The Creepy Crypto Startup Scanning Eyeballs For "Equality" 👀

Another advantage seen to Worldcoin is that with everyone having at least some of the cryptocurrency, it has a real chance of turning into a universal digital currency in the future - something Bitcoin hasn't been able to achieve.

Experts believe that if Worldcoin succeeds, it will be more stable than Bitcoin, Ethereum or the others. The graph above shows just how much BTC has fluctuated in the last one year alone. Plus, governments will be able to track the flow of the currency since it'll be literally connected to our eyeballs. 

The futuristic-sounding idea has attracted major supporters in Silicon Valley. The company is already testing a prototype of its eye-scanning device in several cities (volunteers are being paid primarily in bitcoin for now) and has at least $25 million in funding, according to Bloomberg.

The Case AGAINST Worldcoin

Some privacy and cryptocurrency advocates have warned that the “utopian” sounding plan is highly unnecessary. It’s trying to solve the world’s wealth distribution problem in a whacky way. Not to mention, the idea of connecting people biometrics to their crypto wealth is kind of defeatist of the whole anonymity aspect of cryptocurrencies.

Black creators on TikTok went on "strike" last week claiming that their work is being exploited. The hashtag "BlackTikTokStrike" has been viewed more than 2 million times on TikTok in what is now being called the first ever TikTok strike. It is about black creators on the app who feel that their original creations are being copied by white creators, who then reap the benefits of the popularity without giving them credit. 

It's become a notable cycle on TikTok: A Black creator makes a dance, but a White influencer copies it, popularises it and then makes profits.

But the strike isn’t sudden.

The Jimmy Fallon incident: 

In March, late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon invited TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling to perform a series of eight viral TikTok dances on his show, none of which she created. The creators of those dances were not featured for the segment, nor were they given credit. 

The NBA and Harmon incident: 

In 2019, Atlanta teenager Jalaiah Harmon posted a video on Instagram of a dance she created to the song "Lottery (Renegade)" by K Camp. The dance made its way to TikTok when influencer Charli D'Amelio, who has 119 million followers, posted a video doing Harmon's dance. Naturally, the video blew up.. 

The following year, Rae Easterling and Charli D’Amelio were invited to the NBA All-Star Weekend where they performed numerous TikTok dances with NBA cheerleaders — including Harmon’s Renegade dance. 

However, Harmon, a Black teenager from greater Atlanta — was neither credited nor invited to the game until a pushback on social media compelled NBA to issue an invitation.  

The gist: 

Goes without saying, that without due credit, creators like Harmon lose out on millions of dollars in profits which obviously seems like a huge injustice. Frustrated, Black creators are either struggling to get the recognition they deserve or dealing with antagonism from those who don't understand why receiving that credit is so important in the first place.

Though it's hard to say if the strike has a firm end date, it may signal a shift as to how Black creators interact with the app.

Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency (ATT) rules introduced a strict new advertising consent regime that mandated that if an app tracks user behaviour, the user must first must actively opt-in by granting permission in a pop-up dialog box.

Specifically, the new rules apply to third-party tracking, where data is exchanged with services that collect and aggregate user data across apps. 

Apple’s one policy change could have significant economic ripples across the wider digital economy. The changes have already made a profound impact on small businesses and startups whose advertising costs have gone up by 20% in just 3 months, while turnover from ads has been trickling down.

Read more about Apple’s incentive to introduce the new rules and how it knocks out small businesses.

• Amazon Prime Day 2021 made record selling of 250+ million items worldwide, sales figures up 6% YoY. 
• Remains of an old "haunted" Scottish village are up for sale for nearly $173,000. 
• Zoom acquires AI startup Kites GmbH to bring you real-time language translation in video-conferences. 
• Secondhand market expected to double to $77 billion by 2025, resale to grow 11x faster than the apparel industry - per GlobalData report.  
• China is facing its worst power shortage in a decade - surging energy demands, strict limitations on coal and global trade wars to blame. 
• John McAfee died by suicide hours after a Spanish court ordered his extradition to the U.S. for tax evasion charges. 
• In a move to support LGBTQ+ pride, LinkedIn will now allow you to add preferred pronouns in your profile