Myth: Blockchains are destroying the environment.

Let’s break down this claim. Indeed, proof-of-work blockchains, such as Bitcoin, are environmentally damaging because they need miners to function, and today’s mining farms are housed in huge hangars with endless rows of powerful equipment.

It is important to understand that the entire banking industry (data centers, ATMs, office buildings) consumes much more energy than Bitcoin mining and, therefore, is more environmentally harmful.

Gold mining, by the way, is also extremely energy-consuming and much more harmful than mining.

However!

A solution has long been found: Modern blockchains rarely use the outdated proof-of-work mechanism but instead operate the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm or others, which spend paltry (comparable to Bitcoin) amounts of energy that can not even be considered.

Therefore, environmentalists should not demonize Bitcoin: Our usual airports and the entire aviation industry contribute more to the increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

✔️@CryptoTradeTg

The Bank for International Settlements has authorized the world’s central banks to store up to 2% of their capital in cryptocurrency.

However, there is a nuance: The minimum collateral reserve for crypto is 1,250%. That is, if a bank wants to invest $10,000 in BTC, it needs to provide them with an additional $125,000 in reserves.

Nevertheless, this is awesome news for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies because banks will now be able to officially own digital assets.

✔️@CryptoTradeTg

DAOs helping scientists: Underfunding solved by decentralization

We’ve got another great article on our blog.

The richer a country is, the better its scientists and research are funded. But when scientists from poorer regions migrate to richer ones, it leads to a phenomenon called “brain drain” in their respective countries.

Science is a hyper-competitive environment in which funding issues determine almost everything.

DAOs do not adhere to geographical boundaries, so they can be driven by the interests of scientists rather than the financial interests of corporations, countries, and universities.

In our new article, we describe how DAOs help science and promote progress. It’s interesting and insightful; we recommend you read it❗❗

✔️@CryptoTradeTg

Crypto Personalities: Gerald Cotten

The story of Gerald Cotten resembles a thriller worthy of a film adaptation (and it is—Netflix made a documentary about the Canadian “cryptocurrency king”).

According to the official version, Cotten died at the age of 30 from complications of Crohn’s disease, with users of his cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX losing access to their assets totaling $190 million because Cotten was the only person who knew the passwords to the cold vaults.

Many rumors and conspiracy theories have popped up in the community, from suggestions that Cotten actually faked his death to take users’ cryptocurrency to versions that he was murdered by his own wife. None of these hypotheses, however, has received reliable evidence.

Speaking of which, the Ontario Securities Commission revealed that QuadrigaCX was, in fact, a Ponzi scheme.

✔️@CryptoTradeTg

How to completely disable Google tracking?

If you're a Google user, you know that the company watches almost every tap you make and provides all the data to services on the first request.

Fortunately, you can get rid of this by installing CalyxOS firmware, which focuses on security and privacy.

It will completely remove all traces of Google from Android so that the company knows nothing about you. All that remains is to download alternatives to Google apps.

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How to download the right clip from YouTube?

Trimming a video is easy for most users, but you need to download it first. But what to do if the video is huge and you only need a few seconds from it? There is a great solution for that.

Kapwing is a web service that can edit YouTube videos without downloading them to your device. All you have to do is follow the link, paste the link to the video and edit it to your liking. Then click "Export" and download it.

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How to find a person's profile in all social networks?

You can search the person on any social networks and popular services with Namechk.

To do this, log into the site, enter a nickname and click on the search icon.

Right below the domains you'll see a section with sites of various colors. Green indicates the user with such a nickname doesn't exist. Red means the search failed. Gray signifies that an account with this username has been found.

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How to find duplicate files on your PC?

Certainly all of us have gathered duplicate files on our disks over time.

You can get rid of such files manually, but a much faster way is to use a special program.

AllDup is a free and quite powerful utility for high quality search of duplicated files on your computer and quick removal of the found redundant files.

The program searches, deletes, copies and moves duplicate files, including identical audio records with different tags.

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The neural network will become your teacher of any language absolutely free.

You can communicate with Ligolette by voice, and the AI ​​will respond by improving your skills and pronunciation through exercises.

Check it out 🔠 here.

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ChatGPT for calls

AskFred is a neural network that will definitely make your workflow easier, because it remembers everything that happened on your calls.

You just need to ask the AI ​​a question of interest in the chat, and he will give an exact answer about what was discussed at the last meeting (from the details of your company's new marketing strategy to the changes of the client).

Fred also helps write emails and reports. You can try the free assistant➡️ here

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Zoom Out is a new tool for the PhotoAI neural network

Allows you to reduce the photo infinitely and finish the background with the help of AI.

You can try it 🔠 here

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How to be less distracted on YouTube

This problem can be solved with just one extension called Minimal YouTube. The fact is that it removes everything from the interface, except for the search bar.

No more shorts, weird recommendations, ads, spoiler previews - just videos that match your query.

You can install for Chrome and Firefox

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How to remove watermarks from an image❓

All of us love to share pictures from the Internet, especially if we find something we've been looking for a long time. But unfortunately, many of them are drowned in annoying watermarks.

To avoid wasting time looking for a replacement or working in a photo editor, you can turn to Watermark Remover for help. The artificial intelligence will get rid of unnecessary elements of any image in seconds.

The service will cope not only with semi-transparent watermarks, but also with invisible to the eye marks.

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How to make Google's interface cooler?

Over time, the regular appearance of Google pages gets boring, but you can update it only by switching to a dark theme. True, a lot better from this does not happen.

And if you want something more interesting and different, then the service Stylish will help. It allows you to style the interface of any page with user-created themes.

1. Install the program and go to the site.

2. Click on the add-on icon.

3. Click the "Find more styles for this site" link.

4. Select the interface option you like and click "Install Style".

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How to create realistic photos?

No need to travel anywhere to get the perfect shot - the main thing is to hold a neural network like SmartSketch at hand.

The service is trained on more than 1 million photos. The principle of operation is simple:

1. Sketch a picture and click the "Convert to photo" button.

2. You get the generated image.

The sketches are applied with the brush tool, which is adjustable in size. The colors of the brush mean the corresponding textures.

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How to block USB ports on your PC?

If temporary users or children have access to your computer, you have probably encountered files or viruses that you don't get their origin.

You can avoid such unpleasant surprises by using the Windows USB Blocker program. It allows the user to block USB ports quickly and correctly, protecting the system from malicious software.

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How to compress any picture without losing quality?

If you frequently upload images for embedding on a website, blog, or document, you probably know that photo size matters. Compressing an image is not a problem, but it's difficult not to lose quality.

Squoosh, a service with a speaking name, can optimize an image in a couple of clicks, and visually estimate how certain options will affect the final result and size.

🤖@TechCrunchTg

Fresh database of the best neural networks.

Wondershare UniConverter conveniently integrates AI for image enhancement, watermark removal, subnoscript generation, voiceovers, separating vocals from songs, and many other tasks.

We leave the🔠 link.

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A huge number of useful chatbots in one place.

In the database you can select AI for different tasks (programming, generating text, code and video, or just a personal assistant).

The neural network will instantly respond to your request in Russian.

You can use it 🔠here.

#TechTips
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A useful service that will allow you to change your voice in real time.

Supertone has 10 voices in its arsenal, each of which can be customized to voice a video or just amuse your friends.

You can use it on Mac and Windows using the link.

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