Techmeme
April 19, 2020, 6:55 PM

Top News

Decrypt:
Hackers steal ~$25M worth of cryptocurrency from Lendf.Me, a dForce-based decentralized lending platform, likely using a well-known exploit of an Ethereum token  —  DForce, a Chinese decentralized finance protocol, today lost $25 million worth of its customers' cryptocurrency due to a well-known exploit of an Ethereum token.
Seth Schiesel / New York Times:
Facebook to launch a dedicated gaming app to let users create and watch live game streams, available on Android on Monday and on iOS when Apple approves it  —  Video games are surging in popularity in the pandemic.  So Facebook is rolling out an app designed for creating and watching live gameplay.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Cloudflare debuts Is BGP Safe Yet, a site that checks if your ISP has added security protections and filtering that make Border Gateway Protocol less vulnerable  —  “Is BGP Safe Yet” is a new site that names and shames internet service providers who don't tend to their routing.
Nour Haydar / ABC:
Australia orders the creation of a mandatory code of conduct requiring platforms like Google and Facebook to pay media businesses for news content  —  The Federal Government has ordered the competition watchdog to develop a mandatory code of conduct to govern commercial dealings between tech giants and news media companies.
Mara Hvistendahl / Wired:
As Amazon and eBay crack down on listings for masks and PPE, suppliers, brokers, and even scammers are reaching out to prospective buyers via LinkedIn  —  With face masks and other protective gear in short supply, speculators and popup brokers are finding customers on LinkedIn.
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:
The idea that the pandemic has made the internet better is tempting but premature, as major platforms struggle to adapt to a surge in activity and new use cases  —  The weekend before bars and restaurants closed in New York, I sat on the ground in the park with three friends in a creepy circle …
Benedict Evans:
COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of tech and ecommerce that will impact the lives of people who aren't online, especially in the developing world  —  At the beginning of this year (which now feels like 100 years ago), I gave a presentation on macro trends in tech, at an event in Davos.
Ian Walker / Kotaku:
Riot launches one of the biggest bug bounty programs in gaming, offering up to $100K for finding security flaws in its controversial Vanguard anti-cheat system  —  Riot has posted one of the biggest—if not the biggest—bounties in gaming, offering people up to $100,000 if they can find …
James Batchelor / GamesIndustry.biz:
Pokémon Go developer Niantic names its current board member Megan Quinn as COO; Quinn was most recently a general partner at VC firm Spark Capital  —  Former employee leaves position at Spark Capital to return to Pokmon Go developer  —  Niantic has appointed a new COO — and it's a familiar face for the firm.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Spontaneous social apps that let users join video, voice, and chat rooms on a whim have become popular under lockdowns, like exclusive voice chat app Clubhouse  —  Forget the calendar invite.  Just jump into a conversation.  That's the idea powering a fresh batch of social startups poised …
David Streitfeld / New York Times:
Profile of Stacy Mitchell, the driving force behind Athena, a coalition of ~50 labor, small business, and social justice groups aiming to curb Amazon's power  —  Stacy Mitchell knew that taking on a trillion-dollar company would be a lopsided fight.  But the pandemic has not only made Amazon more essential.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Deep dive into SalesIQ's Summer '26 release: 40+ features for the agentic era  —  We've already introduced you to Zoho SalesIQ's Summer '26 release, our annual release, and the one where SalesIQ enters a new territory: the era of agentic intelligence.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
Blitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code 'Through A Straw'
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Re-Release: The Death of Hollywood? W/ Allan Loeb
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
Maybe Twitter isn't real life
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Plan To Merge Chat And Agents — With Greg Brockman
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Encore: Inside Joe Weisenthal's brain
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:55 PM ET, April 19, 2020.

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

Susan D'Agostino / Quanta Magazine:
Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:

Earlier Picks

Arielle Pardes / Wired:
Zach Schonfeld / VICE:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
J. Edward Moreno / The Hill: