Block 1: Essential news

  • United States: cryptocurrency miners smile again

The Biden administration's proposal to impose a 30% tax on cryptocurrency mining in the USA has been dropped, following an agreement between President Biden and Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Initially, the "Digital Assets Mining Energy" tax would have gradually increased to 30% in 2026, generating, according to estimates, potentially $3.5 billion over 10 years. The motivations for the tax were related to the energy consumption of mining.

    • Russia abandons the idea of a national cryptocurrency platform

    Russia has abandoned its plans for a national cryptocurrency exchange, announced in November 2022. According to Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, regulation to oversee cryptocurrency platforms would be preferable first. The idea is to give these platforms a role in a context of circumventing international sanctions, focusing on cross-border payments. The precise details of this regulation are still unclear.

    • Tether takes off for Uruguay

    Tether, the issuer of stablecoin USDT, plans to expand its operations to Uruguay to develop sustainable energy production and Bitcoin mining solutions. The company will partner with an unspecified, regulated local company to launch these initiatives. Uruguay was chosen because of its advancement in renewable energy production. Tether also recently announced that it would henceforth allocate 15% of its profits to the purchase of Bitcoins.

    • Binance will lay off part of its workforce

    Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, plans to lay off some of its staff as part of a "talent reorganization". The exact number of employees affected has not been disclosed. This decision comes at a time when Binance is losing ground to its competitors in terms of trading volumes.

    Trading volumes by platform
    Block 2: Crypto Analysis of the week

    In a recent funding round, Worldcoin, led by tech magnate Sam Altman, secured a $115 million injection of venture capital. This fund-raising is eerily reminiscent of the glory days of Silicon Valley, a time when cheap capital was available and status and glitz were sought rather than sound investment. But faced with a wave of ethical and financial skepticism, it's hard to find logical reasons to throw oneself wholeheartedly into the Worldcoin adventure.

    To put it simply, Worldcoin's proposition revolves around L'Orb, a device designed to scan people's retinas to verify their identity online. At the same time, the company proposes to circulate Worldcoin tokens in the form of a "universal basic income" (UBI), rewarding those who volunteer for the first eye-scanning tests.

    However, Worldcoin's argument has a major gap when it comes to the expected value of their token once it starts circulating. It's hard to imagine how this new Ethereum-based token, lacking a clear business model, can be converted into real-world products and services.

    Under these conditions, one might deduce that the RBU aspect only serves to camouflage Worldcoin's true objective: to meet the challenges of digital identity. Yet the strategy adopted to achieve this goal reveals a Pandora's box of privacy concerns and ethical quagmires.

    This two-faceted strategy is only a small part of the perplexing and contradictory rhetoric used to promote Worldcoin. The company strives to present itself as a philanthropic project, while promising large profits - a strategy reminiscent of Altman's previous venture with OpenAI.

    Worldcoin's potential dangers become increasingly apparent as the project moves from concept to execution. An in-depth survey conducted by MIT Technology Review among numerous Worldcoin users in 24 countries, including 14 developing countries, came to some worrying conclusions. Here's part of the survey:

    "Our survey revealed significant discrepancies between Worldcoin's public message, which emphasizes privacy, and user experience. We found that company representatives used deceptive marketing practices, collected more personal data than they acknowledged, and failed to obtain meaningful informed consent. These practices are likely to violate the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - a likelihood that the company's data consent policy acknowledges and asks users to accept - as well as local laws."

    Meanwhile, in China, a thriving underground market for iris-related biometric data has emerged. It is said to be fed by people looking to sign up to the Worldcoin wallet app and, potentially, earn Worldcoin rewards. This data would come from developing countries such as Cambodia and Kenya. This basically shows how Worldcoin's model already presents privacy violations.

    Despite the seriousness of potential GDPR breaches, Worldcoin seems to be downplaying the risks. Its reliance on Orb Handlers for customer onboarding suggests that bad practices could persist, which is in complete contradiction to Worldcoin's promise to tackle the problem of digital identity.

    Block 3: Gainers & Losers