#pre-ico

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The AI hype bubble is the new crypto hype bubble

Back in 2017 Long Island Ice Tea — known for its undistinguished, barely drinkable sugar-water — changed its name to “Long Blockchain Corp.” Its shares surged to a peak of 400% over their pre-announcement price. The company announced no specific integrations with any kind of blockchain, nor has it made any such integrations since.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

LBCC was subsequently delisted from NASDAQ after settling with the SEC over fraudulent investor statements. Today, the company trades over the counter and its market cap is $36m, down from $138m.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/textbook-case-of-crypto-hype-how-iced-tea-company-went-blockchain-and-failed-despite-a-289-percent-stock-rise

The most remarkable thing about this incredibly stupid story is that LBCC wasn’t the peak of the blockchain bubble — rather, it was the start of blockchain’s final pump-and-dump. By the standards of 2022’s blockchain grifters, LBCC was small potatoes, a mere $138m sugar-water grift.

They didn’t have any NFTs, no wash trades, no ICO. They didn’t have a Superbowl ad. They didn’t steal billions from mom-and-pop investors while proclaiming themselves to be “Effective Altruists.” They didn’t channel hundreds of millions to election campaigns through straw donations and other forms of campaing finance frauds. They didn’t even open a crypto-themed hamburger restaurant where you couldn’t buy hamburgers with crypto:

https://robbreport.com/food-drink/dining/bored-hungry-restaurant-no-cryptocurrency-1234694556/

They were amateurs. Their attempt to “make fetch happen” only succeeded for a brief instant. By contrast, the superpredators of the crypto bubble were able to make fetch happen over an improbably long timescale, deploying the most powerful reality distortion fields since Pets.com.

Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop. We’re told that trillions of dollars’ worth of crypto has been wiped out over the past year, but these losses are nowhere to be seen in the real economy — because the “wealth” that was wiped out by the crypto bubble’s bursting never existed in the first place.

Like any Ponzi scheme, crypto was a way to separate normies from their savings through the pretense that they were “investing” in a vast enterprise — but the only real money (“fiat” in cryptospeak) in the system was the hardscrabble retirement savings of working people, which the bubble’s energetic inflaters swapped for illiquid, worthless shitcoins.

We’ve stopped believing in the illusory billions. Sam Bankman-Fried is under house arrest. But the people who gave him money — and the nimbler Ponzi artists who evaded arrest — are looking for new scams to separate the marks from their money.

Take Morganstanley, who spent 2021 and 2022 hyping cryptocurrency as a massive growth opportunity:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/morgan-stanley-launches-cryptocurrency-research-team

Today, Morganstanley wants you to know that AI is a $6 trillion opportunity.

They’re not alone. The CEOs of Endeavor, Buzzfeed, Microsoft, Spotify, Youtube, Snap, Sports Illustrated, and CAA are all out there, pumping up the AI bubble with every hour that god sends, declaring that the future is AI.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/wall-street-ai-stock-price-1235343279/

Google and Bing are locked in an arms-race to see whose search engine can attain the speediest, most profound enshittification via chatbot, replacing links to web-pages with florid paragraphs composed by fully automated, supremely confident liars:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/#easily-spooked

Blockchain was a solution in search of a problem. So is AI. Yes, Buzzfeed will be able to reduce its wage-bill by automating its personality quiz vertical, and Spotify’s “AI DJ” will produce slightly less terrible playlists (at least, to the extent that Spotify doesn’t put its thumb on the scales by inserting tracks into the playlists whose only fitness factor is that someone paid to boost them).

But even if you add all of this up, double it, square it, and add a billion dollar confidence interval, it still doesn’t add up to what Bank Of America analysts called “a defining moment — like the internet in the ’90s.” For one thing, the most exciting part of the “internet in the ‘90s” was that it had incredibly low barriers to entry and wasn’t dominated by large companies — indeed, it had them running scared.

The AI bubble, by contrast, is being inflated by massive incumbents, whose excitement boils down to “This will let the biggest companies get much, much bigger and the rest of you can go fuck yourselves.” Some revolution.

AI has all the hallmarks of a classic pump-and-dump, starting with terminology. AI isn’t “artificial” and it’s not “intelligent.” “Machine learning” doesn’t learn. On this week’s Trashfuture podcast, they made an excellent (and profane and hilarious) case that ChatGPT is best understood as a sophisticated form of autocomplete — not our new robot overlord.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4NHKMZZNKi0w9mOhPYIL4T

We all know that autocomplete is a decidedly mixed blessing. Like all statistical inference tools, autocomplete is profoundly conservative — it wants you to do the same thing tomorrow as you did yesterday (that’s why “sophisticated” ad retargeting ads show you ads for shoes in response to your search for shoes). If the word you type after “hey” is usually “hon” then the next time you type “hey,” autocomplete will be ready to fill in your typical following word — even if this time you want to type “hey stop texting me you freak”:

https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/provocations/neophobic-conservative-ai-overlords-want-everything-stay/

And when autocomplete encounters a new input — when you try to type something you’ve never typed before — it tries to get you to finish your sentence with the statistically median thing that everyone would type next, on average. Usually that produces something utterly bland, but sometimes the results can be hilarious. Back in 2018, I started to text our babysitter with “hey are you free to sit” only to have Android finish the sentence with “on my face” (not something I’d ever typed!):

https://mashable.com/article/android-predictive-text-sit-on-my-face

Modern autocomplete can produce long passages of text in response to prompts, but it is every bit as unreliable as 2018 Android SMS autocomplete, as Alexander Hanff discovered when ChatGPT informed him that he was dead, even generating a plausible URL for a link to a nonexistent obit in The Guardian:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/02/chatgpt_considered_harmful/

Of course, the carnival barkers of the AI pump-and-dump insist that this is all a feature, not a bug. If autocomplete says stupid, wrong things with total confidence, that’s because “AI” is becoming more human, because humans also say stupid, wrong things with total confidence.

Exhibit A is the billionaire AI grifter Sam Altman, CEO if OpenAI — a company whose products are not open, nor are they artificial, nor are they intelligent. Altman celebrated the release of ChatGPT by tweeting “i am a stochastic parrot, and so r u.”

https://twitter.com/sama/status/1599471830255177728

This was a dig at the “stochastic parrots” paper, a comprehensive, measured roundup of criticisms of AI that led Google to fire Timnit Gebru, a respected AI researcher, for having the audacity to point out the Emperor’s New Clothes:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/04/1013294/google-ai-ethics-research-paper-forced-out-timnit-gebru/

Gebru’s co-author on the Parrots paper was Emily M Bender, a computational linguistics specialist at UW, who is one of the best-informed and most damning critics of AI hype. You can get a good sense of her position from Elizabeth Weil’s New York Magazine profile:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

Bender has made many important scholarly contributions to her field, but she is also famous for her rules of thumb, which caution her fellow scientists not to get high on their own supply:

Please do not conflate word form and meaning

Mind your own credulity

As Bender says, we’ve made “machines that can mindlessly generate text, but we haven’t learned how to stop imagining the mind behind it.” One potential tonic against this fallacy is to follow an Italian MP’s suggestion and replace “AI” with “SALAMI” (“Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences”). It’s a lot easier to keep a clear head when someone asks you, “Is this SALAMI intelligent? Can this SALAMI write a novel? Does this SALAMI deserve human rights?”

Bender’s most famous contribution is the “stochastic parrot,” a construct that “just probabilistically spits out words.” AI bros like Altman love the stochastic parrot, and are hellbent on reducing human beings to stochastic parrots, which will allow them to declare that their chatbots have feature-parity with human beings.

At the same time, Altman and Co are strangely afraid of their creations. It’s possible that this is just a shuck: “I have made something so powerful that it could destroy humanity! Luckily, I am a wise steward of this thing, so it’s fine. But boy, it sure is powerful!”

They’ve been playing this game for a long time. People like Elon Musk (an investor in OpenAI, who is hoping to convince the EU Commission and FTC that he can fire all of Twitter’s human moderators and replace them with chatbots without violating EU law or the FTC’s consent decree) keep warning us that AI will destroy us unless we tame it.

There’s a lot of credulous repetition of these claims, and not just by AI’s boosters. AI critics are also prone to engaging in what Lee Vinsel calls criti-hype: criticizing something by repeating its boosters’ claims without interrogating them to see if they’re true:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

There are better ways to respond to Elon Musk warning us that AIs will emulsify the planet and use human beings for food than to shout, “Look at how irresponsible this wizard is being! He made a Frankenstein’s Monster that will kill us all!” Like, we could point out that of all the things Elon Musk is profoundly wrong about, he is most wrong about the philosophical meaning of Wachowksi movies:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/18/lilly-wachowski-ivana-trump-elon-musk-twitter-red-pill-the-matrix-tweets

But even if we take the bros at their word when they proclaim themselves to be terrified of “existential risk” from AI, we can find better explanations by seeking out other phenomena that might be triggering their dread. As Charlie Stross points out, corporations are Slow AIs, autonomous artificial lifeforms that consistently do the wrong thing even when the people who nominally run them try to steer them in better directions:

https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9270-dude_you_broke_the_future

Imagine the existential horror of a ultra-rich manbaby who nominally leads a company, but can’t get it to follow: “everyone thinks I’m in charge, but I’m actually being driven by the Slow AI, serving as its sock puppet on some days, its golem on others.”

Ted Chiang nailed this back in 2017 (the same year of the Long Island Blockchain Company):

There’s a saying, popularized by Fredric Jameson, that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. It’s no surprise that Silicon Valley capitalists don’t want to think about capitalism ending. What’s unexpected is that the way they envision the world ending is through a form of unchecked capitalism, disguised as a superintelligent AI. They have unconsciously created a devil in their own image, a boogeyman whose excesses are precisely their own.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tedchiang/the-real-danger-to-civilization-isnt-ai-its-runaway

Chiang is still writing some of the best critical work on “AI.” His February article in the New Yorker, “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web,” was an instant classic:

[AI] hallucinations are compression artifacts, but — like the incorrect labels generated by the Xerox photocopier — they are plausible enough that identifying them requires comparing them against the originals, which in this case means either the Web or our own knowledge of the world.

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web

“AI” is practically purpose-built for inflating another hype-bubble, excelling as it does at producing party-tricks — plausible essays, weird images, voice impersonations. But as Princeton’s Matthew Salganik writes, there’s a world of difference between “cool” and “tool”:

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2023/03/08/can-chatgpt-and-its-successors-go-from-cool-to-tool/

Nature can claim “conversational AI is a game-changer for science” but “there is a huge gap between writing funny instructions for removing food from home electronics and doing scientific research.” Salganik tried to get ChatGPT to help him with the most banal of scholarly tasks — aiding him in peer reviewing a colleague’s paper. The result? “ChatGPT didn’t help me do peer review at all; not one little bit.”

The criti-hype isn’t limited to ChatGPT, of course — there’s plenty of (justifiable) concern about image and voice generators and their impact on creative labor markets, but that concern is often expressed in ways that amplify the self-serving claims of the companies hoping to inflate the hype machine.

One of the best critical responses to the question of image- and voice-generators comes from Kirby Ferguson, whose final Everything Is a Remix video is a superb, visually stunning, brilliantly argued critique of these systems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rswxcDyotXA

One area where Ferguson shines is in thinking through the copyright question — is there any right to decide who can study the art you make? Except in some edge cases, these systems don’t store copies of the images they analyze, nor do they reproduce them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids

For creators, the important material question raised by these systems is economic, not creative: will our bosses use them to erode our wages? That is a very important question, and as far as our bosses are concerned, the answer is a resounding yes.

Markets value automation primarily because automation allows capitalists to pay workers less. The textile factory owners who purchased automatic looms weren’t interested in giving their workers raises and shorting working days. ‘ They wanted to fire their skilled workers and replace them with small children kidnapped out of orphanages and indentured for a decade, starved and beaten and forced to work, even after they were mangled by the machines. Fun fact: Oliver Twist was based on the bestselling memoir of Robert Blincoe, a child who survived his decade of forced labor:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59127/59127-h/59127-h.htm

Today, voice actors sitting down to record for games companies are forced to begin each session with “My name is ______ and I hereby grant irrevocable permission to train an AI with my voice and use it any way you see fit.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d37za/voice-actors-sign-away-rights-to-artificial-intelligence

Let’s be clear here: there is — at present — no firmly established copyright over voiceprints. The “right” that voice actors are signing away as a non-negotiable condition of doing their jobs for giant, powerful monopolists doesn’t even exist. When a corporation makes a worker surrender this right, they are betting that this right will be created later in the name of “artists’ rights” — and that they will then be able to harvest this right and use it to fire the artists who fought so hard for it.

There are other approaches to this. We could support the US Copyright Office’s position that machine-generated works are not works of human creative authorship and are thus not eligible for copyright — so if corporations wanted to control their products, they’d have to hire humans to make them:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/21/22944335/us-copyright-office-reject-ai-generated-art-recent-entrance-to-paradise

Or we could create collective rights that belong to all artists and can’t be signed away to a corporation. That’s how the right to record other musicians’ songs work — and it’s why Taylor Swift was able to re-record the masters that were sold out from under her by evil private-equity bros::

https://doctorow.medium.com/united-we-stand-61e16ec707e2

Whatever we do as creative workers and as humans entitled to a decent life, we can’t afford drink the Blockchain Iced Tea. That means that we have to be technically competent, to understand how the stochastic parrot works, and to make sure our criticism doesn’t just repeat the marketing copy of the latest pump-and-dump.

Today (Mar 9), you can catch me in person in Austin at the UT School of Design and Creative Technologies, and remotely at U Manitoba’s Ethics of Emerging Tech Lecture.

Tomorrow (Mar 10), Rebecca Giblin and I kick off the SXSW reading series.

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A graph depicting the Gartner hype cycle. A pair of HAL 9000's glowing red eyes are chasing each other down the slope from the Peak of Inflated Expectations to join another one that is at rest in the Trough of Disillusionment. It, in turn, sits atop a vast cairn of HAL 9000 eyes that are piled in a rough pyramid that extends below the graph to a distance of several times its height.]

[mariacallous]

American R&B singer Aliaune Thiam, professionally known as Akon, has long wanted to help Senegal, the country he grew up in. He started Akon Lighting Africa in 2014 to install cheap Chinese solar-powered lighting systems across the continent. He hoped to do something more significant for Senegal. But how to fund it?

The answer turned out to be the same one adopted by a growing number of governments and entrepreneurs: a mixture of cryptocurrency and urban planning. It’s a combination that offers the promise of development without any of the tricky details—and which tends to turn out to be little more than vaporware. There was Bitcoin City in El Salvador, but also Painted Rock in Nevada, Satoshi Island in Vanuatu, Cryptoland in Fiji, or the Crypto-Kingdom of Bitcointopia in Utah.

In 2018, Akon announced a new cryptocurrency, to be called “akoin.” Akoin would enable Africans to, as the singer put it at a launch event, “advance themselves independent of the government”—in some manner. Most importantly, akoin would fund the creation of Akon City, an advanced planned city to be built in Senegal. Akon announced akoin and Akon City at the Cannes Lions Festival in June 2018. Akon said in November of that year that he had “everything planned out” for the city. But both Akon City and the akoin token remained only ideas for many months.

Akon was interested by the promises of cryptocurrency—specifically, free money by some unclear mechanism—but he was not up on the details of its technical or financial issues: “I come with the concepts and let the geeks figure it out,” he said. The akoin team featured initial coin offering (ICO) entrepreneurs such as Lynn Liss of ICO Impact and Crystal Rose Pierce.

The akoin cryptocurrency was pre-sold in a 2019 crypto token offering called “token of appreciation.” Each dollar “donation” would give you up to four tokens which would convert to akoin.

Akoin had not launched in Senegal at the time, despite billboards across the country. The West African CFA franc is the only legal currency in Senegal; BCEAO, the central bank, warned that akoin could not be used as a currency in the country.

Akoin promised all manner of functionality—special akoin wallet software, direct exchange with other cryptocurrencies or with cellphone minutes, an application marketplace, various “building blocks for entrepreneurship.” None of this was ever implemented.

Akoin finally started trading on a crypto exchange in November 2020. The akoin token didn’t do anything or have any particular utility; it was just a crypto token that you could trade. Pre-sale buyers dumped their akoin immediately and the price crashed. That’s not unusual: As of 2022, 24 percent of new cryptos fell 90 percent or more in their first week.

Akon posted on social media in January 2020 that he had “finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal”—though he had previously claimed that construction had already started in March 2019. The new city would be built near the small town of Mbodiène, about 100 kilometers south of the capital, Dakar.

Akon City would be a “smart city” inspired by the futuristic African nation of Wakanda from the 2018 movie Black Panther. The city would feature boldly curved skyscrapers, shopping malls, music and movie studios, “eco-friendly” tourist resorts, and a parking garage for flying cars.

Akon claimed in August 2020 that $2 billion of the $6 billion needed to build Akon City had been secured. He laid the foundation stone for the city on Aug. 31, 2020, and said that construction would start “next year,” in 2021.

Construction did not start in 2021, to the disappointment of locals. It was not clear where the $6 billion needed to build Akon City would come from. A representative for KE International, the United States-based contractor for Akon City, told AFP that more than $4 billion had been secured, with Kenyan entrepreneur Julius Mwale as lead investor, and that construction would start in October 2021—but it did not.

By 2022, Akon told the BBC that construction was “100,000 percent moving.” He said the COVID-19 pandemic was partly to blame for the delays. Akon was surprised at the “thousands of studies” that had to be done before work could even commence.

Senegal’s Society for the Development and Promotion of Coasts and Tourist Zones (SAPCO) had claimed the land by eminent domain in 2009 before offering it to Akon City in 2020. By 2023, no building work had been done at the Akon City site—though Axiome Construction insisted that geotechnical studies and environmental assessments were still under way. By this time, according to the Guardian, the only construction was a youth center nearby in Mbodiène, paid for personally by Akon—and built upon the foundation stone that he had laid in 2020.

Senegal finally lost patience with the project. Akon had missed several payments to SAPCO, and in June of this year, SAPCO sent a formal notice to Akon warning that work had to start by the end of July or SAPCO might take back almost all of the land grant.

Akon had already been looking for other opportunities to place akoin. In April 2021, he started talking to Uganda about setting up an Akon City there as well. In January 2022, the Ugandan government allocated him one square mile in Mpunge, in the Mukono district—despite objections from the National Unity Platform party and protests from Mpunge residents wanting compensation, which could not be paid before 2025.

Akon said that Akon City, Uganda, might be completed by 2036. At a 2021 news conference, he evaded questions on what the new city would cost or how it would be funded. The Forum for Democratic Change party said that the Ugandan Akon City would never happen and accused the government of granting “sweetheart deals” to developers.

Akon City was tech solutionism that leveraged the political power of celebrity. Akon wanted to launch a large project and thought that cryptocurrency, the buzzword of 2018, might fund his dream. He thought that this one weird trick would do the job.

In this case, the miracle technology was crypto. These days, such  pushes by celebrities or entrepreneurs of new projects will typically use artificial intelligence—whatever that might mean in a particular case—as the marketing hook for a “smart city.

In his 2023 book Let Them Eat Crypto, Peter Howson of Northumbria University detailed how to head off solutionism-inspired blockchain projects that were heavy on publicity but light on the necessary bureaucratic work on the ground. His approach is broadly applicable to tech solutionism in general: Pay attention to the men behind the curtain. Howson has written recently on “smart city” plans as marketing for crypto tokens.

The Akon City plan was a worked example of speculative urbanization. A project is proposed with science-fiction concept drawings and a pitch aimed at tourists rather than locals; land is allocated; something might eventually be built, but it will bear little resemblance to the brochures. Christopher Marcinkoski of the University of Pennsylvania described Akon City as just one of many such initiatives, particularly in Africa, calling it “very much a real estate play.” The important output from such projects is local political capital—even as they never work out as advertised.

Cryptocurrency was an application of speculative urbanization to money—a high concept, a pitch to financial tourists, and the only end result being a token to speculate on and a tremendous amount of fraud. The Akon City project, however good Akon’s own intentions, seems functionally to have been merely the pitch for a crypto offering that failed—leaving an empty site, disappointed locals, and an embarrassed figurehead.

By 2024, akoin had been removed from the few crypto exchanges it had been listed on; it was effectively worthless. Akon sold short videos on Cameo—but he would not do requests related to cryptocurrency.

The speculative urbanization pitch rolls on. Actor Idris Elba has recently floated plans for an “environmentally friendly smart city” on Sherbro Island off Sierra Leone.

[divorcetual]

Hi can I ask an OCs question. Does Kiss exist in the same universe as Yoki and Ishawuu or are they different settings bc they seem to have wildly different things going on

Totally different universe !!

Kiss is like modern day normal world stuff (Altho girl a+b are also technically in their world so ig theres the murders. but besides that). She also doesnt have an actual plot or anything she mosts exists for me to put her in cute outfits and make silly headcanons abt. Or I guess canon facts. Since I made her. But she does have some lore!! Mom was a fashion designer, she has a pro gamer boyfriend, etc etc

Oh!! But kinda as a joke Kiss (Or maybe a descendent of her?) does exist as a celebrity in pastex

Ishawuu and Yoki are in an entirely different world. Though theoretically it could be the same since pastex is just set in the future. Anyway, they're in a story called Pastex (Short for "Past Expiration". But I never call it that bcs im lazy) set ~500 years from now, and about 350-400 years after war that caused a nuclear winter across the world, and destroyed most habitable land. Around 80-90% of the population also died either from the initial bombs, the wildfires, or the winter. The world remains covered in ice and snow, and the sky is still black with soot. Two main areas were habitable post-bombing due to temperature, available food, etc. They're around Chile/Argentina and Australia. All the characters i've talked abt are in the Argentina/Western settlement.

Yoki and Ishawuu are functionally immortal due to an implant that they (+ some others) got pre-war, developed by Koro, a powerful group that now (in pastex) serves as the government in the western settlements. At the start of the story, they're both working as social guards (Basically high ranking police) for Koro.

You may also see me talking abt Day, Ico, and The Grandmaster, who are all characters from pastex too! The Grandmaster is the currently leader of Koro, who Ishawuu and Yoki work under. His family has been leading Koro since it was still a tiny agency!!

Day is a character from a small village unincorporated into Koro until he was about 10/11 when it essentially bought them and their lives. So he hates Koro. lol. Ico was Day's younger brother who died about 10 years before the story.

[a-room-of-my-own]

A trans lobby group helped to draft NHS plans for treating children questioning their gender, The Telegraph can disclose.

Susie Green, then chairman of the charity Mermaids, was part of a task group reviewing services at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation trans clinic.

The service specification, which outlines treatment for children, included details on how “hormone blockers will now be considered for any children under 12”. The relationship between Mermaids and senior NHS employees is laid bare for the first time in documents seen by The Telegraph.

The Tavistock claimed that it did not have emails or minutes of meetings with Ms Green but after the information regulator threatened court action, it released more than 300 pages.

They show that Ms Green had a direct line to Dr Polly Carmichael, Tavistock’s director, and demanded to be regarded as a professional so she could refer ­children for treatment when their GPs refused. Ms Green, who has no known formal medical training, held an advisory role on two of the studies that the clinic was involved in on the long-term effect of gender identity.

The service specification, which is still available on the NHS England website, was due to be replaced in 2020 but was put on hold when the Government ordered the independent Cass Review into the clinic.

The Tavistock said: “Like many NHS services, GIDS [gender identity development service] works with a range of third-sector patient support groups and charities that have different views about how the service can improve.”

Mermaids said its “primary focus is to support the mental and physical wellbeing of trans and non-binary young people throughout the UK”.

Ms Green said it was “not a secret” that she was involved in the service specification”.

An NHS spokesman said: “We have started implementing advice from Dr Cass and we have held a public consultation on a new interim service specification, which will be published in the coming weeks.”

'The Tavistock were really in thrall to these activists'

They are the documents that the NHS Tavistock gender clinic claimed did not exist. More than 300 pages of emails and minutes that lay bare for the first time the extent of Mermaids’ involvement in England’s only clinic for transgender children.

The controversial transgender charity has long been named by some whistleblowers as one of the reasons why the Tavistock lost its way, with claims that activists pressured staff to prescribe potentially life-altering drugs.

Now The Telegraph can reveal how Susie Green, then chairman of Mermaids, had a direct line to the clinic’s director Dr Polly Carmichael and was able to make referrals even when a child’s GP repeatedly refused.

The documents lay bare the depth of her involvement in the service, including helping to redraft the service specification and advising on a number of trials designed to inform the way they treated young patients.

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust had originally refused to release the details of the meetings between 2014 and 2018, relying on an exemption under Freedom of Information law which said it would have a “disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption, irritation or distress”.

When the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) asked them to justify that refusal, the Trust withdrew it and said that following “an extensive search of emails … the Trust does not hold the requested information”.

The ICO said that “on the balance of probabilities” it did hold the information and threatened to refer them to the High Court unless they complied with the request from a parent. The Tavistock has now released 322 pages of communications between 2014 and 2018.

They include emails between Dr Carmichael, who still works at the Tavistock, and Ms Green, who has left Mermaids and now works for an online GP which prescribes puberty blockers. In one exchange from 2016, Ms Green contacted the head of the service to question the decision of staff to refuse a referral she had made.

Upset not to be seen as a professional

Ms Green, who has no known medical training, said that she was told “that the referral was not validated or risk-assessed by a professional” and that is why it was rejected.

She added: “I can only assume from this statement that I am not seen as a professional? I am now very confused, as my understanding was that your service would accept referrals from Mermaids, but this statement appears to suggest the opposite….

“If you do NOT accept referrals from Mermaids due to the fact that I am not a professional I would like to know the reasoning behind this? Referral by a non-healthcare professional is acceptable from schools, social services etc, and my understanding has been that Mermaids referrals were accepted.

“Your admin person made it clear that immediate action was needed or this referral would be refused, so can I ask for a level of urgency to be applied to dealing with this issue?”

Dr Carmichael replied: “We do accept referrals from third sector groups and I know that you have helpfully sent in referrals in the past. This continues to be the case. Third sector groups often play a vital role in supporting young people and their families and we greatly value their involvement.”

Referrals 'unsupported by their GP'

Ms Green sent referrals for young people who were “unsupported by their GP” and in one case she sent the referral noting that the GP “has consistently refused to refer”.

The documents show that as early as 2014 she was involved in the “redraft of the service specification” for the NHS’s gender identity development service (GIDs) for children. She was one of the 10 people who attended a meeting.

Others include Dr Carmichael, who chaired the session, Rob Senior, the Trust’s medical director, Prof Gary Butler, a University College London Hospital consultant who is now the clinical lead for the children’s gender clinic, and Bernard Reed, the founder of the campaign group the Gender Identity Research and Education Society.

The minutes show they agreed that they would act as a “task and finish work group” and that “the content of the discussions were expected to remain within the group”.

They noted the initial findings of “research into the age for hypothalamic blocker treatment” which “suggest that the blocker could be prescribed from early puberty”.

The Tavistock has not provided minutes relating to any further meetings of the group, despite notes stating that they would meet two to three times and share details of their review. As a result, Ms Green’s contributions remain unclear

Greater emphasis on medical treatment

A new service specification was published by NHS England in 2016, which placed greater emphasis on medical treatment for children.

The new specification said for the first time “that hormone blockers will now be considered for any children under the age of 12 if they are in established puberty”.

It also updated the “informed consent” section to state that: “Age alone does not determine capacity to give consent. If it is concluded that a client has sufficient autonomy and understanding of what is to be offered, plus other key eligibility and readiness criteria have been met, they can consent to treatment.”

The involvement with the service specification came as Mermaids were putting pressure on the Tavistock to lower the age for cross-sex hormones to 14, as Dr Carmichael revealed in an interview at the time.

The charity was also calling for a reduction of time that teenagers had to spend on puberty blockers before they were prescribed cross-sex hormones.

In one email chain Ms Green was involved in, her fellow campaigner Mr Reed questioned if there “are proposals to speed up” the process. He noted that children had to be on puberty blockers for six months to a year before being given cross-sex hormones, which they had to wait until they were 16 to access.

In the response in November 2016 Sally Hodges, one of the Trust’s directors, said that “the situation is rapidly changing” as the service had received more money and “Polly Carmichael is in touch with Susie to ensure that you have the most accurate and up-to-date information”.

Gender reassignment at 16

Ms Green, who now works for Gender GP, an online service which prescribes cross sex hormones, had taken her own child – who was born male – to the US for puberty blockers before their 16th birthday. On their 16th birthday she took them to Thailand for cross-sex surgery.

In one exchange she sought “clarity” from Dr Carmichael on whether the Tavistock would treat children whose parents had sought hormone blockers or cross-sex hormones privately either because of waiting lists or because the drugs were not prescribed on the NHS to under-16s.

“This would be a huge weight off parents’ minds,” she wrote. “Many want to access blockers privately for their children due to the distress caused by ongoing pubertal changes and the huge wait to be seen and assessed, but are then caught in a position of having to fund blockers indefinitely themselves.”

Dr Carmichael replied that she was “very sorry to hear that there has been confusion” and said that “individual circumstances vary widely and so it would be a case-by-case basis”.

She said if the child was already seeing an endocrinologist through the Tavistock they would be removed from their care if they started getting drugs privately, though could still have therapy. But she added that patients “may choose at a later date to be referred to the endocrine clinic, if for example they started cross-sex hormone treatment outside the service at an earlier age than the service offers”.

Charity boss invited to take part in research

In 2018, Dr Carmichael emailed Ms Green again to invite her to take part in research which was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). She wrote: “We are in the process of submitting an application to NIHR to follow younger service users. It would be great if Mermaids would be involved.”

Ms Green replied that she would be “delighted to look at working with you on the NIHR application and delivery”.

The study looking at the development of gender identity in children aged 3-14 started in 2019 and it was hoped that it would “inform health and education providers”.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, said: “The Tavistock were really in thrall to these activists. They were ideologically captured.”

Ms Davies-Arai, who campaigns for evidence-based healthcare, said that she had first contacted the Tavistock in 2016 amid concerns about the treatment they were offering and was told that they would welcome her input as they were keen to hear from different voices.

However, when she emailed Dr Carmichael with concerns, she got no response.

Ms Green said that it was “not a secret” that she was involved in the service specification and she applied to be involved “as the CEO of the largest UK (and probably European) charity to support transgender children, young people and their families”.

She said that she was “pleased” that the new specification “removed an arbitrary age range” for hormone blockers and agreed to consider them for children under 12.

[ao3feed-skystar]

Castle in the Mist

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/I3ZE7bM by ChaosDancer12 "The island bathes in the sun's bright rays, distant hills wear a shroud of grey, a lonely breeze whispers in the trees, sole witness to history..."   A single castle is the only beacon of hope in a misty land, where Seekers, Flyers, and Shuttles have been disappearing for eons, the sole witness to a history born from the Energon splattered in it's halls... Here, in this misty castle, is where Telepaths die... A cycle that has repeated for eons... And soon, it will claim another Telepath... Words: 904, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: ICO (Video Game), Transformers - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Jetfire | Skyfire (Transformers), Starscream (Transformers), Nightflower (Transformers OC), The Queen (ICO) Relationships: Jetfire | Skyfire/Starscream (Transformers) Additional Tags: Skyfire and Jetfire are not the same bot, they're brothers, Skyfire is the older one, Skyfire and Starscream are engaged, Nightflower is tiny, Nightflower needs a hug, Skyfire needs a hug, Jetfire needs a hug, Abusive Parents, Nightflower's biological parents aren't nice, Who leaves a baby to die in a castle?, Nightflower is Ico, Skyfire is Yorda, Parent Starscream (Transformers), Parent Skyfire, Starscream Needs A Hug (Transformers), Pre-Relationship, Pre-Canon, Mute Skyfire (Temporary), Nightflower is a Telepath read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/I3ZE7bM

[hotbunking-vacheads]

Picking and mixing in fic inconsistent pre- and post-reboot chunks of canon that makes no sense is great because I get to write stuff like this:

“I was following the warden’s orders. What was I supposed to do, tell him to go scavenge through the Destroyer himself?” “Just following orders, indeed. Like Vice-Admiral Rampart. Ever heard of that guy? The idiot who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar above Tipoca City?” “I’m surprised you know about that.” Oh, wasn’t she trying her best at keeping the tremor out of her voice. Adorable. “It was a very Navy-and-Senate kind of scandal.” “You calling me an ignorant pleb, ma’am? When I was a baby ICO, I had the honor of meeting the guy in person at the detention facility on Erebus. He spat in my face. I made his stop resembling a face.”

[findpenpalsover20]

I'm ancient, 37 at least! but somehow, still not dead. Married, works in retail, I own a cat, I'll sleep 16 hours a day when I can. I read a lot, usually books about nuclear accidents, miserable graphic novels or weird stuff featuring mushrooms. (Jeff Vandermeer and China Mieville are favourites) I watch pre-code films mainly, or old talkies where the dialogue is slightly echoey and stilted. I like any old films though, and I'm a real lover of Star Trek. I think I know someone who may actually be Gul Dukat.

 I take Instax photos because they look exactly how memories do in the confines of my own head. Blurry, soft focus, more the idea of something than how it really looks. Or maybe that's because I'm terrible at taking photos, and I have a really bad memory. Anyway, I can send some to you, maybe?

 I like to knit and crochet, but it takes me years to finish anything. Also, I've long held the suspicion that purling is a hoax and Not Real.

 I have a very scruffy garden in which I pretend to grow food. This charade takes up entirely too much of my time. I basically use it as a cover - when my astroturf-gravel-and-decking neighbours look over snootily, I say, "well my garden is messy because I grow food in it, you know. It's functional, not aesthetic, darling."

 I geocache, with very limited success. The main goal of geocaching, I find, is to try and look as suspicious as you can in front of passers-by. I look a bit foreign, too, so that helps.

I play video games, especially if they're filled with moments of calm tragedy. You know: Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shadow Of The Colossus/Ico, Sable, Kentucky Route Zero, Hyper Light Drifter, the original Link's Awakening...Elden Ring, even. I like a meditative, solitary experience from my games. I rarely finish them, though. If I finish a game that means I have to say goodbye and I don't like that.

 I'm really into the idea of outsider artists at the moment. I've never created a thing in my life and have no intention of ever doing so; ADHD makes sure I have absolutely no drive. But I'm fascinated with the idea of people who decide to make a holy shrine out of tinfoil, or wear a papermache head, create an alter-ego and then get booed off at Wembley for asking who's got Betamax, or write songs about how Spiderman tried to cut them out of 70 dollars and so they felt compelled to beat him with a rubber hose. You know what I mean? These people are all around us and we don't always know they're there. (There's a man who lives near me, in my dull New Town who's covered his house, the outside that is, in his own paintings. I have a terrible urge to knock on his door and ask him what's up, but my husband has implored me not to in case he murders me and uses my skull as an ashtray.)

 I'm quite flippant and usually never serious. If you don't find me funny - which most people don't - then maybe I'm not for you. A lot of people on the internet are so normal, and my penpal attempts have usually fizzled out because these people want to talk about... Grad school, or buying a house, or working in an office... and I want to talk about the sad melancholy feeling when BBC1 used to close down at midnight in the 1990s... Your typical university educated office worker I ain't. I'm not exactly shoplifting from Londis though, either, don't worry.

contact: @rainy-walk

[ferindencadash]

10 Mutuals I'd like to know better

Tagged by @whiskynorocks Thanks! :)

Last song I listened to: The Horror and the Wild - The Amazing Devil

Favorite content to watch: anything apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic

Favorite games: Mass Effect series, Dragon Age series, Final Fantasy Series (1-12 and 14), Hellblade, pre-3D Zelda games, ICO

Favorite color: Green or hot pink

Favorite animals: Cats, rats, squirrels, crows, but all critters are good critters

Favorite food: olives, tacos, pesto

Sweet, spicy, or savory: Yes. But if I had to pick one, probably sweet because I used to be a pastry chef

Current obsessions: writing fanfic, mostly Mass Effect, mostly smutty

Last book I read: some tedious sociology text

Last thing I googled: "commander shepard hoodie"

Relationship: Freshly divorced and VERY happily single

Fun fact: a good chunk of my family grew up less than an hour away from Jonestown and at least two of my family members have joined a cult, but neither one was the Jonestown cult (thankfully).

I will tag these people, but don't feel obligated to join!

@cat-shepard @serendipitys-teapot @westernlarch @acciokaidanalenko @clericofshadows @sugarandstories @urrone @malikafuckingcadash @eavangeek @souls-that-have-senses

[444namesplus]

abl aci acr age aid aki ala all als alt ami ana ann ant ape arc are arm ato aun aur aut avi awa axi bab bac bai bak bal ban bar bas bat bea bec bee bel ben bes bet bia bik bil bin bir bit ble blo blu boa bod boi bol bom bon boo bor bos bot bou bow bra bre bro buc bul bum bur bus but buz caf cag cak cal cam can cap car cas cav cel cen cha che chi cho cit cla cli clu coa coc cod coi cok col com con coo cop cor cos cou cov cra cre cro cub cul cur cut dal dam dar das dat daw day dea deb dec dee del dem den des dia dic die dir dis div doc doe dol dom don doo dos dov dow dra dre dro dru dua duc duf duk dul dum dus dut eac ear eas eat ech edg edi els env epi eur eve evi exa exi exp eye fac fad fai fak fal fam far fas fat fea fee fel fil fin fir fis fiv fla fle fli flo flu foa foi fol fon foo for fou fre fro fuc fue ful fun fur fus gai gal gam gan gat gav gaz gea gen gif gil gir giv gla gle glo glu goa goe gol gon goo gor gow gra gre gri gro gul gur hai hal han har hat hau hav haw hea hee hei hel her hid hig hik hil hin hir hol hom hoo hop hor hos hou hug hul hun hur hyp ico ide idl ido inc inf int iri iro isl ite jac jai jak jan jav jaz jea jee jil joe joh joi jok jos jum jun jur jus kee kem ken kep kha kic kil kin kir kis kit kne kni kno koh kyl lac lad lai lak lam lan las lat lav law laz lea lef len les lev lie lif lik lil lim lin lio lis liv loa loc lof log lon loo lor los lou lov luc lum lun lur lus mad mai mak mal mam man mar mas mat may maz mea mee meg mel mem men mer mes mic mik mil min mis moc mod mol mon moo mor mos mov muc mus myt nai nam nav nea nec nee nes new nex nic nin nod non noo nor nos not nov nud nut oat obe odd odo oka onc onl ont ope ora ott our ova ove pac pag pai pal pap par pas pat pea pec pee pes pic pie pik pil pin pip pit pla ple plo plu poe pol pon poo pop por pos pou pra pre pro pul pum pun pur pus qui rac rag rai ram ran rap rar ras rat rav rea ree rel ren res ric rid rin rio rip ris rit roa roc rod rol roo rop ros rub rud rui rul rus rut sac saf sag sai sak sal sam san sav sca sco sea see sel sem sen sep sex sha she shi sho shu sic sid sig sil sin sit siz ski sla sli slo sna sno soa sod sof soi sol som son soo sor sou spa spi spo spu sta ste sti sto suc sui sun sur swa swi tac tai tak tal tan tap tas tax tea tec tee tel ten ter tes tex tha the thi tho thu tic tid tie til tim tin tir tob tol tom ton too top tor tos tou tow tra tre tri tro tru tub tuc tun tur twi typ ugl uni upo urg use vai var vas vei ver ves vet vic vie vin vis voi vot wad wag wai wak wal wan war was wat wav way wea wee wel wen wer wes wha whe whi who wid wif wil win wip wir wis wit wok wol woo wor wra yan yar yea you yua zer zin zon zoo

[kustas]

im curious if videogames are a type of media you enjoy & if so, what titles do you like?

I do like video games a lot but I'm not that much of a gamer, so a lot of my enjoyment comes from analyzing how games are made and watching others play them. Following this, there's two types of games I really like.

The first type are simple games who revolve around a single mechanic that could not be achieved without the medium. The video game equivalent of something like UNO who's so damn simple and fun you learn it fast and can play it for ages. Some titles (in bold for those I've played):

Katamari

Donut County

Fruit Ninja

Suika/2048

Tetris

Zuma

etc

All these games rely on one mechanic you just couldn't do physically and need a computer and screen for, and are both simple to learn and hard to master. Imo, it takes a genius to come up with stuff like this.

Second type of games I adore ties more in my appreciation for fantasy and stories and it's games who rely on exploring a made up world more or less organically as part of their point. This is kinda vague, but types I really enjoy are either pre-written stories which involve a strong setting OR role-playing games where you can play as any character with the game responding to your choices and letting you fuck around and find out, and nothing in between. That second sort is what I've played most I think, but are increasingly hard to find.

Linear stories in cool world titles:

Darkest Dungeon

JSR+F

Anything Fumito Ueda, by far my favorite game designer. Shadow of the Colossus is his most famous, I've played ICO and Last Guardian in parts

Good ass RPGs:

Fallout New Vegas

Fallen London

Morrowind

There's some misc other series/titles I enjoy but that don't fit those categories: MGS 1 2 3 5, Bayonetta 1&2, Monster Hunter World, Minecraft and various VS fighters coming to mind

[sionisjaune]

Thanks @onadarklingplain @kritischetheologie and @powerful-owl for the tag!

Rules: Post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to AO3. (Sort by date posted.) If you have less than 10 fics posted, post what you have.

i think you like it, laughed when you came down

The yacht bobs on the calm waters of the Mediterranean, yawing side to side at the behest of gentle waves.

on golden sands

Seb’s apartment isn’t empty.

got a mood about me but no one to love me

Christian is a little bit drunk.

those who miss each other

Charles reviews the video: On the small box of his phone, he is framed from chest up, with the Ferrari shield blazing brightly behind him.

soul as sweet as blood-red jam

Carlos doesn’t take vacations, as far as Lando knows.

feedback on low latency

Lewis lets the whole world know during a preseason press conference.

soft rock star

“I’m going to propose.”

(This is less than 10 because I'm choosing not to post pre-F1 fic.)

Tagging @vegasgrandprix @cuetheviolins @jenseclaren @colors-of-feeling and @n-ico-ando if they want to do the same!

[aixxriston]

Biswap (BSW), Terra Classic (LUNC) Holders Buy More Chronoly (CRNO) As It Launches on 6 October

The highly volatile crypto market still boasts of a token like Chronoly (CRNO) that has managed to weather the crypto waves without losing its value. The duo of Biswap (BSW) and Terra Classic (LUNC) have witnessed massive dumps by their holders in recent times due to the bearish posture of the crypto market. These two projects are backed by reputable individuals and influencers and offer exciting use cases.

Since the market is highly volatile, it is a no-brainer for investors to jump ship in search of projects that can beat the bear market, and that's why they are purchasing more Chronoly (CRNO), even as the latter's pre-sale has completely sold out.

Read on to find out the reason behind the ship jumping and other developments on the market.

Will Biswap (BSW) Get The Momentum Back?

The constant crypto crashes have taken a toll on not only Bitcoin, but also on smaller projects like Biswap (BSW). The market downturn has made token holders dump the project for a viable alternative like Chronoly (CRNO). However, the developmental team is working round the clock to reverse the narrative. First, it has partnered with reputable influencers to promote the brand and generate more younger leads/investors. Secondly, the team plans to list the native token, BSW, on multiple decentralized exchanges. The essence of the listing is to encourage massive adoption by investors from across the world.

At its core, Biswap (BSW) is a decentralized exchange that's built on the Binance Smart Chain to help crypto users easily swap tokens. Biswap (BSW) has a low crypto trading fee of 0.1%. As of the time of writing this piece, Biswap (BSW) trades for $0.263081 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $5,945,816 USD.

Can Terra Classic (LUNC) Reach $1 By 2023?

Terra Classic (LUNC) experienced a boost from new users in the first quarter of 2022, and then the bear market struck the global crypto market. As with Biswap (BSW), Terra Classic (LUNC) holders have also joined investors jumping ship to join the Chronoly (CRNO) bandwagon. The reason for this may not be unconnected to the massive growth experienced by Chronoly.

Luna Classic (LUNC) is the original Terra Luna coin left behind following the launch of a new Terra chain after the recent UST/Luna collapse. Despite the move by Terra Classic (LUNC) holders, the project's CEO has assured the remaining investors still in the network that the bear market is temporary and that LUNC token will recover once the market breaks support.

At press time, Terra Classic trades for $0.000297 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $286,803,165 USD.

Chronoly (CRNO) Launches On October 6 After a Successful ICO

Despite the dip in the global crypto market, Chronoly (CRNO) has been more successful than the duo of Biswap (BSW) and Terra Classic (LUNC). The reason for the success is not far-fetched: Chronoly (CRNO) is a project that is backed by real assets. Timepieces or luxury watches have been proven to be a hedge against inflation.

Timepieces usually shine during government upheaval and war, and the Chronoly team decided to invest in this space. Chronoly (CRNO) is an Ethereum-powered marketplace that's scheduled to launch on October 6. The marketplace will allow traders and investors can buy, sell, and trade in rare luxury watches from popular brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, and Audemars Piguet, with as low as $10.

Since its inception, Chronoly (CRNO) has grown by over 690%, attracting the attention of both institutional and retail investors from across the world. The Chronoly team recently completed and sold out its ICO. With the milestone recorded in the just concluded ICO, the Chronoly team will redouble its efforts to provide users with the opportunity to earn membership benefits and lottery prizes.

[signzytech]

The finance and banking sector is becoming increasingly digitized and globally accessible. Consequently, we are witnessing a sharp surge in the demand for remote identification services. The goal of KYC video identification services is to make life easy for banks and their customers.

The financial institutions of India face a number of issues. KYC and other compliance processes are a couple of them. At present, there are quite a few solutions provided by fintechs for digital transformation in the market. These are stable and secure enough for financial companies to adopt right off the board.

The Need for a Global Digital Trust System

Since the world is getting more and more connected, people today want to access services from the comfort of their homes. When it comes to the identification process, carrying out banking procedures becomes a hassle in these scenarios.

This is where ID Identification comes in. A KYC video identification process allows banks and other financial institutions to verify customers while onboarding them through video over the Internet.

This is an attractive option for financial companies. It eliminates security vulnerabilities and minimizes loopholes. Identity frauds deter our growth as a financial institution and as a nation. This will allow financial companies to build a global network of customers.

Used effectively, KYC video identification can help speed up customer onboarding. And, it helps with KYC/AML compliances. Online video KYC eliminates security gaps by combining human scrutiny with both software and AI and ML-enabled learning.

Use Cases and Applications of Video KYC

Video KYC has started it’s journey across the financial services industry. Institutions like banks, lenders, investor onboarding and ICO’s have shown a great interest in the potential of VideoKYC.

A KYC video identification system can allow all of these organizations to maintain excellent standards of compliance and trust while not compromising on the customer experience.

The Challenges with Legacy KYC Process

Traditionally the KYC process has been tedious and cumbersome in terms of:

Maintaining physical documents that occupy space, take time, and utilize manpower.

Processing documents offline which brings with it the threat of misuse of documents.

Delays in processing the files hamper the customer experience. Usually known as increases in the turnaround time (TAT).

In-person verification: Requires the person’s availability and beats the globalization of financial services.

The time and cost involved in the legacy KYC process hamper the efficiency of a banker. You can choose to eliminate this hindrance by using video KYC.

Choosing the right KYC Video solution

There are quite a few solutions available in the market that promise to transform the traditional KYC process and upgrade it. We encourage you to look for these indicators to make sure your investment in a video KYC solution brings maximum ROI.

The solution should an offer exceptional face match score. Comparing the following two will help to eliminate the possibility of any fraudulent activity: 1. Photo identity submitted by the customer, and 2. The real-time video session.

The solution should have AI and ML embedded to detect and eliminate static photographs or pre-recorded videos.

The offering should also be able to check the liveliness of the user by carrying out a speech test. This is where the user is prompted to speak a series of numbers or words which is then matched with the audio recorded on the live streaming.

The solution should be integrated with video forensics to detect tampering or misuse of any nature.

The software should be easy to implement with an API, SDK, and a webcam for video KYC.

The proposed offering should have a quick turnaround time and should ideally take only a few minutes to complete the verification process.

An added provision of completely automating the video KYC process should also be a part of the solution.

The solution is 100% compliant with the local regulations.

The proposed solution can reduce overheads and backlogs in operations by upto 70%.

Installation and usage is hassle free for most users as the solution is platform agnostic and follows a Plug-n-Play approach.

A seamless interface provides a superior customer experience for a competitive advantage in the market.

A vibrant, engaging solution reduces customer drop-offs by upto 50%.

Paperless video KYC can empower financial organizations and change the way customers are treated and brought onboard.

How Does Video KYC Work?

The customer fills up a registration form on your website.

The customer provides relevant document identities such as National IDs, driver’s licenses or Passports.

A customer verification specialist connects with the customer on video, or an automated process is triggered for video KYC.

Using their smartphone or a webcam, the customer can be directed through the video KYC process in a seamless manner. (To completely eliminate any chances of error, along with AI and ML, facial recognition technology can be leveraged here.)

Once the documents are verified and the user is identified over a live video, they are sent back to the bank’s website. Next, the user can submit the process of onboarding.

Advantages of Video KYC for Financial Companies

Financial institutions stand only to gain from Video KYC solutions.

Save time —  Video KYC speeds up the onboarding process significantly. It allows you to process more applications at the same time and increase revenue. Also, you eliminate the need to train your staff on identity verifications because you have an automated system helping you with it.

Save money — Identity frauds can cost you money. Video KYC procedures save time and keep fraudulent people at bay.

Compliance — Meet the necessary Anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer compliances with a video KYC software that already complies with the Indian regulations.

Improve security — Video KYC software solutions are powered by AI, ML, and facial recognition technology. These are far superior and secure alternatives to traditional KYC processes.

Gather data — With video KYC, you can record all conversations and keep this data for future reference.

Video KYC Solution from Signzy

With the KYC video solution we offer, you can:

Match the provider of documents with their identity on the documents through face match algorithms.

Build trust with the customer through a live video feed.

Verify the actual documents with forgery detection algorithms.

Trust the document provider with algorithmic risk intelligence.

When our first client used our video KYC product for customer onboarding, they achieved jaw-dropping results:

Reduced TAT by 55%

Slashed rejections from 9% to 2%

Increased sales productivity three times.

Signzy is now completely integrated into the core customer onboarding process of over 15 enterprises in the BFSI sector.

Use our new-age trust protocol to improve customer experience, cut down costs, and simplify onboarding.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

[blockchainxtech]

Navigating Tokenomics: Key Concepts for Sustainable Crypto Tokens

Introduction

When it comes to crypto assets, a token’s success and survival is mostly reliant on its tokenomics. Tokenomics is the economic design and structure of a token, which motivates its creation and outlines demand and supply factors, as well as its durability over time. In this article, we will explore the fundamentals of tokenomics and provide guidelines for the creation of a token with lasting value in the crypto token development space.

1. Understanding Token Supply Dynamics

Fixed Supply vs. Inflationary Models: The token structure in its supply, is it nearing a capped structure like Bitcoin or an inflationary structure like Ethereum, is very important in its value proposition. Deflationary pressures on fixed-supply tokens can arise due to increased demand, however, inflationary models require certain structures to be put in place in order to protect their values.

Burn Mechanisms: The removal of certain tokenized assets sometimes known as ‘burning’ erodes their availability for purchase thus creating scarcity and potentially raising their value. Some of the common burning mechanisms are manual burns and automatically executed economic models of ‘buy back and burn’.

2. Distribution Strategy

Pre-Mine and Initial Distribution: It is very important that every member starts on level ground at the beginning. Options range from Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and Initial DEX Offerings (IDOs) to airdrops. A properly timed and executed launch strategy ensures wide distribution of the tokens hence centralization risks are minimized.

Vesting Schedules: Team members and venture capitalists are required to follow a vesting schedule that prohibits them from dumping the tokens for a certain period of time thus locking up the tokens. This helps to maintain the price and most importantly, builds trust for the long term.

3. Incentive Structures

Staking Rewards: The concept of staking is largely accepted as it serves the holders best and also cuts down on the selling. In this instance the tokens put into staking cannot be sold immediately and hence lowers the circulating supply endorsing price stability.

Liquidity Mining and Yield Farming: It is also possible for users to earn extra tokens for their participation in providing liquidity to decentralized exchanges or lending protocols. This extra benefit helps in expanding the use cases of the token.

4. Governance and Utility Value

Governance Rights: Governance models allow for token-based voting on the key decisions of the project. This enhances utility and value, making sure that holders would want to retain their tokens for a voice in how the project is driven.

Utility and Use Cases: Utility tokens must serve a significant function, be it as a means of exchange, an aid to reach certain aspects, or as payment of fees on the platform. A utility-rich token will always have equivalent supply and demand, thereby supporting its price level.

5. Monetary Policy and Inflation Control

Emissions and Inflation Rates: While it is important to create incentives for users to participate, the issue of inflation must be kept in check as well. Existing mechanisms such as fixed prohibitions on inflation or regular emissions cuts (such as Bitcoin’s halvings), can help with overall inflation control.

Dynamic Supply Adjustments: There are also provisions for adjusting the supply of the token when certain demand levels become necessary. In this case when the demand is already satisfied, the supply is lowered in order not to raise the price of the token.

6. Token Liquidity and Exchange Listings

Liquidity Pools: The provision of liquidity pools on DEXs generates a space for a buy and sell of the tokens at any given time. It also helps to motivate liquidity providers in order to minimize the slippage which also improves the overall trading experience.

Exchange Listings: The amount and quality of platforms that a particular Token is availed to, affects not only the Token Omics in terms of liquidity but the overall market perceptions too.

7. Community Engagement and Network Effects

Building a Strong Community: In the case of successful tokens, community involvement is the key factor which ensures that the holders care about the positive outcome of the project. As a result, community-led actions and information sharing are beneficial in establishing trust and loyalty for the long run.

Network Effects: The principle is that the token’s value increases with the number of people using it. In particular, this is true for the platform tokens where the more users there are the more the tokens are required such as developing a circle that sustains itself.

Conclusion

The practice of tokenomics is intricate yet significant in ensuring the durability of crypto tokens designed. A sound tokenomic model incorporates issues such as supply and demand, incentive, utility, and the community. By concentrating on these core ideas, developers of tokens will be able to build tokens that are up and running in the short term, but also have the strength and value within them to weather the storms of the market and have investors willing to hold them for the long-term.

[albertpeter]

Why Is Token Economics Important in ICO Development Solutions?

In recent years, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a popular fundraising mechanism for blockchain-based projects. Unlike traditional fundraising methods, ICOs enable startups to raise capital by issuing tokens that can be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges. While the technological aspects of an ICO are vital, one of the most critical components that can determine the success or failure of an ICO is its token economics. This article will explore what token economics entails, its significance in ICO development solutions, and how it can affect the overall success of a project.

Understanding Token Economics

Token economics, often referred to as "tokenomics," is the study of the economic system surrounding a cryptocurrency or token. It encompasses the design, distribution, utility, and value proposition of tokens within a specific ecosystem. Tokenomics is crucial because it influences how tokens are perceived by investors, how they function within the platform, and how they can sustain long-term growth and value.

Key Components of Token Economics

Utility: The utility of a token refers to its function within the ecosystem. A token should have a clear purpose, such as facilitating transactions, granting access to services, or rewarding participants. Utility tokens are essential for building a user base and driving adoption.

Supply and Demand: The supply of tokens is a critical factor in determining their value. Projects must decide on the total supply of tokens and how they will be distributed. A well-structured supply mechanism can create scarcity, driving demand and increasing the token’s value.

Incentive Mechanisms: Token economics must incorporate incentives to encourage user participation and investment. This can include staking rewards, loyalty programs, or governance rights that allow token holders to influence the project’s direction.

Distribution Model: The way tokens are distributed can impact the success of an ICO. A fair and transparent distribution model can help build trust among investors and ensure a broad base of token holders. This may involve strategies such as airdrops, pre-sales, or vesting periods for team members.

Governance: Token governance refers to how decisions are made within the ecosystem. A robust governance model can empower token holders, fostering a sense of community and shared ownership, which can lead to more sustainable development.

Importance of Token Economics in ICO Development

1. Attracting Investors

Token economics plays a pivotal role in attracting investors to an ICO. Investors are increasingly looking for projects that demonstrate a well-thought-out economic model. A clear utility and value proposition for the token can help convince potential investors of the project's viability. When tokenomics is transparent and sound, it builds trust, making investors more likely to participate.

2. Ensuring Project Sustainability

A well-designed token economic model can contribute to the long-term sustainability of a project. By carefully considering factors such as token supply, demand, and distribution, projects can create an ecosystem that incentivizes user engagement and loyalty. For example, implementing staking mechanisms can encourage token holders to retain their tokens, reducing selling pressure and promoting price stability.

3. Driving Adoption and Usage

Token economics directly impacts the adoption and usage of a token within its ecosystem. If the token serves a useful function, users will be more likely to engage with the platform. For instance, tokens that provide access to premium features, discounts, or exclusive content can enhance user experience and encourage more frequent usage.

4. Creating a Competitive Edge

In a crowded market, a unique and compelling token economic model can provide a competitive advantage. Projects that offer innovative tokenomics, such as novel incentive structures or community governance, can differentiate themselves from others. This uniqueness can be a deciding factor for investors when choosing between competing projects.

5. Building Community Trust

Token economics fosters community trust and engagement. When token holders feel that they have a say in the project's direction through governance mechanisms, they are more likely to become advocates for the project. A strong community can be a powerful asset, driving marketing efforts, providing feedback, and promoting adoption.

Challenges in Token Economics

While the importance of token economics in ICO development is clear, there are several challenges that projects may face:

1. Complexity

Designing an effective token economic model can be complex. Projects must consider various factors, including legal implications, market dynamics, and technological capabilities. Missteps in this process can lead to poor token performance and investor disillusionment.

2. Regulatory Scrutiny

With increasing regulatory scrutiny surrounding cryptocurrencies and ICOs, projects must ensure that their tokenomics complies with local laws and regulations. This may involve careful structuring of token sales to avoid being classified as securities, which could impose additional compliance burdens.

3. Market Volatility

The cryptocurrency market is notoriously volatile. Even with a well-structured token economic model, external market factors can significantly impact a token's value. Projects must be prepared to navigate this volatility and adapt their strategies as needed.

4. Investor Expectations

Investors often have high expectations regarding returns on investment. A poorly communicated or misunderstood token economic model can lead to unrealistic expectations, resulting in dissatisfaction and negative sentiment if those expectations are not met.

Best Practices for Developing Token Economics in ICOs

To mitigate challenges and maximize the effectiveness of token economics in ICO development, projects should consider the following best practices:

1. Conduct Thorough Research

Before developing a token economic model, projects should conduct comprehensive research on similar projects, market trends, and investor preferences. Understanding the landscape can help in creating a more effective and appealing tokenomics structure.

2. Engage the Community

Involving the community in the development of token economics can lead to valuable insights and foster a sense of ownership. Feedback from potential users and investors can help refine the model and ensure that it aligns with their needs and expectations.

3. Maintain Transparency

Transparency is crucial in building trust with investors. Projects should clearly communicate the tokenomics model, including the purpose of the token, distribution plans, and incentive mechanisms. Providing regular updates and being open about challenges can further strengthen investor confidence.

4. Monitor and Adapt

Token economics is not a one-time effort; it requires ongoing monitoring and adaptation. Projects should track the performance of their token and be willing to make adjustments as necessary to respond to market conditions and community feedback.

Conclusion

Token economics is a fundamental aspect of ICO development solutions that can significantly influence the success of a project. A well-designed token economic model not only attracts investors but also ensures sustainability, drives adoption, and fosters community trust. By understanding and implementing effective tokenomics, projects can create a robust foundation for growth and long-term viability in the competitive landscape of blockchain technology. As the cryptocurrency space continues to evolve, the importance of thoughtful and innovative token economics will only increase, making it essential for any project aiming for success in the ICO arena.