The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has upended businesses around the world, forcing companies to retool their organizations to weather one of the worst disruptions to the global economy in decades. In the face of unpredictability, both decentralization in the workplace and system architectures have taken center stage as methods to combat ever-changing circumstances. While each company faces its own set of challenges, decentralized organizations are inherently better equipped to take on today’s inclement business environment.

Decentralization via microservices

Binance’s system architecture is a good case study when it comes to decentralization. Over the past two years, our core development team has devised a decentralized solution to Binance’s software platform, shifting from a more monolithic sub-architecture to a microservices-based solution.

While a monolithic architecture has its benefits, different components of its software applications are tightly coupled and built within the same software framework, presenting a problem when any singular component needs to be altered or updated.

A microservices-based architecture, on the other hand, decouples these software components so that they can work independently with fewer opportunities for inadvertent cross-interference.

This approach has enabled Binance developers to work from anywhere in the world, as various teams can work on different parts of the software independently while communicating via an application program interface, or API. A geographically diverse development team also allows Binance team members to react quickly and autonomously to achieve the highest degree of system security, resilience and reliability. Solutions can be built and executed rapidly, and when urgent updates need to be applied, there is always someone awake who can respond quickly during local working hours.

Transitioning to a microservices-based solution allows teams to work remotely as well as work independently, which side-steps the frictional costs of collaborating over different time zones and working hours.

Cloud-based server solutions

Binance has always been among the first to embrace innovative solutions that put security and users first. On the server side, Binance utilizes a cloud-based server solution that allows the team to deploy services closer to local users, thereby reducing latency and allowing users to enjoy a more responsive user experience.

While other organizations may rely on solutions based on traditional physical data centers or hybrid clouds, Binance is able to maintain an entirely cloud-based solution that allows for rapid server deployment to users around the world, meeting local users’ needs without having to establish a costly physical presence.

Built from the ground up on cloud-based infrastructure and with zero legacy infrastructure to contend with, the Binance DevOps team is able to manage thousands of servers around the world from consolidated interfaces. This means Binance is able to uphold the highest standards for security across all servers, with the same security standard applied to every operating server.

When it comes to compliance, cloud-based solutions allow the Binance team to quickly deploy local servers that meet local requirements. These local servers often have unique software integrations that are designed to maintain security and compliance in local markets.

Security-first innovation

The Binance development team:

“Security is always top priority. Internally, from product design to architecture implementations, security is always the ground rule we need to work with to keep user funds safe.”

The Binance internal system follows a zero-trust model to ensure maximum security when it comes to identity verification. This is especially important, as Binance developers need to access critical internal systems remotely. Every Binance employee needs to go through an authentication process before they are able to successfully login. No users — internal or external — are trusted until their identity is verified. These measures are applied to every single system.

Once users are verified, permissions to login to certain internal systems are granted on a least-privilege access model, depending on the roles and permissions assigned to a particular employee.

System stability and performance

In addition to security, Binance developers are continually seeking ways to improve the system architecture to achieve a high degree of resiliency. Resilient systems are configured to maintain a seamless user experience despite unpredictable external factors such as high traffic or demand.

Data-driven integrations continually monitor for incoming traffic system performance and respond to an influx in demand by adjusting the system architecture automatically, using a method called autoscaling to offer greater uptimes during periods of volatility. As trading activity has intensified during these recent months, Binance developers have been working diligently to ensure that the system maintains fast response times, creating “zero user perception” of system pressure.

Organizational decentralization

Finally, a decentralized organization needs to be decentralized by design. Binance employees are expected to execute tasks autonomously and serve as lead subject matter experts wherever possible to cut down on decision-making bottlenecks. Most employees own and lead their own projects, set their own goals, and continually find new ways to innovate upon existing solutions. This independence allows team members to execute quickly and work efficiently while connecting on an ad hoc-basis with team members. Collaboration is, of course, key, but projects move more quickly with a nimble team at the helm.

In addition to a decentralized organizational design philosophy, Binance has employed a remote workforce for most of its existence, with 1200+ team members in 50+ countries and regions collaborating together via voice and video calls, messaging apps and occasional face-to-face meetups whenever possible.

In the face of the global pandemic, tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook have all instituted mid-to-long-term remote work policies. Ultimately, a fully decentralized workplace provides opportunities for companies to weather challenging business environments while experiencing minimal operational disruptions. The current global pandemic will undoubtedly push companies to further decentralize where possible, serving as a bellwether for change in workplaces around the world.

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Whether it’s mistruths, misunderstandings, or plain ignorance, cryptocurrencies have a ton of value. Bitcoin is the most widely known cryptocurrency. Yet, people who are really involved in crypto’s are not just focused on Bitcoin. Instead, savvy investors are focused on other cryptocurrencies that are lesser known to the general public.

If you look at bitcoin, ethereum, and Ripple, for example, it’s really no different than looking at US dollars or the euro. Currencies like the euro and the US dollar, have the same two purposes as cryptocurrencies;  investors use them to speculate and conduct commerce. With millions of people trading foreign exchange, some speculate on the conversion between US dollars and euros using that conversion to profit. Taking their US dollars, speculators exchange them into euros and then exchange them back. Ultimately, these investors are looking to profit on the spread.

Cryptocurrencies are also useful for commerce. Everywhere, companies say “we take Visa, Mastercard, American Express and now bitcoin.” A recent example is OKCupid, who now accepts bitcoin to pay for your monthly membership. Cryptocurrencies are a real currency that can be used in any part of the world, regardless of what country it’s being used in for commerce purposes.

With all the myths dispelled, many thought cryptocurrencies had seen better days. Why did cryptos have a run-up at the end of 2017?  Why did they crash in 2018? What’s going to happen next?

Basic Economics, Artificial Intelligence, and Intermarkets

Supply, demand, and perceived value are going to factor into the price of a particular object. That’s basic economics. Whether it’s a tangible object, a stock, or a currency, there are certain factors that will determine the pricing of something. Just because the value of something decreases, it doesn’t mean that it’s half as good as it was before. It just means that the perceived value is less than it was.

In fact, when something that is actually solid has a 50% retracement in pullback from its previous price, many people might look at that and say, “That’s a negative. It’s not worth what it was.” Other, more experienced  investors will look at that as, “This is a tremendous buying opportunity. It’s like going and buying something for 50% off!” Cryptocurrencies don’t just go up or down for no reason. They’re not insulated from everything in the world. Cryptocurrencies are just like any other currency, with numerous other factors will that also drive and impact them.

Our company pioneered a concept called “Global Intermarket Analysis” where we’re actually using artificial intelligence to analyze different market relationships and how one particular security, like bitcoin, can be impacted by other markets, or intermarkets. We started forecasting cryptocurrencies about a year ago and have adapted our artificial intelligence technology to analyze crypto markets. Our patented technology was able to decipher patterns in data no differently than we’ve been able to do in the stock and foreign currency markets. Our artificial intelligence was able to decipher hidden patterns in data that showed that if the US dollar is going up, that will have an impact on Bitcoin. If the price of gold is going down, that will have an impact on Bitcoin.

Currently, we’re analyzing how 30 other markets, some of them cryptocurrencies, can affect the price of bitcoin. The process is complex and something that a human being could not monitor at once. Our artificial intelligence technology primaries purpose is to mine data, using deep, machine learning, to find patterns in data that a human wouldn’t see, These patterns in that data can provide very valuable clues as to where the cryptocurrency markets are going.

Most recently, around July 13th, our predictive analytics with Vantage Point forecast that bitcoin was going to start going up. Within a week’s time, it jumped over $8,000. Now, if you were just looking at the price action of bitcoin on a chart, you wouldn’t have seen the coming boom. Bitcoin is impacted by other factors other than itself. Being able to identify inter-market factors can help investors better understand the price of cryptocurrencies and the complex pattern of data.

There are tremendous opportunities in the cryptocurrencies now and into the future. I’m very excited by where this will take us. In the meantime, there’s a tremendous opportunity for speculators, traders, and investors to profit from this if they have the right tools, the right information, and if they’re approaching it with the right perspective.

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