through ICO (Initial Coins Offerings) were more than $6.2 billion, in 2018 — about $8 billion. After analyzing the data from the TokenData, it can be concluded that in 2018, unfortunately majority of the projects turned out to be a scam. 40. GAME of CRYPTOS  [Chapter 5 ] - The Token Apocalypse It is the year of the Lord of 2017. 41. How To Identify Scam ICOs Scammers are nothing new. They have been around us for ages utilizing different mediums and resources to set traps. Progressing civilization and advancement in technologies create different loopholes that later get exploited and we, the people, pay the price. Crypto is one such universe, full of scams that are hard to spot. 42. Did Your Shitcoin Break the Law? [Part 2] In the movie Alladin, Jafar wishes to be a genie because of their incredible might and power. Alladin proclaims, “You wanna be a genie? You got it!” 43. Working Towards a Sustainable Ecosystem Beyond Tokenization Many industries are on the brink of the next technological revolution in record keeping. Ten years after Bitcoin made its splash, we’re seeing many inspired by some of the benefits promised by the technology outside of the money use case: 44. IEOs are a Crypto Has-Been While some endorse IEOs, Kick Ecosystem’s CEO Danilevski argues that they’re a dangerous scam enterprise which will soon be replaced by the much more secure STOs and honest utility token sales. 45. Crypto Staking: Assessing the Risks and Profitability of USD Neutrino, Cosmos and others Crypto industry keeps generating new investment tools – only to be discarded  in disappointment a year or two later. The latest trend is staking - delegating coins to to earn validation rewards on the blockchain. Is it a legitimate passive income scheme? And what should you choose - regular PoS coins like Cosmos or stakable stablecoins? 46.  "IEO Will Continue to be Mainstream Even With IDO And DeFi on The Rise" - Kiana Shek The current push for DeFi has not only changed the way we engage with our everyday financial needs but has also introduced new means of accessing, supporting, and investing in new projects. Tagged as Initial DEX Offerings (IDO), the possibility of bypassing restrictions when identifying and investing in projects has improved crypto funding. However, this does not mean that other models of crowdfunding have become redundant. For what is worth, Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) is still the go-to option for projects that prefer to capitalize on established launchpads and introduce a more diverse array of crypto products not necessarily restricted to the financial sector. 47. Is Binance Launchpad a Breeding Ground for Pump and Dumps? Back in 2017, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were all the rave. Much like Initial Public Offerings, (IPO), ICOs act as a way to raise funds by selling a quantity of cryptocurrency in the form of coins to speculators and investors. 48. What Is a (Crypto)Coin Burn? Bitcoin is the main cryptocurrency many people know, understand, and are familiar with. It is also one of the few digital currencies that has no individual or group that is in charge of the blockchain project. What has come about since Bitcoin was created is a cryptocurrency ecosystem where there are a number of companies in charge of blockchain token projects. 49. The ICO to STO Evolution is Complete. So, What’s the Difference? In the blockchain industry, there is now a lot of talk about replacing the ICO with a new, more legitimate method of attracting investment, called an STO. However, this definitely is not something completely new. During the heyday of the ICO, entering the market with security tokens was not very popular, and even now, many projects, and the investors themselves, do not always understand the difference. In this article, I will explain what makes an STO and an ICO fundamentally different. 50. Making Sense of the Difference Between IPO, ICO, IEO, and STO? The advent of blockchain technology gave life not only to a new profitable financial asset, but also a new business model of funding startups. An increasing number of new companies are trying to use cryptocurrency to finance their projects. Unlike an IPO, which is a traditional and widely accepted form of external financing, STO, IEO, and ICO allow companies to start fundraising at a much earlier stage of development and the latter two avoid strict regulatory control. Already today, as a result of ICO, more than 1000 cryptocurrencies appeared on the market, and their number continues to grow. The practice of ICO has become so widespread that, in the opinion of many experts, it began to resemble the events of the dotcom boom of the late 90s and could lead to the same destructive consequences. 51. What is tokenomics and how it can make or break your ICO Imagine you are the ruler of a small country. All residents of your country use the barter system to trade goods and services. Now you find barter to be a cumbersome process because of the following reasons: 52. WTF is Exchange Staking? Introduction 53. How to Find the Best IDOs (Part 1) How to find the best IDOs 54. They Told us ICOs are Dead. We Beg to Differ. ICO or Initial Coin Offering is a type of fundraising done with cryptocurrencies. Modeled after the traditional IPO (Initial Public Offering), ICOs are ways for startup cryptocurrency companies to sell their underlying token in exchange for Bitcoin, Ether or Fiat. 55. Can the Combination of STO + IEO Become the New Step in Crowdfunding Evolution? Content of the Article: 56. Unraveling The Budget Of A Crypto Startup: Behind The Secrecy In project management, there are several key success criteria for the possible implementation of any project: from building a plant, developing a software product, opening a new supermarket to something else. They are time, budget and quality. 57. CRYPTO REVIEW- SUBSTRATUM (SUB) Fundamentals Check: Thank you for checking out the 57 most read stories about Ico on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

57 Stories To Learn About Ico

* * Achievement unlocked: With more than ‘4 billion’ in total votes -- almost half the population of earth voted for startups! JUST KIDDING! Some companies had a to accumulating their votes. unique approach In 2021, decided to host to highlight the backbone of the future - tech startups! for the first time in forever (make sure you sing it in Anna’s voice), HackerNoon.com Startups of The Year More than 44,000 startups were nominated all across the globe, spanning over 4,553 cities. That’s.Just.Spiffy! To see who is a winner in each respective city, visit and pick a city. The name at the top of the list is the winner. (Compromised awards are under review.) startups.hackernoon.com The will announce the winners per region in their respective cities. Startups Winners Announcement Series We’d like to take a moment here and thank every single person who cast a vote and every single company, both nominated and not nominated yet this year. Furthermore, we thank you for existing and opening more opportunities for the wonders of the future to come. Even if you don’t win anything today, you’ve won something much more valuable - our hearts <3 Okay, sorry for the long introduction. Below are all the Startups Winners: Startups of the Year (SOTY) in Africa Johannesburg, South Africa With more than 900 votes cast, #SOTY calls.... MiBRAND Thank you for connecting businesses and consumers, great job! Lagos, Nigeria With 836 votes in the bag, let’s give it up for... Goodtalent Thanks for helping tech companies build great engineering teams. Cape Town, South Africa Want to learn more about finance and use that knowledge to make better financial decisions? Look no further. Introducing winner of Startups of The Year, Cape Town: Revix With 527 votes cast, it seems like a lot of people have more money in their pockets thanks to . Revix Mahé, Seychelles With around 515 votes cast, #SOTY summons... DAOLaunch Thank you for bridging the gap between investors and startups. Lusaka And the winner for #SOTY in Lusaka is... ComGrow Thanks to them, people here are getting closer to the reality of the digitization of village banking. Nairobi, Kenya With 252 votes cast, UTU came out top as the Startup of The Year. Thanks for building the trust infrastructure of the internet to help businesses and consumers engage and transact in a more reliable way. Yaoundé Accounting for more than 73% of total votes, CamPay won this award fair and square. Thank you for making sending and receiving payments easier between online merchants. Abuja, Nigeria A proud winner in the prestigious capital of Nigeria, Elesaro deserves all the plaudits it gets. is a suite crowdfunding protocol built on BSC, Reward, Equity, Lending & NFT Marketplace. Congratulations! Elesaro Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Jamii Africa is the name that will always be engraved on the #SOTY trophy. As a mobile micro-health insurance, Jamii Africa has done a great job for the health sector in Tanzania. Kigali, Rwanda Another #SOTY medal in the bag for none other than …wait for it… BAG Innovation BAG Innovation applies Gamification to offer real-time access to experience-based learning for University students in East Africa. Everybody loves playing games, but using games to learn in school is on another level. Gauteng, South Africa And the award goes to... Planet42 Thanks for democratising mobility by enabling people ignored by banks to get access to a personal vehicle through a car subscription service. Once again, congratulations! Port Harcourt, Nigeria Cryptocurrency is the present and the future, as we’ve all come to know. FLITBASE makes these digital assets more accessible to everyone. #SOTY is proud to add you to our Hall of Fame. Cairo, Egypt With 18 votes won out of the 91 cast, it seems there was fierce competition. Congratulations to... SubsBase for winning Startups of The Year. SubsBase allows businesses to manage their subscribers, automate recurring billings, set pricing plans, and monitor subscription KPIs. Tunis, Tunisia Come one, come all! Witness the greatness of yet another wonderful startup in the #SOTY. Thank you... VYND for providing a fully integrated digital platform to help venue owners better serve their customers and grow their businesses. Stellenbosch, South Africa BankTech connects clients to a payment network where it provides a convenient interface to meet various payments needs. You’ve won #SOTY proudly! Pretoria #SOTY acknowledges... Grays Pharmaceuticals Thank you for all you do. Lekki, Nigeria Middletrust provides reliable escrow services in Africa. Congratulations on winning a #SOTY medal. Addis Ababa Thank you... Hello Solar for consistently accelerating sustainable energy solutions, especially for remote communities. With half of the votes cast, you beat the odds. Accra, Ghana UT Bank Ghana provides various commercial banking services to individuals and companies in Ghana. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of financial services to humankind. #SOTY is proud of all you do. Gîza, Egypt Big congratulations to... HOVO for winning this award. Your on-demand mobile app for ordering trucks is truly appreciated! Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo Congratulations for coming out on top of #SOTY, SillonBlue Technologies As an ICT Consulting and SaaS company, SillonBlue Technologies focuses on software and mobile app development, and data collection. Yaba, Nigeria With more than half of the votes cast, this nominee conquered undisputedly. Let’s give it up for... Kuda a no-fee full-service digital bank making banking affordable for all Africans on the planet. Morocco City Almes provides infrastructure and logistics services. Congratulations on earning a #SOTY medal. Dakar ShopMeAway provides families and businesses with new ways to shop around the world with reduced shipping costs. You deserve the plaudits you’ve received! Casablanca Sheaply provides crowd shipping and crowd shopping solutions. This reduces cost and improves efficiency on shipping and shopping. Congratulations on winning a #SOTY medal. Nguru, Nigeria Accounting for 88% of the votes, TradeBuza wins #SOTY almost flawlessly. TradeBuza is a tech-enabled commodities sourcing platform for commodities aggregators and out-grower schemes. Ikeja, Nigeria PropertyPro Nigeria is now pronounced Startup of the Year in Ikeja. Let’s admit, who doesn’t appreciate a platform built to search for real estate properties? Ibadan, Nigeria No Bank, No Problem! (That’s probably not their motto, by the way) Shield Finders is a fintech and financial service provider to the unbanked. Congratulation on winning most of the votes! 6 October City, Egypt Wuilt is a website builder where you can create your own Arabic website in under 5 minutes. Thank you for making this technology accessible to people. One #SOTY medal for you! Algiers The only nominee who outvoted all others, please give it up for... Yassir Thank you for providing convenient transport services using your app. Enugu In an area that usually suffers from inconsistent electricity, Greenage comes to the rescue with their green cape and spandex suit. Greenage Technologies is a Nigerian startup solving electricity problems in Nigeria using solar energy technology. Congrats, Greenage. Abeokuta, Nigeria A government organization creating opportunities for entrepreneurs and the unemployed - no one deserves the title Startup of The Year better than Ogun Innovate Congratulations! Ariana And the award goes to... E-Stores Factory a web platform that helps rent and manage e-shops for enterprises seeking to sell online. Thank you for making the (not a typo) more friendly! e-cosystem Benin City Health really is wealth. MOBicure provides mobile technology solutions for Africa's biggest health problems. Thank you for all you do. From #SOTY with love <3 Centurion GameZBoost offers white label gaming platforms, including online desktop solutions, fully responsive mobile and social platforms. Thank you for making the world a more fun place! Gaborone Augmenta Cyber Security provides services in cyber security, safe data storage, SCADA security, SAP Security, etc. Congratulations on winning 10/10 of the votes. You rock! Garki There can never be enough medical platforms in the world. Congratulations to... Wella Health an operator of a healthcare technology company intended to provide treatments and medicines for malaria. Thank you for all you do! Lilongwe Yellow is a digital platform enabling informal merchants in Africa. #SOTY welcomes you to its hall of fame. Make yourself at home ;) Luanda Access to finance is important for any company or sector to succeed. And no other company deserves the title Startup of The Year more than Deya the first Angolan and PALOP crowdfunding platform that aims to increase access to financing for social impact causes and entrepreneurs. . 10/10 will recommend Mombasa Life can be hard, and so a little humor helps ease these hardships. Congratulations to this political satire puppet show, The XYZ Show for winning #SOTY. Thanks for putting smiles on our faces. Port Louis Town Bet you’ve never heard of a Smartcup. Thanks to Intellicup that exists now, and therefore earns this startup a #SOTY badge.  Intellicup is a unique high-speed beverage dispensing solution with integrated smart technology. While this cup won’t be able to wake you up in the morning, you have to agree that it’s still pretty impressive. Rabat Atlan Space is a startup building AI to autonomously pilot any fixed-wing drone, to monitor and take measures over very large areas. You deserve the #SOTY medal. Réunion Imagine having the power to do ultrasound scans on your handheld device. OSCULT by Oscadi is a handheld ultrasound imaging device interfaced with the Apple iPad. Congratulations on making it into the #SOTY! Somerset West Winning the award fair and square is Sticitt a cashless payment platform that is also aimed at teaching learners at school the basics of finance. The future of the world would be in good hands when our children know how to adequately manage finances. Thank you for saving the world in advance. Thika Flowers make the world a beautiful place to live in. Wilmar Flowers exports summer flowers grown by small and medium-sized farmers from Kenya. Kudos for making the world beautiful, #SOTY is honored to have you in our Hall of Fame. Kampala, Uganda Yo-Waste Limited is an African startup that provides waste, recycling and “smart city” solutions to businesses and governments. Your #SOTY gold medal shines as much as you do <3 Harare, Zimbabwe The world is becoming more and more digital every day. Thanks to companies like Golix that provide services of digital currencies for people in Africa, the digitization of the world is becoming more robust. Freetown Easy Solar is a distribution company making energy, durable goods and financial services affordable and accessible through pay-as-you-go tech. Thumbs up! Kicukiro FOODLINE specializes in non-genetically-modified grocery farming and production lines. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! #SOTY Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo Startups Nuru is a renewable and environmental company that specializes in the fields of storage micro-grids and solar energy. After racking up all the votes, #SOTY honors you. Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire Digitech provides a fully integrated and cloud-based InsurTech platform to incumbent insurance companies. You are awesome! Durban Security can never really be enough. We’d like to honor Blue Security the title Startup of The Year, for specializing in the installation and monitoring of intruder detection systems, and in providing armed response services. Ikoyi And the Startup of The year goes to... Winich Farms an Agritech Startup leveraging tech to connect rural farmers to Finance & Market, thus, increasing productivity and cutting post-harvest loss. You rock! Lomé The last recipient of #SOTY in Africa calls for... Gozem a transport technology platform for Francophone West and Central Africa. Thank you for providing a platform for transportation. We are honored to have you! *Winners missing from this list will be added accordingly. More Information If you’re a winner, please answer ! If you’re a reader, participant, just a curious individual, consider answering one of our interviews . this interview here Read the FAQs about or . Startups here here To see all of the winners you may visit , pick any city and view the name that appears at the top. this site If you’re interested in partnering with us, we invite you to look through some of these or reach out to our business department. unique sponsorship options Perhaps creating your very own tickles your fancy or maybe you have a whole new idea for how we can partner! writing contest Thank you to all of our sponsors! We truly appreciate your contribution to the tech world and thus the future! The Startups Awards are sponsored by: , , , , , , , , , , Blockster Brex FreeCodeCamp LaunchDarkly Coil Udacity Udemy Vercel Asia Pacific Transgender Network Bybit Everscale Network This post was written and edited by Kien Dao and Joshua Omale. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to report a discrepancy please email ellen@hackernoon.com.

What are the Top Startups in Africa?

Covid-19 has brought a lot of changes for all of us. We've had to endure months of quarantine and dread, but as we're finally resuming our lives, it's time to look back. In this thread, we discussed how technology helped us stay afloat and in touch with the world outside our homes. From facilitating work-life, studies, helping to maintain connections, and providing a solid entertainment base, tech became the quarantine superhero. This thread by Mónica Freitas, Abeer, Jack Boreham, petar.btc, Malhar Thanki, Limarc Ambalina, Sara Pinto and Favour Amadi occurred in slogging's official #technology channel, and has been edited for readability. Slogging Mónica Freitas Nov 16, 2021, 3:12 PM How has technology saved your quarantine? 💻💛 Abeer Nov 16, 2021, 3:33 PM Video Games 💯. It sounds silly but throughout the quarantine, I was able to chat and do activities with friends through various online games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Minecraft, Don’t Starve Together. 🔥 1 Jack Boreham Nov 16, 2021, 3:46 PM Abeer, I second this; gaming made my quarantine a lot better. I was able to chat with friends like normal. My laptop due to studying and, of course, YouTube, which fulfilled my weekly video binge. petar.btc Nov 16, 2021, 3:48 PM I'd say the crypto & NFTs have helped me stay sane during the early quarantine period. Once COVID-19 arrived worldwide in March 2020, the IT company I'm working at, dispatched us at home. I've been working like that ever since. I live alone. The crypto & NFTs are very community-oriented, so I joined many Discord servers and Telegram groups, chatted with like-minded people for hours on end, and didn't feel the loneliness and isolation in real life that much. I could say I joined the Metaverse before it was cool 🙂 Mónica Freitas Nov 18, 2021, 5:03 PM Jack Boreham, Abeer, my gaming was more along the lines of "cards against humanity" online, but it definitely helped. Besides, having the streaming programs, shoutouts to Netflix and HBO, saved me from boredom. petar.btc, That's amazing! Were you already familiar with Crypto and NFTs before, or did you learn more once you joined those communities? Mónica Freitas Nov 18, 2021, 5:03 PM Favour Amadi, Limarc Ambalina, Sara Pinto, Malhar Thanki, Alex Gideon, Onyewuenyi Nuruddeen, Sambo SALLYcanttdance How about you? Abeer Nov 18, 2021, 5:24 PM I completely forgot! Netflix Party, Prime Watch Parties, and similar apps/extensions were great as well. Being able to watch shows with friends and talk about them live really made it feel like they were there with you. 💚 1 petar.btc Nov 18, 2021, 6:23 PM Mónica Freitas, I was already familiar with both concepts, so joining all these online crypto/NFT communities helped me go down the rabbit hole even further 🙂 🔥 1 Malhar Thanki Nov 18, 2021, 7:07 PM Mónica Freitas the whole, complete credit goes to technology, right from boring lectures in the morning to video calls/facetime with friends in the evening and binge-watching in the night. 🔥 1 Malhar Thanki Nov 18, 2021, 7:08 PM Technology kept people connected when quarantine was trying to disconnect them. Limarc Ambalina Nov 19, 2021, 4:48 AM For me it's 2 things: Virtual Reality - it saved my sanity but also my physical health. I only work out in VR now and it's the most fun I've ever had working out. The sweat management is tough in a headset, but I make do. Video calls- they help me call and stay in touch with my family whenever I want to, despite being in Japan. 😂 1 Limarc Ambalina Nov 19, 2021, 4:49 AM Similar to Abeer’s answer too, games are more than fun, they help me stay in touch with friends. Guys don't really like to sit around and do a video call, but we are up for squading up in Call of Duty and playing and talking for hours 😄 😂 2 Sara Pinto Nov 19, 2021, 3:17 PM Mónica Freitas, Even though I am not a very active person, Youtube and its workout videos helped me stay sane. When you have to stay inside and not do much, you really start to appreciate all the daily physical activities that you did without even noticing. 🔥 1 Mónica Freitas Nov 19, 2021, 5:10 PM Abeer, Netflix Party! Best thing ever! Get me a similar extension for the other streaming programs and I'll be happy 😂 Mónica Freitas Nov 19, 2021, 5:12 PM Malhar Thanki, I have to say online lectures were excruciating for me 😂 would you prefer to keep having classes online or go back to in-person lectures? Abeer Nov 19, 2021, 5:14 PM Mónica Freitas, You’re in luck. They rebranded as Teleparty because they support Disney, Hulu, and HBO too! And Amazon Prime has its own built-in watch parties. And other streaming apps like CrunchyRoll are getting similar independently created extensions such as Roll Together. It’s amazing how fast technology adapts. 💛 1 Mónica Freitas Nov 19, 2021, 5:14 PM Limarc Ambalina, I didn't know there were exercise "games" for VR. How can you even jump without your headset falling off? But I am curious now (she says while googling VR exercising) 😂 Mónica Freitas Nov 19, 2021, 5:16 PM Sara Pinto, Did you fall down the rabbit hole of binging tv shows and movies as well? Please, recommend your workout videos. Get us inspired to follow your lead 🙏 Mónica Freitas Nov 19, 2021, 5:20 PM Abeer, I'm praying retrograde mercury lets my computer access teleparty now, ahah. It's incredible, we never really needed those kinds of tools, and just when the quarantine started, there was this huge development. And from what you just said, I'm guessing there is still more news to come in this area. Sara Pinto Nov 19, 2021, 6:53 PM Mónica Freitas, How could I not? 😂 I have to thank the internet for the unlimited supply of entertainment. About the workout videos, the ones that involved dance and catchy music did wonders to boost my humor. Malhar Thanki Nov 20, 2021, 7:41 AM Mónica Freitas, it has both pros and cons 😥, I like in-person lectures because of the class environment and friends but I like it online because of mental peace😌 as it just takes a few clicks to get into a lecture. Favour Amadi Nov 20, 2021, 8:09 AM I wasn't a people person before the quarantine but I didn't know how much I needed TikTok in my life. Technology saved my quarantine by allowing me to experience other people in a way I didn't think possible, Mónica Freitas. Mónica Freitas Nov 22, 2021, 5:46 PM Sara Pinto, Please, drop some suggestions on your quarantine favorite shows. We need that if we ever get into another one. Oh, that seems fun! I feel like quarantine was like January for many of us: we all promised to start working out 😂 I know I did. Mónica Freitas Nov 22, 2021, 5:48 PM Malhar Thanki, I'm with you! Seeing friends in class is part of what makes school and uni fun, and in-person lectures help me be more focused but not having to make it all the way to uni to have classes are also a big perk. Mónica Freitas Nov 22, 2021, 5:50 PM Favour Amadi, TIKTOK was my doom 😂 I've spent hours on end there! What is your algorithm like? Mine is mostly music, feminism, LGBTQ+ and nonsense. 😂 1 Favour Amadi Nov 23, 2021, 2:18 PM Mine's mostly comedy, feminism, music, movies and some really satisfying videos. 💚 1

Technology Saved Our Quarantine

"All you need is ( ) AI in agriculture." – A slightly changed Beatles quote. love Modern-day farming gets smarter by the day: a symbiosis of cows and drones has never felt so natural and necessary. And surely it means that AgriTech creates more and more data while automating greenhouses through IoT, monitoring field variability in precision agriculture solutions, and so on. But have you ever felt like there must be something else this vast data collection can do? Something far bolder and way more ambitious? Well, ITRex has, and our believes that this data is dying to jump into an artificial intelligence solution and get agricultural companies more business insights. To prove our point, there’s no use in trying to dazzle you with random examples of how companies already use AI in agriculture because that won’t give you a true understanding of what this impressive piece of tech can do for agribusinesses. Instead, let’s see how basic agricultural processes in crop and animal farming can be enhanced with artificial intelligence, what benefits it brings, and what common misconceptions we need to steer clear of. AI consulting team Highlights: Benefits How AI fits agricultural processes: - In crop growing - In animal farming Common AI myths Benefits of AI in agriculture Before we start, let’s make it clear that artificial intelligence is not an annoying know-it-all tech. It only provides businesses with insights that stem from the data they already have — or automates processes that previously required human involvement. We’ll examine how it happens later on, and now let’s look at top four benefits that make agricultural AI a promising investment: Yield improvement. By analyzing operational data and highlighting process inefficiencies, artificial intelligence finds ways for agribusinesses to increase yields without using any extra resources. Automating crop and animal farming processes with drones (e.g., used for sowing or milking), eliminates human error and streamlines those processes to allow an increase in both quantity and quality of labor. Cost reduction. Crunching the numbers on how resources (water, energy, fertilizer, herbicide, etc.) are distributed and used, AI solutions spot wasteful resource consumption patterns and suggest optimization scenarios. Costs like vet services and equipment repairs are reduced by preventive practices of monitoring livestock health and equipment performance respectively. Profit increase. Given that AI maximizes yields without requiring farms to use any additional resources and cuts costs associated with various stages of agricultural processes, an increase in profits follows as a natural and pleasant consequence of employing AI in agriculture. Alignment with sustainable farming practices. The concept of sustainable agriculture revolves around finding a way to meet current food and textile needs without using up too many resources and leaving next generations with nothing. AI helps farmers find sustainable patterns of resource consumption to avoid water scarcity and land degradation. How AI use cases enhance basic agricultural processes As an intricate technology with multiple subsets and types, artificial intelligence can provide agriculture with algorithms and applications of varying levels of complexity. For example, you can use AI in agriculture for something as simple as monitoring livestock vitals to identify health problems. Or you can employ and classify tomatoes by variety using machine learning. Or you can go even further and predict weather using deep learning. If you do, AI will uncover weather patterns in historical data from satellites and sensors and spot pre-weather-change markers in real-time data to warn farmers about upcoming rains or storms. All in all, the tasks that AI carries out in agriculture can be boiled down to (using robots to carry out tasks that previously involved humans), (revealing inefficiencies by analyzing operational data), and personalization (growing sales by better adapting to demand). It may not seem like much but you can do a lot with a little. To get a better idea, let’s look at the basic processes of crop growing and livestock care. computer vision workflow automation data analytics Artificial intelligence and soil preparation By analyzing data coming from sensors placed in the soil, supplied by soil analysis drones, or sourced from smartphone cameras, an AI solution like can detect soil defects and recognize nutrient deficiencies. This helps farmers identify how much and what type of organic matter they should add to make the soil more workable and suitable for the given crop. Plantix Artificial intelligence and sowing Analyzing drone-supplied imagery, artificial intelligence can help farm workers identify places best suited for sowing particular crops based on geographical characteristics of the field, chemical composition of the soil, or any other parameter. Besides that, farmers can use AI-powered crop planning tools like to determine how much of each crop the farm needs to sow in a greenhouse per week, when the crops should be transplanted in the field, etc. Although a comprehensive crop plan goes way beyond the sowing process alone, it is still nice to know that by using such tools farmers can reduce herbicide and fertilizer consumption by 25-35% and increase yield by 3-4%. Before sowing begins, AI can also examine seed photos and compare them to images of healthy seeds; a supervised machine learning algorithm will determine seed quality and figure out what crops they are seeing. Using this data, AI algorithms can instruct farming robots (like a developed by the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture) to filter out subpar seeds or sort seeds if they get mixed. eAgronom computer-vision seed sorter Artificial intelligence and fertilizing Artificial intelligence systems — especially smart applications running on devices rather than in the cloud — require powerful chips. Unfortunately, for decades, the lion's share of computer chips have been manufactured in With the help of data from precision agriculture software, soil sensors, soil analysis drones, or simply smartphone images in case of Spacenus’s , agriculture artificial intelligence solutions can continuously monitor nutrition levels in the soil and, if needed, cross-check them with the levels that historically brought the best yields on the given crop. To make farming more sustainable, AI can use third-party datasets to check the environmental effects of using various amounts and types of fertilizer to find such a dosage that will minimize negative impact while maximizing yield. If the soil needs fertilizer, the artificial intelligence solution can recommend the best-suited fertilizer that the agribusiness has in stock at the moment using sensors in storage rooms and dispatch, say, a to spray it on the field. Agricultural Nutrient Assistant PrecisionHawk drone Artificial intelligence and irrigation The concept of sustainable farming requires smart usage of freshwater. And this is where AI tools like , , and come in handy. Some of them simply monitor water usage productivity, others automate irrigation workflows. But you can go further and use AI capabilities to analyze historical irrigation data, map it against crop health and yield stats, and find the best water consumption patterns that fulfill all required conditions. Using weather prediction capability provided by solutions like Fasal, farms can alter their irrigation plans making use of free rain water (checking its quality is also a possibility for AI in agriculture). Together with adjusted irrigation plans based on soil moisture monitoring, it can save farms up to 50% of water resources. Not bad, right? Similar mechanisms can be applied to energy consumption optimization as well. This way, an agricultural company can reduce water and energy-related costs without sacrificing productivity. Heliopas CultYvate WaPOR Artificial intelligence and crop protection This is the area where AI offers perhaps the most use cases for an agriculture business to enjoy. For example: Herbicide and pesticide consumption optimization is aimed at making farms sustainable and efficient while securing food safety. AI solutions detect current weed and pest activity and adjust herbicide and pesticide spraying activities to it instead of running these processes on a fixed schedule. This is enabled by companies like and that focus on weed control, as well as companies like and mobile apps like (delivered by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Pennsylvania State University), which take over pest control. Blue River Technologies PyTorch FarmSense Nuru Pest attack prediction is achieved by analyzing satellite or drone imagery, uncovering patterns in pest activity, and watching new incoming data to notice pre-attack signs. With this data at hand, farmworkers can prevent attacks without affecting crop health or using pesticides. For example, an early pest warning system by is used in India for cotton crop protection. Wadhwani AI Crop health monitoring is enabled by soil and plant sensors, as well as multispectral images sourced from satellites or drones. By using this data, AI solutions identify or, if more intricate unsupervised machine learning algorithms are applied, predict diseases in crops. This helps cut crop loss and increase yield. is an example of an app used for monitoring crop health on vineyards (however, it also covers harvesting and irrigation use cases). VineView Intruder identification is focused on securing field territory. AI solutions can monitor drone imagery or surveillance camera footage to detect wild animals and birds or unauthorized humans who can damage crops. For example, , a leader in the smart surveillance domain, enables farms to reduce crime and theft. Twenty20 Solutions Weather prediction can help farmers watch out for extreme weather conditions to save crops from damage before heavy rains or winds start. The for AI-powered precision agriculture allows doing just that. OneSoil app Artificial intelligence and harvesting By comparing current field footage to how this crop looked at this point in the growing cycle during the previous season, an artificial intelligence solution can accurately predict when the crop will be ready for harvest. And as soon as harvesting time comes, robots can start removing crops from the field. , for instance, offers a robotic harvesting solution to pick strawberries that minimizes waste, enhances food safety, and reduces CO2 emissions by 96% compared to traditional harvesting methods. If an agribusiness knows where the crops are transported to and sold afterwards, the solution can identify different harvesting points for same-variety crops that are planned for various locations based on how much time different crop batches will have to spend in transit. Harvest CROO AI in agriculture: animal farming Animal farming processes vary a lot based on what the end product is (milk, meat, eggs), so the simplified process below is not linear, some steps can occur in a different order or can be skipped altogether: Animal purchase/birth → Housing → Grooming and cleaning → Feeding and grazing → Health monitoring → Breeding → Harvesting Artificial intelligence and animal birth or purchase Analyzing data from previous reproduction cycles, AI farming solutions can predict how many animals are going to be born and calculate related care costs to enable tweaking reproduction plans if needed. If a farm buys animals, artificial intelligence technology can calculate how many animals the company needs. Such calculations can target the highest yield while balancing it with how many animals the farm can sustainably care for under given farming conditions. Artificial intelligence and housing Tapping into historical data on livestock diseases and correlating it with various housing conditions (humidity, temperature, animal density, etc.), artificial intelligence helps farmers establish the best conditions to keep animals in while also decreasing animal treatment costs. is a great example of a company that leverages AI to deliver solutions for smart cow housing. Lely Artificial intelligence and grooming and cleaning Using correlation capabilities and livestock sensors, AI can help select and schedule grooming and cleaning procedures so that farms don’t waste resources on excessive maintenance or badly affect livestock health in case of insufficient grooming and cleaning. Barn hygiene is a major factor in livestock health. That’s why companies like Lely and offer barn cleaning robots and agribusinesses like an Icelandic farm owned by the . By using cleaning workflow automation solutions in tandem with milking and feeding robots, the farm saw a 30% increase in milk outputs and slashed their vet costs by four times. GEA Hallgrímsson brothers Artificial intelligence and feeding and grazing It can be difficult to find the best balance between feeding and grazing, which is where artificial intelligence can help farmers. Besides that, AI can reveal: What foods work better for different types of livestock How much salt cows need to stay healthy based on breed, age, etc. How to schedule grazing around weather predictions for better livestock health How to manage pastures for better grazing quality (say, through paddock rotation or soil health monitoring) by Cainthus is an example of an AI farming solution that enables smart feed management, improving animal health and increasing milk outputs. ALUS Artificial intelligence and health monitoring Since disease management is the prime source of costs for animal farmers, this is the area where AI can bring the most value and allow animals to recover two to four times faster while getting less antibiotics in the treatment process. Artificial intelligence not only cuts disease management costs but also improves food safety. Besides all activities mentioned in other animal farming steps that lead to improving livestock health, AI can continuously monitor livestock’s vitals, body weight, metabolism, and other parameters to alert a vet if an animal’s health is worsening. AI solutions can also continuously look for new correlations between care conditions and livestock health to prevent diseases. Solutions like , , and ALUS are used for monitoring cows’ health, tracks bees’ wellbeing, and keeps an eye out for changes in the health and wellbeing of pigs Rex Ida ApisProtect Piguard Artificial intelligence and breeding Tools like Fertile-Eyez by are focused specifically on smart breeding and can identify livestock’s reproductive quality and help with fertility management. Solutions like Ida, meanwhile, give relevant breeding advice to farmers and cover AI use cases beyond animal reproduction. Another AI use case in this area covers breeding aimed at product quality improvement. If a farm tries to breed a new variety of cows to achieve better milk or meat quality, AI can crunch the data on relevant meat/milk parameters and reproductive qualities of available animals and suggest a ‘smart breeding recipe Verility Artificial intelligence and harvesting Most harvesting procedures are already automated by machines like milking, meat finishing, and even egg picking robots. Besides enabling and facilitating harvesting, AI uncovers ways to maximize output quality. For example, AI can use of chickens, pigs, and beef cattle to predict best harvesting points and cut over-finishing costs, as well as estimate body condition scoring, liveweight, milking traits, and lameness in dairy cows to maximize milk outputs. 3D imaging to estimate liveweight What are the most important uses of artificial intelligence in farming? With all the capabilities of AI in agriculture available today, farmers can tweak a lot of details about how they run their agribusiness: from automating workflows that previously were much more time-consuming to uncovering optimization opportunities for bits of their day-to-day agricultural activities. But however cool these tweaks may seem on their own, all of that is just a means to an end. The most important task that AI farming performs is predicting yield and optimizing agricultural conditions to sustainably push it up. What else does AI do for farming? Outside the described processes, there are some more AI use cases that can be relevant for agricultural companies, for example: Variety selection. Ahead of the season start, farmers can choose which crop variety to plant in order to satisfy demand. AI can help farmers achieve that with market analysis and calculations of potential costs and profits. Pricing strategy development. Based on the predicted costs of farming each crop or animal that are likely to pile up in the upcoming year, agribusinesses can adjust their pricing strategies to maximize revenue and still be able to offer competitive prices. Storage and transit conditions monitoring. To decrease product loss that results from poorly storing and transporting harvested goods, agribusinesses can use artificial intelligence to monitor and adjust temperatures, humidity levels, and other parameters in stock rooms and transit vehicles. The latter applies only if farms deliver goods to customers or farmers’ markets on their own. Predictive maintenance. Farms have relied on a wide range of farming equipment for a long time now and that range has recently been extended with numerous drones and robots. To reduce downtimes in case of farming equipment failures, agribusinesses can use AI to monitor equipment performance and notify maintenance teams about upcoming failures. What’s stopping AI and agriculture from being together? With all the abundance of artificial intelligence use cases at hand, you’d think that the popularity of AI in agriculture is at its peak. And while it is indeed growing, it’s not quite there yet. It seems like AI’s reputation of being a risky tech affair precedes it across industries and somewhat curbs its growth. Let’s see what causes an air of caution around artificial intelligence: The first reason would be concerns around AI costs. Obviously, this is a high-end technology that requires skilled workers and time. But we’re ready to bust the myth about its prohibitive cost. You can check in our blog post with examples drawn from our own projects, and you’ll see that it’s not all that scary. how much AI costs in 2021 It also doesn’t help to learn the staggering failure rate where 47% of AI projects don’t reach production. But once you see what’s under the hood of those failures, you understand that there’s simply a way to be smart about and not fall into the pit. The rule of thumb here is to know what you’re doing and start small – with a POC – to test the AI waters and prove their benefits in practice from the very beginning AI implementation challenges Thinking of exploring the powers of AI for your agricultural needs? Let’s think together! and their AI consulting team will locate the best way for AI to fit into your tech plans. Drop ITRex a line

All You Need is AI in Agriculture

In December 2017 I had an opportunity to discover the Kenyan based ICO and write up a on it. As sometimes happens, I develop an affinity for the person/company that I talked to when putting these articles together and in this case, I kept in contact with CEO Isaac Muthui. I would answer questions for him and point out information to him that would be helpful for his project. After a couple months he invited me to come and visit their company in Kenya, they were interested in my opinions on technology they were building. I agreed to come because, why not, a trip to Africa. I wasn’t compensated for the trip or for this article, but my expenses were covered, I mention that in the interest of full disclosure. What I discovered in Kenya and about Isaac and the goals for Nurucoin, got me thinking in some extremely big pictures. Nurucoin spotlight article Of the many things I did on the trip, one of them was to visit the village that Isaac was born in. This was about a 3 hour drive from Nairobi and the last 10 miles or so was on a dirt road that can only generously be called a road. Isaac’s mother still teaches at the school that he grew up in, the main difference is that they have paper now to take notes and do tests. When Isaac went to school there, up through 5th grade, they would do their tests in the dirt with their fingers due to lack of supplies. The buildings almost look like the result of a recent archeological dig, rather than a place of learning. The students have paper and books now, but as you can see in this picture, they are not in good shape. The children all wear uniforms to school, but just as when Isaac went to school, they are still without shoes. They walk between 1 and 5 kilometers each direction, each day in the dirt so that they can get an education, so determined to improve their lot in life. This is exactly what Isaac did, starting out in a village, living in a thatch hut, no shoes or supplies, taking tests in the dirt, he went on to university and got a degree in Computer Science. In addition, he holds a Diploma and Higher Diploma in Management Information Systems specializing in Data and Web Security and Computer Forensics. From those humble beginnings, Mr. Muthui has gone on to form 9 companies to follow his dream of helping improve life for his fellow Africans. While we drove, around, we talked a lot about Africa and the state of economic development. Isaac could rattle off the population numbers, GDP, standing in the world economic ratings, monetary conversion rates and just about anything you’d care to know about the African nations. His energy and passion for making Africa a hub for technological innovation is palpable. Mr. Muthuis passion now is Blockchain technology and his cryptocurrency and Nuruchain technology platform. Financial issues, such as volatile currencies and fluctuating exchange rates as well as government corruption and too many middlemen in between transactions in Africa, have led to an environment where you have a large population of destitute poor and then people who are wealthy and very little in between. In Kenya the natural resources are significant and there is no reason that they can’t be utilized in a less corrupt fashion so that more people can make more money. The work ethic is strong in Kenya and it is amazing how much effort people go through to better themselves, but there is also a propensity to get into a safe path, go to school, go to university, get a job with the government and do that till you die. There is no such thing a telecommuting which leads to unbelievable traffic problems in the cities, where it can literally take you an hour to travel 5 miles. The lost productivity is staggering from wasted time. Getting more people educated in skills that they can use remotely around the world, will bring more money into the economy and reduce the stress on their infrastructure. Nurucoin The goal for Nurucoin is to establish a digital currency that will initially be used in the system (similar to Amazon, but smaller) and set the groundwork for a cryptocurrency that can bypass the volatility and exchange rates that currently exist across Africa. In parallel will be the development of an enabling technology similar to Ethereum called Nurublock. This framework will allow other companies to more easily develop blockchain based technologies to solve other problems. Mr. Muthui intends to create training programs that can be deployed to help citizens learn about Blockchain generally and how to develop for Nurublock in particular. Blazebay The vision is huge and many people are getting on board with Mr. Muthui’s vision. While I was there, Kenyan government Minster for ICT called Isaac and setup a meeting to discuss what he was doing, the minister is very passionate about blockchain and getting Kenya to embrace blockchain technology. There are naysayers of course and people who didn’t think of it first are prone to try and tear it down, but there seems to be no stopping Isaac and the momentum he has been creating for Nurucoin. I feel honored to have been there as this was getting off the ground, it is going to be a game changer in Africa. When we look back in a few years at how it all started, we’re going to be amazed at where it is. Keep on eye on Nurucoin and Isaac Muthui.

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