Mon 05/03

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As far as our Monday news goes, India is planning to try offline CBDC out, STUDEGRAM is creating dApps to verify resumes, the US may not be happy with what they have found out about Binance and Polygon takes the lead in zkEVM Rollup.

₹ India Plans On Testing CBDC For Offline usage: Ajay Kumar Choudhary, the executive director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has announced that the digital rupee, India's newly launched CBDC, is undergoing testing for offline functionality. The wholesale segment pilot of the digital rupee commenced on Nov. 1, 2022, with 50,000 users and 5,000 merchants onboarding for real-world testing. The wholesale CBDCs have recorded around $134 million and 800,000 transactions as of Feb. 25. The RBI is now assessing the potential of the CBDC for cross-border transactions and its integration with legacy systems of other countries. He also stated that the CBDC would have all features of physical currency, including anonymity, and is aimed at boosting financial inclusion and the digital economy in India. He added that the CBDC would eventually replace cryptocurrencies and invited private sector and fintech participation in CBDC development.

📑 STUDEGRAM Creates dApps To Verify The Authenticity Of Students’ “claims” In Their Resumes: Studegram, a start-up based in Calicut, is developing decentralized applications (dApps) for the career and character development of the school and professional students. Studegram Pro utilizes advanced blockchain technology to authenticate the accuracy of students' claims in their resumes. All of an individual's academic and professional accomplishments will be logged on an immutable private blockchain network. Students can upload their academic certificates, work experience, and other pertinent details onto the platform, creating a comprehensive digital resume that potential employers can access only when granted permission by the individual. This guarantees that employers receive only genuine and reliable information, reducing the time and effort required for background checks.

📀 Binance May Have Had Access To Sensitive US Data: A recent report by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that cryptocurrency exchange platforms Binance and Binance.US are far more integrated than publicly disclosed. Chinese developers reportedly maintain the software code that supports Binance.US users' digital wallets, which could potentially grant Binance access to sensitive customer data in the US. The report alleges that Binance launched Binance.US out of fear of a crackdown on unregulated offshore crypto players. Despite attempts to create a seemingly independent American platform licensed by Binance, the WSJ reports that Binance proposed having SEC Chair Gary Gensler serve as an advisor, which was rejected. However, Gensler did share some "license strategies" with Binance employees in the past. In late 2018, a Binance employee suggested establishing a U.S.-based business and launching "major PR efforts demonstrating US operation's willingness to exceed SEC expectations and serve as an industry resource for the SEC," according to a presentation reviewed by the WSJ.

🕵🏻 Tether Denies WSJ Allegations Of Falsified Bank Documents: Tether Holdings and a crypto broker are accused of using false documents to conceal identities, according to a Wall Street Journal report on March 3. Tether's owner, Stephen Moore, allegedly advised a major China-based trader to stop using fraudulent invoices and contacts to obtain bank accounts. The report suggests that at least one Tether executive may be complicit in the fraud. However, Tether has denied the allegations, referring to the article as "wholly inaccurate and misleading." While Tether did not address the specific claims in the article, it rejected the accusations in general.

🥇 Polygon Looks To Be The First To Deploy An Ethereum Mainnet Release For Their zkEVM Rollup Set For Mar. 27: Jordi Baylina, the leader of the technical team developing the Polygon zkEVM, described the project as a complete engineering project that involves building a processor with different teams working on each layer. In a video, Baylina explained that the system is censorship-resistant but not universal and that they have created a new processor, assembly, and way of writing hardware. There is a competition to be the first to deploy the technology, with Polygon zkEVM aiming to reduce transaction costs by up to 90%. Other projects include zkSync 2.0, which is live on Ethereum Testnet for writing Solidity smart contracts, StarkNET using ZK-STARKs, and Scroll prioritizing security and transparency in building a highly composable solution.

ZERO-KNOWLEDGE ROLLUPS: Zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) are layer 2 scaling solutions that increase throughput on Ethereum Mainnet by moving computation and state-storage off-chain. ZK-rollups can process thousands of transactions in a batch and then only post some minimal summary data to Mainnet. This summary data defines the changes that should be made to the Ethereum state and some cryptographic proof that those changes are correct.