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Perch

perch

Perch founder and CEO Alex Leduc (CNW Group/Perch) Perch, a Toronto-based fintech that helps buyers and homeowners make data-driven decisions about their mortgages and real estate, today announced the completion of a $4 million Series A funding round. Investors include Second Century Ventures, the strategic venture arm of the National Association of REALTORS®, Ontario Centre of Innovation, and B.E.S.T. Funds, an alternative asset firm investing in technology companies in the financial services, health care, media, and security sectors. With a mortgage funding rate 6x more efficient than the industry average, and a 215% customer referral rate, Perch will use the investment to continue scaling and growing its operations team. "Perch is on a mission to simplify homeownership. We enable first-time to get into the market sooner and help to build wealth efficiently by leveraging home equity," said Alex Leduc, founder and CEO of Perch. home buyers homeowners "With over $100 million in funded mortgages to date and thousands of users that have already joined Perch, this is clear evidence we're on the right track. As we continue growing, our employees, investors and partners are all key to our success." "Housing affordability and rising rates have been a major barrier to home ownership for Canadians and our real estate agents," said Tyler Thompson, Managing Partner of Second Century Ventures. "We believe in Perch's ability to continue improving on the existing process and product to ultimately create more solutions for borrowers and that we know are needed in today's market." real estate agents "Innovation in the mortgage industry is long overdue," said John Richardson, CEO of B.E.S.T. Funds. "By automating the mortgage broker process, Perch is well positioned to add efficiency and greater transparency for borrowers looking to find the right mortgage." Perch was started in 2018 by CEO , who previously worked in corporate finance and analytics for several publicly-traded mortgage companies. Alex Leduc Perch gives Canadians access to insights about their financial data, to enable them to make informed decisions about when they're ready to buy. Here's how Perch is simplifying homeownership: Skip the sales pitch. Compare thousands of mortgages from 30+ lenders all online in a few clicks. Get pre-approved in as little as 20 minutes. Applying is easy, with chat and phone support available 7 days a week and mortgage approvals in under 48 hours. Automated real estate insights. Homeowners can view monthly property value estimates and switch savings opportunities on their mortgage right from their Perch account. With year-over-year user growth of 130%, Perch previously its $1 million seed round in October 2021. Perch currently operates in all provinces and territories across Canada. announced About Perch: Through its analytics platform, Perch enables Canadians to make data-driven decisions about their mortgages and real estate to build wealth. Along with the dedicated support of a team of real estate and mortgage professionals, users can easily collaborate and take control of their homeownership journey. For more information, visit . https://myperch.io/ To shop and compare mortgages, visit . https://myperch.io/tools/pathfinder/ About Second Century Ventures: Second Century Ventures (SCV), the strategic investment arm of the National Association of REALTORS®, is the most active global real estate technology fund. SCV helps scale its portfolio companies across the world's largest industries including real estate, financial services, banking, home services, and insurance. It operates the award-winning global REACH technology scale-up program in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit . http://www.scv.vc About B.E.S.T. Funds: Founded by John Richardson in 1996, B.E.S.T. Funds provide growing technology companies with the capital they need to accelerate growth. They take a flexible approach to coming up with ways to partner with leading-edge technology companies. For more information, visit . http://bestfunds.ca/ For further information: Katherine Wong Too Yen, Director of Marketing, media@myperch.io Also published here

Perch, a Mortgage Fintech, Raises $4M in Series A Funding

Alex Leduc, CEO of Perch, on using technology to innovate in a “traditional” industry Anyone who’s worked in the banking or lending industry will know that change is hard. In a centuries-old business world, the need to “evolve with the times” is often overlooked, mainly when firms usually act as gatekeepers that all but force customers to play their game, no matter the inconvenience. At my fintech startup, Perch, we’re flipping the script and using technology to get an edge over the big players. Perch is a digital mortgage brokerage. We’ve taken the traditionally painstaking process of getting your mortgage with the bank and automated it into a 20-minute process. We spend the rest of our resources teaching the user and giving them insights on their decisions, with complete transparency along the way. Unlike most mortgage brokerages, most of our team are developers and designers, not mortgage brokers. What is a digital mortgage company? For most of us, buying a home is a huge deal. Especially for first-time home buyers, it can be hard to figure out what you have to do and in what order. Our analytics platform walks you through every step of the way so you’re given the information and timeline you need to make the right decision. We answer questions like “How much ‘home’ can I afford today?” and “How long will it take until I can afford my dream property?” Home buyers ready to make an offer can get a mortgage pre-approval online in less than an hour. After signing up and submitting your details, you’ll be able to view the mortgage offers available to you instantly. The entire application process can be done online. Complete your pre-approval and get your mortgage approved in less than 48 hours. This means not having to wait for someone to call you back or needing to travel to a bank or credit union to fill out paperwork. The average Perch user saves $1,500 per year on their mortgage, compared to going with a bank. Perch has recently raised $4 million in seed round funding. How did you come up with the idea to start Perch? I spent seven years working in the financial sector, and in that time, I saw how broken our system was, especially in the mortgage and real estate industry. Too many companies were still heavily reliant on paperwork and operating inefficiently. A lot of time was wasted between different parties through coordinating, providing status updates, and following up. Customers didn’t have equal access to the same information. They had to trust financial advisors, brokers, and mortgage specialists at banks without seeing the numbers for themselves and understanding if they were making the right decision. There was a pessimistic outlook for home buyers, where increasingly, Canadians viewed homeownership as an unattainable goal. Those who were approaching retirement or already retired lacked sufficient liquid assets to fund their golden years. Unfortunately, this meant people would rely on tapping into their home equity to get by. After confirming that no other company was addressing these issues holistically, I set out to do it myself in 2018. The first product we built was, well, not great. Initially, we created a fully automated solution allowing users to compare and select a mortgage independently. We soon had our first “aha” moment when we realized people weren’t willing to make such an important decision without having the ability to consult a trusted advisor for 1:1 support, so we adapted. Today, Perch offers home buyers and homeowners a proprietary analytics platform supplemented by a dedicated advisor that helps them strategize and figure out the best path forward. How did you start the business? Once I had the idea, I needed to validate it. I invested about $20,000 of my capital to develop an MVP, which mainly paid for a freelance engineer I found on Upwork overseas. I had zero consideration for design and was more interested in whether the user found the outputs and functionality useful. Once I had the prototype, I went through my immediate network to see if anyone could spare 15 minutes of their time for a demo. That gave me 15 initial testers that went through the product. I didn’t pick people like my mom, who would tell me the platform was excellent no matter what, but instead relied on people I knew a bit less formally or that I knew would give me honest feedback. It was great to get their input, so I could solve the most significant issues upfront. With no regard for design, the user experience was awful, so I had to be super hands-on in guiding them through the platform when testing. After doing the first batch of testing and making some overhauls, I invested another $30,000 in designing and engineering to improve it. With this enhanced MVP (2.0), I then took it for more informal feedback from strangers. I would literally go into places like food courts and search for someone eating lunch alone and then ask them if they had 10 minutes to demo and provide feedback. I’d pick food courts in the basement of enormous tech companies to increase the chances I ran into someone who worked on a software platform to improve the quality of feedback received. Surprisingly, most people were pretty receptive and open to walking through my demo. I got another 10-15 testers to validate that I was onto something. What’s next for the business? Since the first launch, we’ve learned much from our users, and our product has come a long way. Here are some key stats on the company over the years: The team was 3 people (including myself) up until mid-2019. We are now 20 in 2022. We’ve doubled our customer lifetime value while maintaining an ongoing customer acquisition cost. We’re on track to be profitable by mid-2023. The velocity of our growth was pretty limited as we essentially bootstrapped our way up to where we are today (only a small circle of friends & family around). Over 80% of this revenue has been organic or through user referrals, not paid ads. We’re currently working on building up a for our users to answer any questions they have about the mortgage process and homeownership in general. library of content , we work with you to help you get approved for the mortgage you need, with dedicated mortgage specialists available to help you through the process. At Perch

Combatting Gatekeeping in Real Estate With Digital Mortgage Brokerage

Alex Leduc, CEO of Perch, on building and running a fintech startup in the mortgage industry. Hi readers, I’m Alex, and I’ve built my company from the ground up over the past 4 years, and we just finished our latest . Perch is a digital mortgage company. We make money helping people get their mortgage quickly, simply, and at the best rates they qualify for, while providing insights and tools for them to make the best decisions. Perch Series A funding round of $4 million For homeowners, Perch will and let you know when there’s an opportunity to save money by switching mortgages. You’ll also be able to view your monthly property value and mortgage balance updates. Best of all, we can show you exactly how much home equity you could unlock by refinancing and see your property returns as easily as you’d track your stock portfolio. automatically monitor the mortgage market The Fintech Startup Playbook I’ll break down what the costs to get to the launch date looked like. Note since we’re a Canadian company, the dollar amounts are listed in Canadian dollars. 1. Getting incorporated ($2,500) Setting up the corporation is simple, but you need legal counsel to get things like your bylaws, shareholder agreement, etc., in place. This is extremely important! To raise capital later on, things like the IP belonging to the business and the right shares being issued must be handled correctly the first time. With that being said, you also don’t want to go into overkill by hiring a $900/hour lawyer and spending $10,000+ on doing this. I used a service called Clausehound, which gave me free access to templates and enabled me to draft rough copies of all legal agreements. I then had to legally validate what I wrote and did one round of edits to minimize my legal costs to around $1,500 for all required documents. Note: You need to do this as early as possible. Most accelerators or grant programs require you to be incorporated to qualify, and later on, when you want larger grants, they look for at least 2 years incorporated. 2. Trademark the Application ($2,000) I can tell you now that it was a complete waste of money/time. I filed my trademark in early 2018 and didn’t get a response until late 2020, and by that time, we were already gearing up to rebrand. You don’t need to worry about this upfront. 3. Product MVP ($50,000): As described above, this was about 5 months of development and 3 months of design work. I’ve learned that the equity you retain in your business is commensurate to the pain/risk you can take on. So overall, my total costs from starting up a business to launching were around $55,000. How Did I Finance All of This? Credits: By joining MaRS and Communitech (we’re based in Canada, and these are research innovation centers specific to my area), I was able to leverage a lot of services to help me reduce costs. Discounted legal/accounting advice, $30,000 in AWS credits, 90% off HubSpot, free-market research, etc. In the first year, 80% of my opex was strictly contractors. 1. Loans Futurpreneur provides a $15,000 loan that is fairly easy to qualify for. I had a great credit score and no other debts since I was previously working full-time, so that helped me get favorable terms. 2. Capital I was able to fund the initial startup capital with my savings. The biggest cost that isn’t accounted for here is the “opportunity cost” in the sense that I made $0 for the work I put in, even if I was working 80+ hours a week. Sweat equity was by far the biggest contribution I made, and you should expect it to also be yours. 3. Grants I was able to get $10,000 from the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) for my designer hire. The Startup Lessons We went live to the public in September 2018, and I wanted to use paid channels as the first channel to get my initial customers, I aggressively priced my product to entice someone to try it with no brand recognition. The first thing I learned is that a low price will never trump a bad user experience. If I solely relied on the site to convert, I would’ve had zero clients. The one thing that made a massive difference was making sure my phone number was easily visible and that I got their info as early as possible so I could reach out. Getting people on the phone and getting feedback on the product was fundamental in helping me rapidly iterate on the product and keep improving. My goal was never to flood the site with traffic but rather to keep a steady stream of people coming in so that I could keep testing my product and getting feedback in a measured and controlled way. If anything, my worst nightmare was having my site go viral and then having tons of people access the site when we couldn't support them all, which could lead to damaging the brand. The team was 3 people (me, an intermediate engineer, and a junior designer), so we had to pick wisely on where we spent our efforts. My product also requires consultation as a mortgage broker, so I wasn’t in a position where I could handle 100 clients at a time. How to Attract and Retain Customers For anyone who’s thinking about starting a business, I always recommend expanding your network beyond just your immediate role. For example, attend networking events where not everyone has a similar background to you. My background is in finance, so I had the ‘fin’ but none of the ‘tech.’ To overcome part of this knowledge gap, I signed up for online courses and dedicated myself to reading as much as I could so I could “speak the language” during the hiring process and when working with my entire team. Since launching our free analytics platform to home buyers and homeowners, we’ve enjoyed a 174% customer referral rate. Many of our new customers first hear of Perch through word of mouth. Early on, we realized it just didn’t make sense to spend a lot of advertising dollars if we didn’t have a good product that people wanted to use. What’s worked for us are our strong referral partnerships, which translate into higher-quality leads than any ad campaign ever could. For example, we enable satisfied customers to earn through our referral program: If they refer a friend who signs up to Perch and gets a mortgage through us, we offer them 10% of our gross commission as a referral bonus. Similarly, we offer real estate agents a referral bonus when they refer home buyers who get a mortgage through our platform. When it comes to retaining and re-engaging our users, we invested a lot of time into ensuring our drip campaigns were delivering relevant and timely messages to customers. To be successful, you need to have a unique product. In addition, we reiterate our service commitment to them by focusing on quick response times with our base (in other words, no long hold times or spending days waiting for an email reply). As much as we rely on our analytics platform to guide users through shopping for rates and the mortgage application process, we know there are times they just want to speak to a human. Because we don’t want to compromise on our customer service, we constantly think about how to maximize operational efficiency and sustainably grow our business. Finally, we consider ourselves very fortunate to have a vocal customer base. They have left us 5-star reviews on Google, provided us testimonials to use in our marketing, and are quick to let our advisors know when they need help or if something is going awry.

How I Built a Successful Digital Mortgage Startup in Canada

Alex Leduc, CEO of Canadian-based proptech Perch with the goal of empowering people throughout the entire home buying process. If you’ve tried to buy a house in the past few years (or just browsed a real estate marketplace for fun), you may have noticed that housing prices and the demand for real estate have been soaring at a record-breaking pace, and while rising interest rates have cooled the market somewhat, it’s still harder than it’s ever been to afford a home for many people. At , our mission is to solve two distinct problems - housing affordability and building wealth over time through homeownership. Many people want to get into the housing market, but they don’t necessarily have clarity on where to start and how to leverage the equity in the right way once they’ve purchased a home. To be involved throughout the real estate journey, Perch’s team and analytics platform simplifies the mortgage application process, prepare a path to owning the right home, and educates consumers on how to leverage their home equity. Perch What are the Problems Facing Real Estate in 2022? Due to a variety of factors, we’re seeing for younger Canadians, and they’re seriously concerned about ever being able to buy their ideal home. declining homeownership rates In fact, 77% of Canadians polled in 2020 expressed a lack of confidence in being able to afford the home they want. ( ) source While homebuyers are struggling to get approved on their mortgage, homeowners aren’t leveraging their property’s full potential. 40% of Canadian net worth is tied up in real estate, and many enter retirement with very few assets other than their home. This results in punitive forms of financing such as home equity lines of credit, reverse mortgages, private mortgages, and more. ( ) source With traditional lenders, homebuyers are facing lengthy waits, a lack of transparency, and they aren’t presented with the tools necessary for them to make informed decisions. In the digital era, there’s no reason that getting a mortgage and buying a home can’t be a completely user-friendly experience, with all the processes in the hands of the buyer. Automation can solve a lot of the issues present in the approval process, and the internet has opened up access to educational resources for everyone. How is technology changing the mortgage industry? Although technology makes for a competitive and efficient market, I still view real estate as a relationship-based industry with an indispensable human element. The digital experience has certainly improved 60% of the typical consumer mortgage process, but people still need to be involved (and that probably won’t change for some time). Throughout the mortgage application and ownership process, people feel more secure knowing that there is a person on the other side of the screen with their best interest in mind. With that being said, one of our largest advantages over our competitors has been in automating 65% of the mortgage approval process. What this has allowed us to do is to transfer most of the savings from that over to value for the user. Our developer team has built a number of tools designed to maximize value for our users, generating property value estimates in real time, and offering personalized insights into where they can save money as a homeowner or homebuyer. The goal with Perch was to create an ecosystem that looked to serve the client first, not the interests of those involved. In this ecosystem, being able to create a collaborative network of the right professional and overlay analytics in areas where it’s needed increases the likelihood of a customer making an informed decision and achieving their goals. We go beyond just offering mortgages, we have the platform in Canada that empowers users to optimize their path to homeownership and then maximize the wealth they have as homeowners. Our focus on balancing technology and expert advice enables us to create a better outcome for everyone involved. Everything we do is ultimately around building a real estate ecosystem that empowers users to make better decisions. This is via a combination of advanced analytics, vetted professionals and complementary product verticals. The ideal state of our platform involves a user going through Perch for every real estate transaction knowing that they’ll save the most time and money, get the best advice and be guided fairly from start to finish with their best interests in mind. Looking toward 2023 and beyond, we’re excited to witness open banking legislation’s impact on increased innovation and options in the lending space. Also interesting is the shifting dynamic between financing and realtors as the importance of where realtors seek their financing continues to grow in the competitive marketplace. More About Perch Perch is a tech company focused on empowering Canadians on their homeownership journey to build wealth through real estate, by transforming financial data into actionable insights which can help optimize a buyer’s path to homeownership. Once a homeowner, we enable them to build wealth by putting their home equity to work. All of this is made possible through a highly skilled network of professionals and our proprietary analytics platform. Founded in 2018, we’ve grown from 3 employees to 20 in the past 3 years, and since our first launch we’ve learned a lot to tailor our product for users. Over 80% of our revenue has been completely organic or through user referrals. Going forward our goal is to expand and increase our userbase, focusing on building a library of content through which to teach people about the mortgage process and homeownership, whether they end up getting a mortgage with us or not. Our product is currently available to Canadians, and they can read more about us at__ o__, it takes a few minutes to set up a profile. myperch.i

The Digital Experience Has Improved 60% of the Consumer Mortgage Process

By Alex Leduc, CEO of Perch. Meet Perch My name is Alex Leduc, and I’m the Founder and CEO of Perch. We’re a real estate tech company based in Toronto, Canada, and we offer our service to all provinces across the country. At Perch, our mission is to empower Canadians to make more informed decisions about their real estate and provide them with the . We love helping buyers become homeowners and assisting homeowners to optimize their finances and grow their wealth. best interest rates on the market The Essential Tools for a Digital Startup Perch is a fully remote startup with employees across Canada or India, in multiple time zones. Because of that, it’s pretty crucial for us to use tools that enable the team to work collaboratively and efficiently and are user-friendly. Most importantly, as a growing prop-tech startup, the platforms and tools we use need to scale as we increase the number of employees and customers. Here are some of our favorites: : The flexibility of HubSpot’s platform, the ability to tie in Operations and Marketing functions, and the comprehensive HubSpot Academy training material are a few reasons we chose to work with them. Their workflows (automated emails) have saved us a ton of time when following up with customers, and their API is highly flexible. HubSpot : With a lot of moving pieces, and the speed at which we work, we need to be able to track tasks cross-functionally and hand things off to a coworker without always needing to default to a meeting or lengthy brief. Jira is great for this! Jira : A work collaboration platform that’s easy and fun to use. While a lot of our work is completed asynchronously, having Slack is like being able to tap a coworker on the shoulder when you have a quick question. Best of all, an extensive suite of integrations with our other tools helps employees with their productivity. Slack : Given how popular Gmail is, many of our new hires come into Perch already having some familiarity with Google Workspace. This knowledge expedites their onboarding process with us and allows them to pick things up much more quicker. Google Workspace : Let’s face it—not everyone will be a numbers guru who can build out their models and forecasts. PowerBI helps make data visualization more accessible to employees across the company. Having our data more readily available helps to hold people accountable and gives them the confidence to make the correct business decision. Power BI The Most Influential Books for Entrepreneurs I’ll admit that early on in the business, I had way more time for reading when we weren’t yet live, and I only had 1-2 other staff. My background was in finance, and I had never worked in tech, worked with anyone in engineering/design/product/growth, or ran a business (other than side hustles). I had a lot of blind spots that I set out to learn more about hopefully, so I went on a binge reading spree during my workouts (tablet on the spin bike) and burned through 12 books in a few months. Some of my favorites: (Ray Dalio) helped me explore what kind of company and culture I wanted to have and some valuable insights into running a business and being a leader. Principles (Tim Ferriss) opened my mind up to optimizing my work schedule, beefing up my time management, and then also focusing on what matters 4 Hour Work Week (Eric Ries) helped me understand what a product development cycle looks like, how to organize a team around that and how important having metrics is. The Lean Startup (Nir Eyal) helped me understand what a product needs to have to be successful beyond features, how users interact with a product, and how I should test for success Hooked (Ben Horowitz) helped me grasp the kind of things you’ll encounter running startups and think through how I’d want to handle it. It also had solid tips on building your operations to be set up for success. The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Sean Ellis + Morgan Brown) outlined how you should approach growth experiments and prioritize your time. It also explained who you need on a growth team to be successful. Hacking Growth Advice For Aspiring Entrepreneurs To be successful, you need to have a unique product. We made sure we were truly solving our users’ problems. With Perch, I knew we had the right product fit when people started saying things like ‘I’ve never seen anything like this!’ or ‘I can’t believe no one else is already doing this.’ (P.S. if you ever want to validate a startup founder’s feelings, just keep repeating those lines to them!) Starting our business, we used freelancers and contractors to build our MVP, which gave us flexibility without having to commit too much capital. I’ve also quickly learned the power of prototypes. At Perch, we use Figma to design prototypes and test the product-market fit with our target users before ever writing a single line of code. Doing so saves us from making a lot of rework and wasted effort. Don’t forget to take advantage of government grants or grants from organizations that serve startups and entrepreneurs. A lot of times, these grants can help you with hiring the resources you need much sooner. If you’re not sure where to start, try contacting a local university or college with a strong co-op or internship focus. Typically, they will be extremely well-versed in available grants to enable startups and small businesses to hire their students and are very willing to share their knowledge with a potential employer!

A Remote Startup Playbook: The Essential Tools and Books

Aysha Samrin, Lead Product Designer at , on how to set your design team up for success at an early stage startup. Perch Many young startups view design as a secondary element of the product when in reality, the product's design is what often determines its success or failure. At Perch, we’re building a culture that celebrates design by ensuring that it always has a seat at the table and offering challenging and rewarding opportunities to our designers in a supportive environment. 1. Uniting the team and structuring conversations Without a common understanding of what makes design great in an organization, everyone is left to act according to their gut feelings. This makes the outcome of the design process entirely unpredictable and can cause issues in the quality of the work output. At Perch, we established three design principles that helped drive a lot of our decisions on our product and design team. These principles act as standards for our team and help us measure the quality of our work. They replace subjective ideals with clear standards that help team members make user-centered design decisions. Conversations turn from to . “I think that…” “does this fall in line with the principles we’ve established?” Principles aren’t perfect and may change over time, but ultimately they play an important role in guiding us towards our end goal—creating a great user experience for people who will use the product that we’re creating. 2. Establishing design processes and creating a shared vision Building a successful design team is all about putting talented people in positions and on projects where they can be successful while also growing as designers. At Perch, we recognize that designers are not just focused on aesthetics. We are intentional about team dynamics and work towards creating an environment for success by roping designers in on product vision and strategy discussions,, so they better understand the context for the existence of a product. Fostering collaboration between design and other parts of our organization has helped our designers improve their skills at articulating design decisions in ways that our internal teams and external partners can understand. Establishing design processes centered around communication and collaboration has helped us break down silos and facilitate conversations that help align Perch on a shared vision and outcomes. 3. Enabling design thinking across the company In order to build a great design culture at early-stage startups, design leaders must work towards fostering design thinking outside of the design team than they do within their team. At Perch, we do this by including non-designers in the design process. We host cross-functional ideation sessions where members of different teams contribute their perspectives and ideas to a design discussion. Another way we foster design thinking outside the Perch's design team is by letting external team members into the design world and asking them for feedback at specific points in the design process. Setting up a design team for success within an early-stage startup requires an appreciation of the differences between design thinking and other transformational approaches within the organization. Design leaders must be coaches who inspire their teams to succeed, hand-holding when necessary but drawing back when a team hits its stride. Also published . here

Product Designer's Playbook: 3 Ways to Create a Successful Design Team

Tarzan and the Ant Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . CHAPTER VIII Tarzan and the Ant Men Chapter VIII Ska, perched upon the horn of dead Gorgo, became suddenly aware of a movement in a nearby thicket. He turned his head in the direction of the sound and saw Sabor the lioness emerge from the foliage and walk slowly toward him. Ska was not terrified. He would leave, but he would leave with dignity. He crouched to spring upward, and extended his great wings to aid him in taking off. But Ska, the vulture, never rose. As he essayed to do so, something pulled suddenly upon his neck and held him down. He scrambled to his feet and, violently this time, strove to fly away. Again he was dragged back. Now Ska was terrified. The hateful thing that had been dangling about his neck for so long was holding him to earth—the swinging loop of the golden chain had caught around the horn of Gorgo, the buffalo. Ska was trapped. He struggled, beating his wings. Sabor stopped to regard him and his wild antics. Ska was flopping around in a most surprising manner. Sabor had never seen Ska behave thus before, and lions are sensitive, temperamental animals; so Sabor was not surprised only, she was inclined to be frightened. For another moment she watched the unaccountable antics of Ska and then she turned tail and slunk back into the undergrowth, turning an occasional growling countenance back upon the vulture, as much as to say; "Pursue me at your peril!" But Ska had no thought of pursuing Sabor. Never again would Ska, the vulture, pursue aught. "They are coming!" announced Komodoflorensal, prince of Trohanadalmakus. As Tarzan looked out across the rolling country in the direction of the enemy, he presently saw, from his greater height, the advance of the Veltopismakusians. "Our scouts are falling back," he announced to Komodoflorensal. "You can see the enemy?" demanded the prince. "Yes." "Keep me advised as to their movements." "They are advancing in several long lines, deployed over a considerable front," reported the ape-man. "The scouts are falling back upon the outpost which seems to be standing its ground to receive them. It will be overwhelmed—if not by the first line then by those that succeed it." Komodoflorensal gave a short command. A thousand mounted men leaped forward, urging their diadets into bounding leaps that cleared five, six and even seven feet at a time. Straight for the outpost ahead of them they raced, deploying as they went. Another thousand moved quickly toward the right and a third toward the left of the advance cavalry's position following Tarzan's announcement that the enemy had divided into two bodies just before it engaged the outpost, and that one of these was moving as though with the intention of turning the right flank of the main cavalry of Trohanadalmakus, while the other circled in the direction of the left flank. "They are striking boldly and quickly for prisoners," said the prince to Tarzan. "Their second and third lines are ploying upon the center and moving straight for us," said Tarzan. "They have reached the outpost, which is racing forward with them, giving battle vigorously with rapiers." Komodoflorensal was dispatching messengers toward the rear. "It is thus that we fight," he said, evidently in explanation of the action of the outpost. "It is time that you returned to the rear, for in another few moments you will be surrounded by the enemy if you remain. When they reach us we, too, will turn and fight them hand-to-hand back toward the city. If it still is their intention to enter the city the battle will resemble more a race than aught else, for the speed will be too great for effective fighting; but if they have abandoned that idea and intend contenting themselves with prisoners there will be plenty of fighting before we reach the infantry, past which I doubt if they will advance. "With their greatly superior numbers they will take some prisoners, and we shall take some—but, quick! you must get back to the city, if already it is not too late." "I think I shall remain here," replied the ape-man. "But they will take you prisoner, or kill you." Tarzan of the Apes smiled and shook his leafy branch. "I do not fear them," he said, simply. "That is because you do not know them," replied the prince. "Your great size makes you over-confident, but remember that you are only four times the size of a Minunian and there may be thirty thousand seeking to overthrow you." The Veltopismakusians were driving swiftly forward. The prince could give no more time to what he saw was but a futile attempt to persuade Tarzan to retreat, and while he admired the strange giant's courage he likewise deplored his ignorance. Komodoflorensal had grown fond of their strange guest and he would have saved him had it been possible, but now he must turn to the command of his troops, since the enemy was almost upon them. Tarzan watched the coming of the little men on their agile, wiry mounts. Line after line poured across the rolling country toward him, carrying to his mind a suggestion of their similarity to the incoming rollers of the ocean's surf, each drop of which was soft and harmless, but in their countless numbers combined into a relentless and terrifying force of destruction, and the ape-man glanced at his leafy bough and smiled, albeit a trifle ruefully. But now his whole attention was riveted by the fighting in the first two lines of the advancing horde. Racing neck and neck with the Veltopismakusian warriors were the men of Adendrohahkis' outpost and the thousands who had reinforced them. Each had selected an enemy rider whom he sought to strike from his saddle, and at top speed each duel was carried on with keen rapiers, though here and there was a man wielding his spear, and sometimes to good effect. A few riderless diadets leaped forward with the vanguard, while others, seeking to break back or to the flanks, fouled the racing ranks, often throwing beasts and riders to the ground; but more frequently the warriors leaped their mounts entirely over these terrified beasts. The riding of the Minunians was superb, and their apparently effortless control of their swift and nervous steeds bordered upon the miraculous. Now a warrior, lifting his mount high into the air, cleared an adversary and as he rose above him cut down viciously with his rapier at his foeman's head, striking him from the saddle; but there was scarce time to catch more than a fleeting, kaleidoscopic impression of the swift moving spectacle before the great horde swarmed down upon him. With his leafy bough, Tarzan had thought to sweep the little men from his path, but now friend and foe were so intermingled that he dared not attempt it for fear of unseating and injuring some of the warriors of his hosts. He raised the bough above their heads and waited until the first lines should have passed him and then, with only the enemies of Adendrohahkis about him, he would brush them aside and break the center of their charge. He saw the surprised expressions upon the faces of the men of Veltopismakus as they passed near him—surprise, but no fear—and he heard their shouts as one more fortunate than his fellows was able to rein closer to him and cut viciously at his legs as he sped past. Then indeed it became naught other than a matter of self-preservation to attempt to fend these off with his bough, nor was this impossible as the first lines moved past in loose ranks; but presently the solid mass of the Veltopismakusian cavalry was upon him. There was no veering aside to avoid him. In unbroken ranks, file after file, they bore down upon him. He threw his useless bough before him to impede their progress and grappled them with his fingers, tearing the riders from their mounts and hurling them back upon their onrushing fellows; but still they came. They jumped their diadets over every obstruction. One rider, leaping straight for him, struck him head on in the pit of the stomach, half winding him and sending him back a step. Another and another struck his legs and sides. Again and again the needlelike points of their rapiers pierced his brown hide until from hips to feet he was red with his own blood, and always there were more thousands bearing down upon him. His weapons, useless against them, he made no attempt to use and though he wrought havoc among them with his bare hands there were always a hundred to take the place of each that he disposed of. He smiled grimly as he realized that in these little people, scarce one-fourth his size, he, the incomparable Tarzan, the Lord of the Jungle, had met his Wellington. He realized that he was entirely surrounded by the Veltopismakusians now, the warriors of Trohanadalmakus having engaged the advancing enemy were racing onward with them toward the seven thousand dismounted men who were to receive the brunt of that terrific charge. Tarzan wished that he might have witnessed this phase of the battle, but he had fighting enough and to spare to engage all his attention where he was. Again he was struck in the stomach by a charging rider and again the blow staggered him. Before he could recover himself another struck him in the same place and this time he went down, and instantly he was covered, buried by warriors and diadets, swarming over him, like ants, in countless numbers. He tried to rise and that was the last he remembered before he sank into unconsciousness. Uhha, daughter of Khamis the witch doctor of the tribe of Obebe the cannibal, lay huddled upon a little pile of grasses in a rude thorn shelter in an open jungle. It was night but she was not asleep. Through narrowed lids she watched a giant white man who squatted just outside the shelter before a tiny fire. The girl's lids were narrowed in hate as her smoldering eyes rested upon the man. There was no fear of the supernatural in her expression—just hate, undying hate. Long since had Uhha ceased to think of Esteban Miranda as The River Devil. His obvious fear of the greater beasts of the jungle and of the black men-beasts had at first puzzled and later assured her that her companion was an impostor; River Devils do not fear anything. She was even commencing to doubt that the fellow was Tarzan, of whom she had heard so many fabulous stories during her childhood that she had come to look upon him as almost a devil himself—her people had no gods, only devils—which answer just as good a purpose among the ignorant and superstitious as do gods among the educated and superstitious. And when Esteban Miranda quite conclusively proved by his actions that he feared lions and that he was lost in the jungle these things did not square at all with her preconceived estimate of the powers and attributes of the famous Tarzan. With the loss of her respect for him she lost, also, nearly all her fear. He was stronger than she and brutal. He could and would hurt her if she angered him, but he could not harm her in any other way than physically and not at all if she could keep out of his clutches. Many times had she rehearsed plans for escape, but always she had hesitated because of the terrible fear she had of being alone in the jungle. Recently, however, she had been coming to realize more and more clearly that the white man was little or no protection to her. In fact, she might be better off without him, for at the first hint of danger it had been Miranda's habit to bolt for the nearest tree, and where trees were not numerous this habit of his had always placed Uhha under a handicap in the race for self-preservation, since Esteban, being stronger, could push her aside if she impeded his progress towards safety. Yes, she would be as well off alone in the jungle as in the company of this man whom she thoroughly despised and hated, but before she left him she must, her savage little brain assured her, revenge herself upon him for having tricked her into aiding him in his escape from the village of Obebe the chief as well as for having forced her to accompany him. Uhha was sure that she could find her way to the village, albeit they had traveled long and far, and she was sure too that she could find the means for subsistence along the way and elude the fiercer beasts of prey that might beset the way. Only man she feared; but in this she was not unlike all other created things. Man alone of all the creations of God is universally hated and feared and not only by the lower orders but by his own kind, for of them all man alone joys in the death of others—the great coward who, of all creation, fears death the most. And so the little negro girl lay watching the Spaniard and her eyes glittered, for in his occupation she saw a means to her revenge. Squatting before his fire, leaning far forward, Esteban Miranda, gloated over the contents of a small buck-skin bag which he had partially emptied into the palm of one of his hands. Little Uhha knew how highly the white man prized these glittering stones, though she was entirely ignorant of their intrinsic worth. She did not even know them for diamonds. All she knew was that the white man loved them, that he valued them more highly than his other possessions and that he had repeatedly told her that he would die sooner than he would part with them. For a long time Miranda played with the diamonds and for a long time Uhha watched him; but at last he returned them to their bag, which he fastened securely inside his loin-cloth. Then he crawled beneath the thorn shelter, dragged a pile of thorns into the entrance to close it against the inroads of prowling beasts, and lay down upon the grasses beside Uhha. How was this little girl going to accomplish the theft of the diamonds from the huge, Tarzanian Spaniard? She could not filch them by stealth for the bag that contained them was so fastened inside his loin-cloth that it would be impossible to remove it without awakening him; and certainly this frail child could never wrest the jewels from Esteban by physical prowess. No, the whole scheme must die where it was born—inside Uhha's thick little skull. Outside the shelter the fire flickered, lighting the jungle grasses about it and casting weird, fantastic shadows that leaped and danced in the jungle night. Something moved stealthily among the lush vegetation a score of paces from the tiny camp. It was something large, for the taller grasses spread to its advance. They parted and a lion's head appeared. The yellow-green eyes gazed uneasily at the fire. From beyond came the odor of man and Numa was hungry; too, upon occasion he had eaten of man and found him good—also of all his prey the slowest and the least able to protect himself; but Numa did not like the looks of things here and so he turned and disappeared from whence he had come. He was not afraid of the fire. Had he been he would have been afraid of the sun by day, for the sun he could not even look at without discomfort, and to Numa the fire and the sun might have been one, for he had no way of knowing which was sixty feet away and which ninety-three million miles. It was the dancing shadows that caused his nervous apprehension. Huge, grotesque creatures of which he had had no experience seemed to be leaping all about him, threatening him from every side. But Uhha paid no attention to the dancing shadows and she had not seen Numa the lion. She lay very still now, listening. The fire flared less high as the slow minutes dragged their leaden feet along. It was not so very long that she lay thus, but it seemed long to Uhha, for she had her plan all matured and ready for execution. A civilized girl of twelve might have conceived it, but it is doubtful that she would have carried it to its conclusion. Uhha, however, was not civilized and being what she was she was not hampered by any qualms of conscience. Presently the Spaniard's breathing indicated that he was asleep. Uhha waited a little longer to make assurance doubly sure, then she reached beneath the grasses just beside her and when she withdrew her hand again she brought forth a short, stout cudgel. Slowly and cautiously she rose until she kneeled beside the recumbent form of the sleeping Spaniard. Then she raised her weapon above her head and brought it down once, heavily, upon Esteban's skull. She did not continue to beat him—the one blow was enough. She hoped that she had not killed him, for he must live if her scheme of revenge was to be realized; he must live and know that Uhha had stolen the bag of pebbles that he so worshiped. Uhha appropriated the knife that swung at Miranda's hip and with it she cut away his loin-cloth and took possession of the buck-skin bag and its contents. Then she removed the thorns from the entrance to the shelter, slipped out into the night and vanished into the jungle. During all her wanderings with the Spaniard she had not once lost her sense of the direction which pointed toward her home, and now, free, she set her face resolutely toward the southwest and the village of Obebe the cannibal. An elephant trail formed a jungle highway along which she moved at a swinging walk, her way lighted by the rays of a full moon that filtered through the foliage of a sparse forest. She feared the jungle night and the nocturnal beasts of prey, but she knew that she must take this chance that she might put as great a distance as possible between herself and the white man before he regained consciousness and started in pursuit. A hundred yards ahead of her, in the dense thicket that bordered the trail, Numa the lion sniffed, and listened with up-pricked ears bent in her direction. No dancing shadows here to suggest menacing forms to Numa's high-strung nervous system—only the scent of man coming closer and closer—a young she-man, most tender of its kind. Numa licked his slavering jowls and waited. The girl came rapidly along the trail. Now she was abreast the lion, but the king of beasts did not spring. There is something in the scent of the man-thing and the sight of the man-thing that awakens strange terrors in the breast of Numa. When he stalks Horta the boar or Bara the deer there is nothing in the near presence of either that arouses a similar sensation in the savage carnivore; then he knows no hesitancy when the instant comes to spring upon his prey. It is only the man-thing, helpless and leaden-footed, that causes him to pause in indecision at the crucial moment. Uhha passed, ignorant of the fact that a great lion, hunting and hungry, stood within two paces of her. When she had passed Numa slunk into the trail behind her, and there he followed, stalking his tender quarry until the moment should come when the mists of his indecision should be dispelled. And so they went through the jungle night—the great lion, creeping on stealthy, noiseless pads, and just ahead of him the little black girl, unconscious of the grim death stalking her through the dappled moonlight. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Edgar Rice Burroughs (2020). Tarzan and the Ant Men. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61837/pg61837-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Ska, perched upon the horn of dead Gorgo

At the Hong Kong FinTech Summit, last year (October), the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) launched the GBX i.e. the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange with the platform’s aim being the world’s first regulated and licensed crypto and Blockchain-based token exchange. With Gibraltar’s government introducing the new Distributed Ledger Technology Regulatory Framework (which came into effect on the first of January 2018), the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange is uniquely poised. The GBX being a subsidiary of the GSX (Gibraltar Stock Exchange) offers a novel security, transaction transparency, and accessibility to traders on its platform. The Gibraltar Stock Exchange is a self-regulated Global Market that operates a European Union regulated Main Market, recognized by both the ESMA and the HMRC. As a member of the European Union, Gibraltar is a pioneer in the digital technology sphere. The British overseas territory also happens to be a fully regulated jurisdiction, having passport rights across Europe. In the same way, it has provided a haven for the gaming community, Gibraltar aims to usher in, offer support, provide structure as well as promote growth in the cryptocurrency community. The Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX) is set to be the exchange platform for next-gen crypto-economy as it builds a well-governed cryptocurrency community, establishes best trade practices as well as a gold standard code of conduct for the sales of tokens. Not limited to token sales, the GBX boasts other integrated offerings which include advisory, banking, corporate as well as payment services. The platform looks to provide an end-to-end ecosystem for corporate services, listings, wallets as well as KYC/AML to banking services on a global scale. The GBX, via the strict acceptance of only high-quality token offerings that has been subjected to a thorough vetting process, creates a new standard of excellence in crypto token listings. Only coins and tokens that have been meticulously vetted will be listed on the exchange platform and traded the trusted, well-governed GBX platform that boasts a strong, supportive crypto-community. All companies listed on the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange also receive preferred access to also list on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange. This gives crypto startup companies more capital raising options as well as access to a much more diversified traditional investor base. **How GBX Works**When it comes to crypto trading, there are already in existence several exchanges to choose from. Which begs the question, how is GBX different? What does the platform offer that is not already available to the crypto community? Well, let’s break that down, shall we? The GBX looks to create a trading system that caters more to traditional investors i.e. GBX looks to create a revolutionary crypto-exchange that works akin to a stock exchange. For instance, the GBX team actively and meticulously vet new tokens to ensure its safety and legitimacy before making it available on the platform to potential investors. The primary goal of the platform is “to create a harbor for investors who are too nervous to brave the uncharted waters of the crypto markets.” Essentially, the standout feature of the GBX is the fact that all coins and tokens are thoroughly analyzed before they are listed on the platform.  GBX has established a group of token vets (i.e. the GBX Alliance) mandated to form a consensus about every token before they get listed on the exchange platform. Other key features of GBX includes an innovative sponsor staking regime as well as diligent whitelisting procedures. Another key feature the GBX prides itself on is the fact that its investment pool is exclusively made up of KYC/AML cleared investors making this exchange platform truly the future of crypto trading. The GBX ecosystem is revolved around the Rock Token (RKT) in-platform currency. The Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange in-platform currency is called the “Rock Token”, a name derived Gibraltar’s iconic ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ landmark. The RKT is the currency of choice for transactions, token listings as well as other functions on the GBX platform. How Rock Token (RKT) Works? Essentially, the RKT is the utility token that powers both the GBX and GSX ecosystem. The Rock Token has a variety of functions on the Gibraltar exchange platforms, this includes being used to: RKT’s key features and functions · Make membership and governance payment within the GBX platform · Make payments for fees, listings, and sponsorships on the exchange platform · Access banking services (this includes an order book for trading as well as a secure offline custodianship) · Vote on select community developments There exists a number of crypto exchanges before the emergence of the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange. However, since its launch, the GBX has eclipsed other exchanges with its revolutionary features as is being considered as the world’s leading crypto-exchange and token sales platform. Why GBX Is the World’s Top Crypto Exchange/Token Sale Platform So, what makes GBX standout from other platforms? The number one standout feature of the GBX is its offered security. The platform’s principles are based on public commitment and trust, with its scrupulous vetting process before the listing of any token striving to ensure its community’s prosperity while keeping platform participants protected via best practices, corporate governance, and AML/KYC. GBX has built and continues to nurture an open and active future for the crypto community, promoting confidence, credibility, liquidity, and trust for participants on its platform.In addition, the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange opens up an international pathway bolstered by the regulatory structure offered by the DLT-supported (Distributed Ledger Technology) Gibraltar Government. Obviously, there is a long list of crypto exchanges in existence. The likes of Binance, Bittrex, Bitmex, BitFinex, Cryptopia, KuCoin etcetera. However, GBX is a bit different from these other exchange platforms. Key GBX Features GBX’s primary goal is the development of a system that is more accommodating to conventional investors. Essentially, GBX has created a crypto exchange that works in a similar vein as a stock exchange. Through its thorough vet of all coin before listing, GBX offers security for investors who would otherwise be hesitant to delve into the cryptocurrency markets. The vetting process, as earlier mentioned, is handled by a community model formed by the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange i.e. the GBX Alliance. The GBX Alliance would form a consensus on every token before it gets listed on the platform. Other key features include an ingenious sponsor staking regime, innovative whitelisting procedures as well as an exclusive group of KYC/AML cleared investors. Since GBX’s launch in August 2017 as a subsidiary of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX), the platform has experienced and is still experiencing growth and a transition into being the world’s leading crypto exchange platform and this is down to the unique features it offers, as well as the effort the platform makes in keeping investors protected. Conclusion Getting your token listed on the GBX has the same potential or even better than being listed on Coinbase. As most Cryptocurrency enthusiasts know, that is an added value to any Cryptocurrency. The exchange platform offers KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) protection in addition to tokens undergoing an unusual amount of scrutiny than what we are used to in the Blockchain space. The GBX will utilize a lot of legislation requirements for stock exchange listings which means there is a potential overlap of tokens being listed on the GSX as well as on the GBX. Now, the potential overlap onto a stock exchange platform is not limited to the Gibraltar Stock Exchange but also to the London Stock Exchange as well as other stock exchanges considering the requirements for listings on stock exchanges would have been met and as such, said token(s) would be able to obtain the validation needed to get listed on stock exchanges.Being governed by EU regulations also bodes well for the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange, reducing future regulatory issues.

Would GBX Knock Other Exchanges Off Their Perch to Become the World’s Leading Crypto Exchange?

As kids, many of us dreamed of becoming astronauts. But these days, it seems that just flying into space isn’t enough. Now, humanity dreams of something bigger — colonizing another planet. But is that possible today? colonizing another planet Unfortunately, the short answer is no. The most promising candidate for terraforming is Mars, but turning it into a livable world would require massive transformations — and right now, our technologies just aren’t there yet. But that hasn’t stopped the world’s brightest minds. In fact, there's already a growing list of bold, fascinating ideas — some of which are already in progress. Space agencies and private companies are working hard on technologies that may not terraform Mars tomorrow, but they’re laying the foundation to one day make it possible. already in progress Moonbase One of the things humanity is already capable of building is a base on the Moon. In fact, NASA’s Artemis program aims to establish the first long-term human presence on the lunar surface. Artemis program Artemis program Why is this so exciting? Why is this so exciting? Because it would teach us an essential set of skills for further space exploration and even terraforming: How to live in extreme environments;


How to grow food in closed systems;


How to recycle water and air;


How to mine local materials for fuel or construction. How to live in extreme environments; How to live in extreme environments; How to grow food in closed systems; How to grow food in closed systems; How to recycle water and air; How to recycle water and air; How to mine local materials for fuel or construction. How to mine local materials for fuel or construction. In other words, how to live and work on another world - something we’ve only simulated in labs or thought about theoretically. Now, it is time to test it with real-life experience. The average temperature on the Moon is -25°C (-13 °F). However, according to the latest calculations, the constant temperature in caves on the Moon is +17°C(+63 °F), which is super comfortable for people and sensitive equipment. The average temperature on the Moon is -25°C (-13 °F). However, according to the latest calculations, the constant temperature in caves on the Moon is +17°C(+63 °F), which is super comfortable for people and sensitive equipment. The average temperature on the Moon is -25°C (-13 °F). However, according to the latest calculations, the constant temperature in caves on the Moon is +17 25°C (-13 °F) , which is super comfortable for people and sensitive equipment. ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization) We’ve all travelled at least once in our lives, so we know — you can’t take everything with you. But in space, the stakes are much higher. You can’t just pay $50 for an extra kilo like you would with airline baggage. Every gram counts. That’s why ISRU, or In-Situ Resource Utilization, is a game-changing concept. It’s all about using resources available at your destination — like extracting oxygen from carbon dioxide on Mars or mining lunar soil for water and fuel. ISRU In-Situ Resource Utilization NASA is actively developing and testing ISRU technologies right here on Earth, Hawaii, where volcanic terrain closely resembles the surface of the Moon and Mars. These experiments help refine the hardware and processes that could one day support astronauts far from home. ISRU ISRU SpaceX’s Starship is designed to be ultra-efficient, with delivery costs of exactly $50 per kilogram — but only to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Beyond that, costs and complexity rise sharply, so ISRU becomes even more essential for distant space missions. SpaceX’s Starship is designed to be ultra-efficient, with delivery costs of exactly $50 per kilogram — but only to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Beyond that, costs and complexity rise sharply, so ISRU becomes even more essential for distant space missions. Nuclear fuel for rockets and power for colonies The search for an alternative source of energy is not only a problem faced by earthlings when buying an electric car. Space corporations are looking for more efficient fuel for their rockets too. Rocket propellant presents a classic paradox: the more fuel you carry, the heavier your spacecraft becomes. And the heavier it is, the more fuel you need. On top of that, space travel demands extremely precise calculations with a lot of input variables. This includes the weight of the rocket, which changes constantly due to the burning of the fuel. These issues have pushed scientists to look for an alternative approach. Like nuclear energy. It is obvious that such fuel is harmless for our planet, so it looks impossible to use it for space ships launching. However, we can use it safely outside Earth’s atmosphere.Currently, NASA is exploring two propulsion systems – nuclear thermal and nuclear electric. Both systems could drastically reduce travel times to distant planets and may one day serve as power sources for other planets' colonies. With nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), a spacecraft could reach Mars in around 3–4 months, compared to 6–9 months with current chemical rockets. With nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), a spacecraft could reach Mars in around 3–4 months, compared to 6–9 months with current chemical rockets. Skyhook To increase the efficiency of launching ships and travelling through the Earth's atmosphere, there are some hypothetical concepts. And Skyhook is among them. The idea is simple and beautiful. Imagine a giant rotating cable orbiting Earth, dipping into the upper atmosphere and “catching” a spacecraft launched from the ground. It would then use its momentum to fling the spacecraft into a higher orbit — dramatically reducing the fuel needed. In other words, you can transfer the energy from the tether and get a massive boost when releasing the ship. You may have heard about space elevators, another concept that solves the same problem. However, elevators remain sci-fi for today because no suitable material exists for their construction. At the same time, Skyhook seems to be able to be implemented with existing carbon nanotubes or graphene composites. A space elevator would need a cable 35,786 km long — almost three Earth diameters. However, the Japanese construction company Obayashi Corp has proposed building a space elevator by 2050. A space elevator would need a cable 35,786 km long — almost three Earth diameters. However, the Japanese construction company Obayashi Corp has proposed building a space elevator by 2050. Synthetic Biology for Terraformation Today, another technology relates directly to the colonisation of Mars - Synthetic Biology. Theoretically, it could even let us skip the massive 200-year process of warming the planet with giant orbital mirrors. In a nutshell, the idea is to engineer microbes to speed up the process of making Mars habitable. Among tasks that engineered microbes and plants can do: Producing oxygen from CO₂ (on Mars, for example)
Fixing nitrogen in Martian or lunar soil to help grow plants
Biomining, where microbes extract useful metals or materials from rocks
Breaking down toxic substances (like perchlorates in Martian soil)
Creating food, fuel, and medicine in space from simple inputs Producing oxygen from CO₂ (on Mars, for example) Producing oxygen Fixing nitrogen in Martian or lunar soil to help grow plants Fixing nitrogen Biomining, where microbes extract useful metals or materials from rocks Biomining Breaking down toxic substances (like perchlorates in Martian soil) Breaking down toxic substances Creating food, fuel, and medicine in space from simple inputs Detailed ideas of how this can work out you can find in this article. article article NASA is already trying to use microorganisms to produce nutrients—off Earth and on demand—that will be critical for human health in space. The experiment is called BioNutrients. NASA is already trying to use microorganisms to produce nutrients—off Earth and on demand—that will be critical for human health in space. The experiment is called BioNutrients. BioNutrients BioNutrients Although terraforming Mars or any other planet in the near future is impossible, preparatory steps can be taken. We are not ready to reshape other planets and make them more Earth-like. The scale is vast, the challenges are immense, and the timelines stretch across centuries. But we have technologies, materials, and ideas for “smaller” technologies that will make space colonization possible. We’re still learning to crawl before we can fly. But it turns out you can’t fly in Space if you don’t know how to crawl :)

Chaos on Earth: Wars, Crises, Disasters... What if We Just Move to Mars?

This picture was AI-generated with perchance.org How DeFi went from revolutionary to repetitive: Chasing yields, dodging rug pulls, and watching protocols rebrand. Sometimes you need to point out the problems to make things better. The DeFi Dilemma I speak for every DeFi user who has been around since 2020 when I say that it feels like DeFi is stagnating. What exactly do I mean by this? Nowadays, hardly any new, innovative and, above all, trustworthy and user-friendly new protocols are being launched that appeal to a regular user. I’m not trying to sound melancholic and say that everything was better in the past. There have been plenty of hacks and complete failures of major protocols such as Euler Finance (lost value: $179,000,000) or similar. (I only take Euler Finance as an example, I have nothing against the protocol, or the team and was not affected) [1]. However, you can’t get rid of the feeling that DeFi is no longer progressively evolving but stagnating. The large DeFi institutions, such as Uniswap, Aave, and Compound, have established themselves and are still essential. When these protocols were launched around 2020, they greatly advanced the development of DeFi and were its true beginning. This is also due to the fact that DeFi did not really exist before and therefore simple products such as swapping, lending, and borrowing were considered ‘new and innovative’. In the long run, however, they have proven to be reliable, trustworthy, and user-friendly and have thus become the DeFi giants they are today and continue to enjoy great popularity. For example, Uniswap has a daily volume of $2 to 3 billion on average [2], while Aave and Compound have a TVL of $21 billion and $2.8 billion respectively [3][4]. The Copycat Crisis — Recycled Products, Recycled Problems Over the course of time, these protocols have naturally been joined by similar spin-offs, which also play a major part today and also have their “raison d’être”, such as Jupiter and PancakeSwap for example [5][6]. Behind these front row protocols, many copycats have emerged. These new protocols want a piece of the pie and offer identical products. In order to try to be competitive, ever newer protocols emerge, which then artificially keep the yields high with their new shiny tokens to attract new users to their platforms. This is the eternal cycle that continues to this day. At a certain point, you have to ask yourself what the point is. The added value is no longer apparent. Far too often, a valued concept is recycled without there being any innovative thought behind it that improves the existing concept. As I already mentioned, the yields are often inflated by new protocols to attract users, just so that the creator team can dump the team tokens after a few months to make a profit. (Joshua Field wrote a good article about Real Yield in 2023 [7]). This pattern repeats frequently. Protocols are either abandoned or rebranded to hide their problems. Take Alpha Finance, oops I mean Stella Finance of course, oh no oops, after the latest rebrand I mean LitLayer of course [8]. You see what I mean. The user journey turns into a constant fund-moving from protocol to protocol to collect artificially inflated yields and sell the protocol tokens faster than the teams can do it, or as Joshua Field called it “a game of hot potato” [7]. This user journey is extremely unfriendly to users and new DeFi users will wake up to the bitter reality that the tokens they earned through lending, for example, have virtually no value (anymore) at the end and the actual yield is now much lower than what they hoped for. Obviously, competition is good in itself and stimulates the market, but it is questionable whether this works in the current DeFi sector. Far too often the same product is repackaged, and the competition doesn’t try to stand out from the crowd with innovative products or improvements. When Innovation Actually Means Something It is probably time to highlight Pendle here. Although the protocol has actually existed since 2021 [9], it only really experienced an upswing and hype at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, with its market capitalisation growing from $200 million in December 2023 to around $6.5 billion within 6 months [10]. Why is that? Clearly because of the Eigenlayer Points [11] that were in hype at the time and could be farmed with Pendle, but also because it is a new and innovative protocol that has never existed in this form before. To describe Pendle effectively in the words of the Messari website: “Pendle offers a market for fixed and floating rates of supported yield-bearing tokens by which users can earn fixed yield, long yield (e.g., speculate on the yield of the underlying token increasing), and provide liquidity to the Pendle pool for the underlying token.” [12] Pendle, although relatively complicated, is an example of innovation in the DeFi sector. The product’s complexity may limit its adoption, especially for new users without a financial background. However, that’s a topic for another article. The point here is that the DeFi sector can do more than just repackage and exploit the ever-same products, and Pendle is a very positive standout example of this. The Reality of DeFi Today Thus, one can conclude from these developments of the last 2–3 years that DeFi is developing in an unproductive direction, which makes no sense for the adoption of crypto and DeFi. So it is hardly surprising that a ‘newbie’ buys a useless meme token with a cute dog as a logo and a funny name, because that is understandable and simple. A meme token has no purpose and no utility but is usually the entry point into crypto these days. We can no longer deny it: DeFi has evolved, but is currently a shadow of its original promise. Instead of promoting financial inclusion and pushing boundaries, we’ve allowed fraud, pointlessness, and the repackaging of the same old products to dominate the DeFi Space. Personally, as a user of several DeFi protocols, I have found myself in the same old situation again and again: My funds rotate from protocol to protocol so that I can generate some yield. However, knowing that there might often be a cash grab behind the protocols, I naturally have to sell my tokens and move on to another. And the cycle repeats, after all, I am just a normal DeFi user trying to navigate the current DeFi space. A final word from me This is my opinion and even though my attitude towards DeFi is very gloomy at the moment, and I myself notice how my interest is decreasing more and more, I love DeFi. And that’s exactly why I’m writing this article. Out of my love for DeFi, which is of course why I hope that we can improve the sector together. After all, I don’t seem to be the only one who has noticed the problem: https://x.com/IncomeSharks/status/1884367552023081014?embedable=true If you are interested in these topics, feel free to follow me, as I will continue to write articles about DeFi, crypto, and anything related. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to talk or collaborate about these topics and find me as @Maxo1st across social media platforms. References: [1] https://rekt.news/leaderboard/ [2] https://defillama.com/dexs/uniswap [3] https://defillama.com/protocol/aave [4] https://defillama.com/protocol/compound-finance [5] https://jup.ag/ [6] https://pancakeswap.finance/ [7] https://medium.com/contango-digital-assets/real-yield-the-future-of-defi-c3ca7aa5621c [8] https://rekt.news/trapped-between-protocols/ [9] https://messari.io/project/pendle/profile [10] https://defillama.com/protocol/pendle [11] https://finbold.com/guide/where-to-trade-eigenlayer-points/ [12] https://messari.io/project/pendle/profile This picture was AI-generated with perchance.org How DeFi went from revolutionary to repetitive: Chasing yields, dodging rug pulls, and watching protocols rebrand. Sometimes you need to point out the problems to make things better. The DeFi Dilemma I speak for every DeFi user who has been around since 2020 when I say that it feels like DeFi is stagnating. What exactly do I mean by this? Nowadays, hardly any new, innovative and, above all, trustworthy and user-friendly new protocols are being launched that appeal to a regular user. I’m not trying to sound melancholic and say that everything was better in the past. There have been plenty of hacks and complete failures of major protocols such as Euler Finance (lost value: $179,000,000) or similar. (I only take Euler Finance as an example, I have nothing against the protocol, or the team and was not affected) [1] . However, you can’t get rid of the feeling that DeFi is no longer progressively evolving but stagnating. [1] The large DeFi institutions, such as Uniswap, Aave, and Compound, have established themselves and are still essential. When these protocols were launched around 2020, they greatly advanced the development of DeFi and were its true beginning. This is also due to the fact that DeFi did not really exist before and therefore simple products such as swapping, lending, and borrowing were considered ‘new and innovative’. In the long run, however, they have proven to be reliable, trustworthy, and user-friendly and have thus become the DeFi giants they are today and continue to enjoy great popularity. For example, Uniswap has a daily volume of $2 to 3 billion on average [2] , while Aave and Compound have a TVL of $21 billion and $2.8 billion respectively [3] [4] . [2] [3] [4] The Copycat Crisis — Recycled Products, Recycled Problems Over the course of time, these protocols have naturally been joined by similar spin-offs, which also play a major part today and also have their “raison d’être”, such as Jupiter and PancakeSwap for example [5] [6] . Behind these front row protocols, many copycats have emerged. These new protocols want a piece of the pie and offer identical products. In order to try to be competitive, ever newer protocols emerge, which then artificially keep the yields high with their new shiny tokens to attract new users to their platforms. This is the eternal cycle that continues to this day. [5] [6] At a certain point, you have to ask yourself what the point is. The added value is no longer apparent. Far too often, a valued concept is recycled without there being any innovative thought behind it that improves the existing concept. As I already mentioned, the yields are often inflated by new protocols to attract users, just so that the creator team can dump the team tokens after a few months to make a profit. ( Joshua Field wrote a good article about Real Yield in 2023 [7] ). Joshua Field [7] This pattern repeats frequently. Protocols are either abandoned or rebranded to hide their problems. Take Alpha Finance, oops I mean Stella Finance of course, oh no oops, after the latest rebrand I mean LitLayer of course [8] . You see what I mean. [8] The user journey turns into a constant fund-moving from protocol to protocol to collect artificially inflated yields and sell the protocol tokens faster than the teams can do it, or as Joshua Field called it “ a game of hot potato ” [7] . This user journey is extremely unfriendly to users and new DeFi users will wake up to the bitter reality that the tokens they earned through lending, for example, have virtually no value (anymore) at the end and the actual yield is now much lower than what they hoped for. Joshua Field a game of hot potato [7] Obviously, competition is good in itself and stimulates the market, but it is questionable whether this works in the current DeFi sector. Far too often the same product is repackaged, and the competition doesn’t try to stand out from the crowd with innovative products or improvements. When Innovation Actually Means Something It is probably time to highlight Pendle here. Although the protocol has actually existed since 2021 [9] , it only really experienced an upswing and hype at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, with its market capitalisation growing from $200 million in December 2023 to around $6.5 billion within 6 months [10] . Why is that? Clearly because of the Eigenlayer Points [11] that were in hype at the time and could be farmed with Pendle, but also because it is a new and innovative protocol that has never existed in this form before. [9] [10] [11] To describe Pendle effectively in the words of the Messari website: “ Pendle offers a market for fixed and floating rates of supported yield-bearing tokens by which users can earn fixed yield, long yield (e.g., speculate on the yield of the underlying token increasing), and provide liquidity to the Pendle pool for the underlying token. ” [12] Pendle offers a market for fixed and floating rates of supported yield-bearing tokens by which users can earn fixed yield, long yield (e.g., speculate on the yield of the underlying token increasing), and provide liquidity to the Pendle pool for the underlying token. [12] Pendle, although relatively complicated, is an example of innovation in the DeFi sector. The product’s complexity may limit its adoption, especially for new users without a financial background. However, that’s a topic for another article. The point here is that the DeFi sector can do more than just repackage and exploit the ever-same products, and Pendle is a very positive standout example of this. The Reality of DeFi Today Thus, one can conclude from these developments of the last 2–3 years that DeFi is developing in an unproductive direction, which makes no sense for the adoption of crypto and DeFi. So it is hardly surprising that a ‘newbie’ buys a useless meme token with a cute dog as a logo and a funny name, because that is understandable and simple. A meme token has no purpose and no utility but is usually the entry point into crypto these days. We can no longer deny it: DeFi has evolved, but is currently a shadow of its original promise. Instead of promoting financial inclusion and pushing boundaries, we’ve allowed fraud, pointlessness, and the repackaging of the same old products to dominate the DeFi Space. Personally, as a user of several DeFi protocols, I have found myself in the same old situation again and again: My funds rotate from protocol to protocol so that I can generate some yield. However, knowing that there might often be a cash grab behind the protocols, I naturally have to sell my tokens and move on to another. And the cycle repeats, after all, I am just a normal DeFi user trying to navigate the current DeFi space. A final word from me This is my opinion and even though my attitude towards DeFi is very gloomy at the moment, and I myself notice how my interest is decreasing more and more, I love DeFi. And that’s exactly why I’m writing this article. Out of my love for DeFi, which is of course why I hope that we can improve the sector together. After all, I don’t seem to be the only one who has noticed the problem: https://x.com/IncomeSharks/status/1884367552023081014?embedable=true https://x.com/IncomeSharks/status/1884367552023081014?embedable=true If you are interested in these topics, feel free to follow me, as I will continue to write articles about DeFi, crypto, and anything related. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to talk or collaborate about these topics and find me as @Maxo1st across social media platforms. @Maxo1st References: [1] https://rekt.news/leaderboard/ https://rekt.news/leaderboard/ [2] https://defillama.com/dexs/uniswap https://defillama.com/dexs/uniswap [3] https://defillama.com/protocol/aave https://defillama.com/protocol/aave [4] https://defillama.com/protocol/compound-finance https://defillama.com/protocol/compound-finance [5] https://jup.ag/ https://jup.ag/ [6] https://pancakeswap.finance/ https://pancakeswap.finance/ [7] https://medium.com/contango-digital-assets/real-yield-the-future-of-defi-c3ca7aa5621c https://medium.com/contango-digital-assets/real-yield-the-future-of-defi-c3ca7aa5621c [8] https://rekt.news/trapped-between-protocols/ https://rekt.news/trapped-between-protocols/ [9] https://messari.io/project/pendle/profile https://messari.io/project/pendle/profile [10] https://defillama.com/protocol/pendle https://defillama.com/protocol/pendle [11] https://finbold.com/guide/where-to-trade-eigenlayer-points/ https://finbold.com/guide/where-to-trade-eigenlayer-points/ [12] https://messari.io/project/pendle/profile https://messari.io/project/pendle/profile

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