Know Your Crypto Archives • SynQ

Category: Know Your Crypto

KardiaChain

KardiaChain

Summary

As innovation and growth continues to progress for the blockchain industry, sharply growing demands have driven an increase in specialized cryptocurrencies that operates within their various niches. However, most blockchains’ operations and communications are limited to their own platform.

This limitation was quickly apparent, and a number of blockchain has been conceptualized in the race towards interoperability, such as Polkadot, Icon, Uniswap, or WanChain. And although they all share the common goal of uniting blockchain, each are unique in their own approach and methodology in achieving that goal.

KardiaChain, the newest member of the family, is no different. By utilizing dual-node technology, the platform aims to provide non-invasive, cross-chain communication with a chain of choice, both public and private.

The implementation would allow dApps to simultaneously access both ledgers of KardiaChain and its partner chain, increasing chain utility and exposure to a wider user base through interconnected smart contracts. It would also be possible to leverage the available resources across multiple chains for increased scalability and incorporate functions of various dApps to specific use cases.

Ultimately, KardiaChain’s goal is to provide a standardized multi-chain framework that can incorporate blockchains as modular components of the ecosystem, and facilitate communication and transfer of assets and data across multiple networks.

KardiaChain was first announced in October 2018, and its main net went live on December 29th, 2020. This is relatively recent, yet the project has already formed a number of partnerships, mainly with companies based in Southeast Asia, from eSports platform support with Theta Network to multiple societal applications. Examples include AI-powered data oracles with Oraichain, decentralized identity (DID) with Ontology, NFT adoption in real estate, e-commerce with Vecom and Fado, and certificate issuance with LG CNS.

Vietnam’s first VND-backed stablecoin will also be issued by VNDC on the KardiaChain platform, and will be swappable through the Nami exchange. VNDC’s Wallet Pro will allow users access to benefits and rewards that KAI membership offers such as investments, discounts, and Play&Earn rewards. Other features include opening credit lines by mortgaging KAI to create VNDC or USDT loans, P2P trading, VNDC Farming and Escrow.

KardiaChain has additionally formed strategic partnership with ViteX in order to foster user growth on the Decentralized Exchange. The collaboration will also allow Kardiachain to utilize Vite’s payment technology function as well. Vite will integrate KardiaChain’s unique interoperability to serve ViteX cross-chain transactions and work with KardiaChain’s mobile payment gateway with the top Vietnamese telco partners to enhance Vite’s user ecosystem.

The latest proposed partner chain is BSC, or Binance Smart Chain. The BSC-Kai Dual Node will be ready for demo on the KardiaChain testnet by the end of Q1 2021, and will be operable on mainnet in Q2 2021.

Fundamentals

KardiaChain’s interoperability is achieved using the platform’s unique Dual Node concept, built upon three major components: Translator, Router, and Aggregator.

The Dual Master Nodes themselves have access to ledger data of two chains simultaneously, capable of receiving and updating cross-chain transactions, communications, and consensus. Interchain transaction data across KardiaChain are protected using the Schnorr Signature Algorithm multi-signature scheme.

The Translator component acts as a Rosetta Stone for the platform, utilizing Kardia’s unified Smart-Contract Language (KMSL) as a standardized programming language to enable compatibility across multiple different smart contract platforms.

The Router sorts Kardia’s traffic, and leveraging the most optimal chain onto which translated requests should be directed, depending on multiple variables such as current performance, fee, queue, and capacity.

Aggregator batches new updates from other chains to reduce resource strain on Kardiachain, at a ratio of one block of updates to one transaction on Kardiachain.

Token

KAI is currently trading at $0.1043 with a circulating supply of 2,049,800,000 and a max supply of 5,000,000,000 tokens. The current market cap is $213,461,949 USD with a 24hr volume of $5,369,180
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BitMEX Research FUD

BitMEX Research FUD

BitMEX’s Research team recently discovered and brought to attention a double-spending attempt on the Bitcoin blockchain, and the result was widespread FUD across the cryptocurrency market.

Whilst alarming indeed if it had succeeded, the blocks’ confirmation can be easily verified using the associated URL. It is quickly apparent that only one transaction request was confirmed.

This has been a thinly-veiled attempt at spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt amongst the particularly newly invested crypto participants.

Situations like this happen often as multiple stale, or orphaned blocks are abandoned when conflicting blocks are discovered. It is a fairly common occurrence.

 

Bitcoin utilizes multiple confirmations for each transaction to ensure that the block is properly verified across the vast majority of exchanges and wallets. BitMex uses a one-block confirmation method which assumes that transactions based on the first block confirmation are final, which is not entirely 100% accurate as blocks can be re-organized as further confirmations happen.

 

This intentional misdirection is absolutely being used for nefarious means as it only takes minimal efforts to verify that the alleged double-spend did not happen, and was not confirmed within the block using https://mempool.space/.

It would be wise to take everything BitMEX Research presents with a healthy dose of salt, and cross-reference the evidence. BitMEX executives have been charged with operating in the United States illegally.

Solana

Solana

Solana is a layer-1 blockchain that is self-operational and does not delegate operations to any other attached chain, with a slight unique application of Proof-of-Stake; the addition of a component called Proof-of-History (PoH) within its consensus. Note that it is not a Delegated Proof-of-Stake, as that was a common mistake.

In contrast to the traditional usage of PoS protocols, the platform uses its consensus mechanism to timestamp transactions to maximize efficiency. This optimization can process up to 50-60,000 transactions per second, or TPS, with a theoretical limit of over 70,000 TPS.

Solana Cryptocurrency Architecture

Transactions are timestamped when they are added to a block, currently implemented at an interval of  800ms, using a decentralized clock based on the SHA256 hash function used in BTC’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism.

Solana Decentralized Clock

Solana operates using a combination of leaders, validators, archivers, and etc. Leaders are responsible for producing new blocks and rotate every 4 blocks (1.6 seconds). Leaders produce blocks during their allotted slot, and timestamps received transactional entries. This allows transactions within a block to be broken down to their individual entries chronologically and divided into batches where participating nodes share an equally divided workload. Validators receive entries from the leader and submit votes confirming transactions entries are valid. After voting, the validators store result entries until sufficient parity amongst nodes is achieved. Batches of transactions are finally reconstructed after completion.

Transactions are initiated when clients send transactions to any validator’s Transaction Processing Unit (TPU) port. If the node is in a validator role, the transaction is forwarded to the designated node leader. Leader nodes bundles incoming transactions and timestamps them to create an entry to deliver to the appropriate cluster.

Clusters are sets of collaborating validator nodes that maintain the ledger integrity of the Solana blockchain. A node can register with any existing nodes and synchronize its registration to all included nodes at a speed proportional to the square number of participating nodes within the cluster. They are capable of subsecond confirmation and can currently support up to 150 nodes, with plans to scale up to hundreds of thousands of nodes. Confirmation time is also expected to increase logarithmically in relation to the numbers of validators.

“If the base is one thousand, for example, it means that for the first thousand nodes, confirmation will be the duration of three network hops plus the time it takes the slowest validator of a supermajority to vote. For the next million nodes, confirmation increases by only one network hop.”

Clusters are created using a genesis config, which will reference two public keys referring to a mint and a bootstrap validator. The bootstrap validator is responsible for the first entries to its specific ledger and will initialize its internal state with the mint account, which holds the number of native tokens as defined by the genesis configuration. The second validator will then be registered to the bootstrap validator as a validator. Additional validators will be registered with any registered member included in the cluster. When two clusters share a common genesis block, they are merged; but otherwise they will operate independently.

Fundamentals

SOL is currently trading at $1.54 with a circulating supply of 46,596,197 and a max supply of 488,630,611 tokens. The current market cap is $71,835,585 USD.

 

DeFi – Radix (eXRD)

Radix

Radix is a layer-1 protocol dedicated towards supporting the DeFi ecosystem by building interoperable DeFi dApps and improving scalability, security, and decentralization. It had a successful token sale, and raised over $12.5mil USD.

The consensus layer of Radix features a cutting-edge, academically reviewed consensus algorithm: Cerberus, which will support the platform with multiple features. Along with a public network with linear scalability that could scale to thousands of nodes and billions of users, Cerberus also enables cross-shard atomic composability to allow DeFi applications on different shards to cooperate without stalling other applications or transactions. The algorithm is designed to deliver true transactional finality in real-time without any rollbacks.

Radix Engine v2, at the application layer of the platform, will utilize DeFi programming tools to assist developers in compiling complex financial applications with higher security using the on-ledger DeFi component library, enabling quicker market-ready builds and lower on-ledger runtime costs. Contributors to the library will be provided with an on-ledger revenue by the Radix Dev Royalties as an incentivization.

There are two goals of the ecosystem layer. The first is to improve user accessibility, beginning with partnerships with Copper and the Ren Alliance. Second, it’s to improve DeFi liquidity using the Radix ledger, which promises to be low-cost with high-throughput to allow assets to move more efficiently between DeFi applications. Radical skunkworks projects such as StakeHounds also support Radix in unlocking billions in liquidity across crypto ecosystems.

Radix ERC20 tokens are known as E-Radix (eXRD), and lauched prior to the Radix mainnet. The token sale opened on Oct 8th, 2020 with a supply of 642m purchasable E-Radix, and was intended to promote the distribution of stake and decentralization of the tokens. E-Radix supply is balanced between current market supply and demand of the tokens; market price will determine how many E-Radix tokens will be unlocked. This design is intended to promote a supply and demand equilibrium. The starting circulating supply of E-RADIX tokens was 42m, with a maximum circulating supply of 4.41Bn.

E-Radix Distributions

E-Radix can be converted 1:1 to Radix tokens when the mainnet is live in Q2 2021. Once launched, 5.19Bn Radix tokens will be created and released following the same unlocking schedule as the E-tokens. The starting circulating supply of Radix tokens will be 51.9m tokens, in addition to any E-Radix tokens exchanged for Radix.

Radix Distributions

The Network Emissions for Staking Rewards are capped at 12B Radix tokens and are to be released over a minimum of 40 year period. 200m E-Radix is allocated towards Liquidity Incentives, to be distributed over a 6-month period to community members who provides liquidity to the E-Radix token. An additional 2.4Bn Radix tokens will be created and locked into a Stable Coin Reserve of the Radix Mainnet, to future-proof towards the long-term integration of stable coins as part of the network.

*Founder/Team will get no E-RADIX tokens and will only have their allocation of price-locked RADIX tokens with the initiation of mainnet.

Community distribution and allocations of Radix tokens.

Fundamentals

eXRD is currently trading at $0.090 with a circulating supply of 380 Million coins and a max supply of 4.41 billion coins. The current market cap is $$34,448,379 USD.

 

Elrond

Elrond

 

Elrond is a blockchain with unique architecture, employing a Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS) consensus for security and an Adaptive State Sharding scheme for high scalability. By offering an EVM compliant engine for smart contracts, the platform looks to ensure native interoperability to languages such as Rust, C/C++, C#, and Typescript. The team consist of individuals with backgrounds associated to Google, Microsoft and Intel and those were part of the NEM blockchain platform.

The project raised $3.2 million by selling 25% of the token supply in an exchange offering on Binance Launchpad in 2019. As the blockchain transitioned to it’s mainnet during July 2020, the total token supply was reduced from 20 billion to 20 million.

Secure Proof of stake is a method of consensus that combines eligibility through stake and rating with random validator selection, along with an optimal dimension for the consensus group. The BFT-like consensus protocol provides security through the randomization of nodes. Each node in the shard may determine the members of the consensus group at the beginning of a round. The aggregated signature from the last block is used as a randomization factor for this process. A weight factor of rating will be introduced to promote meritocracy among the nodes, in addition to the stakes of nodes in consideration. The Bellare and Neven multi-signature scheme will also reduce the number of communication rounds as part of the signing algorithm.

Fig. 10: Shuffling the nodes at the end of each epoch

Meanwhile, Adaptive State Sharding brings a 1000x improvement to the ecosystem by utilizing parallel transaction processing by combining all three sharding types (State, Transactions, and Network) into the network. Elrond can reportedly process up to 10,000 TPS with a 5-second latency.

Fig. 12: Network throughput measured in transactions per seconds with a global network speed of 8 MB/s

The Network Structure of Elrond consists of Shards, Metachain, and Nodes.

Shards are smaller partitions of the network and are used for scaling. Individual Shards processes a portion of the state of accounts, smart contracts, blockchain, and transaction processing in parallel with each other.

Metachain is the blockchain that runs in a specialized Shard. Its main purpose is to notarize and finalize the processed Shard block headers, facilitating Shard communication, storing and maintaining a registry of Validators, Epoch management, and processing Fisherman challenges, rewards, and penalty.

Nodes are computers, smartphones, or servers running the Elrond client and relaying messages between peers. Nodes can perform the roles of Validators, Observers, or Fisherman to provide different support levels to the network and earn proportional rewards.

Validators act like the typical stakers of a blockchain. They are nodes within the network that processes transactions and security using the consensus mechanism to earn fee rewards.

Observers are passive members of the network and act as record keepers. Full Observers maintains the complete history of the blockchain, and Light Observers are limited to 2 Epochs of blockchain history. EGLD tokens are not required for their participation, and likewise, they are not rewarded.

Fishermans are nodes that verify block validity after their proposal. Invalid blocks from malicious actors are challenged and removed. This role can also be filled by validators that are not part of the current consensus round, or by Observers.

Conceptualized in 2018, the project is nearing completion.

Fundamentals

EGLD is currently trading at $7.74 with a circulating supply of 14 Million coins and a max supply of 20.4 Million coins. The current market cap is $3,936,269,055 USD.

 

Web3 – Polkadot / Kusama

Polkadot / Kusama

 

Polkadot

Polkadot is a blockchain platform that was founded in 2017 by Dr. Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum. It is an open-sourced project with over 100 participating developers across multiple teams, assisted by institutions such as Inria Paris and ETH Zurich.

The platform was the result of Dr. Wood’s desire to support and advance the “Web 3.0” vision of a decentralized web. Along with the Web3 Foundation, the Polkadot whitepaper was published to address the lack of critical technology and the solution, interoperability.

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Para-chain and Relay Chain connections.

This is achieved through the concept of para-chains, in which multiple chains can communicate with a core main chain known as the relay-chain. Any blockchain platform that is compliant with the Polkadot Relay Chain API can be a para-chain. Others that aren’t natively compatible can be connected through “bridges”. Platforms can utilize the para-chain mechanic to run their own transactions and communicate with other chains through Polkadot. There is a support limit of 100 para-chain, and the slots will be auctioned off in un-permission candle auctions, one at any given time.

There are also para-threads, which are lower throughput, pay-as-you-go model para-chains.

 

Polkadot/Kusama Structure Overview

Validators are the stakers of the network and works to secure the Relay Chain by validating proofs from collators and participating in consensus with other validators in the network. Information within exchanged para-chain blocks are first verified, and Relay Chain blocks are produced based on validity statements from peers within the network. Validators are recompensed with block rewards, including transaction fees, in DOT. Non-compliance with the consensus algorithms will result in the removal of all of the offender’s staked tokens.

Polkadot natively supports Substrate, a modular framework that was developed by Parity Technology, to assist in the creation of blockchain products and is quickly becoming a standard in the industry. Any Substrate-based project can be supported as a para-chain, allowing for ease of adoption.

The project raised several hundred million dollars in their series of sales and ICO, which has provided the funds required to build and foster the development of the platform. The Web3 Foundation, Parity Technologies developers, and capital partners such as Polychain Capital will also be supporting the project. Polkadot’s platform officially launched on 26th May 2020, and its token listed soon after in August 2020.

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Kusama

Kusama is a cousin-chain of the Polkadot network, founded in 2019. Aptly dubbed as the canary-net, Kusama’s intended purpose is to serve as Polkadot’s experimental community research and development network. It is where developers and teams can test Polkadot functionalities such as runtime upgrades, on-chain governance, para-chains, para-threads, and etc. in a live environment.

polkadot_vs_kusama

Comparing the cousins.

Upgrades to the Polkadot platforms are also likely to be deployed to Kusama before the Polkadot mainnet. Kusama has a modified governance parameter with shorter time gaps between governance events, allowing faster growth.

As a parallel of Polkadot, Kusama is built using Substrate and uses nearly the same codebase as Polkadot. Both act as their own independent networks, but will be likely bridged together in the future for cross-network interoperability.

Fundamentals

DOT is currently trading at $4.48, with a market cap of $3,936,269,055 USD. The current circulating supply is 877,680,090 DOT coins and the max. supply is not available. 

KSM is currently trading at $38.21 USD, with a market cap of $323,602,069 USD. The current circulating supply is 8,470,098 KSM coins and the max. supply is not available.

DEX – Ocean Protocol

Ocean Protocol V3

Introduction

Ocean Protocol is a DEX platform whose goal is to empower data-ownership and decentralizing servers. It is a culmination of blockchain, data sharing framework, and ecosystem related services. Providers and consumers can utilize the platform to share, stake and trade data access whilst retaining transparency, traceability, and security for all stakeholders involved using datatokens.

A datatokens is an interoperable ERC20 that represents both the value and the access permission of a registered dataset which could be a copyrighted IP or encrypted data on a storage device. A user must send 1.0 datatoken to the data provider to acquire the license to use that dataset.

Datatokens can also be used as the interface that connects data assets with blockchain and DeFi tools via DeFi composability within Ocean. Each data service in Ocean Protocol will also be assigned its own data token and can be leveraged as their equivalent. For example, crypto wallets can become data wallets, crypto exchanges to data marketplaces, or DAOs as data co-ops. This interchangeability allows Ocean to act as an on-ramp & off-ramp for data assets across DeFi platforms.

“Ocean is an on-ramp for data into ERC20 datatoken data assets on Ethereum, and an off-ramp to consume data assets.”

The Ocean marketplace serves as an intermediary between data providers and consumers, and stores a record of registered data holders and consumer transactions. However, none of the registered data are kept on-chain. The platform only facilitates access links, and owners can upload and store their data behind their respective firewalls and encryption.

In this data economy, the $Ocean Token is the commodity that drives the platform, and is the default unit of exchange. This utility token is used to stake on data, governance, and trading. It can be earned through multiple means. Stakers are given a cut of the transition fees as a liquidity provider, sellers are given the majority of their sales revenue, or a user could build your own Ocean-based marketplace where they can earn a cut of every data asset sold on their own market.

 

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The $Ocean Token’s mechanics are based on a Web3 sustainability loop model.

As of October 27th, 2020, Ocean Protocol’s V3 platform went live. Which meant the Ocean Market has also exited beta and entered public access. The team has contracted security audits, and their architecture has also been updated as shown.

 

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Source: Ocean V3 Architecture Overview

Ocean Protocol has additionally announced an early-stage program for Web3 community integration and growth called Ocean Shipyard, which has set aside up to 20 million Ocean Token over the next 2 years to fund projects and teams interested in building on Ocean.

Fundamentals

OCEAN is currently trading at $0.44 USD, with a market cap of $182,499,539. The current circulating supply is 414,026,837 out of a total supply of 613,099,141 $OCEAN

Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ocean-protocol/

DeFi – Synthetix SNX [Update]

Synthetix

Introduction

Synthetix, was formerly known as Havven, and was rebranded during November 2018 to better represent its growth. The project which has initially started as a payment network had grown to become an asset issuance Defi protocol with an active community governance system and is recognized as the leading derivative Defi with ~$563m TVL.

 

Source: https://defipulse.com/

Within the platform, assets locked in a contract are collateralized using the Synthetix Network Token, SNX, to generate various synthetic assets such as sUSD, sAUD, sKRW, called Synths. Users will be able to convert between Synths directly with the smart contract, improving the liquidity of DEXes. Holders of SNX stakes are paid a pro-rata portion of the fees generated by Synthetix’s Exchange as an incentive for their contribution.

Additionally, token holders can participate in governing multiple variables of the ecosystem as a whole; at one point even uniting and voted on an improvement proposal even without the support of the Synthetix team after a community debate in the Synthetix Discord.

Source: Change proposed and implemented by the community for the Capella release.

Synths are currently backed by a 750% collateralization ratio, but this is subject to change depending on the platform’s community governance mechanisms in the future. To ensure Synths are backed by sufficient collateral to deal with large price shocks, stakers will be governed using a collateralization ratio, or C-Ratio. A staker’s C-Ratio is relative to the fluctuation of SNX and Synths, and a staker will be unable to claim fees with a ratio less than 750%. Ratio can be restored by minting or burning synths.

As of Oct 13, 2020, Synthetix entered a partnership with PowerPool, allowing the SNX token to become one of the first Power Index participants. Synthetix will contribute to the index composition, and integrate SNX’s governance system into PowerPool’s meta-governance. Currently, the governance is based on polling within the SNX Discord channel to signal community consensus, but the team is currently building a governance system based on SNX. This partnership will also open up new utilities and opportunities for SNX holders to multiply voting power across Defi protocols. Each holder can supply SNX into the Power Index to own SNX and earn CVP (the Power Index’s meta-governance token which can be used to vote in different Defi protocols using GTs pooled into the Power Index.) at the same time.

Fundamentals

SNX is currently trading at $3.43, with a market cap of $358,394,515. The current circulating supply is 104,525,838 out of a total supply of 206,308,351 SNX.

Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/synthetix-network-token/

DeFi – FTX Exchange

FTX Exchange

Introduction

FTX is a crypto derivative exchange offering scalable futures, leveraged tokens and OTC trading for the DeFi market. The Hong Kong-based exchange was only launched in May 2019, but has grown to be one of the top five exchanges in traded volume and is quickly outpacing most competitors.

This growth could be attributed to the solid reputation the company has established for itself, even before its adoption of DeFi projects. As interests and competition in DeFi grew, FTX stood out from the competition due to their adaptability and innovation.

Alameda Research, the exchange’s primary market maker, is also a investor in the DeFi project, mStable, a stable assets swapping protocol. The company is also an active participant in the Defi ecosystem. Alameda has proposed and voted on several Compound governance proposals, in addition to playing a crucial role in enhancing the Balancer‘s protocol distribution mechanics.

FTX operates by tokenizing leveraged futures positions using a generated ERC20 token as representation, which can then be traded as a spot token. The token could additionally also be listed on other exchanges, allowing users to take on a leveraged position without personally managing the collateral themselves. But the appeal for users is the unique products available on FTX such as the MOVE indices, FTX leveraged tokens, or the Bitcoin Perpetual Futures.

The platform’s utility token is known as FTT, and holders receive additional benefits such as lowered FTX trading fees, OTC rebates, collateral for futures trading, and socialized gains from the insurance fund.

Source: The FTX Team is also developing the SERUM Exchange.

FTX Services are available globally, except in restricted countries such as the United States, Cuba, Crimea, Sevastopol, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Antigua or Barbuda.

Fundamentals

FTT is currently trading at $3.45, with a marketcap of $329,344,002. The current circulating supply is 95,434,860 out of a total supply of 344,446,952 FTT.


Source: https://ftx.com/en/ftt

DeFi – Uniswap

Uniswap

Introduction

Without a reserve of capital, decentralized exchanges cannot be utilized to their full potential. Uniswap aims to provide this service by regulating token exchanges on the Ethereum chain using liquidity pools rather than traditional order books.

Liquidity providers who invested value into a pool will earn interests in proportion to their shares from the 0.3% trading fee that the pool generates. Anyone can contribute to an existing pool, or create a new one by supplying an equal value of both ETH and an ERC20 token. Funds can be deposited or withdrawn at any time.

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Source: https://twitter.com/UniswapProtocol/

The creator of the pool can set the exchange rate, which will be shifted through Uniswap’s “constant product market maker” mechanism for trading. When one side of the pair’s liquidity is reduced relative to the other, the price is automatically adjusted. This is designed to “create arbitrage opportunities, in order to encourage more trading”.

Fundamentals

Uniswap does not have a native token, but each liquidity pair is represented by a unique, transferable ERC20 “pool” token which users can use to swap between ETH and any ERC20 token. These tokens are created when funds are deposited into the pool and represents user’s share of the pool’s total assets. When funds are reclaimed, the associated pool tokens are burned.

Source: https://defipulse.com/

Source: https://uniswap.info/home