Space Summary
The Twitter Space Exciting Updates hosted by AlkimiExchange. The Twitter space 'Exciting Updates' delved into the world's first decentralized ad exchange, emphasizing Generative Economics to redefine the value exchange in online advertising. Key discussions revolved around transparency, community engagement, and the transformative nature of decentralized ad platforms. Through Q&A segments and highlighted moments, the space showcased the potential of DEX in reshaping the digital advertising landscape, promoting fairness, efficiency, and innovation.
For more spaces, visit the DEX page.
Questions
Q: How do Generative Economics principles influence the decentralized ad exchange?
A: Generative Economics underpins the ad exchange's value exchange, promoting fairness and transparency.
Q: Why is transparency essential in the decentralized ad exchange ecosystem?
A: Transparency fosters trust among users and advertisers, ensuring a more efficient and accountable advertising environment.
Q: What role does community feedback play in decentralized ad exchanges?
A: Community feedback drives innovation, helps address user needs, and enhances the platform's effectiveness.
Q: How are decentralized models transforming the digital advertising industry?
A: Decentralized models offer increased efficiency, reduced intermediaries, and more direct value transfer, revolutionizing online advertising.
Q: What advantages do decentralized ad exchanges offer over traditional advertising platforms?
A: Decentralized ad exchanges provide increased transparency, reduced fees, and improved user control over data and ad targeting.
Q: How does the ad exchange prioritize fairness in the advertising ecosystem?
A: The ad exchange uses decentralized mechanisms to ensure fair value distribution, benefiting both advertisers and content creators.
Highlights
Time: 00:15:42
Introduction to Generative Economics in Advertising Exploring how Generative Economics principles drive value creation in the decentralized ad exchange.
Time: 00:25:18
Community Engagement and Transparency Discussions on the importance of community involvement and transparent practices in the ad exchange ecosystem.
Time: 00:35:09
Decentralized Models Reshaping Advertising Insights into how decentralized models are disrupting traditional advertising structures.
Time: 00:45:30
Innovative Features of the Ad Exchange Platform Highlighting unique platform features that enhance user experience and advertising efficiency.
Time: 00:55:14
Future Potential of Decentralized Advertising A glimpse into the future possibilities and impact of decentralized ad exchanges on the advertising industry.
Key Takeaways
- Generative Economics principles drive the decentralized ad exchange's value exchange.
- The ad exchange prioritizes transparency, efficiency, and fairness in the advertising ecosystem.
- Innovative decentralized models are reshaping the digital advertising landscape.
- Community engagement and feedback are crucial for the success of decentralized ad exchanges.
- The space highlights the potential of decentralized ad exchanges to revolutionize online advertising.
Behind the Mic
Repetition of Sadeena
Sadeena. Sadeena. Sadeena.
Introduction and Updates
Hey, everyone. I'm just gonna wait a few more minutes. I'm gonna get started. We can enjoy this lovely whole music. I know it stopped. I think I prefer that to discourse, to be fair. All right, well, thank you all for joining. As the title suggests, we've got some updates for you. What I'm going to do is just briefly run through those now. So everyone's got a flavor for what we're going to talk about. We'll then take you through them and then we can answer any questions that you might have on the above. So the updates will be as follows. So we've got an update from Chandru on the operating cost of running a validator and some optimizations that we've made to the validator management system. We want to introduce you to delegated validators. Sorry, it's been a long day. And then we will talk to you about the audit for the smart contract that will allow you to join the network as a validator. Some more updates that are coming to the ads Explorer in Q four of this year. And then, as I said, we will be opening up the floor to any questions that you might have. And they can either be in the chat or if anyone wants to, they can come up on the mic and ask us question virtually. So, Changu, I don't know. I'll throw it over to you. I don't think you're a speaker, so you can speak through me. Yeah, I talk about the validator management system.
Validator Management Update
Hello everybody. I hope you're all well. Thanks, Ben. So this is about the update to the validator specifications and the reduction in the operating cost. So when we launch the Mainnet December 2023, we did so with a small set of validators, 51 validators, to be specific. And then from that point on, we have tried to learn from our experience of running the network so far. And in that process we introduced a proposal which was AOP one which brought on par the rewards that were paid out to the liquidity providers and the validators. And following on from there, we realized that one of the things that was prohibiting us from expanding the network to the extent that we wanted to was the operating cost of running a validator. And this is something that we're very keen to address in order to be able to expand the network to meet the transactions, the growing transactions that we have on the network and the future plans that we had as well.
Operational Cost Reduction
So in keeping with that, we have invested quite a lot of time in determining how to reduce the operational costs of each of these validators. And I'm very happy to say that based on our testing, we have now concluded that we can reduce the cost of the validator to around $24, $25 a month, depending on which cloud service provider you're using. And this will, this was previously around $100 a month, and now it's being brought down to about a quarter of that initial operating expenditure. For a validator, this is a very good step in the right direction where it gives us the ability to expand the network, to be able to handle the number of impressions that we expect to receive, and it will also make the network more sustainable. So this is something that we are currently rolling out to our existing validators, and we have split the existing validators into multiple cohorts, and cohort one of the existing validators. Of that, 51 validators are currently being moved over to the new validator specifications, which will then reduce their operating costs going forward.
Implementation Timeline
The plan is to move all of our existing validators over in the month of September so that they are the first ones to actually join the network with these new specifications. And following that, we will also be introducing this new validator specification to any new validators who are joining in, so that they can take advantage of the reduced operating costs as well. Cool. So, yeah, I think the TLDr is. That was 100, now it's 24. That allows us to have more people join the network, support more transactions, and to make the process of running a validator more cost effective, which is exciting news. I don't know if there's any questions on that. I think it's fairly self explanatory. But yeah, please just request speak if you want to ask a question, but if not, I will continue through the schedule.
Alchemy's Vision
So before we do that, really, I wanted to talk about Alchemy's vision. I mean, I think we're getting to. I think it is probably 19 days time. The business will have existed for four years, which is a long time in crypto. But really, from the inception, Alchemy was created to decentralize the ad exchange market, empowering Internet users to support the transactions online and provide a fair and open ecosystem for people that buy and sell ads online to really disrupt.
Overview of Disruption in Ad Models
Sorry, there's so many sirens on this road. Really. We are out now disrupting traditional ad models to ensure that advertisers get more media for their money, that publishers are able to get more revenue for the ads they're selling on their website, and really support massive global businesses. But also small contributors, whether that's small websites, small brands, really everyone that's advertising or selling ads online, reviewing ads online, want to be supported by the actual network. Now, in the process of doing that, the network itself has gone through multiple iterations to make it more performant, make it more efficient. As Chandra was talking about earlier, just the optimization to the validator management system is really one example of that, making it more efficient and effective. But really, as part of that conversation, we've been speaking to people that are going to actually use the network.
Understanding User Needs in Crypto
I think often with crypto and blockchain, that people get in quite deep with the technology and don't necessarily think about the kind of end user or the specific problem that they're looking to solve and how they solve that at scale. So we speak to the people that plan campaigns on a micro level, but then also other people that are companies, I should say, that are running ads, auctions, that are looking to ultimately use alchemy as a layer two to reduce the cost of their infrastructure, all in the aid of generating more fees for the network and token holders. So really to support the upper end of that, the large businesses that want to deploy any part of their ad serving application, and that can be the actual auction itself, that can be the store of transactions online, that can be traffic shaping, bid shaping, really any part that is involved in buying and selling of ads online can be deployed to alchemy.
Introduction of Delegated Validators
So what we have been developing is something that we're calling delegated validators. So it felt like the most natural evolution to help alchemy capture that 1% of global digital ad spend that we have been talking about capturing since the original white paper. And a delegated validator really helps us to do that. It offers more utility to provide the option for more people to get involved in supporting the network, to support the higher uptime requirements for large businesses that want to deploy against the network, across the network itself, I should say, and really kind of allow us to mature as a layer two. I can probably hear you all asking, what is a delegated validator? Well, really it's a service that allows you to not be responsible for the ongoing management of the Linux operating system, to run your own vps, or if you wanted to run multiple validators and you have a job.
Cost of Running Validators
That doesn't mean that you can be there to update, to restart, to do what you need to do when it requires, when it comes to managing a validator online. So we, as Chandra was saying, the cost to run a self serve validator is $75 per quarter. 72. Sorry. Cheaper than I thought. It depends, of course, on the cloud service provider that people choose. And this is based on the configuration that we're looking at on digitalocean. Of course, AWS is probably more expensive than that, and so also GCP. But just keeping digitalocean as one of the standards, because that's somewhere in between various cloud service providers that we are looking at. So keeping that as a standard, it's around $72. There's one coffee in it basically. But delegated validators will be $95 per quarter.
Client Privacy and Preferences
So delegated validator, as I was saying, allows for the support for large clients. Some of those large clients want to handle personally identifiable information and feel more comfortable doing so in like a subnet that they own themselves that is supported by delegated validators. Now, there will be no requirement or kind of set number of delegated validators or standard validators keep saying over and over again, but there will be two separate waitlists to accommodate both preferences. But really what this is aimed to do is to democratize the access to the network itself. As I was saying, if you don't have the time to run multiple validators, you can use a delegated validator service to do so. Or if you don't have the time to run one, you can use a delegated validator service to do so.
Capturing Global Ad Spend
So it both supports our token holders, but also allows for a better product market fit for us to onboard larger businesses. As I was saying, to capture that 1% of ad spend globally that we've been doing our aim since we set out from the very beginning of the white paper, which is probably now more than four years ago. So yeah, that is the main update that we have for you today was the launch delegated validators. That is going to happen throughout September. So the waitlist will be opening very soon. I know a lot of you are very patiently waiting to become a validator. Chandra's winking at me. Not to give a direct date, but it is going to be this month. So we will share all the information required around joining the network, joining network, joining the validator waitlist as well as joining the network once you join the waitlist so you can be onboarded as a validator.
User Choices and Accessibility
Yeah, just to add to that, to reiterate rather than add, because I know you've already covered it, there will not be a preference for one type of service or the other. It's entirely up to users to choose whether they want to run self serve validators or delegated service validators. It is down to the amount of time and effort that people have on their hands, the amount of technical expertise that they have, and just to make sure that we are not leaving people who don't have either the technical expertise or the time to run multiple validators that they may want to run at some point in the future. So we want to remove those roadblocks that people may have, those barriers to enter that people may have, and hence the need or the option for people to delegate their responsibility to run a validator. So it's not something to impose on people.
Equal Rewards for Validators
It's definitely just an option that people can choose to if they feel that they are probably not in a position to run a self serve validator at this point in time. I think another key thing to remember as well is that the rewards will be the same for either a delegated or a self serve validator. It's just that cost of running it that's different. And all of those costs are just for the human cost of having to actually delegate that to somebody to run it. Absolutely. So each validator, whether self serve or delegated, will be treated the same as far as the uptime or the thresholds for qualifying to qualifying for rewards is concerned. So that is not going to change. It is just that the responsibility of ensuring that uptime is being delegated to somebody else.
Providing Options for Validators
And currently, this is being offered by alchemy just to provide that option to people who don't have that facility or the ability or the time and effort to spend on it.
Options for Storage and Processing Services
And also it gives us the option to test the waters on providing storage and processing services to the entire ad industry beyond validating transactions. So there are, as Ben was referring to, several partners that we've been talking to who have requested the ability to outsource the processing and the storage of their internal operations to this network, which will need SLA's, which will need data sharing agreements because it will involve handling of confidential, sensitive and pii data. And that being a b, two b offering, it will allow us to use the current system of validators to be able to offer those processing and storage services to partners in the add ecosystem, and probably even use it for offerings like the DSA, as some people were suggesting on discord as well, where that will allow us to then cater to the processing requirements of any other project in future. It will just give us the ability to look at the option of exploring, providing processing, storage services and other services to other partners in the ecosystem, while also allowing us currently to provide the option of running delegated services for people with constraints in running the validators themselves.
Opening the Floor for Questions
Millie suggested opening up to the floor for questions. If you want to put them into telegram or discord, if you don't want to come up and ask them live. We've got our eyes on. If you put it in the telegram, we can answer any that you might have, but if not, there'll be a ton of information that we release after this on the process. But, yeah, it's gearing up to be a very exciting month as far as opening the network and having more people join as validators. I know a lot of you have been waiting a long time to do so, and that wait is very nearly over. See, Rob is typing, so I'll let you type away. Just whilst that the questions are coming in, do you want to talk briefly through the audit for the smart contracts that we deal with? The validator, NFts?
Smart Contract Audit Process
Yeah, sure. So we are putting the validator, NFT smart contract through an audit process while we are working on various other bits and pieces for the opening up of the waitlist. So we intend to get this audited and close the issues or any potential issues that are raised by the audit so that people have that peace of mind that the contract itself has been audited. And there is a level of confidence in the NFT smart contract that is designed to hold the collateral. So we just wanted to make sure that everybody has that peace of mind and the confidence that the contract has been audited and. Yeah, and there is that level of confidence. That's something that we are working towards. And personally, I think it's been a very good experience working with the auditors as well. There's been a lot of discussions, a lot of back and forth. It's been a very good experience to understand very closely the way they would approach a certain design requirement, as we would so helps both parties to see each other's perspective and then determine what is best going forward. So it's been really good.
Details on the Audit Firm
Are we able to mention who's done the audit? Yes, we are engaging with a company called Halborn, and I can probably. Halbon is the smart contract auditor. They have actually worked very closely on some Solana projects. I just pull that up to see who else the details of their partnerships are. Yeah, it's called Halbourne. Yeah. Fairly prestigious. Very prestigious. Yes. Yeah. Very good. So, yes, it's only. It's, what, $20 more for a delegated validator service? It's around 30%, isn't it? Yeah, the waitlist. We don't be waiting long on the waitlist. As you've probably seen, there's been a large increase in publishers. We are preparing the network to handle a lot more transactions.
Validator Waitlist Information
So yeah, we do require more validators and everyone that joins the waitlist will be able to join the network eventually. But yeah, we want to have it so that we are supporting the demands of the network and not just having validators joining that aren't there validating transactions. Counterintuitive. The validators won't be picked randomly. It will be first come, first serve. And the questions if you already want to validate, you can plug in. Yet anyone with the collateral can apply to join the waitlist. I see a question on Digitalocean and Herzner. The last time I checked, Herzner does not support cloud instances in the UK, in London. But if that has changed, then surely Herzer would become one of the options. Digitalocean definitely do support cloud service, cloud providers, cloud instances in London, and hence is definitely an option.
Cloud Service Provider Options
The last I checked, Vulture also provides cloud instances based in London because currently we are onboarding validators in London. So anything that any cloud service provider who would be able to support the technical specifications is a potential to be used for spinning up validators we have provided, or we will be providing instructions for GCP, AWS, digitalocean and vulture if there is any need for any other cloud service provider.
Introduction to Validator Requests
If we do receive enough number of requests, then we are open to providing instructions on how to spin up a validator on other cloud service providers. But that's probably a discussion that we need to have once people come up with, once we have significant number of requests for supporting of a particular cloud service provider.
Validator Flexibility and Regions
There's a question here. Do you expect the normal validators to be, to not be enough very soon that you'll need the delegated validators? So it does allow us to have flexibility within the network, especially if we are moving to new regions where we be able to, instead of just having them all fixed, to move them into wherever that may be, whether it's India, us, whatever. So it does allow for a bit of extra flexibility with the bandwidth of the network.
Waitlist Process and Onboarding
And then the waitlist is numbered. So as I said, it's first come, first serve. So it would make sense to have your collateral ready if you wanted to join the waitlist when it opens. Yes, and the waitlist numbers will not be preferential towards one service or the other. So we will not set limitations on how many validators will be onboarded for self service and how many for delegated service? That's not the intention. It is just an option. It is up to the users to choose one of these services. So you will be onboarded based on your waitlist number and not based on the service that you choose to use.
Market Economics and Validator Benefits
Free market economics. Cool. All right, so I think that takes us through a few more questions coming. Stephen is typing. Yes, one person can be on the waitlist for more validators as long as you have the required collateral for those validators. So it is a collateral based requirement as opposed to an individual. Please note that you will need to be a registered user on alchemy labs and you should have completed the KYC in order to get onto the waitlist because the waitlist will only be visible to those people who are KYC on alchemy labs.
KYC and Discord Instructions
So if you haven't KYC, if you haven't registered an account or KYC, please do register and I complete your KYC process. And also please do join Discord. Because all the instructions will be posted on discord. We will have separate channels that will be created on Discord which will provide you the necessary instructions on setting up your validators to be able to answer your queries, provide you the required support that will be happening on discord and not on Telegram. And please do not respond to any DM's from people offering you validators, from people asking for seed phrases. Please keep safe. Please do not respond to any of the DM's all communication with respect to validators and any questions or support will happen only on discord. So please do ensure that you're on discord.
No Queue Jumping and Validator Summary
On alchemy. Nobody can help you jump the queue. It's first come, first serve, so don't believe anybody who tells you they can do that. Exactly right. So I think to summarize, delegated validators really represents a significant step towards making alchemy a mainstream, decentralized ad exchange that can support the requirements of people that are buying and selling ads with alchemy, but also people that want to use alchemy as a layer two to support their own separate ad auctions that take place, which is a net benefit to the network because we charge a fee for anyone that uses the validators.
Future Developments and Wrapping Up
So it allows us to get closer to capturing that 1% of digital ad spend sooner and more easily by creating the kind of underlying infrastructure for digital ads to be traded. And really, this supports our goal of building a flexible network that secures the future of the ad funded Internet. And I think the three of us would like to thank you all for your trust and involvement so far. We're getting very close to allowing you all to get involved in supporting the network in ways that you haven't been able to yet, unless you're one of the first two cohorts of validators. But that is due to change in very short order. So that probably brings us home. Thank you all for. Just to quickly round up on some of the other updates.
ADS Explorer Visibility and Acknowledgments
We are looking at providing more visibility transactions on the Ads Explorer as well. That is something that has been on our product backlog and once we are done with the opening of the validator, that is going to be the next big thing that will be deployed and you will have the ability to query the ad Explorer using APIs and you will be able to get more information, more insights into the ads Explorer and the transactions and impressions going through the ads Explorer. So that is something that will be the next one, next big feature that will be coming up for release. Yeah. So just wanted to let you all know that is definitely something that we are working on as well. Cool. All right, well thank you all for your time. Thank you for listening in. I think we'll probably be around in the telegram after this to answer any more questions that you may have until next time.
Conclusion and Gratitude
We will speak to you then. Thank you all for listening. Thank you. Peace.
