Latest news with #socialnetwork
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pi Network wants to make crypto as simple as cash and 60 million people are already in
Pi Network wants to make crypto as simple as cash and 60 million people are already in originally appeared on TheStreet. Imagine a currency that works like cash but is digital, fast, and something your friends are already using. That's the pitch behind Pi Network, a crypto platform with over 60 million users that's trying to solve the biggest issue in crypto: usability. Nicolas Kokkalis, the project's founder and Head of Technology, says it all started with frustration. 'We started Pi six or seven years ago with a strong belief that cryptocurrencies are the next step in currencies,' Nicolas said. But in 2018, using crypto felt like solving a puzzle. Wallets were hard to set up, user interfaces were clunky, and for most people, it wasn't worth the effort. 'We embarked to fix this,' Nicolas explained. 'We realized user interface wasn't enough—we had to build our own cryptocurrency from scratch and let people mine it from the start.' That effort became Pi Network, a mobile-first crypto platform where users mine coins by checking into an app daily—no expensive rigs or technical knowledge required. 'It's a social network with a cryptocurrency at its core,' he said. Unlike many blockchain projects that focus on speculation or trading, Pi's focus is on making crypto useful in everyday life. Think paying for coffee, sending money to friends, or interacting with NFT and DeFi apps—all within a simple interface. 'Because of the large number of users, it makes sense to create apps that everyday people can understand,' Nicolas noted. Instead of chasing the latest token fad, Pi aims to feel more like a mobile banking app—with crypto under the hood. Pi's real hook might be how familiar it feels. Millions of users already own Pi, and the network grows mostly through word-of-mouth—not hype or massive ad spend. 'It's simple because there's a large number of people who already own and mine Pi,' Nicolas said. 'If your friend says, 'I'm using this app, here's an invite, I'll help you set it up,' that reduces the barrier to entry,' he added. For traditional investors wary of crypto's anonymity and lack of compliance, Pi offers a rare differentiator: 'Every address, every wallet, is identity-verified,' Nicolas emphasized. That level of KYC (Know Your Customer) across the board is practically unheard of in crypto—and it may be why institutional investors are finally taking a second look. 'The user profile is very diverse,' Nicolas said. From crypto veterans to newcomers who've never used a wallet, Pi's community is varied—and massive. Developers are also starting to build apps on Pi to reach that audience. 'It includes the average individual who's heard of crypto but never knew how to set it up.' This diversity and accessibility give Pi the kind of scale most crypto projects only dream of—especially as other blockchains struggle with user growth. Pi Network isn't just building a platform—it's also investing in its ecosystem. Through Pi Network Ventures, the team is backing startups building on the Pi blockchain, with a $100 million fund. 'We identify and invest in high-potential startups,' Nicolas said. 'They get capital, but also potential access to millions of users.' For founders, the appeal is clear: launch your product into an existing, engaged audience. And for Pi, it means strengthening the network with more real-world use cases. 'Because they're not only getting funding, they get access to a market of millions,' Nicolas added. Pi isn't trying to be the next flashy DeFi token or meme coin. It's trying to be usable, stable, and familiar—especially for people outside the typical crypto circles. With 60 million users and a growing developer ecosystem, Pi is clearly hitting a nerve. Whether or not it becomes the go-to digital money remains to be seen—but its focus on accessibility, identity, and real-world usage makes it one of the more grounded projects in crypto right now. As Nicolas put it: 'They're never going to go back to credit cards or old cash.' Pi Network wants to make crypto as simple as cash and 60 million people are already in first appeared on TheStreet on May 31, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared. Sign in to access your portfolio
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Bluesky is most definitely alive and kicking
Last weekend, an ugly rumor of a tragic death spread began rocketing around Bluesky. What made it odd was the identity of the dearly departed: Bluesky itself. It's not entirely clear what prompted this discussion, which ultimately seemed to be dominated by Bluesky fans rejecting the possibility that the social network had died (or at least jumped the shark). According to one theory, a story by Semafor's Max Tani ignited the debate by mentioning Democratic congressional staffers who'd given up on Bluesky 'after their bosses kept getting yelled at by Democratic users angry at their impotence.' That doesn't sound like evidence of death to me. Another contributing factor might have been slowing user growth after millions of disaffected Twitter users arrived en masse in the wake of the U.S. November presidential election results and Elon Musk's Trump boosterism. The service grew from 11 million users to 25 million between late October and mid-December, but has added only about 10 million more since then. Again, not a sign of rigor mortis or even a dreaded vibe shift. For a social network, being prematurely written off is a rite of passage. It's even a compliment of sorts—a sign that people are paying attention and care. Way back in 2014, for instance, when Twitter was still ascendant, I wrote about the fact that cranky users had started predicting its demise less than a year after it launched in 2006. So when I chatted with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber this week, I wasn't surprised that she didn't seem fazed by the debate on her platform and saw the parallels with early-days Twitter. 'Reports of our death are greatly exaggerated,' she told me. 'It's a similar thing, because with social sites, it's not straight up all the time. [Growth] comes in waves, and at each stage, there's a new era of communities being established and formed. We're still seeing a lot of community formation, and one of the most exciting things is how structurally different this is. It's not just another social site that has to be a singular winner takes all in an ecosystem with existing incumbents.' I spoke with Graber backstage at the Web Summit conference in Vancouver, shortly after she'd been interviewed by Wired's Katie Drummond during the event's Tuesday night opening session. (I should note that she's also appearing at a Fast Company event next week.) Her assertion that social networking's days of corporatized centralization are over seems manifestly true to me, and it's a phenomenon bigger than Bluesky itself. In November, I stopped posting to Twitter and began using a wonderful multi-network app called OpenVibe to post to three alternatives. Bluesky is one of them. So is Mastodon, an even more grass-roots operation that makes Bluesky, with its 25 employees, look like a tech giant. And the third—Meta's Threads—actually does hail from a tech giant. I've had rewarding experiences on all three, though Threads, which has around 10 times as many users as Bluesky, feels too much like a purposefully sterile planned community to me. I prefer havens for wandering conversations and playful weirdness, which Bluesky and Mastodon both provide at their best. All three show every sign of remaining relevant for the long haul, unlike some of the Twitter wannabes that didn't make it (RIP, T2 and Post) or turned out not to matter all that much (hello, Substack Notes). Like The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel, I'm surprised that so many reasonable people remain active on Twitter, which has come to resemble a dystopian carnival ride. (Exhibit A, for the moment: The bizarre recent incident in which Musk's Grok bot wouldn't shut up about supposed white genocide in South Africa.) But I wouldn't argue that Twitter is dying—just that it's a disfigured shell of its former self. I don't expect any social network to replace the Twitter of yore as the internet's uncontested go-to destination for real-time chatter about current events and pop culture. Bluesky, however, is still making progress in its quest to fill the hole left by Musk's dismantling act. A new Pew Research Center study confirms that the presidential election results led to a major influx of news influencers at Bluesky, though even more are still on Twitter. Moreover, Bluesky is beginning to build functionality to cultivate conversations around the day's events. Earlier this month, for example, the service began beta testing a feature that lets the NBA use its Bluesky profile picture as a portal that sends users to live content. The company says the WNBA account will also get the capability, which—if deployed more widely—would be pretty useful for anybody who offers live video, including individuals on YouTube and Twitch. In a roundabout way, this new Live Now feature reminds me of Twitter's pricey 2016 gambit to turn itself into a live-event platform by streaming NFL games. Except all Bluesky is doing is facilitating users leaving the service to consume video elsewhere, which is both infinitely cheaper than buying sporting rights and more in line with its philosophy of knocking down social media's walled gardens. 'We are a pass-through so that, as a content creator, you can get users onto your site more easily,' says Graber. If Bluesky is still in the process of becoming as conducive to community as Twitter once was, it's also avoided some of the problems that have long dogged the older service. The Pew study showed that its news-influencer presence skews to the left, a finding that won't startle anyone who's spent time there. Any broadening of its political spectrum could result in its tenor growing more fraught. Already, it can have a snappish quality, as reflected in the congressional drubbing reported by Semafor and software kingpin Adobe's hostile reception after it began posting in April. (Overly brand safe Bluesky is not.) What happens if Bluesky ever gets overrun with trolls, as Twitter was years before Musk took charge? I asked Graber about its approach to moderation, especially in a period when Meta seems quite proud of its Twitter-like decision to dramatically scale back attempts to keep the conversation on its platforms accurate and civil. 'We've always stayed lean, but we've always had human moderators, and we think that humans always need to be in the loop,' she told me. 'Because ultimately, you're dealing with humans. On the other hand, there are automated systems that are constantly attacking social networks and you have to have automated systems to keep up with that. So we use a combination.' The company also leverages the work of third parties who use open-source moderation tools to block spammers, she says. One other challenge that Bluesky has not yet fully confronted is monetizing itself. Onstage at Web Summit, Graber emphasized that it's working on subscription services, a healthier revenue source than stuffing feeds with ads, though potentially a tougher one to scale up to sustainability. The company announced a $15 million Series A funding round last October. Graber isn't the type to declare her intention to crush the competition. In a previous conversation I had with her, she said nice things about Mastodon. Even her digs at Meta are a principled stance against social media being dominated by a few monolithic companies. But neither is she satisfied to operate a social network that may never grow to the size of a Twitter or Threads. In both her onstage interview and our subsequent chat, she was at her most passionate when discussing the company's aspiration to decentralize social networking via its open AT Protocol. It powers Bluesky—and variants such as the Pinksky photo-sharing app, which she praised onstage—but could also provide the infrastructure for further-flung social experiences. Maybe even ones catering to folks who have zero interest in participating in the Bluesky community. 'The goal is to really get through that this is a choose your own adventure and Bluesky's just the beginning,' she says. 'The sky's the limit.' Whether she'll fulfill her grandest ambitions, I'm not sure. But I already like this era of social networking better than the one when a handful of winners really did take all.
Bloomberg
24-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Musk Vows to be ‘Super Focused' on Companies Amid X Outages
Billionaire Elon Musk said he needs to be 'super focused' on his companies, pointing to issues at X as evidence of a need for 'major' improvement at the social network. 'Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,' Musk wrote in a post on X on Saturday replying to news of outages on the platform. 'I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out.'
Bloomberg
23-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
OnlyFans Owner Exploring Sale at $8 Billion Valuation
OnlyFans Ltd. owner Leonid Radvinsky is exploring a sale of the adult-content social network that would value it at about $8 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The London-based company, which hosts pornographic content forbidden on most other social networks, is reviewing a number of offers, the person said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The discussions are at an early stage and no final decisions have been made, the person said.
Bloomberg
22-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Musk's Political Backpedal Leaves X Searching for Relevance
Welcome to Tech In Depth, our daily newsletter with reporting and analysis about the business of tech from Bloomberg's journalists around the world. Today, Kurt Wagner looks at Elon Musk's stated desire to pull back from politics and what that may mean for his social network, X. Baidu's beat: Chinese internet giant Baidu reported a 3% rise in quarterly revenue, surprising analysts who had expected it to shrink around 1.5%.
