Dozen Worthy Reads đ° (No. 174)
This week : Metaverse, Axie Infinity, Privacy/Regulatory tech, Software eng's in the valley, Spatial interfaces, an old amazing Jobs interview , Signal, China, Banks and the cloud, The cost of Semi's.
Hi All,
I hope you all are doing well and welcome to Dozen Worthy Reads. A newsletter where I talk about the most interesting things about tech that I read the past couple of weeks or write about tech happenings. You can sign up here or just read on âŠ
Feels like a long while since I wrote a curated edition of Dozen Worthy Reads, so it's entirely possible that you have seen some of these articles but I thought they were still good reads!Â
What is the Metaverse
Most every week there is an article on Metaverse now that Meta (nee Facebook) popularized the term and the concept. There have been several core arguments around Metaverse such as did it already exist? What exactly is it? Havenât the gaming companies been doing this for decades? Is it truly centralized? Who owns the âMetaverseâ? These are all really good questions for which no one really has an answer. With newer technologies, where there is a lot of uncertainty this is exactly what we hope to find out in the next decade or so. If the argument is that the âinternetâ was a place that one would have to âlogonâ to and that's what an AR/VR headset enables us to do then does that change like the internet has? How will we access this Metaverse? Will it be via headset only or will a browser work? How does my identity and ownership pass from one portal to another portal or do I need to start from scratch in every portal. These things require standards and unless there is a predefined standard it is likely that this may not apply and one can argue that Metamask is trying to provide identity and centrality so you can use your wallet and identity across portals. At this point though there are experiments, some successful and some not so and I think weâll be answering these questions for a better part of the decade.
In 2021, tech talked up 'the metaverse.' One problem: It doesn't exist.
The Metaverse Land Rush Is an Illusion | WIRED
Attention economies and web 3.0
A look at Tokens in the âattentionâ economy and a look at how to identify good projects v/s bad projects : Tokens in the attention economy - Cobie
Axie Infinity
A look at Play to Earn Games and Axie Infinity. Are these things real or just a ponzi scheme? Who will end up making the $ and who will be left holding the bag?Â
Paul Butler â âPlay-to-earnâ and Bullshit Jobs
Axie Infinity: Infinite Opportunity or Infinite Peril?
The rise of GDPR & privacy tech
As laws get written and rewritten a look at GDPR and Privacy Tech (and A shoutout to Keepabl.com). More regulation leads to companies not finding it easy to stay compliant with every emerging rule. I think this is only the start for Compliance tech and weâre about to see many more firms emerge and be successful with regulation tech offerings. If anything, this is a nascent and growing industry
Software Engineers and Silicon Valley
My software engineering friends in the valley are paid well. Very well (though with properties going for 100âs of thousands of dollars more than the asking they argue that they are not). A lot of this is stock based comp and as Bryne Hobart argues is this because of reflexivity? This article talks about what Silicon Valley type companies get about pay and a variety of other things related to Software Engineering. An interesting thing to compare and think about is : Are software engineers that work in such high leverage companies truly doing more value add work or is this a situation where they are paid more for possible future contributions?Â
Spatial interfaces :
An interesting look at Spatial Interfaces : Spatial Interfaces | Dark Blue Heaven
Old but amazing interview with Jobs
Old but great interview with Jobs. So prescient. Almost like he willed it all into existance!
Frenemies : Google and TikTok
A look at the symbiotic relationship between Google and TikTok and how Google helped TikTok : How Google helped TikTok take the throne
I assume if Google showed only Youtube results in video carousels it wouldnât look good under the regulator spotlight itâs already under. And what alternatives are there? Instagram and TikTok! So, in a way Google has to show diverse results to prove itâs not a monopoly, on the other hand that strengthens competitors.
Signal and anonymity
A look at Signalâs push into untraceable payments. Encrypted chat is one thing but completely untraceable payments is another. Obviously, there is a huge amount of debate on encrypted chats but is Signal playing with fire by adding anon transactions? This is sure to attract regulatory scrutiny and result in throwing the encrypted conversations baby out with the proverbial anon payments bathwater : How Signal is playing with fire - by Casey Newton
China crackdown
Another day another China crackdown. This time itâs jobs and entrepreneurial spirit. China follows the policy of âgreater goodâ and while this may cause a few entrepreneurial minded people from not starting companies, I think there is enough $ to be made given the success that young Chinese people are seeing. Stay within party guidelines but also make $. This might mean that we donât see an international sensation such as TikTok but the Chinese government is absolutely alright with that! : As Beijing Takes Control, Chinese Tech Companies Lose Jobs and Hope - The New York Times
Dan Wang on the state of China.
Very well, albeit a little long, summary of an entire year and making sense of Chinaâs goals : 2021 letter | Dan Wang
Banks moving to/leveraging the cloud
At first there were companies that said âweâll never go to the cloudâ and then cloud transitions became a thing. Now weâre seeing regulated companies such as banks leverage the cloud to operate better, faster, cheaper. Back in the 1980âs companies that had computers and ERP were considered cutting edge, able to respond faster, better able to run Just-in-time manufacturing. The cloud is not enabling that and to be honest the cloud is probably more secure given all the open points to the internet from an intranet. Would you rather trust your bank or credit union to keep your data more secure or a cloud provider? : Banks Tiptoe Toward Their Cloud-Based Future
The cost of Semiâs
A good read on why the pricing of semiâs might not be transitory; even with new fabs being promised by the largest semi manufacturers the price of semiâs might just be up in the long run.
Thank you for reading. Stay safe, be well! If you enjoyed reading this please consider sharing with a friend or two (or sign up here if you came across this or were forwarded this)