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Digital, tech & innovation narratives curated from across the web

Category: Finance

The Four Horsemen of the Tech Recession

It really was jarring to see those employment figures the same week that tech company after tech company reported mostly disappointing earnings, and worse forecasts, all on the heels of layoffs. Even Meta, which saw […]

Why The “Service” of SaaS Matters More to Banks

Vendors that underestimate the value that banking executives place on a trusted and lasting service can expect to get left behind in the big banking SaaS bang. Banking executives “get” SaaS. They understand that the […]

Twitter Now Wants to Become a Payments Platform

The platform would essentially compete with PayPal and even Apple Pay, which lets users not only pay in stores, but also transfer money between them. Since Elon Musk became the owner of Twitter, the company […]

Crypto’s Greatest Experiment Looks All But Over

Never say never, but some of DeFi’s boldest explorers might view the last year as an experience not to be repeated. The weeks of chaos in decentralized finance that followed the $60 billion collapse of […]

The Infrastructure Behind ATMs

While originally being concentrated in bank branches and operated just for the owning bank, ATMs quickly became a business in their own right. ATMs are a fascinating example of a pattern we see a lot […]

Crypto’s Tax Shelter Problem

Playing hide-and-seek from tax havens is hardly a new game, but for blowup-prone crypto companies and investors, it’s an increasingly problematic one. Playing hide-and-seek among crypto’s toy villages has become a hallowed pastime. Tether and […]

Is Binance the Next Domino to Fall?

The world’s largest crypto exchange is much like FTX — but with more red flags. It’s been almost two months since Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire came crashing down. The collapse of crypto exchange FTX and […]

FTX Goes to Zero w/ Molly White

Paris Marx is joined by Molly White to discuss the ongoing collapse of the crypto industry, what to make of the implosion of FTX and Alameda Research, and what happens next with Sam Bankman-Fried. Molly […]

‘Bank of Twitter’: Is Elon Musk Spitballing?

Elon Musk is seriously considering putting Twitter into the payments business to make it profitable. Will the blue bird fly? Can Elon Musk turn Twitter, a social media platform that’s as much a lightning rod […]

How Web Platforms Collapse: Facebook Case Study

Facebook’s real problem is that it became so obsessed with controlling users that it lost sight of all other goals. How can you fail by being too powerful? But this has happened in many instances, […]

The 2022 McKinsey Global Payments Report

Changes in the global landscape are creating opportunities for incumbents and disruptors to win customers, develop new solutions, and claim market share. In short, the payments chessboard is being rearranged. Key findings in the Mckinsey […]

Sam Bankman-Fried Tries to Explain Himself

The fallen crypto CEO on what went wrong, why he did what he did, and what lies he told along the way. Last night, Sam Bankman-Fried DMed me on Twitter. That was surprising. I’d spoken […]

What Happened at Alameda Research?

There are many competing theories available of exactly how Alameda and FTX burned through as many billions of dollars as they did, the reality of the matter looks something much like a combination of all […]

FTX Tapped Into Customer Accounts to Fund Risky Bets

Crypto exchange FTX lent billions of dollars worth of customer assets to fund risky bets by its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, setting the stage for the exchange’s implosion. FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried said […]

Extropicoin Extrapolated

Jon Evans explores how many of the 90s cypherpunks were also 90s extropians. Bitcoin was, of course, created by the pseudonymous figure Satoshi Nakamoto, but it’s well understood that Satoshi built on a sizable stack […]