Protocol is 1: Our favorite long-reads from our first year
This website is a year old today. Here are some of our favorite stories that we published in the last 12 months.

All dressed up for our birthday!
Image: Birthday! Protocol
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This website is a year old today. Here are some of our favorite stories that we published in the last 12 months.
All dressed up for our birthday!
As we celebrate our first birthday, we thought this was a good time to look back on some of our favorite Protocol stories from the last 12 months. Some broke big news, some illuminated people and stories we needed to know more about, and all are great and important tales. We hope you enjoy these highlights from our first year.
The GE Mafia: How an old-school company birthed a generation of tech leaders, by Joe Williams
Through apps, not warrants, 'Locate X' allows federal law enforcement to track phones, by Charles Levinson
Misogyny at Alibaba and Baidu: The struggle of China's female tech execs, by Shen Lu
Tesla vs. Mustang: The future of Ford is here, by Mike Murphy
A tiny team of House staffers could change the future of Big Tech. This is their story, by Emily Birnbaum
From McDonald's to Google: How Kelsey Hightower became one of the most respected people in cloud computing, by Tom Krazit
Silicon Valley's new extreme: The 2:30 a.m. tech bus from Salida, by Lauren Hepler
How one woman is building the future for Google in Silicon Valley, by Anna Kramer
How COVID-19 rewrote Y Combinator's Winter 20 Demo Day, by Biz Carson
How Discord (somewhat accidentally) invented the future of the internet, by David Pierce
Alloy promised Democrats a data edge over Trump. The DNC didn't buy it. Now what? By Issie Lapowsky
Why Microsoft's new Flight Simulator should make Google and Amazon nervous, by Seth Schiesel
How Google kneecapped Amazon's smart TV efforts, by Janko Roettgers
A new media company from the publisher of POLITICO reporting on the people, power and politics of tech.
Funding for Black-owned startups needs to grow. That's just the start.
"There is no quick fix to close the racial wealth and opportunity gaps, but there are many ways companies can help," said Mastercard's Michael Froman.
Michael Froman is the vice chairman and president of Strategic Growth for Mastercard.
When Tanya Van Court's daughter shared her 9th birthday wish list — a bike and an investment account — Tanya had a moment of inspiration. She wondered whether helping more kids get excited about saving for goals and learning simple financial principles could help them build a pathway to financial security. With a goal of reaching every kid in America, she founded Goalsetter, a savings and financial literacy app for kids. Last month, Tanya brought in backers including NBA stars Kevin Durant and Chris Paul, raising $3.9 million in seed funding.
How Stripe, Xero and ModSquad work with external partners and customers in Slack channels to build stronger, lasting relationships.
Every business leader knows you can learn the most about your customers and partners by meeting them face-to-face. But in the wake of Covid-19, the kinds of conversations that were taking place over coffee, meals and in company halls are now relegated to video conferences—which can be less effective for nurturing relationships—and email.
Email inboxes, with hard-to-search threads and siloed messages, not only slow down communication but are also an easy target for scammers. Earlier this year, Google reported more than 18 million daily malware and phishing emails related to Covid-19 scams in just one week and more than 240 million daily spam messages.
Here are some of our favorite stories that we published in the last 12 months.
David Pierce ( @pierce) is Protocol's editor at large. Prior to joining Protocol, he was a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a senior writer with Wired, and deputy editor at The Verge. He owns all the phones.
As the year draws to a close, we thought this was also a good time to look back on some of our favorite Protocol stories of the year. Some broke big news, some illuminated people and stories we needed to know more about, and all are great and important tales.
Hopefully there's some good holiday reading in here for you.
David Pierce ( @pierce) is Protocol's editor at large. Prior to joining Protocol, he was a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a senior writer with Wired, and deputy editor at The Verge. He owns all the phones.
Digital verification systems could give people the freedom to work and travel. Here's how they could actually happen.
One day, you might not need to carry that physical passport around, either.
Mike Murphy ( @mcwm) is the director of special projects at Protocol, focusing on the industries being rapidly upended by technology and the companies disrupting incumbents. Previously, Mike was the technology editor at Quartz, where he frequently wrote on robotics, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics.
There will come a time, hopefully in the near future, when you'll feel comfortable getting on a plane again. You might even stop at the lounge at the airport, head to the regional office when you land and maybe even see a concert that evening. This seemingly distant reality will depend upon vaccine rollouts continuing on schedule, an open-sourced digital verification system and, amazingly, the blockchain.
Several countries around the world have begun to prepare for what comes after vaccinations. Swaths of the population will be vaccinated before others, but that hasn't stopped industries decimated by the pandemic from pioneering ways to get some people back to work and play. One of the most promising efforts is the idea of a "vaccine passport," which would allow individuals to show proof that they've been vaccinated against COVID-19 in a way that could be verified by businesses to allow them to travel, work or relax in public without a great fear of spreading the virus.
Mike Murphy ( @mcwm) is the director of special projects at Protocol, focusing on the industries being rapidly upended by technology and the companies disrupting incumbents. Previously, Mike was the technology editor at Quartz, where he frequently wrote on robotics, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics.