#229 - Here's What You May Have Missed About Apple Vision 🕶️

GM and welcome back to Decentra Daily.

We're the web3 newsletter that’s written by the first dog to receive a Neuralink implant.

Today

1. Apple’s AR-first product updates 🕶️

2. The SEC’s market-crashing Binance lawsuit 👨🏻‍⚖️

What's this? 🤔
Our floor price index tracks the biggest, most influential pfp projects, art collections, and gaming assets.

1. Apple aims for a blended world with WWDC keynote

I’m guessing you’ve seen Apple's new device by now?

The $3.4K bug-eye headset is called Vision (not “Reality” as was rumored) and will introduce the world to “spatial computing” next year.

Vision runs on “Vision OS,” which turns your surroundings into a screen controlled by eye movements, voice, and gesture.

The headset has “more pixels than a 4K TV, for each eye,” and a glass eyepiece, which reveals the wearer’s eyes when another person enters the room.

Spatial computing means creating the sense of apps and screens existing in the space around the wearer. Vision apps even cast artificial shadows to increase immersion.

You can watch 3D movies at cinema scale, spread out your entire computer around the room, or see your Twitter feed scrolling endlessly down the walls of your child’s bedroom. Crazy stuff.

But, here’s what I found most interesting about Apple’s keynote:

Vision Pro is not some isolated project resulting from Apple’s desire to jump on the metaverse bandwagon.

Instead, Vision leads an Apple ecosystem update that pushes forward Tim Cook’s belief that “augmented reality is a profound technology.”

Based on WWDC 2023, Apple looks set to spend the next few years blurring the line between the physical and digital world.

Here are 3 other announcements from the WWDC keynote that hint at Apple’s commitment to a mixed-reality future:

1. Powerful gaming upgrades

Apple has always lagged behind competitors when it comes to gaming – but thanks to the company’s new silicon chips, they seem ready to compete with consoles and PCs.

To show off its latest hardware, Apple is making the Death Stranding Director’s Cut available on Mac.

The well-known game by legendary developer Hideo Kojima is apparently the start of a relationship between him and Apple, with Kojima saying that his team is “actively working to bring future titles to Apple platforms.”

– It’s a strong signal that Apple’s AR ecosystem will support high-quality graphical experiences.

2. Mixed reality Zooming

Presenter Overlay is a new Apple feature for video calls. It’s like an advanced combination of screen-share and Zoom’s “blurry background” tool.

Using Overlay, you can display content directly inside your video call window.

Based on the examples shown during the keynote, you can turn yourself into a popout bubble that hovers above your content, or walk around your presentation while you pretend to be the local news weather guy.

Who says you need a headset for AR?

3. Airpods Adaptive Audio

This new feature lets you wear your AirPods for 24 hours per day, instead of just the usual 20.

Apple’s adaptive audio tech detects when you need to interact with the outside world and automatically lowers earbud volume while letting in more outside sound.

– It’s another small feature that helps ease the transition between the physical and digital.

Apple is designing a world where its apps are never more than a gesture or click away. helpful, for sure …but also a little oppressive?

Also previewed at yesterday’s event: a new Macbook Air and Pro, a more customizable iOS, a journaling app, plus “Shareplay” for watching TV while Facetiming.

Watch: Apple’s WWDC full Keynote presentation

On the web3 wire

There’s a ChatGPT bot playing Minecraft ⛏️
Accessing the game’s code via an API, the bot named Voyager sets itself in-game objectives, then completes them as a way to learn the rules and mechanics of Minecraft. Voyager is becoming a better player over time.

People have stopped searching for “crypto” on Google 🔎
It looks like the crypto and NFT hype that swept across mainstream culture in 2021 has now receded, with the space returning to the hands of specialists and degens.

One of Ethereum’s co-founders just moved over $40 million to an exchange 🤔
While the wallet that moved 22K ETH to Kraken is anonymous, Nansen says they’re confident that its owner is Jeffrey Wilcke, the person who built the original version of web3s favorite blockchain.

Notable Tweets

2. The SEC’s Binance lawsuit sent markets spinning

The good folks over at the SEC woke up on a balmy June Monday and chose violence, deciding to sue the s*** out of Binance.

– Which caused a huge crypto sell-off. The slide started with Binance’s token $BNB, then spread to pretty much every major currency, wiping over $50 billion from the global crypto market cap.

The lawsuit contains 13 charges and alleges multiple violations of securities laws. It’s filed against Binance, Binance US, and CZ himself.

It accuses Binance of offering unregistered securities services and knowingly “comingling” user funds, sending them outside the company’s ecosystem.

CZ says he’s “standing by, ensuring systems are stable, including withdrawals, and deposits.” Here’s the exchange’s official response.

Here are 5 takeaways 👀 from the whole debacle:

#1 “We are operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.”

It’s probably not great to be quoted as saying that your company is a “fking unlicensed securities exchange” when trying to defend the legality of your business. The suit claims that Binance’s CCO said this back in 2018. 😂

Although, from our understanding of the ongoing “exchanges vs the SEC” saga, it’s currently basically impossible for US crypto exchanges to officially register with the agency and obtain a license.

#2 The SEC calls $BNB, $BUSD (and a bunch of other tokens) securities

Gensler & Co. say that Binance offered “investment” into “contracts” for its ecosystem token (BNB) and stablecoin (BUSD) – making them both unregistered securities.

The SEC also takes the opportunity to throw SOL, ADA, MATIC, and other popular cryptocurrencies into the same illegal securities bucket.

#3 The document contains screenshots of founder Tweets

Among the evidence cited in the lawsuit is a screenshot of a Tweet from the founder of the cryptocurrency Polygon.

The SEC is attempting to argue that crypto founders regularly promote their products as investments, despite what companies may say through official channels.

#4 $BNB plummets

As details of the lawsuit began to appear on social media, Binance’s token took a huge hit, with over $3.5 billion lost from $BNB’s value in just 15 minutes.

#5 And it looks like atleast one Binance insider profited from a tipoff about the lawsuit

Sometimes, Binance really doesn’t help itself…

Read more: Here’s the full 136-page SEC document

Decentra Daily is brought to you by Kraken

What if I told you about an NFT marketplace & crypto exchange that gives you multi-chain access...

Where you can buy NFTs with fiat or 200 different cryptocurrencies...

For fees as low as 0%...

Where every NFT comes with a built-in rarity ranking...

Kraken is a crypto exchange and NFT marketplace built from the floor up. It's designed to provide traders and collectors with a secure, dynamic, and seamless trading experience.

And now introducing: Kraken Pro

Build your own, fully custom, real-time advanced crypto trading dashboards with Kraken Pro.

Access spot trading, margin, and staking – all via one powerful and very sexy interface.

Meme of the day

Have a gud day! 👋