I placed my first-ever order on the Google store last year for a Pixel phone. Then a FedEx employee left a voicemail asking suspicious questions about my package. Then my phone went missing. FedEx later said they had no record of an employee calling me and would "investigate". It took two weeks of relentlessly following up to get a replacement. FedEx was never able to locate my stolen/missing phone. Never order directly from Google and avoid FedEx at all costs.
Readit Newstylercubell commented on Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned old.reddit.com/r/tifu/com... · Posted by u/theturtletalks
Reminds me of the original version of blockles [1] on i'minlikewithyou (later OMGPOP) [2]. That was one of my favorite games back in the day. From reading the Wikipedia article, it looks like they were a YC company too.
Still has 21 minute transaction time: https://www.monero.how/how-long-do-monero-transactions-take
In contrast, "Algorand delivers the fastest finality possible thanks to its Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS) algorithm invented by MIT Professor Silvio Micali. The consensus mechanism doesn’t admit forks at all, which reduces the risk of micro forks to zero. The block creation time on Algorand is less than 5 seconds, and all transactions reach immediate finality." [0]
And although Algorand doesn't include some of the more "controversial" privacy features, it's still RTBF-compliant. [1]
[0]: https://www.algorand.com/resources/blog/role-of-transaction-...
[1]: https://www.algorand.com/resources/blog/right-to-be-forgotte...
Most of the comments on that app as well as here are probably wrong. I'd suspect that everyone who had the app "installed without their permission" opted into the Android COVID-19 Exposure Notification program. This was deployed by Google as part of an update to Google Play Services.
When you go to your phone's settings with this update, there's an option to enable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications. When you turn it on, it prompts you for your location and will download your region's app that uses your phone's new capabilities to connect to the appropriate health authorities.
Massachusetts just opted into this program in the last couple of weeks. I'm honestly not sure why they did it so late - this would have been helpful earlier. Apple iPhones also have this capability, including interoperability with Android phones, and iPhone users in Massachusetts are also able to turn on this setting.
Now, if someone can actually prove that they didn't opt into the COVID-19 Exposure Notifications, then I'd be concerned. But my guess is they opted in when it came out, but there was no app for their region, so nothing was downloaded and the feature did nothing. Then, Massachusetts rolled out the app now and lots of people who configured their phones earlier in the pandemic got a new app. They granted permission for it, perhaps months ago.
I have no memory of opting in, I checked under Settings -> Google and "COVID-19 Exposure Notifications" was set to "Off", and the MassNotify app was still installed on my phone. It has no icon and the only way to find it is going to Settings -> Apps & notifications -> See all apps and it comes up under "Massachusetts Department of Public Health". Then when you go to the Google Play Store and search "MassNotify" or "mass notify" or even "Massachusetts Department of Public Health" (the exact name of the app), it doesn't come up in the search results. You have to go to "Manage apps & device" on the Google Play Store then scroll down to "MassNotify" which doesn't even match the name of the app in the other settings menu. This is pretty shady.
tylercubell commented on Ethereum will use around 99.95% less energy post merge blog.ethereum.org/2021/05... · Posted by u/vishnu_ks
The first proof-of-stake coin was PeerCoin from 2012. Also Algorand is not leaps ahead of the competiton. More in my presentation:
Would it be reasonable to assert pure proof of stake is less risky than delegated proof of stake? I don't claim to be an expert in crypto but from what I've read it seems like pure proof of stake is a leap ahead of other consensus algorithms in terms of security, energy usage, etc.
tylercubell commented on Ethereum will use around 99.95% less energy post merge blog.ethereum.org/2021/05... · Posted by u/vishnu_ks
Algorand has been Proof of Stake for years (2019 MainNet launch) and it's actually carbon-negative [1]. It's a shame more people don't know about it. Its founder is a Turing-award-winning MIT professor (Silvio Micali) who solved the blockchain trilemma [2] with the Pure Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. The tech is leaps and bounds ahead of other cryptos.
[1]: https://www.algorand.com/resources/news/carbon_negative_anno...
[2]: https://www.algorand.com/resources/blog/silvio-micali-lex-fr...
tylercubell commented on Coin Carbon Cap – PoW cryptocurrencies ranked by energy efficiency coincarboncap.com/... · Posted by u/GBiT
> It is great to see effort being put into researching cleaner alternatives. Unfortunately, there is no working PoS-based system that does not rely on some degree of centralization in its security model.
This is false. See Algorand, Cardano, Mina, etc.
Proof-of-work is very much a technology of the past. It's the fossil fuel of cryptocurrencies.
Additionally, Algorand has pledged [1] to be carbon-negative.
[1]: https://www.algorand.com/resources/news/carbon_negative_anno...
What's stopping Mercury or Brex's partner bank from pulling the carpet out from under them too? The bank I switched away from to join Azlo is archaic and frustrating to deal with but I'm having second thoughts creating an account with another banking startup if it might close a few years later. I now have to inconvenience my clients and ask them to update the ACH information they have on file. I have no idea if there will be problems getting my money out either. I never expected this from a bank.