Techmeme: Analysis: publicly listed bitcoin mining companies collectively owe $4B+, led by bankrupt Core Scientific with $1.3B as of September 30 and Marathon with $851M (Jaran Mellerud/Hashrate Index)

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December 27, 2022, 8:05 AM

Top News

Eli Tan / CoinDesk:

Solana-based NFT projects DeGods and Y00ts plan to leave the SOL ecosystem for Ethereum and Polygon, respectively; DeGods had asked for $5M to stay on SOL — DeGods will bridge over to Ethereum while its sister project Y00ts will move to Polygon with a grant from the layer 2's partnership fund.

Financial Times:

BAYC, Doodles, Pudgy Penguins, and other NFT projects are diversifying into real-world assets, including toys, albums, and sports teams, to generate new revenue — Creators of best-selling internet collectibles have responded to a crash in the value of crypto and digital assets by seeking new revenues …

Freddy Brewster / Los Angeles Times:

FOIA emails detail Sam Bankman-Fried's courtship of US federal regulators, including hiring former regulators and dining with ex-CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz — Before his mid-December arrest, cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly claimed that he was a responsible business leader …

More: crypto.news, Yahoo Finance, and Insider

Tweets: @tariqkrim, @denniskelleher, @bitboy_crypto, @attorneyjeremy1, @jeffbercovici, @nkulw, @markamesexiled, @denniskelleher, @johnlothian, and @foiafeed

Sujeet Indap / Financial Times:

Lawyers working on crypto bankruptcies, including FTX and Celsius, are charging more than $1,800 per hour, leading some creditors to criticize the process

Tweets: @ghose77, @chrisjbakke, and @frances_coppola

New York Times:

German researchers bought a US military device, last used in Afghanistan in 2012, with fingerprints, iris scans, and other data on 2,632 people, for $68 on eBay — German security researchers studying biometric capture devices popular with the U.S. military got more than they expected for $68 on eBay.

More: Engadget and Slashdot

Tweets: @johnismay, @johnismay, @johnismay, @hatr, @marcowenjones, and @cfschuetze

Timmy Shen / Forkast:

IntoTheBlock: the Bitcoin network hash rate fell by 38.8%+ on December 24 from its December 21 peak as many US-based miners paused operations due to blizzards — The Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped by more than 38.8% from its peak on Wednesday, as many U.S.-based miners have been forced …

More: CoinDesk, Cryptopolitan, Micky, Bitcoinist.com, Decrypt, Cointelegraph, The Block, Bitcoin News, and crypto.news

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @lopp and @peterktodd

Jaran Mellerud / Hashrate Index:

Analysis: publicly listed bitcoin mining companies collectively owe $4B+, led by bankrupt Core Scientific with $1.3B as of September 30 and Marathon with $851M

More: The Block

Shelby Brown / CNET:

Q&A with Apple App Store Vice President Matt Fischer on Apple Arcade's inception, its lack of a flagship exclusive game, approaching game developers, and more — Exclusive: Apple's answer to the competition has been to offer casual games for a flat fee, and it's working.

More: Philip Elmer‑DeWitt. Tweets: @steven_aquino, @cnet, and @shelbybrown91

Matthew Field / Telegraph:

Source: Magic Leap raised $450M in 2022, across $150M in equity and $300M in debt, giving Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund majority control of the company — Saudi Arabia has taken control of US augmented reality company Magic Leap, The Telegraph can reveal, as the company taps up investors for a further $450m.

More: The Information. Mastodon: @caseynewton@mastodon.social. Tweets: @ballmatthew. Thanks:@matthfield

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with YouTube's Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan on why the company acquired NFL rights, giving creators game footage, 4K broadcasts, multiscreen, and more — YouTube won the big bidding war for NFL Sunday Ticket yesterday, beating out Apple, Amazon, and ESPN with a deal worth a reported $2 billion a year.

Tweets: @jacobfeldman4, @cjzero, and @alex_kirshner

Qianer Liu / Financial Times:

Experts say Hua Hong, China's second-largest chip foundry, is barely affected by US sanctions and its focus on older chips could make it Beijing's new favorite — US restrictions on advanced tech help foundry benefit from Beijing's shifting view of the semiconductor supply chain

Tweets: @pstasiatech, @martijnrasser, @pstasiatech, and @nathanbenaich

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:

How Elon Musk's finances got more complicated as TSLA dropped 65%+ in 2022, shrinking his borrowing power and his fortune from an estimated $340B peak to $140B — Billionaire's borrowing power has shrunk with Tesla share decline — Elon Musk's Unconventional Management Style: Former Employees Share Stories

More: WRAL TechWire, The Tech Fuelled Investor, Insider, Washington Post, and Livemint

Tweets: @brian_henderson, @peterbakernyt, @jimpethokoukis, @ryanbethencourt, and @techwontsaveus

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From Mediagazer

Paul Glynn / BBC:

HarperCollins UK drops children's author and comedian David Walliams following allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young women

Natalie Korach / @nataliekorach:

Sources: VF's article by Chris Whipple featuring quotes from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles led to VF's biggest subscription signup day since 2016

Kirsten Chuba / The Hollywood Reporter:

TikTok's first awards show, held on December 18, handed out 14 awards, including Creator of the Year for Keith Lee; at the event, none of the screens worked

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More News

David Marchese / New York Times:

An interview with AI researcher and MacArthur Fellow Yejin Choi on misconceptions about AI, GPT-3, training models to make moral decisions, and more

Tweets: @nytimes

Bloomberg:

A profile of Senegal-based Wave, Francophone West Africa's only unicorn and the first non-telco, non-bank offering mobile money services in eight countries

Tweets: @garrytan, @habesh_, and @diopfode

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Jakarta-based Akulaku, a digital banking startup that offers a virtual credit card, neobank, and more, raised $200M from Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group

More: FinSMEs, Tech in Asia, Channel NewsAsia, and Reuters

Iris Deng / South China Morning Post:

Chinese government data for January to October 2022 shows domestic smartphone shipments fell 22% YoY from 275.3M to 214.5M units

More: Firstpost Tech, PingWest, and Reuters

Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:

Jon Peddie Research: there are 18 companies globally developing and producing GPUs; eight out of the 11 PC and data center GPU designers are based in China

More: The Windows Club and Business Wire

Ben Hunte / VICE:

A look at the Central African Republic's decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in April 2022 and launch a half-baked “Sangocoin” cryptocurrency in July 2022

More: Reuters, BeInCrypto, Cointelegraph, and CoinGeek

Mastodon: @deivudesu@mastodon.social. Tweets: @cfr_org and @viceworldnews

Earlier Picks

Justin Garrison / Justin Garrison:

Stack Overflow's 2022 Developer Survey: 40.2% use a Linux-based system, up from 25.3% in 2021 and 23.2% in 2018, compared to 62.3% for Windows and 31.1% for Mac

More: Stack Overflow, WebProNews, and Slashdot

Tweets: @thom_wolf, @shomikghosh21, @sspaeti, @akien, @akien, @akien, @akien, @rothgar, and @cfkschaller

Omer Benjakob / Haaretz:

A look at Tel Aviv-based Toka, which helps governments, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement hack security cameras to alter live feeds and past recordings

Tweets: @spyblog, @omerbenj, @haaretzcom, @haaretzcom, @haaretzcom, @marwasf, @omerbenj, and @evacide

Financial Times:

Internal memo: Xiaomi President Wang Xiang and co-founders Hong Feng and Wang Chuan step down, as the company battles slowing sales from COVID-19 disruptions

More: Bloomberg. Tweets: @baxiabhishek

Thomas Claburn / The Register:

Stanford study: programmers who used AI tools like GitHub Copilot to solve a set of coding challenges produced less secure code than those who did not

More: arXiv and WinBuzzer

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @divergencearran, @timmisiak, and @weldpond

Dhruv Mehrotra / Wired:

A look at Flipper Zero, a $200 portable security penetration testing device for hackers to intercept and replay signals from IoT sensors, garage doors, and more

Jennifer Conrad / Wired:

Q&A with author and labor lawyer Orly Lobel on AI's ability to help mitigate human biases in hiring and compensation, privacy regulation trade-offs, and more

Tweets: @wired and @jenniferconrad