And instead of buying more powerful hardware you can try to get the always free oracle VPS (4vcpu ARM, 24GB RAM, 200GB storage), do your compute stuff there, and keep the RPI as pi-hole/home assistant only. It will save you on electricity bill as well.
Well, my bank did not handle them - the cashier told me that there is only one bank that handles them (Pekao SA) so I didn't waste time searching for others.
Maybe your friend has a company/businesses account? The services may be different than for a personal one.
Only one bank in Poland handles them, I had to open a separate account just to cash it. As far as I remember the cashing in process took some time (about a week maybe?) and the fees were about 25% of the check value (operations + currency exchange).
There's no option in doing it from the app/ATM afaik.
Living in central Europe, when Air Canada gave me check (compensation for the rescheduled flight) I went through a lot of effort to cash it. Once in a lifetime experience!
https://visitukraine.today/blog/3375/navalny-is-dead-what-wa...