Techmeme
June 20, 2019, 8:00 AM

Top News

Pete Schroeder / Reuters:
Senate panel says it will hold a hearing on Facebook's Libra on July 16; source: David Marcus, who leads Facebook's blockchain efforts, is expected to testify  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will discuss Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency at a July 16 hearing, the panel announced Wednesday.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
While Facebook's Libra plays at decentralization, it is still entrenched in Facebook, and using it means trusting Facebook, which is a hard sell in 2019  —  Libra isn't as decentralized as a normal cryptocurrency  —  From the beginning, cryptocurrency was about trust.
Brendan Greeley / Financial Times:
Washington Post:
Sources: after complaints about privacy practices around children's videos on YouTube, FTC is in late stages of a probe, causing YouTube to rethink its strategy  —  The U.S. government is in the late stages of an investigation into YouTube for its handling of children's videos …
Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal:
NYSE says Slack's reference price for its direct listing has been set at $26 per share, which would value Slack at $15.7B, per sources  —  This is a developing story and will be updated shortly.  —  WSJ opens select articles to reader conversation to promote thoughtful dialogue.
Terry Spencer / Associated Press:
A Florida city council votes to pay $600K ransom to hackers who, over three weeks ago, encrypted city records, disabled its email system, and more  —  FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida city agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took over its computer system …
BBC:
UK government says the age verification requirement for porn websites is delayed because it failed to inform European regulators about the plan  —  An age-check scheme designed to stop under-18s viewing pornographic websites has been delayed a second time.  —  The changes - which mean UK …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Apple says its devices can now be repaired in 1,000+ Best Buy locations across the US, expanding on its current network of ~270 Apple stores  —  Since 2001, Apple has staked its claim across the world with its own first-party brick and mortar locations.  But the U.S. is a big country …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based Kano, which makes hardware to teach younger people about computing and coding, partners with Microsoft and launches a £300 11.6" touchscreen laptop  —  Kano, the London-based startup that builds hardware designed to teach younger people about computing and coding …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google rolls out Private Join and Compute, a tool that lets organizations gain insights about other parties' confidential data, as an open source project  —  CERTAIN STUDIES REQUIRE sensitive data sets: the relationship between nutritious school lunch and student health, the effectiveness of salary equity initiatives, and so on.
James Fallows / The Atlantic:
Fresno-based Bitwise Industries, which offers training for developers, raises $27M Series A led by Kapor Capital  —  Four years ago, my wife, Deb, and I wrote about an ambitious and unusual tech startup called Bitwise Industries, in the gritty and long-struggling city of Fresno in California's Central Valley.

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