With Shotstack, we remove all that hassle. You can take any video you have and add localised voiceovers to it in a matter of minutes. That’s right, removing weeks or even months from your video ...

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(This saves you hours of time and keeps you up to date on what's going on in Micro SaaS) Let’s see today’s Newsletter around a Micro SaaS niche. No fluffy content. If your goal is to build a $ ...

Building $1K-$10K MRR Micro SaaS products around Video Related Tools

Plus, you have the flexibility to import your preferred fonts for more personalized results. To top it off, Shotstack allows you to start for free, with the option to upgrade to more advanced features later. So, whether you’re a seasoned developer or a ...

5 Best Video Editor SDKs and Software to Drive Engagement

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Streaming Media Sourcebook - Renew/Edit an EXISTING Listing

Shotstack will be a company to look out for with explosive growth in the near future. Very exciting what they are doing in the video space with automation. Having personally integrated and ...

Video Automation Company Ready For Explosive Growth And Exponential Profits

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What Are the Top Startups in Oceania?

Thank you to the problem solvers who campaigned extra hard in the first-ever competition! HackerNoon Startups of the Year focuses on recognizing the passion and stamina of those willing to find and create effective tech solutions for their cities. HackerNoon’s Startups of the Year 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. (Awards, where cheaters were caught, are under review.) startups.hackernoon.com From all of us at , thank YOU for your excellent campaign perseverance🥺! We look forward to seeing you again in the 2022 campaign (stay tuned 😉)! HackerNoon Without further adieu, let us kick off by sharing the cities with top votes per region for 2021 🎉 . our series of Best Startups of the Year Stay tuned for the rest of the winners per region to be over the course of this week (Feb 14, 2022). announced North and Central America America is the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, the world’s capital of fashion, showbiz, business, major industry, etc., and surely, of Startups! Representing , we have: North and Central America (14,563 votes): Winner: Boulder Bury.com (10,521 votes) - Winner: New York City Hum Capital (7,987 votes) - Winner: San Francisco Zentist (7,713 votes) - Winner: Redwood City TigerGraph (469 votes) - Winner: Los Altos Stobox To see more awards in this region please click here. Europe Charming, sophisticated, cosmopolitan. There are many beautiful words used to describe this region. With its eccentric vibe, is also a place where new Startups thrive. Europe Representing Europe we have: (10, 010 votes) - Winner: Belfast Bob & Berts (5, 066 votes) - Winner: Ghent WeGroup (4, 712 votes) - Winner: Porto TAIKAI (3, 779 votes) - Winner: City of London Crypto Quantique To see more awards in this region please click here. Oceania The heat, the beaches, roaming kangaroos, or tarantulas? No. Startups! Representing the region of are: Oceania (1, 011 votes) - Winner: Sydney shotstack (430 votes) - Winner: Melbourne Doohly (118 votes) - Winner: Gold Coast Easil (76 votes) - Winner: Tauranga LawVu (40 votes) - Winner: Western Junction Today We Learned To see more awards in this region please click here. Asia Diverse in both ethnicity and culture, known for exotic sceneries as well as friendly people. Many Asian countries are on the verge of mass globalization and modernization. These fast-developing economies give way for many potential Startups. We present, for : Asia (12, 686 votes) - Winner: Singapore Cake DeFi (3,355 votes) - Winners: and (It’s a tie, we’re working on it!) Tel Aviv Applitools hyro (2, 402 votes) - Winner: Beirut Hovi Digital Lab (1.006 votes) - Winner: Hyderabad Quixy (756 votes) - Winner: Hanoi DeFi For You To see more city awards in this region please click here. Africa The second biggest continent in the world, home to many big animals, the longest river in the world AND the largest desert in the world. is known for many big things and sure enough, big Startups. Africa Representing Africa, we have: (884 votes) - Winner: Johannesburg MiBRAND (804 votes) - Winner: Lagos Goodtalent (526 votes) - Winner: Cape Town Revix (420 votes) - Winner: Lusaka ComGrow (224 votes) - Winner: Nairobi UTU To see more city awards in this region please click here. South America “South America is the land of the extreme.” - National Geographic Extremely beautiful people? Yes. Extremely worth-noticeable Startups? Hell yeah! We proudly present, Startups in : South America (217 votes ) - Winner: São Carlos Predify (193 votes) - Winner: Belo Horizonte CM Technologia (106 votes) - Winner: Porto Alegre Privacy Tools (82 votes) - Winner: Quito Agrodemanda (55 votes) -Winner: Rio De Janeiro Bybrand To see more city awards in this region please click here. Once again, and to all of the top Startups of each region this year! HUGE CONGRATULATIONS BIG PROPS The whole team at would like to thank you for your excellent campaign perseverance and we look forward to seeing you in the 2022 campaign. HackerNoon As part of honoring your participation, we will continue to host your company in this directory until further notice ( for legal reasons we hesitate to say ‘forever’..but pretty much forever).  As traffic is directed to the site, it will act as a promotional platform for your company. Have a great Valentine’s Day, HackerNoon loves y’all <3 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 by Tuan Anh Vu. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to report a discrepancy please email ellen@hackernoon.com.

To the Winners of #Startups2021, With Love:

Startups of the Year, 2021 FIND OUT HERE Hello there, Hacker, Vision, strength, determination, resilience… these are all key building blocks to moving the world forward. People with these skills create solutions, not only muse about problems. The Startups campaign celebrates the baby companies created by the thinkers and doers that – regardless of what life tossed at them this year— have taken the situation by the horns and came out of it with a business plan and the balls (etc.) to launch it. I decided to highlight a few of the startups doing well so far. Below is a mini list of some companies in the running with concepts that I personally find interesting! Head on over to to cast your vote, nominate a startup (maybe even yours), or simply browse the cool things that people are doing in your city. https://startups.hackernoon.com/ Startups voting and nominations are still open, so go vote and nominate now! You can vote on as many cities as you like, but you only get one vote per city. Key Details: 4,553 cities. 37,689 startups. 152,672 votes. North and Central America Representing North and Central America in , currently trending in we have: New York City, New York second place Inpher Inpher has pioneered cryptographic Secret Computing® technology for secure, privacy-preserving analytics and machine learning. The total amount of votes cast for the city is 4343. Thank you to for sponsoring this category. Brex Oceania Representing Oceania as a currently trending Startup in we have: Sydney, Australia Shotstack Amazing video and image editing API infrastructure as a service startup that allows you to generate video and images at scale. The total amount of votes cast for the city is 960. . Thank you to for sponsoring this category Bybit Read more about Sydney below: Sydney remains the capital of fintech in Australia with over 50% of fintech domiciled in New South Wales. The city is ranked 30th in the Global Ecosystem Talent with $768 million total yearly stage funding, followed by $11 bn startup ecosystem value. Europe Representing Europe as the current top trending Startup in we have: Budapest, Hungary Bitrise Bitrise is a platform for mobile app development, enabling tens of thousands of developers to automate integration, testing, and deployment. There have been 30,046 votes cast for this city! Thank you to for sponsoring this category. Free Ton Asia Representing Asia as the current top trending we have: Startup in Tel Aviv, Israel Applitools Applitools delivers a Next-Generation Test Automation Platform through Visual AI and Ultrafast Test Cloud. Applitools' Visual AI uses computer vision algorithms, enabling engineering teams to rapidly write, run, analyze, and maintain tests to ultimately release high-quality applications at incredible speed and reduced cost. There have been 1701 votes cast for this city. Thank you to for sponsoring this category. Udemy Read more about Tel Aviv below: - Seventy three percent of Israeli startups are based in Tel Aviv, and 79% of all industry jobs in Israel. A startup employee in Tel Aviv makes on average NIS 22,100 (approximately $6,390) a month, twice as much as the country’s general average wage. Africa Representing Africa as a current trending Startup in in fourth place, we have: Johannesburg, South Africa Wilderness Safaris Wilderness Safaris is a company that protects wilderness areas with the flaura and fauna in their areas. There have been 882 votes cast for this city! Thank you to for sponsoring this category. Bybit South America Representing South America as the top trending startup in we have: Porto Alegre, Brazil Privacy Tools Privacy Tools is a privacy compliance platform, based on AI/Blockchain, which helps global companies to keep compliant with the data protection requirements. There have been 88 votes cast for this city. Thank you to for sponsoring this category. Bybit For More Information See our CEO and team have a beautiful discussion about this campaign here. Read the FAQs about Startups here . Interested in more details? Read about them . here VOTE/NOMINATE HERE. This post was written/compiled by Ellen Stevens.

Find out Which Startup is Winning in Your City

In this article I want to show you how to build 1,000 personalised birthday videos for 1,000 different people. Currently this is close to impossible to do using traditional video editors such as Adobe and , with specialised personalisation agencies for this type of service. Premiere After Effects charging tens of thousands of dollars In this article I’ll aim to show you a way. One that doesn’t cost you hours of time, and would cost you only a fraction of what agencies would charge you. better To make this all happen I’ll be using the . This API allows you to render tens of thousands of videos in the cloud, and personalise each individual video through small changes to a JSON file. Shotstack API ( : ) Disclosure The author is a Co-founder at Shotstack.io. With this API rendering up to 200 videos concurrently in the cloud, . the ability to work at enormous scale pushes the total time to render all 1,000 of our videos to just under 100 seconds Getting started The speed behind this example was made possible through a Shotstack Enterprise account, but you can that provides you with all the same functionalities and allows you to test the service out. sign up for a free account The example in this article has some throttling built in, but you’ll have to be aware of the usage limits of 10 requests per second, and 2,000 requests per month for free accounts if you plan to try this out yourself. I’ll use to build the application, but feel free to use what works for you. The minimum you’ll need is a way to loop over a CSV file and send POST requests to the API. Nothing fancy. Node.js Choosing our footage I built a promotional video which we’ll use to offer our fictitious customers a discount on their birthday. We’ll remove some of the video's content, and use those empty spaces for our personalised data. This data will be placed into a JSON file, and will place back all of those missing items with new values and animations. For this particular template we’ll personalise the name, age, their younger “fake” age, the discount code, and the discount amount. Shotstack uses a JSON object that acts like an editable timeline. This works in a similar fashion to how any desktop editing solution would work, with a timeline representing the video duration, and individual clips allowing you to manipulate its content. For this article I won’t go into how this video was built, but if you’re interested in understanding how this particular video was edited you can find the JSON template . And if you’re really keen goes a little deeper into how you can design these videos yourself. here this tutorial For this example we’ll use a simplified template where the animations have been pre-rendered, making it easy for us to add in specific HTML assets where our personalised content should go: Our customers For our customers we’ll use a dataset with information on about 1,000 concocted users. This will include their name, age, fake age, their discount code, and the discount amount. We will then use the data in this CSV to fill in the JSON template and send it to the API. You can find the complete list . here The application The only thing you need to do now is iterate over the CSV file, add those personalised datapoints to the JSON template, and send each video edit to the API for rendering. The below script works using an .env environment file with the Shotstack API key details in it. You can find an example of what that looks like . here The result Once you run the script you’ll see all thousand personalised templates be sent through to the API for rendering, and all output data will end up in a CSV file called video-list.csv, which will include the urls for each individual video. The below list contains the first 20 videos, but if you don’t believe me you can find the whole list . here So what next? Personalised marketing has to lead to higher email open rates, higher click-through rates, better engagement, and provides you with a new way to build relationships with your audience. shown The above only shows you a small example of what can be done by personalising videos at scale. And this is all done at lightning speeds, with this particular  campaign not costing more than $30 to render. We’re always talking to artists, marketers and other creative people on how video and code can be combined to create new and exciting ways to communicate with the world. If you want to follow along with that conversation , and if you have an idea or suggestion let us know in the comments below. sign up to our newsletter

How I Built 1,000 Personalised Videos in Under 100 seconds

Video editing has never been something I truly enjoyed. I often found video editors cumbersome, and wasn’t willing to spend the time learning to use professional video editing applications. Let alone pay hundreds of dollars per year on an . Adobe subscription I did always enjoy programming, primarily because of the flexibility it afforded me to create whatever I wanted — bound only by my imagination and my skills as a developer. No editing software has been used to design or render this video, with only a 40 line piece of JSON being needed to put together all individual elements to create a fully composited video using the . The video shown above has been created with nothing other than code. Shotstack API enables video editing at scale. The API allows you to describe your video edit in JSON, and then use your favourite programming language to render hundreds to thousands of data-driven videos concurrently in the cloud. Shotstack I wrote this guide to show you how you can use code instead of software to build cool and artistic videos, and I hope this small guide provides you with some inspiration to start creating your own videos. We’ll start off by creating something simple (such as compositing a title on a video clip), and then overlaying a soundtrack to give it some emotion. At the end, I’ll show you some more advanced features to finish off the video with some professional-looking effects. Let’s get started. Sign up for an API key In order to build your first video you’ll need to . This is completely free and will allow you to access all of Shotstack’s video editing functionalities to build videos and develop applications. After registering just log in via the Shotstack website to receive your API key. sign up for a Shotstack developer account Curl vs Postman This tutorial presumes a basic knowledge of interacting with API’s. For this guide we’ll be using but you can use any other application such as as well. Curl Postman The basics Before diving in and writing any code it is a good idea to acquaint yourself with some basic video editing principles and how these relate to Shotstacks JSON video editing format. — An in Shotstack is essentially a JSON file describing how assets such as titles, video clips and images are arranged to create a video. Edit Edit The represents the entire duration of your video in seconds. For example, a 30 second video edit would have a 30 second timeline. Clips are placed along the timeline via a . Timeline — timeline track — A runs for the entire duration of the timeline and is used to layer clips on top of each other. For example, you can layer text on top of an image or a video clip. You can place multiple tracks on top of each other to create complex compositions. Tracks track — A is a placeholder for an asset (titles, images, videos, audio, html, and ) and are positioned on the timeline (via a track) at specific time intervals. For example, you could add a clip that starts playing at the 5th second until the 10th second. Here you can also apply transitions, filters, and motion effects. Clips clip Luma assets — When creating a , you specify the type of asset to be displayed. This can be a , , , , or a . Each asset has options specific to its type. For example a title asset will have a type style, and a video asset might have a trim point to cut the start and end of the clip. Assets clip text title image video clip HTML audio Luma asset — The specifies the final render properties, with the API supporting mp4 video files and gifs in a range of resolutions such as HD, SD and mobile. Output output If this does not all make sense yet, it will all become clearer once we create a few examples. Your first Edit Let’s create a very simple “Hello World” title video. Create a text file called with the following contents: hello.json { : { : , : [
      { : [
          { : { : , : , : }, : , : }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }, : { : , : }
} "timeline" "background" "#000000" "tracks" "clips" "asset" "type" "title" "text" "Hello World" "style" "future" "start" 0 "length" 5 "output" "format" "mp4" "resolution" "sd" In this JSON snippet we specify a timeline with a black background, a track with a single clip which plays for 5 seconds, and a title asset with the text ‘Hello World’. We specify the output as an mp4 video with SD resolution. Now we post the Edit to the API for rendering by running the command below. Remember to replace the x-api-key parameter value above with your own staging key. If you don’t have a key yet you can get one by . signing up here curl -X POST \
  -H \
  -H \
  -d @hello.json \
  https://api.shotstack.io/stage/render "Content-Type: application/json" "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" You should see a response similar to: { : , : , : { : , : }
} "success" true "message" "Created" "response" "message" "Render Successfully Queued" "id" "d2b46ed6-998a-4d6b-9d91-b8cf0193a655" Copy the response id returned by the API as we will need it in the next step. To check the status of the render run the following command, making sure to replace with the id just copied. d2b46ed6–998a-4d6b-9d91-b8cf0193a655 curl -X GET \
  -H \
  -H \
  https://api.shotstack.io/stage/render/d2b46ed6-998a-4d6b-9d91-b8cf0193a655 "Content-Type: application/json" "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" The video should only take a few seconds to render. Once it is ready the response will show a status of done and include a URL to the final video file: { : , : , : { : , : , : , : , : , : { : {...}, : {...}
    }, : , : }
} "success" true "message" "OK" "response" "id" "d2b46ed6-998a-4d6b-9d91-b8cf0193a655" "owner" "hckwccw3q3" "plan" "sandbox" "status" "done" "url" "https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/shotstack-api-stage-output/hckwccw3q3/d2b46ed6-998a-4d6b-9d91-b8cf0193a655.mp4" "data" "output" "timeline" "created" "2019-04-16T12:02:42.148Z" "updated" "2019-04-16T12:02:51.867Z" If the status is not yet done (it might show queued, rendering, saving, fetching, or failed) wait a few seconds and run the command again. Once your video is completed you can copy the URL and open it in your browser. You should see a simple 5 second video with the words ‘Hello World’ on a black background similar to the below. Congratulations! You have created your first video using the Shotstack API. It is obviously still a little bit boring so let’s spice it up by adding a soundtrack and a background video. Adding a video clip and soundtrack Replace the contents of with the following snippet: hello.json { : { : { : }, : , : [
      { : [
          { : { : , : , : }, : , : }
        ]
      },
      { : [
          { : { : , : }, : , : }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }, : { : , : }
} "timeline" "soundtrack" "src" "https://shotstack-assets.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/music/freepd/motions.mp3" "background" "#000000" "tracks" "clips" "asset" "type" "title" "text" "Hello World" "style" "future" "start" 0 "length" 15 "clips" "asset" "type" "video" "src" "https://shotstack-assets.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/footage/earth.mp4" "start" 0 "length" 15 "output" "format" "mp4" "resolution" "1080" In this example we have added a new soundtrack file as a second track ( ), in addition to the video asset . Both the title and video clip have a length of 15 seconds and start at 0 seconds, meaning we have composited these tracks on top of each other. motions.mp3 earth.mp4 This makes sure that the text is rendered on top of the video file and not hidden underneath. Note that the video asset is positioned below the title asset. Go ahead and use the previous Curl commands to post the video and check its status. You should end up with a video like the one below: This video is already a lot more interesting, but it could still do with a bit of refinement to give it a more professional touch. Adding the final touches to our edit To add some final polish we will reposition and resize the title and fade in and out both the video clip and soundtrack, in addition to a few other styling improvements. Replace the file with the following and post it to the API using the Curl command and check its status. hello.json { : { : { : , : }, : , : [
      { : [
          { : { : , : , : , : , : }, : , : , : { : , : }, : }
        ]
      },
      { : [
          { : { : , : , : }, : , : , : { : , : }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }, : { : , : }
} "timeline" "soundtrack" "src" "https://shotstack-assets.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/music/freepd/motions.mp3" "effect" "fadeOut" "background" "#000000" "tracks" "clips" "asset" "type" "title" "text" "Hello World" "style" "future" "position" "left" "size" "x-small" "start" 4 "length" 11 "transition" "in" "fade" "out" "fade" "effect" "zoomIn" "clips" "asset" "type" "video" "src" "https://shotstack-assets.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/footage/earth.mp4" "trim" 5 "start" 0 "length" 15 "transition" "in" "fade" "out" "fade" "output" "format" "mp4" "resolution" "sd" In the Edit above we’ve added the following: A effect is added on the soundtrack; fadeOut We use a fade in and fade out on the title asset and on the video asset; transition We the title asset to the left and adjust its size; position We displaying the title asset after 4 seconds in time to the music; start We add a to the title asset; zoomIn motion effect We the first 5 seconds off the start of the video asset. trim The result is below: A lot more to explore Hopefully, this article has inspired you to use code to create beautiful videos. We’re always really interested in seeing what people are able to come up with so if you’ve managed to create something cool please share! If you are keen to learn more please check out the . We are always working on building more guides and resources on and have examples available using our and SDKs. documentation shotstack.io PHP NodeJS There’s a lot to explore, so if you’re interested in learning more. I’ll write another article soon that covers how you can use HTML and CSS to build your videos. Here a glimpse of what that looks like: subscribe to our newsletter Also published here.

Create Videos With Code [Free Tutorial]

Hey Hackers! On April 13th, Canon, the camera and photography giant, announced that they will be launching an NFT Marketplace, called , offering tokenized photographs. Cadabra Cadabra is described as a curated photography marketplace that offers NFTs from a variety of innovative creators. Canon states that the goal of the Cadabra marketplace is “to empower creators by connecting them to enthusiastic collectors who celebrate the art of photography through a shared appreciation for these digital artworks”. Decrypt has that the NFT marketplace will be launched on the Ethereum network. reported “The digital art will range from landscape, wildlife, lifestyle, sports, abstract, and other categories to spotlight the stunning work of the invited creators.” - Canon USA Canon also took to to announce the exciting news to it’s customers and followers. Twitter On Cadabra, the NFT photos will be minted by Creator drops, and there will reportedly be a secondary marketplace for NFT collectors to trade their minted NFTs. Canon has stated that Cadabra creators will have the choice of offering “purchasers prints” with their initial drops, which entitles NFT purchasers to also receive a physical print of the NFT image. Based off the small amount of information we have about Cadabra, it does sound like there will be intuitive options for creators to present their work and possibly even earn a good amount. There is no official word on when Cadbara will be launched, but Canon did allude that it will be later this year. Canon has also stated that the Cadbara marketplace will only be available in the United States at launch, but they will be expanding the project internationally in the future. Last but not least, Canon has confirmed that both cryptocurrency, as well as debit and credit cards, will be accepted as payment options on Cadabra. Here is the direct link to sign up for Cadabra news and updates: https://shortstack.usa.canon.com/cadabra What are your thoughts on this news? Do you think this NFT Marketplace could be a big player? Are you interested in Photography? Will you be signing up for Cadabra when it launches? Check out my Socials: https://linktr.ee/zerorequiem0x See ya! :) Also published . here

Canon Throws Hat in the NFT Ring With Cadabra: a Curated Marketplace for Tokenized Photography

Where Do We Go From Here? This weekend a groundbreaking story in the New York Times, , which was covered by media internationally, was the first acknowledgement by the Pentagon since the 1960’s that they were taking UFOs seriously. Glowing Auras and Black Money: The Pentagon’s Mysterious UFO Program It is being hailed by many in the world of UFOs as the beginning of a drip drip disclosure not only about the existence of so-called black government projects to study UFO sightings, but also what is perhaps a more interesting revelation for scientists and engineers: that in our airspace there exists technology that defies our known laws of physics, and we are to reverse engineer it. actively trying Until now, if you asked any serious scientist about UFOs publicly, they usually gave a CYA answer. It reminds me of the old saying in the business world, “no one ever got fired for going with IBM.” No academic or researcher ever got fired for saying that “there is no evidence that UFOs exist, therefore we shouldn’t study them”. On the other hand, if they said that the matter should be taken seriously and given funding, they would subject themselves to all kinds of ridicule and possibly lose their job. This brings to mind an exchange in the movie (based on the book written by very respectable astronomer Carl Sagan), between Ellie Arroway (played by Jodie Foster) and her mentor, the very respectable scientist David Drumlin (played by Tom Skerritt). He basically told her: “You’re a promising scientist. Don’t throw away your career … looking for little green men.” Contact With this bombshell report and the DoD’s admission that it takes UFO seriously, is that attitude about to change? A Little History Before we answer that, let’s look at a little history. Almost 50 years ago today, on December 17, 1969, Project Blue Book, a government funded effort to study UFO sightings was shut down (on a strange personal note, this was also the day I was born, though it happened half way around the world!). The popular narrative for the shutdown of “Project Blue Book” (and related projects) was that most UFOs were mis-identifications or natural occurrences, and since the military didn’t consider them a threat, the government was officially . no longer in the UFO business There were 3 problems with this narrative: A number of sightings were left “unexplained” — these were different from the number of sightings that were “incomplete” (i.e. there wasn’t enough information to figure out what they were). Many suspected that the government continued to show interest in and pursue UFOs in top secret programs in the DoD even after claiming they were “no longer interested”. In fact, there are many claims that the most interesting UFO cases were investigated by the DoD directly and never turned over to BB. Dr. J. Alan Hynek, who was the chief scientific consultant on the project, later became an advocate of serious UFO research, often debating with none other than Carl Sagan, who (publicly at least) believed that money should be spent on “serious” science like radio astronomy. Hynek not only invented the terminology “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” but also had a cameo in Spielberg’s 1977 film. The Big Announcement This year, on December 16, 2017, along with the NYTimes story, the Department of Defense released its first “official footage” of UFO encounters with the military. They admitted for the first time since 1969 that there was another secret organization that was formed and funded by Senator Harry Reid and others to study the phenomenon. If you read the information contained in that report and others, the real story wasn’t just that the DoD admitted they were studying UFOs — but that this was the first time they having real evidence — including video, radar, eyewitness, photographs and even physical artifacts — of encounters between US military aircraft and unknown craft which were defying the known laws of physics. admitted publicly of The aspect of the story that’s most interesting to me, and perhaps to you if you are an engineer or scientist is right here: Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. In fact, this may be the first time since the 1947 Roswell incident (where the military did a press release saying that it had captured a flying saucer, only to retract the story over the next few days) that anyone in the government is actually admitting to having flyer saucer/UFO/UAP technology in their possession. This is an astonishing admission. How Will Scientists, Engineers and Silicon Valley React? Will this cause mainstream scientists to be a little more careful when asked about UFOs? A few years ago when I was at SETI-CON (sponsored by SETI, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, whose executive director, Jill Tartar, was a respectable radio astronomer and who was partly the inspiration behind heroine), I asked Seth Shostack, the chief radio astronomer there why SETI wasn’t studying UFOs. Contact’s Seth’s response to me was something along the lines of: “Well the UFO people are crazy. They think they have evidence that UFOs are here when there is zero evidence. I repeat zero evidence.” I always suspected this was a standard CYA answer, since there was actually tons of evidence that he didn’t want to take the time to sort through. Now that the Pentagon has pretty much confirmed that there are UFOs flying around in our skies, and they have not only been studying them, but that we have from them, the real question is: artifacts Shouldn’t civilian scientists in academia and in industry be demanding that we try to figure out how this stuff works? There should be a big cry from Silicon Valley — which is supposed to be the heart of innovation ( I live here and am just down the road from both Google and SETI in Mountain View). Instead of Elon Musk spending his time trying to make rockets (a 50+ year old technology) work better, if he truly wants us to become an inter-planetary (and perhaps inter-stellar species) shouldn’t he be investing some of his billions in figuring out this not yet understood form of transportation? While Google has the Lunar X prize for us to reconstruct technology that we had working 40 years ago to go to the moon, shouldn’t they be investing more $$ in an X prize that would mark a real advancement in physics and human exploration — demonstration of a non-rocket based system of flight and propulsion to the stars? Re-engineering/Hacking UFO Technology? The truth is we don’t really know how this UFO tech works, and in the realm of basic research, Silicon Valley may be more of a laggard than an innovator. And by “we”, I’m saying that it’s our mainstream science that really doesn’t know how it works. Arthur C. Clarke once said that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic -and there’s nothing that our “respectable”mainstream scientists hate more than something that appears to be “magic” because we don’t understand it. From the same New York Times Story: “We’re sort of in the position of what would happen if you gave Leonardo da Vinci a garage-door opener,” said Harold E. Puthoff, an engineer who has conducted research on extrasensory perception for the C.I.A. and later worked as a contractor for the program. “First of all, he’d try to figure out what is this plastic stuff. He wouldn’t know anything about the electromagnetic signals involved or its function.” I can say that I have personally spoken to researchers from top universities (Stanford, MIT, Harvard) who have seen the “artifacts” that the article references, and other similar ones that are even more secretive (and perhaps more functional). Although I’m usually the one who brings up science fiction scenarios, one researcher brought up an apt one to me: In the movie , scientists and engineers were given limited access to “it” — the pieces of the microchip and the skeleton of the terminator which had come from the future. They were reverse engineering it trying to figure out how it worked. It was far ahead of anything that had been developed to date. Terminator 2 Sounds familiar? I’ve been told that the reverse engineering effort is just like that. This is a very big challenge. Think of the advances we made in science and tech in the past 100 years, and imagine the advances we’ll make in the next 100 years. Now imagine that we have tech from a civilization that is ! a million years ahead of us The Way Forward We will need the best minds on this — not only from the military or a few covert researchers who are sworn to secrecy if we are to figure out how this stuff works. This is a much bigger project than anything else we’ve endeavored to do — because once the basic materials questions are answered, we may need new kinds of electromagnetic signals and a new type of computer science than what we’ve been taught. I’m told that some of the tech that’s been discovered and hasn’t been talked about involves interfacing consciousness with physical artifacts, something that also sends most of our mainstream scientists and engineers scurrying to their CYA corners, muttering about “pseudo-science” and “anecdotal evidence.” Those of us who have researched this phenomenon know that this weekend’s article is just the tip of the Iceberg. I’ve personally seen old photos from the 1950s and 1960s that were much clearer than anything released thus far. Tom DeLong, the former blink182 musician who formed and who was instrumental in getting this announcement going himself tweeted: “There’s a lot more s — t coming!” To The Stars Academy The big question in my mind is, what will the “respectable” scientists do now that the cat is out of the bag and as more information comes out? I see one of three possible ways forward: 1. Scientists and engineers from the mainstream continue to deny, deny, deny and give a CYA answer: There is no evidence of UFOs or UFO technology and it doesn’t deserve to be studied. 2. As more information leaks out, at some point, the happens. What is the ? In the same movie, , after an actual signal from another world was discovered, the same scientist that ridiculed Ellie Arroway suddenly became an “expert” on the new signal and aliens and tried to co-opt the work, never acknowledging their prior attitude of closed-mindedness. David Drumlin effect David Drumlin effect Contact 3. Scientists and engineers work together with UFO researchers and the DoD, all the while staying humble and keeping an open mind. A new open-minded approach may be needed where scientists and engineers may have to start with an attitude that “we were wrong”, and that “we have not discovered all there is to discover, not by a long shot” as a starting point. This may result in a re-discovery of some fundamental ideas about aerodynamics, quantum physics, and even, I’m told consciousness and its ability to affect the material world. As more comes to light, we may need to reconsider our arrogance of not just being alone in the universe, but also in thinking our science/tech is technologically advanced that we can make definitive statements about other civilizations and their ability to “visit” us. Those of us who are “pro-science” may also have to reconsider some fundamental aspects of our own science and technology, and even more difficult, our prejudices and close-mindedness to things we don’t understand. PS — a big thanks to the efforts of people like Tom DeLong, former DoD officer Luis elizondo, journalists Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and the tireless Leslie Keane, and others who have stuck with this subject and were instrumental in getting this announcement out via the NYTimes, etc.

Hacking UFO Tech, SETI, and the Boundaries of “Respectable” Science

This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license.
Authors:
(1) Ehud Shapiro,  Department of Computer Science and Applied Math, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and ehud.shapiro@weizmann.ac.il. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction
Grassroots Protocols
Grassroots Implementation of Grassroots Dissemination
Applications of Grassroots Dissemination Supporting Digital Sovereignty
Future Work & Discussion
References
A. Preliminaries: Asynchronous Distributed Multiagent Transition Systems
B. All-to-All Dissemination is not Grassroots
C. Proofs References 1 Martin R Albrecht, Jorge Blasco, Rikke Bjerg Jensen, and Lenka Mareková. Mesh messaging in large-scale protests: Breaking bridgefy. In Cryptographers’ Track at the RSA Conference, pages 375–398. Springer, 2021. 2 Juan Benet. Ipfs-content addressed, versioned, p2p file system. arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.3561, 2014. 3 Sonja Buchegger, Doris Schiöberg, Le-Hung Vu, and Anwitaman Datta. Peerson: P2p social networking: early experiences and insights. In Proceedings of the Second ACM EuroSys Workshop on Social Network Systems, pages 46–52, 2009. 4 Vitalik Buterin et al. A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform. white paper, 3(37), 2014. 5 Manuel Castells. The city and the grassroots: a cross-cultural theory of urban social movements. Number 7. Univ of California Press, 1983. 6 Miguel Castro, Barbara Liskov, et al. Practical byzantine fault tolerance. In OsDI, volume 99, pages 173–186, 1999. 7 Gregory Chockler, Roie Melamed, Yoav Tock, and Roman Vitenberg. Constructing scalable overlays for pub-sub with many topics. In Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual ACM symposium on Principles of distributed computing, pages 109–118, 2007. 8 Gregory Chockler, Roie Melamed, Yoav Tock, and Roman Vitenberg. Spidercast: a scalable interest-aware overlay for topic-based pub/sub communication. In Proceedings of the 2007 inaugural international conference on Distributed event-based systems, pages 14–25, 2007. 9 Bram Cohen. Incentives build robustness in bittorrent. In Workshop on Economics of Peer-to-Peer systems, volume 6, pages 68–72. Berkeley, CA, USA, 2003. 10 Alan Demers, Karin Petersen, Mike Spreitzer, Doug Terry, Marvin Theimer, and Brent Welch. The bayou architecture: Support for data sharing among mobile users. In 1994 First Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, pages 2–7. IEEE, 1994. 11 Bitcoin Developer. P2p network, Retrieved 20222. URL: https://developer.bitcoin.org/ devguide/p2p_network.html. 12 Ethereum Developer. go-ethereum/params/bootnodes.go, Retrieved 2023. URL: https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/blob/master/params/bootnodes.go. 13 Adem Efe Gencer, Soumya Basu, Ittay Eyal, Robbert van Renesse, and Emin Gün Sirer. Decentralization in bitcoin and ethereum networks. In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, pages 439–457. Springer, 2018. 14 Gabriele Goldacker. Digitale souveränität [white paper of kompetenzzentrum öffentliche it (öfit)]. retrieved april 20, 2021, 2017. 15 Idit Keidar, Eleftherios Kokoris-Kogias, Oded Naor, and Alexander Spiegelman. All you need is dag, 2021. arXiv:2102.08325. 16 Idit Keidar, Oded Naor, and Ehud Shapiro. Cordial miners: A family of simple and efficient consensus protocols for every eventuality. arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.09174, 2022. 17 Antony Lewis. A gentle introduction to self-sovereign identity. 2017. URL: https://bitsonblocks.net/2017/05/17/a-gentle-introduction-to-self-sovereign-identity/. 18 Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system, 2019. 19 Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, Claudio Castellano, Piet Van Mieghem, and Alessandro Vespignani. Epidemic processes in complex networks. Reviews of modern physics, 87(3):925, 2015. 20 Julia Pohle and Thorsten Thiel. Digital sovereignty. Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, 9(4):1–19, 2020. 21 Aravindh Raman, Sagar Joglekar, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Nishanth Sastry, and Gareth Tyson. Challenges in the decentralised web: The mastodon case. In Proceedings of the Internet Measurement Conference, pages 217–229, 2019. 22 Vinay Setty, Maarten van Steen, Roman Vitenberg, and Spyros Voulgaris. Poldercast: Fast, robust, and scalable architecture for p2p topic-based pub/sub. In ACM/IFIP/USENIX International Conference on Distributed Systems Platforms and Open Distributed Processing, pages 271–291. Springer, 2012. 23 Devavrat Shah et al. Gossip algorithms. Foundations and Trends® in Networking, 3(1):1–125, 2009. 24 Ehud Shapiro. Multiagent transition systems: Protocol-stack mathematics for distributed computing. arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.13650, 2021. 25 Ehud Shapiro. Sovereign personal cryptocurrencies: A grassroots foundation for a digital economy. arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.05619, 2022. 26 Marc Shapiro, Nuno Preguiça, Carlos Baquero, and Marek Zawirski. Conflict-free replicated data types. In Symposium on Self-Stabilizing Systems, pages 386–400. Springer, 2011. 27 Robert Shostak, Marshall Pease, and Leslie Lamport. The byzantine generals problem. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 4(3):382–401, 1982. 28 Ion Stoica, Robert Morris, David Karger, M Frans Kaashoek, and Hari Balakrishnan. Chord: A scalable peer-to-peer lookup service for internet applications. ACM SIGCOMM computer communication review, 31(4):149–160, 2001. 29 Maofan Yin, Dahlia Malkhi, Michael K Reiter, Guy Golan Gueta, and Ittai Abraham. Hotstuff: Bft consensus with linearity and responsiveness. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, pages 347–356, 2019. 30 Shoshana Zuboff. The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power: Barack Obama’s books of 2019. Profile books, 2019. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Ehud Shapiro,  Department of Computer Science and Applied Math, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and ehud.shapiro@weizmann.ac.il. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. Authors: Authors: (1) Ehud Shapiro,  Department of Computer Science and Applied Math, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and ehud.shapiro@weizmann.ac.il. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Grassroots Protocols Grassroots Implementation of Grassroots Dissemination Applications of Grassroots Dissemination Supporting Digital Sovereignty Future Work & Discussion References A. Preliminaries: Asynchronous Distributed Multiagent Transition Systems B. All-to-All Dissemination is not Grassroots C. Proofs Abstract and Introduction Abstract and Introduction Grassroots Protocols Grassroots Protocols Grassroots Implementation of Grassroots Dissemination Grassroots Implementation of Grassroots Dissemination Applications of Grassroots Dissemination Supporting Digital Sovereignty Applications of Grassroots Dissemination Supporting Digital Sovereignty Future Work & Discussion Future Work & Discussion References References A. Preliminaries: Asynchronous Distributed Multiagent Transition Systems A. Preliminaries: Asynchronous Distributed Multiagent Transition Systems B. All-to-All Dissemination is not Grassroots B. All-to-All Dissemination is not Grassroots C. Proofs C. Proofs References 1 Martin R Albrecht, Jorge Blasco, Rikke Bjerg Jensen, and Lenka Mareková. Mesh messaging in large-scale protests: Breaking bridgefy. In Cryptographers’ Track at the RSA Conference, pages 375–398. Springer, 2021. 2 Juan Benet. Ipfs-content addressed, versioned, p2p file system. arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.3561, 2014. 3 Sonja Buchegger, Doris Schiöberg, Le-Hung Vu, and Anwitaman Datta. Peerson: P2p social networking: early experiences and insights. In Proceedings of the Second ACM EuroSys Workshop on Social Network Systems, pages 46–52, 2009. 4 Vitalik Buterin et al. A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform. white paper, 3(37), 2014. 5 Manuel Castells. The city and the grassroots: a cross-cultural theory of urban social movements. Number 7. Univ of California Press, 1983. 6 Miguel Castro, Barbara Liskov, et al. Practical byzantine fault tolerance. In OsDI, volume 99, pages 173–186, 1999. 7 Gregory Chockler, Roie Melamed, Yoav Tock, and Roman Vitenberg. Constructing scalable overlays for pub-sub with many topics. In Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual ACM symposium on Principles of distributed computing, pages 109–118, 2007. 8 Gregory Chockler, Roie Melamed, Yoav Tock, and Roman Vitenberg. Spidercast: a scalable interest-aware overlay for topic-based pub/sub communication. In Proceedings of the 2007 inaugural international conference on Distributed event-based systems, pages 14–25, 2007. 9 Bram Cohen. Incentives build robustness in bittorrent. In Workshop on Economics of Peer-to-Peer systems, volume 6, pages 68–72. Berkeley, CA, USA, 2003. 10 Alan Demers, Karin Petersen, Mike Spreitzer, Doug Terry, Marvin Theimer, and Brent Welch. The bayou architecture: Support for data sharing among mobile users. In 1994 First Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, pages 2–7. IEEE, 1994. 11 Bitcoin Developer. P2p network, Retrieved 20222. URL: https://developer.bitcoin.org/ devguide/p2p_network.html. 12 Ethereum Developer. go-ethereum/params/bootnodes.go, Retrieved 2023. URL: https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/blob/master/params/bootnodes.go. 13 Adem Efe Gencer, Soumya Basu, Ittay Eyal, Robbert van Renesse, and Emin Gün Sirer. Decentralization in bitcoin and ethereum networks. In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, pages 439–457. Springer, 2018. 14 Gabriele Goldacker. Digitale souveränität [white paper of kompetenzzentrum öffentliche it (öfit)]. retrieved april 20, 2021, 2017. 15 Idit Keidar, Eleftherios Kokoris-Kogias, Oded Naor, and Alexander Spiegelman. All you need is dag, 2021. arXiv:2102.08325. 16 Idit Keidar, Oded Naor, and Ehud Shapiro. Cordial miners: A family of simple and efficient consensus protocols for every eventuality. arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.09174, 2022. 17 Antony Lewis. A gentle introduction to self-sovereign identity. 2017. URL: https://bitsonblocks.net/2017/05/17/a-gentle-introduction-to-self-sovereign-identity/. 18 Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system, 2019. 19 Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, Claudio Castellano, Piet Van Mieghem, and Alessandro Vespignani. Epidemic processes in complex networks. Reviews of modern physics, 87(3):925, 2015. 20 Julia Pohle and Thorsten Thiel. Digital sovereignty. Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, 9(4):1–19, 2020. 21 Aravindh Raman, Sagar Joglekar, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Nishanth Sastry, and Gareth Tyson. Challenges in the decentralised web: The mastodon case. In Proceedings of the Internet Measurement Conference, pages 217–229, 2019. 22 Vinay Setty, Maarten van Steen, Roman Vitenberg, and Spyros Voulgaris. Poldercast: Fast, robust, and scalable architecture for p2p topic-based pub/sub. In ACM/IFIP/USENIX International Conference on Distributed Systems Platforms and Open Distributed Processing, pages 271–291. Springer, 2012. 23 Devavrat Shah et al. Gossip algorithms. Foundations and Trends® in Networking, 3(1):1–125, 2009. 24 Ehud Shapiro. Multiagent transition systems: Protocol-stack mathematics for distributed computing. arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.13650, 2021. 25 Ehud Shapiro. Sovereign personal cryptocurrencies: A grassroots foundation for a digital economy. arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.05619, 2022. 26 Marc Shapiro, Nuno Preguiça, Carlos Baquero, and Marek Zawirski. Conflict-free replicated data types. In Symposium on Self-Stabilizing Systems, pages 386–400. Springer, 2011. 27 Robert Shostak, Marshall Pease, and Leslie Lamport. The byzantine generals problem. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 4(3):382–401, 1982. 28 Ion Stoica, Robert Morris, David Karger, M Frans Kaashoek, and Hari Balakrishnan. Chord: A scalable peer-to-peer lookup service for internet applications. ACM SIGCOMM computer communication review, 31(4):149–160, 2001. 29 Maofan Yin, Dahlia Malkhi, Michael K Reiter, Guy Golan Gueta, and Ittai Abraham. Hotstuff: Bft consensus with linearity and responsiveness. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, pages 347–356, 2019. 30 Shoshana Zuboff. The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power: Barack Obama’s books of 2019. Profile books, 2019.

Grassroots Distributed Systems for Digital Sovereignty: References

Laying the ground for post-capitalist blockchain protocols Blockchain Protocols and the Byzantine Generals Problem Section 1.1 Background Blockchain technology has emerged as a transformative force, disrupting traditional systems of trust and enabling decentralized, tamper-resistant data storage. At its core, blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that relies on consensus mechanisms to ensure the integrity and security of transactions. Before delving into the various blockchain protocols, it is essential to understand the fundamental coordination challenges that these protocols aim to address. One such challenge is the Byzantine Generals Problem, a classical problem in computer science and distributed systems. 1.2 The Byzantine Generals Problem The Byzantine Generals Problem was first introduced by Lamport, Shostak, and Pease in their landmark paper titled "The Byzantine Generals Problem" published in 1982. The problem provides a theoretical framework for understanding the difficulties associated with achieving consensus in a distributed network when some participants (nodes) may behave maliciously or fail to operate correctly. In the scenario described by the Byzantine Generals Problem, a group of Byzantine army generals surrounds an enemy city, and they must coordinate their attack or retreat strategy. The challenge is that some generals may be traitors, providing conflicting orders to different subgroups of the army. The loyal generals need to reach a consensus despite the potential misinformation from traitorous generals, ensuring a unified and coordinated action. This problem mirrors the challenges faced by distributed systems where nodes must agree on a shared state or transaction without a central authority. The Byzantine Generals Problem highlights the need for consensus protocols that can withstand the presence of faulty or malicious nodes. 1.3 Coordination in Distributed Systems The broader context of the Byzantine Generals Problem extends to the field of distributed systems, where achieving consensus among nodes is a critical challenge. As articulated by Leslie Lamport in his seminal paper "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System" (1978), the lack of a global clock and the asynchronous nature of distributed systems make achieving consensus a non-trivial task. Distributed systems must contend with issues such as message delays, network partitions, and the potential for malicious nodes. Various consensus protocols have been developed to address these challenges, and blockchain technology represents one application of these protocols to create decentralized and secure systems. 1.4 Objectives of This Section This section aims to lay the groundwork for understanding the Byzantine Generals Problem as a coordination challenge in distributed systems. Subsequent sections will explore different consensus protocols employed by blockchain networks to tackle this problem. By examining the strengths and weaknesses of these protocols, we can gain insights into the evolution of blockchain technology and its potential impact on various industries. In the following sections, we will delve into specific blockchain protocols, such as Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), and other novel protocols. These protocols represent diverse approaches to addressing the Byzantine Generals Problem, each with its unique advantages and trade-offs. Section 2.1 Introduction: A Post-Capitalist Perspective As blockchain technology advances, decentralized consensus protocols play a pivotal role in shaping the nature of distributed networks. In the context of a post-capitalist society, where the focus shifts from profit-driven motives to collective well-being and directly democratic decision-making, it becomes essential to critically assess existing consensus protocols and explore their implications for fostering a decentralized and equitable socio-economic system. 2.2 Proof-of-Work (PoW) Proof-of-Work, the pioneering consensus algorithm introduced by Bitcoin, relies on computational power to secure the network and validate transactions. While effective in achieving security, PoW has faced criticism for its environmental impact and resource-intensive nature. In a post-capitalist framework, the ecological concerns associated with PoW raise questions about sustainability and the alignment of incentives with broader social and environmental goals. Research suggests that PoW consumes significant energy resources, contributing to carbon footprints and potentially exacerbating environmental issues. In a post-capitalist society, where sustainability and ecological balance are paramount, PoW's resource-intensive model may be incompatible with the overarching objectives of the system. 2.3 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Proof-of-Stake addresses some of the environmental concerns associated with PoW by replacing computational power with ownership stakes in the network's native cryptocurrency. PoS has been praised for its energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact. However, critics argue that PoS may lead to centralization, as participants with larger stakes have more influence over the consensus process. In a post-capitalist framework, the potential concentration of power within a small group of stakeholders challenges the ideals of decentralization. A shift in influence from computational power to economic power introduces new dynamics that may not align with the principles of equity and inclusivity. 2.4 Proof-of-Authority (PoA) Proof-of-Authority relies on identity and reputation, where consensus nodes are known and trusted entities. This model aims to enhance security by reducing the risk of malicious actors. However, it introduces a level of centralization and relies on pre-established trust. In a post-capitalist society, the reliance on trusted authorities may be perceived as a potential impediment to achieving true decentralization. The concentration of authority could result in power imbalances and undermine the ethos of an inclusive and distributed system. 2.5 Proof-of-Space-Time and Novel Protocols Proof-of-Space-Time, often associated with storage-based consensus, leverages participants' unused storage space to secure the network. While it addresses some environmental concerns, its effectiveness in fostering decentralization remains an area of exploration. Several novel consensus protocols, such as Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) and Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), offer unique approaches to consensus. DPoS introduces a voting mechanism for selecting block producers, while DAGs eliminate the traditional block structure, allowing for concurrent block creation. From a post-capitalist perspective, the assessment of these protocols involves evaluating their ability to provide security, scalability, and decentralization while aligning with broader societal objectives. 2.6 Conclusion In a post-capitalist society, the evaluation of decentralized consensus protocols extends beyond technical efficiency to consider environmental sustainability, equity, and the distribution of influence. Each protocol presents a unique set of trade-offs, and their appropriateness depends on the specific goals and values of the decentralized system. As we explore the landscape of consensus protocols, it is crucial to critically assess their impact on society and their alignment with the principles of a post-capitalist ethos. delegat0x is a libertarian anti-capitalist R&D Engineer in the crypto space. They write about the intersections between philosophy, politics, media, alternatives to capitalism, social movements, and collective autonomy. References: Lamport, L., Shostak, R., & Pease, M. (1982). The Byzantine Generals Problem. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), 4(3), 382-401. Lamport, L. (1978). Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System. Communications of the ACM, 21(7), 558-565. Buterin, V., & Griffith, V. (2017). Casper the Friendly Finality Gadget. Ethereum Foundation. Zamfir, V. (2018). On Stake. Medium. Atzei, N., Bartoletti, M., & Cimoli, T. (2017). A Survey of Attacks on Ethereum Smart Contracts (SoK). In International Conference on Principles of Security and Trust (POST) (pp. 164-186). Springer. Sompolinsky, Y., & Zohar, A. (2013). Accelerating Bitcoin’s Transaction Processing. Fast Money Grows on Trees, Not Chains. IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive, 2013, 881. Bächle, T., & Ylitalo, J. (2018). Proof-of-Authority: Reputation-Based Consensus in Permissioned Networks. Medium. Hyperledger. (n.d.). Cactus: A Modular Framework for Enterprise and Permissioned Ledgers. Retrieved from Hyperledger Cactus Also published here Feature Image depicts the concept of an anti-capitalist blockchain, showing a network of interconnected nodes with a focus on sustainable and cooperative community activities. Image produced by delegate0x DALL-E

Rethink Cryptoeconomics - Part 2: A Post-Capitalist Critique of Decentralized Consensus Protocols

In this article, we’ll dive into bytecode, and examine the bytecode generation and constant pool in detail. 1. Bytecode Generation The GenerateUnoptimizedCodeForToplevel is responsible for transforming an AST tree into bytecodes. 1.  MaybeHandle<SharedFunctionInfo> GenerateUnoptimizedCodeForToplevel(
2.      Isolate* isolate, ParseInfo* parse_info, AccountingAllocator* allocator,
3.      IsCompiledScope* is_compiled_scope) {
4.  //omit............
5.     while (!functions_to_compile.empty()) {
6.  //omit............
7.       if (job->ExecuteJob() == CompilationJob::FAILED ||
8.           FinalizeUnoptimizedCompilationJob(job.get(), shared_info, isolate) ==
9.               CompilationJob::FAILED) {
10.           return MaybeHandle<SharedFunctionInfo>();
11.         }
12.         if (FLAG_stress_lazy_source_positions) {
13.           SharedFunctionInfo::EnsureSourcePositionsAvailable(isolate, shared_info);
14.         }
15.         if (shared_info.is_identical_to(top_level)) {
16.           *is_compiled_scope = shared_info->is_compiled_scope();
17.           DCHECK(is_compiled_scope->is_compiled());
18.         }
19.       }
20.       parse_info->ResetCharacterStream();
21.       return top_level;
22.     } Line 7 reads an AST tree from parse_info and generates bytecode. By debugging it, we step into the following function which analyses every AST node and generates a corresponding bytecode. job->ExecuteJob() 1.  void BytecodeGenerator::GenerateBytecodeBody() {
2.    VisitArgumentsObject(closure_scope()->arguments());
3.    VisitNewTargetVariable(closure_scope()->new_target_var());
4.    FunctionLiteral* literal = info()->literal();
5.    if (IsResumableFunction(literal->kind())) {
6.      BuildGeneratorObjectVariableInitialization();
7.    }
8.    if (FLAG_trace) builder()->CallRuntime(Runtime::kTraceEnter);
9.  //省略.........................
10.    BuildIncrementBlockCoverageCounterIfEnabled(literal, SourceRangeKind::kBody);
11.    VisitDeclarations(closure_scope()->declarations());
12.    VisitModuleNamespaceImports();
13.    builder()->StackCheck(literal->start_position());
14.    if (IsBaseConstructor(function_kind())) {
15.      if (literal->requires_brand_initialization()) {
16.        BuildPrivateBrandInitialization(builder()->Receiver());
17.      }
18.      if (literal->requires_instance_members_initializer()) {
19.        BuildInstanceMemberInitialization(Register::function_closure(),
20.                                          builder()->Receiver());
21.      }
22.    }
23.    VisitStatements(literal->body());
24.    if (!builder()->RemainderOfBlockIsDead()) {
25.      builder()->LoadUndefined();
26.      BuildReturn();
27.    }
28.  } In the above function, lines 11, 12, and 23 first analyze the declaration, import modules, and statements respectively, and then generate corresponding bytecodes. In our case, we will examine line 11 VisitDeclarations() in more depth. In VisitDeclarations(), the following function is called. 1.  BytecodeArrayBuilder& BytecodeArrayBuilder::LoadConstantPoolEntry(
2.      size_t entry) {
3.    OutputLdaConstant(entry);
4.    return *this;
5.  }
6.  //============================
7.  #define DEFINE_BYTECODE_OUTPUT(name, ...) In line 3, OutputLdaConstant stores one global constant into the constant-pool and generates bytecode LdaGlobal for loading this constant, so that we can get out the constant through the LdaGlobal during execution. About the constant pool, I will talk later. By debugging OutputLdaConstant(), we step into the EmitBytecode() which generates one bytecode for a corresponding statement and also is the function that generates the LdaGlobal for our global constant. 1.  void BytecodeArrayWriter::EmitBytecode(const BytecodeNode* const node) {
2.  //omit..........
3.     for (int i = 0; i < operand_count; ++i) {
4.       switch (operand_sizes[i]) {
5.         case OperandSize::kNone:
6.           UNREACHABLE();
7.           break;
8.         case OperandSize::kByte:
9.           bytecodes()->push_back(static_cast<uint8_t>(operands[i]));
10.           break;
11.         case OperandSize::kShort: {
12.           uint16_t operand = static_cast<uint16_t>(operands[i]);
13.           const uint8_t* raw_operand = reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t*>(&operand);
14.           bytecodes()->push_back(raw_operand[0]);
15.           bytecodes()->push_back(raw_operand[1]);
16.           break;
17.         }
18.         case OperandSize::kQuad: {
19.           const uint8_t* raw_operand =
20.               reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t*>(&operands[i]);
21.           bytecodes()->push_back(raw_operand[0]);
22.           bytecodes()->push_back(raw_operand[1]);
23.           bytecodes()->push_back(raw_operand[2]);
24.           bytecodes()->push_back(raw_operand[3]);
25.           break;
26.         }
27.       }
28.     }
29.   } From lines 4 to 25, calculate the operand size for our LdaGlobal, because in execution, a bytecode needs the operand size to operate the operand correctly. Back to GenerateBytecodeBody(), in line 23, the VisitStatements() reads one AST node that represents a corresponding JavaScript statement, and generate one bytecode. If one AST node represents a JavaScript statement block, the VisitStatements() will recursively call itself to generate many bytecodes. Note: void BytecodeGenerator::VisitStatements(
    const ZonePtrList<Statement>* statements) {
  for (int i = 0; i < statements->length(); i++) {
    // Allocate an outer register allocations scope for the statement.
    RegisterAllocationScope allocation_scope(this);
    Statement* stmt = statements->at(i);
    Visit(stmt);
    if (builder()->RemainderOfBlockIsDead()) break;
  }
} Figure 1 shows the VisitStatements’s call stack. 2. Constant Pool function test(x)
{
 if(x>0)
 add3(x);//x=x+3
 dosomething........
} When compiling the function test(), the compiler infers that the add3 will be called, and the add3 address should be pushed into the constant pool. But, there’s a question here. We have no address if the add3() is not compiled yet. In this case, the compiler reserves a slot for the add3 in the constant pool and fills it once the add3() is compiled, namely DeferredConstants. Let’s give a glance at FinalizeBytecode(). 1.  Handle<BytecodeArray> BytecodeGenerator::FinalizeBytecode(
2.      Isolate* isolate, Handle<Script> script) {
3.    DCHECK_EQ(ThreadId::Current(), isolate->thread_id());
4.    AllocateDeferredConstants(isolate, script);
5.    if (block_coverage_builder_) {
6.      info()->set_coverage_info(
7.          isolate->factory()->NewCoverageInfo(block_coverage_builder_->slots()));
8.      if (FLAG_trace_block_coverage) {
9.        info()->coverage_info()->Print(info()->literal()->GetDebugName());
10.      }
11.    }
12.    if (HasStackOverflow()) return Handle<BytecodeArray>();
13.    Handle<BytecodeArray> bytecode_array = builder()->ToBytecodeArray(isolate);
14.    if (incoming_new_target_or_generator_.is_valid()) {
15.      bytecode_array->set_incoming_new_target_or_generator_register(
16.          incoming_new_target_or_generator_);
17.    }
18.    return bytecode_array;
19.  } In line 4, AllocateDeferredConstants creates the DeferredConstants. 1.  void BytecodeGenerator::AllocateDeferredConstants(Isolate* isolate,
2.                                                    Handle<Script> script) {
3.    // Build global declaration pair arrays.
4.    for (GlobalDeclarationsBuilder* globals_builder : global_declarations_) {
5.      Handle<FixedArray> declarations =
6.          globals_builder->AllocateDeclarations(info(), script, isolate);
7.      if (declarations.is_null()) return SetStackOverflow();
8.      builder()->SetDeferredConstantPoolEntry(
9.          globals_builder->constant_pool_entry(), declarations);
10.     }
11.     // Find or build shared function infos.
12.     for (std::pair<FunctionLiteral*, size_t> literal : function_literals_) {
13.    //omit..................
14.     }
15.     // Find or build shared function infos for the native function templates.
16.     for (std::pair<NativeFunctionLiteral*, size_t> literal :
17.          native_function_literals_) {
18.   //omit..................
19.     }
20.     // Build object literal constant properties
21.     for (std::pair<ObjectLiteral*, size_t> literal : object_literals_) {
22.       ObjectLiteral* object_literal = literal.first;
23.   //omit..................
24.       }
25.     }
26.     // Build array literal constant elements
27.     for (std::pair<ArrayLiteral*, size_t> literal : array_literals_) {
28.   //omit..................
29.     }
30.     // Build class literal boilerplates.
31.     for (std::pair<ClassLiteral*, size_t> literal : class_literals_) {
32.   //omit..................
33.     }
34.     // Build template literals.
35.     for (std::pair<GetTemplateObject*, size_t> literal : template_objects_) {
36.   //omit..................
37.     }
38.   } From lines 4 to 10, the loop-for store global variables in the constant pool. From lines 11 to 35 store the sharedfunction, constant property, and other stuff in the constant pool. 3. FinalizeBytecode The FinalizeBytecode() is the last step for generating bytecode. Let’s give a glance at line 13 of the FinalizeBytecode, the reorganizes the bytecodes and returns a bytecode array that holds a bytecode array representing your JavaScript code. What is “reorganize”? It is that just put bytecode, constant pool, etc. together because all the stuff is already done well before ToBytecodeArray. builder()->ToBytecodeArray 1.  Handle<BytecodeArray> BytecodeArrayBuilder::ToBytecodeArray(Isolate* isolate) {
2.    DCHECK(RemainderOfBlockIsDead());
3.    DCHECK(!bytecode_generated_);
4.    bytecode_generated_ = true;
5.    int register_count = total_register_count();
6.    if (register_optimizer_) {
7.  //omit
8.    }
9.    Handle<ByteArray> handler_table =
10.        handler_table_builder()->ToHandlerTable(isolate);
11.    return bytecode_array_writer_.ToBytecodeArray(
12.        isolate, register_count, parameter_count(), handler_table);
13.  } Line 9 gets out the handler_table, namely the dispatch_table that I have talked about. Line 11 stores the handler_table address into a bytecode array. Remember that each bytecode has only one handler that is the actual worker and is held by the dispatch_table. Let’s give a glance at line 11 bytecode_array_writer_.ToBytecodeArray. 1.  Handle<BytecodeArray> BytecodeArrayWriter::ToBytecodeArray(
2.      Isolate* isolate, int register_count, int parameter_count,
3.      Handle<ByteArray> handler_table) {
4.    DCHECK_EQ(0, unbound_jumps_);
5.    int bytecode_size = static_cast<int>(bytecodes()->size());
6.    int frame_size = register_count * kSystemPointerSize;
7.    Handle<FixedArray> constant_pool =
8.        constant_array_builder()->ToFixedArray(isolate);
9.    Handle<BytecodeArray> bytecode_array = isolate->factory()->NewBytecodeArray(
10.        bytecode_size, &bytecodes()->front(), frame_size, parameter_count,
11.        constant_pool);
12.    bytecode_array->set_handler_table(*handler_table);
13.    return bytecode_array;
14.  } Line 7 generates constant_pool, and line 9 generates a bytecode array that the source code is below: 1.  Handle<BytecodeArray> Factory::NewBytecodeArray(
2.      int length, const byte* raw_bytecodes, int frame_size, int parameter_count,
3.      Handle<FixedArray> constant_pool) {
4.    DCHECK_LE(0, length);
5.    if (length > BytecodeArray::kMaxLength) {
6.      isolate()->heap()->FatalProcessOutOfMemory("invalid array length");
7.    }
8.    // Bytecode array is AllocationType::kOld, so constant pool array should be
9.    // too.
10.    DCHECK(!Heap::InYoungGeneration(*constant_pool));
11.    int size = BytecodeArray::SizeFor(length);
12.    HeapObject result = AllocateRawWithImmortalMap(size, AllocationType::kOld,
13.                                                   *bytecode_array_map());
14.    Handle<BytecodeArray> instance(BytecodeArray::cast(result), isolate());
15.    instance->set_length(length);
16.    instance->set_frame_size(frame_size);
17.    instance->set_parameter_count(parameter_count);
18.    instance->set_incoming_new_target_or_generator_register(
19.        interpreter::Register::invalid_value());
20.    instance->set_osr_loop_nesting_level(0);
21.    instance->set_bytecode_age(BytecodeArray::kNoAgeBytecodeAge);
22.    instance->set_constant_pool(*constant_pool);
23.    instance->set_handler_table(*empty_byte_array());
24.    instance->set_source_position_table(*undefined_value());
25.    CopyBytes(reinterpret_cast<byte*>(instance->GetFirstBytecodeAddress()),
26.              raw_bytecodes, length);
27.    instance->clear_padding();
28.    return instance;
29.  } Line 12 allocates memory from the V8 heap, and then lines 15–25 copy the bytecode array into the memory, and line 28 returns the bytecode finally. Takeaways Constant pool holds constants, function addresses, etc. If a variable name is known, it as a constant is stored in the constant pool; Note: Constant pool always is at bytecode array[0]. In other words, given a bytecode array, the first element of the array is always the constant pool; A bytecode array is a heap object and its type is FixedArray. Okay, that wraps it up for this share. I’ll see you guys next time, take care! Please reach out to me if you have any issues. : qq9123013 : WeChat Email v8blink@outlook.com Also Published here

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