Source: https://www.helius.dev/blog/how-to-set-up-a-solana-validator

How to Set Up a Solana Validator

This post will focus on getting a Solana mainnet validator up and running from a technical perspective. We will set up tools and configs to make ongoing operations easier, but more advanced validator operations will be out of scope. Also, the economics of running a validator, including topics like attracting stake and applying for subsidies, will be out of scope for this post. As a brief aside, those interested in running a validator should use Cogent Crypto's Validator Profit Calculator to estimate a validator's earnings for a given hypothetical scenario.
This post assumes familiarity with basic system administration on Linux. You don’t have to be a programmer or a systems administration expert to run a validator, but you need to be comfortable running commands in the terminal, basic shell scripting, and working with configuration files.
If you don’t know much about Linux systems administration but would like to learn more, there are many great starting points, such as Linux Journey.

Terminology: What is a Solana Validator?

The Solana CLI tool suite contains the solana-validator binary, which can:

• Connect to a Solana cluster, and sync the current cluster state
• Produce, receive, and share snapshots and other cluster data to stay up-to-date
• Vote to verify new blocks as part of the cluster consensus
• Process incoming transactions and produce new blocks
• Expose RPC and event-driven APIs to allow the cluster data to be queried and new transactions to be submitted

A Solana validator can also be called the client (since it connects to the network of validators and requests data), server (since it handles requests from and provides data to other validators), or node.
An RPC node is an unstaked, non-voting Solana validator that keeps track of all the network’s information. This means that they only respond to data requests and do not participate in consensus.
The term “Solana Validator” can also refer to an entity within the Solana ecosystem that runs a staked, voting Solana validator and participates in the consensus.
More information about the distinction between RPCs, RPC providers, and validators can be found here.

Starting Off: Get the Server Hardware

You will need a beefy computer dedicated solely to operating the validator and a second one if you want to run validators in both testnet and mainnet. Currently, the minimum recommendation is 12 cores/24 threads, 256GB RAM, 2x 1TB SSD disks (ideally w/ RAID0), and a 10GB internet connection. The hardware requirements can be found in more detail here.
If you are tempted to save costs by only running in mainnet, be aware that you must run a testnet validator to qualify for the Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP).
You can purchase and operate the hardware yourself or rent hardware from a data center provider (we recommend TeraSwitch). You can also rent from a cloud computing provider, but we do not recommend this since it is often cost-prohibitive and more prone to performance issues. Solana Foundation Server Program aims to make it easier for validator operators to rent hardware from data center operators. Find out more here.
To help decentralize the network, you may want to consider ASNs and cities that do not already have a lot of Solana nodes or stake. Some staking pools and the SFDP will reward you based on decentralization by ASN and city.
The top current data centers can be found here.

Install the Solana CLI Locally

Having a local install of the tools is highly recommended, so you can generate all the necessary keys locally and keep the withdrawal key away from the validator server. Instructions on how to set up the Solana CLI locally can be found here.
Once the tools are available locally in your command line, configure them to point to testnet by default:

$ solana config set --url https://api.testnet.solana.com

​
For mainnet, you can point to the default endpoint here:

$ solana config set --url https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com

​
The public mainnet endpoints are often oversaturated with requests. If you are not satisfied with the performance, you can sign up for Helius and use your Helius endpoint like so:

$ solana config set --url https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com/?api-key=

​
Setting up and bootstrapping the validator will require executing transactions, so you must have a wallet set up with some SOL in it. If you’re just getting set up with testnet, you can create a default wallet and airdrop yourself some SOL with the following commands:

$ mkdir -p ~/.config/solana
$ solana-keygen new --outfile ~/.config/solana/id.json
$ solana airdrop 1 ~/.config/solana/id.json

It is highly recommended to use different wallets for testnet and mainnet. Since the key format is the same, the same keys can be used on both, but resist the temptation to do this. If you use the same keys for funded wallets on testnet and mainnet, it is easy to execute commands intended for testnet on mainnet accidentally.
Read more about generating keys here, along with some more secure key-generation methods.

Set up Vote Account

Your validator’s vote account is created using the solana create-vote-account command and three keypairs:

• Identity Keypair - The validator uses this key pair to identify itself to the network and submit transactions such as votes. The private key will need to live on the server, so the best security is to not keep any more SOL in it than is needed for voting transactions (roughly 1 SOL/day).
• Vote Account Keypair - This key pair refers to the vote account itself, and is used to look up the vote account and delegate stake against it. The create-vote-account command only needs the private key to prove that you own the requisite key. After the vote account is created, only the public key is ever needed. This cannot be changed.
• Withdraw Keypair - This key pair acts as a master key for the vote account, and is used to withdraw rewards, change the identity or withdraw key, and other account operations. This key is by far the most sensitive of the three and should not be generated on or copied to your server. For mainnet, consider using a paper wallet, a hardware wallet, or a multi-sig for this key.

Create the Keypairs

Create the keypairs for testnet as follows:

$ solana-keygen new -o identity.json
$ solana-keygen new -o vote.json
$ solana-keygen new -o withdraw.json

Optional: Use a Paper Wallet for the Withdraw Key

A paper wallet is a 12 (or 24) word phrase written down on a sheet of paper, then entered via keyboard whenever the key is needed to sign something. If you are not planning on setting up a multi-sig, the added security this provides is appropriate for the mainnet withdrawal key since it gives root access to your vote account. Run this command:

$ solana-keygen new --no-outfile

​
Write down the phrase that is shown on a piece of paper. You may also want to note the pubkey, the exact command you used to create the key, and the solana-keygen --version. Be aware that different schemes for converting the passphrase into a private key exist. Before you put the sheet away, verify that you can use it to access the key:

$ solana-keygen verify ASK

NOTE: as of this writing, the ASK and prompt:// placeholders have different key decoding behavior. Make sure you are aware of which one works for your key.
Absolutely do not lose the piece of paper with the key written down, as there is no other way to recover it. Don’t forget to clear the key phrase out of your terminal buffer.

Optional: Grind for a Vanity Key for Vote Account

Some validators have vanity pubkeys for identity or vote account keys. For example, the Helius validator has HEL1USMZKAL2odpNBj2oCjffnFGaYwmbGmyewGv1e2TU for our identity key, and he1iusunGwqrNtafDtLdhsUQDFvo13z9sUa36PauBtk for our vote account. You make these with the grind sub-command as follows:

$ solana-keygen grind --starts-with PREF1X:1

This sub-command will generate a key whose pubkey begins with PREF1X, which can be any valid base58 string you specify. This works by generating keys until it comes across one that matches the criteria, so it takes an exponential amount of time based on the length of the prefix you want.
The vote account key cannot be changed, especially once you advertise it and people start delegating stake to it, so if you want a vanity key, now is the time to do it.

Create the Vote Account from the Keypairs

Once the keypairs are ready to go, create the vote account itself as follows:

$ solana create-vote-account --fee-payer ~/.config/solana/id.json vote_account.json identity.json withdrawal.json

Here, vote_account.json is the vote account keypair, identity.json is the validator identity keypair, withdrawal.json is the withdrawal authority keypair, and ~/.config/solana/id.json is a wallet with SOL in it that will be used to pay for the vote account creation.
If you used a paper wallet for the withdrawal keypair, your command could look like this:

$ solana create-vote-account --fee-payer ~/.config/solana/id.json vote_account.json identity.json ASK

​
You can check on the vote account (or any vote account) with this command:

$ solana vote-account

At this point, the identity keypair will be needed to run the validator server, the withdrawal keypair will need to be kept secret and used only for vote account withdrawals and changes, and the vote account keypair will no longer be needed (just don’t forget the pubkey).
More info on vote accounts can be found here.

Optional: Set the Commission

The create-vote-account takes the commission as an optional parameter, but by default, it is 100%, implying your validator is private. If you want to attract external stake to your mainnet validator, you will likely need to choose a lower commission.
If our vote account pubkey was , we wanted to pay for the change from our id.json funded wallet, we had a paper wallet withdrawal key, and we wanted to set the commission to 8%, we could do it like so:

$ solana vote-update-commission --fee-payer ~/.config/solana/id.json 8 ASK

Optional: Add a Multi-sig

A multi-sig is a special type of wallet where the signatures of one or more other wallets are required in order to execute transactions, and can be used to share custody of the vote account between multiple people. Even if you manage the validator yourself, you may still want to consider a multi-sig to add others to the vote account later easily.
Squads is a multi-sig tool for Solana that comes with functionality specifically for managing shared validators. To set up the validator in Squads:

1. Set up your browser with a supported Solana wallet plugin, such as Backpack
2. Navigate to the Squads dApp
3. Configure a squad with the desired people and parameters you’d like for your validator
4. Navigate to Developers > Validators, and go through the flow to add the validator
5. You will be asked to paste in the withdrawal private key, this will be used to change the existing withdrawal key over to the squad’s shared withdrawal key
6. Verify the updated withdrawal pubkey using solana vote-account

More on using Squads for shared validator management can be found here.

Configure your Machine as a Validator Server

Your steps will vary depending on the starting point of your machine, but the goal is to end up with:

• Ubuntu’s latest LTS version, installed and up-to-date
  • Other Linux distributions (i.e., Debian-based) may work as well, but all examples here assume Ubuntu; the further you go from Ubuntu, the more you will have to modify the commands
• User-level SSH access configured
• sol service user set up
• System tuning and hard disks set up

System and User Setup

Make sure your system is up-to-date, and create the sol service user:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo adduser sol

You may also want to give sudo access (this trades off some security for convenience):

$ sudo adduser sol sudo

System Tuning

Add the recommended settings from Solana Labs to sysctl and systemd to increase the limits on how many file descriptors, memory-mapped files, etc., are allowed. When your validator is the current or upcoming block leader, the entire network will be trying to open connections and send it transactions, so the file descriptor limit is particularly important.
The latest system tuning settings recommended by Solana Labs can be found here.

Hard Drive Configuration

The current recommendation from Solana Labs is that you should have 2 physical 1TB+ SSDs, one for accounts data and one for ledgers data (the O/S can also be on this disk). They do not recommend having accounts and ledgers on the same disk due to high IOPS.
Here is their guide on how you set up the 2 drives.
An alternative way of leveraging multiple drives to increase the available IOPS is to configure them together in a single RAID0 volume and let the RAID controller optimize which stripes are stored on what drive to maximize the IOPS capacity of both drives. This also makes it possible to add additional drives to the RAID to increase IOPS further if needed. We have not yet had any performance issues running a validator in this configuration.
If you are using a single RAID0 volume, all you need to do is set up the validator data directories on your volume, which can be done directly under the sol user home:

$ sudo su sol
$ mkdir -p /home/sol/accounts
$ mkdir -p /home/sol/ledger
$ mkdir -p /home/sol/snapshots
$ mkdir -p /home/sol/logs

Install the Solana CLI on the Validator Server

Repeat the steps above to install the Solana CLI, except this time on the validator server as the sol user. When installing to the validator server, building from source is highly recommended.
If you use the Solana install tool, you can use the solana-install command to perform future updates to new versions (which you must do to continue participating in the cluster).

Optional: Install the Jito Validator Client

Jito Labs has forked the Solana validator and released its own version, adding Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) capability. MEV is the idea of adding or reordering transactions within a block you are creating, in order to profit. Jito has created a market for people who want to pay a premium to do this (”searchers”). If you run the Jito validator, they will send you MEV transaction bundles for your validator to include in the blocks it creates in exchange for an extra tip.
The Jito validator adds some complexity and latency to your validator operations, but adds MEV tips as an additional revenue source. The configuration is mostly the same, except you will have to look into additionally:

• Collecting and managing MEV tips
• Latency from the Jito block engine
• Possibly running a Jito relayer

Instructions to install Jito’s validator client can be found here.

Create Validator Run Scripts

Create validator.sh Shell Script

First, copy your validator identity keypair to the remote server:

$ scp identity.json [remoteuser@your.validator.host](mailto:remoteuser@your.validator.host):/home/sol

​
The standard way to manage the configuration of your validator is by wrapping it in a shell script. Create a script as a starting point and make it executable:

$ sudo su sol
$ cat >/home/sol/validator.sh < #!/bin/bash
PATH=/home/sol/.local/share/solana/install/active_release/bin:$PATH
exec solana-validator \
--identity /home/sol/identity.json \
--vote-account \
--known-validator 5D1fNXzvv5NjV1ysLjirC4WY92RNsVH18vjmcszZd8on \
--known-validator 7XSY3MrYnK8vq693Rju17bbPkCN3Z7KvvfvJx4kdrsSY \
--known-validator Ft5fbkqNa76vnsjYNwjDZUXoTWpP7VYm3mtsaQckQADN \
--known-validator 9QxCLckBiJc783jnMvXZubK4wH86Eqqvashtrwvcsgkv \
--only-known-rpc \
--log /home/sol/logs/solana-validator.log \
--accounts /home/sol/accounts \
--snapshots /home/sol/snapshots \
--ledger /home/sol/ledger \
--rpc-port 8899 \
--dynamic-port-range 8000-8020 \
--entrypoint entrypoint.testnet.solana.com:8001 \
--entrypoint entrypoint2.testnet.solana.com:8001 \
--entrypoint entrypoint3.testnet.solana.com:8001 \
--expected-genesis-hash 4uhcVJyU9pJkvQyS88uRDiswHXSCkY3zQawwpjk2NsNY \
--wal-recovery-mode skip_any_corrupted_record \
--limit-ledger-size
EOF
$ chmod +x /home/sol/validator.sh

​
These settings are appropriate to get up and running quickly and safely on testnet. Once everything is set up, you will need to come back to this script and run solana-validator --help to see the full list of configuration options and customize it.
Try bringing up the validator using the script:

$ ./validator.sh

The first time it comes up, it will need to catch up to the current state of the cluster.

Verify the Validator is Running Correctly

You can follow your (or anyone’s) externally visible progress from anywhere in the cluster using:

$ solana catchup

​
You can see its progress internally from a session as the sol user with:

$ solana-validator --ledger /home/sol/ledger monitor

​
More info for checking on whether your validator is connecting to the cluster properly can be found here.

Set Up Validator as a Daemon Process)

Create a systemd unit file to have it managed as a daemon:

$ sudo cat >/etc/systemd/system/sol.service < [Unit]
Description=Solana Validator
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=sol
LimitNOFILE=1000000
LogRateLimitIntervalSec=0
ExecStart=/home/sol/validator.sh
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

​
Make sure your earlier ./validator.sh invocation is no longer running, then bring up the validator as a daemon:

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable --now sol

Set Up Monitoring and Security

Disable Password-based Authentication

In your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, the SSH daemon can be set to not accept password or challenge-response login methods:

...
PasswordAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
...

Don’t forget to reload the sshd daemon with the new config:

$ sudo systemctl reload sshd

Add fail2ban and ufw

fail2ban will work out of the box to ban any connections that fail to authenticate multiple times:

$ sudo apt install fail2ban

​
ufw is a firewall that comes with the system and can be set up with a few commands (assuming your final validator config uses the default ports and port ranges and hosts SSH on port 22):

$ sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
$ sudo ufw allow 8000:10000/tcp
$ sudo ufw allow 8000:10000/udp
$ sudo ufw enable

Validator Identity Keypair

In practice, most validators keep their identity key on the validator server so the validator script can run and be restarted without human intervention. However, it is possible to use ASK or prompt:// to pass in the identity key to the validator so it does not have to be kept on the validator server’s file system. Doing this increases your operational overhead and risk, since a human now has to stand in for systemd and manually manage the daemon process, but it’s possible.
The best strategy for securing your identity keypair is to fund only with the minimum amount of SOL needed to cover a few days of voting costs.
Shinobi Systems has put out some tooling to help manage vote accounts, including automatic balance transfers out of the vote account without using the withdrawal key every time.
See the Solana Labs page on validator security for more tips.

Set Up Monitoring with Watchtower

solana-watchtower is included in the Solana CLI toolkit, and can be used to alert on issues with your validator and the broader cluster. Configuring and running it can be done similarly to the validator itself by making a watchtower.shscript.
Here is an example where it uses PagerDuty for alerting and writes its logs to watchtower.log:

$ cat >watchtower.sh < #!/bin/bash
PATH=/home/solana/.local/share/solana/install/active_release/bin:/ussbin:/usbin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin
exec >>watchtower.log \\
env PAGERDUTY_INTEGRATION_KEY= \\
solana-watchtower \\
--validator-identity \\
--monitor-active-stake \\
--interval 20 \\
--minimum-validator-identity-balance 3 \\
--url https://api.testnet.solana.com
EOF

Solana Labs also has an example of how to set it up using Telegram for alerts.
Setting up watchtower on the same machine as your validator is not recommended because you will not get notifications if the entire machine goes down, but you may be able to get away with that if you have multiple forms of monitoring in place and can monitor for those cases separately.
Unlike the validator, watchtower is not resource intensive, and can be run from a cloud or serverless compute environment such as those offered by AWS or GCP.

Optional: Community-based Monitoring

There are many people within the Solana community that also monitor the cluster and are willing to provide alerting based on similar conditions offered by watchtower.
Stakewiz offers Telegram-based monitoring on Solana validators. For example, if you wanted alerting based on the Helius validator, you could navigate to its page, then click “+ Create Alert”.
Note that community-based monitoring is designed for people to be aware of issues with validators they stake with. As a validator operator you should not rely solely on others to monitor your services.

Optional: Custom Monitoring via getHealth RPC Method

If you would like to go straight to the source of your validator’s health, your validator’s JSON RPC interface has a method called getHealth that you can poll about whether your validator is healthy, and info about any problems.

Optional: Third Party Monitoring Solutions

Once your validator is scaled up and you have a revenue stream to protect, you may want to consider commercial-grade SaaS monitoring solutions such as Datadog or Splunk. These types of solutions usually work either by running a daemon process on your server, which monitors logs and metrics locally and exports them to the provider, or by making the getHealth or a similar status endpoint available and having the provider poll your validator remotely.

Add Stake to the Validator

The Solana network reaches consensus by a proof-of-stake (PoS) voting process, which means a validator’s voting weight is proportional to how much SOL stake is delegated to it, similar to how a stock corporation works if you think of staked SOL as shares. In addition to voting, the frequency at which your validator is the block leader is proportional to the amount of SOL staked to it.
There are many wallets, dApps, and other tools that make it easy to stake your SOL to existing validators, but here are the steps to do it manually with the CLI:

1. Create 3 keypairs using solana-keygen new
2. Create a stake account from the keypairs using solana create-stake-account
3. Transfer some SOL into the stake account (can be done with solana aidrop for testnet)
4. Delegate the deposited stake to a validator using solana delegate-stake
5. Await the next epoch for the stake to activate, and check with solana stake-account

Create Keypairs and Stake Account

The process of creating the keypairs and stake account parallels creating the vote account, where the 3 keypairs are as follows:

• Stake Authority Keypair - allows operational tasks on the stake account such as delegating, undelegating, splitting, merging
• Stake Account Keypair - the public key identifying the stake account itself (the private key is not needed after the stake account is created)
• Withdrawal Keypair - the master keypair for withdrawing stake and resetting authority keypairs on the stake account. Treat with care and consider a hardware wallet, paper wallet, or multi-sig

It is highly recommended to have separate keys for testnet and mainnet for the same reasons as the vote account. However, you can reuse a single stake authority and withdrawal authority keypair for multiple stake accounts within that cluster. Using the same keys for stake accounts is a prerequisite for merging them.
Here is an example of creating a stake account with 1 SOL on testnet using file-based wallets for the keypairs, funding it from your id.json wallet, and delegating that stake to your new validator:

$ solana-keygen new -o stake_auth.json
$ solana-keygen new -o stake_acct_1.json
$ solana-keygen new -o stake_withdrawal_auth.json
$ solana airdrop 1 ~/.config/solana/id.json
$ solana create-stake-account --from ~/.config/solana/id.json stake_acct_1.json 1 --stake-authority stake_auth.json --withdraw-authority stake_withdraw_auth.json --fee-payer ~/.config/solana/id.json
$ solana delegate-stake --stake-authority stake_auth.json --fee-payer ~/.config/solana/id.json

NOTE: refers to the address of the vote account, not the validator identity!
Now you can check up on it to see if the stake is activating and what epoch it will be active at:

$ solana stake-account

Once the next epoch begins and the stake is active, your validator’s votes will start counting, and you can view the recent votes as part of the solana vote-account command. If you only added a few SOL like in the example, do not expect your validator to become the block leader.
Voting costs about 1-2 SOL per day, so at the time of writing, it would cost your validator about $200-300/day just to vote on mainnet.
(More info on stake delegation and managing stake accounts).

Publish the Validator’s Information

If you browse the common Solana validator directories, such as validators.app, you’ll notice that all the validators have a name, description, logo, and other metadata. This data is published on-chain for all the registered validators in each cluster, and you can view it by running solana validator-info get.
Once your validator is up and running, you may want to publish your info, particularly once you are running on mainnet and trying to attract stake.
Here is a basic example of how to publish your metadata:

$ solana validator-info publish "My Awesome Validator" \
--website "https://awesome-validator.xyz/" \
--icon-url "https://awesome-validator.xyz/icon360x360.png" \
--keypair validator_identity.json \
--details "The best validator in the world!"

When the metadata record is created, it will have its own key, which can be updated later with the --info-pubkey argument. Note that the icon URL can be a maximum of 80 characters in length. More info on publishing validator info and metadata can be found here.

Congrats!

Congratulations! If you’ve followed along and made it this far, you should be up and running with your own Solana validator. Welcome to the Solana Validator Community!

Additional Resources

• Solana Validators Overview
• Solana Validator Documentation
• Solana Foundation Delegation Program
• Solana Foundation - Stake Pools

Make manual timesheets a thing of the past with QuickHR’s Time Attendance Software in Singapore! Outfitted with end-to-end integration, businesses can benefit from a system that auto-syncs timesheets with a plethora of HR modules that help inform staffing needs, wage calculations and even invoice generation. Track hours like never before!
Learn more about Time Attendance Software in Singapore
Our Time Attendance Software makes it easy to create and modify work rosters for your employees, and keep track of their attendance all in one place!
Time Attendance Software Key Features
CUSTOMISED WORK SCHEDULES WITH STAFF ATTENDANCE SOFTWARE

1. Staff attendance software allows instant adjustment of employees’ schedules by setting different parameters
   
2. Use Time Attendance Software to monitor, update, and organize different work schedules all at once.
   
3. Access and manage work schedule and attendance records while on-the-go via Mobile App
   
4. Helps monitor shortfall and plan for relief staff (e.g for a limited workforce with changing shifts)
   

SEAMLESS PAYROLL INTEGRATION WITH TIME ATTENDANCE SOFTWARE

1. Calculates overtime pay, hourly pay, rest day, off day, and public holiday rates
   
2. Monetary incentives and penalties will be reviewed before translation to payroll
   
3. Offers graphical views of attendance records for easy tracking of good and poor attendance
   

REAL-TIME ATTENDANCE TRACKING

1. Comes with API integration of GPS functionality for accurate attendance tracking
   
2. Keep track of employee attendance across multiple work locations
   
3. Clock in and out from biometric devices via facial or fingerprint recognition
   

ENHANCED DATA SECURITY PROTECTION

1. The first & currently only Singapore-based claims software with the upgraded version of the Multi-Tiered Cloud Security Standard MTCS SS584:2020
   
2. Comes with all the latest and newest cloud controls - including Zero Trust
   
3. Certified with the best security and privacy accreditations including ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2015
   
4. One of the first HR systems in Singapore to offer Singpass multi-factor authentication login
   

QuickHR's Time and Attendance Software in Action
Tired of using manual timesheets? With QuickHR’s Time and Attendance software, you can instantly access work schedules and real-time attendance records while on the go!
Be it overtime hours, overtime pay, attendance incentives or penalties, let the system tabulate it, and you confirm it. Anywhere, anytime, anyplace!
Other QuickHR HRMS Software Features
Payroll Management System
A versatile and optimised payroll solution with flexible settings to automate and simplify your payroll. Fully compliant with local MOM, IRAS and tax laws.
Leave Management System
A fool-proof leave management system with a multi-tiered approval system, easy tracking of leave status, and detailed reports to help manage employees' requests in real-time.
Claims Management System
An all-inclusive and automated claim management system with smart-filtering of CPF payable and Non-CPF payable categories.
Applicant Tracking System
A comprehensive applicant tracking system that allows easy management of job postings and applications on multiple job portals and provides seamless onboarding of hired applicants onto your Employee Database.
FAQs for Time Attendance Software
How does it help prevent attendance fraud?
With the biometric system embedded in QuickHR’s time and attendance software, employees will not be able to make a fake attendance as it is impossible to fake someone’s fingerprint or retinal pattern. This process helps ensure that no employee can take advantage of corporate policies.
Is any kind of attendance device compatible with the attendance system?
QuickHR’s time and attendance software allows employees to clock in and out from their mobile devices by manually, facial recognition, or fingerprint scanning, instead of entering passwords or pins, to establish stricter and stronger security system protocols.
Can the attendance system be used if employees are in different time zones and locations?
QuickHR’s time and attendance software features Google geolocation technology, a GPS functionality that helps acquire accurate updates regarding employees’ whereabouts during their work shift. You can also see where the employees are logging in from. These records can help you make sure they’re at a place where they really need to be during their work schedule.
Does it offer alerts/notifications for schedule changes?
With QuickHR’s time and attendance software, HR managers can monitor, update, and organise different work schedules for every employee in real-time. Employees will be notified and receive real-time updates on the changes in their work schedule. This eliminates the chances of missing texts or work interruptions that may result in massive chaos at the end.
Can it automate and streamline policy compliance and reporting?
QuickHR’s time and attendance software offers graphical views of attendance records for HR managers to easily monitor and analyse every employee’s attendance performance, helping them prepare detailed and accurate attendance reports.
To ensure and maintain regulatory compliance, QuickHR’s time and attendance software enables employers to implement changes in policies/regulations in real-time. Aside from this, employees can request time-off or leave directly from the software and the only thing that’s left to do is to approve it.
Manage HR tasks in a smart, secure, and safe manner
QuickHR is Singapore's #1 HR software designed to help businesses of all types and sizes to minimize tedious HR processes such as payroll, hiring, onboarding, time attendance, benefits, training, and more.
Starting at only $2/employee/month with up to 50% PSG subsidy - affordable for start-ups & SMEs!
A multi-tier encrypted full-suite HRMS ( time and attendance, payroll, claims, leave, staff scheduling & many more)
Fully compliant with MOM, CPF & IRAS regulations
Uncompromising dedicated support team with quick turnaround
Start your 14-day free trial

Navigating the complexities of UDYAM registration can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to verifying your certificate online. This comprehensive guide is your go-to resource for simplifying the UDYAM certificate verification process.
Understanding UDYAM Registration
Before delving into the verification process, let's grasp the essence of UDYAM registration. It is a government initiative aimed at providing recognition to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). This registration is vital, offering a spectrum of benefits, including access to subsidies, credit facilities, and various government schemes.
Importance of UDYAM Certificate Verification
Verifying your UDYAM certificate online is crucial for ensuring its authenticity and reaping the associated benefits. It's a validation step that confirms the legitimacy of your registration, assuring stakeholders, suppliers, and potential collaborators of your status as an authentic MSME entity.
Step-by-Step Guide to Online Verification
1. Access the UDYAM Portal
Begin by visiting the official UDYAM registration portal. Look for the dedicated section or link for certificate verification.
2. Enter Certificate Details
Input the required details from your UDYAM certificate. This typically includes the UDYAM registration number and other relevant information as prompted.
3. Authentication Process
Follow the instructions provided on the portal to complete the verification authentication. This step may involve entering an OTP (One-Time Password) sent to your registered mobile number or email.
4. Verification Confirmation
Upon successful completion, the portal will display a confirmation message validating your UDYAM certificate.
Common Issues and Troubleshooting
- Incorrect Details
Ensure the accuracy of the information entered. Even a minor discrepancy can hinder the verification process.
- Technical Glitches
In case of portal errors or technical issues, reach out to the designated support channels provided on the portal for assistance.
Benefits of Verified UDYAM Certificate
Once your UDYAM certificate is successfully verified, you gain access to a multitude of benefits, including:
Priority sector lending from banks and financial institutions.
Eligibility for government subsidies and schemes.
Ease of participating in global tenders and collaborations.
Enhanced credibility for potential partnerships.
Conclusion
Verifying your UDYAM registration certificate online is a pivotal step toward harnessing the advantages that come with MSME recognition. By following this comprehensive guide, you can streamline the verification process and unlock the myriad benefits awaiting your authenticated status.

I have been paused once. But yeah had one that kicked me and gave the error "something wrong in our end." Switched off wifi and it still gave the error and the saved password didn't work. Panicking at the thought. Changed my password. Deal with enough stress during the week. But man does issues this app have make a person want a vacation.
Between the pay issue that went from adjustment pay to added tips and possibly on my own with healthcare subsidy. Spontaneously thinking I got paused or deactivated, sucks.

Hello,
I have an old RAZR V3 from Cingular. I'm not looking to use the phone I need to access it to get some pictures off it. AT&T was able to give me a code but I believe its an unlock code and not a Subsidy code. I called Motorola but I had no luck there either. It currently has an AT&T card that was bought off ebay. No service is attached to that card.

• The U.K. Parliament has passed the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which says it will make the U.K. “the safest place” in the world to be online. In reality, the OSB will lead to a much more censored, locked-down internet for British users. The bill could empower the government to undermine not just the privacy and security of U.K. residents, but internet users worldwide. Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/09/today-uk-parliament-undermined-privacy-security-and-freedom-all-internet-users
• Researchers have discovered a never-before-seen backdoor for Linux that’s being used by a threat actor linked to the Chinese government. Source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/09/never-before-seen-linux-backdoor-is-a-windows-malware-knockoff/
• Microsoft AI researchers accidentally exposed tens of terabytes of sensitive data, including private keys and passwords, while publishing a storage bucket of open source training data on GitHub. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/18/microsoft-ai-researchers-accidentally-exposed-terabytes-of-internal-sensitive-data/
• New malware named HTTPSnoop and PipeSnoop are used in cyberattacks on telecommunication service providers in the Middle East, allowing threat actors to remotely execute commands on infected devices. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-backdoor-telecom-providers-with-new-httpsnoop-malware/
• A leaked court document has seemingly revealed Microsoft's plans for future Xbox consoles. First off, the company is working on hybrid machines that it says would leverage the "combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences." The document also claims that the console will be optimized for real-time gameplay and creators, and will offer enhanced capabilities beyond what the client hardware can offer. Source: https://www.techspot.com/news/100200-massive-leak-reveals-next-gen-xbox-could-cloud.html
• X owner Elon Musk today floated the idea that the social network formerly known as Twitter may no longer be a free site. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/18/elon-musk-says-x-will-charge-users-a-small-monthly-payment-to-use-its-service/
• Pizza Hut's Australian outpost has suffered a data breach. The baked goods purveyor has delivered bitter news to around 190,000 customers: that their name, delivery address, email address, and phone numbers have been accessed by unautorised entities. Source: https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/21/pizza_hut_australia_data_breach/
• People who work remotely all the time produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of office workers, according to a new study. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/18/people-who-work-from-home-all-the-time-cut-emissions-by-54-against-those-in-office
• MGM Resorts (MGM.N) said on Wednesday its hotels and casinos were back to normal operations but it was working to resolve issues at its luxury Excalibur hotel and casino in Las Vegas, over a week after a cyberattack disrupted its systems. Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/mgm-says-its-hotels-casinos-operating-normally-after-cyberattack-2023-09-20/
• The Signal Foundation, maker of the Signal Protocol that encrypts messages sent by more than a billion people, has rolled out an update designed to prepare for a very real prospect that’s never far from the thoughts of just about every security engineer on the planet: the catastrophic fall of cryptographic protocols that secure some of the most sensitive secrets today. Source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/09/signal-preps-its-encryption-engine-for-the-quantum-doomsday-inevitability/
• Amazon executives were “okay” with people being secretly signed up for its Amazon Prime membership program, the FTC said in an amended lawsuit on Wednesday (as reported by The Wall Street Journal). The original lawsuit, filed in June, claimed that Amazon had tricked millions into unwittingly subscribing to Prime through buttons that were presented prominently during checkout. Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/20/23882675/amazon-prime-ftc-dark-patterns-lawsuit
• The family of a US man who drowned after driving off a collapsed bridge are claiming that he died because Google failed to update its maps.Philip Paxson's family are suing the company over his death, alleging that Google negligently failed to show the bridge had fallen nine years earlier. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66873982
• Incomplete information included in recent disclosures by Apple and Google reporting critical zero-day vulnerabilities under active exploitation in their products has created a “huge blindspot” that’s causing a large number of offerings from other developers to go unpatched, researchers said Thursday. Source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/09/incomplete-disclosures-by-apple-and-google-create-huge-blindspot-for-0-day-hunters/
• The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday is issuing final rules to prevent semiconductor manufacturing subsidies from being used by China and other countries deemed to pose American national security concerns. Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-finalizes-rules-prevent-china-benefiting-52-bln-chips-funding-2023-09-22/
• Atlassian and the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) have disclosed several security flaws impacting their products that could be exploited to achieve denial-of-service (DoS) and remote code execution. Source: https://thehackernews.com/2023/09/high-severity-flaws-uncovered-in.html

The Indian government's Udyam Registration Scheme has revolutionized the way Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are registered and managed. With the introduction of the Udyam Certificate, formerly known as the Udyog Aadhar Certificate, MSMEs can now access a plethora of government scheme benefits. In this blog, we will guide you through the easy and efficient process of printing your Udyam Certificate through Udyog Aadhar online.

Understanding Udyam Registration

The Udyam Registration Scheme aims to promote and support the growth of MSMEs by providing them with various benefits and incentives. It replaces the earlier Udyog Aadhar registration process and offers a simple, streamlined online system for MSMEs to obtain their Udyam Certificate. This certificate serves as an official acknowledgment of an enterprise's registration under the Udyam scheme and grants eligibility for a range of government scheme benefits.

Step-by-Step Guide to Print Your Udyam Certificate through Udyog Aadhar Online

Step 1: Access the Udyog Aadhar Website

Start by visiting the official Udyog Aadhar website. The website provides a user-friendly interface to facilitate the Udyam Certificate printing process.

Step 2: Click on Print Udyam Certificate

On the Udyog Aadhar website's homepage, locate and click on the "Print Udyam Certificate" option. This will direct you to the certificate printing section.

Step 3: Enter Your Udyam Registration Number

To proceed further, you will need your unique Udyam Registration Number. Enter this number accurately in the space provided on the portal.

Step 4: Verification and OTP

After entering your Udyam Registration Number, the website may prompt you to complete a verification process. You might receive an OTP (One-Time Password) on your registered mobile number or email. Enter the OTP in the provided field to verify your identity.

Step 5: View Your Udyam Certificate

Upon successful verification, the Udyam Certificate will be displayed on the screen. This certificate contains essential details, such as your business name, registration information, and other relevant particulars.

Step 6: Download and Print

To keep a digital copy of your Udyam Certificate for your records, download it to your computer or mobile device. For official purposes, consider printing a hard copy of the certificate.

Benefits of Printing Your Udyam Certificate through Udyog Aadhar Online

Access to Government Scheme Benefits: With your printed Udyam Certificate, your MSME becomes eligible for various government scheme benefits, including financial support, subsidies, and priority in government tenders.
Easy Business Transactions: Many financial institutions and banks require a valid Udyam Certificate while processing loans or financial services for MSMEs. Having a printed certificate readily available can expedite these transactions.
Participation in Support Initiatives: The Udyam Certificate allows your MSME to participate in government-supported programs aimed at enhancing productivity and competitiveness.
Credibility and Trust: Possessing a printed Udyam Certificate showcases your business's legitimacy and compliance with government regulations, earning trust from customers and partners.

Conclusion

Printing your Udyam Certificate through Udyog Aadhar online is a straightforward and time-efficient process that grants your MSME access to an array of government scheme benefits. The Udyam Registration Scheme empowers your business to grow and flourish, enabling you to tap into various financial incentives and supportive initiatives. Waste no time, print your Udyam Certificate today, and take your MSME to new heights of success.

This is long so I will try to sum up the main aspects.

• My parents are unhappily married, they married years ago because my mother got pregnant of me, my paternal grandparents did not like her but once she got pregnant they supported everything. They let them live in the house they had built with much effort (they were born during a dictatorship in my country in extremely poor families and had to go abroad to a country they hated to save enough to build the house) for free. My parents never paid rent or bills or childcare or food: my grandmother cooked for everyone, took care of me during the day and later of my brother and my grandparents paid everything. Despite all this I grew up hearing my mother badmouthing my grandparents, saying they were stingy. When my grandmother passed, my grandfather was heartbroken. He is a traditional man so he doesn't cook and my mother wanted to charge him money to cook for him. Remember, he still paid every bill of the house and did not charge them rent. When he got sick, she did not take care of him yet was helping to take care of a old lady which was our neighbor, for free. This person has no kinship with her. She did not visit him in the hospital. Before dying my grandfather actually pressed charges against my mother to a social worker. A few days before my grandfather passed, me and my father went to the hospital see him and the last thing my father said was "don't worry, the pension for money for this month already arrived". For context, my grandparents had opened a business where they employed my father. The business went bankrupt and since then my father was unemployed. He had some jobs but could not hold one for long (he does have some health issues), he was unemployed for 12 years and often asked money to my grandfather.
  
• My parents took home a female dog when I was a teenager and did not take care of her. She eventually got pregnant, had three babies. I found a home for one, and since could not find for the other two I decided to take ownership of the three of them. Back then I was a student, so did not have a lot of money but did the best, including neutering both the females so they would not have more babies. They never helped with that, even though technically they're the ones who created the problem by bringing home a female and not neutering her (they didn't even gave her vaccines)
  
• My parents did not pay for my education. I had a scholarship, and lived in the house throughout my degree but my grandfather was alive so he paid for all bills. The government paid a small subsidy to my parents up until when I was 24 years because I was studying, but my mother never gave me that. I survived with around 3k per year (plus some savings because I took a gap year to work), paying tuition, transportation, books, lunch at school, still paid for food for my pets, vet bills and helped with the internet bill sometimes. Later on I was struggling to get a job and moved to a different city alone. I started paying rent there and only visited here on weekends because of my dogs. My parents did not buy them food, so I brought bags of food for my dogs. At some point my parents wanted me to pay 50€/month to be here 4 days a month, I refused, so as revenge, they stopped picking me up from the station when I came home. I arrived at 11pm, and had to do a 20 minute uphill walk with a huge trolley and dog food (fun). Sometimes when kids visit parents, the parents here pack them some food for them to take for the week. I actually had to cook food to bring with me when I came visit my dogs because my mother refused to cook and I had no supplies here since I only came on weekends. It's a small place so not a lot of restaurants and supermarkets are closed on weekends. I then was unemployed for 5 months and decided to enroll in a 3 month course. During that period I had no income and had to pay rent and provide for myself in an expensive city. I took a personal loan for that (already paid off), but they never helped either. Due to that course I then landed a better job.
  
• With pandemic I started spending more time here due to my dogs. I started working from home, I kept renting in the city to go there a few days per month, but to be with my dogs I started spending most of the month here. I do not like it, but it is hard for me to leave my dogs. I also had a health issue and my mother did help by cooking for me during that time, but since then, I pay for my food, gas and in the winter I help with electricity bill if I know I spent too much.
  
• They rent part of the house to a guy with a rent of 75€. Stores in a building in front of my house pay rents of like 400-500€. This guy pays 75€ which includes also the internet and electricity. Once he did some shit with the internet router and then went away, leaving me with no internet to work (I work from home). He told me to connect to the internet of the a store in front of my house (lol, did not even know the password). I freaked out and called him an idiot and my mother went to apologize to him. The winter before the electricity bill was huge, I knew he had the heater on, but my mother did not ask him extra money, I ended up having to pay like 80€ to cover for the extra bill (I did spend, but he also spent and did not pay his share).
  

Yesterday my brother told me he thinks nobody helps me because I don't help anyone. I basically only ask him for stuff for my dogs, I never ask for stuff for me. For example, when I am not here, I leave all the food and I ask them to give them the food. I asked them to text me if my dogs are sick and then I call back (so they don't have to spend money on the call). If they need to take the dogs in a vet emergency I pay for everything. So basically the only favors I ask is feed the dogs, take them to the vet if they're sick and call me in that situation.
My parents, specially mother, are always crying they are poor and need money (they now both work on a minimum wage salary, but they only have the 6th grade, and they don't have to pay for the house, many people in my country get a minimum wage sometimes they even are more educated AND they need to pay for rent). If I go on vacation or buy new clothes or spend money in the vet with my dogs, the conversation is "you're rich, if you'd give that money to us, you'd be a better daughter". I refuse to do so, because I am not willing to pay for other people stuff. If she takes the bill, divides by 5 and tells me "you pay this part", I'd pay. My guess is it would be like 20€/month if that much. But she does not want that. She wants me to pay for everything. 50€, 100€, whatever. Yet this guy who is nothing to her is here with a business for 75€/month. Legally it's their house but they inherited it. They never paid for the house, they never in their 50 years of life paid rent (I do pay rent in the city), so what moral have they to come ask me for money? They're always saying I make more money than them which is true... But the money I make now I make because of all the sacrifices I did, which they did not help, not even with motivation (they didn't want me to quit my gap year job to go to college) so I don't feel I need to share since they never helped me.
Again the only reason I am here is my dogs (one of my dogs passed recently, now it's just one unfortunately). I have an ongoing saving plan to buy a house and when I have enough I will do it and take him with me. However this is not something that easy, housing prices are high and interest rates also went up. In a single income, it takes a while to have enough for a downpayment.
I clearly have no love for this people, they took me to the doctor when I was sick as a kid and they didn't sexually abuse me or didn't physically abuse me a lot (just slapping because I forgot to put milk on the fridge, stuff like that), guess I should thank them for not physically or sexually abusing me or not abandoning me (lol), but that was it. There was a lot of emotional abbuse going on whose consequences I still deal with. I suffer from depression and anxiety and I medicated for that for years now.
Am I wrong for having this attitude?

Hi ecommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry pretty closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. .

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 70% of e-commerce shoppers experienced shipping delays without any reason provided by the business for the delay. Faced with that experience, 90% of respondents said they are less likely to buy from a brand again after a poor online shopping experience, while 29% say they are increasingly willing to share a negative review online. – According to Koerber .
2. If some of Temu's deals appear too good to be true — it's because they are! An analysis of the company's supply chain costs by WIRED shows that Temu is losing an average of $30 per order as it throws money at trying to break into the American market. Most of Temu's subsidies are in the form of free international shipping, with even a small package costing the company around $14 to ship to the US (although it offers the shipping for free). When adding in the additional product discounts and cash coupons that Temu gives to customers, the average loss per order jumps to $30. .
3. The FTC has proposed new rules in the US called “click to cancel” that will impact e-commerce subscriptions — but in a good way for consumers! The rules would require any business selling subscriptions to add a simple cancel mechanism on the same website as the initial transaction, and include the same number of steps. In other words, a “one click subscription” would require a “one click cancelation.” This “click to cancel” rule is part of the FTC's proposed changes to its 1973 Negative Option Rule, which establishes how subscription sellers must communicate offers, ensure consent, manage billing, and simplify cancellation. .
4. BigCommerce announced new leadership including the appointment of Daniel Lentz as the company's CFO, Chuck Cassidy as its General Counsel, and Hubert Ban as its Chief Accounting Officer. .
5. Google is launching Product Studio, a new tool that allows Shopping merchants to quickly edit and customize their product images for free using generative AI. According to Google's data, product listings with more than one image typically see a 76% increase in impressions and a 32% increase in clicks compared to listings with a single image. With the new generative AI tool, text prompts can be used within Product Studio to quickly make visual adjustments to product images, such as generating new backgrounds for seasonal campaigns. The tool also allows sellers to instantly remove the existing background of an image if they need a blank backdrop, and increase the quality of small or low resolution images. .
6. Morning Consult published their annual report of Most Trusted Brands for 2023. The survey ranks roughly 1,500 brands in the US, most of which were dominated by big, well-established names including: #1 Band-Aid, #2 UPS, #3 Amazon, #4 Lysol, #5 Kleenex, #6 Cheerios, #7 Visa, #8 Dove, #9 The Weather Channel, and #10 FedEx .
7. Axios, in collaboration with market research firm Harris Poll, also ran a recent survey to determine the Most Reputable Brands in the US. The results were very different from Morning Consult's most trusted brands. Only one company overlapped in the top ten which included: #1 Patagonia, #2 Costco, #3 John Deere, #4 Trader Joe's, #5 Chick-fil-A, #6 Toyota, #7 Samsung, #8 Amazon, #9 USAA, and #10 Apple . Bottom of the list included: #90 Family Dollar, #91 Balenciaga, #92 BP, #93 Bitcoin, #94 TikTok, #95 Spirit Airlines, #96 Meta, #97 Twitter, #98 Fox, #99 FTX, and #100 The Trump Organization .
8. The latest data from PYMNTS shows that high earners are feeling the pinch of credit card debt and that their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. This is resulting in higher-end retailers who depend on wealthier households feeling the pinch as well. The data shows a number of correlations including that for bouseholds earning more than $100k annually, 42% were living paycheck-to-paycheck in April 2022. That number has crept up to over 49% this past year. .
9. Netflix must have forgotten what love is since 2017 when it made its famous tweet that “Love is sharing a password.” The company has finally launched its ill-awaited crackdown on password sharing in the US and the UK. The new rules state that subscribers are permitted to share their account with members of their own household, which Netflix defines as “you and the people you live with.” Netflix will begin using a variety of tools, such as IP checking, to spot when people are using another household’s account and prevent them from doing so, or give them the option of adding a household for $7.99/month. The company expects cancellations, but optimistically (or idiotically) predicts that those same people will come back again, which will overall lead to more people paying for subscriptions. .
10. Laws are changing in Australia to treat BNPL as a credit product. Finally! When was it NOT a form of credit? BNPL should have been recognized as a credit product the day the first BNPL company put up a coming soon landing page. Australia’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said that a litany of issues reported to the Australia Securities and Investments Commission have added up to “unacceptable levels of unaffordable lending occurring, largely concentrated amongst low-income borrowers.” He added that “BNPL looks like credit, it acts like credit, it carries the risks of credit.” Jones promised draft legislation in the coming months and the introduction of a final bill to the Australian Parliament by the end of the year, which will include the need for BNPL firms to hold Australian Credit Licenses and comply with Resonspible Lending Obligations. .
11. Bill Gates said that AI could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them, and that the technology could radically alter user behaviors, resulting in people never needing to visit a search website again or use certain productivity or shopping tools. Gates remarked that the first company to develop it will have a leg up on competitors. .
12. A recent study conducted by Lloyds Banking Group revealed that a UK consumer falls victim to a purchasing scam that originates on Facebook or Instagram every seven minutes, resulting in a cost of over £500k per week. (That man is Michael Scott.) The banking group is now urging Meta and other tech giants to take responsibility and contribute to refunding innocent victims of scams. .
13. Analysts at Bernstein project that Reliance Industries is poised to outpace Amazon and Flipkart in the race for India's $150M e-commerce market, citing the conglomerate's robust retail network, mobile network, and home field advantage as its biggest assets. Reliance already operates the country's largest retail chain with over 18k stores and is leveraging its presence to form partnerships with Meta, Shein, and other companies as a strategic advantage against its competitors. .
14. Shopify is introducing its POS hardware to the Canadian market. Its mobile selling device, the POS Go, which is built to run Shopify’s POS software, was first rolled out to retailers in the US in 2022. .
15. Meta announced that ads in Instagram search results will now be available through the Instagram Marketing API, allowing third-party social-management platforms to offer a new Instagram ad-placement type in their apps. Meta began testing the placement in March and are now opening it up to all brands. .
16. Shein is exploring plans to build a factory in Mexico as one of its manufacturing hubs outside China, which could shorten shipping time and cut distribution costs for customers in Latin America and USA. Earlier this month I reported that Shein is creating a hub in Brazil. .
17. Amazon opened the first phase of its Metropolitan Park on Monday, its long-awaited second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia that can hold up to 8k employees. However not all Amazon employees are excited about the new office location (or any office location). At least 1,000 office workers are planning a walkout this Wednesday to take a stand against the company's return-to-office mandate. .
18. The Vietnamese government is putting pressure on TikTok to police its content and remove videos that fall short of the state’s standards, or risk a ban. Eight government departments are targeting toxic content deemed “to pose a threat to the country’s youth, culture and tradition” — including videos that simply criticize college degrees. .
19. eBay unveiled generative AI on its mobile app to help sellers list new items for sale, however the company forgot to inform sellers and didn't label the icon. When clicked, the icon replaced sellers' entire product descriptions with AI generated text, with no way to recover the original description. .
20. Boozt AB, a Sweden-based online fashion retailer, blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items, calling their actions too costly for the company and the environment. The company said that these particular customers represented less than 2% of their 3M customers, but around 25% of the total return volume. .
21. Twitter withdrew from an agreement with the EU to cut down misinformation on its social network, which the company joined alongside other tech companies in 2018. Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner, noted that fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation from August 25th, due to the EU's Digital Services Act, so the agreement would become irrelevant. .
22. Jeff Bezos is ripped now! The Amazon founder started working with personal trainer, Wes Okerson, who's also trained Tom Cruise and Gerard Butler, and now he's gotten super buff. This is about the least e-commerce specific news you'll ever see me share in this newsletter, but the Jeff Bezos before / after photo is kind of wild! .
23. Amazon will close its official Amazon app store in China on July 17, which launched in 2011 as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Amazon noted that its marketplaces and AWS services will remain operational in China. However while it may be leaving China, the Amazon App Store will soon be bringing more Android apps to the Windows ecosystem. The expanded partnership will allow Windows users to access a wider range of Android apps seamlessly. .
24. Google updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge. Google said this is just a name and title change and won't have any impact on search rank or performance. .
25. Auctane, an e-commerce shipping specialist that operates brands such as Metapack, ShipStation, Packlink, ShipEngine, Stamps.com, and others, appointed Albert Ko as its new CEO, who previously served as CEO of EWS, which is best known for the Zelle payments network. Current CEO Nathan Jones will join the company's Board of Directors. .
26. eCampus.com, a website that sells textbooks and course materials, announced that it would keep offering textbook rentals, even though its retail partner Amazon was exiting the business. The company had been powering the program behind the scenes for Amazon since 2012, and plans to keep it going through its own website. .
27. Walmart is partnering with Pawp, a veterinary telehealth provider, to offer Walmart+ subscribers free access to virtual veterinarians for a year, starting this week. Currently Pawp charges $99 for an annual membership. .
28. Alibaba Group said that it aims to hire 15,000 people this year, dismissing rumors circulating that the company planned to cut 20% of its staff. They also mentioned that more than 3,000 of those hires would be newly-graduated students. .
29. Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including a $12M Series A round by Laced to grow its resale marketplace for authenticated sneakers.

I hope you find this news recap helpful. See you next week!
-PAUL

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. .

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 70% of e-commerce shoppers experienced shipping delays without any reason provided by the business for the delay. Faced with that experience, 90% of respondents said they are less likely to buy from a brand again after a poor online shopping experience, while 29% say they are increasingly willing to share a negative review online. – According to Koerber .
2. If some of Temu's deals appear too good to be true — it's because they are! An analysis of the company's supply chain costs by WIRED shows that Temu is losing an average of $30 per order as it throws money at trying to break into the American market. Most of Temu's subsidies are in the form of free international shipping, with even a small package costing the company around $14 to ship to the US (although it offers the shipping for free). When adding in the additional product discounts and cash coupons that Temu gives to customers, the average loss per order jumps to $30. .
3. The FTC has proposed new rules in the US called “click to cancel” that will impact e-commerce subscriptions — but in a good way for consumers! The rules would require any business selling subscriptions to add a simple cancel mechanism on the same website as the initial transaction, and include the same number of steps. In other words, a “one click subscription” would require a “one click cancelation.” This “click to cancel” rule is part of the FTC's proposed changes to its 1973 Negative Option Rule, which establishes how subscription sellers must communicate offers, ensure consent, manage billing, and simplify cancellation. .
4. BigCommerce announced new leadership including the appointment of Daniel Lentz as the company's CFO, Chuck Cassidy as its General Counsel, and Hubert Ban as its Chief Accounting Officer. .
5. Google is launching Product Studio, a new tool that allows Shopping merchants to quickly edit and customize their product images for free using generative AI. According to Google's data, product listings with more than one image typically see a 76% increase in impressions and a 32% increase in clicks compared to listings with a single image. With the new generative AI tool, text prompts can be used within Product Studio to quickly make visual adjustments to product images, such as generating new backgrounds for seasonal campaigns. The tool also allows sellers to instantly remove the existing background of an image if they need a blank backdrop, and increase the quality of small or low resolution images. .
6. Morning Consult published their annual report of Most Trusted Brands for 2023. The survey ranks roughly 1,500 brands in the US, most of which were dominated by big, well-established names including: #1 Band-Aid, #2 UPS, #3 Amazon, #4 Lysol, #5 Kleenex, #6 Cheerios, #7 Visa, #8 Dove, #9 The Weather Channel, and #10 FedEx .
7. Axios, in collaboration with market research firm Harris Poll, also ran a recent survey to determine the Most Reputable Brands in the US. The results were very different from Morning Consult's most trusted brands. Only one company overlapped in the top ten which included: #1 Patagonia, #2 Costco, #3 John Deere, #4 Trader Joe's, #5 Chick-fil-A, #6 Toyota, #7 Samsung, #8 Amazon, #9 USAA, and #10 Apple . Bottom of the list included: #90 Family Dollar, #91 Balenciaga, #92 BP, #93 Bitcoin, #94 TikTok, #95 Spirit Airlines, #96 Meta, #97 Twitter, #98 Fox, #99 FTX, and #100 The Trump Organization .
8. The latest data from PYMNTS shows that high earners are feeling the pinch of credit card debt and that their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. This is resulting in higher-end retailers who depend on wealthier households feeling the pinch as well. The data shows a number of correlations including that for bouseholds earning more than $100k annually, 42% were living paycheck-to-paycheck in April 2022. That number has crept up to over 49% this past year. .
9. Netflix must have forgotten what love is since 2017 when it made its famous tweet that “Love is sharing a password.” The company has finally launched its ill-awaited crackdown on password sharing in the US and the UK. The new rules state that subscribers are permitted to share their account with members of their own household, which Netflix defines as “you and the people you live with.” Netflix will begin using a variety of tools, such as IP checking, to spot when people are using another household’s account and prevent them from doing so, or give them the option of adding a household for $7.99/month. The company expects cancellations, but optimistically (or idiotically) predicts that those same people will come back again, which will overall lead to more people paying for subscriptions. .
10. Laws are changing in Australia to treat BNPL as a credit product. Finally! When was it NOT a form of credit? BNPL should have been recognized as a credit product the day the first BNPL company put up a coming soon landing page. Australia’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said that a litany of issues reported to the Australia Securities and Investments Commission have added up to “unacceptable levels of unaffordable lending occurring, largely concentrated amongst low-income borrowers.” He added that “BNPL looks like credit, it acts like credit, it carries the risks of credit.” Jones promised draft legislation in the coming months and the introduction of a final bill to the Australian Parliament by the end of the year, which will include the need for BNPL firms to hold Australian Credit Licenses and comply with Resonspible Lending Obligations. .
11. Bill Gates said that AI could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them, and that the technology could radically alter user behaviors, resulting in people never needing to visit a search website again or use certain productivity or shopping tools. Gates remarked that the first company to develop it will have a leg up on competitors. .
12. A recent study conducted by Lloyds Banking Group revealed that a UK consumer falls victim to a purchasing scam that originates on Facebook or Instagram every seven minutes, resulting in a cost of over £500k per week. (That man is Michael Scott.) The banking group is now urging Meta and other tech giants to take responsibility and contribute to refunding innocent victims of scams. .
13. Analysts at Bernstein project that Reliance Industries is poised to outpace Amazon and Flipkart in the race for India's $150M e-commerce market, citing the conglomerate's robust retail network, mobile network, and home field advantage as its biggest assets. Reliance already operates the country's largest retail chain with over 18k stores and is leveraging its presence to form partnerships with Meta, Shein, and other companies as a strategic advantage against its competitors. .
14. Shopify is introducing its POS hardware to the Canadian market. Its mobile selling device, the POS Go, which is built to run Shopify’s POS software, was first rolled out to retailers in the US in 2022. .
15. Meta announced that ads in Instagram search results will now be available through the Instagram Marketing API, allowing third-party social-management platforms to offer a new Instagram ad-placement type in their apps. Meta began testing the placement in March and are now opening it up to all brands. .
16. Shein is exploring plans to build a factory in Mexico as one of its manufacturing hubs outside China, which could shorten shipping time and cut distribution costs for customers in Latin America and USA. Earlier this month I reported that Shein is creating a hub in Brazil. .
17. Amazon opened the first phase of its Metropolitan Park on Monday, its long-awaited second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia that can hold up to 8k employees. However not all Amazon employees are excited about the new office location (or any office location). At least 1,000 office workers are planning a walkout this Wednesday to take a stand against the company's return-to-office mandate. .
18. The Vietnamese government is putting pressure on TikTok to police its content and remove videos that fall short of the state’s standards, or risk a ban. Eight government departments are targeting toxic content deemed “to pose a threat to the country’s youth, culture and tradition” — including videos that simply criticize college degrees. .
19. eBay unveiled generative AI on its mobile app to help sellers list new items for sale, however the company forgot to inform sellers and didn't label the icon. When clicked, the icon replaced sellers' entire product descriptions with AI generated text, with no way to recover the original description. .
20. Boozt AB, a Sweden-based online fashion retailer, blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items, calling their actions too costly for the company and the environment. The company said that these particular customers represented less than 2% of their 3M customers, but around 25% of the total return volume. .
21. Twitter withdrew from an agreement with the EU to cut down misinformation on its social network, which the company joined alongside other tech companies in 2018. Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner, noted that fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation from August 25th, due to the EU's Digital Services Act, so the agreement would become irrelevant. .
22. Jeff Bezos is ripped now! The Amazon founder started working with personal trainer, Wes Okerson, who's also trained Tom Cruise and Gerard Butler, and now he's gotten super buff. This is about the least e-commerce specific news you'll ever see me share in this newsletter, but the Jeff Bezos before / after photo is kind of wild! .
23. Amazon will close its official Amazon app store in China on July 17, which launched in 2011 as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Amazon noted that its marketplaces and AWS services will remain operational in China. However while it may be leaving China, the Amazon App Store will soon be bringing more Android apps to the Windows ecosystem. The expanded partnership will allow Windows users to access a wider range of Android apps seamlessly. .
24. Google updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge. Google said this is just a name and title change and won't have any impact on search rank or performance. .
25. Auctane, an e-commerce shipping specialist that operates brands such as Metapack, ShipStation, Packlink, ShipEngine, Stamps.com, and others, appointed Albert Ko as its new CEO, who previously served as CEO of EWS, which is best known for the Zelle payments network. Current CEO Nathan Jones will join the company's Board of Directors. .
26. eCampus.com, a website that sells textbooks and course materials, announced that it would keep offering textbook rentals, even though its retail partner Amazon was exiting the business. The company had been powering the program behind the scenes for Amazon since 2012, and plans to keep it going through its own website. .
27. Walmart is partnering with Pawp, a veterinary telehealth provider, to offer Walmart+ subscribers free access to virtual veterinarians for a year, starting this week. Currently Pawp charges $99 for an annual membership. .
28. Alibaba Group said that it aims to hire 15,000 people this year, dismissing rumors circulating that the company planned to cut 20% of its staff. They also mentioned that more than 3,000 of those hires would be newly-graduated students. .
29. Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including a $12M Series A round by Laced to grow its resale marketplace for authenticated sneakers.

For more details on each story, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/how-much-money-does-temu-lose-per-orde
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
See you next week.
-PAUL

What happened is someone got a hold of my Driver’s license, SSN and Home Address. This probably happened during one of my visits to medical facilities since all of them require SSN, ID and Home Address, along with Insurance card. Somebody must have passed along my info to crooks who immediately created fake Driver’s license and tried to purchase luxury cars on a loan written in my name. I was lucky to have Discover Card credit monitoring that alerted me to new inquiries on my Credit Report. So far no banking or credit card accounts were penetrated and my Email address and phone numbers remain mine. I instituted credit report freeze on all three Credit Agencies (silly for me for not doing it before), but I need an advise on what to do next. My banks are all protected by strong passwords and 2FA, but can crooks try to break in by using driver’s license and SSN to take over accounts? What about various government subsidies that they can try to apply for with my info? Would ID protection services help in this situation or are they mostly a waste of time and money?
Need your expert advise.

Hi, I’ve made a throwaway account for this, as people I know follow my other account. I hope that’s okay. I’d love some advice if possible, I’m really worried because I’ve stuffed up majorly and am scared.
So around July last year I (24F) had a major mental breakdown, I don’t want to go into specifics if possible but it was bad. I stopped work abruptly and basically haven’t worked since, aside from a couple of random shifts a couple of months later. However I never got an official separation certificate and I wasn’t in my right mind so I never updated this information/circumstance to Centrelink.
I have twins that were in daycare 4 days a week last year, and while I was working we were receiving the child care subsidy, this took the payments from $560/week to around $90/week. This year they’ve only been going 1 day a week paid, as the other 3 days are free with the 4 year old funded kinder.
We receive $220/fortnight FTB (part a). No parenting payment as that was cancelled when I went full time at my old job. No rent assistance as we live in quite a cheap rental luckily.
Now that my antidepressants are working and I’m getting back to myself, I’ve become very scared for the EOFY reports. That’s 5 months of full daycare weeks & 4 months of 1 day/week daycare weeks that were subsidised but I wasn’t working. I’m assuming this will all need to be paid back but I was hoping someone who has been in a similar circumstance may have some advice? Is there any possibility to have this amount reduced, maybe if I get documents from my doctor or psychologist? And since I never changed the income estimate to show I stopped working, we’ve been receiving the lower FTB payment. When this is balanced at EOFY can this be used towards the debt, or do they take it automatically off the debt? I’m also wondering if they would do a payment plan rather than asking for it all to be paid back upfront.
I’m starting a new casual job in 2 weeks that will meet the required hours for CCS, so at least going forward that will be covered. But should I apply for parenting payment again? Or not botheit won’t pay anything? I haven’t updated our family income estimate to what it’ll likely be yet as this will trigger their system I’m guessing and I wanted to ask for advice first. I’m planning to go into a Centrelink office in person as that should be easier to navigate than their website or phones to clean up this mess. What documents should I bring?
Sorry for the massive wall of text, I tried to cover all of the info I could think of, I’m just really scared. Thank you for any help.
Edit: thank you for all of the replies & advice, I got a bit overwhelmed and logged out and couldn’t remember the password for a bit. Also, the new job fell through 🙃 but I’m looking for something else that’ll work around daycare hours. Thank you again everyone.

The crypto industry is forever expanding, and there’s a need to create more secure software services to protect the data and funds of users from cybercriminals. API keys are also an important tool created by exchanges to help users get more out of their trades and increase their productivity while trading.
The API key frequently serves as both a username and a password, serving as a secure link between two platforms. Some traders often use third-party services such as portfolio trackers or market analysis providers. This is mostly made possible when there’s an API key available .
We will discuss API keys in this article, why they are important in the crypto industry, and how they connect two platforms.
What Are API Keys?
In simple terms, API keys are a username or password that helps a crypto trader connect third-party applications, such as coin trackers, with an exchange account. To fully understand how API keys operate, one must know APIs.
API is an abbreviation for application programming interface , and it is used to allow two or more platforms or software to interact. So the API key, in this case, is the username or password that grants certain applications permission to interact.
For instance, assuming a crypto portfolio tracker wants to connect with exchange A, the function of the API key is to authenticate and verify the crypto portfolio tracker before granting permissions.
From another perspective, application programming interface keys track who is using an API and how they are trying to use it. API keys come in different forms depending on the crypto ecosystem or exchange that issued them; some come as a single code, while others are multi-coded.
Each API key is unique, which means one user’s application programming interface key is never the same as any other user’s. In other crypto scenarios, API keys are often known as private keys or secret keys.
API Keys: How Safe Are They?
Beginners often ask how secure API keys are. The answer to this question is simple: the API key’s security lies in the hands of the person who has it.
As mentioned above, API keys have similar functions as a password and should be treated as such if you want to secure your API keys. You know the detriment of revealing your password to the public; that’s the same way API keys function.
Due to the importance of API keys, they are often the targets of cyber attacks, so one should be careful of any website asking for sensitive information such as API keys.
If a cybercriminal successfully gains access to a private key, its effect can be damaging. Once an API key is stolen, it doesn’t expire, so it can be used by the cybercriminal for as long as possible until the providers entirely revoke it.
How to Protect Your API Keys Against Cyber ​​Attacks
Below are some of the best practices that will ensure that your API keys are protected from any form of cyberattack:
IP Whitelisting
IP whitelisting is one of the most secure and productive methods of protecting your API keys. This happens when a user creates a list of APIs that can access and use their API keys anytime they want. However, any IP address other than those on the whitelist will be rejected.
Don’t Share Your API Keys
The first thing to understand when trying to secure your API keys from the hands of cybercriminals is to avoid sharing them. Sharing them with anyone means you have just opened another gateway that cybercriminals could exploit to obtain them. your password to a bank account containing your funds; it will lead to the loss of funds and sensitive data.
Apart from losing data and funds, API keys transfer all the privileges and rights given to you by an exchange to another person who has access to it. Your API keys should only be known to or shared between you and the exchange or ecosystem that provided them .
Don’t Store Your API Keys Publicly
Don’t make the mistake of keeping or storing your API keys where other people can access them; it is very dangerous. Some people make the mistake of storing their API keys in public places, such as publicly issued computers in a library; end up being stolen.
Even if it is the general computer used by everyone in your home, you should not store or keep it there. Your API keys should be stored on your private devices, which are equally protected with passwords and other forms of security.
Recreate API keys
Cybercriminals are always working overtime to ensure they get access to people’s API keys, so you have to take extra steps to secure them. Another method of securing your API keys is by creating new ones from time to time. You can decide the intervals at which You will destroy your present private keys and replace them with new ones.
When you do this, a hacker won’t still have access to your data or privileges even if they get access to your old API keys. have
Read More: How to Enhance Account Security
Your Security is Truly Paramount
API keys are very important as they allow two applications and platforms to interact and share data. However, they have to be secured, as cybercriminals can use them to get access to privileges, data, and funds.
Some methods to secure an API key are not sharing them, using IP whitelisting, recreating your API keys, and storing them privately. BingX Crypto Exchange ensures your safety when using the platform. BingX is the world’s leading social crypto exchange that offers experiential trading , including spot trading, futures trading, copy trading, and subsidy vouchers.
Join our BingX Community to earn and stay in the loop about crypto, trading and the latest strategies!
Facebook: BingX
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bingxofficial/?hl=en
Twitter: BingX (@BingXOfficial) / Twitter

The return of Bob Iger to Walt Disney's (DIS) CEO job in November promised a reversal of the company's recent fortunes - and some potentially big changes to the company's structure. That will include cutting 7,000 workers and $5.5B in costs, Iger confirmed on the company's earnings call, following a quarterly beat that pushed the stock higher in after-hours trading. Shares even rose as much as 9% after he mentioned an effort to reinstate Disney's dividend that was suspended during the pandemic (it may also help address the demands of activist investor Nelson Peltz).
Quote: "I've always believed that the best way to spur great creativity is to make sure the people who are managing the creative processes feel empowered," Iger declared. "Therefore, our new structure is aimed at returning greater authority to our creative leaders and making them accountable for how their content performs, financially. Our former structure severed that link and it must be restored."
That means reorganizing the company into three business units: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. Iger said he knew breaking out ESPN into its own unit would lead to persistent questions about a potential spinoff, but confirmed that the "brand was 'very healthy,' we just have to figure out how to monetize it in a disrupting world." With regards to turning a profit at Disney+, Iger emphasized that reestablishing the connection between content decisions and their financial performance is "one of the most important steps we can take to improve the economics of our streaming business" and was his "No. 1 priority." See subscriber totals and quarterly figures here.
Linear vs. Streaming: "It's at least conceivable, if not likely, that ESPN+ is in turn propping up linear ESPN, which could mean streaming is subsidizing linear," SA contributor Max Greve writes in a new article that crunches the numbers. "Even if not, the existence of such hidden subsidies shows that the separation of linear and streaming profit is largely arbitrary. If Disney does try to split off ESPN, it will have to come to grips with this issue and outline for investors and the buyer what it has been doing." (137 comments)
Streaming rules
Looking for additional sources of revenue in the current macro environment, Netflix (NFLX) is adding more members to the roster of countries where it has cracked down on password-sharing. Canada, Portugal, Spain and New Zealand have been added to a list that already includes Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, and makes account holders choose a primary address, verify that location once a month, and gives the ability to buy access for two additional users. It's only a matter of time before the password crackdown comes to the U.S., which could be a "core problem," according to Marketplace author The Value Portfolio, as Netflix is no longer the only game in town. A recent Jefferies survey on "password borrowers" indicated that 62% of respondents would stop using Netflix, but then again, they weren't paying for the service in the first place. (7 comments)
Robinhood retrieval
Shares of Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading on Wednesday despite missing estimates on the top and bottom lines. Traders instead focused on an increase in average revenue per user and a second straight quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA as the retail broker's expenses slid from a year ago. With over $6B on its balance sheet, Robinhood also revealed that it's in talks with the DOJ to buy a 7.6% stake of the company from disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried (see the full transcript here). The plan is a little complicated, however, as SBF's ownership has been disputed since his crypto empire imploded in November. (29 comments)
Which is it?
Last June, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon warned of an economic "hurricane" down the road, but yesterday, he told Reuters that the U.S. economy was in good shape. Still, "sticky" inflation could compel the FOMC to hike interest rates above 5% (from the 4.50%-4.75% level it's at now), echoing the recent views of many Fed officials. Earlier in the day, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he expects the federal funds rate to break above 5% at some point this year, and Fed Governor Christopher Waller expressed a similar outlook, but no one suggested that January's blowout jobs report would make them more aggressive in setting monetary policy. (23 comments)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan -0.1%. Hong Kong +1.6%. China +1.2%. India +0.2%. In Europe, at midday, London +0.7%. Paris +1.3%. Frankfurt +1.3%. Futures at 6:30, Dow +0.7%. S&P +0.9%. Nasdaq +1.3%. Crude +0.4% to $78.81. Gold +0.3% to $1896.30. Bitcoin -2.1% to $22,683. Ten-year Treasury Yield -4 bps to 3.60%
Today's Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
It's official: CVS (CVS) to acquire Oak Street (OSH) for $10.6B.
Southwest (LUV) testifies on flight network after December debacle.
Nearing pre-COVID peak, this Aerospace & Defense ETF is on the radar.
Alphabet (GOOGL) slips: Blame Bard mistake, underwhelming AI event.
Alibaba (BABA) and JD.com (JD) are also testing ChatGPT-like tech.
Tesla (TSLA) has a new master plan coming out on March 1.
'Strongest quarter ever' at Uber (UBER) drives a wave of bookings.
Get ready for the biggest Chinese IPO in the U.S. since DiDi Global.
Affirm (AFRM) tumbles on higher borrowing costs, cuts 19% of workforce.
U-turn: BofA flips from being a bear to a bull on Tripadvisor (TRIP).

Anyone who can fake it can fake it. If it is the attitude of the brand to fight against fakes at all costs, then using the "dimensionality reduction" method to deal a fatal blow to fakes shows the strength of the brand.
In fact, the crackdown on counterfeiting in the industry has never stopped. RELX vape issued a consumer warning, and was warned not to buy general pods, carved tobacco sticks, and discounted products from WeChat merchants; at the end of 2019, the Shanghai court made a criminal judgment of first instance for the crime of selling counterfeit registered trademark products. Defendant Shen Moumou committed the crime of selling counterfeit registered trademark goods, and was sentenced to one year and six months in prison in the first instance; last year, the American vape brand Juul won a decree from the International Trade Commission (ITC), which will prevent companies suspected of imitating Juulvape Four Competitors' Products Enter U.S. Sales...
That is to say, regular vape brands at home and abroad have been working hard to crack down on fake pods and other counterfeit products. But correspondingly, after so long, the problem still cannot be cured. Why? Because fakes have to be "downgraded," there's no wiggle room for fakes.
As far as the distribution of counterfeit pods is concerned, the dimension reduction attack must aim at the following two points: one is to increase the technical content of pods and become the real core technology, so that counterfeiters cannot cross the moat; second, to reduce the price of real pods, Even cheaper than fake pods, there is no profit margin for counterfeiters.
Saying no to fakes is to find a way out for the long-term healthy development of the industry. Now the first battle is imminent, and only by winning this battle can the vape industry officially fight back.
The problem of counterfeit products has hurt brands and users, but there is still a product between fakes and genuine products, that is, wild-card pods. Wild-card pods may be vape factories or e-liquid factory. Product advantages are self-created through a sound industrial chain. These wild cards are not necessarily for certain brands. They are more likely to be some OEM e-liquid or OEM vape factories, which directly OEM this type of products for certain brands, because There is no brand issue involved, and the price is much cheaper than the genuine ones, so wild pods are currently more popular among users.
Compared with wildcards, wildcards are less annoying to users, but brands still hate this type of product, and will basically classify such products as fakes and treat them as fakes.
The problem of counterfeit pods has always plagued brands, not because they don’t want to solve it, but because it is difficult to solve. At present, for anti-counterfeiting products, the brand side has two strategic priorities: technology and market. At the technical level, raise technical barriers; at the market level, establish formal channels, only earn what you should earn, and reduce the profit margins of counterfeit goods.
The first is technical dimensionality reduction. Realize chip encryption: the blessing of anti-counterfeiting technology, to create the industry's first anti-counterfeiting electronic atomizer with technical barriers for invention patent protection. Technical concept In short, it has two contacts, full dynamic real-time password, which can effectively solve the problem of anti-counterfeiting from the product side and remove fake products. The chip lasted one and a half years, invested more than 20 million in R&D, and was used in new products for the first time. Both cigarette packs and cigarette rods can be authenticated by code. If you insert an unmatched official cigarette case into the cigarette rod, it will not work.
The second is market dimensionality reduction. All products purchased through official certification channels are official authentic products. On this basis, JVE has further introduced the policy that "the price of official genuine products is always one yuan cheaper than imitation fakes". The strong supply chain advantage leaves enough space to fully support end-user subsidies in the market, so that good products can reach end consumers at all costs, and the price is even lower than that of fake products, and the market lethality is immediate.
For the entire industry, the anti-counterfeiting campaign based on real pain points has also started. In fact, the entire industry has also got some hints from the anti-counterfeiting strategy: it is not difficult to crack down on fakes from the underlying logic. The key is whether everyone is deeply aware of the importance of cracking down on counterfeiting for the future of the industry.
The real effect is easy to see. Only "technology" + "market" is needed to make fakes lose their living space at the root. In terms of the future development direction of the industry, this kind of action is more instructive: a new industry that stands on the cusp of the storm and has a complex environment needs to lock in the overall pain points of the industry in advance for layout.
The situation in 2022 will still be foggy for most industries. Especially at such a moment, it is necessary for the entire vape industry to have both attitude and action, to push the industry away from the cloud and move towards a more responsible, healthy and standardized development path.

First Previous Wiki
The hivemind strode across the surface of Ganymede, the icy shell serving as the first major obstacle to settlement. The high radiation levels would not be an issue, with the positioning of the main base being underground. Gaia would scrub it with their powers before the personnel came to join the work there.
Providing them all personal shields for additional protection had been difficult, but it would be beneficial in the end. The base's shields would be only one part of several to keep it safe. Deep beneath the surface, a portal opened. As it looked down at the icy shell of the massive moon, it began to visualize the operation that it would carry out. Tiny tendrils of psychic energy reached deep into the moon, cracking rock and ice as they passed. The vibrations detected through the hivemind's feet were like a small earthquake.
Its eyes saw small changes in the elevation of the ice, showing that the material was being pushed aside. With a cry of effort, the hivemind pulled more of its energy to itself. All around Earth and Mercury, tens of thousands of black strings rose into the skies, passing harmlessly through materials as they lifted into the mindscape.
News satellites and ships were already floating far above, their cameras and sensors focused on monitoring the effort. The digging was being live-streamed to the entire Alliance, a showcase of power and force that would help to drive patriotism a little higher. Though the Alliance functioned as more of a loose federation than a true nation when it came to laws, the ideas of national identity fostered by years of free travel between its internal cultures and worlds had helped to create a clearer sense of identity among the people.
The hivemind was well-aware of that fact, with xenophilia among the humans sometimes being high enough for even greed to be overwhelmed in the spirit of friendship. A new chapter had begun in both the Alliance's development and human history. Never before had Earth and Luna been so united, had internal relations between even the most distant and ideologically opposed nations of Humanity so strong. A smile parted the lips of the hivemind as it thought of all the progress Humanity had made. And all it had taken was contact with several alien civilizations, a nuclear war, space colonization, creating a truly sentient and sapient AI, and forging alliances with alien beings that were on par with gods.
The hivemind's eyes shone brightly, casting more light on Ganymede than it had seen in a long while. And the thin tendrils widened. With a closed fist, the energy increased from a trickle to a flood. Psychic energy slammed into the moon, carving out large chasms in a roughly circular fashion. The tendrils excavated an area nearly half a mile wide, drilling ever deeper as they ground through the rock and ice.
Liquid water began to rush into the hole, the immense pressure forcing it down deep into it. Much of the ice around the hivemind cracked in a widening spiderweb, and the plan's second phase began. Shields installed all over Ganymede were suddenly activated, blocking out the solar wind and Jupiter's intense magnetic fields. Phoebe had already accounted for them in calculating the power that the shields would require. Fusion reactors, installed only a day ago by Gaia and Phoebe, activated both in space and on the moon's surface.
Brey opened portals all around the hole the hivemind held open, streaming sunlight through the portals. Gaia stepped through one large portal, dressed in a bright brown outfit. Psychic energy was already gathering around their bare arms, forming a radiant green glow. Gaia's eyes passed over the scene below. They looked at the hivemind for further instructions. With a cue from the hivemind, Gaia rushed into the opening, using their telekinesis to pull rock from the ice that was rapidly melting into steam. The steam generated an intense wind that washed over the hivemind. Its heat would have killed any living creature, but the hivemind was above such things.
Gaia eventually finished gathering rock. They gave one last look at the hivemind, which raised its hands in a thumbs-up motion. Once the steam cleared a bit, Gaia nodded and split into dozens of avatars that vanished into the hole's steaming walls. The hivemind both watched and felt it as they moved through the large underground ocean, pulling up rock and stone from deeper within the moon. Ganymede, at the end of this, would have a new mine and shipyard, complete with infrastructure and entirely secure. Psychic energy was building in the area as the energy and support of 14 billion humans poured into Gaia.
Their avatars grew in size and power. The hivemind could feel the vibrations from Gaia even in the vacuum of space. Gaia started to pull deep from the moon's core, lifting chunks of stone to break away and move through the salty ocean. It wouldn't be feasible to make a solid connection down to the bottom, so Gaia was compromising. They would weave the stone through the thick icy layer and make the hole drilled down into it sustainable for a long-term mining colony.
Massive stone walls, sloped to be wider at the base than the top, started to rise. The heat from Sol aided in Gaia's ability to mold and shape the stone, the miles-thick barriers rising at a rate of several meters per second. The flow of steam continued to level off. Sometimes, small reports would echo through the noise, the sounds of gas pockets exploding in the heated stone. Gaia filled the holes and moved on.
The hivemind passed its awareness over the area as the demands on it to hold the hole open lessened. Slowly, the psychic threads became thinner again. The remaining streams of water and steam were sealed, and the quakes moving through the moon slowed as Gaia sapped their energy to help with the walls.
Defensibility was in mind as well, and thick poles of metal alloys were driven through the widening cap of rock rising above the ice. It was terraced for additional defensive capability. Rises of twenty feet regularly occurred every fifty feet, radiating from the central artificial mountain still rising. It was fully supported by the rock below, large enough for a massively lucrative space lane to run through it but not so large that defending it became impossible.
The final hole was two miles wide, with a one-mile radius. Gaia smoothed out the rough and jagged edges, then started to work on digging the tunnels. They would also be reinforced, mostly with the Vinarii metal alloy known as kintum. Brey's portals closed, and the expanding clouds of steam were gently pushed away by the hivemind. Ganymede now had an opening through its icy crust. Through it, deep mines located in the ice could be created.
Using the knowledge from several thousand engineers, physicists, electricians, and miners, as well as collaboration from Phoebe, the hivemind had also figured out how exactly to mine the material in the rich core of the moon. Large artificial gas pockets propped up the massive rocky apparatus in the ice in the lower layers. They were composed of almost entirely helium, secured within almost impenetrable barriers to the extreme pressures of the outside. With them, Gaia had balanced the immense weight of the rock above so that it would not fall into the ocean.
The hivemind held it in place as Gaia formed massive, long, and thick metal chains to anchor it to the seafloor, hundreds of miles long. These were also made of kintum, the alloy that was responsible for much of the Alliance's progress. Ynell'ser's actions continued to bear fruit even to this day. Gaia finished cutting out the tunnels and the openings, lining them with electrical cables. More fusion reactors were brought over through Brey's portals, designed to cool themselves using the massive salty ocean beneath the moon's thick surface.
Thick rings of kintum, tungsten, and several other metal alloys were slotted into place as Gaia pulled on the reserves from the Breyyanik star lifting ships. They had more of the metals than they knew what to do with, and Gaia was happy to take it off their hands. The hivemind helped to identify and correct impurities within the metal, calling them to Gaia's attention as the psychic entity's avatars flitted from ring to ring. They were another measure to help keep the hole stable.
The pressure of the crust would drive the water up and through the hole as well if things were allowed to get to their final point. To that end, a sort of grate was constructed about ten miles over the top of the hole, with the ability to close itself off in the case of a flood. Thousands of shield layers also supplemented it, hardened against all kinds of attack that both Phoebe and the hivemind could come up with. Unless the moon was hit with a planet cracker, no invading force would be able to breach the facility's lower levels without taking extreme losses.
The entire mining base had also been designed to the highest military defensibility. The electricity from the fusion reactors powered fifty Charon-class guns, protected by double-layered shields. The hivemind would later check to see the progress as Gaia and Brey continued to shore up the base. As Phoebe's androids entered the base, leading teams of specialists being paid heavily with hazard pay, the hivemind took its leave. It made sure that their personal shields were working as intended. They were.
Finally, the hivemind went to look over the rest of Humanity. They were working toward helping the Acuarfar with the war against the Lurave Empire. They lent their expertise and ideas to continue the mass construction of factories and cargo ships to transport materials in bulk to the Frawdar and Muscar Empires. More contracting companies founded and sustained on large government subsidies from Earth or Luna continued to strengthen ties. Reliance on Brey was still high and likely always would be, but every measure was being taken to decrease it.
The hivemind would check up on Phoebe's progress on new technologies soon. With the Guulin war front closed, Phoebe now had the free mental capacity to focus on that again. Sure, the scientists of the hivemind were able to lean upon all of Humanity's knowledge, but that still required time for the hivemind to help them understand it in many areas. They were very willing to learn, as many scientists had to be. But at the end of the day, it still took time, even if years of learning were shortened to weeks through its abilities. Phoebe was incredibly helpful with technological progress, even if the hivemind could do it itself at a slower pace. She'd likely be taking a central role in the war against the Westic Empire as it also pertained to the Knowers. Her unique status to them could help her to become a unifying force, stabilizing their society as emotions ran high amidst the devastation of war. There would need to be more conversations with Dilandekar since he was clearly shaping up to be the leader of the Knowers in the future. The hivemind didn't know how he'd end up, but it wanted to ensure that the rest of his life was both long and joyful.
The hivemind took one last look at Ganymede's new mark of civilization, then stepped through a portal. The battle against the Wisselen on the Known World was still raging, and its power was needed. With all the power it had built up, it would be a waste to let it simply dissipate.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Phoebe pulled the last of the Alliance's supersoldiers back, Brey's portals allowing them to evacuate quickly. The armies of the Westic Empire were closing in on her remaining holdings, and the evacuation order had been prepared after her projections had shown continued resistance would only cost their lives.
The portals shifted, releasing targeted bursts of radiation at the computers. Her control over the network accounts would be severely reduced after this, but that was fine. Luckily, she had predicted that her control would be temporary and hadn't truly expanded herself to fit her new dimensions in the quantum computers of the Empire. She'd learned from the painful experience of having to shrink a large mind through a small computer in the past and wouldn't do it again if she had a choice.
The VIs quickly took over the space that was left, their speed seeming similar to actual glee. Phoebe knew that VIs could emulate emotions, even copy them well. But actual sentience was more difficult, especially when it came to creating intelligence. Phoebe could feel herself move through the Alliance's networks, purging the latest attempts by foreign spies to get inside. They were able to get further and further as they continued to probe the networks, and Phoebe was having a harder and harder time finding them.
Of course, since the difference was like a bus hiding behind a telephone pole instead of a mailbox, it would take quite a bit more effort to be invisible to her entirely. The hivemind contacted her, letting Phoebe know that there were more technologies to review. In particular, what they were studying was both Brey's portals as well as Wisselen technologies. Progress had been made on the anti-shield bullets as well when a human scientist made a breakthrough after a random suggestion during his day-to-day life.
Phoebe activated two more androids to talk. "So what is there left to do? Is the Ganymede base stable?"
"So far, it is," the hivemind said. "Are you aware of the concept of knowledge sharing?"
"I am. Are you referring to your latest ability?"
"In part. But what I mean is pooling together the scientific knowledge of everyone, throughout both human space and otherwise."
"The scientists we sent to the Hive Union," Phoebe realized.
"Yes. I think we have a great opportunity here, if we can exploit it."
"I can go with them, if you wish."
"You will, in the second wave. But there is another matter of importance. Fyuuleen has detected a fleet heading our way from Trikkec territory. It is travelling faster than our ships can, and its trajectory is on a path to the Sol system. we need your help to calculate the best place to ensure that they are all caught by FTL suppressors, so that we may question or destroy them when the time comes."
"Can you transfer the information to me?"
The hivemind nodded. She got a text message from one of her communicators. It had all the information she needed, including readings from the sensors as the ships approached in speeding space, their position relative to real space, their apparent mass, formation, and their heading. They truly were heading straight for the Sol system. However, they were only targeting Mars. They would miss Earth entirely, leading Phoebe to believe they weren't entirely hostile.
Of course, it could be a ruse. Perhaps a cruel joke, considering what had happened to the Martian humans. Early on, the Trikkec had been the ones to destroy the colony there. They'd been struck back against, and that had caused the collapse of the Trikkec Autonomous Systems, raising the Trikkec Ascendancy in its place.
It was also possible that they were refugees. They wouldn't be poor, considering that they had large ships. So they were likely a small nation or a corporation that had almost been destroyed. Whether they were the last survivors of the old Autonomous Systems or people who just wanted to be out from under the foot of Gar, she didn't care. If they were a threat, they would be eliminated. The Alliance couldn't continue taking chances, not with two wars going on.
Within the Frawdar Empire, which had a longer border with the Lurave Empire, the Alliance had finally formed a large enough protective fleet to cover almost all the planets. Now, the Lurave Empire had begun pulling back, massing its forces in its own systems. It was likely that the Alliance, led by Izkrala, would counterattack. The Emperor of the Lurave Empire, Thasha Phunila, likely knew that. Phoebe didn't think he was stupid, from what she'd found in the Lurave Empire's loose networks.
Ri'frec was working hard again, being brought on for extra hours. The DMO was expanding again, both in personnel and on Mercury. As the planet continued to serve as the manufacturing and mining hub for the Sol system, it only made sense that continued expansion was in the Alliance's best interest. Webs of satellites and shields orbited Mercury, ensuring that the harsh solar heat and wind couldn't touch the surface. Gaia had helped with cooling the planet slightly but had mostly just scrubbed the radiation from the surface and underground near the colony.
Phoebe sent the hivemind the information it needed. The hivemind's avatar vanished, and Phoebe continued to shift her attention through her subconscious. On the Known World, her androids were still shooting at Wisselen from perches inside Tetelali.
Phoebe stepped through another portal, seeing a cavern with a large city inside. Makeshift walls had combined with the city's skyline, making it seem almost like a waffle. She saw several Knowers giving her reverent looks, but her focus was on Dilandekar. The High Researcher was talking with a group of advisors, turning a three-dimensional holographic map of the area around. Several markers of supply depots and armies were available. More of them appeared as Dilandekar pressed different buttons, magnifying some areas and gesturing.
She respectfully waited until he was finished and had dismissed his generals and advisors. Human and Knower guards surrounded him, along with several devices she'd manufactured personally to attempt to thwart Wisselen stealth technology. He turned to look at her, and she noticed several striking changes since she'd last seen him.
His black fur was now grey, with bits of red and white showing through it. Some of the areas looked suspiciously like Tetelali's crystals. Dilandekar's skull seemed fractured in several places, near the nose and jaws in particular. Red lines kept it fused together, though.
Dilandekar was wearing a new chest plate, and armor covered his back. Two guns and two were strapped to his sides. He walked forward, looking her in the eyes. Phoebe quickly noticed the mass and size difference from before.
"Your plan worked," he said. Even his voice sounded different. Small crystalline features were visible in his eyes and fur, bearing a similarity to the Junyli that she knew wasn't a coincidence. She'd heard some of the tales already through rumors from human forces. Phoebe wanted to know what had happened. And that would start with a simple question.
"Are you alright?"
"I am. From what the hivemind said, these drugs-" He held up a broken vial. "They were your doing. Do you deny it?"
"I do not. I wanted to-"
"I know what you wanted, Phoebe. I will tell you that you were successful. But do not use them on any other Knowers. Without the crystals, I would have died shortly after taking them."
"Crystals?"
"When the assassins had incapacitated the human guards and got to the inner part of the tunnel, a Junyli attacked one of them. I was thrown against a wall, with shattered pieces of their crystals entering my eyes and my mouth."
That sounded painful. Phoebe briefly imagined what it was like, and bowed her head.
"I am sorry, Dilandekar."
"Don't be. They saved my life. Indirectly, that means that you did. I owe you a great debt. But you owe my people a debt as well, AI. Are we in agreement?"
"In a way."
Phoebe didn't want to anger him. The Alliance needed him on their side, and he was the last remaining High Researcher. He was the only one who could continue to rally the Knowers against the Wisselen invasion. Dilandekar walked closer, enough for her to feel his breath against her face. His teeth parted in front of her, giving her a view of the back of his throat. Phoebe stepped back and looked up at him.
"How can I help?" She asked.
"We need you to work with us to defend ourselves. So far, millions lay dead, and your efforts on the surface are bearing less and less fruit. We can't wait any longer. We need a fully integrated defense. I don't care about culture shock anymore, and neither do the dead. Do this, and your debt to us will be fulfilled," Dilandekar said. Phoebe wasn't sure that there really was one. Not to the Knowers as a whole, at least. Just between her and the High Researcher. And despite his new abilities, he still couldn't harm her. All he could do was destroy this android. And she had hundreds more, with thousands of inactive models. Still, she wouldn't simply abandon the Knowers to their fate. That wasn't who she was.
"I can make that work."
She quickly activated secondary functions that she'd built into herself. They were meant to process information automatically while also allowing a measure of control. She could view all the data that she needed, but analyzing it was still a constraint when it needed to be done both quickly and accurately. She moved the android over to a chair as Dilandekar walked away, satisfied. She'd need to define the situation with him much better next time. But for now, it was good enough.
Phoebe extended a wireless connection to the nearest network module. It accepted the password that she'd set earlier, allowing her full access as the cybersecurity VIs turned their attention away from her. Several Wisselen VIs were in the system, fighting with her own models. Phoebe quickly wiped away the opposition, cutting them apart and sometimes simply blotting them out with functions and small tweaks to their code they couldn't change back fast enough to stay coherent.
She then destroyed every device the breaches originated from, taking the opportunity to spread into any connected Wisselen networks. She was disappointed to find nothing of importance. They'd learned from her attacks previously. Phoebe activated several hundred robots as she settled into the networks more firmly. She breathed a digital sigh of satisfaction as the bandwidth of her connections was increased. With more complex functions, she built a secondary network.
The robots began to move, the legs they were mounted on allowing them to scuttle along the stony walls, floors, and ceilings. They were similar to centipedes in design, a tried and true way to ensure durability. They came accompanied by shields and mandibles sharp enough to cut through nearly a foot of Wisselen vehicle armor.
Phoebe also connected to the Alliance's networks, trying the digital threads to herself as the networks adapted to her presence. Automated sentries, vehicles, drones, and turrets moved around as she flexed her digital muscles. She immediately activated more sentries and sent more drones down thousands of tunnels for reconnaissance.
Some drones picked up bomb payloads, which would be delivered to what she could identify as critical points in the detectable portions of the Wisselen lines. Command posts, supply lines, and even dangerous stalagmites weren't off-limits to her. With her impeccable piloting, the drones' stealth capabilities, and their speed, she'd be able to make sure they got to where they were needed.
She saw several Junyli whipping their tentacles and paws at Wisselen underneath one of her new patrols. Several of the spider-like aliens were taking potshots at the drones, but most were focused on the battle. Phoebe sent a command. Three androids deployed in front of each of them, dropping into the middle of the fray accompanied by bright flashes of disorienting light. While the Wisselen soldiers were dazed, the androids were already on the move. Swords and guns flashed, and within three seconds, fifty bodies fell to the floor.
The androids, still carrying stealth equipment, didn't pause. Phoebe had detected a group of Breyyanik and Knower prisoners, and she'd save them too. She staked out the prison camp, seeing hundreds of Wisselen on the watch for anything that was amiss. Her androids loaded their machine guns and unleashed a burst.
Chains broke, and Wisselen died. The Breyyanik and Knowers sprang into action, their forcefully amputated limbs not holding them back at all. The carnage was immense, but the camp was liberated at the end. She'd have the androids escort them back to safe territory and help to ensure that they got mental treatment for what they'd seen. With a last disgusted look at the corpses of the Wisselen, Phoebe refocused on another task.
The drones had almost reached their location. As others underneath miles of rock scuttled silently toward unsuspecting Wisselen, she saw several human supersoldiers laying waste to their fortifications near the territory of a Knower city that had been narrowly saved from invasion. Some were taking the brunt of the fire, while others were picking off every Wissel that raised their heads to shoot at them. Phoebe's drones soared overhead, almost silently. They hit a stalagmite, which cracked and broke in just the right way.
Stone chunks crushed dozens of Wisselen, and the dust cloud blinded hundreds of others. Two drones hit the command post that the soldiers were assaulting, sending twin clouds of dust and pulverized rock into the already smoky air. The noise echoed over the walls of the caverns again and again.
She still had sight of it all since she'd sent extra drones with them to serve as her eyes and ears. Being an AI, everything she had was digital. And sometimes, deploying bombs was more effective than deploying bodies.
"It's good to see you, Phoebe," the hivemind said. Several messages of thanks were reaching her from all across the planet. The hivemind's avatar still had its new appearance, with a strange mash-up of human skin tones. Its hair waved with some invisible wind as tendrils of psychic energy radiated from it in the large cave. A few miles to the west, there was a Knower city. That was where it came from and where she'd be setting up more defenses.
"Need a lift?"
"Of course. I take it those tendrils are killing the Wisselen survivors?"
"They already have," the hivemind confirmed. "Do you need them alive?"
"No, I do not."
Phoebe was surprised that the hivemind had continued to show increased power and abilities. Perhaps that was due to Brey holding open portals to the Sol system within the planet. While the massive psychic suppressors in the orbiting fleet kept her from summoning the full power of the Dyson swarm against them or from fielding her full power, what she had was still enough to resist them through miles of rock. Phoebe could feel the drone get tugged through the air.
Soon, a portal became available, and several of her androids entered the city of Knowers. Their eyes were tired but still held the strange reverence that Phoebe had come to know so well. While their culture around AI remained odd, she didn't have time to address it yet another time. Several attacking Wisselen contingents were moving in, and she had very little time. The human and Dreedeen forces were already setting up for a protracted battle. Perhaps she could help to shorten it.
Next