Bitcoin Is Failing Its Original Mandate. That Doesn’t Mean It’s Worthless

By plenty of standards, Bitcoin is a failure. Transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain take at least 10 minutes to process, which would make it cumbersome for day-to-day transactions if its wildly fluctuating price hadn’t already rendered it useless as a means of exchange. As the product of an algorithm with no inherent value or claim to a stream of revenue,...

11m

Snowflake vs. Databricks: How Onetime Friends Became Fierce Cloud Rivals

A few years ago, Snowflake and Databricks were up-and-coming cloud software startups that were so friendly, their sales teams regularly passed customer leads to each other. Both companies made unglamorous but critical components for businesses—from Shell Oil to DoorDash—that helped them boost sales or reduce costs by making better and faster use...

3h

YouTube Explores NFTs for Creators; Recur Sells NFTs From Big Brands

YouTube is the latest social media giant exploring ways to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The details are vague, but Susan Wojcicki, CEO of the video platform, said in a blog post on Tuesday that the platform is looking ahead at ways it can help YouTube creators take advantage of the increasingly popular digital collectibles.On the surface, it...

16h

What Pinterest and Peloton Have in Common

Here’s a thought experiment: How would Pinterest or Peloton be doing today if they weren’t controlled by their co-founders? Both companies appear to be in disarray—Pinterest is losing users and lately a string of executives, as The Information scooped today. Peloton’s challenges…well, let’s just say they’ve been well chronicled. Both companies need...

16h

Koji, the Creator Economy’s App Store, Raises $20 Million from Jump Capital

Koji, a startup that hosts a virtual store for apps used by creators, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Jump Capital. New investors include HBSE Ventures and Electric Feel Ventures, a venture firm set up by rapper Post Malone’s managers. The San Diego-based startup offers what’s known as link-in-bio web pages for social media accounts,...

18h

Amazon Pauses ‘Pay to Quit’ Offers for Warehouse Workers

Faced with an increasingly tight labor market, Amazon has quietly paused a longstanding program through which it paid warehouse workers up to $5,000 to quit their jobs after the busy peak season, The Information has learned. Amazon instituted the program—known inside the company as Pay to Quit or simply The Offer—in 2014 to help the company quickly...

19h

Why Wolf3D Went All-In on Avatars With Ready Player Me

Everyone will need an avatar (at least one) in the metaverse, or so the thinking goes. That’s probably one of the few things that the tech giants, startups and non-profit groups driving toward its creation can agree upon. But while making convincing digital humans is one notoriously hard problem, building customizable avatars that can move from app...

22h

Pinterest Has Lost at Least 7 Senior Execs in Recent Weeks

Pinterest has lost at least seven senior executives in roles ranging from creator marketing to corporate development in recent weeks as the online scrapbooking app grapples with a drop in U.S. users and slowing ad revenue growth. Among the executives leaving are Gary Johnson, Pinterest’s head of corporate development, and Omar Seyal, head of core...

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Robinhood Hits New Low Amid Crypto Selloff; Lit Protocol Connects NFT Owners

Cryptocurrencies are down from their historic highs seen in November, as is Coinbase, the leading American cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. But Robinhood, the company operating a popular retail trading platform for both stocks and cryptocurrencies, has had the worst decline of the bunch. Bitcoin and ethereum are both down more than 45% from...

1d

Tech Stock Slump Hits 2021 Stock Comp

Tech company managers have some interesting compensation discussions coming up with their direct reports, thanks to the bear market affecting much of tech. If those subordinates receive annual awards of stock or options, they’ll very likely hear both good and bad news. The good news is that grants made this year will have lots of upside as the stock...

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