Crypto’s past and future
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May 2, 2021
Good morning! This Sunday, here's your five-minute guide to the best of Protocol (and the internet) from the week that was, from what's coming in Epic v. Apple to the story of how we got Bitcoin (and where Bitcoin goes next).
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Best of Protocol
Epic v. Apple: Everything you need to know about the biggest trial in tech, by Nick Statt, Ben Brody and David Pierce
- Over the next three weeks, we're going to hear a lot about how the App Store works, and air out a lot of internal drama at Apple and Epic. And at the end of it all, we might get a clearer picture about the future of the software industry. The stakes in Epic v. Apple are incredibly high, not just for these two companies but for regulators and companies all over the world.
Politics at work? Basecamp's founders say no. Its workers say yes, by Anna Kramer
- Basecamp did a Coinbase, and it didn't go well. Basecamp may be just a single small company with a few dozen employees, but co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are two of tech's most influential thinkers about the future of work. And in trying to make work about work and not about personal stuff or politics, they made a lot of people mad. Including a lot of their employees.
This small startup helps Microsoft sidestep the App Store with its new cloud gaming service, by Nick Statt
- One possible outcome of the whole app store antitrust fight is a renewed interest in developing for the open web. With Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft is proving just how powerful a web app can be, and it's in large part thanks to a tiny startup called Rainway that might have stumbled into building a crucial piece of internet infrastructure.
Why Atlassian is a wild card in Microsoft and Salesforce's bid to own workplace collaboration, by Joe Williams
- When it offloaded HipChat, Atlassian seemed like it was getting out of the team-chat game. And it still is, mostly. But it's getting deep into the collaboration space in a different way, bringing Jira to the rest of the workplace. And in so doing, it's taking on Slack and Teams and Salesforce and all the other tools trying to be the home for all work at work.
What Roku and Google are fighting about: Video codecs, voice search and millions of eyeballs, by Janko Roettgers
- Roku versus YouTube is probably the most interesting power struggle in the streaming wars. Distributors versus content-makers is a tale as old as time, but these companies both blur the lines between the two. And they both say they're just fighting to do what's best for customers.
Regulators have a new tech target: Dark patterns that dominate the web, by Issie Lapowsky
- Some tech issues are tough to argue against. Like, who's going to come out as pro-robocalls? The same appears to be true with dark patterns, those deceptive designs that trick people into tapping one box but not another, giving permission when they shouldn't and generally falling into traps laid by designers everywhere. Regulators want to make those patterns stop.
A MESSAGE FROM INTEL
"For the developers who strive to bring solutions to market quickly, the challenge to overcome complex requirements, unique connectivity needs and disparate edge infrastructures can impede progress and create delays," says Bill Pearson, VP and GM of developer enabling in the company's Internet of Things Group.
Best of Everything Else
Elon Musk's war on regulators — The Wall Street Journal
- Musk seems to spend many of his days on the brink of getting fired or going to jail, and yet all that seems to happen is his net worth and follower count go up. How has Musk continued to come out ahead of the agencies regulating him and his companies? It's a tale of how fast tech moves, and how hard it is for anyone anywhere to move faster than Elon Musk.
The last days of Satoshi — Bitcoin Magazine
- It becomes a little more remarkable every day that we still don't know who Satoshi Nakamoto is. A decade after Satoshi's last appearance in the Bitcoin forums, this story dives into what happened just before. It's also heavily annotated, and will drop you right into those forums in the halcyon early days of crypto.
The new wave of crypto users: migrant workers — Rest of World
- Speaking of cryptocurrencies! Right now Bitcoin is really good for making money in the most volatile way possible, but hasn't really proven out as a currency. But for migrant workers looking for a way to send money home to loved ones, crypto was a lifeline during a pandemic when many traditional systems shut down. This story is a vision from a future where a global currency really does catch on.
The Googleplex of the future has privacy robots, meeting tents and your very own balloon wall — The New York Times
- The next few months will be full of creative, sometimes strange ideas about the future of the office. Google has made a habit of being ahead of the game on all things workplace, and so it makes sense that it's out in front here too. Some of its ideas — self-adjusting hot desks! — seem likely to be everywhere before long.
'Miami tech week' wasn't planned. But the hype is infectious — Wired
- Not everyone moved to Miami. Not even most people moved to Miami. But there really is a tech scene growing in the city, and something special seems to be happening. (Everyone's in a group chat together!) Will it last through a hot, sticky summer? Hard to say. But it's real for now.
What is 'cheugy'? You know it when you see it. — The New York Times
- It's pronounced chew-gee, and it's the new thing everyone under 17 is probably saying to each other right now. Will it last? Who knows. This is about TikTok, and trends are complicated. But cheugy is everything, not everything is cheugy and its story is a delightful tale of how weird the internet can be.
A MESSAGE FROM INTEL
"For the developers who strive to bring solutions to market quickly, the challenge to overcome complex requirements, unique connectivity needs and disparate edge infrastructures can impede progress and create delays," says Bill Pearson, VP and GM of developer enabling in the company's Internet of Things Group.
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Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day; see you tomorrow.