1. Iran intends to freeze the bank accounts of women who refuse to wear the hijab. Will sanctions spark a surge in crypto literacy?

What and why?
An Iranian MP told local media that the government plans to introduce new penalties for women who do not wear the hijab in public. Those who refuse to comply after two warnings may have their bank accounts frozen.
Similar restrictions in the past have led protesters to turn to cryptocurrencies. Iran's plan to freeze bank accounts is sure to spark interest in blockchain.
The state is already circumventing US sanctions with the help of cryptocurrencies.
Per month Binance processed $8bn Iranian trade operations and is already hosting import orders in crypto. Now the prohibitions of the state itself will be able to circumvent its own citizens.

Experience from other countries
In Canada earlier this year, the country's prime minister signed into law a law allowing the bank accounts of protesters to be frozen. After blocking a fundraising campaign for protesters, organizers turned to cryptocurrencies.
Shanghai residents used NFT to bypass censorship during the lockdown. They created videos, photographs and artwork of their life in isolation in the form of NFTs. Wrong” photos and videos are regularly purged from Chinese social networks. Obviously, this was one of the reasons for the appearance of such content in the form of NFTs and placing it on OpenSea.

2.Where is the metaverse and NFT most interesting?

Searches for "NFT" and "Metaverse" were in the top 10 on Google this year.
The company has released its annual "Year in Search" report, which lists the most popular search terms of 2022 worldwide. Questions: "What is NFT" and "What is the Metaverse" were in the top 10 most popular questions starting with "What is".

According to the data, the number of requests peaked at the beginning of the year and has been declining since then.
Nigeria, Singapore, Lebanon, United States and Ethiopia are the top 5 countries where these terms were searched. This is a prime example of the increasing interest in Web3 from poor countries, especially from the African continent. The lowest interest in technology was recorded in Central Asia and Africa.

3. Apple will introduce XR glasses on January 12

Today's invitation to the conference features the slogan "look different" and a multicolored projection of the company's logo.
The device will have a new realityOS and a price of more than $1000.
So far, the glasses will be more of an addition to the iPhone than a standalone device.
Typical for all devices of the company “one more thing” may be the automatic adjustment of lenses for poor vision. The device will understand what your minus or plus is and change the angle of the glasses - Apple has such a patent since 2021.
Another recent patent describes a technology for projecting an image directly onto the eye. This will greatly reduce the size of the glasses and reduce retinal fatigue.
The third idea of ​​the company, which was described in detail and patented, is the built-in zoom. Users will be able to zoom in on images by wearing glasses *true superpowers*.
It's not a fact that all three patents will be implemented in the first version of the glasses, while they may look too futuristic, but which of us could imagine 2 million Oculus VR helmets 20 years ago?

4. An IT specialist from Switzerland implanted a chip for crypto payments

A Swiss IT specialist with the pseudonym F418 decided to implant a chip for contactless payments via the Lightning Network. The man admitted to reporters that he did it for fun.

“It looks funny when I, for example, give a presentation about payments or just communicate at work. The interlocutors are very surprised when they see my hand,” he explained.

F418 assures that the device does not bring any discomfort and is not even felt. The only thing that has changed is that now at the checkout he does not need to get a card or a smartphone.

5.FTX Stored Private Keys Without Encryption

The FTX exchange did not use basic wallet security measures and stored private keys without encryption, new FTX director John Ray said in testimony to the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services.

He also added that "hundreds of millions of dollars" were at risk of theft and other malicious activities.

6.Tether will remove secured loans from its reserves

The stablecoin provider USDT has announced a process to phase out secured loans in its reserves.

The decision was made in response to an article in The Wall Street Journal. In it, journalists noted that the provider's volume of loans is growing, which means that in the event of a crisis, they will be at risk of default.

Speaking to WSJ, Tether said its loans accounted for 30% ($9 billion) of total assets as of September 6,1. The sum of all assets of the company is $68 billion.

7.CFTC sues SBF

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is joining a string of lawsuits against the SBF. The regulator charged him with violating federal laws on commodity exchanges:

“Fried and other FTX executives took hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from Alameda. At the same time, the money went to the purchase of real estate and donations to politicians;
– FTX had a feature in the code that allowed Alameda to maintain a virtually unlimited line of credit on the exchange;
– A secret code fix gave Alameda a transaction speed advantage when executing orders on FTX by freeing up some automated checks and other technical processes.

The only defendant named by the CFTC in the lawsuit is Sam Bankman-Fried. The regulator considers him the organizer of a multi-year scheme to deceive investors.