5 Amazing Cities to Visit in Poland

Life has not been easy for Poland, an eastern European country that has been invaded and destroyed many times over the centuries. The country suffered mightily in World War II when many of its citizens, including its large Jewish population, were hustled off to Nazi concentration camps. The Polish spirit, however, refused to die and today the country combines medieval architecture with lively cultural activities to meet the needs of modern tourists. Here is a list of places that you ought to visit in Poland this autumn.

Krakow

Krakow might be described as a rags to riches city, since it went from being a seventh century village to the second most important city in Poland, being known for its cultural, artistic, academic and economic activities. During World War II, the Nazis herded Jews into the Krakow Ghetto where they were later sent to concentration camps; the movie Schindler’s List centered around one man’s efforts to save the ghetto residents from extermination. Located on the Vistula River, this former Polish capital is easy to get around, since attractions radiate out from Old Town, considered the best Old Town in the country.

Warsaw

The capital of Poland might aptly be compared to a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Founded around the 12th century, Warsaw was pretty much destroyed during World War II, but has rebuilt itself into a thriving historical and cultural center, complete with a restored Old Town. Once known as the “Paris of the North,” it is also famous as the home of classical composer Fryderyk Chopin. Travelers of all ages will enjoy a visit to the Copernicus Science Center where hands-on activities abound.

Gdansk

Also known as Danzig, Gdansk is the largest city in northern Poland and its main seaport since it lies on the Baltic Sea. Founded around the 10th century, it has a mixed political history; at different times it belonged to Germany and Poland, and was a free state before permanently becoming a part of Poland after World War II. The city rebuilt itself after the war, restoring its Old Town, which is famous for the Royal Road that Polish kings traveled on when visiting this historical city. The city is also home to St. Mary church, the largest brick church in the world.

Wroclaw

Located on the Oder River, Wroclaw is the largest city in western Poland. Over the centuries it has been governed by Prussia, Poland, Germany and Bohemia, but has been part of Poland since 1945. The former capital of Silesia is still less well-known as some of the other places to visit in Poland but can definitely compete when it comes to amazing architecture. Main attractions include the market square and the impressive Old Town Hall, St, Elizabeth’s Church with its observation deck overlooking the city, and the largest zoo in Poland. Sailing on the Oder River is a relaxing way to get a feel for this medieval city.

Poznan

Student travelers wanting to meet their Polish peers might want to visit Poznan, long known as an academic center and home to Poland’s third largest university. The city hosts many international events, including the Malta International Theatre Festival that takes place every summer. Major sites are easily accessible by strolling the Royal-Imperial Route, a walk set up especially for tourists. Athletes may enjoy a visit to the artificial lake of Malta, home to a ski slope, ice rink, and swimming pools.

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XcelToken Plus Now on CoinMarketCap

XcelToken Plus with the ticker name XLAB is the upgraded version of XcelToken, which is an ERC20 token on the Ethereum Blockchain Platform, that is painstakingly crafted with the purpose of building, engaging and fostering a large crypto-community within the hospitality, retail and gaming sectors. XcelToken Plus is now listed on CoinMarketCap, a platform that allows you to buy and tracks most of the alternative coins that has hit the market as well as Bitcoins and shows users the current value in dollars and Bitcoins for each coin.

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Russian Literary Travel Guide

If you are planning to travel to Russia and are interested in literary history, the places on this list deserve a spot on your itinerary. Russians are very proud of their rich literary heritage, and this is reflected in their well-curated and oft-frequented museums, houses, and estates dedicated to Russian authors. Here are 5 places we recommend that you visit during your travels to Russia.

Tula – Yasnaya Polyana
Situated outside the city of Tula, about 120 miles south of Moscow, this bucolic estate is where Leo Tolstoy was born and spent most of his life. It features a main house, a school founded by Tolstoy for the peasant children on the estate, and beautiful grounds. The house and school are now a museum, with many of Tolstoy’s books and possessions on display exactly as he left them. Opt for a guided tour, available in Russian, English, French, and German, or just wander the four thousand acres of forests, fields, ponds, and gardens by yourself to take in the atmosphere that inspired War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Moscow – Bulgakov House, Master and Margarita tour
Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is one of the most widely-loved novels of the Soviet era. It is set mainly in Moscow, and the Bulgakov museum has created a walking tour of the important places in the story. Travel to Russia and enter Bulgakov’s world and see the locations that inspired him, from his own apartment that became the devil’s hideout to the ritzy Patriarch’s Ponds area where the novel opens. On the night tours you may even encounter some of Bulgakov’s characters in the flesh! The museum is easily accessible by metro, and also holds theatrical productions, art exhibits, a café, and more.

St. Petersburg – Nabokov house-museum
Vladimir Nabokov is most well-known for his novel Lolita. He was also a renowned butterfly collector, who curated Harvard University’s collection of specimens. While he spent most of his life in exile outside of Russia because of political turmoil, the house he was born in in St. Petersburg has been turned into a museum. There you can see his manuscripts as well as his butterfly collection, drawings, and other personal effects. There are also beautiful stained glass windows that Nabokov used as inspiration in many of his works.

St. Petersburg – Dostoevsky house-museum
The apartment in St. Petersburg where Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov holds a huge collection of art, photographs, manuscripts, and other memorabilia of the great author’s life and work. The rooms are restored to how they were when Dostoevsky lived here at the end of his life. It is easily accessible by metro, only one block from Vladimirskaya station. The surrounding Vladimirsky neighborhood was his inspiration for the setting of many of his works, and visiting this museum is like stepping into Dostoevsky’s mind. The guided tours insight into the items on display and the stories behind them.

Yalta—Chekhov’s white dacha
In the seacoast town of Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula is a beautiful dacha, or country house, built by Anton Chekhov. He relocated to Yalta because of his tuberculosis (which would eventually kill him, despite the therapeutic sea air) and had this house custom built for him. It was here that he wrote some of his most famous works, including The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. The house is pure white (hence the name) and features expansive gardens. The museum collection includes letters, photos, books, and heirlooms of the Chekhov family.

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What is Sharding?

Sharding is a type of database partition that split up very large databases the into smaller, faster, more easily managed parts called data shards. The word shard means a small part of a whole.

Here’s how Jason Tee explains sharding on The Server Side, “In the simplest sense, sharding your database involves breaking up your big database into many, much smaller databases that share nothing and can be spread across multiple servers.”

Technically, sharding is a synonym for horizontal partitioning. In practice, the term is often used to refer to any database partitioning that is meant to make a very large database more manageable.

The governing concept behind sharding is based on the idea that as the size of a database and the number of transactions per unit of time made on the database increase linearly, the response time for querying the database increases exponentially.

Additionally, the costs of creating and maintaining a very large database in one place can increase exponentially because the database will require high-end computers. In contrast, data shards can be distributed across a number of much less expensive commodity servers. Data shards have comparatively little restriction as far as hardware and software requirements are concerned.

In some cases, database sharding can be done fairly simply. One common example is splitting a customer database geographically. Customers located on the East Coast can be placed on one server, while customers on the West Coast can be placed on a second server. Assuming there are no customers with multiple locations, the split is easy to maintain and build rules around.

Data sharding can be a more complex process in some scenarios, however. Sharding a database that holds less structured data, for example, can be very complicated, and the resulting shards may be difficult to maintain.

5 Cool Places to Explore in Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad, or “Little Russia,” as the locals call it, has gone through more than its fair share of historical turmoil: founded by the Teutonic Knights, it then belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, then to Prussia and the German Empire, only for it to finally become a part of the USSR and then Russia. Discover the many things to do in Kaliningrad, from learning about its maritime history to enjoying beautiful music.

Königsberg Cathedral

The Königsberg Cathedral is the most important Prussian building in Kaliningrad. The church was first built as a Catholic place of worship, which later became Lutheran after the Reformation. It was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt only recently, in the 1990s.

Immanuel Kant’s tomb

Immanuel Kant, one of the most important thinkers in the history of philosophy, was born and spent his entire life in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad. He was buried in the Königsberg Cathedral, and what was initially a small tomb inside the building eventually became a modest mausoleum outside, in the north-east corner of the Cathedral. Kant and Kaliningrad are inseparably connected; the places where he lived and worked are most certainly worth seeing.

Amber Museum

Baltic is famous for its amber: there is something hypnotizing about all the shades of gold it can take on, and about the creatures trapped in it for millions of years. In Kaliningrad’s Amber Museum, not only can you buy inexpensive amber jewelry, you can see the most impressive pieces of amber found in the Baltic out on display. The exhibition also includes some elaborate sculptures and a brief history of amber processing in the Soviet Union.

Dancing Forest

A few kilometers north of the city, there is a narrow strip of land separating the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It’s the Curonian Spit, a sandy dune leading from Kaliningrad to Lithuania, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by both countries. If you have time, go there on a sunny day, enjoy the view of the massive sand dunes, and dance in the Dancing Forest, where the trees are crooked in the most bizarre ways for reasons yet unknown.

Maritime Museum

Kaliningrad is Russia’s only port in the Baltic that never freezes; it is therefore extensively used for both civil and military purposes. Russian scientific exploration of the seas is displayed in the Museum of the World Ocean. Pop by to discover the fascinating world of underwater creatures, and the no-less fascinating equipment used to observe them.

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What is Cryptocurrency Staking?

Cryptocurrency staking has become an alternative way for crypto investors to make money from the market. Staking of cryptocurrencies is usually possible by digital currencies using the proof of stake (PoS) and the delegated proof of stake (DPoS) consensus mechanisms.

What is Proof of Stake?

Proof of Stake (PoS) concept states that a person can mine or validate block transactions according to how many coins he or she holds. This means that the more Bitcoin or altcoin owned by a miner, the more mining power he or she has.

What is staking in cryptocurrencies?

Cryptocurrency staking is the act of hodling crypto in your wallet for a specific period, then earning interest as a result of that. Users receive rewards by hodling the cryptocurrencies, and the earnings differ depending on the length of time an investor hodl the cryptocurrency in their wallet. The longer the staking duration, the higher return an investor gets.

Staking is used as a way of validating transactions on a blockchain, similar to what mining represents in the proof of work (PoW) protocol. In a PoS blockchain, the higher the coins a user holds in his/her account, the higher the chances that they would take part in a transaction validation process.

The next validator in a PoS system is usually chosen in a random process which is heavily influenced by the number of coins a user is holding at that particular time or in some cases, the length of time the user has been keeping the cryptocurrency.

How does crypto staking work?

Crypto staking works in a similar fashion to traditional fixed deposit investment accounts, the longer your staking time, the higher the reward you would earn at the end of the tenure. Staking coins differ from one cryptocurrency to another, but the underlying principle behind then remains the same. If you want to stake coins on most PoS and DPoS networks, you would be required to operate a node or masternode, or you can join one of them.

The staking mechanism also has a delegation feature that allows users to delegate other people to carry out votes on their behalf. Users can earn coins if they entrust their vote to a trusted party, and is one favorite way that investors make money via the staking system. This feature gives delegate extra validation power, who will, in turn, pay its customers coins for their votes.

Benefits of the staking protocol

Staking cryptocurrencies have several advantages to the users, and they include;

Investors with a large holding of a cryptocurrency would be able to validate transactions on the blockchain. This is unlike the PoW system where the job falls solely to miners.
Unlike the PoW protocol, the consensus mechanism in this system eliminates the need for high-end computer networks, which usually consumer high energy and cost a lot to maintain. This makes staking an environmentally friendly cryptocurrency consensus method.
The value of PoS cryptocurrencies does not depend on ASICs and other mining equipment, with their prices only affected by a change in the market conditions.

The probability of a 51% attack is usually lower in PoS cryptocurrencies compared to their PoW counterparts.

Is Blockchain Secure?

The security of personal data, especially that which is stored online, is a human right. It has failed to evolve and actually been deteriorating in recent years. Blockchain technology has the potential to entirely change this.

All of our data is stored online. We concede some of our most private information to the platforms that we use on a daily basis and we are often unaware which of our personal data is collected. Many users still conceal some of their most valuable data behind the shockingly weak combination of a username and password, with over half of users openly admitting they use the same password for all of their logins.

Is Blockchain Secure?

Yes, blockchain is innately secure. It utilises powerful cryptography to give individuals ownership of an address and the cryptoassets associated with it, through a combination of public and private keys, made up of combinations of random numbers and letter. This solves the issue of stolen identity as addresses are not directly associated with users’ identity, whilst also being far harder to compromise. Private keys are even more secure as they are considerably longer. It is in this way that blockchain offers a greater level of security to the individual user as it removes the need for weak and easily compromised passwords and online identities.

Is a Private Blockchain More Secure than a Public One?

The practise of building a private blockchain to preserve security is a severely misguided one. It is true that a private blockchain allows for the screening of participants, whereas a public blockchain is essentially accessible to everyone. However, it is this exposure that allows a public blockchain to develop immunity to hacks. For example, Bitcoin is the original public blockchain, having withstood years of relentless hacking without ever being compromised, getting more resilient with every hack that it withstands. This epitomises that public blockchains, much like Lisk’s, are considerably superior than private blockchains.

Can a Blockchain get Hacked?

No, a blockchain itself does not get hacked. The security of blockchain technology should not be confused with news about hacks, such as those carried out on cryptocurrency exchanges. Similarly, to normal hacks, the underlying vulnerability allowing for hacks on exchanges stem from centralisation. Despite blockchain technology being decentralized, there are still centralized aspects of it, such as cryptocurrency exchanges. This means that hackers can attack a single point in the hope of gaining access. As such, these hacks have given rise to calls for decentralized exchanges and it is only a matter of time before these become the main platforms allowing people to trade cryptocurrencies.

Such hacks epitomise how important it is for every aspect of blockchain to be as decentralized as possible, as distributed information and assets are definitely more secure.

The security of blockchain has roots in the cryptography that it utilizes however it is the technology’s decentralized nature that provides the foundations for its security. In fact, it is this distribution and decentralization that has got most people excited about the potential of blockchain technology.

One-Cancels-the-Other Order – (OCO) Explained

A one-cancels-the-other order (OCO) is a pair of orders stipulating that if one order executes, then the other order is automatically cancelled. An OCO order combines a stop order with a limit order on an automated trading platform. When either the stop or limit price is reached and the order executed, the other order automatically gets cancelled. Experienced traders use OCO orders to mitigate risk and to enter the market.

Basics of a One-Cancels-the-Other Order – (OCO)

Traders can use OCO orders to trade retracements and breakouts. If a trader wanted to trade a break above resistance or below support, they could place an OCO order that uses a buy stop and sell stop to enter the market.

For example, if a stock is trading in a range between $20 and $22, a trader could place an OCO order with a buy stop just above $22 and a sell stop just below $20. Once the price breaks above resistance or below support, a trade is executed and the corresponding stop order is cancelled. Conversely, if a trader wanted to use a retracement strategy that buys at support and sells at resistance, they could place an OCO order with a buy limit order at $20 and a sell limit order at $22.

If OCO orders are used to enter the market, the trader needs to manually place a stop loss order once the trade gets executed. The Time In Force for OCO orders should be identical, meaning that the timeframe specified for execution of both stop and limit orders should be the same.

How to place OCO order:

Select OCOorder type.

Select Base and Quote coin.

E.g. Market: BTC/LTC

Select the number of coins needs to be sold.

E.g. 10 coins. (quantity could be in the fraction)

Fill the Stop Loss fields.

Fill the Take Profit fields.

Blockchain in Agriculture

With 40% of the global workforce, agriculture sector presents 6.4% of the entire world’s economic production and its total worldwide production is $5,084,800 million. If you have ever visited a farm, you would have seen that farmers have complicated ecosystems with seasonal financing structures, careful timing and a lot of moving parts.

After the food leaves the farm for the market, it becomes a part of the vast supply chain involving a lot of intermediaries. Everyone would like to know where the food has been produced before it is served on the plate. What if you could check the quality of food before you eat it? It could become possible with the use-cases of blockchain in executing contracts and tracking information transparently. Blockchain agriculture is one of the compelling use cases that makes the process of growing and supplying food simpler. The agriculture supply chain can provide all involved parties with a single source of truth.

Applying Blockchain to Agriculture

According to ReportLinker, the blockchain in food supply chains and agriculture is estimated to be USD 60.8 million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 429.7 million by 2023. The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality financed the first research project, “Blockchain for Agrifood” that has been proposed to explore blockchain implications for agrifood. Pilot studies indicate that blockchain technology enabled food to be traced from farm to grocery store in just a few seconds.

Blockchain also helps to keep tabs on abundant commodities and reduce cases of illegal harvesting and shipping frauds. The United Nation reveals that food frauds cost the global economy around $40 billion per year because of illicit trades.

Procurement Tracking

The challenge for the agriculture sector is to track and pay for the delivery of foods. Nowadays, the process depends on a third-party for coordinating the goods delivery. The sellers usually have an agent who ensures that the goods are delivered safely and buyers have an agent to recommend payment and audit the delivery. The involvement of multiple agents adds high costs to the system and makes the entire process time-consuming. With the blockchain, the whole process can be simplified to a single distributed ledger. Commodity buyers can directly interact with the supplier that speeds up the process and reduces the time to settle a payment. Also, the companies can save on additional agent fees and farmers can receive a larger share of sales directly with a blockchain based solution.

With the features like traceability and auditability, farmers can directly sell crops or food to the restaurant or individuals without the need for intermediaries.

Crop and Food Production

With the help of smart farming, IoT sensors could fetch important information like the temperature of the soil, water level, fertilizer details and more and send it to the blockchain. Based on the data saved in blockchain, smart contracts could trigger and execute the specific actions. It will help in enhancing the quality of the farming process as well as produced crops.

Weather crisis control

Farmers have to face the issues of unpredictable weather conditions throughout the year. Monitoring and predicting such factors can be crucial for better crop survival. Due to excessive rains, it becomes difficult for grown crops to tolerate flooding. Consumers are never aware of when did the crops suffer bad weather conditions and why did market face high surge pricing. As it is possible for the involved members to trace the weather conditions from the blockchain solution, farmers can quickly request and receive insurance claim through smart contracts.

Managing Agricultural Finance

Lack of transparency in credit history and agreements are some of the significant problems confronting between smallholders and financial inclusion. Today, financial services do not only allow smallholders to invest in farming but also help them in resolving liquidity constraints.

As a result, it becomes challenging for buyers to pay farmers, restricting smallholders to sell crops at comparatively lower rates. With blockchain, the agricultural finance process becomes more transparent and fairer, yet enables shared control accessibility.

The agriculture industry needs to do a lot of work to maintain and build consumer trust when it comes to the food quality check. A blockchain based agriculture solution holds a lot of promise for the agribusiness industry with its ability to bring transparency in the system.

5 Places to Visit in 2019 Moscow

As one of the most vibrant European capitals, Moscow is a powerful mix of history and edginess, full of world-famous sites and attractions. Russia’s capital has been in existence for more than 800 years and has enough to keep visitors busy for months. Here’s the ultimate first-timer’s list of things to do in Moscow, from Europe’s oldest fortress and grandiose cathedrals to lively green spaces and futuristic skyscrapers.

Red Square

The heart of Russia’s capital, Red Square is arguably Moscow’s most visited attraction. The cobblestone square is surrounded by beautiful architecture, and is the place where most of the city’s (and country’s) history unfolded. What was once a market square where traders would sell their goods is now a key location in the city, surrounded by unforgettable sites such as the Kremlin, St.Basil’s Cathedral, Lenin’s Mausoleum and other celebrated attractions.

St Basil’s Cathedral

Soak up the archetypal image of Russia’s capital with the glistening rainbow domes of St Basil’s cathedral. The onion-shaped domes were designed to make the building look like the shape of a flame on a bonfire. The cathedral was commissioned in the 1500s by Ivan the Terrible and according to legend, the Tsar thought it so beautiful he ordered that the architect be blinded so that he would never surpass this creation.

Lenin’s Mausoleum

Moscow’s ultimate love-it-or-hate-it landmark, Lenin’s Mausoleum houses a glass sarcophagus with the embalmed body of the legendary Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin. First opened to the public in August 1924, the Mausoleum attracts around 2.5 million visitors every year, who don’t mind standing in line and going through a thorough body search to get into the illustrious building.

Moscow Kremlin

The biggest active fortress in Europe, Moscow’s Kremlin offers a week’s worth of attractions. Once you get behind the 2,235-metre-long kremlin walls, there are five squares to wander around, various buildings to explore, 20 towers to learn the names of, and the world’s largest bell and cannon to see.

Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

The largest foreign art museum in Moscow comprises three branches housing a collection of incredible works by masters of ancient civilisations, the Italian Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age. The main building contains masterpieces by Botticelli, Tiepolo, Veronese and Rembrandt, some of which have never been displayed before. The Gallery of European & American Art, located next door, stores an incredible collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings.

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