When Bitcoin came into being about more than a decade ago, it set about to solve a big challenge: peer to peer monetary transaction — making it possible for “strangers anywhere in the world to make financial transactions over the internet without financial intermediaries and payment processors like Visa or Mastercard assisting the transaction.”   

This tech know-how that makes decentralized transactions possible — and which created the universe of cryptocurrencies as we have comr to know — is called a blockchain.

But, blockchains previously had one major downside compared to centralized networks like the ones credit-card companies use: they’re slower. As of August 2021, Ethereum typically processes fewer than 15 transactions per second, compared to tens of thousands for Visa’s network.

Solana, on the other hand is one of many new crypto solutions aiming to make crypto networks faster and more scalable. It uses a suite of clever technologies, including a novel mechanism called “proof of history.”

Solana Dreams Big.

With over $30 billion market cap, Solana isn’t interested in competing with Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies on every front. All it really wants is to completely disrupt Wall Street and the rest of the global markets. Solana is building “an open, fair, censorship-resistant global marketplace” that’s better than anything inside of the New York Stock Exchange or any other means of settling trades.

With many developers flocking to Solana, here are some of the exciting projects that are happening on the Solana blockchain.

Chingari is a TikTok-style short video sharing app and a social media platform to date to launch its official cryptocurrency. Users will earn GARI tokens for creating and sharing content that goes viral and to tip other users if they enjoy their videos.

“With Chingari, powered by $GARI, you can create and share fun videos on the award-winning app and earn special Chingari tokens, or $GARI, which you can trade in the global crypto marketplace.” Users may also tip other users if they enjoy their videos.

According to GenX Analytics, GARI has already become the second most widely held cryptocurrency token on the Solana Blockchain.

Enter Solana Pay

Solana Pay allows merchants and users to pay in real-time, in $SOL, or any other supported Solana token, such as real-time payments in USD Coin (USDC), without involving a third-party such as a bank or payments processor.
Moreover, Solana Pay doesn’t allow for chargebacks, removing a costly issue that traditional merchants often face.

Moreover, Solana Pay offers detailed reports on every transaction such as wallet destination, currency type, the transaction amount and text fields for the merchant to describe the said transaction — doing all this while keeping it private from the rest of the network.

For other Solano cutting edge projects explore here.

Whether Solano can take over Wall Street is yet to be seen.
But, it all started with a dream.

In late 2017, Solano's founder Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper draft detailing a new timekeeping technique for distributed systems called Proof of History (PoH), the key to dreaming different.

In blockchains like Bitcoin and Etheruem, that depends on Proof of Work (POW), one of the limitations to scalability is the time required to reach a consensus on the order of transactions. Having thus said, Ethereum is upgrading to Proof of Stake (POS).

The world received a taste of the scalability problems in 2017 and 2018: severe transfer delays and high fees on the Bitcoin network, and the notorious Cryptokitties app that congested the Ethereum blockchain network (a network that thousands of decentralized applications rely on).

Anatoly believed his new technique could automate the transaction ordering process for blockchains, providing a key piece that would enable crypto networks to scale well-beyond their capabilities at the time.

As the saying goes, the rest is history.
Or, you could say, the rest is doing the dream.

Note: Some  links in this article are from our sponsors

The global pandemic has quite effectively proven our love affair with immersive social commerce wherein users interact with AR (augemented reality) portryal of products and purchase it without leaving the platform.

Even before COVID-19, e-commerce shoppers  wanted AR help visualizing how products would look in their environments, and a the shoots of demand to virtually try on new makeup or clothing had already started to sprout. The onset of the pandemic only hastened the process.

AI Driven Automation is Boosting Rewards in Terms of Profits, Productivity and Relevance

Obviously Amazon was one of the pioneers in shopping recommendations. Since it's early days, it has witnessed changes in its algorithms over the years.

• Amazon uses AI to drive prices dynamically; that is it reduces the costs to elicit more sales when required and simultaneously increase prices when the demands are high. The algorithm enables optimal sales and revenue automatically.  

 

• As a visionary leader in the use of technology, Amazon has now opened checkout-free physical stores in Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco, which have AI-powered sensors and cameras. This technology can tell exactly which items a customer has picked up and will automatically charge them as they walk out of the store using the Amazon Go app. With 'contactless' being the norm in these pandemic times, Amazon is all set to reap rapid profit.
  

 

• Google is taking a page out of Instagram's influencer book with the new Shoploop app, developed in its experimental workshop Area 120. The experience, according to General Manager Lax Poojary, "is more interactive than just scrolling through images, titles, and descriptions on a traditional e-commerce site."

Taking skin swabs to test bacterial analysis and DNA – and therefore receiving customized products aligning to your microbiome and genetic make-up – are just two ways in which brands will be targeting your beauty wellness in the new decade.

As data shows, it is getting harder to stand out in established social media.
AR and AI is seeing breakthroughs within product development — moving from a showcase novelty to functionality that the majority of the customers use.

To keep customers inside their brand eco-system, many fashion and cosmetic brands are partnering with gaming companies to entice their customers with perpetual call to action.

Emerging social media networks, including those focused on gaming such as Fortnite or Tencent’s mobile game Honour of Kings, which have fast become integral to youth culture.
In China, brands such as Mac Cosmetics, L’Oréal and Hong Kong jeweller Chow Sang Sang have all partnered with Honour of Kings, which has more than 200 million registered players of whom more than half are female (and women mobile gamers are 79 percent more likely to make an in-app purchase)

Sources:
Deloitte, Google Consumer AR Survey, Retail Customer Experience, MarketingDive, SmarterHQ, Statista, Entrepreneur

In the vastness of space and immensity of time, the chance of you happening as you, is one in 400 billion. And, that is no joke. Think about it. Ask any scientist and he/she will validate it. “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”  And that is the reason why you always carry this feeling of emptiness, a sense of always being a part of something; not very sure what that is. I believe that is because, the whole cosmos comes together to make you, you in your contemporaneous glory and the ratio of that happening is 1:400,000,000,000

“The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.” 
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Design, architecture and technology merged to bring this mysterious sensation within the grasp of our immediate touch. It takes fearless humility to accept the vastness of this universe. The most effective way, I believe, even to comprehend it, is using the scientific and technological tools that are available at our disposal. Though science is in a state of unfading revolution, always subject to revision and never envisioning the complete reality, it does give you "successive approximations of reality."
Skip Traffic, Traverse Space and Time in a Roadside Mini-Universe

Artists and Designers use direction, dramatic contrasts, and placement relationships to  draw our attention to areas of emphasis and focal points.
Emphasis is the principle by which an artist draws attention to particular content. A focal point is a specific place of visual emphasis in a work of art or design. Most works of art have at least one area of emphasis and multiple focal points.
An artist can emphasize focal points through the use of line, implied line, value, color or as it so happens in this case,  more than 14,000 LED lights. " Like the bull’s-eye on a target, focal points concentrate our attention. Even though our field of vision is fairly wide, at any given moment we can only focus our vision on a small area. The physiology of vision underlies the principle of focal point. _"

The emphasis is here on the 12 meter high wall that cascades through the space giving way to ‘graffiti fetish’, trademark of a British artist INSA. When an environment exists beyond its primary purpose of  dining and and explores the dominion of drama and participation the resulting phenomenon is  G9 Shanghai. The diners are invited to engage with the art work through the "3D depth sensing capabilities of an xbox kinect camera that empowers them to control its speed and brightness with simple hand gestures."
Image Source: Designboom

• Write for humans
• Do not stuff keywords in your content
• Use, synonymous, related keywords.
• Write in-depth articles. Develop a flair for developing concept that has cross functional purpose. e.g, Holistic Branding
• The use of Perennial long tail key word.
• Use relevant forums to publish your content.
• Write compelling meta description
• Use naked urls.
• Use technology to harness technology. Hint: Combine Google Suggest, Google Trend and Ubersuggest.

As brands are on the quest for new heights in the field of relevant searches and technology is on the move to understand your intent on demand, some of the brightest minds come together to present us the entice and the enthrall of the SEO kingdom.

http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/resources/ebooks/seo-experts-reveal-the-truth-about-marketing/?d=70130000000tSax

An independent filmmaker Claude Mossessian, uploaded this video for those of us who missed this spectacular pixellated beauty in its glory.


"The three-minute clip shows how the white-washed church exterior opens up into a kaleidoscope of color, design and shape-shifting splendor that references everything from microorganisms to embroidery."
Built in a  Neo-Gothic style but inflenced by the  Moroccan Muslim, the huge Cathédrale Sacré-Coeur is a surprising delight in the heart o Casablanca. French transmedia installation designer Miguel Chevalier created magic on the floor by projecting animation that turned the institution's massive floor into a multicolored, reactive art experience.

In the artist's very own words.
Magic Carpets revisit the tradition of the Islamic art, in particular the mosaic and the carpets.
A huge light carpet covers the floor of Sacré Coeur church. When the viewer moves, the trajectory of the curves is disrupted under their feet. This world of colors and forms in movement, invites us into the magic universe of the "Arabian Nights" and the flying carpets with the music of Michel Redolfi.
This installation has been made possible thanks to the French Institut et de Voxels Productions.

Having a proven track track record of capturing the workings of life, BBC in conjunction with SEGA Corporation presents us with Orbi. It is a feast for your sesnses and a drama that you want to participate to give those neurons of yours a good conditioning. “By partnering with SEGA and fusing our nature expertise with their innovative technology we are able to bring people closer to natures wonders than would ever be possible in real life using the magic of technology to create a truly extraordinary entertainment experience with our amazing planet at its heart.”
Amanda Hill, BBC Worldwide’s Chief Brands Officer

A fascination with nature is shared by us all. Through our Partnership with the global brand ‘BBC Earth’ we've created an attraction that is unique and different from other entertainment facilities and it is our intention that Orbi Yokohama will be a showcase for partners across the world. We aim to roll out this first entertainment experience of its kind globally. I, as a representative of this project, am truly looking forward to sharing Orbi’s unforgettable nature experience with people all over the globe." Mr Tsurumi, President and COO, SEGA Corporation

Orbi is a mul-tisensory  “supercharged nature experience”  that challenges you to indulge in all the 5 sense participation and explore our planet as a giant interactive. Journey through the deep sea, the artics, the jungles and the skies above all "awakened to life using physical sensations, astonishing imagery, high-tech sound installations and scent technology."

Explore Orbi: The Supercharged Nature Experience

Want to indulge in the 5 senses on brand marketing?
You might want to check out this Visual Look Book and learn how to engage all five senses in brand communication.

"Content marketing is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have. It’s imperative that businesses create content on an ongoing basis. They can’t create just any old content, of course. It must be relevant and high quality. It also must be valuable and drive profitable customer interactions. And it must be about customer needs and customer interests, not ad-speak, which is all about the “me"."
Rebecca Lieb

For you content marketers, as you drown in the massive content creation craze here are some tools that you might want to explore for creation, curation and ideation!
       
Quora is good at getting people to open up. It discerns your interests before deciding which questions, topics and people to show you. Without overt prodding, Quora teaches users to put their experience into their answers in the form of short biographies related to the question.

Topsy "specializes in analyzing the global conversation on Its tools can decipher how often a term is tweeted, find an influential person on a specific subject, or measure the exposure of an event or campaign."

SocialMention seeks out content according to your search parameters across the social web and analyzes sentiment.

Zemanta is a semantic content discovery personal assistant, listening to your needs and bringing back the information you need in real time. It’s a great tool for inspiration and research as well as engaging your audience with more relevant content, especially if you aren’t a high-volume publisher.

Evernote is my brain dump. It lets you save voice recordings, text, pictures, and entire web pages to a cloud account you can access from any computer or mobile device.

Ubersuggest takes your word or phrase and instantly generates thousands of keyword ideas from real user queries! Use the keywords to get inspiration for your next blog post, or to optimize your PPC campaigns.

SocialMention  helps you keep track of your brand and keeps you on the cutting edge of your industry. Drop a keyword in their search tool and you’ll pull up results like the latest mentions across the search world.

Twitter List helps you keep track of industry influencers, customers, journalists… any group of people whose real-time conversations might inform your content creation decisions.

“With Bottlenose Nerve Center, it is now possible to know what the world thinks and feels at precisely this moment. Nerve Center helps brands, agencies, and enterprises understand the trends that are impacting them in real-time, so they can amplify the positives and tamp the negatives.”

Jing records everything you see and do. From simple mouse movements to a fully narrated tutorial. Jing videos are limited to five minutes for instant, focused communication.

Here are two articles that I found very helpful!
http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/04/11-content-creation-tools/#ptlink.fid=8947&isc=1&did=bookmark.3a64e6e1aed2e1ab0fb5f3b6d89a593b90065257&ctp=article

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/17-social-media-tools/

Image credit: http://adsoftheworld.com/

Apple’s announcement of the iBeacon functionality as part of its iOS7 technology is a game-changer for how businesses will conduct location-based marketing in the future. Think of iBeacon as a form of micro-location geofencing that makes it much easier for retailers to use a person’s exact location within a store to deliver targeted, relevant content, says Dave Walters, Product Strategist, Silverpop.

Here’s how it works: A customer with an iPhone 4S or later model who’s downloaded your app walks into your store. The iBeacon in the customer’s phone exchanges data with beacons in your store. Your system has been configured to send push notifications to customers who meet certain criteria, so at the moment the customer strolls into Aisle 12, they receive a push notification on their phone with offers or content related to where they’re standing.

The possibilities are endless. You could use iBeacon to serve up customized coupons, says Dave, send sales alerts based on real-time external data (such as weather changes), display personalized product information and videos, curate shopping lists based on past purchases, and drive email opt-ins. Moving beyond mobile, you could use iBeacon activity to trigger communications in other channels.  Learn More on iBeacon and the next generation of location based marketing.

With more than 46% of the web searchers using mobile extensively, the release of Google Hummingbird demands mobile responsive website design. Without it, your website ranking will be seriously compromised.

Find Ways to Create Mobile-First Content
Mobile-first also impacts your content creation process and cycle. Here are some key things to consider when you’re developing topics, writing content, and thinking about dissemination:

Short content tends to play better on mobile. Yet long posts are necessary for great SEO. The work around: use introductions to your blog posts as the hook to target your mobile readers.
Visual and Audio Content: Are you using visual content such as images, infographics, video, and micro-video to support your content efforts? Mobile users devours visual content much easier and faster than text-based content
Socially Friendly: Are you crafting socially sharable content? Mobile users tend to have a high degree of social shares and this can be a great way to build your shares with minimal effort.
Target Specific: Why not use Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to determine what people are doing on your site. Are they shopping? If so, product guides would be a great way to focus your content development. Are they looking for industry trends, then you need to furnish them with materials that talks about your industry. When you have a better understanding of how your mobile audience is spending their time, you’ll be in an excellent position to develop topics of interest. Read more.

Make Google Hummingbird work for you. Come up with a list of the 5-10 most frequently asked questions—either about your products or how to use them and create one or more blog posts that answer each of those questions. Now your website transforms from being all about you to how it can benefit your prospects and clients.