Ownership In A Digital Age

Amazon has updated its purchasing terms for Kindle e-books in the United States to clarify that customers are acquiring a license to the content, not ownership. The new statement reads: “By placing your order, you’re purchasing a license to the content and agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use.” This update is specific to U.S. customers; international users continue to see the previous wording, but the message is the same: You don’t own it; we are only letting you use it.

Starting February 26, 2025, Amazon will discontinue the “Download & Transfer via USB” feature for Kindle devices. This means users can no longer download Kindle books directly to their computers for…

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Axie Infinity reveals Atia’s Legacy MMO, AXS reward pool

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The Axie Infinity team has unveiled Axie Infinity: Atia’s Legacy, a game on Ronin set in the Axie world of Lunacia. 

In it, you can play with others and navigate your Axie around the fantasy world filled with treasure boxes, quests to complete, and little monsters to whack for XP. 

The game looks cute and dynamic, filled with different weather environments, diverse challenges, and the ability to swap Axies as you navigate through the world. The pop-up conversations look very similar to Animal Crossing, and the Axie-battling vibe is a lot like Pokémon in how you can inspect your available…

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A brief history of Ethereum’s relationship with ZK

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It all starts with Ethereum. The L1 is too slow. Every node needs to redundantly re-execute transactions in a block to ensure validity, which limits scalability.

By 2020, the Ethereum community coalesced around rollups as the scaling solution. Vitalik’s 2021 landmark blog post on rollups explains how optimistic and zk rollups can scale Ethereum.

Zk rollups are technologically superior for scaling but the tech was still too expensive to use and far behind (more later). 

So optimistic rollups broke into the market first. Optimistic rollups assume all transactions are valid until someone…

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Celebrating Dorian Nakamoto, the Satoshi who wasn’t

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe. 

Bitcoin doesn’t have an official mascot. 

Still, for at least a few years, Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto was the closest thing Bitcoin had to a spirit animal — an unassuming everyman who became symbolic of Bitcoin’s power to change the world from humble beginnings.

Newsweek started it on March 6, 2014 with “The Face Behind Bitcoin,” in which journalist Leah McGrath Goodman detailed a months-long investigation into potential candidates. But the article hinged on a misunderstanding.

Earlier attempts considered the Nakamoto name a pseudonym. Goodman instead searched for…

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Crypto projects raised $1.1B in February 

This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

To end the first week of March, let’s look back at venture capital activity in February, shall we?

Perhaps we can sum it up to a shorter month, but overall venture capital funding in February was down slightly from January, though the number of companies raising was up marginally. 

Last month, $1.11 billion was raised by 137 companies, though we saw $1.57 billion go to 132 companies to kick the year off, per TIE Terminal data. 

DeFi paved the way last month, with 20 companies raising around $175 million. Perhaps that’s a sign of a trend of where money’s going, because DeFi also led…

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LATEST: Fold Holdings Secures Top 10 Spot in U.S. Bitcoin Treasuries, Adds 475 BTC

Fold Holdings Inc. the first publicly traded bitcoin financial services company today announced a significant addition of 475 bitcoin to its treasury. This move increases its holdings by nearly 50% bringing the total to over 1,485 BTC. Fold acquired these assets through the issuance of a convertible note signaling confidence in bitcoin’s value and solidifying its position among top U.S. companies investing heavily in the cryptocurrency.

CEO Will Reeves stated that Bitcoin is crucial for the foundation of a new financial era and Fold is at the forefront of this transformation. By maintaining a substantial bitcoin treasury the company not only enhances shareholder value but also strengthens its capacity to innovate within bitcoin-based financial services. Reeves emphasized Fold’s commitment to merging traditional financial systems with the bitcoin economy benefiting users with bitcoin’s long-term growth.

As global recognition of bitcoin accelerates Fold’s strategic enhancements underscore its readiness to lead in the evolving financial landscape. With nations including the U.S. recognizing bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset Fold positions itself as a pivotal player in the future of finance where bitcoin plays a central role.

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