August used to be a month for slowing down and simplifying, of lifting your head up and looking around with renewed curiosity. When I was working it was the time when meetings and deadlines evaporated, the calendar looked abashed at its nakedness. I used to create a summer plan to investigate topics that I had put off, to play around with tools, read books, explore ideas and generally switch things up from the regular working pattern. But what to do in August when your whole year is like that...| The Ed Techie
July was a big month across the ChainSafe ecosystem, with progress spanning privacy tech, infrastructure upgrades, and core client development.| ChainSafe
Key publication of the month: Global Broadband Subscribers in Q1 2025 Key points: In terms of growth, India remained at the top of the...| Point Topic
July has been one of my busiest ‘academic workload’ months since leaving the OU, being the examiner for two PhDs, a Professorial promotion case and completing my reports as external examiner at Warwick. It’s good to occasionally flex the academic brain muscle still. And yes, I have to confess, I have been enjoying the comedy around the Warwick “Beyond” rebrand. It has become a byword in our house already, for any pretentious but ultimately meaningless marketing twaddle. In other new...| The Ed Techie
(Happy 50th anniversary to the best film ever made) One year on from leaving the OU has seen my busiest work month since I left. On one day I had three meetings. Three! I needed to have a lie down afterwards. I was part of the panel assessing applications for GO-GN’s Pilot Hubs. It’s great to see GO-GN continuing to expand and develop and the idea of regional hubs is one we had mooted for a long time, so congrats to the team on getting funding for these. I also had my annual award board a...| The Ed Techie
Point Topic’s June publications: Broadband Digital Deprivation Index – updated to 2025; Q1 2025 UK ISP and network supplier metrics - a market overview Key publication of the month:UK Broadband Affordability and the Elusive Social Tariffs: May 2025 updateIn the UK, Ofcom stated that ‘A good or service is considered to be affordable for a consumer if they are able to purchase it without suffering undue hardship’[1]. Ofcom’s Communications Affordability Tracker found that in Januar...| Point Topic
From a fresh new website to exciting protocol updates, validator milestones, and a sneak peek at what’s coming next, the ChainSafe team has been busy across the stack.| ChainSafe
Point Topic’s May publications: Building Digital Britain: Policy & Progress 2024 – 2025 ; European Broadband Operators and Tariffs...| Point Topic
In April, ChainSafe made significant strides to ensure our services were ready for the evolving needs of the Ethereum, Polkadot and Filecoin ecosystems.| ChainSafe
Key publication of the month:Annual INCA / Point Topic Altnet Sector Report 2025 Produced in partnership with Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), the 'Metrics for the UK Independent Network Sector' report, sets out a series of key figures which illustrate the continuing growth and successes of the sector, alongside some of the central concerns occupying the minds of Altnet leaders over the last year.Key points • The UK’s independent (Altnet) operators remained resilient...| Point Topic
Time marches on, and suddenly it’s the first of May. One of my favourite months of the year – the leaves on the trees outside my window are nearly in full leaf. We have the promise of better…| heavenali
500 Lido validator keys on Hoodi, joining the Web3 Decentralized Nodes program, and continued development in Polkadot, Filecoin and Ethereum ecosystems.| ChainSafe
Key publication of the month : UK broadband availability in 2024: FTTP premises up 23% y-o-y Summary and key points At the end of...| Point Topic
After 3 long years, January has finally ended. On the personal front it’s been going well. Now that I don’t have as many meetings, I decided to shift the ‘vibe’ of my room from ‘home office’ to ‘vinyl lounge’. This involved the inevitable trip to Ikea, and purchase of the favourite of vinyl collectors, the Kallax unit. It’s interesting to note the manner in which the change in the physical set-up alters your behaviour. We used to have our records split across three rooms, bu...| The Ed Techie
We went to the coast for a week over Christmas, and had an unexpectedly sunny day on Boxing Day, the drinks in the picture above were outside a pub in Tresaith.| The Ed Techie
(I’ve been going through some old photos – I’m the little blond one in the above, where it appears that I grew up in the 1930s)| The Ed Techie
