Decentralized Crypto Exchange dYdX Scraps Promotion Amid 'Liveness Check' Backlash
Business
Popular decentralized exchange dYdX has scrapped a recent $25 deposit promotion after being scrutinized for asking participants to conduct a "liveness check", which identified customers using their webcams.
- In an announcement on Twitter, dYdX cited "extremely overwhelming demand" as the reason why the promotion was removed.
- A liveness check scans a user's image and compares with a database to see if the image has been used by another account.
- One prominent trader on social media said that they will never use dYdX again, with others raising questions about the decentralized nature of dYdX.
- Trade volume on dYdX has fallen by 35.07% over the past-24 hours, according to Nomics.
- In 2018, a decentralized exchange called IDEX, which at the time was the most popular following the collapse of EtherDelta, implemented KYC in order to comply with sanctions and money laundering laws. The change resulted in a severe drop-off in activity, with it now struggling to reach $10 million in daily volume.
- San Francisco-based dYdX was founded in 2017 and has since attracted investment from the likes of Paradigm, a16z, Polychain and the now defunct hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
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