Latest news with #MollyWhite
The Verge
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
The Switch 2's next killer app is already here
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 90, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope you're staying cool, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I have been watching The Bear's fourth season, preparing for the deluge of Qi2.2 wireless chargers, pondering how I'll use the upcoming Bigfoot emoji to troll my group chats, studying the relaunched EmojiTracker, reading this giant profile of NBA star Joel Embiid, enjoying Pixar's Hoppers teaser trailer way more than I expected, learning who Alex Warren is, and wondering if I should actually watch all of Stranger Things after seeing the fifth and final season's new trailer. I also have for you a new Donkey Kong title, OpenAI's next big AI agent, a customizable gamepad, and more. Let's dive in. (As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What do you want to know more about? What awesome tricks do you know that everyone else should? What app should everyone be using? Tell me everything: installer@ And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.) Today, I'm featuring Molly White, who you may know as the author of the incomparable Web3 is Going Just Great, which chronicles how crypto, blockchain, and Web3 technologies are not going great. White also writes the Citation Needed newsletter and is a Wikipedia admin. And I highly recommend her talk at the 2024 XOXO Festival about good things on the web, which I got to see live. Here's her homescreen and her explanation of what's on it. The phone: Pixel 7. I'm of the 'drive it until the wheels fall off' type when it comes to electronics, so this three-year-old phone is actually somewhat on the new end for me. The wallpaper: A photo of my cat, Ruthie. The apps: The apps are all labeled, save for the quickbar ones: Signal, Bluesky, Proton Mail, Google Calendar, and Chrome. The two cut-off names are Pocket Casts and CloudLibrary. Signal is my primary messaging app both for my work and for personal use, and I highly recommend it. Out of end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms, it's an excellent choice — and I think everyone should strongly consider using E2EE to protect their privacy, regardless of whether they think they need it or not. You'll also see Tor on the screen; that's a privacy-focused web browser that I use frequently. I'm a big reader, so it's probably not surprising that three of the apps on the home screen are book-related. CloudLibrary and Libby are the apps my libraries use for their digital lending, which is primarily how I get the audiobooks I enjoy listening to while I walk my dog (when I'm not listening to podcasts on Pocket Casts, that is). StoryGraph is how I keep track of all the books I read, and it's a strong improvement over Goodreads. I just finished listening to the audiobook for Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, which was very good. I'm a very heavy RSS user, and Inoreader is my RSS reader. It's perhaps a bit ironic as someone who writes an email newsletter that I don't like reading newsletters in my email inbox, but I much prefer to sit down and read my newsletters at my preferred reading time than have them interrupt me throughout my day. I've got hundreds of feeds that I follow, and Inoreader also has a great feature where it can convert email newsletters that don't offer built-in RSS feeds (for shame!) into a feed. Probably half of the feeds I follow are food blogs for recipe ideas, and good recipes go into Paprika, a fantastic recipe app that I also use for grocery lists. I've been using that app for years, and as a frequent cook I've collected about 800 recipes in there by now. I also asked Molly to share a few things she's into right now: Here's what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you're into right now as well! Email installer@ with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we'll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on The Verge, this post on Threads, and this post on Bluesky. 'Got an Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019) for the upscaling feature and watched the best single episode of television — 'The Constant,' Lost. It's like getting a DAC and in-ear monitors to re-listen to your old favorites.' – Allen [Jay note: 'The Constant' is, indeed, the best single episode of television.] 'Donkey Kong Bananza! It's got four main buttons: Smash things in front, smash things below, smash things above, jump. Needless to say it's the most cathartic game I've ever played.' – BaltMatrix 'For reasons surely not related to current events, I've been reading a lot about the leadup to the Civil War. Most recently it has been Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation, a newly released biography by Zaakir Tameez about one of the most misunderstood and now largely forgotten figures of the abolitionist movement.' – Hoto 'I've been playing through my Steam Summer Sale haul and having a blast. (Cyberpunk 2077, Besiege, Emily is Away, Nubby Number Factory, A Short Hike.) I've also gotten into Letterboxed recently, having fun there after recruiting some friends to join. Lastly, one of my all-time favorite podcasts, 13 Minutes Presents, just started their third season, this one about the Space Shuttle. Can't recommend the first season about the Apollo 11 moon landing enough.' – trekkie86 'Started reading The Anthropologists. Breezy, lovely writing!' – Jake 'It may be clichéd, but reading Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. And watching Superman has gotten me into reading the Superman comics, so from a Reddit recommendation, I'm currently reading Superman: Up in the Sky by Tom King.' – pangaean 'Been playing Dance Dance Revolution with a mat I got online as my indoor summer (and air conditioned) exercise! Works on PC with the included USB stick with StepMania and on my old PS2, still chugging along with original discs from childhood. It's been humbling to say the least, but great cardio!' – WhatsTheMatter I'm debating going caseless with my iPhone 16 Pro. I have generally always disliked cases, but I put one on my iPhone 12 Mini years ago after the screen got an errant scratch at the beach, and now I get cases out of habit. Every time I take the case off, my phone just feels way better to hold, but then I inevitably get scared and put the case on again. Should I live dangerously? Or should a case be the base? Help me solve this quandary. Also, do you use a case with your phone, and if so, which one? I've always assumed everyone has a case, but maybe they don't. See you next week!
Coin Geek
04-06-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Coinbase was hacked by snarky teens; Circle upsizes IPO
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) was aware of its customer data leak far earlier than the digital asset exchange previously acknowledged, while its stablecoin partner Circle is supersizing its initial public offering (IPO) plans. On June 3, Reuters reported that the recently disclosed hack of Coinbase's customer data by customer support staff in India involved the local operation of a Texas-based business process outsourcing firm called TaskUs. In January, at least one TaskUs employee was caught using their phone to photograph Coinbase customer information from a computer screen. Four sources, including three TaskUs staffers, told Reuters that Coinbase was notified immediately of the security breach, and TaskUs promptly fired two staffers involved in the incident. Coinbase responded by cutting ties with TaskUs, resulting in over 200 staff in the city of Indore losing their jobs. The mass layoff was reported in Indian media at the time. And yet, it wasn't until May 15 that Coinbase acknowledged the breach in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Coinbase said at the time that it knew the contractors had improperly accessed customer data in 'previous months' but didn't realize the extent of the breach until May 11, when it received a ransom demand from individuals to whom the data had been forwarded. Coinbase estimated that nearly 70,000 of its customers have been impacted. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong later claimed that the exchange began notifying impacted users on April 11 but failed to explain why the SEC wasn't notified until a month later. Crypto journalist Molly White noted that Coinbase revised its user agreement on April 12 to limit customers' ability to participate in class action suits against the exchange. TaskUs has since been hit with a class action suit by Coinbase customers alleging negligence. TaskUs said it 'believes these claims are without merit' and will defend itself in court. Coinbase's customer support is notoriously glacial in its response to complaints, a bad reputation that shows little sign of improvement. Some U.S. customers have resorted to filing complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) based on its requirements for companies to respond within 15 days. That could explain CEO Armstrong's (incorrect) view that the CFPB is an 'unconstitutional' body that should be 'deleted' because it has 'done enormous harm to the country.' Coinbase has been the subject of over 8,000 complaints with the CFPB, a body that the current federal administration is in the process of dismantling. Insult to injury Fortune reported that Coinbase has used TaskUs services since 2017, but the latter firm's reliance on poorly paid staff in India opens up the potential for staff to supplement their wages with bribes. A TaskUs spokesperson told Fortune that its research suggests the Indore staff who leaked the Coinbase data 'were recruited by a much broader, coordinated criminal campaign against [Coinbase] that also impacted a number of other service providers servicing [Coinbase].' Fortune reported communicating with one of the alleged hackers, who went by the name 'puffy party' on Telegram. This individual claimed to be part of a loosely affiliated group of teenagers and twenty-somethings calling itself 'the Comm' or 'Com' (short for 'community'). This group has been linked to other notable exploits, including the blackmailing of some Las Vegas casino operators in 2023. 'Puffy party' also claimed that members of the Comm/Com perform specific aspects of a heist based on their individual skillsets. One team bribed the TaskUs staff, another performed the social engineering scams, with the spoils divided amongst the teams. In a reflection of this team's juvenile status, 'puffy party' shared screenshots of messages they'd exchanged with what they claimed was a member of Coinbase's security team. The messages show the hackers mocking Armstrong, saying they would use some of the proceeds of their blackmail efforts to 'sponsor a hair transplant so that he may graciously traverse the world with a fresh set of hair.' Back to the top ↑ No KYC, no hacks, no problem Incredibly, the crypto sector's collective response to Coinbase's data hacking scandal is not that the exchange needs to beef up its digital defenses and be more upfront with its customers. Instead, calls are mounting to lift 'know your customer' (KYC) requirements on digital asset operators based on the view that hackers can't steal data that companies don't possess. As some online critics have observed, traditional banks haven't been as supportive as they might of the digital asset legislation currently kicking around Congress because banks 'think it is unfair for a non-bank to do banking without any of the laws and regulations applicable to banks. And they kind of have a point.' Back to the top ↑ Coinbase v Oregon Coinbase responded at the time by claiming that Oregon was 'trying to revive regulation by enforcement,' the catchphrase popularized by digital asset firms that reject nearly all aspects of regulatory oversight with which they disagree. On June 2, Coinbase filed a petition in federal court asking for the suit to be moved out of Oregon and under federal jurisdiction. The petition calls the suit a 'regulatory land grab' and notes that Oregon's Division of Financial Regulation generally takes point on securities transactions, not the AG, calling into question Rayfield's authority to file the suit in the first place. Coinbase VP of legal Ryan VanGrack tweeted Tuesday that the petition was filed because 'the case is fundamentally about federal law.' VanGrack claimed Rayfield's suit 'would undermine recent bipartisan progress towards crypto clarity by creating a patchwork of state regulations that harms consumers, innovation, and economic freedom.' Coinbase's chief legal officer Paul Grewal added that '[b]ecause Oregon's claims raise fundamentally federal issues like the meaning of 'investment contract,' [as defined by the Howey Test] they should be resolved by federal courts.' Back to the top ↑ Circle supersizes IPO Coinbase's share price has ridden a roller coaster so far in 2025, hitting peaks of over $300 in January and troughs of less than half that sum by mid-April. But the company's inclusion in the S&P 500 index last month and the expectation of a major payday from its stablecoin partner Circle currently have Coinbase shares hovering just under $260. USDC-issuer Circle filed its IPO paperwork in early April, and the company has been dotting its i's and crossing its t's in anticipation of that magical Nasdaq debut later this week. On May 27, Circle announced plans to offer 24 million shares of its Class A common stock at an expected range of $24-$26, with Circle offering up 9.6 million of that total and selling stockholders accounting for the other 14.4 million. On June 2, Circle upsized that offer to 32 million shares at a range of $27-$28, allegedly reflecting 'strong investor appetite' for all things crypto under President Donald Trump's second go-round. The IPO is now expected to raise nearly $900 million, while assigning Circle a valuation of up to $7.2 billion. Coinbase holds 8.4 million shares in Circle after converting its equity in the now defunct Centre consortium that originally oversaw USDC's business. Should the IPO go off at the upper end of its expected price range, Coinbase's Circle stock would be worth over $235 million, ~$25 million more than Coinbase's equity in Circle at the time of the conversion. Coinbase is unlikely to be selling much of its Circle stake in order to preserve the sweetheart revenue-sharing deal it worked out when it negotiated its exit from Centre. With both companies now required to issue financial report cards, it seems Coinbase actually makes more money off USDC activity than Circle does, while Circle shoulders most USDC expenses. Last month, reports emerged that Circle was a potential acquisition target of both Coinbase and Ripple Labs, the issuer of the XRP token (as well as its own stablecoin RLUSD). Ripple's offer was said to be in the $4-$5 billion range, which Circle rejected as too low, a view now apparently confirmed by its IPO valuation. (Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently denied that his company had pursued a Circle deal.) A distinctly contrary view of Circle's prospects was presented in the Financial Times last month. The article called into question Circle's whole business model, as '98 per cent of Circle's revenue is interest on the securities holdings which back its stablecoins … although it issues USDC and holds the offsetting assets, it's not generating revenue from trading or staking transactions involving the stablecoins in either the cryptoverse or the real world.' 'Financially, Circle is a highly levered, uninsured narrow bank with nearly all of its revenue coming from a big bucket of short-term cash investments. It makes money when rates are higher, up to a point, and makes less or loses money when rates are low. That makes Circle a market play on—or a plaything of—volatile short-term interest rates … This then brings us to the unanswerable question at the heart of Circle's business: Does anyone know where short-term interest rates will be in the future?' Back to the top ↑ Coinbase left its keys in San Francisco Coinbase must indeed be feeling flush, as it just announced a deal to lease 150,000 square-feet of new office space in San Franciso. The new space will automatically become the company's single largest geographical footprint and marks a homecoming of sorts for Coinbase, albeit one that's a little hard to fathom. In 2021, as the pandemic forced offices to temporarily close and many tech-firms switched to a remote-first staffing model, Coinbase paid $25 million to break the lease on its former San Francisco office space. At the time, the move was pitched as the company embracing a 'no headquarters' philosophy but it seems times (and philosophies) have changed. CEO Armstrong tweeted that Coinbase was 'excited to reopen an office in SF,' adding that the company 'never left California' as many of its employees live in the state and '[w]e go to where the talent is.' Addressing San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who was elected last year, Armstrong said the city was 'so badly run for many years, but your excellent work has not gone unnoticed.' Rival exchange Kraken also shut its SF headquarters in 2022 because founder/then-CEO Jesse Powell believed the city was 'not safe.' Efforts to reduce the city's crime rate got a potential boost from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, whose nonprofit group San Francisco Police Community Foundation has offered the SF Police Department a $9.4 million donation to improve the SFPD's Real Time Investigation Center. The gift comprises a $2.15 million retroactive lease of office space and $7.25 million worth of new toys, including nearly $5.3 million in drone surveillance gear. Larsen, a San Francisco native, previously donated millions to expand the city's security camera network, but controversies surround how some of these funds were allocated. Mayor Lurie has indicated he's in favor of allowing the police to accept the donation. We suspect Coinbase's Armstrong is, as well. After all, there's some dangerous teenagers out there who've put a target on his head. Back to the top ↑ Watch: Teranode is the digital backbone of Bitcoin title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
CNN
05-03-2025
- Business
- CNN
Here's how to keep your crypto safe
North Korean hackers recently stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency in a single heist, making it the largest crypto hack on record according to the FBI. Crypto researcher Molly White tells CNN's Allison Morrow what people need to know about keeping their crypto investments safe.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Project 2025's Creators Want to Dox Wikipedia Editors. The Tool They're Using Is Horrifying.
This is Source Notes, a column about the internet's information ecosystem. Last month, the Jewish-American news site Forward reported a shocking scoop: The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, is planning to 'identify and target' Wikipedia editors. Through analyzing text patterns, usernames, and technical data and employing social-engineering tactics, Heritage aimed to reveal the identities of anonymous Wikipedia editors it believes are 'abusing their position' on the platform. In the culture of Wikipedia editing, it is common for individuals to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy and avoid personal threats. Revealing an editor's personal information without their consent, a practice known as doxing, is a form of harassment that can result in a user's being permanently banned from the site. Although this behavior is strictly prohibited by Wikipedia's rules, Heritage has endorsed these scorched-earth tactics in response to what it perceives as antisemitism among certain editors covering the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on Wikipedia. Let's be clear: Wikipedia's handling of this topic area is incredibly contentious. Many Wikipedians deliberately avoid pages like 'Gaza War,' 'Zionism,' and even the meta-entry on Wikipedia's own coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. These pages are under extended confirmed protection, meaning that only experienced editors—those who have been on Wikipedia for at least 30 days and have made at least 500 edits—can make changes to them. But even with these restrictions in place, tensions continue to run high. One side accuses the Tech for Palestine coalition of trying to hijack Wikipedia with Palestinian propaganda, while the other points out that Israel's government seems to be mobilizing its own citizens to write about the conflict from their perspective. Although founder Jimmy Wales insists the Wikipedia community aims for neutrality, the editors don't always succeed. Even if you take issue with how the site is currently framing the conflict, that doesn't justify Heritage's plan. Targeting Wikipedia editors personally, instead of debating their edits on the platform, marks a dangerous escalation. 'The document [from Heritage] is sort of vague about what they would do once they ID a person,' journalist and Wikipedia editor Molly White told Forward, 'but the things that come to mind are not great.' The Heritage Foundation's threats recall the methods used by pro–Chinese Communist Party editors in 2021, when a group called Wikimedians of Mainland China specifically targeted Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists. These Chinese nationalist editors were displeased with the way the Hong Kong editors were documenting the protests against Beijing's rule. Rather than continuing the discussion on Wikipedia's talk pages (places for editors to chat with one another and debate proposed changes), the pro-CCP editors resorted to doxing and reporting their opponents' real-life identities to the state police, leading some Hong Kong editors to be physically harmed. It seems that both the CCP and Heritage believe that if you can't win an argument in the digital space of Wikipedia, it's fair game to destroy that person's life offline. In the documents obtained by Forward, Heritage employees announced plans to use advanced data sources and tools from companies like Moody's and Thomson Reuters to unmask Wikipedia editors. These powerful applications provide a virtual fire hose of real-time information, including location and address history, cross-referencing usernames, and fingerprinting a user based on writing style. 'Data broker tools can turn doxing into a laser-sharp targeting tool,' Sarah Lamdan, a lawyer and author of Data Cartels, told me. In the long term, Wikipedians, and the rest of us, can ask for stronger privacy protections from both lawmakers and the companies. Until then, there is not much that users can do to protect themselves from mass surveillance. Despite the risks, it seems that Wikipedia editors are not fleeing the project in droves. The recent Wikipedia Day NYC gathering at the Brooklyn Public Library boasted an impressive 1,200 RSVPs. Pacita Rudder, the executive director of the local chapter, told me that the group had implemented an emergency and safety manual for volunteers and staff in case of issues. Attendees were given the option to use pseudonyms and could wear red stickers to indicate their preference to have no photos taken of them; a livestream was also available for those who did not feel comfortable attending in person. Contrary to sensationalist media coverage, decisions made by the Wikipedia community tend to be carefully considered. For example, take the controversy last year about whether articles published by the Anti-Defamation League, a top Jewish civil rights group, should be considered a reliable source for Wikipedia citations. While headlines suggested that Wikipedia had completely banned the ADL, the actual decision makes clear that the organization can still be used as a source in certain contexts outside the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. For background, Wikipedia has also deprecated other advocacy organizations that take an overtly pro-Russia, pro-China, or pro-Arab perspective. To be fair, the Wikipedia community could do a better job of explaining why advocacy organizations are not always considered reliable sources based on the context; however, that is a complex discussion that's not easily contained within a tweet. Meanwhile, the Wikipedia community is trying to govern the behavior of its volunteers without outside influence. For months, the volunteer judges on Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee (the website's version of a supreme court) have been scrutinizing the actions of editors who are highly involved in Israeli–Palestinian articles. On Jan. 23, ArbCom issued a verdict in the PIA5 case, a virtual trial in which it examined the conduct of 14 highly prolific editors in this topic area. After hearing preliminary statements from the parties and issuing findings of facts (including that some editors were using deceptive sock puppet accounts), ArbCom ultimately banned multiple pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli editors for 'non-neutral editing.' In addition to these bans, the committee introduced a new punitive measure, the 'balanced editing restriction,' which dictates that sanctioned users can devote only a third of their edits to this contentious topic area. Essentially, these Wikipedians are being forced to broaden their scope. (Already, the verdict has sparked controversy within the Wikipedia community, with some questioning whether these editors will find creative ways to circumvent the rule.) Regardless of its effectiveness, Wikipedia's latest decision aligns with its quasi-democratic principles. It reflects a commitment to online debate rather than the authoritarian tactics proposed by Heritage. But if the think tank succeeds in its effort to identify and target editors, the consequences could be profound. Faced with the risk of harassment or real-world retaliation, many volunteer editors—especially those covering politically sensitive topics—may simply stop contributing. Those who remain are likely to be the most ideologically driven voices, further eroding Wikipedia's stated goal of neutrality. The free encyclopedia will become too toxic to sustain.
