Bitcoin is an asset that can be stored “anywhere”; you need a private key to access your wallet, so a group is trying to cross the line, desiring to put Bitcoin in the DNA of mice.

According to Vice, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) wants to invest in genetic engineering technology to get mouse DNA to carry bitcoins, an idea that seems absurd.

Surprisingly, the person who created the project, BitMouseDao, is not a geneticist but an anonymous artist who said he came up with the idea while lying in bed waiting to fall asleep. The artist even wrote down the idea and began to ponder its possibilities.

“For a few weeks, I started researching whether it was possible to do this experiment. I was excited to imagine how this could affect us in the future.”

Inspired by the work of Eduardo Kac, the team behind BitMouseDAO believes it will be “really cool” to put money literally inside a live animal (to some, the idea doesn’t sound remarkable, just bizarre).

“We have tied the value of the mouse directly to Bitcoin, and it will fluctuate with the daily value of Bitcoin; maybe in ten years it will be worth $100 million, or maybe it will be worth nothing.”

The BitMouseDAO team is also trying to create an aura of mystery regarding their identity, stating that “At this point, we prefer to be identified as a country less, genderless group. In this project, we are just the members of BitMouseDAO.”

Vice Writes:

“How would one accomplish the task of genetically engineering a mouse so that it carries Bitcoin? The post mentions two possibilities for how it might achieve this goal. First, BitMouseDAO plans to use a cold wallet to generate a private key offline. Purchased bitcoins will then be pumped into this wallet.

Then, the tricky part is editing the mouse’s genetic code to carry the private key that controls the bitcoins. The plan is to work with a company to translate the key into a corresponding ATGC sequence of DNA and encode it into the mouse during fertilization.

Once the mouse has the private key encoded in its DNA via genetic engineering, then BitMouseDAO envisions that its children will, too.”

Perhaps saving a Bitcoin wallet key into a mouse’s DNA using genetic engineering is possible. Still, there is no practicality usefulness in this idea, and it is much more of an experimental artistic vision than any attempt to create something beneficial.

Fortunately, giving a little hope about the sanity of the crypto market these days, the idea has hardly interested anyone. So far, only four people have invested in BitMouseDAO, leaving it far from the goal of getting bitcoins into mouse DNA.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has slammed Facebook’s failed cryptocurrency project, Diem, stating that the company, recently renamed Meta Inc., would have fared better if it had focussed its resources on improving the Bitcoin network. 

Speaking at the MicroStrategy World conference today, Dorsey disclosed that Meta was not too committed to Diem, initially named Libra, instead the social media giant was focused on luring more users to its platforms, such as Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram. 

“They tried to create a currency that was owned by Facebook — probably for the right reasons, probably for noble reasons — but there were also some reasons that would indicate trying to get more and more people onto the Facebook ecosystem,” They did that instead of using an open protocol and standard like Bitcoin.”

“Hopefully they learned a lot, but I think there was a lot of wasted effort and time, Those two years or three years, or however long it’s been, could have been spent making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world, which would also benefit their Messenger product and Instagram and WhatsApp.”

Dorsey, the CEO of Block Inc, said he hopes the Meta team learned from their past mistakes with the Diem project, adding that the time could have been used to advance Bitcoin, making the cryptocurrency more accessible, which could have been beneficial to Facebook’s ecosystem. 

Facebook’s Diem Project Journey

Recall that in mid-2019, Facebook disclosed its plan to launch the Diem project by publishing its whitepaper. 

The cryptocurrency, which is expected to be used for cross-border settlements, is backed by a basket of assets, including major fiats and government securities. 

However, right from when Diem’s whitepaper was published, it came under heavy regulatory scrutiny due to Meta’s involvement with the project. 

Regulators, including the European Union, feared that the Meta Diem project could undermine the world’s global financial system and eliminate all forms of competition from other cryptocurrencies. 

Meta, still poised to launch the cryptocurrency at the time, changed the project’s name and also onboarded top regulatory chiefs to its advisory board. 

Diem Project Ends

However, regulators were still not convinced, forcing the project to come to an unfortunate end yesterday. 

Diem’s team announced yesterday that Silvergate Capital Corp would acquire its remaining assets for a bid of around $200 million. 

Due to public resistance, the authorities of the Kingdom of Thailand have abolished the tax on crypto income.

The Thai Ministry of Finance planned to introduce a 15% capital gains tax on private crypto investors as early as January 1, 2022. However, according to Financial Times, the initiative came into conflict with the Ministry of Tourism and was also criticized by the business community and industry stakeholders. As a result, the authorities abandoned the tax to attract the crypto community.

According to the former Deputy Secretary-General of Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tipsuda Thavaramara, a 15% tax on capital gains from crypto income is “unfair and impractical.”

Her position was echoed by Thailand’s ruling party MP Watanya Wongopasi and other financial experts, who warned that a tax on cryptocurrencies could reduce market liquidity and prevent foreign investment from flowing into the country.

As a result, the Ministry of Finance withdrew to impose 15% on crypto income. The income from cryptocurrency activities and mining will now be collected in the form of income tax, which is typical for local entrepreneurs.

A similar controversial situation has developed in South Korea, where regulators and crypto investors have not reached a consensus on a bill to tax income from cryptocurrencies.

According to South Korean authorities, from January 1, 2022, a twenty percent tax will be imposed on income from cryptocurrencies for more than 2.5 million won (about $2,104), and from 2023 – on equity income from 50 million won (about $42,140) and above. According to South Korean regulators, tax incentives for income from cryptocurrencies are non-negotiable since they are not recognized as financial assets in the country.

On Tuesday India Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed tax gains from the transfer of virtual assets at a flat rate of 30 percent in her Budget speech. She said:

“I propose to provide that any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset shall be taxed at the rate of 30 percent. No deduction in respect of any expenditure or allowance shall be allowed while computing such income, except the cost of acquisition,”