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The revolution will be Telegrammed. The Stakhanovite Adriana H today smashed out a scorcher on encrypted-messaging app Telegram. Russian activists, Adriana explains, have been using the app to coordinate protests against an impending nationwide internet shutdown—part of the Kremlin’s broader plans to construct a sinister, walled-off Russian internet on which free speech can be more easily controlled. Read it here.
QuadrigaCX unspooled. Tim teamed up once more for today’s article, this time choosing the wonderful Adriana H as his victim. The two dug deep into the QuadrigaCX conspiracy/scandal/tragedy and surfaced EVERYTHING KNOWN SO FAR. Key takeaway: QuadrigaCX’s founder, who died with the sole means of accessing $190 million worth of the exchange’s customers’ cryptocurrency, was given a closed casket funeral ceremony—meaning it could, really, have been anyone buried in his spot. Perhaps that’s why the great Tim C’s phone so frequently loses connection, eh! What I’m implying is Tim Copeland himself is buried in that spot, while continuing to write for Decrypt! Imagine! Feed your Quad habit here.
PR advice from Bernie Madoff. Ben M today put out a banger on Tron CEO Justin Sun’s recent pledge to airdrop $20 million dollars’ worth of “free” cryptocurrency to those of his Twitter followers that retweet him. The ploy, argues the mentally exhausted Ben, makes for a fine example of the company’s scam-like marketing strategy.
Tron isn’t a scam per se, Ben concludes, but it’s run like one. Or something. [Ed. Perhaps we should offer a bounty for Debrief sign-ups, eh Munster?] The story can be read here.
[Also, UPDATE: venerable CNBC pundit Ran NeuNer has retweeted Sun’s post too, lol! Clearly down on his luck.]
Design within Reach. Stately, plump Guillermo J came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. Kidding! Guillermo is not the slightest bit plump—however he did show up today bearing a bowl of blather—about the future of design. That’s right: A bunch of Web3 designers discussed the sad state of the design state at a SXSW blockchain UX panel—and their insights will blow your m-i-n-d. Designers ONLY may read it here.
Other stuff
Parker, you’re on the blockchain! Holy Moses, Batman, the venerable New York Times, according to Coindesk, has a job opening for someone who can “design a blockchain-based proof of concept for news publishers.” Though other major publishers/wire agencies—among them the Associated Press and, er, Forbes—have experimented with blockchain-journalism startup Civil, the Times is apparently the first to go it alone.
Presumably, the paper will be pondering alternative revenue models (embedded micropayments, etc.) to the current Facebook-Twitter protection-racket, which some held responsible for the recent layoffs at media giants including VICE and Buzzfeed. [Ed. What about tokenized commenting? Annotating? Tamper-proof stories whose provenance is immutable? Blah blah blah blah blah. W h i t e n o i s e…………..]
The Times, notably, was one of the first to implement a “soft” paywall on its website, which it has largely kept in place since 2011.
Bazinga!
Short petro, sanction the bankers. The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Evrofinance Mosnarbank, a large Moscow-based lender described as having been the “primary” financier of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s dubious ”petro” cryptocurrency. The Treasury argued that the bank’s support of the currency indicated a willingness to subvert US sanctions on the country—the US has long banned any backing of the petro as an “extension of credit” to Maduro’s rapidly deteriorating regime.
“The United States will take action against foreign financial institutions that sustain the illegitimate Maduro regime and contribute to the economic collapse and humanitarian crisis plaguing the people of Venezuela,” the Treasury announced on its website. The bank will lose access to all of its US-based assets and properties. (The bank claims it’s business as usual, though.)
Written by Ben M as he rots in his cell. Conjugally visit him at ben@decryptmedia.com