Move to earn projects that you actually like?

Hello everyone!

I really like crypto and I really like working out, so I've always been interested in those projects that are trying to combine those aspects. In the last months, I've tried these two projects:

\- Walken IO: it's a mobile game where NFT characters "fight" against each other. Your steps are converted into gems that can be used to upgrade your avatars. The game per se is not really funny and just requires some click. You can earn a bit playing for free, but at a certain point, you probably have to spend money in order to speed up your strategy. I ended up losing the seed phrase to access my WALKEN wallet like an idiot, but this is another story. Overall I give the app a 6/10.

\- Another one I've been using is SWEAT Wallet. It converts daily steps into an actual token. Or at least it should do so, given that it stopped working for me months ago. I didn't delete it cause I staked some tokens I earned previously and I'll sell them in the future. I give it a 4/10.

\- I've never used STEPN as I don't want to buy an expensive NFT hoping to sell it in the future for more.

What I'm looking for is a project that encourages me to work out, burn calories or complete tasks with a small earn component, as I feel that would work better than a normal fitness app that gives useless points. Do you have some names to share? Do you think that move-to-earn will ever actually work?
#Write2Earn‬ #sport #walking

How would you respond to these critiques?

Sometimes I face people that harshly criticize Bitcoin and crypto, calling it a bubble or a scam. Sometimes critiques are based on ignorance and are easily addressable, on other occasions, I've found myself in trouble replying to them.

These are the points I struggle to debunk (my debates are usually on Bitcoin as it is the most known cryptocurrency and we can simplify by affirming that it represents all the crypto space):

\- Bitcoin can be banned by countries: here I'm not talking about single countries banning crypto trade, but the eventuality of the entire world banning it. If every country decided to make mining, trading and owning cryptocurrency illegal, we would see a huge dump in adoption and consequentially price. I usually reply that this scenario is highly unlikely, but that could really be the death of crypto.

\- Bitcoin is not suitable as a daily currency as its volatility makes it difficult to handle: it would be impossible for a store to display prices in BTC, as it would mean changing the tags every day. I know it's a trivial issue, but it prevents me from imagining a world where BTC is the main currency for daily expenses. Another problem is fees that are particularly high sometimes.
I usually reply that the Lightning Network will probably be the go-to choice for normal transactions in stores but it probably requires a more complicated setup.

\- Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, Bitcoin is purely digital & backed by nothing, so it has no intrinsic value: I think that in 2023, thinking that something has value only if it's physical is anachronistic. Digital contents gather millions of people and the most valuable infrastructures nowadays are mainly digital.

I would like to know what are the best replies to these critiques and if you had some interesting conversations to share about these issues.
#btc #Write2Earn‬

Can crypto solve the current problems of scientific research? #Decentralized #science #Write2Earn‬

Scientific research often has the same problems worldwide:

* Lack of funding: many promising studies are alt because they run out of money. Funding often goes to trending and more famous topics, leaving many interesting but niche fields unfunded. Also, even if funds are allocated to research, you cannot be 100% sure that they will be used for that; this is a problem for charity campaigns too.
* Biased publication choices: usually scientific journals only publish "positive studies", namely studies that found a certain effect and don't publish studies that didn't find it (i.e. if a treatment is effective, it gets published, if the same treatment isn't found to be effective in another study, that article isn't published). This can lead to falsifying data in order to get the article published, as researchers' paychecks often depend on it.

Now, can blockchain fix these?

There are currently some new-born projects in the DeSci (Decentralized Science) space that aim to do that:
* VitaDAO is a decentralized organization that collects projects from every researcher in the world (famous professors or simple students) and distributes funding to the most promising ones. The best feature in my opinion is that projects are still reviewed by a court of experts, but the community has the final word.
* Molecule is a platform that lets you invest in specific research, in particular in the medical field. It's kind of like lending money to researchers and earning interest when they discover something.
* Data Lake collects high-quality medical data from around the world in order to give researchers full access to that. This in particular tries to solve the problem of companies analyzing data for their research that aren't public and therefore falsifiable.