One of this week’s top stories is from Wired: “Paradise at the Crypto Arcade: Inside the Web3 Revolution,” by Gilad Edelman.
Here are a few salient quotes from the article:
One way to think about Web3 is right there in the name: It’s the successor to Web 2.0, the era that was supposed to democratize the internet but instead became dominated by a handful of huge platforms, like Google and Facebook. Web3 is about re-decentralizing the web.
(T)o a core of true believers … Web3 is about decentralizing … everything. Its mission is almost achingly idealistic: to free humanity not only from Big Tech domination but also from exploitative capitalism itself—and to do it purely through code.
Web3 aims to apply these two concepts—decentralization and game theory—to all of digital life.
A blockchain is a database that lives across a network of computers rather than on one server. No single person or organization owns it. There’s no central authority that must be trusted to enforce the rules.
The main vehicle for this is Ethereum, a blockchain that borrowed Bitcoin’s key features and added a major innovation: It was designed with its own programming language so developers could build apps, and eventually a whole new decentralized digital infrastructure, to run on it.
(But) Crypto’s user-unfriendliness keeps pushing the system to do the one thing it was designed not to do: centralize.
This is by no means a comprehensive summary of the article’s content. For that, I encourage you to read it here.
Today’s News (33):
Finland moves to join NATO, says it will increase security in Baltic Sea (Reuters)
Finland’s president and prime minister said they’re in favor of applying for NATO membership, paving the way for the alliance to expand amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. Neighboring Sweden is expected to decide on joining NATO in coming days. [AP]
Kremlin calls Finland's NATO move a threat to Russia (Fox)
The decision by the two Nordic countries to abandon the neutrality they maintained throughout the Cold War would be one of the biggest shifts in European security in decades. Finland's announcement drew fury from the Kremlin, which called it a direct threat to Russia and threatened an unspecified response. (Reuters)
Ukraine is pushing Russia back from its second-largest city. — Ukrainian forces recaptured a village north of Kharkiv, in the northeast part of the country, and made other advances. (WP)
Ukraine says it blew up Russian pontoon bridges over a key river — and units trying to cross it (NBC)
The Ukraine War’s Economic Toll Is Testing the West’s Unity Against Russia (NYT)
Russia’s use of cluster munitions causing ‘intense’ harm in Ukraine (WP)
Among the many losses of the war in Ukraine: nearly 5 million jobs (NPR)
Ukraine’s ‘Road of Death’: Video Investigation Shows Russians Fired on Civilians (WSJ)
Ukrainian refugees in Russia report interrogations, detention and other abuses (WP)
In the Trenches of Eastern Ukraine, Combat Becomes a Vicious Dance (NYT)
Sanctions forcing Russia to use appliance parts in military gear, U.S. says (WP)
Ukraine regains territory, and crime scene investigators move in (WP)
Some birth control could be banned if Roe v. Wade is overturned, legal experts warn (NBC)
Legislation to make abortion legal throughout the United States was defeated in the Senate, amid solid Republican opposition. The Justice Department said that it was stepping up security for members of the Supreme Court ahead of an anticipated ruling that could scale back abortion rights. (Reuters)
Supermassive black hole seen at the center of our galaxy (WP)
Scientists reveal first image of the black hole in the center of our galaxy (Yahoo)
Water may have been on Mars much more recently than scientists thought, China's rover suggests (Space.com)
The swift march of climate change in North Carolina’s ‘ghost forests’ (WP)
War and Weather Sent Food Prices Soaring. Now, China’s Harvest Is Uncertain. (NYT)
As America's weather gets wilder, its power network gets older. Reuters investigates how the grid, plagued by outages and increasingly severe weather, needs a trillion-dollar overhaul to handle the Biden administration’s promised clean-energy revolution. (Reuters)
Crash of TerraUSD Shakes Crypto. ‘There Was a Run on the Bank.’ (WSJ)
Dogecoin and Ether Sink Faster Than Bitcoin as Crypto Crash Intensifies (Barron’s)
Cryptocurrencies extended their sell-off, with Bitcoin falling to its lowest levels in 16 months as a stampede out of so-called stablecoins sent shockwaves around broader markets. (Reuters)
Crypto’s plummet tests the durability of a hype-driven industry (WP)
Apple Is No Longer World’s Most Valuable Company — Saudi Aramco, with a market capitalization close to $2.383 trillion, is as of this week the world’s most valuable company. (WSJ)
SF DA Chesa Boudin says he's 'confident' he'll beat recall, despite bruising poll (ABC)
In an unprecedented move, Jan. 6 panel subpoenas McCarthy and other Republicans (NPR)
Firefighters in northern New Mexico labored under an apocalyptic orange sky, and vehicles streamed out of the ski area of Angel Fire as wind-driven flames from the state's second-largest blaze on record roared closer to the mountain resort. (Reuters)
China says it will ‘strictly limit’ citizens from going abroad (Financial Times)
DeafBlind Communities May Be Creating a New Language of Touch — Protactile began as a movement for autonomy and a system of tactile communication. Now, some linguists argue, it is becoming a language of its own. (New Yorker)
New Report Confirms You Are Most Interesting, Most Important Individual On Earth (The Onion)
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