The crypto roller coaster rides on

The best of Protocol

'Beyond the pale': Former Facebook staffers react to the company's Haugen spin, by Issie Lapowsky

• After Frances Haugen went public as the whistleblower behind the Facebook Files, Facebook went on the attack against her. In general, it has continued to fight back hard against the accusations made in recent weeks. Angry Facebook is a very different look, and it hasn't rubbed everyone the right way.

Here's what happens when men in tech share their salaries, by Michelle Ma

• Slowly but surely, it's getting easier to talk about money at work. And it turns out, when you do — when men do, especially — it has a tendency to spark change. The wage gap is real, but many people don't know what it looks like or how it affects them. That's starting to change.

Stream it. Own it. DJ Justin Blau sees music's future in crypto, by Ben Pimentel

• The music industry is among the most ambitious early adopters of all things crypto, from apps like Audius to marketplaces like Royal, Blau's platform for selling music rights as NFTs. Ownership in the music biz has always been a mess, and blockchains look like an answer.

Invest now, win later: Inside the 'buy now, pay later' gold rush, by Tomio Geron

• You should read our whole manual on the rise of "buy now, pay later," but start with Tomio's piece on why the industry matters so much right now. It's not just about installment plans; it's about making people trust their payment tools again, and using that trust to upend the financial world entirely.

Chinese-language indie media has its NFT moment, by Shen Lu

• An unchangeable asset, easy to track and nearly impossible to delete? No wonder NFTs are so appealing to some Chinese-language media companies in China that want to share important information without fear of censorship. It's becoming a key new revenue stream, too.

Animal Crossing for work: Is Shopify Party the future of the office?, by Lizzy Lawrence

• When we talk about the metaverse we talk a lot about Roblox and Fortnite. But let's be honest: Isn't living and working in Animal Crossing, like, the dream? Shopify Party was built as a quick experiment to replace the all-day Zoom calls, but it appears to be onto something much bigger.

On the schedule

The inside view with Bill McDermott (Tuesday, 10 a.m. PT)

ServiceNow is quickly becoming one of enterprise technology's most well-known names. Join Joe Williams in conversation with CEO Bill McDermott to learn what's ahead for the company and how it plans to hit $15 billion in annual revenue.

Global payments: Challenges and opportunities (Oct. 20, 10 a.m. PT)

Business is more global than ever, but cross-border payments remain mired in older systems. Can new technologies leapfrog the past? Protocol | Fintech will bring together experts in consumer and business payments to discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead.

The new benefits package (Oct. 21, 10 a.m. PT)

What are the perks of the new workplace? Rather than spending a fortune on snacks for the mini-kitchen, where should you be investing to keep your team happy and keep hiring the best? We'll talk to HR people, executives, and investors to see what it takes.

A MESSAGE FROM TRELLO

In today's world, hybrid organizations face more challenges than ever. For companies to stay competitive, leaders need to proactively spot gaps, identify opportunities, and streamline work. Uncover how Trello Enterprise can help teams break down those department silos and share key information for more collaborative work.

Learn more

The best of everything else

Anyone seen Tether's billions? — Bloomberg Businessweek

• Tether is a stablecoin, which means its digital currency is backed by cold hard cash, in a vault somewhere. Supposedly. We thought. Turns out, the infrastructure behind Tether may not be so stable after all.

Investors spent millions on 'Evolved Apes' NFTs. Then they got scammed. — Vice

• This is not intentionally a week full of crypto cautionary tales, but here we are! Evolved Apes looked for a minute like the next big thing in NFTs, before the developer behind the project took off with millions. But now, the community's building back.

The dieter's diet — Bustle

• A deep dive into Noom, the ultra-popular weight-loss app that people always seem to talk about in the same reverential terms they use for Crossfit or Peloton. It's a story about data and psychology, about the tech approach to everything, and about making similar things feel different.

Jony Ive on what he misses most about Steve Jobs — The Wall Street Journal

• On the 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs' death, one of his closest collaborators thought back to what he was like to work with. "His insatiable curiosity was not limited or distracted by his knowledge or expertise, nor was it casual or passive. It was ferocious, energetic and restless. His curiosity was practiced with intention and rigor."

How a guy who tells you how to buy a PS5 accidentally became the world's most powerful tech journalist — BuzzFeed

• A fun story about how media has changed, the insane lengths to which people will go to get gaming consoles, the impact of a chip shortage and supply chain crunch around the world, and the power of some good old fashioned internet sleuthing.

How WhatsApp swallowed half the world — Gizmodo

• When Facebook's services went down, nobody was affected more than the people who rely on WhatsApp to run their businesses, communicate with their loved ones and generally live their day-to-day life. And there are many millions of those people. So how did WhatsApp become the internet for so much of the world?

A MESSAGE FROM TRELLO

Powering a productive team means using a powerful tool. Meet Trello Enterprise: the tool designed to help your team move work forward. Trello Enterprise makes it easy to collaborate with teammates, organize tasks, and understand what's due now (and what's up next). It's more than work. It's a way of working together.

Learn more