Tag: cryptocurrency

Eye-Ball Scanning Digital ID Company Worldcoin Integrates With Reddit, Telegram, and More

Worldcoin, the eye-ball scanning protocol co-founded by Sam Altman, is cracking open a wider integration network by adding support for platforms such as Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify, and Mercado Libre to its World ID offering. This comes on the back of the cohesive upgrades it has already sealed with Discord, Talent Protocol, and Okta’s Auth0.

Digital ID systems, like the one used by WorldCoin, raise significant privacy concerns due to the sensitive nature of the biometric data they collect and store. The other issue is that identity becomes immutable.

Consider a scenario where your digital identity becomes inaccessible, perhaps due to regulatory action or technical issues. In conventional financial systems, including traditional cash and most cryptocurrencies, you can simply create a new wallet and start over. However, with systems tied to unique biometric identifiers, such as iris scans, you can’t easily replace your identity. Unlike a plot from a science fiction movie, obtaining a new iris scan is not a feasible option.

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Police Raid Man’s Home For Heating It With S9, Charged With Intentional Climate Change

The Bitcoin mining industry is being thrown into chaos as a Canadian man has been arrested for heating his home with an Antminer S9. The man posted a video of his setup on Twitter which lead to law enforcement visiting his home and arresting him. He faces up to 3 months in jail and $600 in fines for “Causing distress to the community” and “intentionally warming the climate.”

The officers raiding the home arrived heavily armed, and even shot the man’s dog who was barking in the hallway after they kicked the door down. Body cam footage shows police laughing after shooting the dog, and one officer exclaimed, “Wow I finally got my first one.” Unfortunately, in Canada, shooting peoples pets is a protected action under qualified immunity.

Canada has been a hotbed for Bitcoin mining, but now many miners are fearful they too will be charged with similar charges. The Canadian government has been unclear about what their intentions are and whether this applies to all Bitcoin miners or just people who post their miners on Twitter. There are also rumors that the Canadian government is going to be rolling out an emissions system to test miners for carbon production, and will be requiring registration.

Many have pointed out how similar Bitcoin miners are to other applications such as space heaters, large data center servers, and just about any application that consumes electricity. Bitcoin miners produce just as much carbon as electric vehicles, yet they are being treated very differently, suggesting the move is targeted. Despite that, the issue of climate change is of upmost concern. If sea levels rise, it will destroy all the billionaires beach front property and secret Caribbean islands.

Elizabeth Warren applauded the move and stated, “1 s9 running emits 4 units of climate change an hour. 1 Bitcoin transaction emits 16 units of climate change. We must be like Canada and stop the madness.” Senate Republicans are currently organizing to censor Warren’s comments on the subject until she passes a basic literacy test.

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The Crypto Whistleblower at the Center of the Sam Bankman-Fried Storm

TIFFANY FONG STOOD among a gaggle of reporters in the gray tiled plaza of Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in downtown Manhattan. It was just past dawn, but members of the media were already queued up for the start of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial. Fong, 29, took periodic hits from her vape while chatting up reporters, doling out her number and self-deprecating one-liners for stories. She looked like a grown-up version of a former college “it” girl, wearing a black sweater vest, Nike Air Force One sneakers and a leather blazer tied around her petite waist. She whipped out her phone and started vlogging, documenting the experience for her legion of over 90,000 followers on X (formerly known as Twitter) and 30,000 subscribers on YouTube. 

Fong, according to her LinkedIn profile, is a “reluctant crypto content creator.” (She cringes at the term “influencer.”) She’d flown to New York City to attend Bankman-Fried’s trial in person at the Southern District courthouse. Bankman-Fried, who faces over a century in prison, has been charged with seven counts related to fraud. (He has pleaded not guilty.) But unlike other spectators, Fong has visited Bankman-Fried more than 10 times at his childhood home in Palo Alto during his months of house arrest. The pair spent dozens of hours alone in his parents’ study. He introduced her to his childhood stuffed bunny, Manfred. 

During that period, she temporarily moved to San Francisco to be within commuting distance of Bankman-Fried. Fong’s access is perhaps only rivaled by the author Michael Lewis, who spent hundreds of hours with Bankman-Fried for the book “Going Infinite,” an account of the crypto wunderkind’s rise and fall. (Since Bankman-Fried has been jailed and unreachable during his trial, this story of their months-long back-and-forth is told through Fong’s experience. A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.) 

“This is the weirdest little detour my life has taken, getting a front row seat to a massive financial fraud scandal,” Fong tells me in her Airbnb studio rental in downtown Manhattan, where I interview her on the eve of the trial. She sits cross-legged on the bed, showing me the new plastic vapes she hoped wouldn’t set off the metal detectors at the courthouse entrance. I first met Fong at a crypto conference in March, during a nightclub afterparty where the ratio of men to women approached that of a men’s locker room. I’d listened to Fong’s November interviews with Bankman-Fried from before his arrest, when he was telling anyone who’d listen that the collapse was due to a colossal failure of risk management, not fraud. “I’m so out of place in this story,” admits Fong. “It’s just like this random fucking chick wandered into this very serious situation.” 

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Sam Bankman-Fried’s dad allegedly had advisory role at top Democratic ‘dark money network’

Joseph Bankman, the father of troubled former crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, allegedly held an advisory role at a top Democratic dark money network, an arrangement a watchdog says “deserves serious scrutiny.”

The allegation appeared in a lawsuit Bankman-Fried’s former company, FTX, filed against his parents Monday after they allegedly “exploited their access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves, directly and indirectly, by millions of dollars,” the company’s lawyers wrote. FTX is seeking to recoup money to pay owed debts.

Bankman-Fried’s father, a Stanford University law professor, “sat on the advisory board of Arabella Advisors,” according to the complaint. 

Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, manages a nonprofit network that provides fiscal sponsorship to dozens of left-wing groups.

The funds it manages, which include the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund and Hopewell Fund, collectively raise over a billion dollars in anonymous cash annually and, in turn, also shower liberal causes and initiatives with money nationwide.

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Digital Asset Sales To Come Under Increased IRS-Treasury Scrutiny

The U.S. Treasury and the IRS have proposed new reporting requirements for digital asset brokers like cryptocurrencies and NFTs in an attempt to “crack down on tax cheats” and help citizens assess tax dues arising from such asset transactions.

Regulations “would require brokers of digital assets to report certain sales and exchanges,” the U.S. Treasury said in an Aug. 25 press release. The proposed regulations “is part of a broader effort at Treasury to close the tax gap, address the tax evasion risks posed by digital assets, and help ensure that everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

Brokers would be required to report on the sale and exchange of digital assets in 2026 for activities that took place during the prior year.

In an Aug. 25 press release detailing the new proposed regulations, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said that a critical part of the rules is that it “fits in with the larger IRS compliance focus on wealthy taxpayers.”

“We need to make sure digital assets are not used to hide taxable income, and the proposed regulations are designed to provide a clearer line of sight into activities by high-income people as well as others using them,” he said.

“We want to make sure everyone pays what they owe under the tax laws, and our research and experience demonstrate that third-party reporting improves compliance.”

A Barclays analysis released last year estimated that the IRS could be missing out on more than $50 billion annually due to crypto traders not paying their taxes.

The new rules will also help taxpayers in filing their returns, the Treasury stated.

Under current laws, citizens owe tax on gains made on the sale or exchange of digital assets and can deduct losses on such activity. However, “for many taxpayers it is difficult and costly to calculate their gains.”

The proposal would require that digital asset brokers “provide a new Form 1099-DA to help taxpayers determine if they owe taxes, and would help taxpayers avoid having to make complicated calculations or pay digital asset tax preparation services in order to file their tax returns.”

“These regulations align tax reporting on digital assets with tax reporting on other assets, and, as a result, avoid preferential treatment between different types of assets,” the treasury stated.

The agency cited figures from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) which estimated that the new rules could raise almost $28 billion in revenues for the government over a decade.

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“I Just Want To Sell Titty Pictures”: Sex Workers F**ked By Crypto

Sex workers – who frequently face financial discrimination, losing access to payment apps and banking apps such as PayPal, Venmo and CashApp due to their profession – began using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as an alternative for payments, which bypass traditional banking systems and avoid service fees from platforms such as OnlyFans.

According to data by the Free Speech Coalition, 2/3 of sex workers have lost access to a bank account or financial service, with 40% having an account closed within the last year, Wired reports.

“I just want to sell titty pictures,” said Allie Eve Knox, a professional dominatrix and fetish performer. “I never wanted to be an expert in financial discrimination.”

…

Given the systemic discrimination throughout the banking sector, many sex workers have turned to cryptocurrencies as a means of both storing wealth and accepting payment. For a while, things were great. Digital currencies allowed customers to pay discreetly without supplying personal information, while sex workers now had a way to bypass the banking system entirely.

Knox, for example, began accepting crypto in 2014 – holding up a QR code through which viewers could tip her in crypto.

Another sex worker, former escort-turned-porn star Lira Roux, told the outlet that she began to accept crypto in 2015 at the request of clients. Initially, she would exchange the crypto for dollars, however when new laws came into effect – after which many adult-friendly advertising sites were barred from accepting regular money – she began to pay for ads with crypto too.

“By and large, crypto is useful for people that aren’t being taken care of properly by the government,” Roux said. “For sex workers, who aren’t well-served by banks, it becomes a useful option.”

Now, thanks to regulatory scrutiny which has gone into overdrive since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, sex workers are ‘bumping up’ against limitations – and are finding that ‘decentralized’ crypto is no more detached from the banking system than traditional currency – as sex workers are finding it increasingly difficult to convert crypto into dollars. Typically, this is done via an exchange, which then allows one to withdraw to a traditional bank account. Sex workers are now being banned from crypto exchanges.

“You get on an exchange for as long as you can, until they shut your ass down,” said Knox. “You quickly [run out of exchanges], so you sit on a lot of useless money. The whole ‘crypto is permissionless and censorship-resistant’ thing is a bunch of bullshit.”

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Kenya Kicks Eye-Scanning Worldcoin To The Curb — Refuses To Become ‘Data Harvesting Guinea Pigs’

The Kenyan Ministry of the Interior last week suspended the controversial tech firm WorldCoin and any similar entities from operating in the country.

Co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, WorldCoin offers free crypto tokens worth roughly $50 to people willing to have their eyeballs scanned by a device called the Orb.

“Relevant security, financial services and data protection agencies have commenced inquiries and investigations to establish the authenticity and legality of the aforesaid activities, the safety and protection of the data being harvested, and how the harvesters intend to use the data,” reads a statement from the Ministry issued last week.

Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua was enraged over the technology, saying in a statement: “Let us support the stoppage of Kenyans being used as guinea pigs and their data being harvested.

“You have to ask yourself why your eyes are being scanned and information gathered. What does it mean and what will it mean to you and your offspring?“

Another CS, Kithure Kindiki, assured citizens that the government would undertake all measures to ensure public safety and the integrity of financial transactions involving so many citizens, according to Kenyans.co.ke.

Further, appropriate action will be taken on any natural or juristic person who furthers, aids, abets or otherwise engages in or is connected with the activities until the government deems WorldCoin is safe. 

Following the directive, police officers were deployed to disperse hundreds queuing at KICC, Nairobi for the exercise. 

The directive comes minutes after ICT Eliud Owalo had stated that the government was yet to kick out the international company as it had not broken any laws.

That said, WorldCoin technically hasn’t broken any Kenyan laws – which, we imagine, is one of the reasons it was rolled out there.

“There are security issues even though in relation to the current data laws, they have not breached anything. Our laws, regulations are not comprehensive,” said Owalo. “Within the existing legal framework today, there are no provisions in the law that the organisation has negated. However, there could be security and regulatory issues around it.”

In response to the ban, WorldCoin co-founder Alex Blania claimed that the company’s intentions are above board.

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Controversial Eyeball-Scanning Worldcoin To Allow Governments To Use Its Digital ID System

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is a good example of private companies doing their bit to push and introduce digital ID schemes to as many people as possible – although this effort is usually done by governments, and supported by various lobbies.

And now, Worldcoin has announced that it will be even more helpful to governments, by allowing them to use the system of biometric scanning it employs to sign users up. Other companies will be given the same privilege.

The intention is clearly to get as many people as possible on board, hence the “generosity” with sharing the iris scanning tech, as well as that designed to verify people’s identity.

And it’s no secret: “We are on this mission of building the biggest financial and identity community that we can,” is how Tools for Humanity (a company behind Worldcoin) executive Ricardo Macieira put it.

The mission marches on despite concerns not only from privacy focused non-profits and advocates, but also institutions in various countries that are tasked with protecting data privacy.

People – and the number mentioned in reports these days is 2.2 million so far – sign up to Worldcoin by giving up biometric data contained in their eyes, i.e., irises.

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The Government Wants to Turn Blockchain Firms into Servants of the State

In recent years, blockchain surveillance (BS) companies have become increasingly important players in the cryptocurrency industry. Their business model consists in developing proprietary software that collects and interprets public data available on public blockchains and in selling their services to governments, banks, exchanges, and others that need access to this data. Usually, governments are interested in collecting information about financial crimes, while other institutional players use BS companies for compliance, especially with regard to customer due diligence. This article argues that BS companies can be understood as governmentalities.

Michael Rectenwald deploys this term to “refer to corporations and other non-state actors who actively undertake state functions.” The partnership between the state and BS companies threatens cryptocurrency users’ privacy and their ability to transact freely, away from the prying eyes of unwanted third parties.

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Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

Worldcoin — a new financial system connected to sensitive biometric information, mostly harvested from poor people — sure sounds like a terrible idea.

“Terrible” doesn’t do it justice.

Worldcoin will need to assemble a vast database of iris data. But not everyone is eager to gaze into an Orb. In the bootstrapping phase, at least, you had to pay people to scan their eyes. And so Worldcoin turned to the global south — home to the cheapest eyeballs — and played a dark game of ‘what will people do for money?’

Incredibly, Worldcoin was unprepared for an obvious consequence of this rollout strategy: A black market for verified credentials. You can now seemingly buy a World ID for as little as $30. Anyone, then, with more than $30 on hand can command more than one digital identity (although Worldcoin is aware of this issue and has proposed solutions to resolve it). Connecting real people to digital identities is a thorny puzzle. 

Worldcoin does not fix this. And it’s unlikely it ever can, since nothing in the design can stop professional sybil attackers farming eyeballs on the ground level through nefarious means.

This does not inspire trust in the system or its designers. And yet trust is what they demand. Worldcoin’s promotional materials are full of promises — to delete sensitive biometric information, or keep it hidden from view, or not use it in nefarious ways. One blog post (quoted here; the original appears to have been changed since initial release) put it this way: “During our field-testing phase, we are collecting and securely storing more data than we will upon its completion… We will delete all the biometric data we have collected during field testing once our algorithms are fully-trained.”

“Trust us,” in other words. “We’ll totally delete the eyeball database.”

But when it comes to sensitive information, promises aren’t enough. And the very people who insist that you trust them are the ones who should command the most suspicion. The fact that Worldcoin’s co-founder Sam Altman also heads up OpenAI — a firm currently being sued over allegations of dubious uses of large data sets — asks more questions than it answers.

Sometimes Worldcoin’s privacy promises are conjoined with dazzling technical details. Zero-knowledge proofs, we’re told, will save the day, and allow users to prove humanity without connecting any particular financial activity to a World ID or other associated transactions.

There’s a grain of truth here. Zero-knowledge proofs can generate impressive privacy guarantees. But in the case of Worldcoin marketing, they’re more theater than substance. Taking off your shoes at the airport makes it look like important precautions are being taken (but doesn’t actually make you any safer); and long blog posts about zero-knowledge proofs distract from, but don’t in fact address, the problem of Worldcoin asking for users’ trust.

Linking immutable biometric traits to money could have dystopian consequences.

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