Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo recently discussed the use of cryptocurrency and digital assets by terrorist groups. Adeyemo aims at struggling against crypto crime by creating a stable regulatory environment . Before the Senate Banking Committee Adeyemo said:
“As we take steps to cut terrorist groups and other malign actors off from the traditional financial system, we are concerned about the ways these actors are using cryptocurrencies to try and circumvent our sanctions. For example, five years ago, al-Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, largely based out of Syria, operated a Bitcoin money laundering network using social media platforms to solicit cryptocurrency donations. After receiving virtual currency, they laundered the proceeds through various online gift card exchanges to be able to purchase what they needed to advance their violent agenda.”
Us Deputy proposals include secondary sanctions aimed at foreign providers of digital assets involved in illicit financing, extraterritorial jurisdiction to pursue companies undermining national security, and the introduction of a new secondary sanctions tool. These measures aim to enhance authorities' ability to combat financial crimes in the cryptocurrency sphere and address the increasing use of digital assets for illegal funding.
The first proposal's goal is to prevent these suppliers from facilitating illegal activities and cut off their access to the international banking system. By increasing the accountability of digital asset platforms and service providers, this policy aims to make it more challenging for individuals to exploit cryptocurrencies for unlawful purposes.
Adeyemo's second proposal calls for extending jurisdiction beyond national borders in cases where companies using digital assets to undermine national security are abusing the financial system. This expansion would enable US law enforcement to pursue and punish foreign criminals utilizing cryptocurrencies for illegal activities, regardless of their location. The intention is to ensure that entities and individuals involved in illicit financing cannot evade accountability by exploiting the global nature of digital assets, thereby reducing jurisdictional gaps.
These proposed reforms reflect a concerted effort by the US Treasury Department to bolster enforcement mechanisms against the misuse of cryptocurrencies for criminal purposes. By targeting both foreign providers and those abusing digital assets to undermine national security, the aim is to create a more robust regulatory framework to combat financial crimes in the cryptocurrency space.
SOURCES: CNBC, Blockchain News
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
1inch Network, a decentralized finance (DeFi) company, has unveiled a new debit card with crypto-fiat bridge functionality. 1inch gave the announce on its official website. This new crypto debit card was made in collaboration with Mastercard and Baanx. Users will be able to carry out cash withdrawals and transactions at enabled points of sale and ATMs.
The collaboration with Mastercard and Baanx created this new payment model. The new debit cards will come with full features, including a physical card with account number, expiration data and the "CVC" security code needed to make some transactions. They will also have a virtual card function, which will allow users to carry out transactions digitally, where supported.
Christian Rau, senior vice president of crypto and fintech enablement at Mastercard, said in a statement that the new card represents a necessary bridge between the Web3 and Web2 world: “We have long supported solutions that not only delight customers but also offer reach, peace of mind and the highest levels of security. Leveraging Mastercard's leading technology and standards, the 1inch card connects the Web2 and Web3 worlds in an innovative way.”
This can slow down transactions, increase security risks, and add additional fees to the process. The advent of purchases through crypto-to-fiat debit cards allows users to maintain custody of their crypto and Web3 funds with a single conversion rate to consider at the time of purchase. For now, the cards are only available in the UK and European economic areas. However, according to 1inch, the company is looking to expand the program as Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer of 1inch Network, told Cointelegraph.
Segej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch Network, showed the virtual payment method of the new card in a post on the social network X, completing a one-touch transaction with his smartphone. As announced, the 1inch Crypto Card allows users to make cash withdrawals at supported ATMs through crypto to fiat conversion and it also supports Apple Pay or Google Pay. “This is another important step towards bringing a large number of users into DeFi,” said Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch. “With the 1inch Card, the user can enjoy the benefits of both DeFi and traditional finance.”
In these days, during the Paris Blockchain Week, 1inch co-founder was guest on talks about Defi and crypto payments. Kunz also posted on X the immediate results after the launch: "In just the first 24 hours since launch, over 3,000 visionaries have applied to the #1inchCard waiting list - and we're just getting warmed up!"
SOURCES: CryptoNews, CoinTelegraph
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
According to José Maria Macedo, CEO of Delphi Labs and founding partner of cryptocurrency investment firm Delphi Ventures, Ethena Labs will become the highest revenue-generating cryptocurrency project on the market. Ethena Labs is one of the projects with the most potential for Delphi Ventures during this bull cycle, according to an April 2 post on Delphi Labs' Macedo blog, which explains: “sUSDe will offer the highest dollar return in crypto at scale. USDe will become the largest stablecoin outside of USDC/USDT in 2024. Ethena will become the highest revenue-generating project in the entire crypto industry.”
ENA, the governance token of Ethena Labs' much-discussed Ethena protocol, has been among the best of the 24 hours, gaining more than 45 percent at the time of writing. This is a sign that despite the controversies and doubts involving the main project, demand has been strong.
Controversy that has also affected in the last few hours one of the so-called bluechips of the DeFi world, namely AAVE, cascading over DAI's decision to increase the underlying limits precisely related to the project's stablecoin.
On March 8, Ethena Labs became the highest-earning decentralized application (DApp) in crypto, offering a 67% annual percentage yield (APY) on USDe. Ethena launched its USDe synthetic dollar on the public mainnet on February 19. According to its homepage, Ethena's USDe synthetic dollar currently offers a 35.4% APY and over 118,000 users. The CEO's bullish forecast follows the launch of Ethena Labs' airdrop on April 2, which distributed $450 million worth of Ethena (ENA) tokens to eligible wallets.
SOURCE: CoinTelegraph
PHOTO CREDITS: Carlos Muza
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
Bitcoin loses 5% in a few minutes during the Asian Session. The other top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization do even worse. Ethereum just over 7%, BNB less than 6% and Solana the same. Certainly not a situation of great collapse and great panic, although the decline was vertical. Bitcoin fell below $66,500, which very far from the disaster that many are talking about on social media. "Bitcoin (BTC) faced selling pressure during Asian trading hours on Tuesday as upbeat U.S. factory data lifted the dollar index (DXY) to the highest since mid-November" - Coin desk says.
The dollar is stronger, so-so Asian markets and that's probably why Bitcoin pays the bill. But, all things considered, Bitcoin is not performing badly even for risk assets and we have to see this movements as a temporary correction that does not change the fundamentals. The Asian markets, which may be responsible for this moment of difficulty for Bitcoin, are actually ending the day on a positive note. Hong Kong makes +2.35%. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback’s value against major fiat currencies, topped the 105 mark for the first time over four months, taking the four-week gain to 2.58%.
Macro data has provided further support for rate cuts in the USA which will perhaps be postponed even beyond June. Markets now price the chance that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in June at just over 50%. Something that only 1 week ago was priced at over 60%, just to have a perspective of what is happening also in terms of sentiment. Although cryptocurrency enthusiasts are often excessively reactive to movements, it should be remembered that Bitcoin is a mere -10% from historical highs, just as the daily losses of the entire sector should be assessed with a bit of a sense of proportion.
SOURCE: CoinDesk
PHOTO CREDITS: Art Rachen
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
Recently from Bloomberg Mark Gurman revealed a possible agreement between Apple and Google to bring Gemini to iPhones. However the journalist has now provided further details on the partnerships that the Cupertino company could also start with OpenAI and Anthropic to include AI features in iOS 18.
It has to say that Apple has been developing its Ajax model for a few years. The point here is if the iPhone parent company is considering to ask for help to speed up the launch of AI features with iOS 18. According to Gurman, the Cupertino company has contacted Google, OpenAI and Anthropic to integrate their respective models into the new version of the operating system. The idea would be to use Gemini, GPT or Claude for the chatbot (basically an enhanced version of Siri), while Ajax will manage other activities (in China an agreement with Baidu is possible). But why would Apple ask multiple providers for external support? A possible exclusive partnership with Google would certainly end up under the scrutiny of the authorities. The billion-dollar contract signed for the default search engine is one of the topics covered during the antitrust trial against the Mountain View company (which also pays a significant percentage of advertising revenue).
Interestingly, Apple can leverage generative AI services without having to deal with the huge costs of running models, instead shifting some of that responsibility to its partners. This could open up new monetization opportunities for the company, as well as accelerate the deployment of AI capabilities without having to directly invest in expensive infrastructure.
The other new could be on the support for the Messages app that would significantly improve iPhone users' messaging experience, allowing them to enjoy more advanced and interactive features. Additionally, a refreshed design and more customizable home screen could help maintain user interest and further differentiate the iPhone experience from that of competitors. The 2024 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) promises to be very interesting, with many expectations for the innovations that Apple will present. It remains to be seen how these new features will be received and how they will influence the future of the smartphone market.
READ ALSO ---> "What to expect from Eu AI Act"
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
The Meta Economist meets professor Andrea Bertolini to make an interesting analysis about the EU AI Act. Bertolini is the Director of the European Center of Excellence on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Regulation (Eura) and professor of private Law at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. His research starts from private law to technological regulation (robotics and AI) and bioethics, with a comparative and law and economics approach.
The Italian Newspaper la Repubblica just inserted professor Bertolini among the 500 italian researchers that counts on AI subjects.
The European market is still relevant - says Bertolini - and European citizens are still much of interest for even non-European companies, that anyone who will want to do business in Europe or with European citizens will have to abide by and comply with AI Act and all European legislation. So this should provide Europe the possibility of influencing the global development and production of AI systems. Because if an American company wants to bring their AI based product to the European market and have European users use that product, then they will have to comply with the AI Act".
And even if that is true, European technical research in the field of artificial intelligence is not as advanced as that occurring in the US and maybe China, Europe decided to regulate it before other Countries and that's the advantage now. About this and other topics we focused on this interview.
Read also---> The EU AI Act is law by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
STRASBOURG - A few hours ago the European Parliament approved the AI Act, the first law in the world to regulate the development and use of artificial intelligence systems, with 523 votes in favour, 46 against and 49 abstentions. Before the official approval, the text must be approved by the Council of the European Union. The two institutions had reached a political agreement on the contents of the law in December. The law indicate the ways in which it is permitted to use artificial intelligence systems to protect the privacy and other rights of European citizens in many different applications of AI, from systems for hiring new staff in companies to the algorithms that make self-driving cars work, passing through facial recognition by law enforcement and the spread of online disinformation. There will be 6 months for suppliers and users of artificial intelligence systems and buyers to adapt the regulation. In two years all the rules will become operational. The sanctions for those who won't respect the law's rules will start from 1.5% of global turnover, equal to 7.5 million euros, up to 7%, equal to 35 million euros.
Users and companies will have to ensure that the product purchased has already passed the required assessment and conformity procedure, that will be provided with a European conformity mark and accompanied by the required documentation and instructions. The rules do not apply only in the case of research and development activities that precede the sale, to systems intended exclusively for military, defense or national security purposes and to free and open-source models, which are not artificial intelligence models with risks systemic.
The law was initially proposed by the European Commission in 2021, but it took a long time especially due to the notable technological development carried out by several companies in the last two years: the innovations have forced the European Union to take into account possible new problems in a sector in full expansion and with still blurred contours. Now the next step will be lead by the Council
The regulation provides for other prohibitions in the use of AI, for example it will not be allowed to use technologies to calculate the "social score" of each individual, a practice increasingly experimented in China where each citizen is assigned points based on behavior, which it gives the possibility of accessing particular services that are precluded to those with low scores. It will be prohibited to develop algorithms that can cause physical or psychological damage to individuals, or with the ability to manipulate their behavior even in a subliminal form. Another important point of the law deals with the technological systems on which chatbot services such as ChatGPT are based. Two levels of rules have been foreseen distinguishing between high-impact AI and all other artificial intelligence systems. High-impact AI refers to systems with considerable computing power: according to initial information, at the moment only OpenAI's GPT-4 falls into this category. High-impact AI systems must comply with rules regarding the transparency of AI training processes and the sharing of technical documentation before being put on the market. All other systems must comply with these rules only from the moment the services are marketed.
Summarizing, the application of AI in Europe will ban all the actions that are dangerous for citizens such as:
In these days in Italy is taking place the European Robotics Forum 2024, which this year is held in Rimini. It is the most important annual event in the EU Robotics for those who do research in robotics, and those who do business, and those who work at universities in various sectors. Andrea Bertolini, Director of the European Center of Excellence on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Regulation (Eura) and professor of private Law at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, is a notable AI researcher and during the EU Robotics Forum organized a workshop in collaboration with Kilometro Rosso, Fraunhofers and other universities. As Ansa reported: "An epochal document which is the first in the world to take up the challenge of the safety of products linked to artificial intelligence and which in the future will have to be implemented and constantly updated".
This is the first technical presentation of the AI Act, just approved, with a guest from the European Commission who participated in the drafting of the act. Her name is Tatiana Evans. She is based in Brussels and she made the first technical presentation of the act after its approval. "We are prepared to train engineers - says Bertolini - and those who have no knowledge technique of legal issues. We prepared a video class on various technology regulation issues to train them, to make them understand what is important in research and in development of their technologies and their applications. After explaining the Act, we presented the courses which organized with the European Commission and which will be made available to engineers for free through a platform to which everyone, not just engineers, actually will be able to access to train on various aspects of technology regulation".
We will talk with Andrea Bertolini in a video interview on TME TV, about the AI Act and the training courses linked to its applications.
SOURCE: IlPost, Wired
READ ALSO ---> "What to expect from Eu AI Act"
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
The number of startups and new companies led by women saw a slight increase from 8.3% in 2022 to 8.6% in the third quarter of 2023. A research by Bitget discovered that the gender gap is present also in this new workfield and this is due to the investments. Over the past two years, a research team has been studying, based on qualitative and quantitative data, to provide a transparent overview of the gap in investments received by male- and female-led blockchain startups between 2022 and 2023.
Some characteristics that emerge from the research are that:
•There is a strong need for incubators capable of nurturing start-ups founded by women and promoting a more inclusive and encouraging environment for their development
• Fundraising by blockchain startups declined 70.1% per quarter between Q1 2022 and Q3 2023.
•During the study period, blockchain startups raised $27.85 billion, with female-led blockchain startups securing only 6.34% of overall funding
•The number of female-led blockchain startups has declined by 45.2% since the start of 2022, but is already showing a recovery
The data about female-led blockchain startups is influenced, as Il Sole 24 Ore reported - by overall investment trends, the cryptocurrency market situation, investor sentiment and investor prejudices. At the end the result is that more than 90% of funding going to male-led projects. In relation to these numbers, the exchange therefore decided to launch the Blockchain4Her initiative, that allocates 10 million dollars to promote gender diversity and inclusiveness in the blockchain sector.
Gender bias has been proven to have a determining effect on investments, as statistics indicate that male-led startups have attracted $27.85 billion, while female-led blockchain startups have raised $1.77 billion, only 6.34% of the total amount. Based on this information, the amount of investments in start-ups has decreased, but does not present the same constant downward trend recorded in the previous year. Quantitative indicators of startup operations also decreased.
The new economic system was born with an equality and democratic aim. We need this to be also in order to create the same opportunities for new companies that wants to open this market crating jobs. The disparities highlighted by the study underlines that we must proactively work to create an ecosystem where talent and potential are the only criteria, without gender bias. Every work sector needs to become an inclusive environment, where everyone, regardless of gender, enjoys equal opportunities.
SOURCE: Il Sole 24 Ore
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, has spoke out on the use of new AI tools, such as OpenAI's Sora, and has turned on the enthusiasm for this new crypto segment. According to the founder of Ethereum, we will very soon see a real fusion between artificial intelligence and blockchain, in which AI will not be limited to a secondary role, but will become a key player in the ecosystem. AI will become a protagonist, for example, in DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations, but also in the research and development of new systems.
There are also many risks in Buterin's vision as Coin Desk reported: "Buterin suggested using AI to improve code audits and reduce bugs in blockchain projects. Moreover AI-assisted code audits can adapt and learn from new information, making them more effective than current automated tools. Human inspection can be combined with AI systems to create a strong system for detecting vulnerabilities, developers said. In 2023, crypto users lost an estimated $2 billion to hacks and scams, with Ethereum experiencing the highest losses due to its extensive ecosystem and high-profile projects".
The launch of Sora, the new ChatGpt editor of videos from text, took place last Friday, but crypto tokens linked to the artificial intelligence sector continue to pump. The best AI cryptos are the latest market trend and projects like Fetch.Ai and Ocean Protocol. OpenAI's new extension creates realistic videos from text-based instructions. Not a real novelty, but it was enough to trigger a new wave of interest in artificial intelligence. Consequently, cryptocurrency trading is also doing well, especially in the AI sector where Fetch.Ai and Ocean Protocol are recording very interesting double-digit gains.
SOURCE: CoinDesk
PHOTO CREDITS: Mariia Shalabaieva
READ ALSO ---> "Google's Gemini enters the AI market with a completely new model" by Ilaria Vanni
Ilaria Vanni is a TV journalist for italian broadcasting and coordinator of The Meta Economist portal. She has a philosphy degree and she's now studing the economic and technological issues connected to the new frontiers of the metaverse.
