Impact of COVID-19 on Cash And Online Payment Industry

Across many countries where the latest strain of COVID-19 tends to make an impact, social distancing and isolation have been put in place. Employees have been asked to work from home, cities have been placed under complete lockdown and educational institutions have been shut down, as if they never existed.

Cash as a Medium of Exchange, Loses Its Dominance
We all thought and strongly believed that cash will always be around, but it looks like COVID-19 is making us get some perspective on a lot of things, including this.

The fact that hand-to-hand exchange of cash or physical currency might transmit the virus, majority of the countries around the world are reconsidering the use of cash. In fact, it won’t be wrong to say that Corona Virus has turned out to be a catalyst in bringing digital payments into the mainstream.

For instance, China decided to abolish thousands of banknotes or disinfect them in order to stop the virus from spreading, at least in the short run. SCMP recently reported that a local branch of the People’s Bank of China has been destroying paper money that was circulated through high-risk settings in Guangdong province, such as food markets and hospitals.

South Korea also seemed to follow suit, while in the US, the Federal Reserve began to store banknotes coming in from Asia before they are recirculated back into the economy.

On the contrary, Canadians tend to go with a completely different approach. There are rumors that some people there have been shoving the banknotes into washing machines to get rid of Corona Virus, as their paper money is made of plastic. And, that is taking money laundering to a whole new level!

A Shift Towards Digital Payment Platforms
Ever since the lockdown, the frequency, as well as the total monetary value of transactions, has dropped. However, with people only buying necessary goods and storing them in one go, the value per transaction has increased more than ever before.

So, whichever part of the world you are, now is the perfect time for making the best of shopping carts and payment gateways. Having that said, apart from China, Canada, and the US, as mentioned earlier, here’s what others are doing:

Britain:

The use of cash in Britain has halved in just a few days after the imposition of a nationwide lockdown by the government. Even the stores that sell essential day-to-day use of goods and services are trying to avoid taking paper money. For transactions of GBP30 (~$40) and under, the majority of the stores tend to accept contactless payment, either by mobile payment or credit and debit card, for instance, Apply Pay.

Russia:

As far as Russia is concerned, where the official cases of Corona Virus seem to be low as compared to other countries, a lockdown is still instituted in Moscow and other major cities in the country. And, this leaves the country to rely on online payments and discourage the circulation of banknotes.

Australia:

In Australia, the basic amenities outlets and stores have also encouraged their customers to go with the online payment methods and avoid touching EPOS machines as much as possible.

Kenya:

Other emerging regions, such as Africa, known to be having the largest unbanked population in the world, is also taking measures in the global pandemic and emphasizes to make greater use of contactless payments.

M-Pesa, the dominant player in Kenya, is all set to waive fees, and hence the daily transaction limit has increased from Ksh 70,000 (=$660) to Ksh 150, 000 (=$1400).

Until 2018 or even 2019, digital payment adoption was quite slow and only was seen to be more in use by developed countries. Reasons being, demographic, cultural, and technological barriers-many of which were a function of economies at different stages of development. However, since the adoption is now made mainstream, due to the uncertain longevity of Corona Virus, getting onto the bandwagon and choosing an online payment solution is the step towards a better and a safer future.

Pre-Workout Supplements – A Faster Way to Stop Muscle Soreness

Soreness is known to be a very common problem among bodybuilders. No matter how efficiently you take your bodybuilding pre-workout supplements, muscle soreness is something that keeps developing within several hours after the workout. It creates extreme discomfort for a couple of days and sometimes this lasts for a week. The more you go intense on your bodybuilding program, the more will you experience soreness. Thus, you definitely must try and find ways that can help you deal with this soreness. You could seek help from some of the most effective pre- and post-training measures – massage and stretching. They have a major role to play when it comes to minimizing the soreness.

Most of the bodybuilders take a sigh of relief after using the bodybuilding supplements that are formulated to speed up the whole recovery process of muscle recovery post workout. It you too are tired of post-training soreness; you should definitely give this a try. Now, you may be wondering about the causes of post training muscle soreness. Did you know? Soreness is one of the most common problems that often begins after 8-12 hours of strenuous physical exercise. This will surely be different with every bodybuilder; some suffer for a couple of days, while others experience it for longer. In the earlier days, people used to think that muscle soreness is caused due to the build-up of lactic acid in the muscular fibres. On the other hand, today, this problem is clearly understood that as the body indulges in strenuous exercise, the muscles tend to receive minute tears that result in pain. These minute damages in the muscle take time to be restored while also making the muscles bigger and stronger than it was pre-workout.

There are multiple bodybuilding practices that work wonders in minimizing the muscle pain. Did you know? Nitric oxide pre-workout supplements are ideal for providing muscular relief and faster healing of extreme muscle soreness. Thus, instead of simply opting for any muscle pain relief gel, you must definitely think about trying pre-workout supplements.

How to Choose the Best Power Bank for Your Needs

There are many types of charging electronics on the market and it makes sense that there are so many as we have many devices that require recharging. However, when it comes to the most used type of charging electronics, such as wall chargers, then you’re not really going to be free with charging your devices as they have to be connected to a power source at all times. One of the best solutions to charging your smartphone, tablet or even a laptop is using a portable charger. Portable chargers are also known as power banks, and they have batteries within them that allow you to charge your devices while you’re on the move.

That said, there are so many power banks on the market, so it can be difficult to know what types of power banks to get and what exactly you should look for when it comes to purchasing a power bank. So let’s take a look at what you’ll need to know to get the best power bank for yourself.

Power Capacity and Size

The power capacity of a power bank is the main part of what makes it a portable charger in the first place. Knowing what the best power banks to buy are is vital. Something that’s important to know is that depending on how much power capacity is within a power bank, you’re going to have a different experience.

If you want the portable power that’s going to last you a longer duration of time, then getting a high capacity power bank is a good idea. What’s considered to be a high capacity? A high capacity power bank is one that has 20,000mAh capacity or higher, and that allows you to charge your smartphone or even larger devices with larger batteries to full power multiple times over. Another thing to consider is just how many ports you’d like with a high capacity power bank as most of them have two or more USB charging ports and that means you can charge many devices at once while you’re the move.

As awesome as high capacity power banks sound, they do have a flaw and that would be that they have larger sizes and weigh heavier than power banks that have lower power capacities. The reason for that is because they use more batteries, so you should be prepared for noticing that you are indeed carrying around a portable charger.

Another power bank that’s basically the opposite of high capacity power banks is low capacity ones. Low capacity power banks are ones that are the most known as they have very small sizes and lightweight. Most of these chargers only use a single battery and therefore the size of them is also small. However, even though these very small power banks can practically go with us anywhere, they don’t have too much power when it comes to their charging and also power capacity to provide to the device that you’re charging.

Most Mini power banks only have a 3,000mAh to 5,000mAh power capacity and that means they can really only charge a smartphone about one time. Another thing is that most mini power banks only have a single port, so you can only charge a single device at a time, the charging power with that single port is quite weak as well.

Charging Tech

Charging has changed over time, and the type of charging electronic product that we use to charge our devices is important. Most of all, the charging tech that’s used with our portable charger is the most important factor to take in.

The most well-known charging tech that’s used with many portable chargers and basically all charging electronics is Quick Charge. Quick Charge is compatible with many Android devices as many of them use the Snapdragon processor. Quick Charge is able to increase the Voltage during charging and that makes the charging speed constant.

The one other charging tech that’s spreading widely and is more the standard of fast charging is USB-C Power Delivery. Most new Android smartphones are now using USB-C as it’s able to offer faster base charging. Power Delivery is even faster than that as it’s able to give up 100W of power. There are already some larger devices that use Power Delivery such as the new MacBooks models and also Chromebook models too. Some smartphones also use Power Delivery, and since larger and smaller devices are able to use the same charging tech, it means that you’re able to use the same USB-C Power Delivery Wall Charger to charge your smartphone and laptop.