Senator, I wish you well

Anti-crypto army, ZK-SZN, AI Drama and more

April 02, 2023

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The happenings, they contain multitudes.

The Boys

Writer: RachlolEditor: Deana

Draft starts soon. Elizabeth Warren has announced she is building an “anti-crypto army.” The senator is running for re-election, in part on the platform of being a crypto adversary. It’s no surprise since Liz been a long-time crypto critic and Big Bank BFF, but making it the centerpiece of her re-election campaign is Peak Cringe. Polls have suggested that the majority of Americans think crypto is a key innovation for the future, so idk. Senator, I wish you well.

Uncle Sam’s paper hands. The US government held a Bitcoin yard sale this week. According to a recent memo, the U.S. sold 9,861 of the 50,000 Bitcoin it seized in the Silk Road marketplace case. The BTC sold without dumping the market — good news for maxis. The gov intends to liquidate the remaining 41,490 Bitcoin in four tranches over the course of 2023. Verdict: NGMI.

ZK-SZN. This week was a big one for zk stans with the launches of zkSync mainnet and Polygon zkEVM. Both of these are blockchains built on Ethereum that use “zero knowledge proofs” to offer increased scalability. Big Zaddy Vitalik is pretty excited so we’re paying attention. ZK-proofs are also apparently headed for Bitcoin. Neat!

Even Netflix is taking notes on the drama this week. A group of big names in tech (including Elon and Steve Wozniak) wrote a petition saying everyone should take a break for 6 months before releasing AI models that are smarter than GPT-4 (OpenAI’s latest model that’s like…soo smart and pretty). The gist is that society and regulators need time to catch up, though some viewers at home think that they’re just jealous of Silicon Valley’s new It Girl Sam Altman - who didn’t sign the petition. Sam wants to keep building in public, and Google isn’t ready to cede the spotlight so fast. Finally, some believe we should just call the whole thing off. If you need me, I’ll be disassociating from The Takes by watching the new season of Love is Blind.