Tom Farren
In the lead-up to the 33rd edition of the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) set to commence on June 6, tech giant Apple has unveiled plans to showcase the developments of four new devices and software models: iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey and watchOS 8.
Alongside this, fanatical forums such as MacRumours, which center their coverage around supporting and debating Apple’s progress, discovered that by clicking on the Memoji characters, an augmented reality mode is revealed with three trading card characters available to be claimed.
The Memoji characters have become a consistent fixture in Apple’s consumer branding strategy over the past few years, as the company recognized the cultural affiliation for memes and mascot brand marketing.
At WWDC, these cards are expected to be positioned as Web2 elements used solely for collectible purposes, with no intrinsic or tradable value.
However, on account of their visual similarity to the avatars of RTFKT Studios’ CloneX and animated cards of Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends Series 2, the Easter egg feature has sparked some speculation within the nonfungible token (NFT) community about the potential of future Apple NFTs.
During Apple’s Q1 2022 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook shared optimism for the societal adoption of augmented reality and metaverse technologies, outlining the company’s intentions to “invest accordingly” in the emerging sector.
Apple’s mixed-reality headset, offering both virtual and augmented functionalities, was slated to be released during the WWDC conference, but after experiencing technical setbacks in development, that prospect seems unlikely.
The company recently applied for a trademark license for RealityOS, which is purportedly the operating software for the mixed-reality headset.
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Martin Young
Bitcoin (BTC) mining revenue and profitability have continued to slide along with the asset’s price this year as the crypto winter deepens.
May has been one of the worst months for Bitcoin miners in the past year as revenue and profitability continue to tank. Bitcoin daily mining revenue tanked as much as 27% in May, according to data from Ycharts sourcing data from Blockchain.com.
On May 1, the analytics provider reported daily revenue of $40.57 million for BTC miners, but by the end of the month, it had fallen to $29.37 million. Daily mining revenue hit an eleven-month low of $22.43 million on May 24.
Daily mining revenue spiked to a peak of around $80 million in April 2021 but has since fallen 62% to current levels.
Mining profitability, which is a measure of daily dollars per terahashes per second, has hit its lowest levels since October 2020, according to Bitinfocharts. The crypto metrics provider currently reports mining profitability of $0.112 per day for 1 Th/s.
Furthermore, the metric has seen a decline of 56% since the beginning of the year and is down more than 75% since the 2021 highs of $0.450 each day per Th/s.
Bitcoin network hash rates remain high, however, with the current daily average at 211.82 exahashes per second, according to Bitinfocharts. The figure is down roughly 16% from its all-time high of just over 250 Eh/s on May 2.
High hash rates but low profitability may suggest that there is a far greater level of competition in the Bitcoin mining sector than seen previously. In earlier bear markets, miners have powered down their rigs as the asset price dropped and the operations became temporarily unprofitable.
Additionally, miners to exchange flows have just hit a four-month high, according to Glassnode, suggesting that they may be making preparations to sell some to cover the falling revenue.
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Brian Quarmby
Lonely hearts in Silicon Valley are reportedly falling prey to a wave of “pig slaughtering” crypto scams via dating applications.
An investigator for cybersecurity company Sift found that one in 20 people who approached her on dating apps in San Francisco was working the scam.
Pig slaughtering, or butchering, is a type of scam in which an individual/group puts in weeks or months of work to build a fake relationship with the victim, metaphorically fattening them up. The end goal is to get the victim to invest in crypto via either a duplicated version of a legitimate website or by transferring funds to a dodgy wallet address.
The scammers often shift the conversations over from dating apps or social media to encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp and put in countless hours of daily conversation to make their fake personas seem realistic, without ever actually meeting in person in most cases.
A Thursday report from the San Francisco Examiner detailed the accounts of two relatively tech-savvy individuals, referred to as Cy and R for anonymity purposes, who lost a combined $2.5 million to the scam. Both are now members of an online support group hosted by the Global Anti Scam Organization that sees “at least two or three new members” every week.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports that such cases are part of “a rising trend” in the local area.
The FBI sent out a general warning over crypto-romance scams and pig slaughtering in April, noting that its Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 4,300 complaints in 2021, resulting in more than $429 million in losses. It stated the scam first originated in China in late 2019 but has since become more prevalent in the United States.
R’s case, in particular, is notable as she is an IT manager from the Bay Area who lost around $1.3 million to the scam after first being approached via LinkedIn.
Despite being well versed in computer tech, R stated that the scammer’s professional profile managed to win her trust by being listed as an alumnus of the same top tech university that she graduated from in China.
After the conversation moved over to WhatsApp, the scammer worked for a month before finally persuading R to invest in crypto via a dubious website that swiped her funds:
“I never thought it could happen to me because I use tech. I’ve written software."
Cy, a real estate analyst, lost $1.2 million over two months and ended up in psychiatric care after suffering suicidal thoughts.
“I lost more than just money. I lost my self-confidence,” said Cy. “I have ruined my family’s lives.”
The Global Anti-Scam Organization believes Silicon Valley workers are increasingly falling victim to these scams due to overconfidence in tech-savviness, loneliness due to the pandemic and an interest in gaining crypto exposure.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
