Earlier this month, the father of a wealthy cryptocurrency entrepreneur was abducted in Paris while walking his dog. The attackers, wearing balaclavas, forced him into a van, later severing one of his fingers and sending a video of the mutilation to his son alongside a demand for millions of euros in ransom. The incident joined a growing list of violent crimes in France linked to crypto wealth. Victims have included a prominent entrepreneur and his wife who were held hostage, a man doused in petrol, and a child targeted in an attempted abduction. As fear spreads within France’s crypto community,…
World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project backed by President Donald Trump’s family, announced plans for a stablecoin pinned to the U.S. dollar, just days after the president called on Congress to pass “commonsense” legislation.
According to a memo circulating among State Department staff and reviewed by WIRED, the Trump administration plans to rename the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as US International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA), and to bring it directly under the secretary of state. The document, on which Politico first reported, states that as part of its reorganization, the agency will “leverage blockchain technology” as part of its procurement process.
“All distributions would also be secured and traced via blockchain technology to radically increase security, transparency, and traceability,” the memo reads. “This approach would encourage innovation and efficiency among implementing partners and allow for more flexible and responsive programming focused on tangible impact rather than simply completing activities and inputs.”
The memo does not make clear what specifically this means—if it would encompass doing cash transfers in some kind of cryptocurrency or stablecoin, for example, or simply mean using a blockchain ledger to track aid disbursement.
Razer has partnered with Sam Altman’s World to help distinguish real players from bots in multiplayer experiences. Bots in multiplayer games are nothing new; in fact, many games benefit from giving players AI-controlled bots to play against when there aren’t enough human players to fill a server. However, bots can also be too skilled and nearly impossible to defeat, or worse: they could be farming bots that do nothing but spam the game and ruin player experiences.
Razer ID verified by World ID is designed to designate users as humans and provide assurance that you’re playing against another person, rather than a bot. It’s built on the World Network, an existing blockchain system that uses iris scans to verify identity.
However, the technology has a way to go before it’s widely available. Its first use will be in a game called Tokyo Beast, a blockchain-focused title that will require users to sign in through a Razer ID. In theory, it will prevent human players from being paired against bot players.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends
In a survey from Echelon Insights and requested by World, 59% of gamers reported frequent encounters with bot-controlled players in games. Of those surveyed, 71% said that bots ruin the competitive nature of games, and 18% stopped playing a game because of the number of bots.
Razer and World want to ensure the online multiplayer experience remains human-focused, where gamers can test their skills against one another rather than against a bot with artificial skills.
Wei-Pin Choo, Chief Corporate Officer of Razer, said “Growing a verified community is key to fair play. To foster fair competition, developers must be able to build trusted, human-only game experiences that keep AI bots out. By teaming up with World, we’re ensuring that real players are the heart of every experience, keeping gaming fair, immersive, and designed for humans.”
