Tech News Roundup: February 12, 2021

Significant developments occurred in the tech world today, including a new bitcoin endowment created by Jack Dorsey and Jay Z, Datadog’s acquisition of a Startup Battlefield participant, and BuzzFeed’s exploration of AI-powered quizzes. This summarizes the key events in today’s Daily Crunch.

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Key Investment: Dorsey and Jay Z Back Bitcoin Development

Twitter’s co-founder and the renowned artist Jay Z have jointly invested 500 bitcoin – currently valued at over $23 million – into a newly established endowment known as ₿trust.

Dorsey clarified that this endowment will operate as a blind trust, initially concentrating its efforts on fostering bitcoin development within Africa and India. India’s regulatory stance on cryptocurrencies has been cautious, while Africa, particularly Nigeria, has witnessed a substantial increase in cryptocurrency transactions.

The stated mission of ₿trust, as outlined in a job posting for board members, is to establish bitcoin as the predominant currency of the internet.

Tech Industry Updates

Datadog is set to acquire Sqreen, an application security management platform. Sqreen originally competed in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield back in 2016, showcasing its innovative approach to security.

BuzzFeed is experimenting with artificial intelligence to generate personalized romantic partners within its latest quiz offering. Chris Johanesen, Director of Product for Quizzes, anticipates this being the first in a series of experimental quiz formats.

Startup Activity and Funding News

The online workspace platform, Notion, experienced a service outage attributed to DNS-related issues. Users reported difficulties accessing the service around 9 a.m. ET on Friday.

Ember, known for its temperature-controlled mugs, has appointed a former Dyson executive as its new consumer CEO, signaling a strategic expansion beyond its core product line.

Extra Crunch Insights

Extra Crunch has been instrumental in supporting readers in building and scaling companies globally for the past two years. Details about Extra Crunch’s achievements and future plans are readily available.

Felicis’ Aydin Senkut and Guideline’s Kevin Busque discussed the importance of concise and effective pitch decks. Busque, despite his success with TaskRabbit, initially faced challenges in securing investment from Senkut.

An analysis explores the ongoing challenges in achieving profitability within the ride-hailing sector, specifically examining the financial performance of Uber and Lyft.

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Other Notable News

The city of Minneapolis has enacted a ban on its police department’s use of facial recognition technology. The decision received unanimous support from the city council.

The need to leverage current technological solutions to address the climate crisis profitably was emphasized. The coming decade is critical for climate action, demanding a shift towards clean technologies.

Sweden’s data protection authority has penalized the police force for the unlawful utilization of Clearview AI. This follows a similar ruling by Canadian privacy authorities earlier this month.

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