The best of Protocol

Don’t think of it as leaving Twitter. Jack Dorsey’s going all in on crypto, by Ben Pimentel

• This week was truly the week of Big Corporate Shake-ups. Jack Dorsey left Twitter, leaving Parag Agrawal as CEO and Bret Taylor as chairman of the board. Then Taylor was also named co-CEO of Salesforce. Then Dorsey changed the name of his other company, Square, to Block. And if you want to know what’s behind almost all of it? Crypto.

CTO to CEO: The case for putting the tech expert in charge, by Michelle Ma

• One more on the change at Twitter: Agrawal was Twitter’s longtime CTO, and you’d be amazed at how rarely CTOs end up getting the top job. But as tech becomes central to every one of a company’s teams and functions, having a leader close to the metal is more appealing than ever.

Why tech foes are psyched the UK told Meta to sell Giphy, by Ben Brody

• The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority told Meta it needs to sell Giphy for anticompetitive reasons. Meta is likely to appeal, meaning this isn’t over yet. But is this a one-off decision, or a sign of things to come and deals to be unwound? The company’s critics hope for the latter, and there are signs they may be right.

Stripe is on a hiring spree. But it's also rescinding job offers and angering engineers, by Anna Kramer

• Candidates get a job offer. They start making plans for their new gig and new company. Then they’re told … never mind, just kidding, something something business priorities. From what we’re hearing, this happens more than you think in the fast-moving, ever-changing tech industry, and it’s not just at Stripe.

5 things to know about NTIA nominee Alan Davidson, by Issie Lapowsky

• There were two key tech policy nominees on the stand this week: Davidson, who is set to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Gigi Sohn, a potential FCC commissioner. Both have their work cut out for them dealing with infrastructure bills, privacy policy and more, but both are also set up to be hugely powerful in determining tech’s future.

Elizabeth Holmes was the boss. Or was she? by Nat Rubio-Licht

• The whole Theranos trial was always leading to Holmes herself taking the stand. And over multiple days, we got to hear her side of the story, including her allegations that Sunny Balwani was abusive and controlling. The question of how powerful she truly was, and what power really looks like, is key to the outcome of this case.

On the schedule

Crypto and institutional investors

Venture capital started the move to treat crypto as just another asset class. Which institutional investors are most primed to consider crypto? What infrastructure is required for institutional needs? Join Tomio Geron at 9 a.m. PT on Dec. 6 where he, Anchorage's Diogo Mónica and Paxos' Walter Hessert will answer these questions and more.

RSVP here.

The year in enterprise tech

Protocol's Tom Krazit will hold a panel discussion at 10 a.m. PT Wednesday with enterprise tech executives and experts to recap the biggest developments at AWS re:Invent 2021 and preview the trends and events that will shape 2022.

RSVP here.

Big Tech and gaming platform wars

Big Tech is more interested than ever before in trying to own and define the platforms of tomorrow, but game companies have their own unique visions for how we’ll play and socialize in virtual spaces in the future. Join Protocol's Nick Statt in conversation with Manticore Games CEO Frederic Descamps and Zynga CPO Scott Koenigsberg at 10 a.m. PT on Dec. 14.

RSVP here.

A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST

Comcast’s powerful network keeps people connected. Since 2017, Comcast has invested more than $15 billion to continue to grow its smart, reliable network. As the technology advances, this network will become even more resilient, faster and more secure.

Learn more

The best of everything else

Those cute cats online? They help spread misinformation — The New York Times

• Everyone thinks they’re too smart to be tricked by misinformation. That may be misinformation’s greatest trick, actually: hiding in such innocuous places that you never even realize it’s there. And if you’ve ever wondered how you got signed up for that page in the first place? Blame the cats.

Here's why movie dialogue has gotten more difficult to understand (and three ways to fix it) — SlashFilm

• This got passed around a lot this week, and was a salve for everyone who wasn’t sure if they couldn’t hear the TV because they were old or because the TV was too quiet. Good news: It’s mostly the TV’s fault. And the reason why is more a tech story than you might think.

Lina Khan’s battle to rein in Big Tech — The New Yorker

• It’s no secret that Lina Khan is one of the most powerful foes of the tech industry. This is a sprawling look at who she is, what she believes, what she wants the tech industry to look like going forward and why she thinks this is the moment for big change.

Spotify has plans to move beyond music and become the Instagram and TikTok of audio — Forbes

• You really can’t overstate Spotify’s ambitions in the audio space. It’s a dominant player in music, taking over podcasts at a blistering pace, investing in audiobooks and live audio and pushing for even bigger things. The TikTok comparison — the remix culture, the community-building, the sense of creativity that permeates the platform — is a good one.

Up all night with a Twitch millionaire: The loneliness and rage of the internet’s new rock stars — The Washington Post

• The creator economy gives people unprecedented opportunity and career options. It can also be punishingly difficult, time-consuming and unpredictable, even for the creators at the very top of the industry. This is a detailed day in the life, and an eye-opening one.

The Internet’s Casino Boats — Stephen Diehl

• A good, hard look at one reason there’s so much frothy excitement about all things Web3 and crypto. The short version: There’s so much money and so little regulation involved that if you move fast, it can feel impossible to lose. At least for now.

A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST

In the last 10 years, Comcast has invested $30 Billion – and $15 billion since 2017 alone – to grow and evolve America’s largest gig-speed broadband network, building more route miles and running fiber deeper to customers’ homes to help millions of people stay connected when they need it most.

Learn more