Meltem Demirors Advocates for DePINs and Sensible Regulation in Crypto Space

On November 22, 2024, the Sui Foundation announced a strategic partnership with Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, aimed at driving innovation within the Sui blockchain ecosystem. This collaboration is set to enhance the development of Sui, a Layer 1 and smart contract platform, by creating value opportunities for builders of blockchain-based solutions. Jameel Khalfan, Head of Ecosystem Development at Sui, highlighted that the partnership is a validation of Sui's technology, which was inspired by challenges in decentralized finance that Franklin Templeton is addressing. Franklin Templeton Digital Assets has been actively involved in blockchain technology for several years, focusing on building solutions, running node validators, and developing investment strategies. Their dedicated digital assets research team employs tokenomic analysis and data science insights to guide product development and investment decisions. Tony Pecore, SVP and Director of Digital Asset Management at Franklin Templeton, expressed excitement about the advancements being made by the Sui team, noting that blockchain technology has often faced technical limitations despite its growing interest. The Sui ecosystem is already home to innovative projects such as DeepBook, a decentralized finance solution akin to a central limit order book, and Karrier One, which supports a decentralized mobile network. Additionally, Sui has recently launched native USDC, providing users with direct access to a widely used stablecoin while mitigating risks associated with bridged assets. As a secure and scalable platform, Sui is positioning itself as a premier destination for application builders across various sectors, including gaming, DeFi, and tokenized securities.

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has emerged as a pivotal method for integrating large language models (LLMs) into specialized business applications, enabling the infusion of proprietary data into model responses. Despite its effectiveness during the proof of concept (POC) phase, developers often face significant accuracy drops when transitioning RAG into production. This issue is particularly pronounced during the retrieval phase, where the aim is to accurately fetch the most relevant context for a given query, a metric known as context recall. This article delves into strategies for enhancing context recall by customizing and fine-tuning embedding models, ultimately improving RAG's performance in real-world applications. RAG operates in two main steps: retrieval and generation. In the retrieval phase, the model converts text into vectors, indexes, retrieves, and re-ranks these vectors to identify the top matches. However, failures in this phase can lead to missed relevant contexts, resulting in lower context recall and less accurate generation outputs. One effective solution is to adapt the embedding model, which is designed to understand relationships between text data, to produce embeddings that are specific to the dataset being used. This fine-tuning allows the model to generate similar vectors for similar sentences, enhancing its ability to retrieve context that is highly relevant to the query. To improve context recall, it is essential to prepare a tailored dataset that reflects the types of queries the model will encounter. This involves extracting a diverse range of questions from the knowledge base, paraphrasing them for variability, and organizing them by relevance. Additionally, constructing an evaluation dataset helps assess the model's performance in a realistic setting. By employing an Information Retrieval Evaluator, developers can measure metrics like Recall@k and Precision@k to gauge retrieval accuracy. Ultimately, fine-tuning the embedding model can lead to substantial improvements in context recall, ensuring that RAG remains accurate and reliable in production environments.

The cryptocurrency market is witnessing significant developments, particularly with the Akash Network's DePIN protocol, which has recently crossed a billion-dollar market cap. This surge has led to a notable increase in the Akash price, reflecting growing investor confidence. Meanwhile, Solana is on the brink of achieving a new all-time high (ATH), with its market cap inflow allowing it to surpass BNB. The excitement surrounding Solana's impending ATH is not just a win for the platform but also for the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, showcasing its potential for mainstream adoption and robust development activity. In the realm of decentralized finance (DeFi), Lunex Network has emerged as a promising new player. This hybrid exchange offers a unique solution by facilitating cross-chain trading with over 50,000 trading pairs and a zero-fee structure. Lunex Network aims to simplify DeFi for both novice and experienced traders, making it more accessible to retail investors. With an impressive liquidity of $2.95 million already secured, Lunex is positioning itself as a key facilitator in the DeFi space, potentially democratizing access to this lucrative market. The rise of Akash Network, Solana, and Lunex Network highlights a broader trend towards decentralized innovation beyond traditional finance. Akash's recent 10% surge in the last 24 hours and a remarkable 36% increase over the past week emphasize its potential to disrupt conventional cloud services. As the demand for decentralized, trustless platforms grows, these tokens present exciting investment opportunities. With Solana nearing its ATH and Akash's momentum, investors are keenly watching these developments, while Lunex Network continues to attract attention with its DeFi offerings.

A year ago, the Tor Project made a significant decision to remove all ATOR Relays from their network, which sparked a vision for a new decentralized future. Instead of surrendering, the team aimed to create a self-scaling, trustless network designed to enhance privacy for users worldwide. Their goal is to disrupt the VPN market by combining speed, reliability, and user-friendliness through bespoke hardware, ultimately making private browsing accessible to billions. This vision has now materialized with the launch of the Anyone Network, which boasts an impressive 5000 active relays, establishing itself as one of the largest and fastest mixnets globally. Reflecting on the past year, the team expresses gratitude to their community for their unwavering support during challenging times. Despite the difficulties, the project demonstrated resilience and strength, showcasing the power of decentralization and community alignment. The leadership and engineering teams remained intact throughout the transition, empowering former community members to take on more significant roles within the ecosystem. The project has evolved into an open-source initiative, expanding from a single Smartweave registration protocol to over 30 active repositories contributing to blockchain technology, privacy, hardware, and applications. Looking ahead, the team acknowledges the journey is far from over, with plans to further decentralize the network following the transition to their AO distribution protocol. They emphasize that community governance will play a crucial role in maintaining the network's safety and performance. The spirit of ATOR is now emblematic of overcoming setbacks in the Web3 space, and the team is committed to transparency through regular updates. As they tackle the larger challenge of global privacy adoption, they remain dedicated to building a Web3 ecosystem that has the potential to transform lives.

Aethir is making significant strides in the blockchain space by integrating LayerZero to enhance its capabilities as a multichain AI and gaming ecosystem. This integration aims to bring the omnichain vision closer to reality, allowing for seamless interactions across different blockchain networks. Aethir’s native token, $ATH, will be available for testing on ZKSync, as announced on the platform's official X account. The integration with LayerZero will facilitate cross-chain operations, enabling users to move $ATH tokens effortlessly between various chains, thereby expanding the utility of the token within the ecosystem. The Aethir platform is built on a robust decentralized cloud infrastructure that supports AI and gaming applications. With over 43,000 high-quality GPUs, including more than 3,000 NVIDIA H100s, Aethir is well-equipped to handle complex AI computations. The network also features over 32,000 globally distributed Aethir Edge devices, enhancing its computational capabilities. The $ATH token plays a crucial role in this ecosystem, allowing stakeholders such as Aethir Checker Nodes, Edge device operators, and cloud hosts to participate in the network's growth and functionality. The collaboration with LayerZero will enable Aethir to transition to the Sophon ZK chain, enhancing its multichain capabilities and facilitating the execution of smart contracts across different blockchains. To further bolster its GPU cloud infrastructure, Aethir is also integrating Stargate’s omnichain liquidity protocol, which will simplify the exchange of $ATH tokens. This integration will provide access to unified liquidity pools, instant finality, and various staking and farming options. These advancements are designed to propel Aethir into a multichain future, ensuring that AI and gaming workloads can be accessed directly across multiple blockchain networks. As Aethir continues to innovate, it is set to play a pivotal role in the evolution of decentralized cloud solutions for the AI and gaming sectors.

Ike, a composable liquid staking protocol, has officially launched its Liquid Staking Token (LST), sA0, on the Aleph Zero mainnet. This launch represents a significant milestone for both Ike and Aleph Zero, a layer 1 blockchain known for its privacy features, scalability, and low transaction fees. The introduction of sA0 allows users to engage with the Aleph Zero network more flexibly, enabling them to stake their AZERO tokens while maintaining liquidity and earning rewards. This innovative approach aims to enhance the overall staking experience for users within the Aleph Zero ecosystem. The sA0 token not only provides liquidity for stakers but also integrates seamlessly with Aleph Zero's expanding DeFi ecosystem. This integration enhances the utility and value of sA0, encouraging more users to participate in staking, which in turn supports the network's security and resilience. By allowing users to receive sA0 tokens in exchange for their staked AZERO, the protocol ensures that users can remain liquid while still benefiting from staking rewards. This dual advantage is expected to attract a wider audience to the Aleph Zero platform. Stephen Novenstern, the Founder of Ike, expressed his enthusiasm regarding the mainnet launch, highlighting the importance of community involvement in the governance of the protocol. He emphasized that the launch of sA0 is just the beginning of Ike's commitment to creating a decentralized and community-driven ecosystem. Looking ahead, Ike plans to expand the utility of sA0 and introduce governance features that empower the Aleph Zero community to shape the future of the platform, marking a promising development in the realm of liquid staking protocols.