BLOCKCHAIN

Making Non-Fungible Fun

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs or “crypto art”) are all the rage online right now. We want to provide a primer before your crypto-obsessed cousin starts spamming family group chats with NFT mentions.   

• What they are: NFTs are digital assets and a type of cryptographic token. 
• What they’re not: Interchangeable, like cryptocurrencies. Each NFT represents a unique digital asset that can be bought and sold in an open marketplace. 

The skeptic’s take: You can just screenshot an NFT without buying it. Rebuttal: The asset doesn’t belong to you, since ownership is authenticated and recorded on a perpetually updating ledger. The blockchain taketh and giveth the NFT ownership.   

Momentum

The NFT market tripled in 2020 to $250+ million, according to a new report by NonFungible.com with support from L’Atelier. The number of active wallets nearly 2x’d. 

NFTs are off to an even hotter start in 2021. On Feb. 8, somebody with the online moniker “Flying Falcon” purchased an NFT: nine plots of Genesis land in the Axie Infinity virtual world. Worth ~$1.5 million at the time, the 888 ether (ETH) deal was “the largest digital land sale ever recorded on the blockchain,” the seller tweeted. Probably not for long. 

More momentum: 

• YouTuber Logan Paul sold 1,772 NFTs on Friday for $3.5+ million. 
• NBA Top Shot, an NFT marketplace for basketball highlight reels, has cleared $95 million in sales in the last seven days.
• This week, Christie’s will become the first major auction house to offer a purely digital NFT.

One artist’s take

Matty Mo, who goes by the online name of “Most Famous Artist,” has sold 7.98 ETH (~$15k) of artwork since February 6. NFTs first came on his radar in October. 

• Then: “At first, I was skeptical. The digital-native art I saw selling for large sums did not appeal to my sensibilities so I sat on the sidelines,” he told Emerging Tech Brew. “I didn't get it.”
• Now: “The core technology, the programmability of contracts, the capacity for royalties, and all of the possibilities made me look much deeper. I am now convinced it will empower artists of all kinds to gain power over the antiquated power structures of the art world.”

DRONES

The Bull Case for Near-Future Drone Deliveries

Fresh off of dropping our new guide to drones, Emerging Tech Brew has been speaking with various companies in the space. 

Today’s guest is Yariv Bash, CEO and cofounder of Flytrex. The drone delivery company has been doing automated flights beyond line of sight in Reykjavík for two years. Flytrex’s drones also deliver food and drinks to golfers at one course in North Dakota (on all 18 holes). 

Bash obviously has a vested interest in drone deliveries taking off. We wanted to know how that could happen in the near future. The short version: It comes down to delivery business models, the ‘burbs, and hopping on lots of Zooms with regulators. An assorted selection of quotes:

• “We’ve delivered coffee from Starbucks, blizzards from Dairy Queen, and eggs from Walmart.”
• “The nice thing about suburbs is that there are no skyscrapers or 200-feet antennas.”
• “Once the FAA approves you, you can start spreading faster than electric scooters.”

Read the full Q&A here.

SPONSORED BY ORACLE NETSUITE

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Remember that sparkly, entry-level accounting software you were so excited to implement? It was cute at first, luring you in with its visual appeal and promise of a future. 

You had a little dalliance, sure, but it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate your true wants and needs. And in the harsh light of reality, it’s clear that the relationship needs to end and you deserve better. 

Oracle NetSuite’s report breaks down why that full-of-promise software just isn’t up to snuff. Some of the red flags include:

• Reports taking hours—or days—to pull
• Too much time spent managing spreadsheets
• Inaccurate data making its way into decision-making
• No real-time visibility into the biz

That software is really only designed to automate a handful of core accounting functions—not run your entire business. 

Read Oracle NetSuite’s report to see why it’s time to cut the cord with your accounting tech and move on to something new. 

AI

Not Again, Google

Google’s months-long AI ethics rollercoaster isn’t slowing down: On Thursday, it announced a restructuring of its AI ethics teams. And on Friday, it terminated another AI ethics leader. 

Margaret Mitchell had co-led the ethical AI team with Timnit Gebru, the researcher Google fired in December. Mitchell lost her job after using an automated script to search emails for evidence of discrimination against Gebru. 

Rewind 

December: Gebru first tweets about her firing, after a dispute with Google over her paper on the dangers of large language models. Much of the AI community rallies around her, and the news quickly spreads to mainstream media. 

January: Google announces it has built a large language model of its own—the biggest of its kind to date. The company bars Mitchell from her email. Google calls for collaboration in probing the limitations of large language models. 

Fast-forward

Dr. Marian Croak, a VP of engineering at Google, will lead the restructured AI ethics initiative. Her new JD is a tall order: “Making sure Google develops artificial intelligence responsibly and that it has a positive impact.” 

But, but, but: Although the AI ethics teams have a new leader in Croak, she’ll report directly to Jeff Dean, head of Google AI—whose decisions helped set off this sequence to begin with.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Chromebooks outsold Macs globally last year. Chrome OS has risen to 10.8% market share, according to IDC, while Windows sits at 80.5% and macOS at 7.5%.

Quote: The SolarWinds hack is “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen.”—Microsoft President Brad Smith

Read: Bloomberg profiles Youyang Gu, a wunderkind data scientist who developed a machine learning model that was the most accurate in predicting Covid death totals. 

Get in: Tired of meme stocks? Give art a shot. Masterworks lets you invest in multi-million dollar works by artists like Basquiat at a fraction of the price. Brew readers can skip the 17,500-person waitlist today.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.} 

SPONSORED BY ASANA

Worked up over working late a lot? It’s not just you—Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index report finds that 87% of employees are working later than usual these days, which means removing busywork from the work equation is a foundational piece of the 2021 happy workplace blueprint. To get your company focused on what matters most, read Asana’s insights here.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Samsung’s work on AR glasses may have leaked, per 9to5Google. 
• SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission, slated for later this year, has a new crew member. 
• Scientists successfully cloned the first North American endangered species: the black-footed ferret. The clone is named Elizabeth Ann. 
• VW will start production on its next electric SUV, the ID 5 coupe, later this year.  
• Facebook deleted the main page of Myanmar’s military due to “repeated violations of our Community Standards prohibiting incitement of violence and coordinating harm.”

THREE THINGS WE'RE WATCHING

Monday: Palo Alto Networks earnings. Companies far and wide have beefed up cybersecurity as the world moved online, and in recent months, we’ve seen an onslaught of cyberattacks and leaked personal data. The California-based cybersecurity firm could report year over year growth of 20+%. 

Tuesday: Square earnings. Analysts view it as a major disruptor in payments tech, and since its Cash App can be used for retail trading, its popularity has spiked—especially after the Robinhood-GameStop fallout. According to one small survey, almost 40% of respondents who switched from Robinhood chose Cash App as the alternative. 

Wednesday: Nvidia earnings. For months, demand for the company’s gamer-focused GPUs has been sky-high—supply, not so much. Nvidia has had to get creative by reviving old hardware and designing a new product for crypto miners. Analysts expect ~55% growth year over year. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Nvidia’s plan for weathering the global chip shortage 
• States vs. Big Tech: The latest regulation rundown
• Q&A with Skydio, autonomous drone startup