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Do not sell your eyeballs to Sam Altman
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Do not sell your eyeballs to Sam Altman

And other advice I never expected to give.

KF
Jul 1, 2021
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Share this post
Do not sell your eyeballs to Sam Altman
www.somethinginteresting.news

In this issue:

  • Crypto sets Congress on F.I.R.E.

  • Do not sell your eyeballs to Sam Altman

  • Non-fungible tokens are not going anywhere


Twitter avatar for @NeilJacobs
Neil Jacobs 🌋 @NeilJacobs
Senator Cynthia Lummis: "I encourage people to buy and hold. I encourage them to save #bitcoin for their retirement, for their future...I only have, I think, five bitcoin." .@CynthiaMLummis @SenLummis
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6:44 PM ∙ Jun 29, 2021
1,109Likes232Retweets

Crypto sets Congress on F.I.R.E.

Bitcoin is a technology designed to prevent control and defend freedom, which makes it inherently threatening to governments - but until recently the most common strategic response to Bitcoin was to ignore it and hope it went away. So far this year that is shifting as more and more governments seem to have realized that Bitcoin is real and can no longer be ignored. Some are reacting with enthusiasm (El Salvador) some with suspicion (UK) and some with outright hostility (China) - but governments everywhere are starting to take Bitcoin seriously.

In America yesterday the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing yesterday under the headline of "America on “FIRE”: Will the Crypto Frenzy Lead to Financial Independence and Early Retirement or Financial Ruin?" to discuss the increasingly urgent belief that Something Must Be Done. Illinois Democrat Bill Foster and member of the 'blockchain caucus' put it this way:

"There’s a significant sentiment, increasing sentiment, in Congress that if you’re participating in an anonymous crypto transaction that you’re a de-facto participant in a criminal conspiracy."

Let’s start with the obligatory reminder that Bitcoin is mostly used for saving, not doing crimes. Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis estimates that <0.1% of all Bitcoin transactions are criminal. Contrast that with how Ohio Republican Anthony Gonzalez describes the traditional financial system:

Twitter avatar for @zackvoell
Zack Voell @zackvoell
FIAT MONEY LAUNDERERS CALLED THE FUCK OUT. an incredible clip from a sitting congressman
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6:34 PM ∙ Jun 30, 2021
2,603Likes655Retweets

There are of course criminals using Bitcoin because anyone can use Bitcoin. Peter Van Valkenburgh of the Coin Center policy non-profit gave a passionate defense of how the freedoms Bitcoin creates are an expression of American values:

Twitter avatar for @DocumentingBTC
Documenting Bitcoin 📄 @DocumentingBTC
A must-watch U.S House of Representatives testimony on the ethos and strength of #Bitcoin by @valkenburgh today.
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2:55 PM ∙ Jun 30, 2021
5,748Likes1,680Retweets

Unfortunately explaining complex and nuanced topics to congress is like reading the tax code to a classroom of fourth graders - they aren’t really listening. California Democrat Brad Sherman unironically recommended that Americans invest their money in the California lottery instead.


Twitter avatar for @Techmeme
Techmeme @Techmeme
Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency co-founded by Sam Altman, launches with $25M from a16z and others and plans to develop an orb-shaped device to scan human eyeballs (Bloomberg) bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
techmeme.comWorldcoin, cofounded by Sam Altman, raises $25M, plans a cryptocurrency belonging to all people on earth, and is making a device to ID reci…From Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
12:31 PM ∙ Jun 29, 2021
66Likes11Retweets

Do not sell your eyeballs to Sam Altman
1

In theory we all know the future will be strange and alarming but then one day you wake up and the future is here it is strange and alarming and I don’t know what to tell you but here we are. Former president of Y Combinator and aspiring Bond villain Sam Altman has developed a plan to use orb-shaped devices to scan human eyeballs in exchange for his new cryptocurrency.

Iris recognition is like facial recognition on steroids. The fine patterns in a human iris are stable over decades and across eye surgeries. Iris recognition can be performed several meters away on a person wearing sunglasses in a dark room. It can distinguish between identical twins. It is difficult to hide and it can never be changed. It is like being able to take someone’s DNA with a photograph.

Worldcoin intends to use people’s iris scans to prove they are unique human beings, which in theory will enable them to pursue the otherwise laudable goal of enabling Universal Basic Income.

2
Simply gaze into the orb to collect your Worldcoin. As long as nothing is hacked and no one decides to harvest anyone’s eyeballs it should all work out fine. It’s probably all fine.

2016 update from “this is fine” dog: things are not, in fact, fine - Vox

I guess what I am saying is be very careful who you sell your eyeballs to even if they promise to keep your eyeballs very safe. It is very difficult to obtain new eyeballs and overall probably not worth it. Even close friends and family may not be willing to share their eyeballs with you if they learn you sold your own eyeballs to Sam Altman.


Twitter avatar for @justintrimble
JUSTIN @justintrimble
Sucks that #NFTs are dead
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1:50 AM ∙ Jul 1, 2021
128Likes8Retweets

Non-fungible tokens are not going anywhere

We’ve written a number of times about non-fungible tokens or NFTs, the individually unique tokens that represent ownership of (or perhaps themselves are?) works of digital art. Over the last few months crypto markets generally have receded and some outlets have taken the opportunity to take a premature victory lap:

Twitter avatar for @qz
Quartz @qz
The NFT boom is over—for now.
nytv.toThe NFT boom is over—for now.The first big wave of NFT popularity has subsided.
11:10 AM ∙ Jun 11, 2021
18Likes6Retweets

The reality is of course more complicated. Flagship NFT project CryptoPunks saw a dramatic drop in sales but only a modest drop in price, both already recovering:

Other projects on the other hand were surging:

NFTs have also continued to capture moments of cultural significance. This week Sotheby’s and Tim Berners-Lee sold "This Changed Everything" a set of NFTs representing the first source code for the worldwide web for ~$5.4M. An alien CryptoPunk (one of nine) wearing a covid mask sold earlier this month for ~$11.8M. NFTs have been (or will be) released by Twitter, Reddit and Burning Man.

We’ve speculated before about how large these markets actually are in practice or whether it is just a very small number of people all bidding each other up. Here is an interesting thread analyzing the on-chain ownership data for a variety of mid-sized NFT projects. For the projects in question (which don’t include CryptoPunks, TopShots or AxieInfinity) there are ~26k unique accounts, which is somehow both larger and smaller than I would have expected.

More interestingly there is indeed a lot of overlap between the projects. If you are the kind of person who owns an NFT, you probably own several.

Twitter avatar for @kaigani
𝚔𝚊𝚒 🎨🔗💡 @kaigani
Finally mapping projects to each other ...
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10:32 PM ∙ Jun 27, 2021
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Other things happening right now:

  • We talked several times recently about China’s recent ban on Bitcoin mining and the corresponding migration of mining power out of China. The hashrate is now down ~50% and the upcoming difficulty adjustment is currently estimated to be an unprecedented -26.9% step down. Bitcoin users are largely unaffected.

Twitter avatar for @BitcoinMagazine
Bitcoin Magazine @BitcoinMagazine
The #Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment is now estimated to come in at -26.9% on July 2nd. The largest downward adjustment in history. It will be exciting to watch the miners gradually come back online over the next few months as they relocate.
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8:45 PM ∙ Jun 30, 2021
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  • Jim Cramer likes that Bitcoin defended $30k, but he is more bullish on Ethereum than Bitcoin because "people actually use it … to buy things." That’s an understandable confusion, but actually it is not people spending currency that gives it value it is saving. Everyone trying to spend a currency is logically equivalent to everyone wanting to sell an asset. The price would fall to zero. Only the people who want to hold a currency give it value.

Twitter avatar for @SquawkCNBC
Squawk Box @SquawkCNBC
"Bullish. Have to be. There's too much money coming in," says @jimcramer. "I went back into #ethereum because #bitcoin held $30K. I like ethereum because people actually use it much more to be able to buy things."
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12:57 PM ∙ Jun 28, 2021
1,641Likes398Retweets
1

This is not financial advice.

2

Universal Basic Income is a terrific idea. If you want to support UBI but for some reason aren’t psyched to submit to the all-knowing orb I highly recommend GiveDirectly.

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