Latest on Worldcoin, Solana, & Telegram Bots

Welcome to the first issue of Mid-Curve, your gateway to the crypto industry. Mid-Curve will delve into many crypto-related topics, from news and commentary to new projects and trends. We hope to foster a community we can grow with along the way. While our newsletter will continue evolving, the goal remains the same - equip you with the tools necessary to navigate this complex market. Thank you for taking this journey with us.

🌏 Worldcoin

Worldcoin created waves when it launched this week, triggering many questions. Is this groundbreaking tech or just another VC grift? In short, Worldcoin wants to uniquely identify people - a term called “Proof-of-Personhood.” They achieve this through a specialized piece of hardware called “The Orb” and a cryptocurrency - $WRLD.

Why do we need this?

In a world where deepfakes and AI are becoming more prevalent, proving you are human becomes a fundamental necessity.

Use Cases:

• Ensuring voting integrity, free from machine tampering.

• Prove your existence to make access to financial and healthcare services easier.

• Curb "Sybil" attacks, where individuals pose as multiple entities to exploit crypto airdrops. Worldcoin wants to ensure one wallet equals one person.

Worldcoin is a highly ambitious project tackling issues crypto natives have dreamed of solving for years - Decentralized Identity and Universal Basic Income. The unlock from solving these use cases would be enormous, especially in third-world countries. Yet, many red flags have already emerged:

The Orb - This biometric eye scanner is a black box - closed-source; we have no idea what’s in there. Very reminiscent of Ledger. We can't be sure if Worldcoin is keeping or selling our data, or if malicious actors can compromise the Orb.

Launch - Worldcoin chose a "low-float launch," releasing just 1% of the total supply. Releasing such a small percentage of the supply on the open market makes it easy to manipulate. On the first day of trading, Worldcoin was valued at $30B. Low-float coins are also subject to “dumping” as insiders immediately sell them when available.

Privacy - There have already been reports of reselling IDs, undermining Worldcoin’s vision of unique personhood. While Worldcoin has elected to delete the data because the project is closed source, they could decide to keep or sell it without our consent.

The project's data collection efforts in impoverished countries, such as Sudan, Indonesia, Chile, & Kenya, in return for small amounts of money, give many colonial exploitation vibes.

It’s very early days for this project. Generally, I approach things with an open mind, but at first glance, this project has more negatives than positives. Time will tell if this will be more than a VC cash grab at the hands of retail and the poor. I have my doubts.

Related Articles

Vitalik’s thoughts on Worldcoin

Blockworks - Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

Uniswap X - This outsources the complexity of routing to an open network of fillers who compete to fill swaps at the best prices. Overtime the benefits include more liquidity, better prices, MEV protection, & gas-free swapping

Hamster Racing - the latest speculative craze has degens betting on the outcome of hamster races.

Regulation - The House of Financial Services Committee advanced the 21st Century Fit Act, a move seen as reasonable regulation for cryptocurrency

Lybra - Launched their V2 testnet. Read their guide to understand the latest features.

Chainedge - The popular On-chain analytics platform launched their latest update - v2.

Concave - announced a P2P options exchange.

Avalanche - announced a $50M RWA Initiative.

🤖 Unibot

Telegram coins have been on a tear lately, but very few people know how to use them. Use the guide below to get started on the most popular one - Unibot.

Solana

I have started to get excited about the Solana opportunity for a while now. Solana has been through hell and back, and we are starting to see signs of progress. Read this thread to understand the airdrop opportunity.

See you next week,

Mid-Curve Team

The Mid-Curve newsletter is intended purely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as financial advice. We encourage all our readers to conduct their own research or seek advice from a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Please note that members of the Mid-Curve team may hold positions in some of the investments discussed in our newsletter.