We also had to revert back to coal in Greece. Due to the energy crisis, coal factories that had closed down have now reopened. I'm all for renewable energy sources and green energy. However, I've found it pretty common (at least here) that green energy is disrupting the environment and we must find a way to overcome it. In particular, Greece is known for installing wind turbines in forests that were previously burned in wildfires (I hate to act like a conspiracy theorist, but in some cases, it has been proven that such plants were planned before wildfires occurred). On top of that, their installation requires heavy equipment and the creation of larger roads for transportation, while it's also claimed that it disrupts fauna and flora wild life.

We live in the innovation world, we need to find a way to overcome such challenges, because green energy is the future, we can't rely on fossil fuels forever. We can't have green energy hurting the environment in the process, it's hypocritical.

While Bitcoin consumes a decent amount of energy (less than 1% of total energy consumption). While this number may sound insignificant, Bitcoin is claimed to consume as much electricity as the whole country of Brazil (the source of this claim hasn't been confirmed). Certainly, there are numerous other activities that consume much more energy and are more harmful to the environment, but that doesn't change Bitcoin's impact.

However, the world is slowly shifting to renewable green energy, and Bitcoin will eventually switch too. Not only will the environment benefit, but also the miners themselves, who'll be able to enjoy the benefits of lower electricity costs.

Scandinavian countries are great examples of countries depending on green energy. Perhaps it would be ideal if mining operations occurred in such countries in order to reduce Bitcoin's carbon footprint.

It's perfectly understandable for APY to fluctuate. There was no guarantee that it would be stable forever. However, even locked-interest plans have been severely affected. They guaranteed a 13.3% APY a couple of months ago and were always unavailable and/or had a very limited available quota. Now it's down to 4.7%, while flexible savings is actually less than 5% APY for anything over $1,000, which is close to nothing.

While I prefer Binance's safety, I'm going to try and diversify my money by starting to deposit some of the allocated funds on Beefy. The current APY is too insignificant to bother.

I'm officially pissed off right now. Yesterday I logged into Binance and noticed that I had received less interest than expected, but I was too sleepy to bother and didn't think much of it. I just went on savings and Binance has decreased the APY once again, but in a sneaky way that my sleepy brain didn't notice yesterday. 8% APY now applies only up to $1.000, instead of $2.000. My profits are currently cut right in half, and I'm not going to tolerate another reduction. I'd rather find a vault on Beefy.

Honestly, I enjoy having my money on my personal computer without it being able to be traced back to me. It works as a savings account, your own personal bank, as you mentioned. It's such a shame that Lebanon is facing this. Your money is simply being held hostage. We had something similar in Greece a few years ago, with capital controls. You were unable to withdraw large amounts of money, and it was only possible to withdraw specific amounts every week, till the restrictions were lifted. They lasted over 2-3 years, if I remember correctly. However, as the following user suggested, it doesn't protect you from being mugged.
A general rule when it comes to moneymaking is to be silent about it. Either with Bitcoin, assets, or fiat currencies, it's best that people do not know that you're wealthy. I've heard quite a few instances here where people were mugged right after withdrawing from their bank accounts. If you are not cautious, you may be forced to give up your Bitcoin wallet as well. The same rule applies to everything. Let me remind you that in the past, they used to hide money inside mattresses.

This is actually a great topic. We had this specific discussion a few months ago during a course for my Master's degree. We reviewed the latest edition of "Health at a Glance," a book by the OECD, which offers an extensive collection of indicators for OECD members and major emerging economies' population health and health care system performance. These cover health status, health risk factors, availability and quality of care, and health resources.

Below, you'll find how life expectancy significantly rose between 1970 and 2019 and how it suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, with most surveyed countries facing reductions in just two years. The largest reductions in life expectancies can be found in the USA, Spain, Poland, Italy, and Lithuania, while Norway, Japan, Costa Rica, and Finland actually recorded a slight increase in life expectancy.

This is actually a great scientific book, and I'd advise you to go through it. It provides a great deal of interesting indicators regarding health subjects.

You're in a forum named after Bitcoin. Would you expect people to be against it? Certainly, OP's statement is quite bold to agree with. I would be surprised if someone here believed that cryptocurrencies are about to die. Personally, I'd agree if you told me that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies would go through a tough time for the next 1-2 or even 3 years, but would they die completely? Not a chance. Cryptocurrencies have evolved in the past few years, with a few countries now legalizing them as a means of payment. Even huge corporations such as Revolut or PayPal have integrated them into their services. PayPal, one of the largest payment processors, provides you with the ability to trade cryptocurrencies. It's a huge step towards digitalization and cryptocurrency adoption.

It certainly looks like it's going to be way worse than the recession we experienced through 2008-2010. That doesn't look appealing. Certainly, you can't rely on historical data and hope it's repeated. The macroeconomic environment is rapidly shifting, and the situation now is a lot different than the one two or more years ago (Covid-19, War in Ukraine, etc.). Our purchasing power has severely decreased due to the increased living costs. Groceries, fuel, and electricity have all skyrocketed. It's perfectly normal that investments come second.

All investments have been affected. A decent example is the S&P 500 index. It's been showing steady growth since 1975 (that's the earliest I could find in charts) but is now experiencing major losses, similar to Bitcoin.

Scams? What exactly are you talking about? If you're referring to altcoins, it's expected because anyone can launch their own token. The economy is going through a period of recession on a global scale. You can't expect cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin to be performing at their best. If we're patient enough, we're not going to regret it. Charts have shown that Bitcoin always recovers. While that doesn't guarantee its recovery in the future, it's good to know. Regarding the scams you mentioned, they have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies. Electronic scams take place where money can be made. They have existed since the dawn of the internet, but cryptocurrencies keep taking the blame for everything.

Let's not forget how many pyramid schemes are out there, scamming millions of dollars with little to no action taken against them. Yet, there are people focusing on some random token that rug-pulled and scammed its users.

Just like you said, I'm not a merit source to start my own thread, but I honestly don't mind receiving pms. If they are not worth meriting, they won't receive any. Merit isn't supposed to be hoarded, but many users, including myself, do not use their sMerits to their fullest. Looking back on it, I should have spent more sendable merits. Don't get me wrong, if I see a worthwhile post, I'm definitely meriting, but sometimes I tend to forget the importance of sending as much as you possibly can. Certainly, it's not donating, since there is no use for myself, it's supposed to be sent. I never intended to hoard it. My time has been pretty limited the past few weeks, but I'm planning to spend all of it till the end of the month, hopefully helping a few worthy users to rank up.

The math doesn't quite add up, but the OP might have had previous savings that he used to purchase Bitcoin. Anyway, I'm happy that OP achieved great results from his investment. Personally, I've never used a single cent of my own money to purchase Bitcoin or any other coin, at least not any large amount that I can think of. I made every single satoshi I have from scratch, starting from hoarding faucets in 2013, to being introduced in signature campaigns and altcoin mining. It's been an amazing journey, which started from my teenage years till now, that I'm a university graduate. Bitcoin kept me company all these years and has provided me with great earning possibilities for a young adult who now has a decent portfolio, which is acting like a savings account.

Honestly, if it wasn't for Bitcoin and this forum, I'd be experiencing severe anxiety due to the increasing living costs and inflation.

I was actually planning to use one of the following:
https://app.beefy.com/vault/velodrome-usdc-dola
or
https://app.beefy.com/vault/spell-mim-crv

Second one looks a little more safe.

Honestly, when UST was offering 20%, it didn't seem too exaggerated because you could easily find other vaults at 15%–18%. The one I had my money on consisted of BUSD and UST. If I am not mistaken, it was achieving an average of 15%. Due to being made of two coins, it severely minimized my losses when UST crashed. If I were to chase the 5% more in APY, I'd be screwed.Binance sounds safe enough, I highly doubt that something like this could ever happen. Even if it did, they would be forced to reimburse their users.
Thus, it's best to look for a vault with a high TVL, since it's showing that it's trusted by investors, right?

CEX looks interesting but offers very limited options, some altcoins and their savings sections are yet to be activated.

Unfortunately, I'm not a merit source, nor do I have a lot of sMerit to give away. However, as a way to thank the community and those who helped me reach Hero Member, I'll be donating all my sMerit (61) to newer members that are close to ranking up. I'll do a short review of your posts, and if I find any discussions that are worth meriting, I'll give you a small boost. Sadly, I don't have much to give away, but I'll do my best to help a few members at least. There's no point in hoarding sMerit, so I might as well hand them back to the community.

I was overjoyed to finally reach Hero. It's the least I can do.

How come? Beefy is one of the largest platforms, personally had no issues. I've also used Supra, but decided to stick to Beefy. While I understand your point regarding stablecoin staking, currently I'd rather not use that money to invest in other coins. I might change my mind later, because I'm ultimately starting to consider buying BTC or ETH but for now, I'll stick to staking. There's always the possibility of losing your investment, even in Bitcoin. I was also staking when BTC reached its ATH. If I had purchased during the dip at $50.000 or even $40.000, I'd be at a huge loss now (over 40-50%). The opposite can happen too, but it depends on whether you want to take the risk or not.


Since when do banks offer 5-10% interest rate? The most you can get here on timed deposits is 0.03% to 0.10%. I'd rather invest my money on some random coin than deposit it in a bank.The only options I've seen for stablecoin saving/staking on Binance are BUSD and USDT (both offering 8%) and USDC which offered 1.2% the last time I checked, please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Even a whole cent sounds unlikely. While Bittorrent (BTT) was theoretically reformed/updated in 2018 by blockchain platform TRON and has integrated a few new features, it still doesn't serve much purpose. Originally, it was abandoned by its developers until it was taken over by Tron Blockchain. From a short summary I've read, in theory at least, it doesn't sound bad. You can even earn BTT for downloading torrents. I tried it, but it wasn't worth it. Plus, I rarely download torrents anymore. However, I believe that torrenting has started dying down after actions were taken against piracy, leaving the coin with little to no purpose.

Even with the introduction of tax burn, Luna Classic cannot be saved. If I remember correctly, last time I checked, there were billions of coins in circulation. The tax only burns a few million at best, so it's unlikely to ever see decent improvement. While some speculate reaching $1, let's keep in mind that even if it does happen, it'd still be over 100% minus since it used to be worth over $100. I wouldn't call $1 a victory, especially for those who got screwed over.

Personally, I spent a few bucks just for the sake of it, not because I honestly thought I'd get a 100% return. The developer has ruined his reputation. The community doesn't trust him nor his coin. It's pretty much done for.

Investments are dangerous, period. Investing is our only breakthrough against inflation, which is slowly depreciating our fiat currencies. It's not only cryptocurrencies that have risks; all investments do, from the stock market to real estate or bonds. Cryptocurrencies have become more popular in the last year or two due to some sh!tcoins that were either hyped or were pure scams, leading people into believing that easy and risk-free money can be made.

Personally, cryptocurrencies are one of the best things I've experienced in my life.

I have some experience with Beefy's vaults but nothing major. Honestly, I'm also traumatized by the Terra UST incident, resulting in a 15% loss on my end. I'm trying to be extra cautious now.
The first decrease didn't affect me too much. I have distributed my funds to BUSD and USDT, both offering 10% APY for up to $2.000. Thus, the first 2% decrease was only affecting anything over $2.000, so the impact was minimal and didn't bother too much.

Honestly, I don't want to tolerate the latest decrease, since it's affecting both coins, losing over 4% in revenue. Beefy's vaults offer an average of 12% APY, a few days ago, I didn't want to risk leaving Binance for a mere 2% increase, but now the difference is over 4%.

Edit: https://app.beefy.finance/vault/velodrome-lusd-mai
28% APY, but involves riskier stablecoins.

Binance proceeded to lower the APY from 10% to 8% . It's actually the second time within the month that they're decreasing it. It used to be 10% up to $2.000 (tier 1) and 4% for >2.000 and <10.000 (tier 2). The first time, only tier 2 was affected, lowering the APY from 4% to 2%. "No big deal," I thought.

However, tier 1 was reduced to 8% yesterday, significantly reducing my profit. I don't see a reason to use Binance services anymore, since there are quite a few vaults that offer an average APY of 10-13%.
This one looks decent

https://app.beefy.finance/vault/curve-op-f-susd

Any thoughts or recommendations?

While I have my doubts about Luna Classic, it reaching $1 sounds way more probable than BTT's predictions coming anywhere close. Honestly, while I'm totally against Luna and Luna Classic after the whole incident with UST depegging and Luna crashing, I regret not buying some more, because I also believed that at some point it would be hyped.

I'm not going to spend a single penny, investing in Luna seems way too risky. I've only bought a few thousand for a few dollars, and those will be the first and last ones I've acquired.