Clown Town, USA

Coinbase's island era, ETH ambiguity, Google's AI pickle

April 23, 2023

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Happy tax week for those who celebrate (pay up).

The Boys

Writer: RachlolEditor: Deana

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Gary’s Villain Era. In a four-hour testimonial shakedown this week, resident king of bullshit, Gary-G, lit up the timeline by saying he doesn’t know if ETH is a security. Contradicting his previous statements about the token, Gary’s direction about regulation is about as crisp and clear as Gaylor lore. RIP to the projects that tried to “come in and register.”

USA, NGMI. This week Coinbase received a license to operate in Bermuda, signaling that the company is ready to move away from the regulatory hellscape that is the USA. CEO Brian Armstrong said the firm will develop in "offshore havens” unless America can get its shit together and provide more clarity about regulation. The future is looking ~ international ~.

Titter goes tradfi. T(w)itter has officially enabled crypto and stock trading via eToro. Starting this week, you'll be able to view market charts and buy/sell stocks, crypto and other assets in the very same place that you shitpost. Musk has been throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall, will this stick?

The lawsuits are coming! This week, an anonymous TikTok account Ghostwriter997 posted an absolute banger of a tune that quickly racked up 9M views. The problem with this meteoric rise? The song’s vocals were generated by AI, made to sound like Drake and The Weeknd, to which Universal Music Group said “lol, no” and quickly had it taken down from services such as Spotify and YouTube. This puts Google in a pickle: if it agrees with UMG and says AI-generated work is not permissible, it undercuts Bard and its own generative AI initiatives and risks the future of the company. But if it disagrees with UMG, it likely means YouTube not only loses access to UMG’s content (1/3 of like, all the music) but also puts the business in the middle of the lawsuit of the century. SOPHIE’S CHOICE.