Beyond the Hype: These are the Concerns with Worldcoin (WLD)

Audy Castañeda
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Beyond the Hype: These are the Concerns with Worldcoin (WLD)

Worldcoin, backed by OpenAI, employs iris scans for digital identification, raising privacy and security concerns. The token economy, including market maker control and increased insider allocations, is contentious. Ethical issues have arisen with Worldcoin incorporation practices, especially in developing countries.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is no stranger to ambitious companies. As a pivotal figure in the world of technology, his recent foray into cryptocurrency, Worldcoin (WLD), has been one of the most scrutinized launches.

While Worldcoin has already sparked interest from investors around the world, recent revelations about its operations, the token economy, and potential risks have drawn attention.

Market Makers Control 95% of WLD Supply

Worldcoin was designed as a digital identification platform to differentiate real humans from bots or artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. His main tool, the Orb, is an iris-scanning device to ensure that every person on the internet is unique.

With such an innovative proposition come inherent challenges, some of which may even border on ethical and practical gray areas. One of the first concerns that arose after the launch revolved around the token economy. Upon its debut, the circulating supply of Worldcoin stood at 143 million tokens. This included an airdrop of 43 million WLD and 100 million WLD loaned to non-US market makers for three months.

“The WLD token starts with a relatively low circulating supply of a maximum of 143 [million] WLD (i.e. 1.43% of the initial total supply). This is due to the goal of creating a network of as many human beings as possible, and to achieve this, the majority of the WLD token supply will be delivered to new and existing users in the coming years.”

A closer look at the data reveals that market makers control 95% of the total circulating supply at launch, leading to an initial market imbalance.

Given that the price was incentivized to open above a fully diluted value (FDV) of $28 billion, WLD was quick to rise. According to Matt Batsinelas, a general partner at Triblock, this is reminiscent of earlier high-profile tokens like Filecoin (FIL) and Internet Computer (ICP).

Worldcoin’s Iris Scan Raises Privacy Concerns

Beyond the technical complexities, what really set off alarm bells was Worldcoin’s method of user onboarding. The team frequently celebrated its large user base, which was not inherently problematic. However, revelations about its potentially exploitative practices in developing countries, as reported by MIT Technology Review, painted a troubling picture.

The real bone of contention is the use of iris scanners. While the Worldcoin team insists that iris images are removed after scanning and only the uniqueness of the iris pattern is stored, critics argue that there are substantial risks involved.

“We want to make it very clear that Worldcoin is not a data company and our business model does not involve exploiting or selling users’ personal data. Worldcoin is only interested in the uniqueness of a user, meaning that they have not registered with Worldcoin before, not their identity,” the company said in a 25-page response to MIT Technology Review.

While Worldcoin assures users that it is not a data company and has no intention of exploiting users’ personal data, its method of onboarding, especially in developing regions, says otherwise.

Worldcoin walks a fine line between revolutionizing digital identity and veering off into potential mistakes, as many disruptive innovations do. Only time will tell if his promise can live up to his ambitions while maintaining confidence and security.

By Audy Castaneda

Shiba Inu Reach Gold Status in X

Audy Castañeda
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Shiba Inu Reach Gold Status in X

Shiba Inu achieves a milestone with his new gold Twitter check mark (now X), symbolizing his official business status.

Shiba Inu, the cryptocurrency token named after the popular Japanese dog breed, has recently achieved a significant milestone. The token’s Twitter (now X) account, followed by an impressive 3.7 million users, now sports a shiny new gold checkmark.

This mark symbolizes its official status as a business account under the X Verified Organization program. To gain this privilege, businesses must enroll in the Twitter Verified Organizations program, paying a $1,000 per month subscription fee.

Shiba Inu’s attainment of gold status excited supporters of the meme coin, as many ponder the potential implications this might bring for the crypto. Shiba Inu’s new verified status can be interpreted as a major indicator of recognition of the crypto’s growing influence.

X Verified Organizations Program

The X Verified Organizations program is part of the social media giant’s recent rebranding efforts, led by its owner, Elon Musk. The platform now features gold, gray, and blue checkmarks to differentiate between various types of verified accounts.

The golden check mark, now proudly worn by the Shiba Inu, denotes an official business account. The benefits of this program are numerous, including a check mark, a square avatar, access to Twitter Blue features, and the ability to add affiliate accounts.

Whales’ Moves

Despite the positive sentiments and upcoming developments, the SHIB price has not seen much of a rise lately. Since breaking the crucial support at 0.000008 early last month, the second-largest meme coin by market cap has been trading in consolidation. SHIB was trading at 0.000007868, up 1.06% in the last 24 hours and 1.48% in the last week.

Nonetheless, despite the current market conditions, experts in the field are optimistic about the potential impact of the Shibarium mainnet launch on SHIB and other tokens in the ecosystem, including BONE and LEASH.

The SHIB whales have been making moves leading up to the release of Shibarium. On Tuesday, various whales moved close to 50 billion SHIB between exchanges and wallets, with a single entity transferring almost just over 2.4 trillion SHIB (valued at 18 million) in a single transaction recently.

Although these types of transfers often cause anxiety among market participants due to the possibility of a sell-off, SHIB has remained fairly stable, signaling that they are accumulating more or simply holding, according to popular cryptocurrency analyst Austin Hilton.

Impact on the Shiba Inu Community

Shiba Inu’s achievement of the golden check mark has generated considerable excitement among his followers. Many are speculating about the possible implications this could have for the cryptocurrency.

Despite recent controversial changes on Twitter, the Shiba Inu’s new verified status serves as a positive sign of recognition for the growing influence of cryptocurrency.

However, it is important to note that the transition from Twitter to ‘X’ has not been entirely smooth. Elon Musk’s decision to change the product name from Twitter to X, and to drop the bird logo and associated terms like “tweet,” reportedly wiped out between $4 billion and $20 billion in value.

Nowadays, the newly rebranded platform faces the daunting task of having to rebuild its cultural influence and linguistic consensus from scratch.

Despite the challenges, the Shiba Inu’s new verified status on X is a testament to the growing influence and recognition of cryptocurrency. It is an exciting development that has the potential to bring new opportunities and advancements for the Shiba Inu and its community.

By Audy Castaneda

Hackers Target macOS with new P2E Crypto Theft Malware

Audy Castañeda
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Hackers Target macOS with new P2E Crypto Theft Malware

Hackers are using Realst crypto-malware to steal macOS devices via fake Web3 games like Brawl Earth and WildWorld. The malware, written in Rust, can steal sensitive information such as wallet passwords or crypto wallet private keys. Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky reports a 40% increase in crypto phishing scams year-over-year between 2021 and 2022, prompting users to store data offline.

Hackers target macOS devices to steal crypto via a new malware called Realst.

Web 3.0 Play-To-Earn games have come into the spotlight because users can earn money by playing games. However, bad actors have been taking advantage of the hype to steal users’ cryptocurrencies.

macOS Devices Infected Through Web 3.0 Games

SentinelOne identified at least 16 variants of the Realst crypto malware by scanning around 59 samples. Some of the variants are capable of targeting the latest macOS 14 Sonoma.

The Realst crypto malware is written in the Rust programming language and can steal sensitive information such as wallet passwords or even cryptocurrency wallet private keys.

The SentinelOne report mentions that hackers install Realst crypto malware through fake Web3 games, such as Brawl Earth, WildWorld, Dawnland, Destruction, Evolion, Pearl, Olymp of Reptiles, and SaintLegend.

The hackers then went a step further and created social media identifiers and websites for the fake games.

How Does the Malware Work?

The hackers ask the victims to install the game, but the folder contains a game.py file. That particular file steals information from users’ devices. Another installer.py file steals information from iCloud Keychain, such as passwords and private keys.

One of the victims of the Realst crypto malware shared on X how hackers drained their wallets within 10 minutes of downloading the Brawl Earth game. Guy (@0xGuy) tweeted the following:

“Project looked serious, plenty of docs, Twitter with followers, discord with hundreds of users. Before the meeting I decided to test it, there is a real playable game. But at time of the meeting, I noticed thealpaca deleted all of our conversation and blocked me, strange.”

The Brawl Earth team invited the victim for a call. But during the call, the team member deleted all the conversations and blocked the victim. Soon, the victim realized that Brawl Earth had depleted his crypto wallet.

Recently, hackers often attack Apple devices through various methods. On Tuesday, a new crypto phishing hack that compromises two-factor authentication on Apple devices was discussed.

In April, Apple released an urgent software update after discovering a critical vulnerability that allowed hackers to do almost anything, including stealing crypto from victims’ devices.

MetaMask has often warned users to be aware of phishing scams and the risks of backing up their wallet data to iCloud.

Data from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky shows that crypto phishing scams have increased by 40% year-on-year between 2021 and 2022.

Ideally, users should store seed phrases or passwords offline, away from their devices, to reduce the risk of data loss to hackers.

Fans of online games that use cryptocurrencies need to be extremely careful as the main user of Realst seems to be digital wallets; therefore, users of these games are not the main users.

It is worth being extra careful when downloading games or software from the internet, especially if it is being promoted on social networks, or an unsolicited message is sent to potential users.

By Audy Castaneda

Corporate Regulation Poses a Threat to the Metaverse, According to Crucible

Audy Castañeda
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Corporate Regulation Poses a Threat to the Metaverse, According to Crucible

Interest in the much-hyped metaverse has dropped sharply since its peak in January 2022. Not everyone, however, has given up on the vision of an interconnected and interoperable virtual world. The key to this vision of an “open metaverse” is that users own and control their data and digital assets.

What is the metaverse and who still believes in it? Those two questions have become more difficult to answer in the past year. But for Ryan Gill, founder and CEO of Crucible, a hotbed for the “open metaverse,” the most viable future is a truly open and interconnected virtual world.

The metaverse has faced skepticism since interest peaked in January 2022. Since those halcyon days when Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, attention has shifted away from the term “metaverse” to hotter technologies, notably artificial intelligence (AI).

Interest in the Metaverse Near Its All-time Low

Meanwhile, Facebook and other tech companies have instituted user policies that threaten privacy even more than some forms of government crackdown, Gill believes.

According to Google Trends, the world’s leading interest aggregator, global interest in the “metaverse” is almost as low as it was before the Meta rebrand when the term was isolated in the crypto sphere.

Gill, however, is puzzled by the term’s steady fallout. “The media hype cycles come and go,” he said.

“The metaverse has had more than one. But today, there are 300 million players in user-generated worlds like Roblox or Minecraft, and these experiences are the emerging metaverse. So saying he’s dead is just the media that needs a narrative.”

Gill is not wrong about the popularity of the metaverse. As of July 2023, Minecraft, the game where players build and craft using 3D blocks, has over 140 million users. Numbers comparable to the populations of Japan, Russia, and Mexico.

Roblox, which allows gamers to create games to play and share with others, has more than 67.3 million daily active users, not far behind the numbers in the UK, France, and Thailand.

The obvious question, though, is whether games like Minecraft and Roblox are the emerging metaverse, and what the finished product looks like, as there’s a risk that massively multiplayer online games will simply get a rebrand.

Metaverse Should Mean Interoperability

For Gill, a truly interconnected and interoperable virtual world is what many in the industry call an “open metaverse”. A 3D analog to the blank slate of the world wide web. Gill continued:

“It’s what happens when worlds connect, in the same way that the Internet is made of websites. The metaverse is the internet created by game developers. Open Metaverse is the natural extension of this shift towards more immersive online experiences.”

To achieve this, the intensive effort is focused on ensuring that 3D assets and experiences work across different virtual worlds, Gill explained. “For example, I’d like my avatar to look and act the same no matter what world I’m in,” he said.

Central to that vision is the Blockchain, where transactions, digital assets, and entire worlds can become part of the decentralized public realm.

Decentralized metaverses like Decentraland and The Sandbox are proof that the concept can work, even if they struggle to maintain a large user base, Gill believes. In his view, corporate regulation can be even more insidious than repressive government policies.

By Audy Castaneda

Litecoin Bulls Heading Quickly towards the $92 Level – Will they Succeed?

Marina Meza
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Litecoin Bulls Heading Quickly towards the $92 Level – Will they Succeed?

Litecoin will hold its next halving on August 2 amid poor Blockchain performance.

Litecoin’s poor performance comes to light on the way to the next halving in the Blockchain that will take place on August 2. The Litecoin halving acts as a means to slow down the mining of LTC. This, in turn, increases the scarcity of the asset. Also, miners get 6.25 LTC in rewards for their input on this occasion.

Litecoin (LTC) Price Falls While Facing Resistance at $92

The decline in the price of Litecoin (LTC) has been a healthy correction as it pulls back toward the $92 mark. These corrections are common after prolonged uptrends and are often seen as an opportunity for the market to find stability before continuing its upward trajectory.

However, in the case of Litecoin, bears have become more and more dominant, indicating potential resistance ahead.

LTC has faced a significant drop in price, dipping below the crucial $90 level to $89.47. The altcoin has experienced a slight rise of 0.3% in the last 24 hours, which barely makes up for the worrying 3.6% drop in the last seven days.

This steep decline has caused concern among investors and traders as the bullish momentum, which looked promising at the time, appears to have taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

Litecoin Fights to Exceed $92

One of the key factors contributing to the current downtrend is Litecoin’s inability to break above the $92 mark. LTC has repeatedly failed to break this level and has instead made lower lows, indicating a loss of bullish momentum, as noted in this LTC price report.

When a cryptocurrency struggles to break through crucial resistance levels, it typically shows waning buying interest and increasing selling pressure, leading to a downward spiral.

As the LTC price continues to fall, investors are now concerned about the support level at $87.65. Historically, this level has held up during previous declines as a crucial barrier against further moves lower.

However, given recent price action and the lack of significant buying support, there are growing concerns that the $87.65 support level could fail.

Explaining the Halving

The Halving is one of the critical events that have shaped the history and price movements of Litecoin. Halving is a protocol-driven event that occurs roughly every four years on the Litecoin Blockchain. During this event, the block reward for miners is halved. In other words, miners receive 50% less LTC for verifying transactions and adding blocks to the Blockchain.

The purpose of the Halving is to control the inflation rate of Litecoin and ensure a limited supply, similar to the Bitcoin halving mechanism. By reducing mining rewards, halving makes it more difficult and expensive for miners to add new coins to circulation, reducing recent supply inflow. This shortage can lead to an increase in demand and potentially increase the price of Litecoin.

Examining Litecoin’s price action ahead of the next Halving can provide valuable insight into its market dynamics. During the lead-up to Halving, anticipation often builds, fueling speculative interest. However, after the Halving, the market tends to see more volatility, as it finds a new equilibrium with reduced supply.

By Marina Meza

FOMC Achieves the Expected Rate Hike of 0.25% and Bitcoin Remains above $29,000

Audy Castañeda
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FOMC Achieves the Expected Rate Hike of 0.25% and Bitcoin Remains above $29,000

“July FOMC summary: Overall very vanilla event,” tweeted @tedtalksmacro.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) decision to raise the Federal Funds Rate (FFR) by 25 basis points to 5.50%, the highest level since February 2021, had little impact on the cryptocurrency and Bitcoin (BTC) market, with the event described as “very vanilla” by journalist Ted Talks Macro.

The FOMC indicated that its 2% inflation target is still a long way to go and that it will take a data-driven approach to future rate hikes.

Although some investors expected a more aggressive tone from the Federal Reserve, the central bank’s caution was seen as a sign that it remains concerned about the possible impact of its monetary policy on the broader economy.

According to Ted Talks Macro, the full effect of the tightening has not yet been felt, and a return to inflation targeting may require below-trend growth and a weakening labor market. Despite the Fed’s rate hike decision, it may raise rates again in September, depending on the data.

The Fed’s decision to leave quantitative tightening (QT) unchanged was also a sign that the central bank is taking a restrained approach to monetary policy.

Markets reacted positively to the Fed’s decision, with both Bitcoin and US equities rising. Many investors took the event as a sign that the Fed is getting closer to hitting the pause button on rate hikes, which could be positive for risk assets in the short term.

“Moderate” Growth

Major measures of inflation remain more than double the Fed’s target, and the economy, by many measures, including a low unemployment rate of 3.6%, continues to beat expectations despite rapidly rising interest rates.

Job growth remains “robust,” the Federal Reserve said, describing the economy as growing at a “moderate” pace, a slight improvement from the “modest” pace seen at the June meeting. According to economists polled by Reuters, the US government is expected to report on Thursday that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.8% in the second quarter.

Fed’s Chairman Jerome Powell said he was still hopeful the economy could achieve a “soft landing,” a scenario in which inflation falls, unemployment remains relatively low and a recession is avoided.

Bitcoin Bulls Jump Higher as Sell Wall Disappears

After the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced a 0.25% interest rate hike, cryptocurrency market, and data analysis firm Material Indicators suggested that a wall of selling at the $29,400 level has faded. This level is just above the current price of Bitcoin, which currently sits at $29,300.

According to Material Indicators Firechart, a significant level has been cleared for Bitcoin, allowing the cryptocurrency to break out of this zone and recover to higher price levels. In the short term, however, Bitcoin’s 50-day MA may present a roadblock as it is currently sitting above the current price of the cryptocurrency.

Despite this challenge, there is good news for Bitcoin bulls, as the cryptocurrency’s Average Directional Index (ADX) has seen a significant drop and is approaching the neutral level.

The drop in the ADX is usually followed by a strong uptrend, which could push Bitcoin back above the $30,000 mark. Furthermore, Bitcoin could trade above its 50-day MA and recapture it as a support level, as it has been doing for the past month before its 5% drop last week.

These technical indicators suggest that Bitcoin may be poised for a bounce shortly, which could be good news for investors and traders alike.

By Audy Castaneda

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