How to support the #W3W newsletter
#Web3Weekly: Feb. 5–11, 2023
This post is adapted from the latest edition of my newsletter #Web3Weekly. If you would like to receive it in your inbox every Sunday, subscribe here.
I’ve been thinking about ways to make the newsletter more sustainable while still making info about decentralization accessible for newbie and OG alike. If you would like to help, I have two options for you.
First, I’m looking for new sponsors. If your organization has an event to promote to the #Web3Weekly community, as TechCrunch did last year, that’s a great option. Or if it’s some other product or service, that’s cool too. Please drop me an email at peter@w3w.media, and we’ll talk further.
For individuals, if you’re interested in making a donation, you can use the following crypto addresses:
- Bitcoin: 3DWyDijmAm2o7k1bPQfTER1gK1JwnkcMEe
- Ether (or any ERC20 token): 0x2618bb798D7D7F12737dC47089355dd7Bab6F52D
- Telos (EVM): 0x4a6bd10b6d608c4891a58f48163ecc67775c2f13
Here I also want to thank everyone who has subscribed to the newsletter. I’ve always viewed it as a document of my own trip down the proverbial rabbit hole of learning about decentralization, bit by bit. It’s truly a pleasure and an honor to have friends along for the ride. ☺️
Now, onto the latest headlines:
- Kraken will end staking for U.S. customers and pay a $30 million fine to settle allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was offering unregistered securities. The deal could set a precedent for other crypto exchanges as U.S. regulators increasingly seek to apply existing law to the industry.
- Genesis filed a plan in U.S. bankruptcy court to repay its largest creditors, including provisions to enable customers of its partner, Gemini, to recover $900 million.
- PayPal held $604 million in crypto on behalf of users as of year-end 2022, according to its latest annual report. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman also announced he will retire later this year.
- Research firm Chainalysis reports that hackers stole $3.8 billion from users in 2022, a new record. Chainalysis says much of this activity came from North Korea, which effectively uses crypto theft to raise funds beyond the reach of Western sanctions.
- The Uniswap community completed its final vote to deploy the latest version of its decentralized finance software on the Binance-led BNB Chain. CoinDesk notes that the outcome was a rare setback for venture giant Andreesen Horowitz, which cast a large bloc of votes against the deployment.
- Emergent Fidelity Technologies, an offshore company co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried that holds almost $600 million in Robinhood stock, filed for bankruptcy Friday.
- Wall Street investment firms still have big crypto plans despite market losses in 2022, Decrypt reports.
- Google has begun early user testing for Bard, a chatbot the company is planning to launch soon to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
- The streaming service Twitch suspended an AI-generated version of the sitcom Seinfeld for 14 days after it began broadcasting transphobic jokes.
- Yuga Labs settled a civil suit against the developer of a marketplace for non-fungible tokens that Yuga says infringed on its trademarks for the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The company is still seeking damages from other individuals who worked on the marketplace project, according to The Block.
- Crypto ads will be a no-show for today’s Super Bowl telecast, marking a big reversal from last year’s “Crypto Bowl,” according to the Associated Press. Instead, viewers will notice a bigger presence for an old Super Bowl standby: alcohol ads.
- After a decade of work, researchers announced they have deciphered 57 letters written in secret code by Mary, Queen of Scots during her captivity in the late 16th century.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading the newsletter today! If you want to receive updates like this in your inbox every Sunday, please join our email list.
Note: This content is for journalistic purposes only, not as investment advice. Always DYOR and consult appropriate financial professionals before making investment decisions.
Best wishes for a healthy and productive week ahead.
