Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 02/16 – Bitcoin Crosses $50k

Episode Date: February 16, 2021

Bitcoin hits its latest, biggest milestone. A OnePlus cofounder’s latest startup is: Nothing. But it bought something: Essential. I’ll explain why this “who’s on first” routine might be interesting. Why government antitrust action has a tendency to open the litigation floodgates. And if you’ve been hearing about that new app Dispo, I’ve got an explainer for you. Cause that’s what I’m here for. Sponsors: Fundrise.com/techmeme Tovala.com/ride Links: Bitcoin Jumps to $50,000 as Record-Breaking Rally Accelerates (Bloomberg) Essential is now officially owned by Carl Pei’s Nothing Technologies (9to5Google) Microsoft’s new Office app now available on iPad (The Verge) New Samsung laptops rumored to include OLED screens and S Pen support (The Verge) Big Tech’s Next Big Problem Could Come From People Like ‘Mr. Sweepy’ (NYTimes) Retro photo app is winning buzz (Axios) The bull case for Dispo (Justin Potts) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Tuesday, February 16th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Bitcoin hits its latest biggest milestone yet. A One Plus co-founder's latest startup is nothing, but it bought something essential. I'll explain why this who's on first routine might be interesting. Also, why government antitrust action has a tendency to open the litigation floodgates. And if you've been hearing about that new app Dispo, I've got an explainer for you because that's what I'm here for. Here's a you miss today in the world of tech. I promise not to do this again until Bitcoin either crosses $100,000 or goes back below $10,000. We are bounded on either end, basically. We can't be in the

business of mentioning the price movements of crypto all the time, but I did think it was worth mentioning that this morning Bitcoin briefly passed the $50,000 per coin mark for the first time ever. I know we've been trying to keep our eyes on the resurgence of crypto generally over the last six months, but I think it's also worth pointing out the speed of this current rally, quoting Bloomberg. The world's largest cryptocurrency jumped as much as 4.9% to 50,548 and is now up 70% so far this year. Bitcoin paired its gain after setting the record high, and Ether, a rival crypto, hit a record on Friday and is up about 140% year-to-date. After ending last year with a fourth-quarter surge of 170% to around $29,000, Bitcoin token jumped to $40,000 seven days later. It took just

nearly six weeks to breach the latest threshold, buoyed by endorsements from the likes of Paul Tudor Jones, Stan Drucken Miller, and Elon Musk. Bitcoin traded for a few cents for several years after its debut more than a decade ago. Whether it's Musk, Mastercard, or Morgan Stanley, the mood, music, and momentum is impossible to ignore, said Anthony Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of Nexo in London, one of the biggest crypto lenders. To the annoyance of many, the Bitcoin Express has left the station, end quote. Micro Strategy Incorporated doubled down on its big bet on Bitcoin. The Enterprise Software Maker said Tuesday that it would sell $600 million in a convertible bond with the intention of adding to its Bitcoin stash.

This is the second time in three months that the Tyson's Corner Virginia-based company issued debt to fund the purchase of Bitcoin. The 400% rally over the past year comes amid a backdrop of near-zero borrowing rates from central banks and unprecedented stimulus from governments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Bitcoin advocates have criticized the moves as money printing, even though inflation remains subdued, end quote. I did want to come back to that quote about the train leaving the station because it mentioned MasterCard adopting Bitcoin or at least cryptocurrency. I don't think we mentioned that.

And also it wasn't as big a story as that headline makes. But also they mentioned Morgan Stanley in that quote. And over the weekend, I did hear rumors that major Wall Street houses are facing virtually a revolt from their traders, who are eager to be allowed to finally go whole hog on crypto trading. Counterpoint Global, Morgan Stanley's $150 billion investing arm is reportedly considering adding Bitcoin to its portfolio of high growth assets. And remember, there is no Bitcoin ETF to speak of yet.

So I wonder if the long-promised tipping point where Wall Street gets to get let loose on the crypto markets is actually upon us, and if that might be what is going on right now. So this is a bit of an explainer because it's based on an interesting raise that I actually passed on recently. Carl Pye is the co-founder of One Plus, the maker of those stylish Android smartphones that managed to carve out a niche for itself in the Android ecosystem. Pi raised eyebrows by leaving One Plus last year to found a new company. He raised further eyebrows by naming that new company, Nothing. Nothing had some interesting investors. Kevin Lynn, co-founder of Twitch, Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit, and Tony Fidel, who created

the iPod at Apple and went on to found Nest Labs. Then, last week, GV, Alphabet's Venture Arm, not only led a $15 million Series A for nothing, but it was the sole investor in the round. Now, according to a UK filing, nothing has raised that money to acquire essential. Andy Rubin's now defunct smartphone brand. Does this raise? enough eyebrows in terms of what nothing might be doing in what clearly looks to be the gadget space, I think so, quoting 9 to 5 Google. This means that all existing trademarks, logos, and the entire essential brand are now the intellectual property of Pye's alphabet invested startup, although it is unclear how this affects any of the patents currently held by Essential.

While this does not necessarily mean that nothing is entering the smartphone market, it could be a signal of intent to do so in the not too distant future. Essential itself, had been working on its own home smart hub and speaker that would run ambient OS. The device was originally planned to launch in late 2017, but never made it to market. Nothing has committed to launching its first smart devices in the first half of this year. It's also not clear if former engineers from Essential have also joined PY's startup as part of this envelopment. As it stands, the process seemingly only includes the branding and trademark portfolio. One could speculate that this is a play by nothing to access Essential's patent catalog with numerous patents relating to voice setup instructions

and voice-enabled home setup, with a major focus for nothing being on smart devices and therefore smart home tech. This would allow even faster development of enhanced technologies as the brand grows rapidly, end quote. But again, what is nothing actually doing? Well, quoting Bloomberg around that GV raise from a week ago that I passed on reporting a week ago, quote, Carl Pye said his London-based startup called Nothing was developing a pair of wireless headphones as well as a suite of smart-connected consumer electronics. The headphones would be released in the summer with other products following later in the year. While consumer demand is high for true wireless earphones, competition for a slice of the

market comes from the biggest names in tech. Pye declined to provide specific examples when asked to explain why investors and consumers should pay attention to what's being created by his team of about 18, where working on research and development, end quote. Now, of course, you know, somebody had to snark around all of these sort of odd names, as Dan Seafert snarked on Twitter, quote, nothing buys something. What is this new company? Essentially nothing. And they will sell nothing essential? Microsoft's Unified Office mobile app, which combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single application is now available on the iPad. Quoting the Verge. This new update means Office is now a full iPad

OS app with access to all of the regular tablet variants of Microsoft's productivity suite. The app also bundles in some useful tools designed primarily for mobile tasks. These include the ability to quickly create PDFs or signed documents, converting images to text and tables and more quick actions. Microsoft has been simplifying its mobile office offerings into this single app, but standalone apps for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are still available and updated regularly. While it took a while for the main office app to be iPad-friendly, Microsoft has added many iPad-specific features to its office apps, including mouse and trackpad support recently, end quote. Fourthcoming new Samsung laptops are rumored to include OLED screens and S-Pen support,

according to the Verge. The Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360 are on their way. And, and the 360 is said to be coming with 5G connectivity. Quote, Sam Mobile's report doesn't go into details about the specs of the OLED displays, such as what their resolution or refresh rates will be. However, given the laptops will reportedly be available with 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch screens, it seems unlikely that they'll use the 14-inch 90-hertz OLED displays that Samsung display said it would be mass manufacturing starting next month.

These wouldn't be the first of Samsung's laptop. laptops to support the S-Pen. Last year's Galaxy book Flex 5G, the company's first 5G laptop had one built in, for example. But it comes after the company announced a new pair of S-Pen styluses alongside the Galaxy S-21 Ultra. There's a standard S-Pen that's sold separately from the phone, and later this year it'll be joined by the S-Pen Pro, an upgraded version that adds Bluetooth and air gesture support. Earlier this year, Samsung said it's planning to bring S-Pen support to additional device categories. Beyond their screens and S-Pen support, the new Windows laptops are rumored to be powered by Intel Core I-5 and I7 CPUs. The Galaxy Pro 360 is thought to be a convertible 2 and 1 laptop

with a 360-degree hinge to allow its screen to be flipped around and use like a tablet, end quote. One of the things that I forgot about antitrust actions when they come is that they can often open up companies not just to legal action from the government, but also to a slew of private litigation that is often kicked off by the details uncovered during the discovery process of the government's lawsuits. And indeed, the New York Times says that revelations from government investigations into big tech recently have paved the way for private antitrust lawsuits against the likes of Google and Facebook already. Lawsuits like this, quote, the operator of a website called Sweepstakes Today, Mr. Sweepie, a nickname used by Craig McDaniel,

says Google used its power over online advertising to bleed his website dry. In December, he filed a lawsuit against Google saying he was entitled to substantial damages. His case is one of what is expected to be a host of private antitrust lawsuits stemming from the government cases against Google and Facebook. Already more than 10 suits echoing the federal and state cases have been filed against one or both of the Silicon Valley Giants in recent months. Many of them lean on evidence unearthed by the government investigations. Last month, for example, a media company in West Virginia sued Google and Facebook arguing that the tech companies had worked together to monopolize the digital ad market. Its lawyers extensively cited evidence from the government cases. Legal experts say many more suits are likely to be

filed this year. If successful, private lawsuits could be costly for Facebook and Google. The companies work with millions of advertisers and publishers every year and Google hosts apps from scores of developers, meaning that there are many potential litigants. The damages could be significant. After the United States sued Microsoft for antitrust violations a generation ago, the company paid $750 million to settle with AOL. At that point, the owner of the browser Netscape, which was at the core of the government's case. Private suits follow the government ones for a simple reason. Regulators have distinct advantages when it comes to obtaining evidence. Federal and state investigators can collect internal documents and interview executives before filing a suit.

As a result, their complaints are filled with insider knowledge about the companies. Private individuals can seek that kind of evidence only after they file lawsuits. If the government cases succeed against Google or Facebook at trial, the win is likely to bolster the case for private lawsuits, experts said. Lawyers could point to those victories as evidence the company broke the law and move quickly to their primary aim, obtaining monetary. damages, end quote. So the point is, big tech is in for a decade of litigation, pretty much no matter what happens with these government cases. When Jeff Bezos announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Amazon, I forgot to include potential antitrust stuff coming down the pike as a possible motive for his transition. I did say, of course, that after a while, if you're successful enough,

you don't want to deal with the annoying stuff anymore, the day-to-day stuff. You only want to focus on the fun stuff. And believe me, endless depositions in courtrooms around the world for years and years do not count as fun stuff. All right, there's a new app that you might have heard of because it's getting a fair amount of buzz, at least over the last week and definitely over the weekend. Dispo. Dispo is, checking my notes, a photo sharing social app. So performing my usual service of trying to keep you in the know and on the cutting edge of what the kids are up to these days. Let me begin by quoting Axios. Dispo, a photo sharing app co-founded by YouTube star David Dobrick,

released a new invite-only test version of its app less than a week ago and hit test flights 10,000 user limit over the weekend after thousands of downloads in Japan. The app takes its concept very seriously. The screen for snapping photos looks like the back of an old-fashioned disposable camera. leaving the user with only one option, turning the flash on and off. There are no other photo editing features. Photos develop, in air quotes, the next morning at 9 a.m. local time, and users can create various film roles to put them in.

Roals can be shared between users, enabling them to collect photos among friends or other users as a social activity. Users can also like and comment on photos. Public shared roles have also sprung up around various interests, making it possible for users to interact with like-minded people. The original app currently in the app store didn't have these social sharing features, end quote. Well, that explains my confusion when I tested this out over the weekend. I actually wanted to come here and ask you if anyone knew why I couldn't see anyone else in the app to share my photos with.

I've got my roles. I've developed my photos the day after shooting them, but I can't do anything with them yet because I don't see anybody else. Sounds like it's because I'm not cool enough to be let in on this beta test yet. Though if I'm missing something about that, please let me know. So, does this sound like a fad? Maybe. But then I read Justin Potts's bullcase for Dispo that he posted to Medium. Could Dispo be cleverly pulling together several different current threads?

Quote, too many, Dispo looks like just another camera app, but what's special about it isn't one singular feature. It's about how it bundles them together. Like Hoogie, Dispo lets you take Viya. IBE photos with a retro feel like back when people took photos with an actual film camera. Like TikTok and Snapchat, it forces authenticity. Like Instagram, it lets you share your life. And like group chats, it lets you stay connected with your friends and communities in an intimate way. Dispo is centered around things called roles. You can think of these as photo albums.

In addition to being a nifty way to categorize photos, roles provide an intimate way to stay connected with friends. People are creating group roles for photos with each. other. They're sharing handwritten notes. They're sharing the lattes they make when they wake up in the morning. Unlike Instagram, there's an unlimited number of contexts you can post in. Until now, posts have been limited to your public feed, your Finsta from fake insta, an account you use for your 2am kind of photos, or your close friends' stories, none of which capture all the context of our day-to-day experiences. So Dispo has communities, which are being built around the themed roles, architecture roles, design roles, plant roles, pet roles. It's hard for me to imagine a way to discover communities or other

roles isn't already in the works. Dispo hits all the marks it needs on the product side, but what I find most compelling is the new user behaviors that it creates. Your photos don't develop until the next morning, so you're forced to live in the moment. Snap it and forget it. There's no pressure to get the perfect shot. It's a focus on authenticity over appearance. The authenticity is present not only in the photos you take, but in the in-person experiences you have while using the app. When you can't edit your photos, much less see what they look like, there's nothing to do but go back to what you were doing before, watching the concert, laying with your friends at the park, being with your dog. And because that experience is the same

for everyone, you can't help but appreciate the photos from others more than you normally would. They feel more immersive, more genuine, more in the moment. They didn't take the photo because they wanted to flex. They took it because it was worth taking and worth waiting until the next morning for. New behaviors like this are important for creating affinity. Snapchat's UI was purposefully confusing. The learned behavior of swiping to navigate made early adopters feel in the know, and the knowledge was passed down to new users like it was tradition.

When you pair these new behaviors with network effects and retention hacks, your photos developed the same time every morning, you start to form habits in your users' daily lives, end quote. So, if both Instagram and Snapchat got traction originally for being sort of anti-Facebooks, more ephemerality in the case of the latter, less junk posts, just photos in the case of the former, might Dispo be the first example of an anti-instagram app. Gen Z, zagging away from the aesthetic of their older siblings, much as the millennials zagged away from us gen Xers. If there's one rule that is pretty much held true so far over the last

25 years of the internet era, every generation feels a need to have their own platform. From AIM and Geo cities, into MySpace and Facebook, into Snapchat and Instagram, and now to TikTok and maybe Dispo. We shall see. Thank you to all of you who participated in our two clubhouse rooms last night. I'd say one was considerably more successful than the other, but that's kind of the point. We're experimenting with formatting, and believe me, we learned a lot last night. We do want to do another post-show wrap-up sometime this week, so watch for that. Talk to you tomorrow.