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Celsia

celsia

Introduction In case you didn’t notice, the crypto market has been remarkably red . The sharks are smelling blood and circling around it. My dad is convinced that the market will not recover. I think most dads are. Once again, crypto looks like . since June 11 Dutch tulip bulbs in the mid-1600s Today, I will tackle a very present and difficult topic, Celsius Network — the centralized crypto exchange that suspended all withdrawals from its platform two weeks ago. Mine and 1.7 million other users’ deposits are now frozen and possibly at stake. Exactly such a situation that Bitcoin was designed to provide assurance against by eliminating the need to trust in banks and other third parties. Personally, I’ll admit that I have placed a large portion of my crypto savings in Celsius. Not enough to ruin my financial future if I lose it, but it will surely hurt for a long time to come. However, I remain cautiously optimistic about seeing my funds again. If not, an expensive lesson has been learned. I turn the deaf ear to a loud minority of trolls and bots that spread toxicity, invented information, and FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) on social media. Many actual stakeholders in Celsius seem to be defaulting to emotionalism and doomerism at every turn and keep saying “that it’s all over”. In this post, I will give a comprehensive and factual account of “the Celsius freeze”. I will look into how the freeze happened, and what caused it, include some personal reflections on a possible outcome, and on what I have learned from my mistakes. Everything I say is with reservation to the fact that information at the current time is limited. Be prepared for a lot of information and no financial advice. Celsius Network Celsius is a large company that employs more than 650 people. Last year, Celsius raised $750 million in funding and was valued at more than $3 billion. The people behind Celsius are for the most part competent individuals with good track records. One exception would be the former CFO, Yaron Shalem, who was arrested for charges of money laundering, fraud, and sexual assaults in November last year. Or the former Head of Institutional Lending, Jessica Kharter, who starred in an amateur adult movie 1–2 years prior to her high-level role at Celsius. [1] [2] [3] On the other hand, CEO has founded 4 Unicorns (companies with a + $1 Billion valuation) and authored more than 50 patents. Chief Risk Officer has more than ten years of experience as a risk executive from Morgan Stanley. Current CFO, , has more than ten years of experience as a finance executive from the largest bank in Canada, RBC. Alex Mashinsky Rodney Sunada-Wong Rod Bolger Celsius works much like a traditional bank but is used for borrowing and lending out crypto assets instead of fiat. Unlike a traditional bank, users can earn high yields by depositing their crypto on Celsius. For example, I am earning an APY (Annual Percentage Yield) of 2.5% on Bitcoin, 6% on Ethereum, 7.10% on Tether, 9.02 % on Polkadot, and 3.82% on Solana. That is possible because Celsius lend out mine and other “yield farmers” assets on a short-term basis to actors that can generate profit for themselves by arbitrating, market making, or short selling. According to CEO Alex Mashinsky, Celsius is doing the equivalent of lending out securities in the digital world. [4] Frozen Customer Funds Celsius suspended withdrawals about two weeks ago. They posted a to “the community” shortly after all assets were frozen on Sunday 12 June that reads: memo “ ” Due to extreme market conditions, today we are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts. We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations. Following the announcement, on the night of Monday, June 13, Celsius’ native token $CEL–used as rewards for users on the platform — took a nosedive. $CEL plunged more than 55% in an hour, while speculations that Celsius was on the brink of bankruptcy circulated on social media. TerraLUNA-looking [5] To make matters worse, when we read Celsius’ paragraph 13.1 it says: Terms of Use ” “In the event that Celsius becomes bankrupt, enters liquidation or is otherwise unable to repay its obligations, any Eligible Digital Assets used in the Earn Service or as collateral under the Borrow Service may not be recoverable, and you may not have any legal remedies or rights in connection with Celsius’ obligations to you other than your rights as a creditor of Celsius under any applicable laws. Or in plain, non-legalistic English: “If Celsius goes bankrupt, you will probably not see your funds again.” However, as we shall see later, the evidence seems to indicate that Celsius is suffering more from a liquidity problem, than an insolvency problem. That being said, there is not much information about what really is going on behind the curtains. The Celsius team has more or less remained radio silent, except for a few formal announcements in legalese (not revealing much). They cancelled their weekly AMA session (Ask Mashinsky Anything) on June 17 where the community of anxious and enraged customers hoped to get some answers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akHW8Xen4Cw The only reasonable sub-conclusion we can draw for now is that Celsius was unable to meet its obligations as the withdrawal requests piled up and users mass-migrated from the platform. Analysts have accused Celsius of gambling with users’ crypto funds to earn high yields. “The gambles” have sometimes proven to be unsuccessful. For example, Celsius was the largest holder of , a staking solution for Ethereum 2.0 (more on staking solutions in the next section). On June 22, 2021, Stakehound announced that it had lost the keys to over 38.000 ETH deposited on behalf of clients. According to Dirty Bubble Media, Celsius’s loss amounted to at least 35.000 ETH, around $50 Million in today’s bear market conditions. Celsius did not reveal any information about their loss to the public. Stakehound Staked Ether [6] [7] Another incident came from Celsius’s involvement with BadgerDAO which fell victim to a phishing attack at the end of last year. Celsius lost 896 BTC corresponding to $20 Million in today’s bear market. [8] There could easily be other incidents or examples of poor risk management which led to Celsius’ liquidity problems but are not yet publicized or documented. There is no way of knowing… Staked Ether Data shows that Celsius among other factors became illiquid because of its large holding in Lido Staked Ethereum (stETH). Quickly summarized, stETH is an Ethereum derivative that is irredeemable until Ethereum switches the consensus model from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). This long-awaited transition is referred to as “ ”. The event was scheduled to happen in August this year but is delayed indefinitely. the Merge Currently, all transactions on the Ethereum network are validated on two blockchains, the Ethereum Mainnet (Ethereum 1.0) which uses PoW, and the (Ethereum 2.0) which uses PoS. All transactions on Ethereum are still processed on the Mainnet, while the Beacon Chain is running for the sake of testing, syncing, and providing early security to the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 update. Beacon Chain The biggest incentive for participating as a miner or a validator is the payout of block rewards. Right now, the rewards paid for validators on the Beacon Chain are only fractional compared to that of the miners on the Mainnet. Besides, there are two major drawbacks to staking on Ethereum 2.0: Users need a minimum of 32 Ether (ETH) to participate in staking on the Beacon Chain. The 32 ETH are locked until the Merge happens. The hefty entry requirement of 32 ETH is a stop block for most everyday crypto users. And even for larger players with deep pockets, yields come with the price of illiquidity as their staked ETH cannot be touched perhaps for 1–2 years, or even longer. This is where and stETH come into the picture. stETH is a tokenized version of staked ETH that can be used for trading and lending. Lido Finance currently offers a yield of 4% paid out in daily rewards for users to stake on the Beacon Chain. There is no entry requirement which means that anyone can participate without 32 ETH. The stETH tokens are also fully redeemable for ETH after the merge is complete. Lido Finance [9] Staked Ethereum is supposed to have the exact same value as ETH. But coinciding with the larger sell-off in the crypto market, stEth was trading at 0.9413 per ETH on June 10 and went even further down to 0.9341 on June 13. The loss of its 1:1 peg to ETH echoes the fall of USTs’ peg to the dollar which led to the TerraLuna crash. However, unlike TerraUST, there is no strict requirement for stETH to maintain its peg. Lido has no choice but to honor stETH redemptions after the Merge regardless of its peg. The problematic part about stETH trading lower than ETH is a matter of liquidity. [10] [11] Celsius holds a huge amount of stETH. As of right now (25–06–2022), there are 409.706 stETH in . The entire business model of Celsius evolves around staking large amounts of crypto from users’ funds, earning yields, and paying rewards back to the users. But now that stETH can no longer be redeemed in 1:1 value to ETH the tokens are effectively locked. If Celsius did decide to sell off stETH in large quantities, the price would likely tank even further. What caused this stETH’s de-pegging? Celsius’ Aave vault [12] #CELShortSqueeze Blockchain data shows that Celsius pulled out 225,000 ETH from Terra’s Anchor Protocol right before UST lost its peg to the dollar and TerraLUNA crashed. A common theory is that Celsius fell victim to a coordinated short-selling attack from “the crypto mafia”. The attack is rumored to be a vendetta for Celsius’s front-run in the UST sell-off. [13] Market analyst and Twitter user has posted a where he dissects namely how the exchange FTX and the trading firm Alameda Research worked together to bring down Celsius. They dumped large shares of stETH simultaneously, while other actors were deliberately spreading FUD on social media causing the “bank run”. On-chain analysis indeed shows that Alameda dumped 50,615 stETH onto the market in 2 hours on June 8, two days prior to stETH losing its peg. Besides, the $CEL token was (image from June 10) on the FTX exchange before the withdrawal freeze. PlanC two-part thread [14] heavily shorted Celsius supporters (or “Celsians”) in the Reddit group and under the trending twitter hashtag , have been buying up large amounts of $CEL tokens over the past days. The plan is simple: buy $CEL on FTX at a low price, send the tokens to a private wallet like MetaMask, and set a high sell limit order for example on a $100. r/CelsiusNetwork #CELShortSqueeze [15] The Celsius short squeeze purports to give traders who speculated about the downfall of Celsius a taste of their own medicine. The token is low in liquidity. According to estimates, 87% of $CEL is locked up in the withdrawal freeze. By buying up $CEL, the supply decreases, the demand increases, and so does the price. In resemblance to the dynamic, the short sellers will eventually be forced to close their shorting positions with large losses which will spike the price of $CEL further upwards. Gamestop vs. r/wallstreetbets So far, the #CELShortSqueeze-plan seems to be working. $CEL spiked 50% on June 21 reaching $1.56 compared to 0.17$ on June 13. [16] Heading Towards Bankruptcy or Temporary Liquidity Squeeze? Insolvency per legal definition means “unable to pay debts as they become due”. We can distinguish between “cash flow insolvency” and “balance sheet insolvency”. [17] [18] A company is “cash flow insolvent” when it lacks the liquidity right now to meet its obligations. A company is “balance sheet insolvent“ when it actually does not possess the assets at all to cover its obligations. The 20-billion-dollar question is (ten months ago, to manage $20B+ in total asset holdings) if Celsius is cash flow insolvent (illiquid) or balance sheet insolvent. Current blockchain data points to the former, while stories in the media and general online FUD point to the latter. Celsius reported As a private unregulated company, the public is not able to see what Celsius’ balance sheet looks like. Celsius reported their financial figures and audit reports for 2019 and 2020. Suspiciously enough, nothing was released in 2022 despite multiple calls from investors on social media platforms. [19] As of June 25, Celsius’ loan on the DeFi Protocol (see the vault ) corresponds to $225 Million. Loans on the Maker protocol are paid out in DAI, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to USD. The borrower is required to provide collateral. Further, the collateral has to exceed the value of the loan, called overcollateralizing. For example, borrowers can put in $150 worth of volatile crypto assets and get a loan for $100 worth of DAI stablecoin. MakerDAO here [20] As it appears from the screenshot of Celsius’ wallet below, they have collateralized 23,963 as a security for the loan in DAI. The unit is Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC). wBTC are Ethereum tokens based on the fungible ERC-20 standard with a value pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin. Simply put, wBTCs are Ethereum tokens that equal the value of Bitcoin. Over the last two weeks, Celsius users have paid close attention to the liquidation price of currently $13.609. If Bitcoin falls below that price level, the loan in DAI is automatically repaid with Celsius’ collateral in wBTC via the smart contract. This will likely make Celsius balance sheet insolvent. On Monday 13 June, Celsius came dangerously close to liquidation while Bitcoin’s price plummeted. Only 17,919 wBTC was stored as collateral in the wallet by that time with a liquidation price of $22,584. [21] Luckily, as the activity in the vault shows below, Celsius managed to repay part of its DAI loan and add collateral to bring down the liquidation price, before it was too late. On June 20, Celsius in debt to . On June 24, they in debt to . Another loan that Celsius took on was also fully paid off last week (see vault ). paid off more than $10 Million DAI Compound paid off +$10 Million DAI Notional Finance Chainlink of $34 Million here Celsius is evidently paying off loans to not have them liquidated. Their overall financial situation also seems to have improved a lot during the last two weeks when we look . As of June 26, their net worth is $1,942,068,006.62, an improvement of +$650 Million from June 13 as screenshotted below. at their combined wallet portfolio To inject even more hopium in the veins of frozen Celsians, stETH seems to be slowly regaining its peg to ETH, exceeding 0.965 on June 25. [22] Everything I have mentioned in this section seems to indicate that Celsius is suffering from a temporary liquidity squeeze and that they are not likely to file for bankruptcy anytime soon. In my personal view, a buy-out from another exchange seems like a more likely and (obviously) much better outcome for the users. Another interesting development is , CEO of the crypto investment company who offered to . such as Nexo Simon Dixon Bnktofuture help Celsius with a recovery plan In spite of all these positive signs, that Goldman Sachs was seeking $2 Billion in commitment from investors to buy Celsius if they filed for bankruptcy. Celsius’ and restructuring attorneys from the have allegedly recommended this outcome. That is the worst-case scenario for reasons I will omit to discuss here. However, according to from Goldmann Sachs, the story is fake news. The Wall Street Journal reported on June 24 [23] advisors from Citigroup Bank law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP [24] Simon Dixon’s insider sources Again, no one can publicly say what is going on for sure. There seems to be about an equal amount of FUD and hopium in the online space. Speculations, rumors, and theories, but the few people with real insight into the matters have signed NDA’s. Until an official announcement has been made, stakeholders are unfortunately left in the dark for an indefinite time. We are reminded of Terra co-founder, Do Kwon’s infamous, confident tweet that appeared when TerraLUNA was in free fall to near zero. https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1523733542492016640 My Closing Thoughts Now there is a hollow ring to Celsius’ slogan “Unbank yourself”. As I saw one YouTube commenter point out they delivered on their promise. However, if Celsius wounds up and pay out dividends to expensive bankruptcy lawyers and trustees before their users, many “Celsians” will inevitably “uncrypto themselves” by keeping their savings in the bank from now on. If Celsius gets margin called and liquidated on their DAI loans, analysts foresee a cascading effect on the rest of the crypto market. Other companies could be liquidated as well, perhaps even falling like domino pieces, while the price of Bitcoin and crypto would tank further. Therefore, it should be in everyone’s interest that Celsius pulls out of this, or at least be able to pay back customers’ deposits. Warren Buffet is not the most popular figure in crypto circles four years after . Nonetheless, the crypto community — myself included — could without a doubt learn a lot from his thorough, value-based investment strategy (The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is high on my reading list). he referred to Bitcoin as rat poison Like many others, I admit that I was blinded by Celsius’ promise of high yields, their gigantic backing from traditional finance players, their weekly AMAs, and whatnot. Simultaneously, I did not perform sufficient due diligence on the company or pay enough attention to Crypto Twitter leading up to the crash. I also neglected some basic rules of investing that say don’t be greedy and diversify among exchanges. Or as the old, commonplace Bitcoin saying goes: Not your keys, not your coins. Despair and angst are of course understandable on behalf of anyone who has money at stake in Celsius right now. However, a true entrepreneurial spirit can rise from ashes and come back stronger. No matter what, life goes on. In the end, good relationships, and good health is more important than cold assets. So better focus on that for a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W327zdQ0x0 Also Published here

It Got Really Hot With Celsius

Hidden behind the public view is our industry’s biggest secret, the so-called crypto shadow banking, where billions of dollars were borrowed & lent on an un-collateralized basis. Crypto shadow banks such as Celsius engaged in crypto borrowing & lending but were not licensed banks. Celsius was outside the requirements of fully licensed banks, which have capital reserves to cover losses from bad loans or available liquidity in case of a bank run. With the promise of high-interest rates, Celsius raised billions of dollars from retail and institutional investors. All those billions of dollars got lent out further to the world’s biggest crypto traders such as Three Arrows Capital Pte Ltd and Alameda Research, which fueled the spectacular bull run in 2021 that took Bitcoin from $10'000 to above $69'000. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Federal Trade Commission sued today the founder & CEO for securities fraud, commodities fraud, and wire fraud. In a nutshell, the CEO repeatedly lied to investors about the risks. He claimed that all loans by Celsius are secured & collateralized, while the truth was the platform gave out uncollateralized loans to the world's largest crypto traders that spectacularly blew up after the Terra/LUNA collapse. Additionally, the CEO was dumping the worthless CEL token on retail, while using clients' funds to prop up the price of the token on crypto exchanges. The saga around the bankrupt crypto shadow banks continues and until we as an industry resolve these issues, we can expect the ongoing nuclear crypto winter to continue.

CRYPTO SHADOW BANKING: Celsius CEO Arrested as SEC, CFTC and FTC Sue the Bankrupt Crypto Lender

This is by (source: ). Jonwu runs the newsletter “forty iq” alongside @0xbarry. Twitter thread Jonwu.eth @jonwu_ 06-14-2023 https://twitter.com/jonwu_/status/1536476104986267648?embedable=true&thread=true

The Rise and Fall of Celsius

Hey Hackers! On March 29th, Ray Youssef, the Founder, and CEO of Paxful, announced that the peer-to-peer marketplace will be refunding all of their customers affected by the Bitcoin collapse of Celsius. The two crypto companies had a business partnership that allowed Paxful users to earn a yield on their Bitcoin through Celsius Earn. After the collapse and subsequent bankruptcy of Celsius, customers who had assets earning yields were unable to withdraw as they were locked up in Celsius. The customers of Paxful Earn are unable to access their funds after the bankruptcy courts decided that the Earn accounts belonged to Celsius and not each individual customer. “Bitcoin is a tool for wealth preservation, and for many, this was money they depended on for their future. Earning your trust is an absolute honor and it’s a responsibility that I take very seriously. I’m happy to announce that I’ve personally taken action and will be refunding all affected Paxful users — your Celsius funds will be available in your Paxful wallet later this week.” - , Founder and CEO of Paxful Ray Youssef The announcement by Youssef states that affected Paxful customers can expect their assets to be refunded to their wallet “later this week”. There were no other statements regarding when the refunds will process, but users should expect it by the end of this weekend. Paxful users are expectedly in a great mood as they have gone from a place of uncertainty, for almost a year, to getting all their assets back with the snap of a finger. Below is the tweet from Founder and CEO Ray Youssef sharing the awesome news: https://twitter.com/raypaxful/status/1641105827892264960?embedable=true “I’m truly sorry for what you’ve gone through. Bitcoin is building a better financial system for the 100% — but in order to rebuild this, we all need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. That means offering transparency and putting users above financial gain — always.” - , Founder and CEO of Paxful Ray Youssef This type of news is simply amazing to see and it brings hope that there are good outcomes for those that keep the faith. It also cannot be overstated how respectable and generous this move is by the Paxful Founder/CEO Ray Youssef. Some may still complain that this should have been done many months ago, but the fact of the matter is that he is stepping up now and putting his money where his mouth is. This is more than you can say about most other crypto exchanges or companies. At the end of the day, I think we can all agree that this is a positive outcome to a really poor situation and we should applaud good behavior when we see it. I, for one, wholeheartedly applaud Ray Youssef for this generous action, and I would love to see this perpetuated throughout the crypto industry. What are your thoughts on this news? Are you a customer of Paxful? If so, how do you feel about getting a 100% refund after all this time? Do you think this will start a trend of crypto companies refunding affected customers? Also published here.

Paxful Reimburses All Users Impacted by Celsius Bankruptcy

The crypto industry’s biggest secret -  the Shadow Banking System, where cryptocurrencies worth billions of dollars are borrowed & lent on an un-collateralized basis, between some of the industry’s biggest names, was exposed in recent months as the biggest driver of the spectacular bull market... . as well the collapse & contagion that is still ongoing While the crypto shadow banks are going through their most difficult moments, it was the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) decision to declare a lending program an unregistered security offering might have unintentionally saved Coinbase from the same deadly blow that struck BlockFi, Celsius, Voyager, Gemini, and many others. Crypto shadow banks are companies that engage in bank-like activities such as borrowing & lending but obviously are not licensed banks, hence fall outside the regulatory constraints of fully licensed banks, which are required to have capital reserves to cover losses from bad loans or available liquidity in case of a bank run. With the promise of “L ”, crypto shadow banks such as Celsius, BlockFi, Voyager & Gemini managed to attract billions of AUM from professional and retail investors, which got lent out further to the world’s biggest crypto whales, the likes of 3AC and Alameda Research. ess risk than a bank with better returns for customers. In the midst of the 2021 bull market, the crypto industry’s second biggest player had its own plans to launch a lending program, namely Coinbase Lend. While the details of Coinbase’s Lend program are no longer publicly available, I found out that the program would work by “matching lenders of the USDC stablecoin with qualified borrowers” and that “ ”. Coinbase would guarantee the principal creditors lend out It is unclear whether Coinbase would match borrowers to lenders directly or simply create a pool out of which they could undertake lending activities. While the semantics of Coinbase’s wording is of less importance for this story, the playbook was meant to be similar to that of the largest crypto shadow banks; borrow cryptos worth billions of dollars from clients already onboarded with Coinbase and lend out in the Shadow Debt Market to worlds largest proprietary trading firms, hedge funds, and market makers. The details of Coinbase’s Lend program caught the attention of the SEC, and the US regulator reacted fiercely & aggressively by threatening to sue Coinbase if the program was launched. Coinbase Lend program was immediately scrapped, with Coinbase noting SEC’s “ ” since many other crypto shadow banks were engaging in those same lucrative borrowing & lending activities. unfair treatment The rest is now history. SEC’s decision unintentionally saved Coinbase from the same catastrophic fate that struck BlockFi, Celsius, Voyager, Gemini, and many more - the collapse of Terra/LUNA, the blow-up of 3AC, the fiasco of FTX & Alameda Research, and the ongoing contagion. In retrospect, it’s easy for crypto critics & skeptics to point fingers at crypto companies or praise regulators around the globe, but very few people understand the plumbing & infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem, with crypto shadow banking as the biggest mystery of them all. My goal is to provide insider insights into the secretive workings and shed light to strengthen our industry which will be the backbone of infrastructure for the world's growth in the coming decades.

SEC Saved Coinbase From The Fate That Befell Voyager, Celsius, BlockFi, and Gemini

La SEC salvó a Coinbase del destino que le sucedió a Voyager, Celsius, BlockFi y Gemini

La SEC a sauvé Coinbase du destin qui a frappé Voyager, Celsius, BlockFi et Gemini

SEC ने कॉइनबेस को वायेजर, सेल्सियस, ब्लॉकफाई और जेमिनी के भाग्य से बचाया

SECは、ボイジャー、セルシウス、ブロックファイ、ジェミニを襲った運命からコインベースを救った

SEC salvou Coinbase do destino que se abateu sobre Voyager, Celsius, BlockFi e Gemini

SEC đã cứu Coinbase khỏi số phận đã xảy ra với Voyager, Celsius, BlockFi và Gemini

SEC 将 Coinbase 从 Voyager、Celsius、BlockFi 和 Gemini 的命运中拯救出来

Both of us had lost money in 2018. Here is the backstory… When the whole thing began to unravel around Celsius, there was a meme circulating the internet. The meme showed 3 types of polygons, and included a fourth (satire) polygon which is the Celsius logo called yourfundsaregon. In case you didn't get it; your-funds-are-gon(e). Of course, the pun was intended as I shared it with my close contacts. And then my friend revealed (after laughing too) that he had funds in Celsius. I was pissed. This is someone who got burnt with me back in 2018. I had learned my lesson. I thought he had too. When I asked him why he would leave funds in Celsius, he said he gets 7% interest. That was a facepalm moment. A few months earlier… I created an Instagram account for personal fun. And it didn't take long for some salesperson to slide into my DMs She was going to talk me into buying crypto. She has no idea I was an OG in the space. Crypto was already in the bearish zone. But things haven't started falling apart. At first, I wanted to block and report the account immediately. But I gave her the benefit of doubt to say how she got to know me. Then, she cited the branding slogan of my Navy Seal friend. It felt warm, so I decided to hear her pitch out. I pretended I was a novice at first. So, she told me I could buy bitcoins, hold them in my wallet and be earning interest on them. Very compelling pitch, right? But as a shrewd investor, I wanted to know what their business model was. How can I be earning interest on bitcoin that is in my wallet? She made it sound so novel. Not sure what exactly she said that suggested it, but I got what they were doing. And I have been talking to my friends (which cared to listen to me) against it. They would be trading with my bitcoin and sharing a piece of the profit with me (aka interest). In other words, the bitcoin will not be in my wallet. I would just be looking at fancy numbers on their app interface. The only time I get to know if the bitcoins are really mine is when I ask for a withdrawal. I would be loaning out my bitcoins to traders or trading algorithms. As someone who has been screwed thousands of dollars in crypto before, I am not falling for that nonsense. I revealed to her that I was a crypto author. Showed her the link to my book. Then, let her know that I wasn't interested in their business model and showed her the flaw. She backed off for a while. A few weeks later, she came back with a much more aggressive pitch. And I blocked her instantly. A few weeks later, the failure of Celsius began to surface on Twitter. If there is anything I wish to communicate to anyone in the crypto space right now, this is it: "Crypto" and "Loans" do not belong in the same sentence. "Bitcoin" and "Lending" do not belong in the same sentence. "Crypto" and "Loans" do not belong in the same sentence I know this is coming quite late, as a warning. Nevertheless, it is something that should form a rigid part of a proper crypto investing philosophy going forward. The world of loans and lending is the world of central banking. Bitcoin is anti-central banking. Any attempt to make the crypto ecosystem like the central banking ecosystem will fail brutally. We have seen vivid examples in the last few months with projects like Terra Luna. But I can assure you that some people will try the concept again in a few years and give it some fancy branding and packaging. In my crypto book, I explained that crypto and central banking will co-exist. Any attempts for each one to replace the other will spell problems. If central banks create a cryptocurrency, they will fail. Their failure will be so loud and embarrassing. You can begin to see this with central bank digital currencies. It will fail. The countries that have implemented them have seen little to zero adoption. That's because crypto is anti-establishment. It is for options against the central banking economic system. In the same way, taking central banking ideas into crypto will fail. It is an ideological and philosophical thing. You cannot be doing fractional reserve with crypto. You cannot be doing quantitative easing in crypto. It's like someone pouring sand into your food and saying it is good because sand contains oxygen atoms. This is the reason many crypto projects are failing today. They want to replicate the ideas of a central banking system in crypto. Save yourself the time and headache, it will not work. Instead, focus your energies on things that could work. And there are tons of them. I digress to crypto hedge funds... Just because someone appears to have a lot of money than you doesn't mean they know better than you. Yes, I am not on CNBC or Bloomberg, but I can tell if someone up there is spewing BS. And you should be able to tell. My book is about a year old now and I literally made fun of certain narratives that happen every bear cycle. And every time I hear news that is consistent with what I said would happen, I just facepalm myself. Most crypto hedge funds don't know what they are doing. Remember, the crypto industry is just over a decade old. I can bet you didn't know what you wanted to do with your life at 13 years old. Even the traditional stock market that has existed for centuries, there are still lots of dumb players. Just because someone has big money to play doesn't mean they know more than you. It only means they have better access to money. A real hedge fund is supposed to have a strategy. Trading is not a hedge fund strategy. Even algorithms will betray you because you only have data for (about) 10 years. And this is not the central banking system where money can be printed. Buying a lot of bitcoin is not a strategy. I recommend dollar cost averaging for individuals investing in bitcoin. But I don't recommend it for hedge funds and institutions. They need to have a different strategy because of the size of funds. Now, it is revealed that some crypto hedge funds were just people loaning crypto to each other and looking for some arbitrage. That will end in tears. And it has for many already. Yes, the hedge fund may have a bit of trading activities in its strategy. But if it is for more than 30% of the portfolio, that is a professional day trading firm. Not a hedge fund. There is no “hedge”. The natural owner's tendency for bitcoin is to be stored. The natural owner's tendency for most other credible cryptocurrencies is to be used. This is the criteria you should use for a crypto hedge fund: What is the economic philosophy of the hedge fund? A crypto hedge fund that is not based on a sound "all-weather" economic philosophy is just a firm with a lot of money. You have to be a fundamentalist if you want to have a crypto hedge fund. You must have an economic worldview and it must be very sound (and account for every plausible market cycle). Back to My Stories... My friend's funds in Celsius are still gone. I am still against any kind of lending systems in crypto. And I know people will still do dumb things in crypto. So, we may have two more harsh bear markets. If you want to know if we are in the bull cycle or not, read my book. Oh, and if you want to start a crypto hedge fund, your focus shouldn't be on the coins. Cheers!

My Friend Lost Money in Celsius and Why it Pissed Me Off When I Found Out

Mi amigo perdió dinero en grados Celsius y por qué me molestó cuando me enteré

Mon ami a perdu de l'argent en degrés Celsius et pourquoi cela m'a énervé quand je l'ai découvert

मेरे दोस्त ने सेल्सियस में पैसा खो दिया और जब मुझे पता चला तो इसने मुझे नाराज क्यों किया

私の友人は摂氏でお金を失い、私が見つけたときになぜそれが私を怒らせたのか

Meu amigo perdeu dinheiro em graus Celsius e por que isso me irritou quando descobri

Bạn của tôi bị mất tiền ở độ C và tại sao điều đó khiến tôi tức giận khi phát hiện ra

我的朋友在摄氏温度下丢了钱，为什么当我发现它让我很生气

A Review of Earn, Lending and Savings Products One of the most well-known ways to increase the value of your cryptocurrency holdings and investment portfolio in recent years is through crypto lending and earn products. Due to the fact that crypto investors are increasingly focused on finding the most polished and compliant platform for crypto lending, it is vital that investors fully grasp how such crypto lending platforms work and the risks involved. : Vested Interest Disclosure The author is an independent contributor publishing via our . Be it through direct compensation, media partnerships, or networking, the author has a vested interest in the company/ies mentioned in this story. HackerNoon has reviewed the story for quality, but the claims hereon belong to the author. #DYOR brand-as-author program Understanding How Crypto Lending Works 101 In order to make an informed decision about which crypto loan platform is best for you, you must first have a thorough grasp of how they operate and their technological and lending infrastructure. The easiest approach to understanding how a crypto platform works is to concentrate on the different roles played by its various components as part of its business model, such as: Lenders are a crucial part of the crypto loan process as they provide loans to the company to generate yield on assets. In order to get a passive income from their crypto assets, they store them for an extended period of time with a crypto lending platform. Instead of selling their crypto assets, borrowers must use them as collateral to get loans. To reclaim their collateral, borrowers must also pay interest on the loans they take out depending upon the models and bonuses (using a native token) put forth by each crypto lending platform. The crypto lending platform governs the loan and borrowing procedure, it is critical for a user to read the terms of service to understand their rights and any material risks that they should be aware of. The platform may be centralised or decentralised. Depending on the kind of platform, matching orders, liquidity pools, or codes are used to govern the lending process. The following is a comprehensive selection of three cryptocurrency lending platforms, in no particular order. Best 3 Crypto Lending Platforms 1. Nexo It's no secret that Nexo is one of the most popular cryptocurrency lending and borrowing services in the world, and it's especially popular in Europe. Nexo, together with BlockFi and Celsius, is regarded as being one of the "big 3" lending platforms and has a strong reputation in the cryptocurrency and FinTech industries. With the fall of Celsius and the bailout of BlockFi. As per media reports, Nexo has also a term sheet with Vauld for potential acquisition. signed Nexo provides a crypto lending and earn product which allows users to earn Annual Percentage Yield (APY) by lending their crypto assets to the crypto lending platform. The crypto lending platform in return lends the assets to different borrowers to earn additional yield. On Nexo, the APY that customers receive is dependent on their degree of loyalty and the asset that they choose to hold their money in such as whether the users hold any native Nexo tokens. A user's loyalty level is determined by how much of their portfolio is invested in Nexo, rather than how much money they have invested. The greater the customer's loyalty level, the more APY rates they can earn in the Earn section and the lower interest rates are applicable to such borrowers. Further with Nexo, users may borrow for as low as 0% if they become Gold or Platinum members and maintain their loan-to-value ratio under 20%. On the Nexo platform, no credit checks or origination fees are required for users to borrow money. This is great for users who are holding Nexo tokens as it provides them with a competitive edge against other users using the Nexo services. In contrast to Voyager and BlockFi, Nexo does not provide typical crypto loans, but instead a crypto line of credit, which provides for more versatility in the borrowing process. Furthermore, Nexo is a pioneer in allowing users to borrow against their NFTs, making it the most asset-rich platform available. The owners of Bored Apes NFTs and CryptoPunk NFTs tokens may now borrow up to 20% of their valuable NFTs' worth - this is a great option for NFT holders. However, NFT users must conduct market due diligence before putting their NFTs as collateral due to market volatility and the experimental nature of such products. Customers may also get an additional 0.5 percent cash back on bitcoin purchases made via the site, with the amount varying according to the loyalty tier. Customers have to go through KYC and identification verification in order to buy crypto, although this will just take a few minutes. The lowest card transaction is $50, and the highest is $5,000, with a monthly ceiling of $10,000. Card transactions are immediate. Nexo Security Infrastructure Anybody that has been in the crypto world for any length of time recognises the significance of security, given the number of exchange hacks and tales of consumers losing their money that we hear. Nexo's security reputation and history are unblemished and unfortunately, there aren't many platforms that can say that. In order to safeguard money and offer $375 million in insurance, Nexo adheres to industry best practices and has worked with BitGo, Ledger Vault, Bakkt, and others. Third-party penetration testing is also carried out on Nexo's smart contracts to guarantee that there are no security holes. BitGo's SOC 2 Type 2-certified custodianship programme offers Nexo cold storage solutions and bank-grade class III vaults. Ledger Vault offers a cloud-based digital asset custody infrastructure and ensures digital assets up to $150 million. Bakkt offers Nexo cold storage solutions for Bitcoin and Ethereum that are air-gapped. Security solutions, certifications, and partners used by Nexo are shown in the image above. Secured networks with restricted access to customer information are in place. ISO/IEC 27001-certified information security management system Nexo employs to protect its customers' private data. 2. Cake DeFi The Cake DeFi’s current lineup includes Lending, Liquidity Mining and Borrowing products. Cake DeFi's loan rates are comparable to those of its DeFi competitors. In the event that the price of the native currency rises while the loan is outstanding, the advertised "guaranteed" APY increases accordingly. Cake DeFi has more than 73 million USD in rewards to its customers to date which indicates its capacity to allocate assets properly and provide users with a steady APY. paid Users deposit digital assets such as BTC, ETH, USDC, or USDT which are then locked in options contracts for a period of four weeks. The batch has a 28-day duration, beginning and ending on the Friday of each week. It's possible for customers to carry over into the following four-week term, remove their full principle and return to Cake Wallet, or take the profits only after the four-week period. Users can lend money with the assumption that it shall be repaid in full, with interest included. Users have the option of lending Bitcoin, Ether, USD Coin, or Tether (USDT). For the services Cake DeFi offers, Cake DeFi merely serves as a middleman or agent. To put it another way, Cake DeFi gives customers a "safe path" or a way to access decentralised financial services. Similar to a "black box," which gives minimal transparency and control to organisations other than itself, other CeFi systems, such as Celsius, are in sharp contrast. As a result, customers would be left in the dark about important issues like where their earnings are coming from and whether or not their money are being mixed with those of the company's operations. Cake DeFi’s belief is that in light of the difficulties that crypto investors are now facing, the industry as a whole should do more to ensure and safeguard its customers' funds which makes it one of the best crypto lending alternatives to Celsius and Voyager. 3. Crypto.com The Lending Platform offers a broad array of products with an easy-to-understand user interface. Through Crypto.com Lending, customers earn interest on their crypto investments, take out crypto-collateralized loans, receive crypto payments and trade crypto. Additionally, Crypto.com is well-known for its CRO token-based cards. All financial and risk-prevention requirements are adhered to by Crypto.com, which is a fully regulated crypto corporation. It means you won't be able to access its services, including the App and Exchange, anonymously. Crypto.com There are a number of countries where Crypto.com is now accessible. These include several in North and South America, Europe (including the UK), Australia (including New Zealand), Asia (including Singapore), and Africa (including Nigeria). You will be required to provide identification in order to complete the registration process. In order to use the platform, users must give the following: Authenticated full name Selfie with a government-issued ID to prove that you are still alive. Obtaining a Crypto.com Visa card necessitates submitting a current (within the last three months) utility bill as proof of residency. Get your account confirmed. It may take up to 3 business days to verify. On the service side, Crypto.com stores all customer money in secure cold storage facilities. An institutional-grade custody solution called Ledger Vault is used in conjunction with hardware security modules (HSM) and multi-signature keys to provide a high level of security. In addition, Crypto.com cold storage has a USD 500 million insurance coverage, which covers direct and indirect coverage through custodians, physical damage and third-party theft. Crypto.com Cold Storage and Security Crypto.com also employs HSM and multi-signature keys to safeguard its hot wallets. For day-to-day client withdrawal requests, the company's hot wallets store a small portion of its overall assets, which are enough to cover the company's daily withdrawal needs. Customers' deposits in fiat currency are protected by local rules since they are stored in highly regulated custodian bank accounts all around the world. For example, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures USD accounts held by U.S. clients up to a maximum of $250,000 USD. However, Crypto.com allows you to keep control of your fiat cash, ensuring that neither the company nor any of its creditors may ever claim them. Using Crypto.com's two-factor authentication (2FA) and a combination of the passphrase, password, biometric (fingerprint & face ID), email and phone verification, you can keep your accounts safe from intruders at all times. Furthermore, the DeFi wallet allows you to maintain your own private keys, which means that you don't have to depend on the platform's security. Crypto.com is a safe and regulated crypto platform that Crypto.com provides on its platform with various security certifications and examinations by renowned security auditors. Buying, exchanging, and spending cryptocurrency is a breeze thanks to Crypto.com's beginner-friendly trading interface. Its other crypto services, like the Crypto.com Exchange, DeFi Swap and Wallet, Crypto Earn, and Pay, make it a fantastic one-stop shop for all things crypto. Final Thoughts on Nexo, CakeDeFi and Crypto.com Lending Product Nexo, CakeDeFi and Crypto.com have swiftly risen to the position of one of the world's most significant crypto loan platforms. It's impossible for a platform to achieve this level of success without a strong product, platform, and people behind it. As cryptocurrency use continues to rise, lending services are becoming more popular. Users may maximize their financial assets without giving up ownership of them by using these services. Additionally, the APYs, which are far greater than those offered by regular banks, are a major selling point, as are the perks of the crypto card. Don’t forget to share and like the story!

3 Best Crypto Lending Platforms: Alternatives to Celsius and Voyager

Episode 19: An interview with Alex Mashinsky, the CEO and founder of CryptoDisrupted Celsius Network In this episode I interview Alex Mashinsky, founder of Celsius Network, Venture investors, and serial entreperuner. In the interview we discuss Alex’s extensive entrepreneurial background, the 2008 market crash, how the banking system works, and why he’s working on the Celsius Network. Also . available on iTunes For more episodes of , or . Crypto Disrupted subscribe on YouTube subscribe and listen on iTunes

Earn Crypto Interest with Celsius Network

Depending on who you asked about the outlook of the crypto industry going into 2024, you would have heard a response that ranged between cautious optimism and more of the same from 2023. The prevailing bearish macroeconomic conditions of heightened inflation and elevated interest rates tempered expectations.Even with the potential for a final Bitcoin ETF approval in the U.S. and the next Bitcoin halving, many thought the headwinds were too strong and that the explosion in popularity of AI would siphon off whatever VC money was still available.As we enter Q2 of 2024, most people are shocked at how strong and resilient the industry is proving to be. The popularity of the Bitcoin ETFs with institutional investors and the calming of the Federal Reserve’s language has spurred renewed interest in the highly volatile asset class. But what can we learn from the mistakes of the last bull run, and how can we overcome the reputational damage that crypto scandals did while navigating this new regulatory landscape? How we got here It seems like a distant memory, but 2021 was a banner year for the industry. Most crypto projects were hitting all-time highs, staking and lending protocols like the Anchor Protocoloffered over 20% returns, and charismatic founders like Do Kwon, SBF, and Alex Maschinsky were being hailed by the mainstream media as the next coming of Steve Jobs.Yet, there were warning signs that the market sentiment was about to shift and that these new wunderkinder were nothing more than grifters and charlatans preying on overhyped market sentiment. Even before the bull run in 2021, analysts were highlighting the potential pitfalls of some of the most popular projects of the last cycle. In April 2018,  former Head of Risk at MakerDAO and Research Analyst at Scaler Cyrus Younessi correctly identified the critical failure point in Terra Luna: “If Terra were to fall and break peg, then it would depend on Luna to Save Terra. But Luna would fall as investors would panic, and then Terra would continue to fall, and then they would just each keep contributing to each other’s demise.” Collapses in 2022, bear market 2023 The euphoria that was felt across the market in 2021 would come to an abrupt end in 2022 from the fall of the first of many dominoes with the collapse of Terra Luna. Terra ecosystem In one of the most remarkable collapses of this period, the Terra ecosystem’s flagship protocol, LUNA, and algorithmic stablecoin (UST) lost its peg to the U.S. dollar, causing the price to crash to zero in a matter of days. LUNA’s fall from grace was made all the more spectacular because of how arrogant its founder Do Kwon was about promoting its strength and stability. Celcius Throughout much of 2021, Celsius was considered a premium centralized lending platform. Its charismatic founder, Alex Maschinsky, aggressively promoted its more than 20% return on investment, and it became the de facto custodian for retail and institutional investors. However, the model became unsustainable as the market shifted and the underlying assets began to lose value. It was revealed that Celcius was using Ponzi economics to prop up the platform. It was borrowing new deposits to make up for the lack of funds to pay out the high returns, and the whole platform collapsed under the weight, taking with it investors' deposits. FTX No project was as popular or successful during the 2021 bull run as the centralized exchange FTX. It rose to prominence because of its founder, Sam Bankman Fried’s reputation as a dominant arbitrage trader in his first company, Alameda Research. He was an enigma that the media fawned over as he embraced the lifestyle of a humble billionaire by spouting the benefits of the philosophical lifestyle of effective altruism. FTX became the number one exchange globally, signing massive celebrity endorsements from Larry David, Tom Brady, and Steph Curry. FTX had entrenched itself so deeply into the industry by requiring projects it supported to hold their assets on the platform that when it collapsed, it impacted just about everyone in the space. The once dominant exchange was ultimately undermined by Binance’s founder CZ, after he publicly sold Binance’s entire stake in the FTX utility token FTT after it was revealed SBF had been using customers' deposits to cover Alameda’s losses and using FTT to make up the difference on the balance sheet. Shifting Regulatory Landscape 2022 plunged the crypto industry into a deep bear market that we are only starting to emerge from today. The industry had largely been left to self-regulate, with the SEC only intervening in cases of clear criminality. Yet, the experiences of 2022 left many people heavily criticizing the SEC’s approach, specifically Chairman Gary Gensler and the close relationship he had with SBF and Alameda Research’s CEO Caroline Ellison.In a change of tone, the SEC and Chairman Gensler began pursuing legal action against anyone and everyone it could in an aggressive shift to a regulation policy by enforcement. The shift impacted individual projects like Ripple, Library, and Tornado Cash. The shift also meant constant deferral delays on SEC regulatory decisions, specifically in relation to Bitcoin ETF approvals, as well as targeting good faith actors like centralized exchanges__Kraken__ and Coinbase. Kraken and Coinbase had been asking for clear regulations for years to operate within. For their troubles of trying to remain compliant, the SEC filed lawsuits against each for operating unregistered security exchanges To end 2023, the SEC went trophy hunting and emerged with the arrest of the CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange (Binance), CZ. CZ pled guilty to anti-money laundering charges and now faces over ten years in prison, while the exchange was fined $ 4 billion. The shift in policy by the SEC represented a direct attack on the industry. Still, it ultimately did more damage by undermining these firms' ability to operate in the U.S. by creating confusion and an environment of ever-shifting regulatory goalposts. Ongoing hacks and heists Despite the SEC's new approach to the industry, heists and hacks throughout the industry remained rampant throughout the course of 2023, totaling over $ 1.7 billion. While 2024 is again proving to be a hotbed for crypto hacks and scams, the first three months totaling over $437 million. With the looming Bitcoin halving and the historical trend of it spurring the next bull run, it is relatively safe to say that this problem will get worse before it gets better. Outlook for 2024 So, with all the negative sentiment built up in the industry from the last cycle. How can we emerge and market the industry in a positive light?If we learned anything from the last cycle it's that the product needs to be centerstage rather than any charismatic leader. It is easy to get swept up in the excitement when the market moves, but we need to remember the fundamentals of DYOR. Accountability for those bad actors of the last cycle is also key. We are beginning to see how the criminal activity of those wunderkind founders was not because they were in crypto but because they were criminals. SBF and Maschinsky committed embezzlement and financial crimes because they took advantage of user funds, not because of anything inherent with the technology. They are more akin to Bernie Madoff than Satoshi Nakamoto. Explaining the difference will be key. We should also take comfort in the fact that despite Chairman Gensler’s disdain for the industry, he will be limited to his term, other chairmen and women in the SEC have dissenting opinions (Hester Pierce) to the SEC, and his legal challenges to reign in the industry often fail. Depending on who you asked about the outlook of the crypto industry going into 2024, you would have heard a response that ranged between cautious optimism and more of the same from 2023. The prevailing bearish macroeconomic conditions of heightened inflation and elevated interest rates tempered expectations. Even with the potential for a final Bitcoin ETF approval in the U.S. and the next Bitcoin halving, many thought the headwinds were too strong and that the explosion in popularity of AI would siphon off whatever VC money was still available. As we enter Q2 of 2024, most people are shocked at how strong and resilient the industry is proving to be. The popularity of the Bitcoin ETFs with institutional investors and the calming of the Federal Reserve’s language has spurred renewed interest in the highly volatile asset class. But what can we learn from the mistakes of the last bull run, and how can we overcome the reputational damage that crypto scandals did while navigating this new regulatory landscape? How we got here It seems like a distant memory, but 2021 was a banner year for the industry. Most crypto projects were hitting all-time highs, staking and lending protocols like the Anchor Protocol offered over 20% returns, and charismatic founders like Do Kwon, SBF, and Alex Maschinsky were being hailed by the mainstream media as the next coming of Steve Jobs. Yet, there were warning signs that the market sentiment was about to shift and that these new wunderkinder were nothing more than grifters and charlatans preying on overhyped market sentiment. Anchor Protocol Anchor Protocol Even before the bull run in 2021, analysts were highlighting the potential pitfalls of some of the most popular projects of the last cycle. In April 2018,  former Head of Risk at MakerDAO and Research Analyst at Scaler Cyrus Younessi correctly identified the critical failure point in Terra Luna: correctly identified correctly identified “If Terra were to fall and break peg, then it would depend on Luna to Save Terra. But Luna would fall as investors would panic, and then Terra would continue to fall, and then they would just each keep contributing to each other’s demise.” “If Terra were to fall and break peg, then it would depend on Luna to Save Terra. But Luna would fall as investors would panic, and then Terra would continue to fall, and then they would just each keep contributing to each other’s demise.” “If Terra were to fall and break peg, then it would depend on Luna to Save Terra. But Luna would fall as investors would panic, and then Terra would continue to fall, and then they would just each keep contributing to each other’s demise.” Collapses in 2022, bear market 2023 The euphoria that was felt across the market in 2021 would come to an abrupt end in 2022 from the fall of the first of many dominoes with the collapse of Terra Luna. Terra ecosystem In one of the most remarkable collapses of this period, the Terra ecosystem’s flagship protocol, LUNA, and algorithmic stablecoin (UST) lost its peg to the U.S. dollar, causing the price to crash to zero in a matter of days. LUNA’s fall from grace was made all the more spectacular because of how arrogant its founder Do Kwon was about promoting its strength and stability. price to crash to zero price to crash to zero Celcius Throughout much of 2021, Celsius was considered a premium centralized lending platform. Its charismatic founder, Alex Maschinsky, aggressively promoted its more than 20% return on investment, and it became the de facto custodian for retail and institutional investors. However, the model became unsustainable as the market shifted and the underlying assets began to lose value. It was revealed that Celcius was using Ponzi economics to prop up the platform. It was borrowing new deposits to make up for the lack of funds to pay out the high returns, and the whole platform collapsed under the weight , taking with it investors' deposits. collapsed under the weight collapsed under the weight FTX No project was as popular or successful during the 2021 bull run as the centralized exchange FTX. It rose to prominence because of its founder, Sam Bankman Fried’s reputation as a dominant arbitrage trader in his first company, Alameda Research. He was an enigma that the media fawned over as he embraced the lifestyle of a humble billionaire by spouting the benefits of the philosophical lifestyle of effective altruism. FTX became the number one exchange globally, signing massive celebrity endorsements from Larry David, Tom Brady, and Steph Curry. FTX had entrenched itself so deeply into the industry by requiring projects it supported to hold their assets on the platform that when it collapsed , it impacted just about everyone in the space. The once dominant exchange was ultimately undermined by Binance’s founder CZ, after he publicly sold Binance’s entire stake in the FTX utility token FTT after it was revealed SBF had been using customers' deposits to cover Alameda’s losses and using FTT to make up the difference on the balance sheet. when it collapsed when it collapsed Shifting Regulatory Landscape 2022 plunged the crypto industry into a deep bear market that we are only starting to emerge from today. The industry had largely been left to self-regulate, with the SEC only intervening in cases of clear criminality. Yet, the experiences of 2022 left many people heavily criticizing the SEC’s approach, specifically Chairman Gary Gensler and the close relationship he had with SBF and Alameda Research’s CEO Caroline Ellison. In a change of tone, the SEC and Chairman Gensler began pursuing legal action against anyone and everyone it could in an aggressive shift to a regulation policy by enforcement. The shift impacted individual projects like Ripple, Library, and Tornado Cash. The shift also meant constant deferral delays on SEC regulatory decisions, specifically in relation to Bitcoin ETF approvals, as well as targeting good faith actors like centralized exchanges__ Kraken __ and Coinbase . Kraken and Coinbase had been asking for clear regulations for years to operate within. For their troubles of trying to remain compliant, the SEC filed lawsuits against each for operating unregistered security exchanges Kraken Coinbase Coinbase filed lawsuits filed lawsuits operating unregistered security exchanges operating unregistered security exchanges To end 2023, the SEC went trophy hunting and emerged with the arrest of the CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange (Binance), CZ. CZ pled guilty to anti-money laundering charges and now faces over ten years in prison, while the exchange was fined $ 4 billion. The shift in policy by the SEC represented a direct attack on the industry. Still, it ultimately did more damage by undermining these firms' ability to operate in the U.S. by creating confusion and an environment of ever-shifting regulatory goalposts. Ongoing hacks and heists Despite the SEC's new approach to the industry, heists and hacks throughout the industry remained rampant throughout the course of 2023, totaling over $ 1.7 billion. totaling over $ 1.7 billion. totaling over $ 1.7 billion. While 2024 is again proving to be a hotbed for crypto hacks and scams, the first three months totaling over $437 million . With the looming Bitcoin halving and the historical trend of it spurring the next bull run, it is relatively safe to say that this problem will get worse before it gets better. totaling over $437 million totaling over $437 million Outlook for 2024 So, with all the negative sentiment built up in the industry from the last cycle. How can we emerge and market the industry in a positive light? If we learned anything from the last cycle it's that the product needs to be centerstage rather than any charismatic leader. It is easy to get swept up in the excitement when the market moves, but we need to remember the fundamentals of DYOR. Accountability for those bad actors of the last cycle is also key. We are beginning to see how the criminal activity of those wunderkind founders was not because they were in crypto but because they were criminals. SBF and Maschinsky committed embezzlement and financial crimes because they took advantage of user funds, not because of anything inherent with the technology. They are more akin to Bernie Madoff than Satoshi Nakamoto. Explaining the difference will be key. We should also take comfort in the fact that despite Chairman Gensler’s disdain for the industry, he will be limited to his term, other chairmen and women in the SEC have dissenting opinions (Hester Pierce) to the SEC, and his legal challenges to reign in the industry often fail. dissenting opinions dissenting opinions often fail. often fail.

Resilient Strategies for Crypto Marketing Success in 2024: Overcoming Regulations and Scandals

2024 সালে ক্রিপ্টো বিপণন সাফল্যের জন্য স্থিতিস্থাপক কৌশল: প্রবিধান এবং কেলেঙ্কারি কাটিয়ে ওঠা

Belastbare Strategien für erfolgreiches Krypto-Marketing im Jahr 2024: Regulierungen und Skandale überwinden

Estrategias resilientes para el éxito del cripto marketing en 2024: superación de regulaciones y escándalos

Stratégies résilientes pour réussir le marketing cryptographique en 2024 : surmonter les réglementations et les scandales

2024 में क्रिप्टो मार्केटिंग की सफलता के लिए लचीली रणनीतियाँ: विनियमनों और घोटालों पर काबू पाना

2024 年に暗号通貨マーケティングを成功させるための強靭な戦略: 規制とスキャンダルを克服する

2024년 암호화폐 마케팅 성공을 위한 탄력적 전략: 규제 및 스캔들을 극복

Estratégias resilientes para o sucesso do marketing criptográfico em 2024: superando regulamentações e escândalos

Устойчивые стратегии успеха криптомаркетинга в 2024 году: преодоление регулирования и скандалов

2024'te Kripto Pazarlama Başarısı için Dayanıklı Stratejiler: Düzenlemelerin ve Skandalların Üstesinden Gelmek

Các chiến lược kiên cường để tiếp thị tiền điện tử thành công vào năm 2024: Vượt qua các quy định và vụ bê bối

2024 年加密货币营销成功的弹性策略：克服监管和丑闻

Authors: (1) Renato P. dos Santos, CIAGE – Centre for Generative Artificial Intelligence in Cognition and Education. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Materials And Methods Results and Analyses Prompts and generated texts Conceptualizing chemical reactions Deepening on understanding of chemical reactions Question about combustion Question about a graph of gases turning into water over time Question about the difference between atoms, molecules, and moles Deepening on the concept of mole Question about changing of state Question about an animated representation of water molecules undergoing phase changes Question about plasma, a state of matter Question about chemical bondings Question about illustration of chemical bonds Question about the essence of the type of chemical bonding Further analysis Conclusions Limitations of the study and possible future studies Author Contributions, Conflicts of interest, Acknowledgements, and References Question about a graph of gases turning into water over time P1: Look, this stuff of chemical equations, gases turning into water over time and all that always throw me off a bit. Could you show me this in a graph or whatever? : Certainly! Understanding how reactant concentrations change over time can be visualized effectively with a graph. ChatGPT For the combustion of hydrogen gas in the presence of oxygen: • The concentrations of hydrogen and oxygen decrease. • The concentration of water vapor increases. Eventually, when all of the hydrogen and oxygen have reacted, their concentrations drop to zero, and we're left with a maximum concentration of water vapor. To depict this, I'll plot a graph of concentration vs. time for hydrogen, oxygen, and water. Here's a visual representation of how the concentrations of reactants and products change over time during the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen to form water: This graph provides a visual way to understand the dynamics of this chemical reaction over time and how reactant concentrations decrease while product concentration increases. Does this graph help clarify the concept for you? Would you like to delve into any specific aspects further? BingChat: Bard: Sure. Here is a graph of the phase changes of water: The x-axis of the graph is temperature, and the y-axis is pressure. The three different lines on the graph represent the solid, liquid, and gas phases of water. The solid line is the melting point curve. It shows the temperature at which water will melt at a given pressure. For example, at a pressure of 1 atmosphere, water will melt at 0 degrees Celsius. The dashed line is the boiling point curve. It shows the temperature at which water will boil at a given pressure. For example, at a pressure of 1 atmosphere, water will boil at 100 degrees Celsius. The triple point is the point where all three phases of water coexist. It is at a temperature of 0.01 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 0.0060 atmospheres. The critical point is the point above which water cannot exist as a liquid. It is at a temperature of 374 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 218 atmospheres. To show the process of water vapor turning into liquid water over time, we can use the following graph: The x-axis of the graph is time, and the y-axis is temperature. The graph shows that as time goes on, the temperature of the water vapor decreases. Eventually, the temperature will reach the dew point, which is the temperature at which water vapor will condense to form liquid water. Once the temperature reaches the dew point, the water vapor will start to condense to form liquid water. The temperature will remain at the dew point until all of the water vapor has condensed to form liquid water. I hope this helps to clarify things. Please let me know if you have any other questions. *: Sure, visual representations can often help make these chemical concepts more clear.* Claude Here's a simple graph that could demonstrate water vapor condensing into liquid water over time: * In this graph: • The x-axis shows the passage of time • The y-axis shows the amount of water vapor (top line) and liquid water (bottom line) • At the start, there is a large amount of water vapor and minimal liquid water • As time passes, the water vapor condenses into liquid water • So the vapor line trends downwards while the liquid water line trends upwards • At the end, there is no more water vapor left - it has fully condensed I could create similar graphs to show the concentrations of reactants decreasing and products increasing over time for any chemical reaction. Let me know if a visual like this helps explain the concept! I can also work on more complex graphs depicting reaction rates, equilibrium etc. if helpful. At this point, the student asked the GenAIbots for a more detailed illustration of these concept. In response, effectively leveraged its Advanced Data Analysis mode to provide a graph that directly addressed the student's inquiry, elucidating the dynamics of the exemplified chemical reaction over time, demonstrating excellence in the categories. Its graph showcased the decline in reactant concentrations alongside the rise in product concentration over time, making it highly relevant and pedagogically valuable. ChatGPT Instructional Strategies and Detail Depth & Content Recommendation Conversely, , despite having the advantage of direct access to the DALL-E 3 image generator (David, 2023), failed to provide a personalized response to the student's request. While the generated images might have been undeniably high quality, the lack of direct relevance to the student's question and the generic nature of the images suggests shortcomings in the and categories. Despite this, this integration is a welcomed step forward, particularly when reflecting on the limitations of the standalone DALL-E 2 version in tasks like lettering, as it is evident in the example below that resulted from the student asking Bing Image Creator to illustrate the concept of chemical reactions. BingChat Personalization & Personable Touch Instructional Strategies Lacking the capability to generate images, showcased its adaptability by sourcing available online images that depicted graphs of water's phase changes. However, this method inherently risks not being precisely tailored to the question at hand. Even though it might have tapped into , the reliance on pre-existing content might not always be the most effective way to address specific inquiries. did attempt to employ Instructional Strategies by executing an internal code to generate a graph showcasing the dynamics of the chemical reaction over time, but the visual representation was of inferior quality, possibly confusing rather than clarifying, and weakening the effectiveness of the and categories. Bard Detail Depth & Content Recommendation Claude Engagement & Interactivity Use of Analogy & Comparative Illustrations It is worth noting that DALL-E 3 is also integrated into ChatGPT (Metz & Hsu, 2023) but as a distinct mode separate from the Advanced Data Analysis mode utilised in this session. To access its capabilities, the student would need to initiate a new chat session in that mode and reiterate the question. However, the images produced in this mode would be much more closely aligned with the student's query, as seen below. This paper is under CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv

How GenAIbots Explain Condensation 

Ishan Pandey: Hi Mehdi, I am delighted to welcome you to our "Behind the Startup" series. Can you tell us what inspired you to create Exponential.fi? Thanks for having me, Ishan. The journey began during the 2018 bear market when I started guiding my family and friends into the crypto world. We aimed for a 10% exposure to , , and some Altcoins. By DeFi's summer of 2020, our collective portfolio had grown to eight figures. Mehdi Lebbar: Bitcoin Ethereum As passive investors, we wanted to earn yield on our crypto holdings. BlockFi and Celsius were not options for us because of the lack of transparency on where the yield comes from. We like DeFi’s transparency but investing in DeFi was too complex and inaccessible for most. This realization sparked the idea to build a platform that provides crypto holders with easy access to yield opportunities in DeFi. DeFi is a major leap towards productivity for humans, alongside AI and robotics, but it is the only one that allows most people to participate directly. This is why we care so much about making DeFi accessible. Ishan Pandey: Can you provide more details on how Exponential streamlines DeFi investment for users and expands access to opportunities that were once exclusive to traditional banking institutions? simplifies the DeFi investment process dramatically. Users can easily choose and invest in opportunities with a few clicks. We've implemented a from A to F for each yield opportunity with supporting research, so investors can make informed decisions. We also make moving and holding funds easier without the hassle of navigating through different blockchain networks or managing private keys. Our platform handles trade execution, and keeps client funds safe using advanced technologies and cold storage. Our platform makes DeFi investing as safe and easy as possible. Mehdi Lebbar: Exponential.fi risk rating system Ishan Pandey: Security is paramount in the DeFi space, especially considering the significant sums involved. Can you elaborate on the specific security measures implemented by Exponential.fi to safeguard user funds? is comprehensive —we are a safety-first platform. We use multi-party computation technology, which ensures that no single party can access funds without explicit permission and offers both security and fund recovery options. Additionally, we store assets in cold storage with stringent controls. Transactions are initiated, signed, and monitored across different systems. The initiating server only acts upon user requests, guaranteeing that all transactions performed are user-driven. This architecture is unique and ensures that users maintain full control over their funds at all times. Mehdi Lebbar: Our approach to security Ishan Pandey: How does Exponential navigate regulatory challenges to ensure compliance and foster long-term success for the platform and its users? As a US-based company registered with FinCEN, Exponential.fi proactively embraces compliance for long-term success. Transparency, trust, and adherence to rules are our guiding principles. While a compliant approach may be more challenging, it aligns with our commitment to make DeFi investing accessible to everyone. We carefully select decentralized contracts for assets that are not classified as securities, guided by a thorough legal framework to ensure we steer clear of securities listings. Mehdi Lebbar: Ishan Pandey: Can you discuss any strategies or mechanisms implemented by Exponential.fi to mitigate risks associated with smart contract vulnerabilities and potential exploits in the DeFi ecosystem? At Exponential.fi, we prioritize direct access to DeFi protocols. We do not take a cut from the yield to ensure our incentives remain aligned with our users' best interests. We've curated the top 5% of yield opportunities from extensive research on over 800 investments. I previously launched UberEats in London, and our philosophy was that whatever you ordered on the platform should be amazing and meet your specific needs. We are taking the same approach with Exponential. Mehdi Lebbar: Ishan Pandey: How do you ensure that users understand the risks associated with DeFi investments while still encouraging participation in yield-generation opportunities? We've developed an institutional-grade DeFi risk rating system, the most comprehensive of its kind, allowing users to gauge the risk level of each investment. Our platform offers detailed analyses of pools, protocols, assets, and chains, including an evaluation of interdependency risks within the DeFi ecosystem. We educate users through our reports available on our site, and also started a podcast named "Degen Responsibly," where we discuss risk with protocol builders in the public arena. This is very much in line with the DeFi principles of transparency and openness. Mehdi Lebbar: Ishan Pandey: Looking towards the future, how do you envision the role of cryptocurrency investing and DeFi in the broader financial ecosystem? Crypto has emerged as a new asset class, gaining recognition alongside stocks, bonds, commodities, and derivatives. Similarly, DeFi represents a new asset class, offering yield on top of crypto exposure. At Exponential.fi, we're laying the groundwork to make DeFi accessible to all and enable investors to discover, assess and invest in these new financial instruments — safely and easily. Mehdi Lebbar: Don’t forget to like and share the story!

Exponential.fi: Revolutionizing DeFi Accessibility for Crypto Investors

Weather tracking is a common requirement for many web applications, ranging from personal projects to commercial services. PHP, a server-side scripting language, can be a powerful tool for retrieving and displaying weather information on websites. In this beginner's guide, we'll explore how you can use PHP to track weather data and integrate it into your web applications. Getting Started with Weather APIs To track Weather using PHP, we'll need access to weather data from a reliable source. Fortunately, there are several weather APIs available that provide developers with access to real-time and forecast weather information. One popular weather API is OpenWeatherMap. It offers a wide range of weather data, including current weather conditions, forecasts, and historical weather data. To get started, you'll need to sign up for an API key, which you can obtain by registering on the OpenWeatherMap website. Retrieving Weather Data with PHP Once you have obtained your API key, you can use PHP to retrieve weather data from the OpenWeatherMap API. Here's a simple example of how you can make a request to the API and display the current weather conditions: phpCopy code<?php

// Replace 'YOUR_API_KEY' with your actual OpenWeatherMap API key
$apiKey = 'YOUR_API_KEY';

// City and country code for the location you want to retrieve weather data for
$city = 'London';
$countryCode = 'UK';

// API endpoint URL
$url = "http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q={$city},{$countryCode}&appid={$apiKey}";

// Make a request to the API
$response = file_get_contents($url);

// Decode the JSON response
$data = json_decode($response, true);

// Check if the request was successful
if ($data && $data['cod'] === 200) {
    // Extract relevant weather information
    $weatherDescription = $data['weather'][0]['description'];
    $temperature = round($data['main']['temp'] - 273.15, 1); // Convert temperature from Kelvin to Celsius

    // Display weather information
    echo "<h2>Current Weather in {$city}, {$countryCode}</h2>";
    echo "<p><strong>Temperature:</strong> {$temperature} °C</p>";
    echo "<p><strong>Description:</strong> {$weatherDescription}</p>";
} else {
    // Display error message if request fails
    echo 'Failed to retrieve weather data.';
}

?> In this example, we construct a URL with the desired city and country code, along with our API key. We then make a request to the OpenWeatherMap API using and decode the JSON response using . Finally, we extract relevant from the response and display it on the webpage. file_get_contents() json_decode() weather information Enhancements and Considerations : It's important to implement error handling to gracefully handle situations where the API request fails or returns unexpected data. Error Handling : Consider implementing caching mechanisms to reduce the number of API requests and improve performance. Caching : You can enhance the display of weather information by incorporating CSS styling and additional details such as wind speed, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. Display Formatting : Make your weather-tracking application accessible to users worldwide by supporting multiple languages and units of measurement. Localization : Keep your API key secure by avoiding hardcoding it directly into your PHP files. Consider using environment variables or configuration files to store sensitive information. Security Conclusion Tracking weather using PHP can be a valuable addition to your web applications, providing users with up-to-date weather information for their desired locations. By leveraging weather APIs such as OpenWeatherMap and incorporating PHP to retrieve and display weather data, you can create dynamic and engaging experiences for your website visitors. With the foundational knowledge provided in this guide, you can explore further customization and integration possibilities to meet the specific needs of your projects.

How to Integrate Weather Tracking into Web Applications with PHP

Implicit operators in allow us to define custom type conversions that happen — you guessed it — implicitly when working with multiple types. Implicitly in this case means that we don’t have to explicitly cast the types since the implicit operators we implement handle this for us. C# Implicit operators in C# play a role in simplifying data type conversions. They enable you to convert one type to another seamlessly without explicitly casting the values. This feature can save you time and effort and improve the readability of code, but like all things we look at, there are cons to consider as well. Throughout this article, we’ll and examine code examples to illustrate their practical application. Let’s dive right in and learn all about implicit operators in C#! explore use cases for implicit operators in C# What are Implicit Operators in C#? Implicit operators in C# are a powerful feature that allows objects of one type to be automatically converted to another type without the need for an explicit cast. They provide a way to seamlessly convert between types, making code more concise and readable. Implicit operators are defined as special methods within a class or struct, using the keyword. These methods specify the conversion from one type to another. When the compiler encounters an assignment or expression involving compatible types, it will automatically invoke the appropriate implicit operator to perform the conversion. implicit Here’s an example to illustrate the concept: public struct Celsius
{
    public Celsius(double value)
    {
        Value = value;
    }

    public double Value { get; }

    // Define an implicit operator from Celsius to Fahrenheit
    public static implicit operator Fahrenheit(Celsius celsius)
    {
        double fahrenheit = celsius.Value * 9 / 5 + 32;
        return new Fahrenheit(fahrenheit);
    }
}

public struct Fahrenheit
{
    public Fahrenheit(double value)
    {
        Value = value;
    }

    public double Value { get; }
}

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        // Implicitly convert a Celsius temperature to Fahrenheit
        Celsius celsius = new Celsius(25);
        Fahrenheit fahrenheit = celsius;

        Console.WriteLine(fahrenheit.Value);  // Output: 77
    }
} In this example, we have a type with a property. We define an implicit operator in the type that converts a value to . When we assign a value to a variable, the compiler automatically invokes the implicit operator, converting the temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit. Celsius Value Celsius Celsius Fahrenheit Celsius Fahrenheit Implicit operators in C# can greatly simplify code by allowing objects to be converted implicitly when appropriate. This can make code more readable and reduce the need for explicit type conversions. However, it’s important to use implicit operators with caution and ensure that the conversion is safe and logical. Check out this video on using Implicit Operators in C# for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgPTQ-ST8qQ&embedable=true Pros and Cons of Implicit Operators in C# Like everything we look at, there are going to be pros and cons. I try to make sure that every topic we cover together on both my site and looks at multiple perspectives. In my opinion, this is the best way to understand when things are a better or worse fit. my YouTube channel Pros of Implicit Operators in C# Implicit operators in C# provide several benefits in software development. They can simplify code and improve readability by allowing automatic type conversions without requiring explicit casting or conversion methods. This eliminates the need for repetitive and potentially error-prone code, making the codebase more concise and easier to understand. Consider the following example where we have a custom type, , representing a unit of measurement that we’re working with: Length public struct Length
{
    public double Value { get; set; }

    // Implicit conversion from Length to double
    public static implicit operator double(Length length)
    {
        return length.Value;
    }
} With the implicit operators defined, we can use this custom type in calculations without explicitly converting them to their underlying types: Length length = new Length { Value = 5.0 };
double finalResult = (length * 1.23) / 42d;
Console.WriteLine($"The answer is {finalResult}."); An important note here is that probably any quantity that has a value like this would need to indicate the unit of measurement — this is omitted in this example just because you could do this in a number of ways and I don’t want that to be the focus. So there’s an assumption in this example that we DO know what unit we’re working with here. The implicit conversion thanks to the operator that we added simplifies the code by reducing the number of explicit conversions and improves readability by expressing the intent more clearly. If we had to litter mathematical statements with (double) and other casts throughout it, it starts to detract from the understanding of the expression itself. Cons of Implicit Operators in C# One of the big cons of implicit operators is very much related to one of the pros that we looked at. The fact that we CAN implicitly convert can lend itself to very odd situations if we’re not careful about what we implicitly convert to. Let’s introduce another custom type that can also be cast to a double. We can make a similar assumption as before that we know the units of this quantity-representing type. Here’s the code, very much like the previous type: public struct Temperature
{
    public double Value { get; set; }

    // Implicit conversion from Temperature to double
    public static implicit operator double(Temperature temperature)
    {
        return temperature.Value;
    }
} Because both we have the power to write mathematical expressions like this without casting — but should we? types are convertible to double implicitly, Length length = new Length { Value = 5.0 };
Temperature temperature = new Temperature { Value = 25.0 };
double finalResult = ((length * temperature) + 42d) / 1.23;
Console.WriteLine($"The answer is {finalResult}."); In this example, the implicit operators allow the multiplication between and objects to be performed directly, without the need for explicit conversions. In isolation, it may have made more sense to allow for either type to be convertible to double, but when they both can be, the results may be unexpected. Length Temperature To elaborate, with an example where in isolation if your length was meters, casting them to a double called length in meters isn’t too much of a stretch. But double itself is unitless, and when we start compounding this by mixing in other types, the burden of tracking what unit we’re *actually* talking about starts outweighing the benefit of the implicit conversion. In my opinion, it would be much more readable if we were forced to explicitly cast and track the conversions in intermediate steps if necessary. This is of course one example, but the point is that if you are doing implicit conversions where you potentially lose data resolution (in this case, units), then you’re at risk of this sort of thing. Nothing prevents us as C# developers from doing this — except maybe other developers on pull requests and code reviews! Use Cases for Implicit Operators In this section, I’ll present three practical use cases for implicit operators in C#. Implicit operators are a powerful feature that allow for automatic conversion between different types. Understanding and utilizing implicit operators can greatly simplify your code and improve its readability. Let’s explore three use cases where implicit operators can be useful in C#. Converting Custom Types – Money on My Mind One of the primary use cases for implicit operators is converting custom types. Suppose we have a custom type , which represents a some amount of currency. We may want to allow implicit conversion from to to simplify calculations and enable direct comparisons. Here’s how we can define an implicit operator to achieve this: Money Money double public struct Money
{
    private readonly double _amount;

    public Money(double amount)
    {
        _amount = amount;
    }

    public double Amount => _amount;

    // Implicitly converts Money to double
    public static implicit operator double(Money money)
    {
        return money._amount;
    }

    // Implicitly converts double to Money
    public static implicit operator Money(double amount)
    {
        return new Money(amount);
    }
}

// Usage
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Money moneyInWallet = new Money(100.50); // $100.50
        double cash = moneyInWallet; // Implicit conversion to double
        
        // Adding more money
        moneyInWallet += 99.50; // Implicit conversion from double to Money, then addition

        Console.WriteLine(cash); // Output: 100.5
        Console.WriteLine(moneyInWallet.Amount); // Output: 200
    }
} By defining an implicit conversion operator from to , we can now directly assign a object to a variable without the need for explicit type casting. If you wanted to have financial calculations that were more expressive by having a type, this could be useful without forcing casting operations everywhere. Money double Money double Money Simplifying Math Operations Implicit operators can also simplify math operations by automatically converting operands to compatible types. Let’s say we have a type representing complex numbers, and we want to perform arithmetic operations on them. By using implicit operators, we can seamlessly convert integers and doubles to when performing mathematical operations. In this case, we’ll not only need implicit operators for converting, but we’ll need an operator for doing arithmetic between two instances. ComplexNumber ComplexNumber ComplexNumber Here’s an example: public class ComplexNumber
{
    public double Real { get; set; }
    public double Imaginary { get; set; }

    public ComplexNumber(double real, double imaginary)
    {
        Real = real;
        Imaginary = imaginary;
    }

    // Implicitly converts int to ComplexNumber
    public static implicit operator ComplexNumber(int number)
    {
        return new ComplexNumber(number, 0);
    }

    // Implicitly converts double to ComplexNumber
    public static implicit operator ComplexNumber(double number)
    {
        return new ComplexNumber(number, 0);
    }

    // Adds two ComplexNumber instances
    public static ComplexNumber operator +(ComplexNumber a, ComplexNumber b)
    {
        return new ComplexNumber(a.Real + b.Real, a.Imaginary + b.Imaginary);
    }
}

// Usage
ComplexNumber complexNumber = 2.5; // Implicit conversion from double
complexNumber += 3; // Implicit conversion from int
Console.WriteLine(complexNumber.Real); // Output: 5.5 With implicit operators, we can perform mathematical operations on objects using integers or doubles without explicit conversions. If you were creating an application where there was a lot of arithmetic with these concepts, you may find that it improves the readability of your code to not have to routinely cast. ComplexNumber Conversions with Other Libraries: A Geometry Example Implicit operators can be particularly useful when working with libraries or APIs that have different types representing similar concepts. By creating implicit operators between these types, you can seamlessly convert between them and simplify interactions with the library. For example, consider a library we’d like to create that provides different types for representing points in 2D space. The library may define and types, each with its own set of operations. By defining implicit operators between these types, you make it easier for users to work with these objects interchangeably, depending on the context: Point2D Vector2D public struct Point2D
{
    // Implicit conversion from Point2D to Vector2D
    public static implicit operator Vector2D(Point2D point)
    {
        return new Vector2D(point.X, point.Y);
    }
}

public struct Vector2D
{
    // Implicit conversion from Vector2D to Point2D
    public static implicit operator Point2D(Vector2D vector)
    {
        return new Point2D(vector.X, vector.Y);
    }
} With these implicit operators in place, users can seamlessly convert between and objects, depending on the needs of their code: Point2D Vector2D Point2D point = new Point2D(2, 3);
Vector2D vector = new Vector2D(4, 5);

// Implicit conversion from Point2D to Vector2D
Vector2D convertedVector = point;

// Implicit conversion from Vector2D to Point2D
Point2D convertedPoint = vector; In this scenario, implicit operators simplify the code and make it more expressive by allowing users to work with the same underlying data with different objects representing different concepts. There may be benefits in similar situations where we’re incorporating a third-party library into our code base, and want to offer a level of flexibility when interacting with it. For the types that we own, we could provide implicit conversions to the library in question, and it may simplify logic within our codebase when interacting with the library. Wrapping Up Implicit Operators in C# In this article, we explored implicit operators in C#, and how they can simplify code and improve code readability. Implicit operators allow for automatic conversions between different types, making it easier to work with data and objects in C#. My personal opinion on implicit operators in C# is that type conversion is easy to “get wrong”. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, I think it’s an easy thing that you could mess up and create more complications in your code than it’s worth getting potential readability out of it. However, if you’re creating code that has an emphasis on working between several types as the core of what you’re doing, you may have better insights into effective ways to use these properly. If you found this useful and you’re looking for more learning opportunities, consider and check out my ! subscribing to my free weekly software engineering newsletter free videos on YouTube Also published here.

How To Simplify Type Conversions with Implicit Operators in C#

The ability to earn rather than buy your cryptocurrency has always been an important aspect of the crypto community. Unfortunately, for many who are new to the blockchain space, the days of being able to mine hundreds of with just your home computer are long gone. However, there are now more inclusive ways to earn cryptocurrency, and while the idea is still new, crypto-earning platforms could soon make central banks start to sweat. Bitcoin What is Crypto Earning? While most people are familiar with Bitcoin and Ethereum miners, for the high-tech, slightly mysterious subset of individuals working the blockchain for paydirt, using high-powered computers stuffed with GPUs, that's not the only way to earn your coins. Investors looking to earn coins or tokens without spending $20,000 on mining equipment can still participate in community initiatives by way of Proof of Stake. POS is an alternate consensus method used by certain blockchains to secure the network and validate transactions. While the first Proof of Stake coin, PeerCoin, was introduced as early as 2012, the rise of DeFi and Ethereum's announcement that it would be moving to Proof of Stake has revitalized this once controversial consensus method and sent it into the mainstream. Now, the only thing stopping you from earning hefty returns on your coins is knowing where exactly you should put your money. Your return will depend on the level of risk you're willing to stomach, the lock-up terms you choose for your coins or tokens, and whether you plan to go with a centralized or decentralized earning platform. Centralized vs. Decentralized platforms Like all things in cryptocurrency, or even just investing in general, there is always a risk. The world of cryptocurrency is still very much the wild west, mostly lacking regulation and consumer protection, and putting your trust in the wrong hands can often lead to disaster. Investors who previously lost their Bitcoin fortunes to shady platforms like Mt. Gox will be quick to warn you: "Not your keys, not your coins," a popular saying in the crypto community. This saying stems from the fact that when you are using a centralized platform, you do not control the private keys to your wallets. That means that, unlike your private wallet, which can't be taken from you, funds kept on platforms owned by someone else are always at risk to some degree of being lost to insolvency, have a higher risk of theft, or can even be seized should your country's flavor of cryptocurrency wane in some way. Part of the appeal of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms is that you are in control of your private keys and recovery phrases, allowing you to participate without giving up wallet ownership. So why would you ever use a centralized platform, then? Well, in its current iteration, is not as user-friendly as it could be. There are a lot of ways to make a mistake, and many people simply are not interested in or prepared to be a custodian of their own finances. DeFi This is part of the reason why central banking and credit cards have become a consumer staple; they provide protection to the user. With a non-custodial wallet, this protection is gone. You're responsible for your own private keys and recovery phrase, and if you lose those, then you're certainly out of luck, but you won't be alone. It's estimated that between 2.78 million and 3.79 million Bitcoin have been lost in this manner. While if you use the custodial wallet, support can come to the rescue in most cases if you lose access to your account or if you were to perhaps send your coins to the wrong wallet, which is an easier mistake to make than you might think. Especially with cross-chain confusion now coming into play. Earning on custodial vs. Non-Custodial Platforms Custodial Platform Earning A custodial platform, such as Nexo or Celsius, simply pays out an advertised interest rate on held cryptocurrencies, just like your bank savings account. Earnings typically go up if you are willing to commit to a longer lock-up term, which is great if you are long on an investment. You will, of course, not earn as much as you would using DeFi, but your risk is mitigated as long as you trust the platform. This is because these platforms are taking on much of the risk of blockchain finance for you. In return, they take a cut of the profits for themselves. Interest is paid out daily or weekly, typically in the same currency that you are staking, making it a good way to grow your holdings while you wait. It's the simplest way to earn if you are not technologically inclined or are risk-averse. These platforms make money by doing their own staking or lending, at varying degrees of risk, and typically also provide other services that allow them to profit off of trade or transaction fees from the users of the platform. What are the Risks of Custodial Earning Platforms? Custodial platforms are not without risk. Besides the fact that you are typically not in control of your private keys, management of the exchange can also be an issue. While the platform's job is to absorb risk, if they get into trouble, things could go south quickly, and your investments could be at risk if the company becomes insolvent. Custodial platforms are not immune to bug exploits or the will of overbearing governments. Hackers exploiting smart contract vulnerabilities or damaging new regulations could put your holdings at risk. . This loss was not passed on to the consumer, but should a loss be large enough to put a platform out of business, it could be. Even FDIC-insured exchanges only offer protection to the fiat currencies in your account. Celsius is estimated to have lost $50 million in the Badger DAO exploit Non-Custodial Platform (DeFi) Earning While DeFi staking is much more complicated and more risks are involved, the potential for profit is also greater if you are willing to take those risks. There's also a greater variety of ways to earn going the DeFi route when compared to a centralized earning platform. You can participate in yield farming, which is essentially becoming a liquidity provider to a platform that provides lending services to traders. Or, you could stake your assets and become a validator for transactions, helping to secure the network, similar to what miners do in Proof of Work setups. You can also participate in liquidity mining, a process that rewards you with native tokens or governance rights rather than a standard APY yield like yield farming does. Each of these methods of earning has its own benefits and dangers, so it's imperative that you thoroughly research each method before deciding on one. There's a very real risk of losing your initial deposit if you aren't careful. What are the Risks of Non-Custodial Earning Platforms? In addition to worrying about potential vulnerabilities in the smart contracts you are utilizing and liquidation, higher-yield currencies are often highly volatile, and shady platform providers can quickly throw a wrench in your plan, like when Sushi Swap's developer decided to sell all of his tokens, , and leaving investors high and dry. plummeting the price of the currency by 50% It's important to realize that pretty much anybody can create a token or even an entire platform for something like yield farming overnight, often anonymously, and in a faraway country, outside the reach of your country's legal jurisdiction. This is why it's important to make sure to research not just the type of Defi activity you wish to pursue carefully but also to be sure to vet the platform you intend to do it on properly. Spreading your investments across multiple platforms can also help to avoid a total loss of assets. In short, both custodial and non-custodial platforms have their own unique benefits and dangers. It's important to know what you're getting into before putting your life savings into a risky situation in which there could be no way out if things go badly.

Better Than Your Bank: A Primer on the Benefits and Risks of Crypto Earning

The U.S. Federal Reserve maintained interest rates between 5.25% and 5.5% yesterday, aligning with the widespread market predictions. During his , Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, also managed to reduce market expectations of any rate cuts to happen in March. Markets now estimate the probability of rate cuts to be communicated at the Fed’s meeting in March at just 35.5%, down from 48% just a week ago. speech All Eyes on Inflation In the Q&A session that followed the press release, Jerome Powell substantiated the need to gain 'greater confidence' that inflation continues to trend downwards toward the desired 2% before any rate cuts can be entertained. It’s obvious that the Fed is in a really difficult spot here. Apart from battling inflation, the evidence that the economic system is in distress is clear—especially in the banking sector. The prospects of that changing under the current rate environment are low. Noteworthy, the New York Community Bank, the bank that acquired the now-defunct Signature Bank, just saw its stock more than 40%. tumble Bitcoin Spot ETFs Net Inflows Turning Positive Although Grayscale continues to experience outflows, the rate of outflow is diminishing as the days pass, and the net inflow into the other vehicles has been picking up. Over the last three days, the total net inflows have consistently ranged between $200 million and $250 million. I anticipate this influx of capital into to be persistent, which has the potential to push the price of BTC higher despite the policy uncertainty. BTC Whales are Accumulating - Are you? It is also worth observing that while BTC's price seems to have entered a consolidation range, whales have been aggressively accumulating. Data from IntoTheBlock that Bitcoin whales increased their holdings by over $3 billion in January alone. reveals This happens at a time when the general sentiment has fallen into neutral territory and at a time when miners have been actively reducing their . BTC inventory With those factors in mind, it is difficult to stay entirely bearish on the outlook for BTC even though the uncertainty around economic policy remains a threat to a continued rally. Bitcoin Ordinals - Not a Passing Fad In the past year, Bitcoin ordinals have emerged as one of the leading NFT trends. Despite initial skepticism from some enthusiasts claiming their lack of utility, the count of ordinals on the Bitcoin blockchain has to over 56 million, a remarkable increase from less than 1 million a year ago. surged Even more intriguing is the remarkable value some ordinal collections have achieved. In December, the BitcoinShrooms collection, among the earliest ordinal projects, fetched an astonishing USD$450,850, setting a record at Sotheby's Auction. At this pace, Bitcoin's blockchain has the potential to evolve into a foundational element for various crypto facets. While this could increase on-chain fees, it might also signify the emergence of a new ecosystem thriving on the Bitcoin blockchain, beyond BTC itself. Noteworthy Mentions BTC Price prediction model I toyed around with a price prediction model for BTC simulating what an inflow of $100B would mean to price using the depth of the order book. Here is the if you wanna explore the model. link Industry Shakers FTX Expects to Repay Customers in Full FTX has committed to reimbursing investors following the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse, resulting in substantial financial losses. In a court hearing, FTX's attorney, Andrew Dietderich, expressed confidence that the company will possess adequate funds to satisfy all valid customer and creditor claims entirely. The reimbursement to customers will be determined by the cryptocurrency's price as of November 2022, the period when the exchange filed for bankruptcy. Harvest Global Files for the First Bitcoin Spot ETF in Hong Kong Harvest Global has applied to a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) spot with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). If granted approval, this ETF would enable investors to engage in share trading on a conventional stock exchange, directly correlated with Bitcoin's price. Hong Kong is actively establishing itself as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction, and this initiative may draw in new participants to the market. Celsius Emerges from Chapter 11, Initiates $3B Crypto Distribution Celsius Network LLC has successfully emerged from bankruptcy, concluding an eighteen-month process with the completion of transactions under its approved plan of reorganization. The plan, supported by approximately 98% of account holders and confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on November 9, 2023, involves the distribution of over $3 billion in cryptocurrency and fiat to Celsius' creditors. Enjoyed these insights? There's more where that came from. Follow me on for daily tidbits and updates. Twitter/X Also published . here

Fed Holds Rates, Powell Signals Caution, Bitcoin ETFs Gain Traction

278 Stories To Learn About Machine Learning

Hi everyone! My name is Michil Androsov and this is the second article in my series on the history of , where I offer an inside look at the creation of our unicorn company from the perspective of a simple developer. The first article is available . In it, I talked about how I joined the company, how we expanded the development team, and how we went international. inDrive here This article will cover the middle period of my career at inDrive—from about 2016 to 2020. At the time, the company was beginning to stand on its own two feet and rapidly develop in all kinds of new directions, which I'll discuss in more detail below. The Business After our first successful launches outside of Yakutsk, we were finally starting to recognize the power of our business idea. We began to wonder, "What if we really manage to take over the planet?" After all, living far up north, , you always feel quite separate from the rest of the world. It seems like everything's happening so far away, which actually gives us a pretty unique perspective. And at the time, all of our work with inDrive felt almost like a game to me. deep in Siberia Over this period, the company began to launch extensively. When we'd start operations in a new country, we might launch dozens of cities within a single month. We expanded beyond Russia and launched in Kazakhstan, where—despite a variety of obstacles—we quickly became the country's №1 ride-hailing service. To this day, Kazakhstan remains one of our top markets. When launching in a new city, we adopted a strategy of " ". As our CEO would say, if a city was ready for our service, it should be able to ignite from the smallest of sparks. So, if the grass in one city wasn't dry enough, we wouldn't try to soak it in gasoline. Instead, we'd just move on to the next one. This helped us expand quickly without spending too much money. burning dry grass In fact, a number of cities simply launched on their own. People would hear about this great new service, called inDrive, in a neighboring city. They'd download the app for themselves, and the city would launch without us. There were even a few self-launched cities that took off without any investment on our part. Of course, not all launches were a success. I remember our first back in 2018. We made all the preparations, recruited drivers, and advertised our service. At first, everything seemed to be working out, and our numbers were growing day by day. USA launch We were pleasantly surprised. Was it really that easy to launch in one of the world's largest markets? After all, if you can make it in the US, you can make it anywhere—at least, that's what I thought. But our joy quickly became disappointment: We were faced with a huge industry of fraudsters cashing out stolen credit cards and using them on our service. So, we decided to scrap our American plans and wait for better days—which finally came in 2023. We launched for the second time in the USA, with much better results. This launch is still ongoing. We are currently operating in Miami, and will soon expand to new cities. Looking back, we were being simple and naive. However, we continued to learn from our mistakes and push forward. The Product and Technology We've always believed that our service should be simple and fail-proof, like a . Of course, this has led to accusations that the app isn't "pretty" enough, despite being packed with features. Nokia 3310 In many countries, we had to adapt to local legislation and user needs. That’s why the inDrive app in Almaty might look completely different from the one in New York. Nevertheless, we have been working on making the app "prettier" in all countries over the past years, and I personally think it looks quite modern now. Outside of Russia, inDrive gained a range of new modules, starting with intercity rides and freight delivery, which are now available in countries across the globe. In certain markets, such as Kazakhstan, they are even more popular than our taxi vertical. During this time, our approach to product planning was simple: At the end of every quarter, our CEO would arrive back from his trips to our launch cities, open his laptop, and explain our goals for the upcoming period. Usually, these came from driver and passenger requests. We could have tasks of all different sizes, from introducing card payments to changing the color of the order button. Our CEO played (and continues to play) a crucial role in the development of the company. While he is both an excellent motivator and strategist, he’s also a skilled manager who understands how the product works. Even now, he personally flies to new launch countries, studies the market, conducts customer development, interacts extensively with users, and gathers feedback on the service. On the development side, we quickly realized that our existing code would not be able to support our rapid business growth. Soon, the app would start to lag and decline in quality. So, we decided to rewrite the more "complex" parts of the code. In addition to the PHP monolith, we eventually got ourselves a— —Golang monolith. The entirety of our infrastructure lay on the shoulders of two guys who knew all the inner workings of our enormous machine. If the service ever crashed, they were prepared to turn on their laptops and fix it at any time, day or night. ba-dum-tss We also got our first QA specialist for full-scale testing. This made our lives incredibly easier. Before our QA, we had been spending a lot of time and effort testing new functionality and updates by ourselves, and checking how they interacted with existing versions. Little by little, mobile developers began to join our team, albeit with some difficulty. After all, you needed Apple products to get into iOS development, and those could be difficult to find in Yakutsk. This meant that we struggled to recruit local iOS developers, and our iOS team would sometimes lag behind our Android team when it came to releasing new features. I remember one time in Kazakhstan, when our app was blocked at the government level. I won't get into the details, but to reverse the block, we had to introduce a number of different features, including user instructions, automatic address changes, proxies, and more. In the end, we restored our capabilities in the country and officially reversed the block after a few years. I remember writing to the CTO of a large CIS news site that had also been blocked in Kazakhstan, and asking how he had managed to keep business going. Many of our features were developed through a series of trials and errors—or stumbled upon by chance—although they might seem completely obvious in hindsight. Take our call-free ride-hailing system, for example. If you haven't read the , I'll quickly summarize it here. first article Previously, when an inDrive passenger would create their order, a driver would see their request in the orders feed and call them right away. And this wouldn't be just one driver either; these orders were being sent to anyone nearby. Of course, this led to situations where multiple drivers would see an order and try to call the passenger at once. Typically, the first person to contact the passenger would get the order. Here's where the problem came in: Drivers would click on a ride without reading the order details, and then all try to call the passenger at the same time. So, we created something called a "buffer." When drivers press the order button, there's a short delay, which gives us time to collect all potential offers. This way, drivers don't have to rush, and they have time to read the order details in full. Then, based on the drivers' ratings, the system selects which of them will be able to call the passenger first. This was a significant improvement to our old version. Although the call-free system is now used by practically every ride-hailing app, we actually came up with ours by chance. In 2016, we launched in Yekaterinburg and introduced the "Guardians," who were specially selected drivers that could accept orders that typical drivers couldn't. We would send them special push notifications about exclusive orders. However, we soon realized that these push notifications weren't working very well because they were easy to miss. And that's when we remembered one of our existing features, called "personal orders," which allowed the passenger to simply select the closest driver on the map and send the order straight to them. We decided to use this feature when sending orders to our "Guardians." It took off immediately and worked so well that we then decided to expand it to all drivers. Of course, the personal orders feature might seem obvious now, but we discovered it through a series of trials and errors. The Team Up until 2019, our team was fully made up of Yakutsk locals. At the time, we wanted to help our homeland grow — and the local people along with it. inDrive had always held a strong mission and values. These values resonated with each employee, and we strived to uphold them. This was a period of powerful drive and energy. Every day, I would wake up in a good mood, knowing that my friends and good coffee were waiting for me in the office. That and plenty of interesting work, of course. inDrive was known for being a social company. Our team was young and carefree, which meant we worked hard and played hard. Every year, we'd take a company trip abroad, whether to Egypt, Thailand, Kazakhstan, or somewhere else entirely. Imagine an entire plane of colleagues escaping the –50-degree Celsius weather in Yakutsk to visit sunny +35-degree Thailand! It was great at the time, but unfortunately, these big company trips aren't possible anymore with a workforce of several thousand employees. By 2019, we hit a hiring roadblock. Business was booming, and any professionals in Yakutsk capable of handling the tasks and workload were already working for us. So, we decided to open a development office in Moscow. As the head of the iOS team, I was charged with opening the Moscow branch. We had a lot of flexibility during this time, and employees were free to contribute to the company in any way they saw fit, as long as it benefited the business. I entered a new phase in my life. I moved to Moscow and started the process of opening the new office, from choosing a business center to installing special lights with the company logo. Now that a few years have passed, I can look back at that time fondly. But back then, I would often think: "Why did I do this to myself? Why'd I take on all this renovation work?" Our main problems had to do with the company in charge of the renovation. At one point, they were so behind schedule that I even had to help them install the electrical wiring in the workspaces. I remember one specific evening, when we stayed late to assemble furniture. I could see that my colleagues were tired and depressed, so to lighten the mood, I asked " " At the time (and to this day), Belorusskaya was one of the most expensive areas in Moscow, like Times Square in New York. It was also home to a number of impressive IT offices. Of course, we just laughed and got back to work. Why the long faces? Cheer up! Next year, we're opening an office on Belorusskaya! By the end of 2019, we had our first developers at the Moscow office. Sometimes, it would seem like they were from another planet. During their interviews, they'd say things like, "We work in sprints. I finished all my tasks, then came here" (and it'd only be Thursday afternoon). Or they'd say, "We work three days from home and two days from the office." That was something completely new for me. inDrive was entirely office-based at the time, and everyone was expected to contribute fully. We weren't working with any kind of Kanbans, scrums, story points, or sprints. Conclusion We entered 2020 with a lot of optimism. Our new development office in Moscow had opened, and we were working with a great team. I was living in the capital, business was growing, and investments were on their way! When the company received investments, we would conduct a cashout, meaning employees could sell a small portion of their stock options for real money. Everything seemed to be going our way, like we were living in a movie. Unfortunately, though, this is the point in my story where things get a little darker, like in the Harry Potter movies. Suddenly, we were faced with a huge challenge. In 2020, the world was shut down by the coronavirus. inDrive closed their offices and we started to work from home—something we had always been firmly against. Life took on new rules and we had to quickly find our footing. We developed new processes, took our first online calls, and sent laptops home to new employees. Then, in mid-2020, I became the CTO of inDrive. It was a surprise even for myself. I was placed in charge of 50+ developers, 4 distributed teams, and the two offices in Moscow and Yakutsk. Of course, there were plenty of challenges, which I'll discuss in more detail in my next article. My joke about our office on Belorusskaya quickly became reality. At the end of 2020, we opened an office in one of the best business centers in Moscow, right on Belorusskaya Square, alongside other cool IT companies. P.S.

Building a Unicorn: The inDrive Tech Journey from Local Startup to Global Phenomenon 

ইউনিকর্ন তৈরি করা: স্থানীয় স্টার্টআপ থেকে গ্লোবাল ফেনোমেনন পর্যন্ত ইনড্রাইভ টেক জার্নি

Aufbau eines Einhorns: Die inDrive-Tech-Reise vom lokalen Startup zum globalen Phänomen

Construyendo un unicornio: el viaje tecnológico de inDrive desde una startup local hasta un fenómeno global

Construire une licorne : le parcours technologique d'inDrive, de la startup locale au phénomène mondial

यूनिकॉर्न का निर्माण: स्थानीय स्टार्टअप से वैश्विक घटना तक इनड्राइव टेक यात्रा

ユニコーンの構築: 地元のスタートアップから世界的現象への inDrive テクノロジーの旅

유니콘 만들기: 로컬 스타트업에서 글로벌 현상까지의 inDrive 기술 여정

Construindo um unicórnio: a jornada tecnológica do inDrive, de uma startup local a um fenômeno global

Создание единорога: технологическое путешествие inDrive от локального стартапа к глобальному феномену

Bir Tekboynuz Yaratmak: Yerel Startup'tan Küresel Fenomen'e inDrive Teknoloji Yolculuğu

Xây dựng kỳ lân: Hành trình công nghệ inDrive từ khởi nghiệp địa phương đến hiện tượng toàn cầu

打造独角兽：从本地初创企业到全球现象的 inDrive 技术之旅

Welcome to the awesome world of AI, where chatting with a computer program like ChatGPT isn't just cool; it's like unlocking a superpower! As we zoom through 2024, there's this super trendy skill everyone's talking about: prompt engineering. Sounds fancy, right? But it's basically about getting really good at asking ChatGPT questions in a way that gets you the best answers. It's like knowing the secret handshake to make your best buddy in solving problems, doing homework, or just exploring crazy ideas. AI So, what's the big deal with a "prompt"? Think of it as your opening line when texting someone. But here, your "someone" is ChatGPT, a super-smart AI. In the old days of AI, you'd ask your question, and whatever the AI answered, you'd roll with it. But with prompts, it's a whole new ball game. You get to jazz up your questions, tweak them, and turn ChatGPT into more of a chat partner than a know-it-all machine. It's like moving from being a solo player to being part of a team where you're in the game, calling the shots. And here's where it gets epic: This article isn't just a bunch of tips; it's your secret playbook to becoming an AI whisperer. We're diving into 10 mind-blowing tips that'll take your ChatGPT chats from "meh" to "whoa"! You'll learn how to craft your prompts to not just get answers but to spark a conversation, uncover insights, and maybe even outsmart the AI (in a friendly way, of course). So, are you ready to level up your AI chat game and make every prompt you send a stepping stone to something amazing? Buckle up because we're about to dive into a world where your words wield the power to shape the future of AI chats. Let's get this adventure started! 1. Keep it Short and Sweet When you're chatting with AI like ChatGPT, remember that it's not about manners; it's about getting straight to the point. You don't need to dress up your questions with "please," "thank you," or "could you." Just ask directly, and you'll get the info you need without the extra fluff. Examples: No: I was wondering if you could possibly tell me what the capital of France is? Yes: What is the capital of France? No: Could you please provide me with some information on how photosynthesis works, if it's not too much trouble? Yes: How does photosynthesis work? No: I would be really grateful if you could explain the Pythagorean theorem to me. Yes: Explain the Pythagorean theorem. No: If you don't mind, could you list the main characters in "Romeo and Juliet" for me? Yes: List the main characters in "Romeo and Juliet." No: I'd appreciate it if you could kindly tell me the steps involved in the water cycle, please. Yes: What are the steps in the water cycle? By cutting out the extra words, you make your prompts more efficient and easier for the AI to understand. This way, you're more likely to get the quick, clear answers you're looking for. 2. Tackle It Step-by-Step When you're dealing with tricky questions or complex problems, don't try to tackle everything at once. Break it down into smaller, easier pieces, and take it one step at a time. This approach makes it simpler for both you and the AI to handle, leading to clearer answers. Examples: Complex Task: Solve the equation 3x^2 - 12x + 9 = 0. Step 1: What is the value of a, b, and c in the equation 3x^2 - 12x + 9 = 0? Step 2: Calculate the discriminant of the equation using the values of a, b, and c. Step 3: Use the discriminant to determine if the equation has real, one, or two solutions. Step 4: Find the roots of the equation using the quadratic formula. Complex Task: Explain the process of cellular respiration. Step 1: What is cellular respiration? Step 2: Describe the first stage of cellular respiration and where it occurs. Step 3: Explain the Krebs cycle. Step 4: Detail the electron transport chain and its role in cellular respiration. Step 5: Summarize how ATP is produced in cellular respiration. Complex Task: Write a program to check if a number is prime. Step 1: Define what a prime number is. Step 2: Write a function to check if a number is divisible by any number other than 1 and itself. Step 3: Implement a loop to test the number against all possible divisors. Step 4: Provide a final check to determine if the number is prime based on the loop's findings. Complex Task: Plan a week-long trip to Paris. Step 1: What are the must-visit attractions in Paris? Step 2: Recommend accommodations in central Paris. Step 3: Suggest a daily itinerary for a 7-day trip. Step 4: Provide a list of French phrases useful for tourists. Step 5: What are the transportation options within Paris? Complex Task: Explain the theory of evolution by natural selection. Step 1: Who proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection? Step 2: Define natural selection. Step 3: Describe how variations in species occur. Step 4: Explain how these variations affect survival and reproduction. Step 5: Summarize the impact of natural selection on the evolution of species over time. By breaking down complex tasks into a sequence of simpler prompts, you can navigate through complicated topics with ease, making your interaction with the AI more productive and insightful. 3. Know Your Audience Tailoring your prompts to fit the audience you're aiming for can make a world of difference. Whether you're explaining something to a total newbie or diving deep with an expert, adjusting your questions helps ensure the answers hit the right note. Examples: Task: Explain the internet to someone from the 19th century. Prompt: Describe how the internet allows instant communication across the globe as if explaining to someone from the 1800s. Task: Discuss the impact of quantum computing on encryption, intended for high school students. Prompt: Explain how quantum computing could change the way we keep information safe online, in a way that a high schooler could understand. Task: Describe the concept of black holes to children. Prompt: Imagine you're telling a story to a group of 8-year-olds. How would you explain a black hole in space? 4. Learn by Example Using examples in your prompts, also known as few-shot prompting, can be super effective. It's like showing a picture instead of just describing it – it makes things clearer and helps the AI understand exactly what you're looking for. Examples: Task: Convert temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. Prompt: Example 1: Convert 0°C to Fahrenheit. (Response: 32°F) Example 2: Convert 100°C to Fahrenheit. (Response: 212°F) Now, convert 25°C to Fahrenheit. Task: Simplify fractions to their lowest terms. Prompt: Example 1: Simplify the fraction 4/8. (Response: 1/2) Example 2: Simplify the fraction 6/9. (Response: 2/3) Now, simplify the fraction 10/15. Specifying the exact format of model output in JSON can be quite useful when you want to seamlessly integrate the model's results into your applications or workflows. 5. Play the Role When you , you can actually ask it to play a role, like an expert in any field. This way, the AI adapts its answers to fit the part, giving you insights or explanations as if it were a pro in that area. chat with AI Examples: Task: Explain the importance of bees in the ecosystem. Prompt: If you were a biologist, how would you describe the role of bees in maintaining healthy ecosystems? Task: Discuss the latest trends in renewable energy. Prompt: As an environmental scientist, what are the cutting-edge developments in renewable energy sources? By assigning a specific role to the AI, like asking it to think like an economist or a scientist, you get responses that are tailored to that perspective, making complex topics more accessible and interesting. 6. Think Step by Step When tackling tasks, especially coding, it helps to break things down. By using leading phrases like "think step by step," you guide the process, making it easier to understand and execute. Examples: Task: Create a list of even numbers from 2 to 20. Prompt: Let's think step by step. Start by initializing an empty list. Then, use a loop to go through numbers 2 to 20. Inside the loop, check if a number is even. If it is, add it to the list. Task: Find the factorial of a number. Prompt: Think step by step. First, define a Python function that takes a number as an input. Initialize a variable for the result inside the function. Use a loop to multiply the numbers from 1 to the input number. Return the result. 7. Interactive Clarification Encouraging the AI to ask you questions for clarity ensures that the final output is tailored precisely to your needs. This interactive approach helps refine the details and requirements, making the AI's assistance more personalized and effective. Examples: Task: Plan a personalized diet. Prompt: From now on, I would like you to ask me questions about my dietary preferences, restrictions, and goals until you have enough information to suggest a customized meal plan. Task: Develop a study schedule. Prompt: Please ask me about my current study habits, subjects I'm focusing on, and my exam dates until you can draft a personalized study timetable for me. Step 2: Added clarification 8. Guide the Response Using output primers involves giving the AI a nudge on how to start its answer. It's like drawing the starting line for a race, showing the AI exactly where to begin, which can help ensure the response is structured just the way you want it. Examples: Task: Explain how photosynthesis works in plants. Prompt: Describe the process of photosynthesis in plants. Begin with: "Photosynthesis is a crucial process where plants convert..." Task: Summarize the plot of "Romeo and Juliet." Prompt: Provide a brief summary of "Romeo and Juliet." Start with: "Romeo and Juliet is a tragic tale of..." Task: Discuss the impacts of global warming. Prompt: Elaborate on the consequences of global warming on our planet. Initiate your explanation with: "Global warming leads to a variety of impacts, including..." Task: Outline the steps to bake a chocolate cake. Prompt: List the steps involved in baking a chocolate cake. Begin your instructions with: "To bake a chocolate cake, the first step is to..." Task: Describe the function of the heart in the human body. Prompt: Explain the role of the heart in the human circulatory system. Start your explanation with: "The heart is essential in the circulatory system as it..." By ending your prompt with the start of the desired response, you help set the tone and direction for the AI's reply, making it more likely that the information provided will align with your expectations. 9. Continue the Story Starting a text with specific words sets the stage for the AI to continue in the same style or theme. It's like passing the baton in a relay race; you give the AI a running start, and it keeps the momentum going. Examples: Task: Expand on a poetic verse about the ocean. Prompt: "The ocean's whispers to the moon create a melody of mysteries untold." I'm providing you with the beginning of a poem. Continue it, keeping the mystical and serene tone. Task: Continue a suspenseful short story. Prompt: "Under the cloak of night, she vanished into the shadowy alley, leaving no trace behind." I'm providing you with the start of a suspense story. Continue from here, maintaining the suspense and mystery. Task: Elaborate on a sci-fi setting. Prompt: "Beyond the stars, in a galaxy where time bends and reality shifts, lies the planet of Zentari." I'm providing you with the opening of a science fiction story. Expand on this universe, keeping the wonder and vastness of space exploration in mind. By specifying the beginning of the text, you guide the AI in the direction you want the narrative to go, ensuring consistency in tone, style, and theme as it unfolds the story or message. 10. Positive Instructions and Clear Tasks Crafting your prompts with positive commands and clear directives makes your requests straightforward and easy to follow. Using affirmative language and specifying tasks ensures that the AI understands exactly what you're asking for, leading to more focused and relevant responses. Examples: Affirmative Directives: Task: Explain the concept of supply and demand in economics. Prompt: Your task is to demystify the economic principle of supply and demand. You MUST use real-world examples to illustrate how they affect prices. Task: Discuss the benefits of regular exercise. Prompt: Your task is to outline the key benefits of maintaining a regular exercise routine. You MUST cover aspects such as physical health, mental well-being, and longevity. Incorporate "You will be penalized": Task: Write a summary of the novel "1984" by George Orwell. Prompt: Your task is to provide a concise summary of George Orwell's "1984," focusing on its dystopian themes and societal implications. You will be penalized for including spoilers or detailed plot points. Task: Provide tips for effective public speaking. Prompt: Your task is to offer five actionable tips for improving public speaking skills. You will be penalized for suggesting common clichés or unproven methods. As we wrap up this section, it's crucial to remember that the strategies we've explored are just the beginning. These ideas serve as a foundation, a launching pad for your own creativity and innovation in prompt crafting. The true magic happens when you start experimenting, mixing, and matching different techniques and tailoring them to fit your unique needs and objectives. So, take these concepts as your toolkit, but don't stop here. Challenge yourself to push the boundaries, to refine and develop your own prompt techniques. Your interactions with AI can become even more effective and insightful as you hone your skills and discover new ways to communicate your ideas and questions. The journey of mastering is ongoing, and every conversation with the AI is an opportunity to learn and improve. So go ahead, experiment, and see how far your curiosity and creativity can take you in this exciting world of AI communication. prompt engineering Conclusion Big thanks for sticking with me till the end of this article! It's been a wild ride through the world of AI and those quirky myths floating around. Heard the one about AI working faster for cash? Well, the folks behind the scenes claim they've fixed that - but hey, why not try it out for yourself? Drop your findings or any cool experiments in the comments; it's always fun to see what you come up with. And, just for kicks, imagine saying, "I'll give $300K for a better solution." Sounds crazy, right? But that's the spirit of diving deep into stuff like dynamic programming. It's all about finding smarter, slicker ways to solve problems. If you've got a neat trick up your sleeve, don't be shy - share it! If you dug this piece, don't be a stranger! Hit me up on . I've got more AI tales and insights coming your way. Who knows what we'll uncover next about how neural networks are changing the game? Stay tuned, and let's keep pushing the envelope together. Peace out! LinkedIn

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