2020’s Extraordinary Events
A Recapitulation of Our Phenomenal Growth Period at Constellation Network
Many have comments on 2020, most aren’t terribly positive. That’s not true here…. “Extraordinary” is a way we describe 2020 at Constellation Network. We firmly believe it was a year that we laid a foundation for further triumphs, for decades to come.
We Soared Great Heights in 2019 and We Flew into 2020
Our founders, core team, staff and community were supportive and encouraged the momentum at Constellation after our partnership with the United States Air Force in 2019. The Air Force, along with an increasing number of interested parties, have eyeballed the potential our unique underlying technology has to secure their data in an efficient and scalable manner.
A Sustainable Crypto with Scalable Solutions
Mentioning the long view in the context of crypto may seem unusual, but this has always been our position with our digital asset, $DAG, from the beginning. The Daily Chain’s Alex Smith has dubbed it a “future proof mindset.”
While many crypto endeavors pour their energy into hype, Constellation focuses on delivering cybersecurity and Big Data solutions. As Smith stated, “their actions show they are thinking far beyond the average crypto.”
Source: The Daily Chain, Alex Smith.
Thankfully, this is not just a decent-sounding philosophy.
Our software at Constellation is made to scale. In a landscape littered with architectures that cannot grow with burgeoning user bases and increasingly formidable use cases, Constellation is said to shine. As demand for commercial and industrial applications mounts, our ecosystem is poised to stand out even further.
Approaching Summer, We Celebrated the Death of Smart Contracts
In June our COO and co-founder Mathias Goldmann released a video titled Smart Contracts will be Dead. This discussion, with Wyatt Meldman-Floch, CTO and the team, explains the shortcomings of smart contracts. Earlier in the month, Wyatt recorded a brief explanation of how data flows work in state channels, Constellation’s answer to smart contracts. More broadly, the conversation between Mathias and Wyatt is about how Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) differs from blockchain.
“DeFi (decentralized finance) is a revolution, but all uprisings can implode with the smallest of hitch or get crushed by the boot of the established order. They are also mostly brought down from within.”
Constellation delivers decentralized solutions through a DAG instead of a traditional blockchain. A Hacker Noon article likens blockchains to staircases, and DAGs to trees. A staircase only goes one way, a tree can branch indefinitely and omnidirectionally. This scalability is one of our hypergraph’s key features. Again and again it translates into tangible benefits.
Molly Got A Makeover!
Version 1.2.0 of the Constellation wallet, called the Molly Wallet, was released in June. Equipped with a one click installer and compatible with all major operating systems, Java is no longer needed. Vito, the wallet’s creator, published an article just days earlier about how hypergraph connects to platforms like Kafka and Splunk. In the same article he presents some of the advantages of decentralization.
Although he tips his hat to Kafka’s craftsmanship, Vito notes that, along with operational expenses (as well as time spent in configuring and updating the software), it and solutions like it ultimately “cannot ensure data immutability if the system is compromised.” He goes on to list three advantages hypergraph has over these products:
- Guaranteed data immutability over the internet.
- High Availability. As long as there are nodes on the network, the network will never go down.
- No in-house Ops personnel are needed to guard the data and network.
Constellation Becomes Intergalactic
At July’s outset, we celebrated as Constellation became the first distributed ledger technology to be welcomed into the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center(ISAC). Initially founded as a nonprofit, its purpose is to collect, analyze, and report on industry-specific security threats. Space ISAC’s roster currently includes, Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, SES, MITRE, Northrup-Grumman, Parsons Corp, etc.
From their website:
“Space ISAC is the only all-threats security information source for the public and private space sector. It will be the most comprehensive, single point source for data, facts and analysis on space security and threats to space assets.”
Days later, Why Automotive Data Exchanges Fail in a B2B Environment was published and co-authored by Constellation CRO Benjamin Diggles and Sebastian Spitzer, Innovation Manager of Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket GmbH & Co KG, and Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) Head of Program Lucy Hakobya. The paper focuses on the issues with existing data marketplaces and challenges such as platform ownership and monetization, as well as data access and quality.
Constellation has been a member of MOBI since 2018. MOBI is facilitating the development of blockchain-based vehicle data and mobility standards. Mr. Diggles states:
Constellation is also active in the Connected Mobility Data Marketplace. CMDM includes insurance providers, advertisters, and others in the mobility data space. One of the key connections here is LiDAR (light detection and ranging). LiDAR collects data quickly, accurately, and in a largely automated fashion. However, it has points of failure stemming from scaling and processing, requiring a solution like Constellation’s Hypergraph.
These associations, as well as the obvious value DAGs bring to the area, prompted the DAG Research Council to highlight an extract of Deloitte’s report on blockchain in the automotive industry. The Stardust Collective mentions many of these points in their video, Constellation & Mobility — An Overview from Stardust.
July concluded with a virtual startup showcase entitled Enabling A Future-Ready Government, where Constellation was one of 12 participating companies. LMI facilitates formal and exclusive relationships between entrepreneurs and federal agencies.
Decentralized finance went mainstream in 2020. DeFi allows for traditional financial services, like loans, ecommerce, and even full-fledged exchanges, to be implemented trustlessly and transparently. Our consensus mechanism at Constellation Network has an appetite for complex data types and an affinity for microservices, making it an ideal foundation for DeFi applications as the team explains in their August AMA with the Satoshi Club.
This discussion set the stage for the introduction of Lattice Exchange. Lattice is a decentralized exchange (DEX). The DEX concept evolved partially in response to issues centralized exchanges have with transparency. While it is not the first of its kind, scalability is what separates Lattice from other DEXes, resulting in low transaction fees and high liquidity. Its features and benefits are explained by CEO Ben Jorgensen and COO Mathias “MateoGold” Goldmann in Lattice Exchange: A best in class DeFi project.
Interest was further compounded by an article on Yahoo Finance titled “Lattice secures investment from leading digital asset firms to propel growth.” In it GSR co-founder Cristian Gil is quoted as saying, “the innovations that companies like LTX [Lattice] are bringing to the market will solve many of the challenges that currently impede cryptocurrency market structure from reaching its full potential.”
At the October 15th Hillrise Capital AMA Ben Jorgensen and Mathias “MateoGold” Goldmann answered a number of “rapid fire” questions from the Hillrise Community, most were inquisitive about the Lattice Exchange in development. However, one question in particular, posed by Ray Reijnders, has remained in the community’s memory: “If tokenization of securities catches on will Constellation be open to tokenizing a specific product or a share of the company?”
To which Jorgensen replied, “Yes — absolutely. It would be a great use case. Think of all of the different rights, data, and aspects that go into a stock (voting, permissions, price, etc.) there is no way that a smart contract could secure all of that data (and then to be able to trade that asset and know that all of those features and aspects weren’t tampered with as it exchanged hands). This is where Constellation will shine.”
On the heels of this swelling enthusiasm for these seemingly limitless use cases, Moonrock Capital, a Blockchain Advisory and Investment Partnership, called our project, The Constellation Network, “the most promising DAG platform, targeting a fast growing market that faces huge demand for big data solutions.”
On the first day of September Alpha Sigma Capital (ASC) announced a series of DAG token purchases in support of our Constellation Network ecosystem. CEO Enzo Villani says “Constellation is set to become a market leader for Big Data cybersecurity.” ASC specializes in blockchain and, more specifically, in blockchain endeavors that have established user bases and real world cases.
We were very supported in autumn of 2020.
Only a few hours after Alpha Sigma Capital shared interest in our builds, on that same day, the Stardust Collective outlined our applications for safeguarding patient information — such as medical history, social security numbers, and financial records. SDC’s article is a timely reminder that health IT’s security measures are largely not up to snuff.
The author alleges the problems stem from healthcare’s “focus on consolidating antiquated security tools (that are inherently flawed), rather than focusing resources on modern solutions.”
Medical professionals have to routinely access data from multiple endpoints, as they may be serving patients in different facilities. Distributed database systems are frequent targets of spoofing and breaches of data in transit. Constellation’s infrastructure is made to securely transition data, however complex, between its endpoints.
October finished with the unveiling of Lattice’s early backers, FBG Capital and Alphabit Fund. Both were effusive in their praise. Vincent Zhou, founder of FBG Capital, wrote “…we believe that Lattice will offer the best solution to the high transaction fees on Ethereum in DeFi. By leveraging the Constellation Hypergraph, Lattice will aggregate liquidity and execute trades at a much lower cost. Lattice and Constellation have the potential to become the new standard for decentralized trading.”
Alphabit CEO Liam Robertson seconds Zhou’s enthusiasm, “Lattice will usher in the new standard for decentralized exchanges to be on par with centralized exchanges and traditional securities. Lattice is set to spearhead the decentralized exchange movement to new highs by aggregating liquidity pools, lowering fees, and evolving market making algorithms.”
November was christened by a concise but dauntingly titled piece by the Stardust Collective: “Making Reliable Decisions Utilising Validated Data with a Cost-Effective Solution.” Inaccurate data, data leaks, and cybersecurity breaches carry a hefty price tag — costing the US economy over 3 trillion dollars a year.
Financial considerations aside, security breaches can do irreparable damage to an organization’s reputation and, as the author notes, “bad data leads to worse decisions, and as such organizations must establish robust data security infrastructures to avoid these potential threats.”
The author goes on to mention SPORE, a set of infrastructure tools within the Hypergraph product suite. It sits between data pipeline management tools like Kafka and Apache Storm, provides security, validation, and notarization.
In a brief video released at the end of November, Mr. Diggles discusses Constellation’s business momentum. One of the most notable parts is his mention of the team working with one of the largest players in real-time proof of compliance, as it pertains to tax audits. This was followed by an AMA where Mr. Diggles tackled questions about the Molly Wallet, state channels, and partnerships.
The success of this AMA and demand for more Q&A sessions led to the The Hypergraph Hour, a weekly meeting led by the Stardust Collective and Constellation/Lattice Communities, where members of the community discuss questions about Constellation, it’s history, roadmap, vision, underlying technology, applications, and partnerships. Stardust Collective plans to have guests from all interests and walks in life to come on the show and share their love for $DAG, Constellation and Hypergraph technology, in general.
Earlier in the year a community member spotted our logo emblazoned on Splunk’s partner page. Splunk, a company boasting a market value of over 28 billion dollars, could collaborate with Constellation on several fronts. This led to speculation about the nature of the partnership. Anticipation built until Mr. Diggles released a video in December with the long-awaited details. For those who want a superb introduction on how Constellation works for organizations like Splunk, it is a must watch.
All great years must come to an end
Constellation ended the year on a philosophical note. A Hacker Noon interview with Ben Jorgensen spanned the hypergraph gamut, including decentralized governance’s potential to produce an “existential cultural shift.” This is a reminder that technology as promising as hypergraph has the potential to become a ubiquitous part of our lives.
Marshall Mcluhan once wrote, “we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.”
The modern world is undeniably data driven. The proper management and protection of this precious resource will, we hope, produce safer, more abundant, more resilient, and more compassionate societies.
Those of us from the Constellation family thank you for your continued interest, love and support. Here’s to a fantastic 2021 with a ton more exciting news and developments on the horizon!
Join Constellation, Cybersecurity for Big Data
Constellation is the world’s only Blockchain technology designed for Big Data, providing infrastructure for an open decentralized data marketplace and an enterprise-grade software solution for data provenance and integrity.
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References by Order of Appearance
Constellation x Splunk // Partnership — Diggles 1 dec 2020
Constellation x Quant partnership
“Decentralized Governance is an Existential Cultural Shift”
Coffeetalk — Smart Contracts will be dead
https://medium.com/@armedvito/hypergraph-transport-protocol-180302fcd731
How Constellation is Different Than Blockchain | Constellation Network
Constellation & The Department of Defense: Strategic Alignment Overview
How Constellation is Different Than Blockchain
How Lattice Fixes the Trouble with Exchanges — The Daily Chain
Constellation’s Distributed Security Infrastructure for Healthcare | Constellation Network
NASA funding Blockchain solution for improved satellite communications — The Daily Chain
Constellation (DAG) Blasting Through 2020 — The Daily Chain
Quant Network and Constellation Network partnership represents a major step forward for Smart Cities
Constellation AMA hosted by Satoshi Club | by Stardust Collective | Medium
Mobility | Constellation Network
Authors and Artists:
Monthly Overviews by: “Aeon C,”
Leader in the Constellation Community https://aeonc.medium.com/
Authored by: Adam Alonzi
Adam is a writer, biotechnologist, documentary maker, futurist, inventor, programmer, and author of two novels. He is a Marketing Director for Lattice Exchange, Head of New Media for BioViva Sciences, interdisciplinary analyst for EthicsNet, a reviewer for the Millennium Project.
Advisory and Edited by: Alyze Sam
Sam is a refreshing blockchain strategist, a novel educator, and a vehemently driven advocate. First, dedicating her life to her patients in hospice nursing, Sam passionately embraced the world of financial technology after nearly losing her own life in 2014. Sam feels her destiny lies within serving her community and assisting other ‘underdogs’. She is actively achieving inspiring others as a Co-Founder at GIVE Nation, a children’s financial literacy AI/blockchain project that rewards altruistism. Sam is also passionate about her roles at: Constellation Network and the Lattice Exchange.
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