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it is nuts for someone who runs a crypto media outlet to write this, and even more nuts for Time magazine to publish it

By Laura ShinOctober 29, 2024 9:00 AM EDT Shin is the founder of the crypto news outlet, Unchained, host of the Unchained podcast, and the author of The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze As a journalist, I try not to reveal personal opinions. But I’m breaking that rule today, because as an American, there’s something I, a progressive Democrat and a journalist who has covered crypto for more than nine years, have to speak up about.

i respect laura shin’s work but suggesting she’s a neutral observer is about as bananas as suggesting i am

i will say it is brave of her to “come out” as a progressive in the crypto world, which is heavily pro-trump and prone to attacking anyone who isn’t. i’m sure that wasn’t an easy decision given her business.

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Jeff Bezos describing journalism as “our profession” in an op-ed defending his decision to kill the Washington Post’s Harris endorsement

Opinion The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media A note from our owner. 5 min 15478 By Jeff Bezos October 28, 2024 at 7:26 p.m. EDT Jeff Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post. In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.
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Citation Needed endorses Kamala Harris for president, if you're looking for somewhere to put those WaPo subscription dollars.

https://www.citationneeded.news/

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finally walked by this sign i've been driving past for weeks, and have solved the mystery of why kamala harris is stepping on a bird's head

A lawn sign showing a pantsuited person in stiletto heels stepping on a red ball cap. There are lines outlining the hat, but at a distance it looks like a red blob that is shaped rather like a bird's head in profile
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“our lead shares our philosophy that technology should serve the user, not the reverse

this is why they focus on blockchains, a technology basically always used at the expense of its users”

Bluesky Announces Series A to Grow Network of 13M+ Users October 24, 2024 by The Bluesky Team Bluesky now exceeds 13 million users, the AT Protocol developer ecosystem continues to grow, and we’ve shipped highly requested features like direct messages and video. We’re excited to announce that we’ve raised a $15 million Series A financing led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Amir Shevat of Darkmode, co-creator of Kubernetes Joe Beda, and others. Our lead, Blockchain Capital, shares our philosophy that technology should serve the user, not the reverse — the technology being used should never come at the expense of the user experience. Additionally, this fund has a uniquely deep understanding of our decentralized foundation and has extensive experience building developer ecosystems, so it’s a natural partnership as we continue to invest in the ATmosphere (the AT Protocol developer ecosystem). This does not change the fact that the Bluesky app and the AT Protocol do not use blockchains or cryptocurrency, and we will not hyperfinancialize the social experience (through tokens, crypto trading, NFTs, etc.). To ensure we and our users benefit fully from this expertise, partner Kinjal Shah will join our board. Kinjal shares our vision for a social media ecosystem that empowers the people who use it, and we are glad to have her support as we invest in driving the adoption of decentralized social. With this fundraise, we will continue supporting and growing Bluesky’s community, investing in Trust and Safety, and supporting the ATmosphere developer ecosystem. In addition, we will begin developing a subscription model for features like higher quality video uploads or profile customizations like colors and avatar frames. Bluesky will always be free to use — we believe that information and conversation should be easily accessible, not locked down. We won’t uprank accounts simply because they’re subscribing to a paid tier. Additionally, we’re proud of our vibrant community of creators, including artists, writers, developers, and more, and we want to establish a voluntary monetization path for them as well. Part of our plan includes building payment services for people to support their favorite creators and projects. We’ll share more information as this develops. Bluesky’s open technology, the AT Protocol, makes a whole ecosystem of apps possible. We’re excited that developers have already begun building their own applications with totally different purposes from the Bluesky app. For example, Smoke Signal is an events app, Frontpage is a web forum, and Bluecast is an audio app (that includes karaoke with licensed songs)! We hypothesize that monetization strategies like subscriptions, domain-name registrations, and payments to creators will enable these independent apps to grow as well. With every month that passes, the need for an open social network becomes more clear. We’re very excited about where we’re headed — we’re building not just another social app, but an entire network that gives users freedom and choice. Thank you for joining us.

i do think the degree to which bluesky is stressing that they do not use blockchains really underscores how toxic even a faint whiff of blockchain has become to any normal platform