Techmeme
March 3, 2022, 4:50 PM

Top News

Andrew Rummer / The Block:
Ukraine's Mykhailo Fedorov abruptly cancels the government's crypto airdrop plan, saying the country will instead sell NFTs “to support Ukrainian Armed Forces”  —  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: crypto users have donated $50M+ to Ukraine across 89K+ assets since February 26; the government's wallet addresses show $10M in BTC and $16M in ETH  —  The Ukrainian crypto crowdfunding effort has now exceeded $50 million, through almost 90,000 separate donations.
MK Manoylov / The Block:
MetaMask users in Venezuela say they can't access the crypto wallet; a support page says MetaMask and Infura services are unavailable “due to legal compliance”  —  Users of MetaMask based in Venezuela say they can no longer access the popular digital asset wallet.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
A group of 35 former employees at crypto startup incubator ConsenSys alleges serious asset transfer “irregularities” in a Swiss court, and demands an audit  —  A group of former employees of the ConsenSys AG is alleging “serious irregularities” at the startup incubator that owns …
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Analysis: Twitch has lost at least six executives alongside 60+ employees in 2022; sources say the platform is losing touch with its community of game streamers  —  Twitch, the popular site where people go to watch other people play video games, has lost at least six top employees since …
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
MIT Technology Review:
An investigation details Operation Safety Net, a sprawling surveillance program in Minnesota to track protesters and journalists after George Floyd's murder  —  Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have been carrying out a secretive, long-running surveillance program targeting civil rights activists …
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 perceptions of elitism  —  Friends With Benefits is a V.I.P. lounge for crypto's creative class.  Is it empty hype or the future of friendship?
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Reddit bans links to Russian state media outlets across its entire site for all users worldwide and ads that either originate from Russia or target the country  —  Reddit isn't done clamping down on misinformation following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  The social hub has banned links …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Brian Fung / CNN:
ICANN rejects Ukraine's request to cut Russia off from the global internet, saying the proposal is neither technically feasible nor within its mission  —  (CNN)The international non-profit that coordinates management of the internet told Ukraine it will not intervene in the country's war with Russia …
Thomas Claburn / The Register:
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Prominent open-source advocate Miguel de Icaza to leave Microsoft, which he joined when the company acquired Xamarin in 2016, saying he misses the startup world  —  Former Xamarin cofounder Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft, the company he joined through acquisition just over six years ago.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter will expand its Birdwatch fact checks on tweets to “a small and randomized” group of US users for feedback, after testing the service since January 2021  —  Twitter says it's expanding access to Birdwatch, its community-based fact-checking initiative first revealed in October 2020.
Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch:
Lido, which has an estimated 80%+ market share in Ethereum liquid staking, raises $70M from Andreessen Horowitz; 76K wallets stake assets worth $10B+ on Lido  —  The world's most-used blockchain, Ethereum, is switching to a new validation system this summer called proof-of-stake (PoS).
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Twitch plans to ban “harmful misinformation superspreaders” who share debunked theories on or off the site, including about COVID-19 vaccines and election fraud  —  The new policy will target channels that persistently lie about vaccines and election fraud, as well as Russian state-run media.
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Google Maps and Tripadvisor block users from posting reviews to some listings in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus after activists used them to share Ukraine news  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google Maps and the travel search platform Tripadvisor Inc. temporarily blocked users from posting new reviews …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
The GitHub repository for Meta's open-source library React is being spammed with anti-US and anti-Ukrainian comments in English and Mandarin  —  “False liberty and democracy make me sick!” one message written in Mandarin reads.  —  Joseph Cox  —  The Github repository for React …
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.

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
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:
Zoho SalesIQ turns 10: Transforming customer experiences since 2014  —  October marked a remarkable milestone for Zoho SalesIQ—our 10th anniversary.  What began in 2014 as a simple live chat tool has evolved …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/01 - ChatGPT Search
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 4:50 PM 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

Louise Matsakis / NBC News:
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Earlier Picks

Matt Robinson / Bloomberg: