Meta has officially confirmed it is shifting investment away from the metaverse and VR toward AI-powered smart glasses, following a Bloomberg report of an up to 30% budget cut for Reality Labs. "Within our overall Reality Labs portfolio we are shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables given the momentum there," a statement from Meta reads. "We aren't planning any broader changes than that." From the report: Following Bloomberg's report, other mainstream news outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider have published their own reports corroborating the general claim, with slightly differing details...
Business Insider's report suggests that the cuts will primarily hit Horizon Worlds, and that employees are facing "uncertainty" about whether this will involve layoffs. One likely cut BI's report mentions is the funding for third-party studios to build Horizon Worlds content. The New York Times report, on the other hand, seems more definitive in stating that these cuts will come via layoffs. The Reality Labs division "has racked up more than $70 billion in losses since 2021," notes Fortune in their reporting, "burning through cash on blocky virtual environments, glitchy avatars, expensive headsets, and a user base of approximately 38 people as of 2022."
Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to boost participation in the new "Trump Accounts" child investment program. "The historic gift has little precedent, with few single charitable commitments in the past 25 years exceeding $1 billion, much less multiple billions," notes the Associated Press. "Announced on GivingTuesday, the Dells believe it's the largest single private commitment made to U.S. children." From the report: Its structure is also unusual. Essentially, it builds on the "Trump Accounts" program (PDF), where the U.S. Department of the Treasury will deposit $1,000 into investment accounts set up by Treasury for American children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028. The Dells' gift will use the "Trump Accounts" infrastructure to give $250 to each qualified child under 10. Though the "Trump Accounts" became law as part of the president's signature legislation in July, the Dells say the accounts will not launch until July 4, 2026. Michael Dell said they wanted to mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.
[...] Under the new law, "Trump Accounts" are available to any American child under 18 with a Social Security number and their families can fund the accounts, which must be invested in an index fund that tracks the overall stock market. When the children turn 18, they can withdraw the funds to put toward their education, to buy a home or to start a business. The Dells will put money into the accounts of children 10 and younger who live in ZIP codes with a median family income of $150,000 or less and who won't get the $1,000 seed money from the Treasury. The Dells hope their gift will encourage families to claim the accounts and deposit more money into it, even small amounts, so it will grow over time along with the stock market. The report notes that the timed rollout of the $1,000 deposits gives Republicans a strategic political advantage by delivering money to voters during the 2026 midterms and halting the benefit right after the 2028 presidential election.
Zillow has removed climate risk scores from over a million home listings after real estate agents argued the data was scaring off buyers. TechCrunch reports: Zillow first added the data to the site in September 2024, saying that more than 80% of buyers consider climate risks when purchasing a new home. But last month, following objections from the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS), Zillow removed the listings' climate scores. In their place is a subtle link to their records at First Street, the climate risk analytic startup that provides the data.
"When buyers lack access to clear climate-risk information, they make the biggest financial decision of their lives while flying blind," First Street spokesperson Matthew Eby told TechCrunch via email. "The risk doesn't go away; it just moves from a pre-purchase decision into a post-purchase liability." First Street's climate risk scores first appeared on Realtor.com in 2020, where they remain. They also still appear on Redfin and and Homes.com. The New York-based startup has raised more than $50 million from investors including General Catalyst, Congruent Ventures, and Galvanize Climate Solutions, according to PitchBook.
Art Carter, the CRMLS CEO, told The New York Times that "displaying the probability of a specific home flooding this year or within the next five years can have a significant impact on the perceived desirability of that property." He also questioned the accuracy of First Street's data, saying he didn't think that areas which haven't flooded in the last 40 to 50 years were likely to flood in the next five.
BrianFagioli writes: Newegg's new partnership with PayPal is another sign that mainstream e-commerce is shifting control from users to AI-driven intermediaries. Instead of shoppers visiting Newegg directly, PayPal's agentic commerce system pushes product discovery through AI platforms like Perplexity where recommendations, checkout, and fraud checks all happen inside someone else's controlled environment. Newegg stays the merchant of record, but the real influence shifts to the platforms that decide which products their AI agents mention. That may sound convenient, but it also means discovery becomes guided by training data and commercial integrations rather than user intent.
Slashdot readers will likely notice the other issue. This setup puts PayPal deeper into the shopping pipeline at a time when many users already avoid the company over account freezes and dispute policies. An AI-mediated shopping experience where PayPal becomes the silent gatekeeper by default is not going to sit well with everyone. And with AI agents shaping purchasing decisions based on behavior and context, the concept of intent-driven shopping starts to look a lot like quiet nudging rather than empowerment. Newegg may see this as the future, but the community will probably ask whether users truly want AI systems and PayPal deciding how they shop.
OpenAI will need to raise at least $207 billion in new funding by 2030 to sustain operations while continuing to lose money, according to a new analysis from HSBC that models the company's cloud computing commitments against projected revenue. The bank's US software team updated its forecasts after OpenAI announced a $250 billion cloud compute rental deal with Microsoft in late October and a $38 billion deal with Amazon days later, bringing total contracted compute capacity to 36 gigawatts.
HSBC projects cumulative rental costs of $792 billion through 2030. Revenue growth remains strong in the model -- the bank expects OpenAI to reach 3 billion users by decade's end, up from roughly 800 million today -- but costs rise in lockstep, meaning OpenAI will still be subsidizing users well into the next decade. If revenue growth disappoints and investors turn cautious, the company's best option might be walking away from some data center commitments.
Best crypto debit cards bridge the gap between holding digital assets like Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and USDC and making everyday purchases without constant conversions or high fees. After diving deep into user experiences, fee structures, supported cryptocurrencies, and reward systems, I’ve narrowed down the top options that excel in compatibility with these popular assets. These cards let you spend directly from your crypto holdings, often with cashback incentives and minimal friction, making them ideal for anyone looking to integrate blockchain into real-world spending.
Kast Is #1 Crypto Card New User Code: https://kastfinance.app.link/6MHGEMGE Use the code to receive 500 points ($25) after KYC + 1,000 points ($50) after you spend $100!
Whether you’re paying for groceries with USDT or booking travel using Ethereum rewards, the right card can turn volatile holdings into practical tools. In this detailed guide, we’ll review five standout choices: KAST Card, RedotPay, Binance Card, Crypto.com Card, and MetaMask Card. Each supports at least Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, or USDC, with varying levels of integration. I’ll break down the features, real-world performance based on widespread feedback, and balanced pros and cons to help you decide which fits your needs.
1. KAST Card
The KAST Card stands out as a reliable crypto debit card for Solana enthusiasts, allowing seamless spending of SOL alongside stablecoins like USDT and USDC. It’s designed for users who want zero-conversion-fee transactions and high rewards without complicated setups. Many report instant app notifications for every swipe, making it feel like a traditional bank card but powered by blockchain. With support for Bitcoin and Ethereum through easy swaps, it’s versatile for multi-asset holders. The card’s platinum-tier options include VIP perks, which some travelers rave about for airport services during crypto events.
New User Referral Code
Kast Is #1 Crypto Card New User Code: https://kastfinance.app.link/6MHGEMGE Use the code to receive 500 points ($25) after KYC + 1,000 points ($50) after you spend $100!
In practice, funding the card with Solana or USDT happens in seconds, and spending limits are generous enough for daily use without hitting caps quickly. Cashback comes in stable forms, and staking SOL can double rewards, appealing to long-term holders. However, premium tiers require upfront commitments, which might not suit everyone.
Pros: Unlimited spending with no crypto conversion fees; up to 8% cashback on purchases; instant transaction alerts and rejections for suspicious charges; strong Solana integration with staking multipliers; free virtual and physical cards; supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and USDC seamlessly.
Cons: Higher rewards locked behind one-time payments or staking; limited to Visa network in some regions; concierge support can vary by tier.
2. RedotPay
RedotPay emerges as a solid crypto debit card for USDT and USDC, letting you load stablecoins and spend them like fiat at stores, restaurants, or even Uber rides. It handles multi-currency transactions without stress over exchange rates, and users often highlight how it works just like a normal debit card for everyday needs. Bitcoin and Ethereum funding is possible via conversions, while Solana support adds flexibility for newer assets. The app’s high limits and ATM withdrawals make it practical for global travel, with some noting worry-free cash access in local currencies.
Feedback emphasizes the ease of topping up with crypto and earning daily yields on balances, turning idle USDC into passive income. It’s not without hiccups — occasional refund delays have frustrated a few — but overall, it’s praised for borderless finance without hefty fees.
Pros: Instant crypto-to-fiat conversions at point of sale; daily yields on stablecoin holdings; supports Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and USDC; high spending and withdrawal limits; compatible with Apple Pay and Google Pay; no annual fees and low-cost physical card options.
Cons: Some users face verification or refund issues; not fully integrated with UPI or certain payment apps; multi-currency support can lead to minor FX variations; limited cashback compared to premium competitors.
3. Binance Card
For those deep in the Binance ecosystem, the Binance Card offers a straightforward way to spend Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and USDC directly from your exchange wallet. It supports Solana through quick transfers, making it a go-to for active traders who want rewards tied to their trading volume. Real-world use cases show it shining in everyday purchases, with cashback auto-converting to usable assets. Many appreciate the VIP perks like free subscriptions, which offset some costs for high-volume users.
The card’s liquidity and low base fees make it competitive, but conversion charges add up for frequent spends. It’s not fully non-custodial, so security-conscious folks might pair it with hardware wallets. Overall, it’s reliable for turning crypto gains into real spending power without leaving the platform.
Pros: Up to 10% cashback for VIP tiers; seamless integration with Binance for funding Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, USDT, and USDC; no inactivity fees; points system for rewards like Netflix; deep liquidity for instant conversions; available in many regions with ATM support.
Cons: 0.9% conversion fees plus FX markups; cashback caps based on tiers; requires Binance account verification; not ideal for non-custodial purists; fewer perks for non-VIP users.
4. Crypto.com Card
The Crypto.com Card delivers a polished experience for spending Ethereum, USDT, USDC, Bitcoin, and Solana, with tiered rewards that encourage staking its native token. Users frequently mention the perks like Spotify rebates as game-changers for monthly bills, and the card’s global acceptance rivals traditional Visas. Funding with crypto is instant, and cashback in CRO can be volatile but rewarding during bull runs. It’s especially strong for travel, with lounge access drawing praise from frequent flyers.
While the app is user-friendly, staking requirements for better tiers can feel like a barrier. Some report exclusions on certain merchant codes, limiting rewards on big spends. Still, for committed holders, it’s a powerhouse for blending crypto with lifestyle perks.
Pros: Up to 8% cashback based on CRO staking; free Spotify and Netflix for mid-tiers; supports Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and USDC; airport lounge access and rebates; low ATM limits but fee-free for basics; global coverage with instant funding.
Cons: High staking thresholds for top rewards; CRO price fluctuations affect value; excluded categories for cashback; monthly ATM caps; requires app management for optimal use.
5. MetaMask Card
MetaMask Card brings wallet-native spending to Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, USDT, and USDC, allowing direct debits from your self-custodial setup without intermediaries. It’s favored by DeFi users for keeping full control, with cashback in USDC adding steady value. Experiences shared highlight its bridge between web3 and daily transactions, like using Apple Pay for quick buys. The metal version ups the ante with higher rewards and ATM perks, making it suitable for heavier spenders.
Gas fees on transactions can nibble at savings, and the annual fee for premium options might deter casual users. Integration with MetaMask is seamless, but swaps for non-EVM assets add steps. It’s a strong choice for those prioritizing decentralization over flashy rewards.
Pros: Non-custodial control over funds; 1–3% cashback in USDC; supports Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, USDT, and USDC natively; Apple Pay and Google Pay compatibility; community rewards via Linea; zero FX fees on metal tier.
Cons: $199 annual fee for metal card; gas and swap costs per spend; limited to MetaMask ecosystem; regional rollout still expanding; lower cashback than staking-based cards.
Comparing the Best Crypto Debit Cards: Which One Fits Your Wallet?
To make your choice easier, here’s a quick comparison of these best crypto debit cards for Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and USDC based on key metrics:
Ultimately, the best crypto debit card depends on your priorities — whether it’s max cashback, zero fees, or full custody. For Solana-focused spending, KAST leads; for stablecoin yields, RedotPay shines. Test one with small loads to see what clicks for your routine.
Greetings team, I’ll be speaking at AI Edge in two weeks. Come join us at what’s shaping up to be a standout AI event.
Today’s edition covers a wild week in the AI world: Kimi K2 just outperformed every major model, signaling how fast Chinese open-source systems are advancing while keeping costs dramatically lower. Anthropic is now on track to hit profitability years ahead of OpenAI, and a new Silicon Valley-backed startup is raising the question none of us expected so soon: Would you edit your future baby’s DNA?
Let’s dive in — and stay curious.
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xAI works on Grok Code Remote to rival OpenAI’s Codex
Lovable has surged to nearly 8 million users and sees 100,000 new projects built daily.
OpenAI to sell compute capacity to other companies, putting the company in direct competition with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Being a cloud provider would help fund big AI spending.
Altman and Masayoshi Son Back 27-Year-Old Louis Andre’s Bid to Build “A New Bell Labs” With Episteme, a San Francisco Research Lab Aiming to Free Top Scientists From Bureaucracy and Turn Breakthrough Ideas Into World-Changing Products
Anthropic and OpenAI are on wildly different financial paths. New documents show Anthropic is set to break even by 2028, while OpenAI expects $74B in operating losses that same year, about 75% of revenue driven by massive chip and data-center spending.
OpenAI plans to burn 14× more cash than Anthropic before reaching profitability in 2030, fueled by Sam Altman’s push for scale and $1.4T in long-term compute commitments. Anthropic, valued at $183B vs. OpenAI’s $500B, is growing its business more efficiently by focusing on corporate customers (80% of revenue) and avoiding compute-heavy ventures like video generation. In 2024, both companies burned roughly 70% of revenue, but Anthropic’s burn rate drops to 9% by 2027, while OpenAI’s remains high. OpenAI is betting big that demand will justify its infrastructure buildout, spending nearly $100B on backup data-center capacity alone, while Anthropic opts for steadier, revenue-aligned growth.
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Moonshot’s new Kimi K2 Thinking, just changed the AI landscape. The fully open-source model is now outperforming GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and Grok-4 on major benchmarks in reasoning, coding, retrieval, and agentic tool use.
Built as a 1T-parameter MoE (32B active), K2 Thinking scores 44.9% on HLE, 60.2% on BrowseComp, and 71.3% on SWE-Bench. Verified all frontier-level results. It supports 256k context, native INT4 inference, and long autonomous tool chains (200–300+ calls), while staying far cheaper than closed models. Moonshot released it under a modified MIT license, making it one of the most permissive high-end models available. The breakthrough marks a turning point: open-weight systems are now matching and in many cases beating proprietary giants like OpenAI and Anthropic. At a time when U.S. labs face scrutiny over trillion-dollar compute spending, K2 Thinking shows that frontier AI doesn’t require massive capital infrastructure, just efficient architectures.
For enterprises, it raises a blunt question: why pay for closed APIs when a free open model now leads the benchmarks?
A Silicon Valley startup called Preventive, backed by Sam Altman and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, is researching whether gene-editing human embryos can safely prevent hereditary diseases, sparking fierce ethical and legal debate.
The company has raised $30 million and is studying CRISPR-based embryo editing in San Francisco, even though implanting a gene-edited embryo is illegal in the US and banned in most countries. Preventive says it isn’t trying to create a baby now, only to prove the technology can be made safe, but critics warn it risks sliding into “designer baby” territory and eugenics. Some insiders say the startup has explored doing future trials in countries with looser rules, while supporters argue it could one day eliminate devastating genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis or sickle-cell disease.
For many people, their first sense of Bitcoin is that it is magic internet money—something easily ignored and certainly not worth the time needed to understand it. Many of the people I talk to about Bitcoin say that their “plan” is just to ignore it until it goes away. As we will learn throughout this book, that isn’t really an option. Most people also laugh when presented with their first opportunity to exchange “real money” for bitcoin. But bitcoin is real money; better money than any of us have had in our lifetimes—and it is so much more.
Both Bitcoin the network and bitcoin the digital token can be hard to define because they don’t just replace one thing and make it better. Bitcoin is the new, better version of gold from the ground and the paper dollar bill. Bitcoin is also the new, better version of your savings account and your checking account and your credit card. It is also the new, better way to send money internationally and to buy a cup of coffee down the block. Bitcoin doesn’t just replace the hard asset money and the currency, but also the payment rails, the political monetary policy, and even the central bank—all in one fell swoop. It is a completely new thing.
To truly understand Bitcoin, you must understand the thing it aims to replace: money. What is money? Oddly enough, despite its centrality to almost everything we do, we rarely pause to consider the question. But we have to if we really want to understand what Bitcoin actually is.
In the most fundamental form, money is any object that is used for some combination of the following purposes:
1. A medium of exchange (folks can buy stuff with it);
2. A unit of account (folks can reliably use it to price stuff); and
3. A store of value (folks can buy stuff with it later).
Over the years, many different objects have been used as money: sea shells, salt, large stones, gold, and the $20 Federal Reserve Note currently in your wallet. If you’re reading this book in prison, you might use cigarettes or packets of ramen as money. I encourage you to reflect on how and why people naturally converge on forms of money based on the time and circumstances they find themselves in and how technology has always played a role in the development of new money. Some things make better money than others. As we will see, the paper money and its digital copy you use every day is the latest form of money, but it isn’t the best—in fact it is far from the ideal.
To be considered a good form of money—something that accomplishes the three purposes listed above well—an object must have some combination of the following fairly intuitive properties:
1. Durability (It has to last, not spoil or deteriorate);
2. Portability (You have to be able to move it around);
3. Divisibility and Aggregability (You need to be able to buy little things and big things too);
4. Fungibility (The units need to be uniform);
5. Scarcity (If there’s a lot of something, it won’t maintain value);
6. Acceptability (People have to want it for you to use it); and
7. Verifiability (You don’t want a lot of counterfeit money).
You or I may have other properties that we think should be added to the list. For example, I think good money should be created fairly. But this is the list that economists have used for generations. In fact, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis lists these properties in the teachers’ resources section of their website12 and uses them to argue—correctly—that US dollars are better money than a cow. A cow seems like a low bar, but maybe they only want to make the arguments they can win.
Each of these properties economists use to decide how good something is as money is measured on a scale; none of them is a binary “yes” or “no.” If an object fulfills many of these properties, it would make for a good form of money. From this list, it is trivial to see what your intuition already tells you. Bananas would make a horrible form of money and coins made of gold would probably serve the purpose well. But what about the $20 bill in your wallet? What about bitcoin?
In a head-to-head competition, the $20 bill easily beats bitcoin in category #6: Acceptability. But acceptability can change and has many times throughout history, and the gap is narrowing every year as more establishments accept bitcoin. It’s not too hard to imagine that gap closing substantially over time. On a technicality, the dollar also has a slight edge in category #4: Fungibility. But this is only a small difference that most people would not notice, and technological methods already exist that close this gap completely.
As we will see as the rest of this section unfolds, Bitcoin walks away with the lead over dollars in all of the other categories. It’s not even close. Bitcoin is not just a little but a lot more Durable, Portable, Divisible/Aggregable, Scarce, and Verifiable. These aren’t properties I cherry-picked because they make Bitcoin look good. These are the old textbook properties economists have used for “good money” forever. We can add to this list the fact that since Bitcoin is natively digital and programmable, it seems like a better form of money right now and for the future. Nor is Bitcoin just better than the dollar: when comparing Bitcoin to other forms of money (e.g., gold) it still demolishes the competition across most or all of the categories. It’s simply the best money that humans have ever created.
Before I explain why that is true, I want to pause and make sure we also understand what money isn’t. You will notice that the properties listed above for something to serve as good money do not require the item to have a physical form you can hold in your hand. Nor do the properties suggest that something used as money needs to have some other intrinsic value. Nor do the properties suggest that money must be issued by a government. All three of these things are often cited as reasons why Bitcoin cannot be real money, yet none of them really have anything to do with the actual definition of money. These are things people reference because they are important to their experience with money, but they aren’t intrinsic to that experience. Just like how what has served as money has changed over time, so too has our experience with money.
For example: It is not necessary for money to have a physical form that can be touched or held. Indeed, you have never held most of the dollars you have earned, spent, and saved in the last 20 years. They have just been numbers on a screen. Digital money, dollars or otherwise, is perfectly functional as money. And the same is true of Bitcoin; just because you can’t touch it doesn’t mean it’s not real either. Hopefully this is reassuring, since this is typically the very first argument offered by well-meaning folks when they first start to grapple with Bitcoin. But the simple fact is that you don’t need to be able to touch something for it to be a good form of money.
Nor is it necessary for money to have an intrinsic value. In fact, because money is used to communicate price information from one market participant to another, it is better that it not have other use cases. Money having intrinsic value would add “noise” to the signal and make every economic decision more difficult. Imagine having to weigh every purchase you make with your money against the value of its other uses. It would cause economic activity to grind to a halt as everyone debated whether to use the money they had for purchasing goods or this other use. Some people don’t realize that the numbers on their screens that represent the dollars in their bank account don’t have an intrinsic value either. Bitcoin’s lack of intrinsic value is another very common argument launched against it, when in fact that turns out to be a valuable feature and not a bug. The fact that Bitcoin doesn’t have some other intrinsic value means it is able to provide price information for economic decisions without noise or manipulation.
Finally, it is not necessary that money be issued by a government. For many centuries it wasn’t. People would use various media of exchange and stores of value without the government interceding in any way. It was only in the last couple of centuries that it made sense for governments to get into the money game when it was difficult to trust and verify the purity and weights of coinage. Stamping the king’s face onto a coin served a purpose at that point. Since then, the intertwining of government and money has been so complete that most folks have a hard time imagining that money can be something separate from the government. This misunderstanding has repeatedly been manipulated for the sole benefit of the government that controls the issuance of money. But despite our experience, there is no need for money to be issued by the state to be valid. Bitcoin is the best hope humanity has of severing the ties between government and money.
At the very least it will serve as a check on how the governments discharge their responsibility as stewards of monetary policy.
The good news is that people understand the seven properties of good money listed above on an intuitive level. In other words, people do not need to read an economic textbook to recognize “good” money. They just start gravitating toward it over time. People won’t need to know why Bitcoin is better to know that it is better. Our recent monetary experiment with unbacked paper money is only 50 years old, and paper money owes most of its success to the privileged legal status paper money enjoys through the governments that issue it. But absent coercion people will always choose a better form of money, as shown by the fact that they did for thousands of years by using gold. Before Bitcoin had been invented, Jörg Guido Hülsmann explained, in his book The Ethics of Money Production, that in the case of “gold and silver—and whatever else free men might discover and develop for monetary services . . . there is a natural tendency in the market to spread the use of the most useful monies over the entire world.”13 Bitcoin is better money and because of that, Bitcoin adoption is very likely to grow and spread for the foreseeable future.
This article is an excerpt fromA Progressive’s Case for Bitcoin: New Revised Updated Edition, available now for pre-order at a discounted price of $21 through November 15, 2025.
12 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, “Functions of Money,” Economic Lowdown Podcast, https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/economic-lowdown-podcast-series/episode-9-functions-of-money.
13 Jörg Guido Hülsmann, The Ethics of Money Production (Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008), 197.
I was reading a line today that stopped me cold: “Money does not ask permission.” I decided to write a statement that helps to explain this idea. While exploring the concepts of Bitcoin and blockchain, and studying how prominent voices write about them, I came up with this:
We learn now that money does not ask permission. What has been made so far is a practice of one century, whereby payments are rationed by institutions that allow, record, and sometimes decide to erase our transactions. Their ledgers are black boxes; their terms change without our consent. Our design is to have Statement One: Electronic Money Without Third Parties
Order, not dictation, is earned. Competing producers gather signed transactions and slot them into a public sequence by solving a costly puzzle. The puzzle is not a vote; it is a receipt of energy burned in the open.
The payment is enforced without getting credit; rather, you fulfill a script: present the required information, reveal the required secret, wait upon your peers to validate your work. Otherwise, if you fail, the coin remains in place. But if you pass a certain scripted test, which no one can lock, reclaim with impunity.
settlement only through mathematics, not an appointment — an instance of value that moves when a signature satisfies a rule but lies dormant when a gatekeeper nods.
It might not promise as broad usage as the market might demand, but it ends in a stronger system that, although not doing an excellent job of stability and good standing for value, consequently, does not mediate.
The heaviest, most expensive history wins by definition, and every node can verify that weight with little effort. Time becomes shared, quantifiable, and unforgiving of revision. To undo a payment, an attacker would incur the cost of rebuilding time greater than all the world has already accepted.
The motivators are substitutes for orders. New coins come into circulation as per a fixed schedule, not per fiat from on high. Transaction fees will go to transaction processors, the people who order and archive every transaction. Honest behavior is very cheap, duly rewarded; to behave dishonestly is costly and, under most cases, quite impractical. Censorship will rather act as a tax on censors with excluded transactions seeping into the wallets of competitors. Where administrators might once have power to deny, participants now retain the power to defect. Single-use addresses, timelocks, multi-signatures: Such mechanisms reveal off-the-record transactions while retaining a degree of transparency that can be audited, verified by supply. Full anonymity is not guaranteed, but channels of improvement can be laid with the tools of mixing and zero knowledge above.
The first step is the most required: completely separate identity from control so that trade, speech, and juicy association can happen without asking any official permission.
The system honors whatever it commits to offer: a pathway for all-entry levelling, the scrutinising ability of the public, predictable issuance, and the finality that becomes stronger the more economic sense is attached to it. For significant settlements, prudence would entail being patient. For relatively smaller ones, speed is a potential risk to weigh against. Regulations are clear; all are free to decide on the trade-offs.
Privacy is a right conferred by good design and not born of policy leniency. No receipt shall list the name.
There is a price. Tying facts to physics burns energy and requires hardware. Not merely waste per se, but also a sort of provable treaty in energy, one that has to be somewhere up or down the authentic scale of expenditures — the very resource value that bronco thieves will have to climb. In other words, the bigger, decentralized, and more tightly bonded the mass of effort, the safer it gets to bark away security from cheap relays and state-friendly jurisdictions. We will quantify these externalities in the open and drive the system toward efficiency without giving away anyone’s privilege to rewrite history.
Persons may be eliminated by keys. Therefore a key pair is enough by itself to own and spend. Coins are not some balance on someone’s server, but rather unspent claims tied to conditions that anyone can verify.
From cash sans third-party flows not towards utopia but exit. Builders get out there and put together a service without asking for access to any other ledger. Saviors can hold without confessing. Markets can bid “To Count” does not mean another’s accountlessness. Leading transactions are those which are kept simple enough for checking and so difficult they cannot be gullied. Once-finality is paid for and retained.
Hence evolved by a scattered and intermittent process; and now require so many connected decisions to be made in full of anteriority. The adoption of it all will follow a sequence of escalating steps at every turn and will be diffuse toward a few firm points deep in the future, united in refusal to even entertain whispers of large-scale, top-down legitimization.
From the perspective of exchange: It will be willed by a willing subset of the population dwelling upon it. Publish open problems — your blank checks — with everybody else in the race to compete. Settlements will not be delivered to our doorsteps; instead, the system will stay waiting until honored by actual implementation.
Back from chokepoints that used to channel economic life into a queue of permissions. Law still abides, rightfully reckoning with substrates where fishing out property is costly and where a mask of surveillanceis voluntary. Power will shift, as will we.
Eschew the essence of commitment in favor of enduring protocols. Hold onto your own keys rather than begging some faraway exchange to honor this deposit. Make sure your code is up for everyone to see.
Strangers also be allowed to contract business independently from signing permits. We shall build the whole concept, apply it, and alter it until normal transactions cease to require the approval of some profiting intermediary.
If this idea speaks to you, stay close. We’re only at the beginning of a much longer conversation about what it truly means to own something in the digital age.
Training AI models now consumes more electricity than many small nations.
We’re shooting for next-level tech while running on fumes.
Data centers are the new factories of the modern age.
Every GPU. Every Bitcoin mining rig. Every rack of blinking lights.
All powered by energy — and tons of it.
According to the International Energy Agency, data centers already consume about 1% of global electricity.
That demand is projected to surge to 4,500 terawatt hours by 2050 — roughly four times Japan’s total annual consumption, and more than the entire U.S. power grid today.
Progress Isn’t Digital — It’s Physical
We like to think progress happens “somewhere out there” in the cloud. But the cloud isn’t floating — it’s plugged into the grid.
Every kid asking ChatGPT for help with homework.
Every programmer debugging code.
Every Bitcoin transaction. Every AI model query.
All of it burns real electricity somewhere in the world.
Generating a single AI-written response — even something as short as an email — can consume up to 0.14 kilowatt hours of energy. That’s roughly the same as keeping 14 LED bulbs lit for an hour.
Scale that across billions of questions per day, and the numbers get massive.
Efficiency will improve, but the direction is clear — Demand will keep climbing.
The AI boom doesn’t just need chips. It needs megawatts. Power. Energy.
A McKinsey report projects U.S. electricity demand will grow 3% per year through 2040. Over two decades, that compounds massively.
Everything needs power — Data centers. EVs. Phones. Streaming. Cloud. AI. Everything.
The obvious play? Keep energy-related stocks on your radar.
1. Cameco (CCJ)
One of the world’s largest uranium producers. Nuclear power is efficient and reliable, and Cameco supplies the fuel that keeps reactors running.
The U.S. plans to triple nuclear capacity by 2050. Last week, the U.S. government, Brookfield, and Cameco announced an $80 billion deal to build new reactors.
With electricity demand climbing, Cameco is in a strong position:
Rising uranium prices
Long-term supply contracts
Growing demand from new reactors
All point to a multi-decade tailwind.
2. Constellation Energy (CEG)
Generates roughly 10% of the nation’s carbon-free electricity.
Recent wins include:
A 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Microsoft
Another 20-year PPA with Meta
Both tech giants understand what’s coming — AI needs energy, and they’re locking it in now.
3. NextEra Energy (NEE)
One of the largest utilities in the U.S. and a global leader in renewables.
55% renewables
36% natural gas
8% nuclear
They’re partnering with Google to deliver 100% carbon-free energy for Google’s cloud and AI infrastructure in Iowa.
With global energy demand rising, NextEra stands to benefit long-term from the clean energy transition.
These aren’t overnight flips — They’re 10-year holds.
What Powers the Future
Mark Zuckerberg once said:
“Power is the bottleneck for AI.”
What we see — chatbots, algorithms, recommendations — is just the tip of the iceberg.
Beneath it all: Massive data centers humming 24/7, burning electricity just to keep AI alive.
AI might grab the headlines. But it’s the energy infrastructure beneath it that makes it possible.
From uranium reactors to renewable grids, these companies will grow together — powering not just data centers, but civilization itself.
If you want a play that goes beyond crypto, beyond AI, beyond any single narrative, focus on power generation.
AI voice startup WellSaid Labs is doubling down on its niche of enterprise customers and regulated industries — hoping that a more judicious, behind-the-scenes approach will pay off for its business in the long run even as flashier rivals draw widespread attention and controversy.
The company, based in Bellevue, Wash., launched a new version of its text-to-speech AI voice platform Monday with redesigned Studio software and its next-generation Caruso voice model, promising better workflows, improved audio quality, and fine-tuned controls, among other features.
Unlike open voice-generation models that scrape public data, WellSaid’s system is trained exclusively on licensed voice actor recordings, a closed-model approach that it says respects intellectual property and appeals to sectors such as healthcare, legal, and finance.
WellSaid’s latest release is a pivotal moment for the company — the result of years of internal research now coming to market in a form that refines its focus on business and institutional users, said Chris Johnson, WellSaid’s chief product and technology officer, in an interview.
Chris Johnson, WellSaid’s chief product and technology officer. (WellSaid Photo)
“We put our stake in the ground in being the best solution for enterprises in the market,” Johnson said. “A lot of these innovations accrue to making that a reality for us.”
WellSaid, which spun out of Seattle’s AI2 Incubator in 2019, works with large enterprise customers including LinkedIn, T-Mobile, ServiceNow, and Accenture.
The company made an impression on the public in 2023 when NPR’s Planet Moneyused WellSaid’s technology to create a synthetic version of former host Robert Smith’s voice — a near-perfect replica that surprised listeners and showed both the promise and potential challenges of realistic AI audio.
But WellSaid has struggled at times to break into the larger industry conversation. The challenge was underscored by its absence from a CB Insights market map of leading voice-AI startups — topped by buzzy ElevenLabs, which has been at the center of controversy over the use of its technology to make fake AI voices of public figures and others.
WellSaid executives say they’re hoping to correct that specific oversight, but the challenge reflects a broader pattern among enterprise AI companies, particularly those in the Seattle region — which often emphasize trust, governance, and regulatory scenarios in a tech culture still captivated by headline-generating Silicon Valley experiments and consumer apps.
A spokesperson said enterprise customers are WellSaid’s fastest-growing segment, expanding six-fold in three years with net retention of more than 150%. Its business model is lean, having raised about $20 million, letting it run efficiently while paying voice actors royalties and offering an equity program. The company employs about 70 people, down slightly from a year ago, according to LinkedIn data.
WellSaid says it’s seeing new momentum in the application of its AI technology to advertising, due to an increase in voice quality and a decrease in related content production costs.
The company has seen some turnover in its executive suite, including three CEOs in less than two years — starting with founder Matt Hocking (who is still chairman), then Brian Cook, and now Benjamin Dorr, who succeeded Cook earlier this year after serving as chief financial officer.
“Every voice is connected to a real person, and that person receives royalties from the revenue that’s generated on WellSaid,” Dorr said on a recent episode of the Master Move podcast. “I think the things we do right by our voice actors allow us to do right by the enterprises that choose us, and I don’t think everyone else can say that.”
The Hague Prosecutor’s Office has requested a 5 and a half year prison sentence for a counterfeiter who produced and distributed counterfeit money via DarkWeb.
According to the Dutch prosecutor’s office, a 32-year-old resident of The Hague has been producing and selling counterfeit banknotes via DarkWeb for more than 3 years and sending them by mail throughout Europe.
The investigation began in early 2020. At that time, the Dutch authorities were asked by the German and Austrian authorities to launch an investigation into counterfeiting. Based on the information provided, the customs authorities of Germany and Austria were able to intercept packages of counterfeit banknotes sent to them from the Netherlands.
During the course of this investigation, law enforcement authorities were able to intercept a dozen packages sent to customers. All packages contained counterfeit banknotes of various currencies and denominations. The intercepted banknotes, namely the fingerprints left on them, helped law enforcement agencies identify the counterfeiter.
On July 12, 2022, investigators obtained a search warrant for the accused. During the search, the 32-year-old man was found to have a full-fledged printing house for the production of counterfeit banknotes of various denominations. Also, about 60 thousand euros, approximately 100 thousand Swedish kronor and more than 10 thousand US dollars were found. Firearms and ammunition were also found on the accused’s person.
According to the information provided by the Central Bank of the Netherlands, the counterfeiter produced and partially distributed counterfeit banknotes worth about 800 thousand euros throughout Europe.
A court hearing is scheduled for 2023, at which the defendant will be sentenced.
The Weekly Stash is a recap of the week’s top business headlines in the cannabis industry for the week ending February 10, 2023.
Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) (Nasdaq: CGC) reported slumping revenues on Thursday and signaled a new cost-savings era that includes cutbacks on cultivation and 800 layoffs. Revenue fell by 28% to $101 million in the quarter. Canopy ‘s historical cash burn has swelled its net losses 131% over the year to $266.7 million. Cash and short-term investments fell by a whopping $583 million to $789 million at the end of December from $1,372 million at the end of March 2022.
The acquisition of New York medical cannabis operator Etain by Riv Capital is entering another messy chapter. Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE: SMG), owner of the hydroponic company Hawthorne, has filed a lawsuit against Jason Wild and TerrAscend (OTC: TRSSF) claiming they ruined its $175 million investment. Hawthorne is complaining that Wild fought Riv Capital’s plans to buy Etain asking the board to call off the deal and threatening to attain a hemp license in the state in a move to kill the deal. Wild’s position is that Riv Capital overpaid for the property.
SNDL Inc. (Nasdaq: SNDL) finalized its purchase of Canadian dispensary chain Superette out of bankruptcy, with plans to support the brand and its stores.SNDL will license some of Superette’s IP to Spirit Leaf Ontario for their retail locations, the company said.
In state news,
Over the first three-day weekend of legal recreational marijuana sales in Missouri, medical and adult-use retail sales combined to hit $12.6 million in sales, the state announced. Many shops reported long lines this past Friday. According to the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services’ Cannabis Division Regulation, the industry sold $8.5 million in recreational cannabis and another $4.1 million in medical marijuana for Feb.3-5, for a grand total of $12,689,965.
In a break from a national trend, a federal judge in Washington state upheld the state’s residency requirement for cannabis business ownership and ruled that the U.S. Constitution’s dormant commerce clause doesn’t apply because marijuana is still federally illegal. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle sided with the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board and tossed a lawsuit filed in 2020 by marijuana investor Todd Brinkmeyer, who had asked the court to rule that Washington’s residency requirement is unconstitutional.
The start date for Maryland’s upcoming adult-use cannabis market could be as soon as July 1, under the terms of a new legislative bill introduced this week by state lawmakers.
New York has said it will begin cracking down on illegal operators while the state’s Office of Cannabis Management recommended that medical licenses be expanded. The OCM also suggested that medical patients no longer have to register.
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