Snippings

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According to a report published by Europol, the use of cryptocurrency as part of criminal schemes is increasing and the uptake of this payment medium is increasing. However, the overall number and value of cryptocurrency transactions related to criminal activities represent a limited share of the criminal economy when compared to cash and other transactions.

From The European Union is considering banning privacy coins – ThePaypers:

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We believe a token on the blockchain should hold these two properties:
A token cannot be taken away from its owner.
The owner can transfer the token to anyone else, without requesting permission.

From Reputation vs Tokens. The topic of decentralized governance… | by Adam Levi | DAOstack | Medium:

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Small groups of wealthy participants (“whales”) are better at successfully executing decisions than large groups of small-holders. This is because of the tragedy of the commons among small-holders: each small-holder has only an insignificant influence on the outcome, and so they have little incentive to not be lazy and actually vote. Even if there are rewards for voting, there is little incentive to research and think carefully about what they are voting for.

From Moving beyond coin voting governance:

This isn’t actually what the “tragedy of the commons” is but the point is taken.

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Meta Platforms Inc. META -2.14%decrease; red down pointing triangle has fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors over the last year whom it accused of improperly taking over user accounts, in some cases allegedly for bribes, according to people familiar with the matter and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Some of those fired were contractors who worked as security guards stationed at Meta facilities and were given access to the Facebook parent’s internal mechanism for employees to help users having trouble with their accounts, according to the documents and people familiar with the matter.

The mechanism, known internally as “Oops,” has existed since Facebook’s early years as a means for employees to help users they know who have forgotten their passwords or emails, or had their accounts taken over by hackers.

As part of the alleged abuse of the system, Meta says that in some cases workers accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from outside hackers to access user accounts, the people and documents say.

From Meta Employees, Security Guards Fired for Hijacking User Accounts – WSJ:

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The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBB) launched the Sand Dollar just over two years ago. Despite the archipelago nation’s small size – its total population is only about 400,000 – its status as a CBDC pioneer means its experience is being closely followed digital currency developers and policymakers worldwide.

In a speech via video-link to a conference in Brussels, the CBB’s governor John Rolle described four factors that the Bahamas’ experience suggests are particularly important – and that remain important to its own efforts to encourage CBDC adoption. Those factors are: building a network of merchants that accept and encourage CBDC use; achieving interoperability with the traditional banking system; enlisting participation from the traditional banking sector and credit unions; and the importance of “user education” and “inspiring user confidence”.

From Bahamas central bank shares CBDC lessons from Sand Dollar’s first two years:

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Michael Miebach, the CEO of Mastercard, told Yahoo Finance that it is “entirely possible” that one day everyone will be paying with Bitcoin that there is a long way to go before cryptocurrencies become mainstream.

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ASX has dumped its controversial blockchain project that would have replaced its ageing CHESS settlement and clearing system, after a devastating report from Accenture identified a range of major problems, including uncertain timelines, communication issues with technology vendor Digital Asset and excessive complexity.
ASX will write off $245 million to $255 million pre-tax in costs associated with the project, which has been dragging on for seven years.

From Technology: ASX kills its blockchain project, will write off $250 million:

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People buying, exchanging or printing train tickets at automatic SNCF ticket machines are being warned by the Police nationale about a scam involving their contactless payment devices.

Fake boxes which look like they could be legitimate have been installed in some stations to trick customers into touching their card to a machine that will steal their money.

From Scam alert in France: watch out for fake train ticket payment devices:

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Similarly, as recently mentioned, ISDA has also considered the issue of fungibility in the context of voluntary carbon credits (which might themselves be tokenised into ‘NFTs’). To aid liquidity, it is likely that two or more VCCs would be interchangeable for the purposes of satisfying VCC transfer obligations between traders, even if it was originally critical that the VCCs were uniquely generated in relation to different, specific projects/owners. In essence, the traders are likely only really interested in the fact that a VCC represents a tonne of CO2 reduced or removed (tCO2e). An airline might acquire VCCs generated from a forestry project to offset fuel emissions. Fungibility is therefore not a feature of the asset itself but a matter of context. As ISDA points out by way of example, banknotes are fungible to satisfy payment obligations, but are not fungible for tracing purposes (each note is serialized). Equally, therefore, a unique serial number does not preclude a VCC from being fungible. Accordingly, the issue is whether and in what circumstances different VCCs (or NFTs for that matter) will be treated as interchangeable.

From The Fine Print: Are NFTs Really Non-Fungible?:

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A Californian software company that helps people to launch tokens, Tokensoft (whose investors include Coinbase Ventures, Headline, and Meltem Demirors), has released personal information on more than 4,000 users after accusing them of “gaming” the company’s DAO airdrop. (A company representative said that they had only intended to release wallet addresses.)

Why did they have all of this personal information? Because of KYC, of course. The company is registered with the SEC and, I don’t doubt, was required to collect users’ sensitive personal data for compliance purposes.