Twitter tells GitHub to remove proprietary source code and help them ID who posted it

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Monday, March 27, 2023

Happy Monday Crunch, our Crunch-a-licious friends! Our favorite part of Lorenzo's excellent piece on how the feds busted a cybercrime forum: "​​In a spectacular snafu on the hacker's part . . . the second piece of evidence came from Pompompurin himself. . . . He said he noticed a data breach posted on the site did not include ‘one of my old emails,’ which he looked up on the legitimate data breach notification site Have I Been Pwned.” Go get 'em. Or, if your business is more of avoiding than getting, go avoid 'em! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: maciek905

The TechCrunch Top 3 Come together: If you find yourself grumbling about using Microsoft Teams, this story might bring a smile to your face: Frederic reports that Microsoft rebuilt Teams from the ground up, promising some neat things, like 2x faster performance and only half the memory being used. Riding the WaveOne: If you're having a "Silicon Valley" experience right now, you're not alone. Apple acquired WaveOne, a startup using AI to compress videos, Kyle reports. Ahead of the game: A GitHub user named "FreeSpeechEnthusiast" wanted to get the drop on Elon Musk's promise to open source all code used to recommend tweets on March 31 by creating a repository on GitHub that contained Twitter's source code. Ivan explains what happened next.

Smart investment looks to the UK tech sector Sponsored by GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland Find out why leading West Coast VCs believe the UK has one of the best tech ecosystems in the world - closing the gap with Silicon Valley and China. See how companies including Revolut and Graphcore have benefitted from decades of sustained R&D, innovation and creativity in the UK. Learn More

Startups and VC First Citizens Bank has agreed to buy $72 billion in deposits and loans from Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, the California lender formerly known as Silicon Valley Bank that was taken over by the FDIC two weeks ago, Manish reports. Another handful to keep you ready for this week's watercooler moments: Half a bil for biz: Christine writes that OpenView goes bigger with seventh fund, closing on $570 million to invest in business software startups. Recruiting the founders: Catherine reports that Recruiting marketplace Paraform gets backing from Primer Sazze and Twitch founders. F-ai-shon: Kyle explores how Deep Agency shows the perils of applying AI to the fashion industry. Excel plus snake: Neptyne is building a Python-powered spreadsheet for data scientists, Kyle reports. One-click checkout to outer space: Aria reports that ABL Space Systems scores $60 million for rapid response launch for defense customers.

Just starting out angel investing? Avoid these 7 mistakes. Becoming an angel investor isn’t easy, and that’s on purpose. Those who claim the title must satisfy a few requirements with regards to income and licensing. If not, just about anyone could schedule Zoom calls with founders to talk about making their dreams come true. Business schools teach the basics, but Mysty Rusk, who’s reviewed around 4,500 deals over the last 20 years, says the most important lessons she learned were the result of mistakes she made along the way. “There may be no way to foresee a global crisis, a stealth competitor, or other risks that are completely outside the startup's control,” writes Rusk, “but some obstacles are avoidable with the right knowledge.” Three more from the TC+ team: Crypto is the ticket: Ticketmaster sucks, Anna concludes, and wonders if blockchains can be the cure. The future of 'shrooms, man: Haje reports How Mindbloom's CEO sees the future of psychedelic mental health. Go together!: Natasha M wonders if solo GPs are screwed. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Alyona Jitnaya / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. It's springtime, so we are guessing it was the right time for Alibaba founder Jack Ma to be seen again. Rita reports that Ma returned to China after a year of uncertainty that included China "trying to voice support for the private sector following a years-long crackdown on the tech industry, including shelving the IPO plans of Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba. The movement prompted some founders to move abroad and seek to expand their businesses overseas." It seems Salesforce did a good job in convincing investors that it is on the right path. Activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which had probably been a thorn in Salesforce’s side for the better part of this month, said it was ditching its director nomination plans. Paul has more. And we have five more for you: Can you hear it?: Darrell has your review of multiroom sound speakers Sonos Era 100 and Era 300. More layoffs indeed: Despite what you read above, it doesn't look like Salesforce is completely out of the weeds yet in terms of layoffs, Ron writes. Take a bite out of this Apple: Aisha writes that Apple's iOS 17 may include “several” requested features, while Brian tells you about some iPadOS 16.4's Pencil hover features. Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy one: Binance and its CEO are being sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures and Trading Commission over trading and derivative violations, Jacquelyn reports. No spying: A new Biden executive order bans federal agencies from using commercial spyware that poses threats to human rights and national security, Zack writes.

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Head of Engineering at Qblox (Delft, Netherlands) Senior Drupal Web Developer at MIT (Cambridge, MA, United States) Mobile/Web Developer (.Net) at Air Line Pilots Association (McLean, VA, USA) ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR EQUITY IN COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS at Catalyst California (Los Angeles, CA, USA) Cloud Engineer at GitKraken (Scottsdale, AZ, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Binance reopens after bug forces platform to suspend spot trading, deposits and withdrawals

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Friday, March 24, 2023

Friday Crunch is here! Friday Crunch is here! We are ready to go sit by the proverbial pool with an umbrella-ed drink in it. (Realistically, it'll be the TV and a beer, while embodying fancy cocktails and a pool. The mind is powerful like that.) For now, on with the news! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: SOPA Images / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3 Probably nothing to see here: For a few moments there, cryptocurrency giant Binance had to temporarily suspend spot trading, deposits and withdrawals, Manish reports. Everything was back to normal as of this morning. Gone: Google removed hundreds of Kenya-focused loan apps from its Play Store following a new policy that digital lenders needed to provide proof of license, Annie writes. We watched something similar play out with the Indian government and lending apps in February. Huge investment in EV: Ford is stepping on the accelerator when it comes to electric vehicles and will manufacture a next-generation electric truck at its $5.6 billion factory in Tennessee in 2025, Kirsten reports.

Iconosquare makes life as a social media manager way easier Sponsored by Iconosquare Save time and money without sacrificing insights! With in-depth analytics, automated reporting, and post scheduling all from one easy-to-use dashboard, managing your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok has never been easier! Try for Free

Startups and VC Zigazoo, the startup known for its TikTok-style video-sharing app for kids, is launching a separate app targeted at Gen Z users, Lauren reports. The new app will take the flagship name and is meant for ages 13 and older, whereas the original kid-focused app is for Generation Alpha (ages 3–12) and has been rebranded to "Zigazoo Kids." Previous users in the younger age range will be automatically migrated to Zigazoo Kids. WebAssembly (Wasm for short) is an open standard that enables browser-based applications to run with near-native performance, Frederic reports. It has also expanded to support non-browser environments, which is what is driving a lot of the recent hype around it. But like any emerging technology, it needs a stronger tooling ecosystem to realize its full potential, and Dylibso raises $6.6 million to help developers take the tech to production. And here are six more, as we are spinning our wheels getting ready for the weekend: The circular laptop: Circular economy means to make laptops repairable, and Devin reports that Framework refines its laptops and adds a cute way to reuse old parts. The circular hoops: We wouldn't dunk on cool tech like this — Ingrid reports that Huupe, a “smart” basketball hoop startup, starts a full-court press with $11 million in new funding. The circle of checks: Well, it was fun while it lasted! Rebecca reports that Twitter will kill “legacy” blue checks on April 1, while Ivan reports that new Twitter accounts now have to wait only 30 days for Twitter Blue. The circle of seaweed: Harri talks to a startup that believes there's value in seaweed, saying that the seaweed blobbing toward Florida has a silver lining. The circle of life: What if the bacteria already within us could help cure cancer? Devin reports that Pragma Bio is searching for cancer remedies hidden in our microbiome. Just going in circles: It's a bold goal to take on Google Maps at its own game, but Hivemapper is 1 million kilometers closer to that goal, reports Rebecca.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Prelaunch.com's $1.5M Seed deck Earlier this week, Haje Jan Kamps interviewed Prelaunch.com CEO Narek Vardanyan to get his perspective on how hardware startups can validate products before going to market. In a follow-up, he analyzed the pitch deck for Prelaunch.com’s $1.5 million seed round, which showed investors how the company monetizes its product forecasts: Cover slide Summary slide Market context slide Problem slide Solution slide Problem with the existing solution slide Product slide 1 Results slide Product slide 2 Product slide 3 Product slide 4 Vision slide Value prop slide Traction and metrics slide Business model and pricing slide Market trends slide Why now slide Team slide The Ask slide Contact us slide Three more from the TC+ team: How to feed your investors the data they want: Investors want best-of-the-best ESG data. Here's how to give it to them, T. Alexander Puutio advises. Time for a bit of sleuthing: Becca teaches how you can use the secondary market to find clues about who will IPO first. A cryptic future: Coinbase execs weigh in on the crypto's future in US amid regulatory scrutiny, writes Jacquelyn. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Prelaunch.com

Big Tech Inc. Remember yesterday when we discussed that Terraform Labs' CEO Do Kwon was reportedly taken into custody? Well, Kate has an update, and it seems like Kwon was quite naughty, among other things, trying to flee to Dubai with falsified documents. Both the U.S. and South Korea seek Do Kwon's extradition so he can face multiple charges. It's not known yet where he will end up. Now let's round out our TikTok coverage from yesterday. It looks like CEO Shou Zi Chew did not impress the Congressional audience. We did learn some new things, though: Sarah reports that the social media giant scans public videos to determine users' ages. Chew also denied that there was spying going on when ByteDance employees surveilled journalists. Taylor has more on that. And we have five more for you: On the other side of the pond: Natasha L has a pair of overseas government news items. The United Kingdom's antitrust watchdog said new evidence "provisionally alleviates" concerns in relation to the supply of video game consoles in the U.K. related to the antitrust probe of the Microsoft–Activision deal. And the French parliament voted for biometric surveillance at Paris Olympics. Up, up, but not away: Blue Origin released a report on the launch anomaly that happened six months ago and vows to fly again "soon," Devin writes. Cancel anytime: The Federal Trade Commission proposes a new rule to make it easier to cancel free trials and subscriptions. Aisha has more. Testing, testing 1, 2, 3: Battery swapping provider Gogoro plans to scale in new markets via B2B partners, like Foodpanda in Singapore, Rebecca reports. 800,000 problems and AI is not one: The Allen Institute for AI created a database of 3D models of everyday objects for its AI to play around with — 800,000 virtual props to be exact, Devin writes.

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Senior Drupal Web Developer at MIT (Cambridge, MA, United States) Mobile/Web Developer (.Net) at Air Line Pilots Association (McLean, VA, USA) ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR EQUITY IN COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS at Catalyst California (Los Angeles, CA, USA) Cloud Engineer at GitKraken (Scottsdale, AZ, USA) UI UX Designer at GitKraken (Scottsdale, AZ, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103