Month: August 2024
NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Saturday, August 24 (game #440)
Looking for NYT Connections answers and hints? Here’s all you need to know to solve today’s game, plus my commentary on the puzzles.
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.
What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #440) – today’s words
(Image credit: New York Times)
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
NATIONALTALKSLIPLATINJARGONSTEALBUDGETTIPTOEWHISPERSENVIRONPLEADENTERPRISECREEPSPECULATIONTHRIFTYRUMBLING
NYT Connections today (game #440) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
Yellow: Might have been saidGreen: Walk like a mouseBlue: Hired wheelsPurple: Mislead is another
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #440) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
YELLOW: HEARSAYGREEN: MOVE STEALTHILYBLUE: CAR RENTAL COMPANIESPURPLE: ENDING WITH CHEMICAL ELEMENTS
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #440) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Connections, game #440, are…
YELLOW: VISUAL INTERFACE DISPLAY, MONITOR, SCREEN, TERMINALGREEN: BURLESQUE WEAR BOA, CORSET, FAN, GLOVESBLUE: BEIGE SHADES BUFF, CREAM, FAWN, TANPURPLE: LANGUAGE HOMOPHONES BASK, CHECK, FINISH, TIE
My rating: ModerateMy score: 1 mistake
I’m determined to regain my Connections form, following three failures in a week, so I took extra care over today’s game. And it was just as well – because it’s another potentially difficult one.
I was at a disadvantage compared to some players from the start, because the blue group, CAR RENTAL COMPANIES, contains companies that to my knowledge do not operate outside of the United States, meaning that those of us who don’t hail from the US might well have struggled with it. I might have guessed it anyway, if one of them was another global company, but as it was I left that group until the end and solved it by default.
That I was able to do so owed a lot to my having solved the most difficult purple group early on, which I was very pleased about; this was a clever connection that involved the end of the word being a chemical element – for instance LEAD in PLEAD or TIN in LATIN – but I was on the lookout for that kind of devious trick by the NYT, and spotted it right away. Phew!
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Friday, 23 August, game #439)
YELLOW: VISUAL INTERFACE DISPLAY, MONITOR, SCREEN, TERMINALGREEN: BURLESQUE WEAR BOA, CORSET, FAN, GLOVESBLUE: BEIGE SHADES BUFF, CREAM, FAWN, TANPURPLE: LANGUAGE HOMOPHONES BASK, CHECK, FINISH, TIE
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
Top 10 Web3 Marketing Agencies in 2024
The digital marketing landscape has undergone significant transformation over the past decade, diversifying to address the unique needs of various industries. Today’s digital marketing spectrum encompasses social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, mobile marketing, AI marketing, and blockchain/Web3 marketing, among
The post Top 10 Web3 Marketing Agencies in 2024 first appeared on Tech Startups.
The digital marketing landscape has undergone significant transformation over the past decade, diversifying to address the unique needs of various industries. Today’s digital marketing spectrum encompasses social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, mobile marketing, AI marketing, and blockchain/Web3 marketing, among […]
The post Top 10 Web3 Marketing Agencies in 2024 first appeared on Tech Startups.
Valve officially announces Deadlock, a game ‘in early development’
Valve has finally, officially announced Deadlock, in the most minimal way imaginable. The game now has a Steam page that lists Valve as its developer and publisher, and a simple notice:
Deadlock is in early development with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay. Access is currently limited to friend invite via our playtesters.
Valve provides no other details, just an animated teaser image. (You can see a still screenshot of it above.) The system requirements only mention that the game requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
While the game has ostensibly been a secret until now, details about it have been trickling out for months. Information started to emerge from closed playtests in May. By August, tens of thousands of people were playing the game, as more players invited their friends to check it out. The Verge received an invite and published a hands-on preview last week.
Today, many streamers are playing the game live, including Shroud, after admin Yoshi said in the game’s Discord that Valve was lifting its rules against public conversation.
Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge
While Deadlock seems like another promising addition to Valve’s lineup of big multiplayer games, it’s unclear if it will have sustained popularity like Counter-Strike or Dota 2 or will eventually fizzle out like Artifact.
Valve has finally, officially announced Deadlock, in the most minimal way imaginable. The game now has a Steam page that lists Valve as its developer and publisher, and a simple notice:
Deadlock is in early development with lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay. Access is currently limited to friend invite via our playtesters.
Valve provides no other details, just an animated teaser image. (You can see a still screenshot of it above.) The system requirements only mention that the game requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
While the game has ostensibly been a secret until now, details about it have been trickling out for months. Information started to emerge from closed playtests in May. By August, tens of thousands of people were playing the game, as more players invited their friends to check it out. The Verge received an invite and published a hands-on preview last week.
Today, many streamers are playing the game live, including Shroud, after admin Yoshi said in the game’s Discord that Valve was lifting its rules against public conversation.
Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge
While Deadlock seems like another promising addition to Valve’s lineup of big multiplayer games, it’s unclear if it will have sustained popularity like Counter-Strike or Dota 2 or will eventually fizzle out like Artifact.
US Sues Georgia Tech Over Alleged Cybersecurity Failings As a Pentagon Contractor
The Register’s Connor Jones reports: The U.S. is suing one of its leading research universities over a litany of alleged failures to meet cybersecurity standards set by the Department of Defense (DoD) for contract awardees. Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT), commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, and its contracting entity, Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC), are being investigated following whistleblower reports from insiders Christopher Craig and Kyle Koza about alleged (PDF) failures to protect controlled unclassified information (CUI). The series of allegations date back to 2019 and continued for years after, although Koza was said to have identified the issues as early as 2018.
Among the allegations is the suggestion that between May 2019 and February 2020, Georgia Tech’s Astrolavos Lab — ironically a group that focuses on cybersecurity issues affecting national security — failed to develop and implement a cybersecurity plan that complied with DoD standards (NIST 800-171). When the plan was implemented in February 2020, the lawsuit alleges that it wasn’t properly scoped — not all the necessary endpoints were included — and that for years afterward, Georgia Tech failed to maintain that plan in line with regulations. Additionally, the Astrolavos Lab was accused of failing to implement anti-malware solutions across devices and the lab’s network. The lawsuit alleges that the university approved the lab’s refusal to deploy the anti-malware software “to satisfy the demands of the professor that headed the lab,” the DoJ said. This is claimed to have occurred between May 2019 and December 2021. Refusing to install anti-malware solutions at a contractor like this is not allowed. In fact, it violates federal requirements and Georgia Tech’s own policies, but allegedly happened anyway.
The university and the GTRC also, it is claimed, submitted a false cybersecurity assessment score in December 2020 — a requirement for all DoD contractors to demonstrate they’re meeting compliance standards. The two organizations are accused of issuing themselves a score of 98, which was later deemed to be fraudulent based on various factors. To summarize, the issue centers around the claim that the assessment was carried out on a “fictitious” environment, so on that basis the score wasn’t given to a system related to the DoD contract, the US alleges. The claims are being made under the False Claims Act (FCA), which is being utilized by the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative (CCFI), which was introduced in 2021 to punish entities that knowingly risk the safety of United States IT systems. It’s a first-of-its-kind case being pursued as part of the CCFI. All previous cases brought under the CCFI were settled before they reached the litigation stage.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Register’s Connor Jones reports: The U.S. is suing one of its leading research universities over a litany of alleged failures to meet cybersecurity standards set by the Department of Defense (DoD) for contract awardees. Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT), commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, and its contracting entity, Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC), are being investigated following whistleblower reports from insiders Christopher Craig and Kyle Koza about alleged (PDF) failures to protect controlled unclassified information (CUI). The series of allegations date back to 2019 and continued for years after, although Koza was said to have identified the issues as early as 2018.
Among the allegations is the suggestion that between May 2019 and February 2020, Georgia Tech’s Astrolavos Lab — ironically a group that focuses on cybersecurity issues affecting national security — failed to develop and implement a cybersecurity plan that complied with DoD standards (NIST 800-171). When the plan was implemented in February 2020, the lawsuit alleges that it wasn’t properly scoped — not all the necessary endpoints were included — and that for years afterward, Georgia Tech failed to maintain that plan in line with regulations. Additionally, the Astrolavos Lab was accused of failing to implement anti-malware solutions across devices and the lab’s network. The lawsuit alleges that the university approved the lab’s refusal to deploy the anti-malware software “to satisfy the demands of the professor that headed the lab,” the DoJ said. This is claimed to have occurred between May 2019 and December 2021. Refusing to install anti-malware solutions at a contractor like this is not allowed. In fact, it violates federal requirements and Georgia Tech’s own policies, but allegedly happened anyway.
The university and the GTRC also, it is claimed, submitted a false cybersecurity assessment score in December 2020 — a requirement for all DoD contractors to demonstrate they’re meeting compliance standards. The two organizations are accused of issuing themselves a score of 98, which was later deemed to be fraudulent based on various factors. To summarize, the issue centers around the claim that the assessment was carried out on a “fictitious” environment, so on that basis the score wasn’t given to a system related to the DoD contract, the US alleges. The claims are being made under the False Claims Act (FCA), which is being utilized by the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative (CCFI), which was introduced in 2021 to punish entities that knowingly risk the safety of United States IT systems. It’s a first-of-its-kind case being pursued as part of the CCFI. All previous cases brought under the CCFI were settled before they reached the litigation stage.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A Giant Eyeball Exhibit Hints We Don’t Fully Know What New Tech Will Do to Our Vision
Research hasn’t linked long-term vision problems with tech use, but it also can’t keep up with the rate of new technology and all the time we spend with it.
Research hasn’t linked long-term vision problems with tech use, but it also can’t keep up with the rate of new technology and all the time we spend with it.
iOS 18 Notes App: All the New Features
With iOS 18, the Notes app is set to gain several new features. There aren’t many updates to the overall design, but Notes has deeper integrations with other apps that add all kinds of new functionality. There are also a few nifty iPad-only Notes features that involve the Apple Pencil.
Math Notes
Notes integrates with the Calculator app in iOS 18 for a new feature called Math Notes. Math Notes is designed to let you solve equations, so you can do things like add up your monthly budget, calculate what people owe for a group trip, or split a restaurant bill.
Math Notes works directly in the Notes app or in the Math Notes section of the Calculator app. Any equation that you type in is automatically solved when you add an equals sign, and there is support for variables.
If you define several variables, you can then use those definitions in your calculations. If you write dinner = $42, movies = $24, and dessert = $18 in the Notes app, you can then type in dinner + movies + dessert and add an equals sign to get the total. Variables can be used in equations and graphs (with a relevant equation) and adjusted later to change the results.
You can even do unit conversions with Math Notes. Just type in what you want to convert, and you’ll get the result. If you type in 10 euros to pounds in a note and then add an equals sign, the Notes app will give you the answer.
Apple says that Math Notes is able to solve all of the same functions as a scientific calculator.
Math Notes is available for math written using Western Arabic numerals and common mathematical symbols, or typed using Arabic (Eastern & Western) and Devanagari numerals and common mathematical symbols.
Math Notes in iPadOS 18
On the iPad, you can use Math Notes with the Apple Pencil. Just write out equations by hand and add an equals sign to have the Notes app solve them.
All of the Math Notes features work with handwriting, including unit conversions.
Audio Recording and Transcription
The Notes app can be used to record any audio, taking advantage of the microphones in the iPhone. To record audio, tap on the paperclip icon in the toolbar and then tap on the “Record Audio” button.
From there, tap on the red record button to start a recording, and the stop button to end it. The option to record audio right in the Notes app is useful for lectures, meetings, and more.
All recordings that you capture with the Notes app are automatically transcribed in real-time so you can read through what was recorded and even search for key phrases.
Audio recording and transcribing is available on the iPhone 12 and later, but the feature only works in English.
Phone App Recording
iOS 18 supports recording phone calls, and when you initiate a recording of a phone call, that recording is stored in the Notes app. Phone app recordings have all of the same functionality as audio recordings made in the Notes app, with transcriptions provided.
Transcription Summaries (Apple Intelligence)
Apple Intelligence can be used to summarize a transcript of an audio recording or a recorded phone call in the Notes app.
A device that supports Apple Intelligence is required for this feature, and that includes the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max and later as well as Macs and iPads with an M-series chip.
Collapsible Sections
If you have long notes with multiple headings, you can now collapse those headings down to create a more compact note.
Any section header can be collapsed, including headings, subheadings, and titles. Just tap on a heading and then tap on the down arrow to collapse it. Tap the arrow again to open it up.
Highlight Colors
The Notes app supports colors for typed text for the first time, allowing for highlighting. Apple added five colors, including pink, purple, orange, mint, and blue, with the colors able to be added through the formatting interface. Just tap on the Aa button to get to the color options when a word or phrase is selected.
Multiple colors can be used for the same sentence, and the colors can be used for titles and headings, as well as combined with text formatting like bold and italics.
Attach Files
The toolbar icon that lets you add images or scanned documents to a note has been updated to do more in iOS 18. Tapping on it allows you to attach a file from the Files app, which makes it much easier to add documents to a note. You can also use it to record audio, which is another new feature.
Before now, you had to copy and paste a file into notes to add it, a process that required several steps.
The prior Choose Photo or Video, Scan Documents, Take Photo or Video, and Scan Text options remain. To denote the new functionality, the icon for the tool is now a paperclip instead of a camera.
As an alternative to using the toolbar, you can long press on a note to attach a file, an option that wasn’t previously available.
Notes Settings
If you tap on the icon that has three dots at the top right of a note, you can get to the Notes settings, where there are a number of new options.
You can see Recent Notes from this interface, with the Notes app displaying several of your prior notes for quick access. There’s also a toggle for Math Notes for choosing between suggested results and results that are automatically inserted when an equals sign is typed, or turning the feature off.
Prior features for searching through the note, moving the note, adding lines and grids, and changing the attachment view are all still available.
Lock Screen Notes
In iOS 18, you can add Control Center controls to the Lock Screen. With this feature, you can add the option to open the Notes app into one of the slots that was previously taken up by the Flashlight and Camera, giving you an option for quickly jotting down your thoughts.
You could get to the Notes app from the Lock Screen previously, but it required going through Control Center.
Smart Script (iPadOS 18)
On the iPad, there’s a new feature called Smart Script that’s designed to improve your handwriting with the Apple Pencil. The feature uses machine learning to recreate your own handwriting style to refine what you’ve written, making messy writing look neater.
Smart Script doesn’t change your handwriting, but it makes it smoother, straighter, and easier to read.
With Smart Script, you can also paste typed text into your own handwriting, correct handwritten spelling, touch and drag words to move them or change the spacing, and scribble out what you’ve written to erase it.
Writing Tools (Apple Intelligence)
Writing Tools is an Apple Intelligence feature that can improve your writing. It won’t generate text from scratch for you, but it can proofread, help you rewrite to match a specific tone, and create summaries.
Proofread text for spelling and grammar errors, including word choice and sentence structure. You can accept all suggestions with a tap or go through them one by one with explanations.
Rewrite for cleaning up what you’ve written and shifting the tone without impacting your content. Options include Friendly, Professional, and Concise.
Options for selecting text and summarizing it. You can choose to create a paragraph, pull out key points, make a list, or create a table. Summaries are available in Mail, Messages, and more.
To use Writing Tools in the Notes app, all you need to do is write something, select your text, and then tap on the quick access Writing Tools options at the top of the keyboard or select Writing Tools by tapping on your selected text.
Writing Tools won’t be available when iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 launch, but the feature will be coming in iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 updates that we expect to see in October.
Image Wand (Apple Intelligence)
The Notes app is designed to integrate with Image Playground, Apple’s upcoming AI-powered image generation app. You will be able to have the Notes app create an image that goes along with what you’ve typed up, and on the iPad, you can make a rough sketch of what you want to include and then have Apple Intelligence generate a more polished version.
The feature that adds images into the Notes app is called Image Wand, and it’s not yet clear when it will be implemented.
Read More
Additional information on new features that Apple has added in iOS 18 can be found in our iOS 18 roundup.Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18This article, “iOS 18 Notes App: All the New Features” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
With iOS 18, the Notes app is set to gain several new features. There aren’t many updates to the overall design, but Notes has deeper integrations with other apps that add all kinds of new functionality. There are also a few nifty iPad-only Notes features that involve the Apple Pencil.
Math Notes
Notes integrates with the Calculator app in iOS 18 for a new feature called Math Notes. Math Notes is designed to let you solve equations, so you can do things like add up your monthly budget, calculate what people owe for a group trip, or split a restaurant bill.
Math Notes works directly in the Notes app or in the Math Notes section of the Calculator app. Any equation that you type in is automatically solved when you add an equals sign, and there is support for variables.
If you define several variables, you can then use those definitions in your calculations. If you write dinner = $42, movies = $24, and dessert = $18 in the Notes app, you can then type in dinner + movies + dessert and add an equals sign to get the total. Variables can be used in equations and graphs (with a relevant equation) and adjusted later to change the results.
You can even do unit conversions with Math Notes. Just type in what you want to convert, and you’ll get the result. If you type in 10 euros to pounds in a note and then add an equals sign, the Notes app will give you the answer.
Apple says that Math Notes is able to solve all of the same functions as a scientific calculator.
Math Notes is available for math written using Western Arabic numerals and common mathematical symbols, or typed using Arabic (Eastern & Western) and Devanagari numerals and common mathematical symbols.
Math Notes in iPadOS 18
On the iPad, you can use Math Notes with the Apple Pencil. Just write out equations by hand and add an equals sign to have the Notes app solve them.
All of the Math Notes features work with handwriting, including unit conversions.
Audio Recording and Transcription
The Notes app can be used to record any audio, taking advantage of the microphones in the iPhone. To record audio, tap on the paperclip icon in the toolbar and then tap on the “Record Audio” button.
From there, tap on the red record button to start a recording, and the stop button to end it. The option to record audio right in the Notes app is useful for lectures, meetings, and more.
All recordings that you capture with the Notes app are automatically transcribed in real-time so you can read through what was recorded and even search for key phrases.
Audio recording and transcribing is available on the iPhone 12 and later, but the feature only works in English.
Phone App Recording
iOS 18 supports recording phone calls, and when you initiate a recording of a phone call, that recording is stored in the Notes app. Phone app recordings have all of the same functionality as audio recordings made in the Notes app, with transcriptions provided.
Transcription Summaries (Apple Intelligence)
Apple Intelligence can be used to summarize a transcript of an audio recording or a recorded phone call in the Notes app.
A device that supports Apple Intelligence is required for this feature, and that includes the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max and later as well as Macs and iPads with an M-series chip.
Collapsible Sections
If you have long notes with multiple headings, you can now collapse those headings down to create a more compact note.
Any section header can be collapsed, including headings, subheadings, and titles. Just tap on a heading and then tap on the down arrow to collapse it. Tap the arrow again to open it up.
Highlight Colors
The Notes app supports colors for typed text for the first time, allowing for highlighting. Apple added five colors, including pink, purple, orange, mint, and blue, with the colors able to be added through the formatting interface. Just tap on the Aa button to get to the color options when a word or phrase is selected.
Multiple colors can be used for the same sentence, and the colors can be used for titles and headings, as well as combined with text formatting like bold and italics.
Attach Files
The toolbar icon that lets you add images or scanned documents to a note has been updated to do more in iOS 18. Tapping on it allows you to attach a file from the Files app, which makes it much easier to add documents to a note. You can also use it to record audio, which is another new feature.
Before now, you had to copy and paste a file into notes to add it, a process that required several steps.
The prior Choose Photo or Video, Scan Documents, Take Photo or Video, and Scan Text options remain. To denote the new functionality, the icon for the tool is now a paperclip instead of a camera.
As an alternative to using the toolbar, you can long press on a note to attach a file, an option that wasn’t previously available.
Notes Settings
If you tap on the icon that has three dots at the top right of a note, you can get to the Notes settings, where there are a number of new options.
You can see Recent Notes from this interface, with the Notes app displaying several of your prior notes for quick access. There’s also a toggle for Math Notes for choosing between suggested results and results that are automatically inserted when an equals sign is typed, or turning the feature off.
Prior features for searching through the note, moving the note, adding lines and grids, and changing the attachment view are all still available.
Lock Screen Notes
In iOS 18, you can add Control Center controls to the Lock Screen. With this feature, you can add the option to open the Notes app into one of the slots that was previously taken up by the Flashlight and Camera, giving you an option for quickly jotting down your thoughts.
You could get to the Notes app from the Lock Screen previously, but it required going through Control Center.
Smart Script (iPadOS 18)
On the iPad, there’s a new feature called Smart Script that’s designed to improve your handwriting with the Apple Pencil. The feature uses machine learning to recreate your own handwriting style to refine what you’ve written, making messy writing look neater.
Smart Script doesn’t change your handwriting, but it makes it smoother, straighter, and easier to read.
With Smart Script, you can also paste typed text into your own handwriting, correct handwritten spelling, touch and drag words to move them or change the spacing, and scribble out what you’ve written to erase it.
Writing Tools (Apple Intelligence)
Writing Tools is an Apple Intelligence feature that can improve your writing. It won’t generate text from scratch for you, but it can proofread, help you rewrite to match a specific tone, and create summaries.
Proofread text for spelling and grammar errors, including word choice and sentence structure. You can accept all suggestions with a tap or go through them one by one with explanations.
Rewrite for cleaning up what you’ve written and shifting the tone without impacting your content. Options include Friendly, Professional, and Concise.
Options for selecting text and summarizing it. You can choose to create a paragraph, pull out key points, make a list, or create a table. Summaries are available in Mail, Messages, and more.
To use Writing Tools in the Notes app, all you need to do is write something, select your text, and then tap on the quick access Writing Tools options at the top of the keyboard or select Writing Tools by tapping on your selected text.
Writing Tools won’t be available when iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 launch, but the feature will be coming in iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 updates that we expect to see in October.
Image Wand (Apple Intelligence)
The Notes app is designed to integrate with Image Playground, Apple’s upcoming AI-powered image generation app. You will be able to have the Notes app create an image that goes along with what you’ve typed up, and on the iPad, you can make a rough sketch of what you want to include and then have Apple Intelligence generate a more polished version.
The feature that adds images into the Notes app is called Image Wand, and it’s not yet clear when it will be implemented.
Read More
Additional information on new features that Apple has added in iOS 18 can be found in our iOS 18 roundup.
This article, “iOS 18 Notes App: All the New Features” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
Wyoming Is Pushing Crypto Payments, Trying To Beat the Fed To a Digital Dollar
Wyoming is pioneering the next phase of crypto growth by creating its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, the Wyoming stable token. The state aims for an early 2025 launch and have it serve as a model for a digitized dollar at the federal level, while also using the token’s reserves to fund public schools. CNBC reports: Wyoming is currently vetting potential partners and vendors with more tech expertise to help build the stable token. It will require an exchange and wallet providers — Coinbase and Kraken, for example, offer both — to purchase and hold the token. The state plans to issue the token to an exchange so the exchange can issue it to the retail user. From there, it should be just another payment method for everyday things, said Flavia Naves, a commissioner at the Wyoming Stable Token Commission. “When you walk into Cowboy Coffee in Jackson, Wyoming, and you want to buy your latte, there’s going to be their wallet there in Solana that you can use to buy your coffee with the Wyoming token,” she said, describing the vision for the stablecoin.
It also has a public good tilt to it: the commission plans to invest reserves that back each token in circulation into Treasurys and reverse repos, and use the interest made on those investments to fund its public schools. At the conference, [Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon] emphasized the importance of resisting the urge to focus too much on how much money the state can make here and to instead prioritize reserve management. […] Naves emphasized that there will be a “buffer” in the reserves to account for any potential deviations and full transparency to establish and maintain public trust.
“There will be audits available to the public on how many tokens [are] in circulation [and] how much money is in the bank account backing, so you can always see there is a 1-to-1 [stablecoin-to-dollar ratio],” she said. “This is a public token as well so as with any public service, all the information is available.” The commission invites the public virtually to its meetings on the stable token and posts the minutes to its website afterward. “This is fully reserved and part of what we’ve been working out … is to make sure that we can fully back whatever it is we’re going to do,” Gordon said. “Plus the fact that our legislation says that when a person buys a Treasury or a repo, we’re going to have that in evidence, you’re going to be able to see that. So hopefully we can avoid the de begging issues.” Success would be “adoption of a stablecoin … that’s transparent, that is fully backed by our short-term Treasurys [and] that’s dollar dependent,” Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon told CNBC at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole. “One of the big things for me is to be able to bring back onshore a lot of our debt, because if it’s bought by treasuries and supported by Treasurys, it will help to stabilize that market to a degree.”
“It is clear to me is that digital assets are going to have a future,” Gordon said. “The United States has to address this issue. Washington’s being a little bit stodgy, which is why Wyoming, being a nimble and entrepreneurial state, can make a difference.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Wyoming is pioneering the next phase of crypto growth by creating its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, the Wyoming stable token. The state aims for an early 2025 launch and have it serve as a model for a digitized dollar at the federal level, while also using the token’s reserves to fund public schools. CNBC reports: Wyoming is currently vetting potential partners and vendors with more tech expertise to help build the stable token. It will require an exchange and wallet providers — Coinbase and Kraken, for example, offer both — to purchase and hold the token. The state plans to issue the token to an exchange so the exchange can issue it to the retail user. From there, it should be just another payment method for everyday things, said Flavia Naves, a commissioner at the Wyoming Stable Token Commission. “When you walk into Cowboy Coffee in Jackson, Wyoming, and you want to buy your latte, there’s going to be their wallet there in Solana that you can use to buy your coffee with the Wyoming token,” she said, describing the vision for the stablecoin.
It also has a public good tilt to it: the commission plans to invest reserves that back each token in circulation into Treasurys and reverse repos, and use the interest made on those investments to fund its public schools. At the conference, [Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon] emphasized the importance of resisting the urge to focus too much on how much money the state can make here and to instead prioritize reserve management. […] Naves emphasized that there will be a “buffer” in the reserves to account for any potential deviations and full transparency to establish and maintain public trust.
“There will be audits available to the public on how many tokens [are] in circulation [and] how much money is in the bank account backing, so you can always see there is a 1-to-1 [stablecoin-to-dollar ratio],” she said. “This is a public token as well so as with any public service, all the information is available.” The commission invites the public virtually to its meetings on the stable token and posts the minutes to its website afterward. “This is fully reserved and part of what we’ve been working out … is to make sure that we can fully back whatever it is we’re going to do,” Gordon said. “Plus the fact that our legislation says that when a person buys a Treasury or a repo, we’re going to have that in evidence, you’re going to be able to see that. So hopefully we can avoid the de begging issues.” Success would be “adoption of a stablecoin … that’s transparent, that is fully backed by our short-term Treasurys [and] that’s dollar dependent,” Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon told CNBC at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole. “One of the big things for me is to be able to bring back onshore a lot of our debt, because if it’s bought by treasuries and supported by Treasurys, it will help to stabilize that market to a degree.”
“It is clear to me is that digital assets are going to have a future,” Gordon said. “The United States has to address this issue. Washington’s being a little bit stodgy, which is why Wyoming, being a nimble and entrepreneurial state, can make a difference.”
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