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Google datacenter Data centers are struggling to operate amid record high temperatures. Image: Google Nat Rubio-Licht July 19, 2022 Google and Oracle data centers in the U.K. were struggling to operate Tuesday as record high temperatures continue to heat up Europe. --------------------------------------------------------------------- According to Google Cloud's service health page, one of its London buildings hosting cloud services for one of its Western Europe regions experienced a "cooling related failure" starting Tuesday morning. The company powered down services in part of that region to fix the issue. Meanwhile, Oracle is having similar issues. Its service health page said it's working to repair the cooling system in its London data center and has powered down some of its services to "to prevent uncontrolled hardware failures." Oracle said it expects service to be restored today. "As the operating temperatures approach workable levels, some services may start to see recovery," Oracle's service page said. Though major data centers often have thousands of gallons of water at their disposal for cooling, they're not immune to heat waves. Prior to Tuesday's outages, an AWS data center in London went out July 10 in what the company called a "thermal event." Some data center operators are even resorting to hosing down their roof-mounted AC units with water to keep working. Data centers are facing issues, but so, too, are everyday people. The heat wave currently roasting the EU and U.K. is being made worse by climate change, and the effects have been relentless. Hundreds died in Spain and Portugal over the weekend amid the intense heat that topped out at 116.6 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius) and wildfires burning across the countryside. Nuclear power plants were also forced to operate at reduced capacity in France due to overheating river water normally used for cooling. The epicenter of heat has since moved to the U.K. to start the week, where the nation saw its first-ever 40-degree-Celsius (104-degree-Fahrenheit) temperature reading and has seen fires rage near London. Just 5% of homes in the U.K. have air conditioning installed. There are a number of high- and low-tech solutions that could help beat the heat, a task that will only become more important as climate change increases the intensity and frequency of freakishly hot weather. This post has been updated with additional context. X [img] PROTOCOL SOURCE CODE Want your finger on the pulse of everything that's happening in tech? Sign up to get Protocol's daily newsletter. Email Address [ ] I also want to receive Protocol's climate newsletter and alerts. [*] Source Code [*] Newsletter [*] Sign Up URL [javascript:location.] Sign Up Now Your information will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy Thank you for signing up. Please check your inbox to verify your email. Already registered? Click here to log in X Log in Email Address [ ] Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again. Email me an authentication link A login link has been emailed to you - please check your inbox. Don't have an account? Click here to register Nat Rubio-Licht Nat Rubio-Licht is a Los Angeles-based news writer at Protocol. They graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in newspaper and online journalism in May 2020. Prior to joining the team, they worked at the Los Angeles Business Journal as a technology and aerospace reporter. data centers cooling u.k. google oracle Latest Bulletins Netflix won't crack down on password sharing until 2023 Janko Roettgers Get ready to pay up to share your Netflix account: The streaming service will begin to crack down on password sharing starting next year, the company announced in its letter to investors Tuesday. That's also when Netflix plans to launch an ad-supported tier. "Our goal is to find an easy-to-use paid sharing offering that we believe works for our members and our business that we can roll out in 2023," the company wrote. The letter also states that Netflix is aiming to launch an ad-supported tier "around the early part of 2023." Netflix first announced plans to monetize shared accounts and launch a cheaper, ad-supported tier in April. The company struck a deal with Microsoft to sell and power its ads last week. Netflix executives have said in the past there were an estimated 100 million households who participated in account sharing. The company had already begun a test asking people to pay more for the ability to share their accounts in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru. On Monday, the company announced a separate test with a slightly different approach: Starting in August, Netflix will ask members in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to pay more if they want to stream to more than one home. "We're encouraged by our early learnings and ability to convert consumers to paid sharing in Latin America," the company said Tuesday. Netflix also announced Tuesday that it had lost another 0.97 million subscribers in Q2. The company expects to add 1 million subscribers in Q3, compared to 4.38 million added subscribers in Q3 of 2021. Disclosure: Protocol is owned by Axel Springer, whose chairman and chief executive officer, Mathias Dopfner, is on the board of Netflix. Keep Reading Show less Meta hit its 5-year diversity goals. The next step is unclear. Lizzy Lawrence Meta released a diversity progress report highlighting its U.S. workforce representation on Tuesday. The company pledged in 2019 to double the number of Black and Latinx employees in the U.S., and the number of women globally, by 2024. It fulfilled these goals early, Meta writes in the report. Racewise, Meta's numbers stand at 46.5% Asian, 37.6% White, 6.7% Latinx, 4.9% Black and 4% two or more races. The percentages of Black and Latinx employees at Meta still fall below those of the greater U.S. population. Underrepresented people -- including women, people of color, veterans and people with disabilities -- make up 46.7% of Meta's global workforce. This is up by about a percentage point from 2021. Women represent 36.7% of Meta's global leadership. Last year, Meta made strides in increasing the number of Black leaders, but its overall representation of women declined slightly. Meta's report also highlights how remote work is changing diversity numbers. Workers who accepted remote job offers were "substantially more likely" to identify as an underrepresented minority. The company may be less ambitious with its diversity plans going forward, though. Chief diversity officer Maxine Williams told Bloomberg that Meta's hiring pause and product vision changes mean that it won't issue new diversity goals for now. Instead she will focus on maintaining those numbers. "Anytime you are in an environment where variables are changing, it makes it hard to know if you're going to hit your target," Williams told Bloomberg. Keep Reading Show less SEC urged to go after 'big fish' crypto exchanges Ryan Deffenbaugh The Securities and Exchange Commission should be going after crypto exchanges that offered XRP, the chairman of the House investor protection subcommittee said Tuesday. In an oversight hearing closely watched by supporters of Ripple and the XRP cryptocurrency, California Rep. Brad Sherman questioned SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal on why the agency isn't investigating exchanges that offered the XRP cryptocurrency. "You've gone after XRP because XRP is a security, but you haven't gone after all the major crypto exchanges that process tens of thousands, if not far more, transactions," said Sherman, a Democrat representing parts of the Los Angeles metro area. "If XRP is a security -- and you think it is, and I think it is -- why are these crypto exchanges not in violation of law?" Whether XRP is in fact a security is subject to one of the most intense ongoing court battles in crypto. The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, accusing the company of failing to register roughly $1.4 billion worth of XRP as securities. Ripple, however, maintains XRP is a utility token for payments, not a speculative asset, and that it was issued prior to Ripple's founding. Grewal said he can't "talk about what matters we are looking at or not looking at," but noted the SEC had brought a case against the crypto exchange Poloniex for offering unregistered securities. Sherman countered, "It's easier to go after the small fish than the big fish, but the big fish operating the major exchanges did many, many, tens of thousands of transactions with XRP. You know it's [a] security, that means they were illegally operating a securities exchange." He added that many exchanges have stopped offering XRP. Grewal noted that SEC has beefed up its crypto-focused enforcement team but said it would be inappropriate to comment further. Sherman said the SEC is "going to have to take on some cases you are not certain of winning." Ripple has aggressively fought the case in court and its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, recently told Protocol the firm would leave the U.S. if it lost. The judge overseeing the case recently ordered the SEC to produce documents related to the case sought by Ripple and called out the SEC for "hypocrisy" in fighting the release. Shortly after the hearing, Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty called for a "fact check on aisle 2," noting that the mere filing of a case by the SEC does not make XRP a security. "Only the court can make a determination -- it's called due process," Alderoty said in a tweet. "This is the pernicious effect of the SEC's (regulation) by enforcement approach - harming people, markets and American innovation - with unproven allegations masquerading as regulation." More clarity from lawmakers on securities regulation would be helpful, Sherman acknowledged in closing the hearing, which also covered enforcement of the SEC's climate disclosure rules and the gamification of investing. "No definition is more important than to define security, since that's what the SEC does," Sherman said. "Congress really hasn't acted. Courts have acted with the Howey Test, which was not focused on digital assets, as it was written in the 1940s." Keep Reading Show less A new group of Activision Blizzard employees is unionizing Nick Statt Activision Blizzard now has a second group of employees intent on unionizing after quality assurance testers at subsidiary Raven Software voted to become the first unionized workforce at a major North American game studio. This time, QA testers at another subsidiary, Blizzard Albany, have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. The unit is roughly 20 employees, according to a report from the Washington Post. Blizzard Albany is best known as a support studio under its former name Vicarious Visions. The developer work consists mostly of porting games to other platforms and supporting expansions to existing Activision and Blizzard titles, including Guitar Hero, Skylanders, the remake of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 and Destiny 2 post-launch content. Last year, Activision Blizzard announced that the studio would rebrand as Blizzard Albany and merged formally with Blizzard to better support the Diablo and Overwatch developer on its upcoming games, a process completed in April. Now, the QA department is looking to unionize to improve work conditions. The changes workers seek include "competitive and fair compensation, pay transparency, better benefits and improved health care coverage," the worker group said on Twitter, as well as measures to "address disparities in titles and compensation," dealing with periods of mandated overtime, known in the industry as "crunch," and improving processes for reporting misconduct. Activision Blizzard is still contending with multiple legal battles following a sexual discrimination and harassment lawsuit filed by California. \u201cToday, we announce a new union at Activision Blizzard.\n\ nQA is currently an undervalued discipline in the games and software industries. We strive to\nfoster work environments where we are respected and compensated for our essential role in the\ ndevelopment process. 1/5\u201d -- GWA Albany (@GWA Albany) 1658246601 "I firmly believe that having the union is going to give us the power that we need to make our workplace better," Amanda Laven, a associate test analyst at Blizzard Albany, told the Washington Post. "It's very exciting to go public with it and hopefully be able to inspire others the way that we've been inspired by Raven, and Starbucks and Amazon and all the unions that have come before us." "We deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union," Activision Blizzard spokesperson Rich George told the Washington Post in a statement. "We believe that a direct relationship between the company and its employees is the most productive relationship. The company will be publicly and formally providing a response to the petition to the NLRB." Activision Blizzard did not respond to the employees' request for voluntary recognition after 19 of 20 employees signed union cards with the CWA, making it likely a union election will occur as was the case with Raven. The workers at Blizzard Albany are calling their union Game Workers Alliance Albany, following in the footsteps of the group of 28 QA testers at Raven that formed the first Game Workers Alliance chapter with the Communications Workers of America. Raven employees won their NLRB election in May after a roughly five-month period of opposition from Activision Blizzard management, which tried but ultimately failed to expand the union election to all employees in hopes it would diminish support. This time around, Activision Blizzard may not be as aggressive in its tactics. Since the Raven election, Microsoft, which has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard in a landmark $69 billion deal, made a public announcement saying it would not block unionization efforts from any of its employees or subsidiaries. Microsoft went even further a few weeks later in signing a historic neutrality agreement with the CWA, legally binding it to its promise not to interfere with labor organizing among its workforce. The move may have been a strategy on Microsoft's part to help ease regulatory concerns around the acquisition, but it still poses a direct challenge for Activision Blizzard that may force the game publisher to stand down in any efforts to combat the union at Blizzard Albany. "We respect the right of our employees to make informed decisions on their own," Microsoft President Brad Smith told the Washington Post in an interview regarding the CWA agreement. "It means that we don't try to put a thumb on the scale to influence or pressure them. We give people the opportunity to exercise their right to choose by voting ... it's something that's respectful of everyone, more amicable and avoids business disruption." Keep Reading Show less Google's plan for EU mobile payments is cutting just 3% off fees Ben Brody Google has announced its plans for Android to comply with Europe's nearly final new competition rules, and the company's approach doesn't involve anything remotely like eliminating its 30% commission on many in-app purchases. Google, which had extracted its fee by forcing apps to adopt the company's mobile billing system, will let app developers offer users in Europe other payment processing options. The catch is, the "service fee" for employing the alternatives will only be 3 percentage points lower than the current commission. In the case of the 30% fee that many popular apps face, that means developers would still have to pay -- and would still pass onto their users -- a 27% charge, although Google argues that the vast majority of apps pay a reduced 15% fee right now. The new plan, which doesn't even apply to the game apps where so many transactions take place, is a clear challenge to European Union authorities. The latter are in the last stages of approving new competition regulations in the Digital Markets Act, and they have viewed the "app store tax" collected by Apple and Google as one of the main Big Tech practices they want to rein in. In fact, Apple seems to have pioneered the strategy at work: After competition authorities in the Netherlands ruled the company needed to allow alternative billing for dating apps, the company announced it would do so -- and just charge a service fee of up to 27% for the privilege. The Dutch enforcers charged Apple repeated fines as result. The iPhone maker seemed happy to absorb the levies, though, given the worldwide stakes, which include not just enforcement actions and new rules in Europe, but South Korea's landmark app store law and the possibility of new tech competition laws in the U.S. The mobile OS operators have argued that their fees allow them to invest in privacy and security in a way that makes their environments attractive to apps, which should contribute to the upkeep. Keep Reading Show less A new federal office was just established to regulate proptech Veronica Irwin The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the federal agency that supervises and regulates many home loan providers, announced Tuesday the creation of the Office of Financial Technology. The new office is tasked with collecting information on emerging risks in financial technology innovation, relevant to home ownership. "When used responsibly, fintech has the potential to improve borrowers' experiences with the mortgage process by reducing barriers, increasing efficiencies, and lowering costs," said director Sandra L. Thompson. President Biden appointed the director last summer; she worked in the FDIC for 23 years before joining the agency in 2013. IBuying is the area of proptech that has received the most regulatory scrutiny in recent years, as companies like Opendoor, Offerpad and Zillow bought up about 2% of the American real estate market by the second half of 2021. The companies, however, found their success just as available homes were in short supply and prices rose, disrupting the traditional ecosystem of brokers, developers, realtors and banks that had remained relatively stable for over a decade. Later in the year, Zillow's bet on iBuying went south after the company over-bought amid a market downturn, and the business model -- which other companies, like Opendoor, still say they're confident in -- was put under additional scrutiny. The office may eventually provide some suggestions for regulation that builds some trust back for iBuying. But other proptechs and fintechs interfacing with the real estate industry may eventually receive guidance, too. Home buying is a tedious process, and innovation around expediting mortgage approvals, providing more flexible financing options for developers, reducing insurance costs and streamlining the housing search are in high demand. Venture Capital invested $4 billion in proptech in Q1 2022, up 41% from Q4 2021. But it will be some time before any regulation is drafted for the industry. Currently, the agency is soliciting public input from the industry through Oct, 16. Interested parties can submit comments online or via mail. Keep Reading Show less TAE hit a major nuclear fusion milestone Lisa Martine Jenkins Man, it's a hot one. TAE Technologies announced on Monday it successfully kept plasma stable at 75 million degrees Celsius, bringing it one step closer to harnessing the power of nuclear fusion. The company reached the milestone using its five-year-old Norman reactor, which was designed to operate at 30 million degrees Celsius. By reaching 75 million degrees Celsius, it's exceeded its performance goals by 250%. Simultaneously, TAE also announced that its series G-2 funding round raised a whopping $250 million, bringing its total funding up to $1.2 billion. Investments came from long-term backer Google, in addition to oil major Chevron and the U.S. arm of the Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corporation. The latter plans to partner with TAE to bring fusion power to the Asia-Pacific market. The company's goals to replicate the process responsible for the sun's shine in a controlled environment and keep it stable enough to generate carbon-free energy are ambitious. But the new milestone shows its edging closer to meeting them. TAE plans to use this influx of cash to construct a new research reactor, dubbed Copernicus at its Irvine facility. Copernicus represents the "penultimate step" to commercializing fusion power, the company said in a press release. The plan, as CEO Michl Binderbauer told Protocol last month, is to demonstrate that the new machine is capable of net energy generation via fusing hydrogen at 150 million degrees Celsius (though the reactor will not produce net energy in the test phase). Copernicus will also enable TAE to show off its chops when it comes to fusing hydrogen with boron, a process that is non-radioactive. Boron is widely available, and is the "cleanest, safest, most economical terrestrial fuel cycle for fusion, with no geopolitical concerns or proliferation risks," according to a press release. Copernicus is expected to begin operating around 2025. "Global electricity demand is growing exponentially, and we have a moral obligation to do our utmost to develop a baseload power solution that is safe, carbon-free, and economically viable," said Binderbauer in a press release. TAE, alongside most of its rival fusion power companies, says it intends to generate energy that can be used by the power grid by the latter years of this decade. The company has been pursuing the hydrogen-fusion reactor for 24 years, though, reflecting the challenges to reaching its goals. And given the long-running joke that fusion is always a decade or two away, it's worth taking TAE's advancements seriously but with a grain of salt. Keep Reading Show less FBI warns of fake crypto apps defrauding investors, institutions Sarah Roach The FBI issued a warning Monday for financial institutions and investors urging them to watch out for fake crypto apps. The bureau said it has identified 244 victims who were defrauded by fake apps and lost a total $42.7 million. "The FBI has observed cyber criminals contacting US investors, fraudulently claiming to offer legitimate cryptocurrency investment services, and convincing investors to download fraudulent mobile apps, which the cyber criminals have used with increasing success over time to defraud the investors of their cryptocurrency," the bureau wrote in a notice. The FBI found cyber criminals using the names and other information of legit businesses to lure and then defraud investors. The agency identified fraudulent activity happening under the company name YiBit between last October and May, as well as an incident involving scammers operating under the name "Supay" last November. A third case involved cyber criminals convincing victims to download an app that used the name and logo of an actual financial institution and then deposit crypto into wallets on the fraudulent app. The notice includes recommendations to help institutions and investors detect and prevent fraudulent activity. It suggests financial institutions should periodically search for their company's name and logo to determine whether they're being used for unauthorized activity and should warn customers of this activity potentially happening. It also tells investors to verify whether an app is legit with its associated company and "be wary" of unsolicited requests to use investment apps. Crypto scams are rampant: According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers have lost at least $1 billion to crypto fraud between the beginning of 2021 and March of this year. Fraudulent crypto activity is becoming more common, and much of it originates on social media, the FTC found. Keep Reading Show less Bankrupt crypto firm Three Arrows Capital owes $3.5 billion Tomio Geron One of the crypto industry's top hedge funds owes 27 companies $3.5 billion, an indication of the extensive connections the firm, Three Arrows Capital, had across the industry. It also shows the wide impact one firm can have when many firms are borrowing or lending from each other. Some of the creditors are themselves in bankruptcy proceedings. Genesis Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, a unit of the Genesis crypto prime broker, which is owned by Digital Currency Group, is the largest creditor, with a roughly $2.3 billion loan to 3AC, according to the filing. Genesis had a 80% margin requirement on the loan and has sold collateral related to the loan, according to The Block. Digital Currency Group has assumed some of Genesis' liabilities. Crypto exchange Voyager, another troubled crypto firm that has filed for bankruptcy, had a loan to 3AC of $350 million in USDC plus 15,250 BTC worth about $680 million at its present value. Crypto lender Celsius, which also filed for bankruptcy, had a loan of about $75 million in USDC. Other lenders included FalconX and DRB Panama, the owner of crypto exchange Deribit, among others. An affidavit attached to the filing by Charles McGarraugh, chief strategy officer of Blockchain.com, another 3AC creditor, says that the co-founders of Three Arrows, Zhu Su and Kyle Davies, made a down payment on a yacht valued at $50 million. Zhu also reportedly is trying to sell a $35 million mansion in Singapore. Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Deribit. This story was updated on July 18, 2022. Keep Reading Show less White House summit to tackle cybersecurity talent gap Kyle Alspach The Biden administration is calling the shortage of cybersecurity talent a "national security challenge" ahead of a summit at the White House Tuesday focused on accelerating progress on the issue. In a news release Monday, the White House cited estimates that there are 700,000 cybersecurity jobs currently open in the U.S. alone. Tuesday's National Cyber Workforce and Education Summit is expected to include participation from a number of top Biden administration officials, as well as executives from the private sector and "thought leaders" in academia and the cybersecurity community. The summit is being convened by National Cyber Director Chris Inglis, and participants will include Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, as well as Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. With the massive cybersecurity talent gap, "America faces a national security challenge that must be tackled aggressively," the White House said in the news release. Planned discussion topics at the summit include the "need to create and prioritize new skills-based pathways to cybersecurity jobs" in educational institutions and training programs. Notably, the Biden administration pointed out that the U.S. has "an opportunity to build pipelines for historically untapped talent, including underserved and diverse communities" as part of filling open cybersecurity roles. What the White House release didn't specifically touch on was the need for more employers to create entry-level positions -- something that a number of industry leaders have told Protocol is the biggest missing piece for closing the cybersecurity talent and diversity gap. Too many employers still put their energy into poaching talent from the same pool of the most-experienced people rather than widening the pool by creating entry-level roles, those leaders said. "The talent gap lives entirely in the minds of hiring managers in cybersecurity," Naomi Buckwalter, a cybersecurity professional for two decades, said in a recent interview. Keep Reading Show less Meta's Giphy purchase is getting a new U.K. investigation Sarah Roach The U.K. in November ordered Meta to sell off Giphy -- which it had acquired only the year before -- because of competition concerns, which was a big deal for a relatively small acquisition. But U.K. regulators are now going back to the drawing board on their investigation after a judge found gaps in its initial probe. A U.K. judge ordered the Competition and Markets Authority to conduct another investigation into Meta's Giphy purchase after ruling that the agency didn't consult on some areas of the probe and took out some material that weakened its decision. The CMA plans to wrap up its new review within three months. "We have agreed to reconsider our decision in light of this finding," the CMA said in a statement to Bloomberg. Tech skeptics were thrilled about the CMA's original decision last year, saying it shows increased scrutiny of Big Tech moves. But it hasn't been all smooth sailing since the order: an appeals tribunal upheld the CMA's decision last month, but it also found that the agency didn't inform Meta of Snapchat's Gyfcat purchase for almost a year after it became aware of the ruling. The tribunal planned to consult with Meta and the CMA on how to fix the error. Meta did not immediately return Protocol's request for comment. Keep Reading Show less Twitter to shareholders: Ignore that Musk lawsuit! Owen Thomas Twitter still hasn't set a date for shareholders to vote on its acquisition by Elon Musk, but it's urging them to approve the deal despite the fact it's suing Musk over trying to wiggle his way out. A filing Friday updating its proxy statement for the deal added information about the lawsuit Twitter filed Tuesday to compel Musk to carry out his $44 billion takeover and included reams of correspondence between Musk's lawyers and Twitter's. If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying! -- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022 The correspondence shows increasingly heated rhetoric over the issue of fake or spam accounts, a major point of contention between Musk and Twitter. Despite vowing to "defeat the spam bots" in April, as tech stocks fell and the value of his Tesla holdings declined, Musk began questioning Twitter's disclosures about the percentage of bots that made up its monetizable user base. Twitter's lawyers pressed Musk on how the requests related to completing the deal: The merger agreement allowed Musk to request information that was helpful for consummating the transaction, not canceling it, as he now appeared to seek to do. In its lawsuit, Twitter argued that Musk was seeking to back out of the deal because he now regretted it given the decline in the market value of tech companies, including his own. Despite the contentious language exchanged in the lawsuit and the letters revealed in the filing, Twitter still wants to sell itself to Musk, it told shareholders. With the expiration of a customary waiting period for antitrust review, shareholder approval is the last obstacle to getting the deal done. Keep Reading Show less Russia is banning crypto payments Lindsey Choo Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a law Friday prohibiting the use of digital assets as forms of payments in Russia. The legislation will reportedly prohibit the transfer or acceptance of "digital financial assets as a consideration for transferred goods, performed works, rendered services, as well as in any other way that allows one to assume payment for goods (works, services) by a digital financial asset, except as otherwise provided by federal laws," effectively banning the use of crypto or NFTs as forms of payments. The bill was submitted to the State Duma in June by the head of the legislature's Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov, and signed into law by Putin Friday. The new law also includes a provision that requires crypto exchanges and providers refuse transactions in which digital assets could be construed as a form of payment. The Russian government has seen internal conflict on crypto regulation, with various agencies at odds with each other on whether to ban crypto outright or just regulate it. The Central Bank of Russia had called for a crypto ban in January, which the Ministry of Finance opposed, saying instead that "regulation is sufficient to protect our citizens." The new law is set to take effect in 10 days. There's been some speculation that sanctioned Russian companies or individuals might use crypto to avoid sanctions imposed after the country's invasion of Ukraine. But officials have proven savvy in using on-chain analytics to trace transactions, and industry experts have warned that sanctions evaders would be ill-served by trying to use cryptocurrencies. U.S. and EU bodies have even added specific crypto wallet addresses to sanction lists. Keep Reading Show less Democrats release 'disturbing' crypto mining investigation Brian Kahn Congressional Democrats probing the crypto mining industry's carbon footprint have found what's been clear for awhile: The industry is a massive energy hog that threatens U.S. climate goals. Now, those Democrats are asking the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy to do something about it. Six Democrats from both the House and Senate asked seven major crypto mining companies for details about their energy use. The results showed that just six of those companies are together responsible for consuming a Houston-sized chunk of electricity. All told, the operations require 1,045 megawatts of power to stay up and running. (The only company not to respond with its energy use totals was Bitfury.) Many of those companies are also planning expansions. Riot's Whinstone facility in Rockdale, Texas, consumes 350 megawatts of electricity, though it expects to reach 700 megawatts of mining capacity by the end of this year. The Greenidge mine in Upstate New York has 50 megawatts of capacity, but it wanted to grow to 500 megawatts by 2025. Its air pollution permit renewal, though, was recently denied. The report found that all told, the companies covered by the investigation want to add 2,399 megawatts of mining capacity "in the next few years," a total that's greater than the electricity needs of Los Angeles' 1.4 million households. "The results of our investigation, which gathered data from just seven companies, are disturbing, with this limited data alone revealing that cryptominers are large energy users that account for a significant -- and rapidly growing -- amount of carbon emissions," the group of lawmakers wrote in a letter to the heads of the EPA and DOE. Right now, there are no federal laws and few state or local ones governing crypto mining's energy use. But as the U.S. tries to get a handle on carbon emissions and meet President Joe Biden's goal of cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030, some form of oversight of the burgeoning industry is vital. The group of Democrats -- which includes Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Sheldon Whitehouse and Jeff Merkley, and Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Jared Huffman -- called for the EPA and DOE to use the Clean Air Act to prompt disclosures from mining operations about their energy use and carbon emissions as a first step. The U.S. became a crypto mining hub after China banned the practice in 2021. The lawmakers' investigation and request for regulations would be first steps toward getting future laws on the books to address the industry's emissions. But the U.S. -- and the world -- needs to get a handle on carbon emissions sooner rather than later. And as the migration of mining operations makes clear, it will take more than one country putting a law on the books to get crypto's carbon footprint under control. Keep Reading Show less Cerner tech glitches prevented a suicidal vet from getting help Kate Kaye From a missed suicide attempt to an unnecessary visit to urgent care, tech glitches in the integration process of Oracle's Cerner software at U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals led to serious health consequences, according to a new report published Thursday by the Veteran's Office of Inspector General. The new report follows another damning OIG report published a year ago citing problems with integrating electronic health records software from Cerner, which was acquired by Oracle in December for $28.3 billion. The company scored a $10 billion contract in 2018 to update the health and financial records system used by the VA to deliver care to millions of military vets. Thursday's report provides detailed information on how the Cerner electronic records system deployed at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington inadvertently sent orders for patient follow-up care into a memory hole. When order information was not recognized as a match by the software, it was sent into an "unknown queue." "From facility go-live in October 2020 through June 2021, the new EHR failed to deliver more than 11,000 orders for requested clinical services," the report reads. The OIG provided examples showing the impact of this problem on patients. After an order for follow-up care for a homeless patient at risk for suicide landed in unknown queue limbo, the follow-up care never happened. The patient later contacted the VA crisis line saying he had a "razor in hand and a plan to kill himself." Afterward, he was psychiatrically hospitalized. Another patient did not receive a compression hose to help with lower leg swelling because the order went into the unknown queue. The patient ended up requiring urgent care for worsening of the edema. "Of the numerous conclusions from the GAO and Inspector General, this latest report is the most worrisome. Delays and setbacks with government contracts on major IT projects is one thing; patient harm is another," said Dr. Shravani Durbhakula, a pain physician and anesthesiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in a statement sent to Protocol. Cerner did not respond to a request to comment for this story. A report published a year ago by the VA's OIG showed the main problems stemmed from Cerner's approach to training VA hospital staff on using the system. It cited "significant gaps in training for business and clinical workflows" and a "lack of clinical knowledge" among Cerner trainers. Keep Reading Show less GM gives interstate EV charging a huge boost Lisa Martine Jenkins Road trips in an electric vehicle are about to get easier. A lot easier. GM announced on Thursday that it plans to build a nationwide network of 2,000 DC fast chargers at up to 500 Pilot and Flying J truck stops and travel centers across the country. The automaker will do so at 50-mile intervals along major U.S. highways, essentially making electric travel as easy as its gas-powered counterpart. The chargers will be managed by EVgo, a company that has found success in operating its open charging network like a club, accessible to all via a membership fee. GM is already planning to install 3,250 chargers with EVgo, which are slated to be finished by the end of 2025. This development could help remedy range anxiety around EVs, which surveys show is one of the main reasons the public is reluctant to embrace electrified travel fully. While GM is championing the effort, the network will be open to EV drivers, regardless of the make and model of their car. Beyond GM, companies like Electrify America, Siemens and others are also investing in building out charging infrastructure across the U.S. This cobbled-together nationwide network is arriving not a moment too soon. While the Biden administration envisioned pouring funds into a public charging network that could speed EV adoption, the bipartisan infrastructure bill ended up allocating just half of the $15 billion that the administration initially wanted. (Even that $15 billion likely wouldn't have been enough to properly build out a national network.) In the absence of a larger federal investment, the private sector is finding that ponying up money for charging is a prerequisite if it wants to convert its customers into EV drivers. Construction of the GM-backed network will begin this summer, according to spokesperson Philip Lienert, and the first chargers will be ready for action next year. The companies involved did not disclose how much each will contribute to the endeavor. GM has an eye on winning the long game of EV sales. Though the company is currently behind competitors like Tesla and Ford, GM has been explicit about its plans to accelerate the production and sale of EVs in order to meet its goal of phasing out sales of gas-powered vehicles by 2035. Keep Reading Show less Crypto lender Celsius is the latest to file for bankruptcy Benjamin Pimentel Celsius is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company said Wednesday. Word of its plans to seek bankruptcy, reportedly a point of contention between the company and its advisers in recent weeks, spread as it informed U.S. state regulators about its plans, CNBC reported, citing Joseph Rotunda, director of enforcement at the Texas State Securities Board, and other sources. Celsius is among the major crypto companies that have reeled from a severe market crash that has sent the value of all cryptocurrencies falling sharply in the last seven months. Celsius last month stopped withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts, citing the need to "stabilize its business and protect its customers," the company said in announcing its bankruptcy filing. The company was sued by a former asset manager who accused Celsius of mismanaging customer funds and failing to pay for its services. "This is the right decision for our community and company," Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky said in a statement. "We have a strong and experienced team in place to lead Celsius through this process. I am confident that when we look back at the history of Celsius, we will see this as a defining moment, where acting with resolve and confidence served the community and strengthened the future of the company." Six state regulators have also reportedly already begun investigations into Celsius. California regulators called on customers of crypto lenders who paused withdrawals to file complaints with the state's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Crypto broker Voyager Digital also recently filed for bankruptcy protection a few days after suspending trading and announcing that crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital had defaulted on a loan. Three Arrows Capital is also undergoing liquidation in multiple jurisdictions, including a Chapter 15 filing in New York. Keep Reading Show less Netflix teams up with Microsoft for ad-supported video Janko Roettgers Netflix is partnering with Microsoft to launch ad-supported subscriptions, the company announced Wednesday. Microsoft will be Netflix's global ad-tech and sales partner, according to Netflix's chief operating and chief product officer, Greg Peters. "Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members," Peters said in the announcement. \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled Netflix has selected Microsoft as its advertising technology and sales partner. We want publishers to have more long-term viable ad monetization platforms, so more people can access the content they love wherever they are. https: //t.co/QmPszxJTOf\u201d -- Satya Nadella (@Satya Nadella) 1657737243 Netflix first announced plans to launch a cheaper, ad-supported tier earlier this year. The company has yet to release details about the offering, but reports say the company has been looking to launch it before the end of the year. Netflix reportedly also talked to Comcast and Google about powering its advertising business. Microsoft has been doubling down on its advertising business in recent months. The company announced the acquisition of TV ad tech specialist Xandr from AT&T in December; the deal ultimately closed in June. Microsoft's total ad revenue surpassed $10 billion in 2021. Keep Reading Show less Most gamers have little interest in NFTs Nick Statt The market for non-fungible tokens is currently struggling following the unprecedented "crypto winter" that has currency prices crashing, companies collapsing and even some founders literally on the run. For those developers who were hoping to break into the burgeoning blockchain gaming market, now is not a great time. In fact, a vast majority of U.S. gamers don't have very much interest in the NFT market, according to survey data from market research firm YouGov and consultancy Globant. The firms surveyed 1,000 Americans aged 18 and up who played at least three hours of console, PC or mobile games (though not mobile-only players) and found that 81% of them had never purchased an NFT. Only 40% of those surveyed said they were interested in both "playing" and "earning" aspects of the metaverse and blockchain gaming. Slightly more, about 53%, said they would work inside a gaming platform if it meant earning currency for their labor. NFTs, and by extension the play-to-earn elements inherent to some blockchain gaming platforms like Axie Infinity, are key pillars of Web3; proponents say they could revolutionize gaming by introducing elements like interoperability and the buying and selling of digital assets. But the technology remains unpopular and untested in mainstream gaming products, and NFT sales are experiencing a record crash, Bloomberg reported last month. It remains to be seen how either traditional game makers can make NFTs work in well-known brands, or how Web3 firms might be able to break out of their crypto niche and reach everyday gamers. A number of traditional game makers have expressed interest in NFTs and the blockchain, most notably Ubisoft, which trialed NFTs in a version of its Ghost Recon series but quickly shuttered the project roughly six months later following widespread backlash. Struggling retailer GameStop, which last week fired its CFO and announced layoffs at its corporate offices, launched an NFT platform in beta this week, with hopes it refashion its brand into a crypto-first retailer that can turn gamers into Web3 enthusiasts. But GameStop and others might have an uphill battle given just how little exposure and interest everyday players have in engaging with Web3 tech and products. YouGov and Globant's survey has a few other telling data points in its survey results. 73% of gamers associate the metaverse with Facebook parent company Meta, as opposed to just 27% associating the metaverse with Fortnite maker Epic and 21% with Roblox. Just 35% of gamers are comfortable with advertising in the metaverse, while just 40% of gamers think the buzz around the metaverse is warranted. Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the percentage of players associating the metaverse with Epic. This story was updated on July 13, 2022. Keep Reading Show less A judge slammed the SEC for its 'hypocrisy' in Ripple case Benjamin Pimentel A federal judge has ordered the SEC to release documents in its court battle with Ripple, blasting the agency's repeated refusal to do so as "hypocrisy." It's an apparent win for Ripple in the ongoing fight over whether the XRP cryptocurrency it uses for payments is a security. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ordered the SEC to produce internal documents related to former director William Hinman's 2018 speech, in which he argued that ether was not a security. The SEC had refused to comply with the order, arguing that that would be a violation of "attorney-client privilege," claiming that Hinman, who stepped down in 2020, reached out to the SEC staff "to obtain their legal advice." The SEC had also argued that Hinman's comments didn't reflect the agency's policy position. The judge hit the SEC for making what has become a major issue in its legal brawl with Ripple, which it accused of failing to register $1.4 billion worth of XRP as securities, "unnecessarily complicated" through its "litigation tactics." "The hypocrisy in arguing to the court, on the one hand, that the speech is not relevant to the market's understanding of how or whether the SEC will regulate cryptocurrency, and on the other hand, that Hinman sought and obtained legal advice from SEC counsel in drafting his speech, suggests that the SEC is adopting its litigation positions to further its desired goal, and not out of a faithful allegiance to the law," Netburn wrote. The documents, which presumably includes comments of SEC staff on Hinman's draft speech, have become critical in the case given the regulator's allegation that Ripple executives "were objectively reckless in believing that XRP was not a security" and that, in fact, the company was on "fair notice" that it was, the judge wrote. The SEC declined to comment. Marc Fagel, a former SEC regional director in San Francisco, said the case is "unusual" given the way the court has "placed those internal deliberations squarely at issue." "The SEC generally seeks broad protection for its internal deliberations," he told Protocol. "In theory, this encourages the SEC staff -- who can't themselves set policy -- to speak freely amongst themselves without worrying about binding the SEC to some position it has not formally taken." Ripple's battle with the SEC, which is expected to drag on until early next year, has become a closely watched case given its potentially far-reaching consequences for the crypto industry. Keep Reading Show less Microsoft inks 10-year carbon dioxide removal deal with Climeworks Lisa Martine Jenkins Microsoft just made a major commitment to sucking carbon from the sky. The company signed a 10-year deal with Swiss direct air-capture company Climeworks as part of its carbon dioxide removal portfolio. Over the course of the next decade, Climeworks will remove 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on behalf of the technology giant. It's the most significant and long-term agreement Microsoft has made with a CDR supplier. "Long-term commitments like this multi-year agreement are crucial for scaling the [direct air capture] industry because the guaranteed demand catalyzes financing of our infrastructure and consequently accelerates the development of the required ecosystem for scaling DAC," Climeworks co-founder and co-CEO Christoph Gebald said in a press release announcing the deal. The companies did not disclose how much Microsoft -- which is an investor in Climeworks -- spent on the deal. In January 2021, Microsoft made a smaller purchase of Climeworks carbon removal services as a part of its broader portfolio to pull carbon out of the air. In 2020, Microsoft committed to reaching carbon negativity by 2030 as part of its climate plan. To do that, it aims to cut its emissions each year this decade while also ramping up CDR purchases. It aims to remove millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year this decade. By 2050, the company plans to remove all carbon emitted since its founding in the 1970s. While the Climeworks deal is significant, it still only represents a fraction of what Microsoft's ultimate vision is for pulling carbon from the sky. (The company also saw emissions rise in 2021, reflecting the challenges it faces in not putting carbon in the atmosphere in the first place.) Tech companies have increasingly been investing in CDR and trying to create a market for the nascent industry. The Microsoft deal comes just a few months after the company joined Alphabet and Salesforce in committing $500 million to carbon removal purchases by 2030. Earlier this year, Alphabet, McKinsey, Meta, Shopify and Stripe created a $925 million advance market commitment to accelerate the development of carbon removal technologies. That commitment, dubbed Frontier, recently made its first purchase. These technologies are a "necessary element" for reducing the risks of climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's recent report. Ultimately, the world could need to remove billions of tons of carbon each year to limit global warming to relatively safe levels. How many billions will depend on how fast we cut emissions in the first place, though. Keep Reading Show less BlockFi won't accept GBTC as collateral Benjamin Pimentel BlockFi will no longer accept shares of Grayscale's bitcoin fund as collateral, the crypto lender said Tuesday. The move appears to be a reaction to the controversy related to Three Arrows Capital, which reportedly had a huge stake in GBTC and was exploring arbitrage opportunities around the fund. Three Arrows filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. this month. BlockFi said in a statement that it "currently" does not hold any positions in GBTC and is "winding down a couple of loans where GBTC is part of the collateral package." It did not rule out allowing customers to use GBTC as collateral in the future. Reached for comment, Grayscale said in a statement that the crypto investment firm seeks to "offer transparent investment vehicles that voluntarily exceed standard reporting requirements, meet a heightened level of disclosure, and are subject to additional regulatory oversight." BlockFi's decision, which was first reported by The Block, is another sign of the crypto market's turmoil. Another major crypto company, Voyager Digital, announced that Three Arrows Capital had defaulted on a loan and then filed for bankruptcy protection itself. Grayscale's GBTC is a widely traded bitcoin fund. The crypto investment firm recently sued the SEC after the regulator rejected its proposal to convert the fund into a spot bitcoin ETF. Among the reasons the SEC offered for rejecting the application was the possibility of manipulation of bitcoin trades -- an argument apparently bolstered by Three Arrows' reported arbitrage plan. Keep Reading Show less Twitter sues Elon Musk for trying to walk away from his deal Nat Rubio-Licht Twitter sued Elon Musk Tuesday to force him to go through with the $44 billion buyout he proposed, then backed away from. Musk filed to back out of the acquisition on Friday, in a move he'd been signaling for some time. He claimed he'd put the deal "on hold" in May as his team investigated the amount of bots on the service. Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor tweeted Friday that the company planned to pursue legal action to close the deal. "Now, less than three months later, Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests," Twitter said in its lawsuit. Musk's lawyers claimed Twitter had made "false and misleading representations" around the issue of fake or spam accounts, concluding that more than 5% of Twitter users were bots. They also complained that Twitter did not provide financial planning documents, including a 2022 budget, and that its "firehose" of data had limitations. But Twitter negotiated strong protections against Musk walking away, including a $1 billion termination fee and a clause that allows Twitter to seek "specific performance," or relief that involves a court compelling Musk to carry out the deal. Now, a court must decide if Twitter resisted Musk's requests to hand over information about spam and bots, the only real way Musk can wiggle out of the deal. "Musk apparently believes that he -- unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law -- is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away," the lawsuit said. Twitter is aiming to hold a four-day trial in September, and must complete it by Oct. 24. Keep Reading Show less The Treasury Department wants your thoughts on crypto Benjamin Pimentel The Treasury Department wants to know what you think of crypto. The department is soliciting public comments on the impact of digital assets on the lives of ordinary Americans as part of its effort to comply with President Joe Biden's recent executive order on crypto. The Biden administration's executive order on digital assets released in March affirmed the importance of crypto technology, while underlining the need to defend against risks to financial stability, investor safety and national security. The Biden order directed the Treasury Department to work with other agencies to study the potential uses and impact of digital assets. Nellie Liang, Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, said the department is "seeking to benefit from the experience of the American people and market participants." The department said it is soliciting "relevant input, data, and recommendations" related to how digital assets are developed and adopted, and how these are changing "financial market and payment infrastructures for U.S. consumers, investors and businesses." Participants will be asked to respond to a list of questions and topics, including "what businesses are adopting digital assets and for what purposes" and what they see are the "potential risks to consumers, investors, and businesses" as these relate to "frauds and scams" and "losses due to theft." The deadline for submitting comments is Aug. 8. The Treasury Department is making the public request as the crypto industry is reeling from a market crash which saw crypto tokens shed about $2 trillion in value and led to major layoffs and bankruptcies. Keep Reading Show less Elon Musk files to cancel the Twitter acquisition Nat Rubio-Licht Elon Musk wants to pull out of the deal to buy Twitter, his lawyers told the company in a letter Friday. Musk's lawyers wrote that Twitter had made "false and misleading representations," chiefly around the issue of bot accounts, which Musk has repeatedly raised in the weeks since signing a binding agreement to buy Twitter. They argue that Twitter's representations in SEC filings over the years about fake or spam accounts were "materially misleading," and also complained that Twitter had failed to provide financial planning documents including a 2022 budget. The letter also details limitations Twitter placed on a "firehose" of data it provided to allow Musk's team to make its own evaluation of the proportion of fake or spam accounts on the service. Despite those limitations, that team concluded that fake or spam accounts might exceed the 5% of monetizable daily active users Twitter has previously estimated are bots. "Preliminary analysis by Mr. Musk's advisors of the information provided by Twitter to date causes Mr. Musk to strongly believe that the proportion of false and spam accounts included in the reported mDAU count is wildly higher than 5%," Musk's lawyers wrote. Musk's reversal is not unexpected. He said in May he was putting his acquisition "on hold" while his team investigated the bot question. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that Musk's deal to buy Twitter was in jeopardy, as his team was still struggling to determine the prevalence of bots on the platform. Musk and his team also reportedly stopped taking part in talks about funding the deal, and one source told the Post that "Twitter has not been cooperative." Twitter has strong protections against Musk walking away from the deal, given that he signed a binding agreement to go through with the acquisition. Besides a $1 billion termination fee, the agreement includes a clause giving Twitter the right to seek "specific performance," or relief that involves a court compelling Musk to carry out the deal. The company, for its part, isn't having it. "The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement," Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor said in a tweet . "We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery." The legal battle there will no doubt be long and messy. This is a developing story and will be updated. 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