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South Korea is set to hold its midterm elections today, which will serve as a referendum on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration. The outcome of the elections will have significant implications for the country’s crypto industry, as the two main political parties, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the People Power Party (PPP), have varying stances on crypto regulation.
South Korea is a major player in the global crypto market and around 70% of all reported foreign assets are crypto. Changes in its regulatory framework can have ripple effects on the broader crypto ecosystem. The election outcome will impact investor sentiment and market dynamics, including the crypto market. Supporting policies can attract more investment into cryptocurrencies, while uncertainty or unfavorable policies may lead to market volatility.
South Korea’s fight for crypto regulation
The ruling party, PPP, has shown a willingness to postpone the implementation of digital asset taxation. They are open to discussions regarding the timing and details of implementing taxation on digital assets. The party plans to create an administrative framework for digital assets and standardize listing criteria for all centralized exchanges to protect investors. Additionally, the PPP will permit token launches for projects that have investor protection mechanics in place.
The PPP will also push forward Phase 2 of the Digital Asset Investor Protection Law, which aims to regulate and protect investors in the digital asset market. This initiative is part of broader efforts by the South Korean government to establish a legal framework for cryptocurrencies and related activities.
On the other hand, the opposition party, DPK, has shown a willingness to lift curbs on investing in U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs for digital assets and add digital asset ETFs on ISA for taxation benefits. The party has vowed to increase the non-taxed range for digital asset taxation from $1,850 to $37,000.
Other proposals by the DPK include combining the profit and loss for a five-year standard for taxation and initiating a business law for digital asset businesses to operate. The party also plans to build a monitoring system to combine all order books for centralized exchanges operating in South Korea.
The news follows recent reports that a Montenegro court has ruled in favor of extraditing Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to South Korea. The decision overturns a previous ruling that favored his extradition to the United States, spotlighting the intricate web of legal challenges Do Kwon faces across multiple jurisdictions.
Furthermore, South Korean regulators have also recently launched an investigation into Worldcoin’s handling of private and sensitive data.
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TikTok could be looking to take inspiration from the OG days of Instagram with its photo-based format as plans advance to launch a new app.
On March 11, a blogger who goes by TheSpAndroid took a deep dive into the app’s APK and found a new ‘TikTok Photos’ platform in the latest available version.
At the time, there was no other indication that this would be made into a reality. Now, some users are reporting notifications suggesting the app will be called TikTok Notes.
A social media user called Alex Friedman took to the X platform to share a screenshot of the notification, with the caption “Looks like TikTok is launching a new app for photo posts called ‘TikTok Notes.’”
 

Looks like TikTok is launching a new app for photo posts called ‘TikTok Notes’. pic.twitter.com/xTbgcGxJno
— Alex Friedman (@heyalexfriedman) April 8, 2024

The pop-up features a toggle button so users can decide whether their photo posts are transferred over to the new app. It reads: “Your photo posts will be shown on TikTok Notes.
“TikTok Notes, a new app for photo posts, is coming soon! Your existing and future public TikTok photo posts will be shown on TikTok Notes.
“If you prefer not to show your public TikTok photo posts on TikTok Notes, turn this off now.”
The Chinese-based social media hasn’t yet confirmed or announced any details relating to this, but a spokesperson has said they have a “commitment to innovating” the brand.
Metro is reporting the quote from the spokesperson who said: “As part of our continued commitment to innovating the TikTok experience, we’re exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a dedicated space for those formats.”
New app amidst potential ban in the US
The newness comes at a time when the future of TikTok in the US is strained. Following a vote from the House of Representatives, ByteDance – the app’s owner – will see a ban be enforced if they don’t sell the platform within six months of the law being passed.
Legislators have concerns over data and privacy issues, as they believe that the company could share information about the 170 million US users with China.
Featured Image: Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash
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The PS5 Pro is expected to hit shelves later this year with rumors ramping up ahead of the announcement. A recent leak has hinted at a new ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ label which could see adding or increasing ray tracing efforts and a constant 60FPS.
Insider Gaming says they’ve learned of the developer requirements that need to be met to have the PS5 Pro Enhanced label, through documents sent to them.
According to these papers, PlayStation wants games to offer a PS5 Pro-exclusive graphics mode that will have to include:

PSSR to upscale resolution to 4K
A constant 60FPS
Add or increase ray tracing effects

This is said to be possible because of a faster RAM (28% faster) and GPU (67% larger than the standard console).
The label may be given to games that offer any of the following enhancements too:

Increased target resolution for titles that run a fixed resolution on the standard console
Increased target maximum resolution for titles that run at a variable resolution on the standard console
Increased target frame rate for titles that target a fixed frame rate on the standard console
Inclusion of PS5 Pro Ray Tracing effects

What are the PlayStation 5 Pro specs?
It’s reported by industry sources via the YouTube channel RedGamingTech that the PlayStation 5 Pro will feature eight-core Zen 2 CPUs (clocking in at 4GHz), an RDNA 3 GPU at 2.8 GHZ, and 16GB of 18,000 MT/s GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 587 GB/s.
This is expected to be a significant upgrade from the Slim, which boasts a still-respectable eight-core custom AMD Zen 2 at 3.5GHz and AMD RDNA 2 at 2.23 GHz – although the same memory stats.
While it hasn’t yet been confirmed, this Pro upgrade is thought to be unveiled in time for the upcoming 2024 holiday period at the end of the year.
Featured Image: Photo by Charles Sims on Unsplash
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It’s a sad, sad day for all Xbox fans as the Xbox 360 Store will be no more in just three months.
Microsoft stunned gamers last August when they first announced that the Xbox 360 Marketplace would be closing after almost 19 years.
Now, with just a few months to go before people have to say goodbye, a warning notice has been added to the official Xbox website.
This reads: “The Xbox 360 Store and the Xbox 360 Marketplace (marketplace.xbox.com) will be retired on July 29, 2024.”
This means purchases through the Xbox 360 Store or the Xbox 360 Marketplace will no longer be possible after July 29.
In addition, any content that has been distributed via the Store won’t be available either. This includes games, trials, add-ons, avatar items, apps, gamerpics, game trailers, and videos.
It also includes gamertag changes, Xbox subscriptions on Xbox 360, in-game purchases, and even the video content that is played through the Microsoft Movies & TV app.
Hundreds of non-backward compatible digital games will be impacted too, including some iconic releases like Fight Night Round 3 and Test Drive Unlimited 2.
Other games to be affected are Renegade Ops, Mortal Kombat Arcade, Ion Assault, Backbreaker Vengeance, and over 200 more.
With almost two decades of being in the industry, the loss of the Xbox Store and Marketplace will likely be felt by many.
Can I still play Xbox 360 games after July 29?
People can still play any games that have been purchased on the Xbox 360, including those that were purchased digitally or in physical disc format.
Even deleted games that have been purchased can still be re-downloaded. Playing with friends through multiplayer mode will also be unaffected, as long as the publisher still supports the online servers.
You can still buy backward-compatible Xbox 360 titles too as the initial announcement on the website says the team believes “in celebrating gaming’s rich history and have worked hard to preserve as many games as possible through our backward-compatibility program.”
Featured Image: Photo by Arturo Rey on Unsplash
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In a sinister twist for in-game microtransactions, especially Battle Pass purchases, Disney is making its Speedstorm Season pass only available for direct purchase and removing the more traditional choice of saving up in-game earned currency to get it.
Ever since the advent of seasonal battle passes games have generally had in-game currency as unlocks and, roughly speaking, if you completed a Battle Pass you would generally have had enough to buy the next one for free – sort of a reward for your loyalty.
Step forward Gameloft’s money men and the big brains who have now decided that is lost income and decided the Season Pass will no longer be purchasable by spending the game’s currency, Tokens, which are collected during play.
The season (Golden) pass will still have free and premium tiers as normal but the Premium Tier will now only be available with a  $9.99/€9.99 purchase.
Perhaps the amazing thing is that nobody has done this already, and the worrying thing is that now the stable door has bolted the rest will follow suit. This is at a time when the Helldivers 2 Warbond battle pass is being praised for being so generous with its in-game currency allowing players easy access to its premium tiers for free.
VGC is reporting many unhappy Disney Speedstorm users, with one saying, “As a Founder who bought the game in Early Access, I am dumbfounded… what exactly have I paid for? We were told at the beginning of the game that Tokens can be used to purchase Golden Passes. Why have they revoked that?
I think it is pretty clear why.
Seasons will be split into two parts with each having a premium Golden Pass (of course it will) costing the above, or a Golden Pass bundle that includes 15 tier skips for $19.99/€19.99.
Changes need to be made, we as a community need to go against this (Boycott Gold Pass) byu/Sclaxin inDisneySpeedstormGame

The Disney Speedstorm community is trying to rally a boycott of the Season Pass and is determined to show Gameloft that this decision will not be tolerated by the players.
This is unlikely to be the end of this story and we will update as it rumbles on.
The post Disney Speedstorm causes outrage as fans threaten to boycott after season pass controversy appeared first on ReadWrite.