Category: Facts

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Facts That Will Decrypt Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is said to be the future of finance, but no one knows who started it or how it’s backed up exactly.

If cryptocurrency is a bit of a riddle to you, you’re not alone.

This probably won’t fix that, but it’s a good place to start or at least have some fun facts to drop at parties.

Here are some facts you should know about the digital currency.

What is it?

In its simplest form, Cryptocurrency is digital cash that can be exchanged online for goods and services.

It is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.

And no one can really regulate it.

A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, like a government.

That means that theoretically, governments can’t tamper with or manipulate them making them potentially more insulated from issues like inflation.

There are a lot of different types.

There are over 10,000 types of cryptocurrency currently in circulation.

On May 27, 2021, the total value of all cryptocurrencies was more than $1.7 trillion.

The most popular type of cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, which has a market capitalization of $735.3 billion. In the last 5 years the price of Bitcoin has risen 23%.

But no one knows who started it.

No one knows who created Bitcoin or even cryptocurrency in general.

The anonymous creator of Bitcoin is referred to as Satoshi Nakamoto.

A popular belief is that this name is an acronym for four leading tech companies:

Samsung, Toshiba, Nakamichi, and Motorola.

Before buying it you had to mine it.

Crypto-mining is the act of using high-powered computers to solve complex mathematical equations in order to find, verify, and log transactions.

Being the first to solve the equations came with a reward: cryptocurrency coins.

But, there are other types of cryptocurrency.

The second most popular crypto is Ethereum at $324.2 billion; the third is Tether at $61 billion.

They are all incredibly volatile because of market changes.

And people are super into it.

The currencies’ market capitalization is so high because much of the interest surrounding them right now is rooted in the trade for profit.

The total amount of Bitcoin in the world is limited. That’s why it continues to increase in value as supply decreases. Think of it as a finite resource like water or oil, someday, we will run out.

The technology behind cryptocurrencies is called blockchain.

People like it because it’s a decentralized processing and recording system and it can be more secure than traditional payment systems. Ensuring that there isn’t one central hub can protect the currency from cyberattacks.

But, not all countries trust it.

There are currently six countries that have banned all activities involving cryptocurrencies:

Algeria, Bolivia, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

Qatar and Bahrain ban the use of cryptocurrencies locally, but allow their citizens to trade crypto outside their borders.

China, on the other hand, is the biggest cryptocurrency miner.

Financial specialists have complicated views on the matter.

Billionaire Warren Buffet has stated that he doesn’t own cryptocurrency and probably never will since there is no real backing.

While explaining the risks of crypto, Buffett compared the currency to paper checks.

“It’s a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. Are checks worth a whole lot of money? Just because they can transmit money?” – Warren Buffett

This is also because Buffett only invests in things he understands. So many people invest based on trends or what their advisors say, but professionals such as Buffett do their own research and only invest in things they can understand and back.

At the end of the day, planning your financial future and deciding where to invest your hard-earned money is a personal experience. So, do your research and remember that what works for some might not work for all.

Cryptocurrency might be a mystery for now, but technology influences the market often so, we must try to learn as much as we can and try to stay ahead of the curve.

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Facts Even New Yorkers Don’t Know About New York City

New Yorkers are notorious know-it-alls.

But New York City is more than just the perfect slice of pizza or that subway performer you thought was cool at first but now find kind of annoying.

Sex And The City might not be the best representation of New York City, but we should all feel like Carrie walking around in a tutu every once in a while.

There is so much history in the city. And, there is no way someone knows all of it. But, this is a good place to start.

These are the best New York City facts even the most loyal New Yorkers may not know.

Where does it come from?

Lenape, Rockaway and Canarsie Indians once occupied what is now New York City.

In fact, Manhattan comes from the Munsi language from the Lenni Lenape “Manhatta.” This means the island of many hills. The city might not have any hills now, but it is a way to remember the land that used to be here.

The same, but different.

Houston Street and Houston, Texas are pronounced differently because they are named after different people.

Houston, Texas, pronounced HUe-stun, was named after Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas and one of the first individuals to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

On the other hand, Houston Street, pronounced HOW-stun, was named for William Houstoun. Houstoun’s father-in-law, Nicholas Bayard III, carved up his farmland in what is now SoHo into a grid pattern and named the newly formed streets.

But, it’s been updated.

All the original street names have since changed except for Houstoun, which just lost a “U” somewhere in the mix and became Houston.

And you can say it in different languages.

Some experts believe that there are over 800 languages spoken in New York City. Which makes it one of the most linguistically diverse place in the world.

Makes sense, since people come from all over the world to make this city their home.

It’s a confusing way to tell time.

The giant digital countdown board on the south end of Union Square is pretty much just a clock.

The first seven digits explain what time it is by counting from midnight in military time, to the hundredth of a second. And the last eight digits explain how long until it is midnight again.

Because isn’t that what everyone needs?

There’s a reason why they’re called “islands.”

Coney Island isn’t an Island today, but it once was, thus the name.

The Coney Island Creek once separated the island from mainland Brooklyn but the creek was filled in to create the Belt Parkway before WWII.

Similarly Kips Bay was once a bay even though it’s now just another Manhattan neighborhood. The East River inlet extended into Manhattan just west of what is now First Avenue and filled what is now about 5 city blocks.

The bay became reclaimed land but the name still stuck.

We all know the nickname.

Speaking of names, the Big Apple was once almost the Big Orange.

For more than a year around 1673, NYC was known as the New Orange before the Dutch ceded the land to the British under the Treaty of Westminster.

And the name “The Big Apple” well that comes from 1920s horse racing when the phrase was used to describe the city’s big racing venues.

The name of a traitor?

In Manhattan’s Lower East Side, there’s a plaza named after a Soviet Spy.

Samuel Dickstein Plaza is named after a former New York congressman who was later revealed provided information to the Soviets in exchange for monthly
payments in the late 1930s.

But no one has gotten around to renaming the intersection.

New Yorkers love to read.

The New York Public Library consists of 92 locations with 53 million items. They serve Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx. Queens and Brooklyn have their own library system.

The New York Public Library is the second largest library system in the country, following the Library of Congress, and the fourth largest in the world.

The Main Branch has become an iconic building. It was named a National Historical Landmark in 1965, and a New York City Landmark in 1967.

We love pizza.

New York City has the first recognized pizzeria in the country. “Lombardi’s” was the first place to bring the Italian tradition to the U.S. However, they were forced to close in 1984 and re-opened 10 years later, so it is not considered the oldest continuously operated pizzeria in the country.

Now, you can still find quality $1 pizza slices all over the city.

This lead to the Pizza Principle.

New Yorkers are so passionate about pizza that there is a whole economic theory based on it.

The Pizza Principle, or the Pizza-Subway Connection was proposed by native New Yorker Eric M. Bram. In the early 60’s the price of a slice of pizza matched the price of a subway ride.

This continued for years until the MTA decided to discontinue the subway token and Metro Cards became the norm.

At one point people were able to predict a rise in subway fare by the raise in price of a pizza slice. And many argue this principle still holds true.

We all take the subway.

We care about subway fares since approximately 1.6 billion people use the subway every year.

There are 7 numbered lines and 15 letter lines in the New York City subway system. And, the MTA has 6,684 subway cars and 472 stations with the deepest being 191 St in Manhattan,180 feet below street level.

The busiest subway station is Times Square at 42st with 65 million riders. The longest line is the A train from 207th Street in Manhattan to Far Rockaway in Queens.

Finding a U-Haul would be impossible.

Until the 1920s, May 1 was the city wide moving day, everyone’s leases expired on the same day.

Imagine the mayhem!

Living is New York can be chaotic, but learning about it’s history and cultural impact shows how amazing the city truly is.

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People Divulge The Most Surprising Computer Skills That People Still Don’t Know How To Do

It seems like the younger generation is often the generation in charge of having basic computer skills and walking our older counterparts through how to use them.

Teaching them how to save something as a pdf, or how to install a firewall and how not to download creepy solitaire game from third party websites takes up a lot of our time..

Eventually, though, you expect they will pick up some skills of their own.  When they don’t, it can be incredibly frustrating to go through what you consider a simple process again and again and again.

So when Redditor anushitech polled Reddit:

“What is one computer skill that you are surprised many people don’t know how to do?”

People saw it as an opportunity to vent.  And vent they did.

Cyberspace: The Final Frontier

“I remember my aunt wondering why her document wasn’t in the My Documents folder on our family computer.”

“She had saved it in her own My Documents folder on her own computer the next town over and apparently assumed there was only one Windows 98 communal My Documents folder in existence.”-b*ttboy3

“I taught a computer course several years ago.”

“I remember the biggest thing for most completely-new computer users was not looking at their hand while moving the mouse, and being terrified of breaking the computer by accidentally closing a window or something.”

“Oh, and knowing whether they should single click or double click – this was a major preoccupation for some.”-timmyrey

“I teach web design at the college level. Used to teach community weekend workshops. Html and css with some expected knowledge of computer basics.”

“Local workforce development group would enroll people to update their skills, but would never actually check for prior knowledge. Had to teach how to hold a mouse, that right-click meant use the right mouse button.”

“Had to teach how to open and save files. That the web was not loaded onto a computer and that you needed to connect to the internet first.”

“Not a lot of actual html taught some weekends, which was a shame for those who really wanted to learn. Waste of time for everyone.”

“I started sharing curated resources for web design. started pointing people to a basic into to computer class that should be taken before mine.”

“Kept making requests to have someone vet the students before putting them in my class.”

“Finally gave up when i had a student who wanted to use her ancient flip-phone so she could take work with her.”

“No internet on the thing so made her user a school computer. She got pissy when something wasn’t working.”

“Turns out she was trying to go online with Windows calculator. No idea how she even got there. She eventually went ballistic when the code she typed in her email wouldn’t work (again, wanted to save the work to take with her).”

“I have almost eternal patience, but couldn’t take an irate woman screaming in my face because aol email won’t work for writing code.”

“The class was supportive and I patiently let her leave early. I decided teaching those weekend workshops weren’t worth it after that.”-mister-chad-rules

Going The Long Way

“I once had a guy send me a picture of his desktop. I asked for screenshot of his screen as it was generally easier then asking for the IP address which our company puts on the desktop.”

“Guy couldnt figure out how to screenshot his desktop wallpaper but figured out how to take a photo with his phone and attach it to an email.”-pixxie84

“Working in phone customer support, the number of times I’ve had an old person do a Google search for a web address instead of going to the url has made me realize most middle aged and elderly have no idea what a browser or address bar are.”

“‘Type “site url” into the address bar,’ I say. ‘I did! The page isn’t here!’ they say.”

“9 times out of 10 they were just on a Google page and I lost a week of life expectancy.”-taburde

“I’ve tried to incorporate spreadsheet skills into the chemistry labs I teach, and at the intro level some of them are REALLY uncomfortable using it for repeated calculations, and instead want to just work it all out one by one.”

“Some of these students are the same ones who complain that I give way too much work…”

“That’s not to say I’m not still learning new functions in Excel (just learned about sumifs and countifs recently, which def simplifies my gradebook calculations), but I really feel like everyone should have a grasp of the super basic stuff and have a concept of what a spreadsheet can be used for.”-caffeinated_tea

There Are More Ways To Do One Thing

“I was training a new 22 y/o coworker and noticed a lot of her typing mistakes involved both the first and second letter of a sentence being capitalized.”

“I inquired about it and her response was ‘sometimes i don’t turn caps lock off fast enough’… i was puzzled but kept it cool…”

“I decided to watch her type a little later on and sure enough she would hit caps lock every time she needed a upper case letter followed by turning caps lock back off…”

“When I told her what the shift key did she was genuinely ‘mind blown.’ She had just graduated college.”-Satanic_Nightjar

“People are generally pretty computer illiterate. I’m not a tech guy whatsoever but a basic understanding of shit will save you so much time.”

“I used to work at a Planet Fitness and good god do the managers need basic training in computer skills.”

“I was treated like a god for knowing how CTRL+F worked and having a basic understanding of Snipping Tool for printing out QR codes.”

“They used to really push us to sell Gym Essential Kits and when writing reports on how much they sold they would bring up the report and count one by one.”

“I was a front desk guy and had to show my regional training manager that if you just press Control + F and type in an individual employee’s name, however many times it came up minus 1 (it showed the employee’s name one extra time) was how many they’d sold.”

“This saved us hours over the course of a week. In typical manager fashion, he went ahead and took credit for this and promoted his real-life friend who was bad at their job.”

“F**k that place. I’ve never seen a company with that much incompetence at a manager-wide level.”-PrecariousAchiuwa

“As a teacher, I’ve been saying this for years. Kids and teens these days aren’t as tech savvy as they claim to be, or rather we claim them to be.”

“They grew up in a world populated by apps, very user-friendly apps.”

“90% of apps have the same structure- the lines or dots to indicate the menu, same style controls or swipe methods, etc..”

“They know which apps to find and can navigate them very efficiently; however, ask them to do intermediate level tasks on a desktop or even successfully using their browsers when researching and they struggle quite a bit.”

“Things I learned in tech/computer class in the early 2000s is not really taught anymore.”

“Instead, it’s heavily focused on programming and apps, and while very cool and likely a marketable skill, they seems to skipped basic functions and tools.”-ElZarigueya

“Google how to fix their problem. Apparently I have some superpower where I see the error code or know the name of the software and a brief description of the problem and get helpful google results with little effort.”

“Everyone else seems to just say ‘I don’t know how to find that…’ and then treat me like some kind of mystical wizard afterwards.”-anon_e_mous9669

The little tips disclosed here about computer use could really save you time and work one day if you didn’t already know them, so it might be a good idea to break out that notebook and write some of these down.

At the very least, we can all avoid becoming another story on AskReddit.