Eli Tan / CoinDesk:
Justin Kan launches gaming-focused NFT marketplace Fractal, after someone hacked its Discord announcement bot and made off with about $150K last week — Since announcing plans to launch his gaming NFT marketplace Fractal earlier in December, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan has been one of the busiest men in crypto.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3HrxZub
Rebecca Feng / Wall Street Journal:
SenseTime closes up 7.3% in its Hong Kong trading debut after rising as much as 23%; the company raised $740M in its IPO at a $16.4B valuation — U.S. government had added SenseTime to an investment blacklist that barred Americans from buying shares in the firm
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3FGnEdB
Brian Quarmby / Cointelegraph:
Ethereum scaling project Polygon says it quietly fixed a bug that put $23.6B in MATIC tokens at risk, but not before $2.04M in tokens was stolen — “Considering how much was at stake, I believe our team has made the best decisions possible given the circumstances,” said Polygon's co-founder Jaynti Kanani.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3Hl9HlN
Washington Post:
As the US faces record COVID-19 infections, effective use of exposure notification apps is unlikely given slow adoption and lack of data on their efficacy — The United States is grappling with record-high infections, but adoption of the system is still far behind what its creators and proponents envisioned
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3Hq0sRp
Youkyung Lee / Bloomberg:
Six of the 10 best-performing South Korean stocks in 2021 are linked to the metaverse or NFTs, including Wemade Max, up 1,500%, and Giantstep, up 1,200% — For equity investors in South Korea, this was the year the metaverse arrived. — Six of the nation's 10 best-performing stocks in 2021 …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/32HrsN1
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
T-Mobile confirms reports of a data breach caused by SIM swap attacks on a “very small number of customers”, following six other data breaches since 2018 — T-Mobile confirmed that recent reports of a new data breach are linked to notifications sent to a “very small number of customers” who fell victim to SIM swap attacks.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3HjgqfY
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple issued rare bonuses of restricted stock worth $50K-$180K to select engineers, after Meta poached ~100 Apple engineers over the past few months — Apple Inc. has issued unusual and significant stock bonuses to some engineers in an effort to retain talent …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3euQqBM
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Some LastPass users say their master passwords were compromised and used in blocked login attempts from unknown IPs; LastPass blames “credential stuffing” — Many LastPass users report that their master passwords have been compromised after receiving email warnings that someone tried …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3evkGwr
John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:
Democrats, eager to rein in internet platforms, urge Biden to prioritize tech regulation, as many expect Republicans to retake the House or Senate in 2022 — White House ‘not a really active presence’ amid legislative efforts to rein in social media and other internet platforms
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3JmTBda
Joe Williams / Bloomberg:
A look at increasing competition in the call center tools market between Genesys, AWS, Salesforce, Microsoft, and others, often focused on AI-driven automation — Customer support has become a crowded battlefield in enterprise technology as software vendors from Microsoft Corp …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3FAyykS
Joanna Glasner / Crunchbase News:
Most VC-backed startups who merged with SPACs to IPO in 2021 have seen their stock slump, with Metromile, View, Owlet, Clover Health among the worst performers — The overwhelming majority of venture-backed companies that went public via special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3z3VdUl
Robert Stevens / Decrypt:
OpenDAO airdrops SOS token for users of OpenSea's NFT marketplace; the token, unaffiliated with OpenSea, is up ~10x in two days as watchers debate its prospects — In brief — SOS is an airdrop from OpenDAO, distributed to people who have spent money on OpenSea transactions.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3ewQOzH
Leah Nylen / Politico:
An overview of the efforts by Google, Apple, and Amazon to offer their technology and services for connected cars — Leah Nylen is a technology reporter who covers antitrust and investigations for POLITICO. — When Ford announced that starting in 2023 its cars and trucks would come with Google Maps …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3JdJ0RP
Financial Times:
Q&A with Clubhouse CEO Paul Davison: copycat features from big rivals have not impacted the company “in any real way” and making money is not a pressing concern — The app was pegged as the future of social media. After a lukewarm end to 2021, it faces an uphill battle to turn a profit
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3EqRGAI
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
Microsoft cancels in-person plans for CES, joining Google, Meta, Amazon, Twitter, and others, amid ongoing concerns over COVID-19 — Microsoft joins Intel, GM, Amazon, and Google in canceling — Microsoft is the latest company to drop a physical presence at CES, as the increased prevalence of COVID-19 spooks exhibitors.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3yXXMY7
Reuters:
Dutch antitrust regulator orders Apple to let dating apps in the App Store offer alternative payment systems by January 15 or face up to a €50M fine — The Netherlands' top competition regulator on Friday said Apple Inc (AAPL.O) broke the country's competition laws and ordered changes …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3ppynmO
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Research: centralized crypto exchanges reported more than $14T in 2021 trading volume, up 689% YoY; Binance facilitated 67% of the total volume — Centralized crypto exchanges, which hold customers' private keys unlike decentralized exchanges, reported more than $14 trillion in trading volume …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3mvBBnf
Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information:
Meta brings back Kevin Martin, a Republican, as its head of US public policy, after failing to find a Democrat to lead its lobbying team — Meta Platforms is throwing in the towel on a plan to hire a top Democrat to lead its lobbying team after searching in vain for almost a year for a candidate from the party.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3yUzz4W
Bloomberg:
Despite huge leaps in 2021, the crypto industry remained plagued by long-term problems: trading glitches, infrastructure snafus, hacks, and other weirdness — The industry is still plagued by trading glitches, infrastructure snafus, hacks and weirdness — just as it's been from the start.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3eiblIj
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Research: decentralized exchanges reported $1T+ in trading volumes in 2021, up 858% from $115B in 2020; monthly DEX trading volume peaked in May at $162.8B — Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) reported more than $1 trillion in trading volumes in the year 2021, according to The Block Research.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3Epjt4c
FinSMEs:
HyperScience, which uses AI to extract data from business forms, raises a $100M Series E led by Global Founders, Tiger, Stripes, and Bessemer — Hyperscience, a NYC-based human centered automation company, raised $100m in Series E funding. — The round was led by existing investors Global …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3ejER0c
Rahul Tripathi / The Economic Times:
India bans 20 “anti-India” YouTube channels and two websites for allegedly being tied to Pakistan, invoking its new IT Act's emergency powers for the first time — India banned 20 YouTube channels and two websites on Monday for allegedly running anti-India propaganda from Pakistan …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/33Hmkcc
Anish Athalye:
Researcher shows how ML models can create low-resolution images from PhotoDNA hashes, used to identify CSAM, despite Microsoft's claim they can't be reversed — Microsoft PhotoDNA creates a “unique digital signature” of an image which can be matched against a database containing signatures …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3J5LAsW
The Cloudflare Blog:
TikTok.com was the most popular domain globally between August and December 2021, after surpassing Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon during 2021 — Loading... Sofia Cardita — The years come and go, Internet traffic continues to grow (at least so far and with some ‘help’ from the pandemic) …
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3EjYHmy
Tim Copeland / The Block:
Crypto staking service Figment raises a $110M Series C led by Thoma Bravo at a $1.4B valuation; Figment has $10M in revenue/month with ~$100M projected for 2021 — Quick Take — Staking provider Figment has raised $110 million at a $1.4 billion valuation.
from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3FgSNUO