Techmeme
January 8, 2022, 8:25 PM

Top News

Moxie Marlinspike:
How Web3 apps and wallets inevitably depend on centralized services like OpenSea, Infura, and Alchemy, which don't even provide authenticated responses  —  Despite considering myself a cryptographer, I have not found myself particularly drawn to “crypto.”  I don't think I've ever actually said the words …
Vitalik Buterin / r/ethereum on Reddit:
Ethereum co-founder responds: “the properly authenticated decentralized blockchain world is coming”, but is slowed by “limited technical resources and funding”  —  The word “server” imo is not very useful in the blockchain context; it combines together a bundle of concepts that are best treated separately.
Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
How the peer pressure to be a part of the blue bubble iMessage text groups keeps US teens locked into Apple's ecosystem  —  The iPhone maker cultivated iMessage as a must-have texting tool for teens.  Android users trigger a just-a-little-less-cool green bubble: 'Ew, that's gross.'
Bloomberg:
PayPal confirms it is exploring launching its own stablecoin, after code in its iOS app showed it is working on a “PayPal Coin” backed by USD  —  PayPal Holdings Inc. is exploring the launch of its own stablecoin as part of its cryptocurrency push, according to the company …
Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
John Pinette, Meta's VP of Global Communications, leaves the company after overseeing its public relations teams since 2019  —  John Pinette ran the company's public relations teams since 2019  —  Meta Platforms Inc.'s head of communications said he is leaving the company in a Friday afternoon post …
Aman Sethi / BuzzFeed News:
A look at Meta's covert push to build a data center in the Netherlands, including codenaming the project, in an attempt to minimize public scrutiny and backlash  —  By the time the villagers knew Facebook was coming to town, it was already too late.  Three weeks later their local councilors …
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
How Tim Cook's supply chain expertise and diplomacy helped grow Apple's annual revenue from $108B in 2011 to $365B in 2021, and profits up 3.7x to $95B  —  Two years after the death of Steve Jobs, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison claimed it was inevitable Apple would struggle under Tim Cook.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Signal employees worry anonymous transactions could appeal to criminals, which would attract regulatory scrutiny and aid lawmakers who want to end encryption  —  A push into untraceable payments could put end-to-end encryption at risk  —  Today, let's talk about a little-discussed story …
Aidan Moher / Wired:
Pixel art video games have experienced a renaissance over the past decade, led by indie developers, countering an industry obsessed with horsepower and realism  —  How retro blocks overtook 3D gaming to win the hearts of modern players.  —  Playing Chucklefish's Eastward is like coming home to a place I've never been before.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
A California court orders Twitter to reveal the identity of a user who tweeted photos mocking a billionaire, after the user didn't respond to a copyright claim  —  Back in November we wrote about a very bizarre attempt to abuse copyright law to uncover who was behind a Twitter account, @CallMeMoneyBags.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Meta rolls out a new version of Facebook's Privacy Center to some US desktop users, putting the onus on users to learn about its security and privacy controls  —  The new Privacy Center includes guides and controls  —  Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) has announced a new version …

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Earlier Picks

Ben Horowitz / Andreessen Horowitz:
Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal:
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Jay Peters / The Verge: