Techmeme
March 3, 2022, 9:10 AM

Top News

Andrew Rummer / The Block:
Ukraine's Mykhailo Fedorov abruptly cancels the planned crypto airdrop, saying the country will sell NFTs to raise funds instead  —  Ukraine's government abruptly canceled its planned crypto airdrop and said it would instead sell NFTs to raise funds following last week's Russian invasion.
Scott Chipolina / Decrypt:
Elliptic: Ukraine has received over $50M in crypto donations across 89K+ assets since February 26; blockchain data shows $10M in BTC and $16M in ETH donations  —  The Ukrainian crypto crowdfunding effort has now exceeded $50 million, through almost 90,000 separate donations.
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Ukrainian vice PM Mykhailo Fedorov calls on Sony, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and other gaming companies to ban all Russian and Belarusian accounts during the invasion  —  Vice PM says move “will motivate the citizens of Russia” to rise up in protest.  —  Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister …
@oracle:
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
A group of 35 former employees at crypto startup incubator ConsenSys allege “serious irregularities” in Swiss court over an asset transfer and demand an audit  —  A group of former employees of the ConsenSys AG is alleging “serious irregularities” at the startup incubator that owns …
Matt Robinson / Bloomberg:
Sources: the SEC is probing the NFT market to determine if tokens are securities, focusing on fractional NFTs, in which a token is broken into units for sale  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing creators of NFTs and the crypto exchanges where they trade to determine …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon plans to close 68 brick-and-mortar retail locations across the US and the UK, including all of its Amazon Books, 4-star, and Pop Up stores  —  - Amazon plans to close all locations of its Pop Up, Books and 4-star stores, the company confirmed to CNBC.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Several US state AGs launch a probe into TikTok, focusing on whether the app's design and operations negatively impact young users' physical or mental health  —  - TikTok is under investigation by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to determine if the popular short-form video …
Ethan Diamond / Bandcamp Updates:
Epic Games acquires Bandcamp, which will continue operating as a standalone marketplace and music community; Bandcamp has paid nearly $1B to artists and labels  —  I'm excited to announce that Bandcamp is joining Epic Games, who you may know as the makers of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, and champions for a fair and open Internet.
New York Times:
A look at Friends With Benefits, an a16z-backed DAO with a buzz-fueled social club, which attracts artists and investors but faces problems with its elitism  —  Friends With Benefits is a V.I.P. lounge for crypto's creative class.  Is it empty hype or the future of friendship?
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google tells staff in the Bay Area and other US locations to return to physical offices three days a week starting on April 4, in a shift to a hybrid work model  —  - Google told employees on Wednesday that it expects them to begin returning to physical offices April 4.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces a digital-only event dubbed “Peek performance” will be held on March 8 at 10am PT; a 5G iPhone SE, revamped iPad Air, and new Macs are expected  —  Apple today announced that it will be holding its first event of 2022 on Tuesday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific …
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
A look at anonymity in crypto, as some VCs back founders without learning their names and pseudonymous entrepreneurs control hundreds of millions of dollars  —  Investors give money to pseudonymous developers.  Venture capitalists back founders without learning their real names.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify closes its office in Russia “indefinitely” and removes all content from RT and Sputnik in the EU and other markets, except for Russia  —  Spotify has taken several steps in response to Russia's military attack on Ukraine, including closing its offices in Russia “indefinitely.”
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Prominent open source advocate Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft, which he joined in 2016 when it acquired Xamarin  —  Former Xamarin cofounder Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft, the company he joined through acquisition just over six years ago.  —  Well-known open source advocate …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Apollo.io, which develops B2B sales intelligence software, raises a $110M Series C led by Sequoia Capital at an estimated $910M post-money valuation  —  One of the bigger impacts of Covid-19 has been that more business than ever before is now being carried out online.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 6: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/15 - Crypto Ascendant
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:10 AM ET, March 3, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Kate Conger / New York Times:
Dan Primack / Axios:
Ciaran Martin / Lawfare: