DIGITAL ASSETS

CryptoPal

Cryptocurrency ownership is on the rise. The digital wallet space is saturated. If you want to compete with Coinbase for market share, you’ll need unique functionality. 

And yesterday, we saw two Fortune 500 companies roll out new features to that effect.

Starting in Palo Alto

PayPal is now letting users pay with bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and litecoin. Why no dogecoin? It’s an utter mystery.  

Checkout with Crypto will instantly convert a user’s crypto into fiat currency at the time of purchase, then process the order with a merchant and without a transaction fee. In the coming months, the checkout feature will work with the 29 million online merchants in PayPal’s network.

While we’re in the early innings of cash → digital money, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman wrote in Fortune, “The time is ripe to modernize and upgrade the underlying technological infrastructure of the financial system.”

Hopping over to Atlanta

Bakkt is finally releasing its digital wallet app, as we reported. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, Bakkt is the crypto-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent to the New York Stock Exchange. 

• The 228-year-old stonk exchange is on Wall Street, but Bakkt and ICE are based in Atlanta.

Bakkt App’s pitch: A digital wallet for crypto and siloed digital assets that don’t run on a blockchain: loyalty points, airline miles, gift cards, and stored merchant value.

Bakkt hopes to differentiate by setting exchange rates and being a clearinghouse for all of the above assets. Trade fiat for crypto, or frequent flier miles for Iced Brown Sugar Oat Milk Shaken Espressos. 

• Bakkt App had 500,000+ users in an invite-only beta run. 
• Merchant partners include Starbucks, Best Buy, Fiserv, GolfNow, and Choice Hotels. 
• Bakkt is working with Microsoft and “very much thinking about how we start to disrupt around in-game assets,” CEO Gavin Michael told us. 
• Read our full exclusive here.

Big picture: PayPal and Bakkt are converting crypto into fiat before clearing transactions with merchants. But as more companies (like Tesla) directly accept bitcoin, crypto-native settlement layers could become more common. Faster, fee-free transactions could remove some current headaches associated with hodling. 

AVS

AVs for the Long Haul

Aurora’s collection of influential friends in the autonomous vehicle industry has been growing faster than Taylor Swift’s posse did in 2015. 

In the past four months, Aurora bought Uber’s self-driving unit, teamed up with Paccar on self-driving trucks, and partnered with Toyota and Denso on self-driving minivans. And yesterday, it announced a partnership with Volvo for autonomous, long-haul trucks. 

What’s so special about Aurora?

Most startups use spinning lidar, a pricey legacy system that requires lots of maintenance and recalibration—not ideal for bumpy car rides, Asad Hussain, PitchBook’s lead mobility analyst, told us. 

Aurora is instead banking on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) lidar, which is thought to outperform traditional lidar on 1) determining which direction an object is moving in and 2) telling different objects apart. But it’s earlier-stage and difficult to produce at scale. 

• Aurora bought two FMCW-focused startups, Blackmore and OURS Technology, to help it scale more quickly. 

Zoom out: Hussain thinks we’ll see large-scale adoption of autonomous trucking in the next few years. Compared to robotaxis and passenger vehicles, he says, the sector is “ripe for autonomy,” for familiar reasons: hauling goods is less complex and lower-stakes than shuttling people around a city.

SPONSORED BY ETORO

Crypto, So Hot Right Now

The world of crypto has come a long way since the early days of one-sided conversations about Bitcoin with your nerdy cousin, Blaine. 

Today, it’s one of the most popular ways to diversify your funds and invest in the future of “money” as we know it.

So how does one get with these crypto times, exactly? Jumpstart your journey with eToro.

eToro makes the entire crypto world easy to navigate. Browse over a dozen cryptocurrencies as you digest tips and market guides, or jump right in with a ready-made and managed portfolio.

Wanna trade like the top-performers on eToro? You can copy their moves automatically with CopyTrader™.

Now go one-up your cousin Blaine with this tidbit: eToro will give you an extra $50 when you buy $1,000 worth of crypto.

Start trading on eToro today.

BIOTECH

Hacking the Vax

Scientists from Stanford University salvaged mostly-emptied, garbage-bound vials of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine and studied droplets inside to determine its mRNA sequence, then published it on Github, an online code repository. The whole process was reportedly OK’d by the FDA. 

Why they did it: “While anyone interested could data-mine and filter these sequences out later, there is a substantial...educational value in having the sequences available ASAP,” two of the scientists told Motherboard.

If you’re wondering whether your tech-savvy friend is going to set up shot—er, shop—in their garage, the answer is no. Creating a vaccine, even if you have the blueprint in front of you, is a complex, pricey, and equipment-heavy process. This is more about the principle. 

• The Stanford scientists aren’t the first to reverse-engineer a Covid-19 shot. A “character-by-character look at the source code” of Pfizer’s vaccine was published in December 2020. 

Zoom out: President Biden is facing pressure from at least 100 countries, as well as activists, nonprofits, and labor unions, to suspend intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines in order to expand global access. 

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Less than half of organizations that report “achieving AI at scale” have a fully mature Responsible AI program, according to a survey by Boston Consulting Group. 

Quote: “We think our Markets section will be more relevant to readers with bitcoin in it.”—The daily Morning Brew newsletter, explaining why it added bitcoin to its Markets section. 

Read: Hayden explored how a powerful AI advancement led to clashes at Google—and a fierce debate in the broader tech world. 

A space to unite: Oktane21 is Okta's free, virtual conference where industry leaders discuss what's next in identity. Network with your peers and catch guest keynotes like Trevor Noah and Simone Biles. Register today.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Foxconn says the global chip shortage will cut its shipments by 10%. 
• Zipline and a member of the Toyota Group inked a strategic partnership to bring drone delivery to remote parts of Japan. 
• Snap plans to release AR spectacles with a display component, The Information reports, targeted at developers and top creators. The social media company is also developing a drone. 
• Niantic CEO John Hanke tweeted a cropped teaser image of AR glasses. 
• SpaceX selected the last two crewmembers for its first all-civilian spaceflight. 
• IBM launched a quantum developer certification program. 

SPONSORED BY A MYSTERY ADVERTISER

The mysterious company who bought this ad will soon reveal themselves. In a matter of time, this very cool, very mysterious tech company will be talking shop and dropping all the deets on their new project live on Clubhouse. If you like tech, people-centric products and design, and fun new thangs, then you’re gonna love this. Join the convo with cool Clubhouse cats through this link.

GOING PHISHING

We won’t be sending the newsletter Friday, but we don’t want to deprive you of your Going Phishing phix. So, you know the drill: Three of the following news stories are true. We made one up. Can you spot the odd one out?  

1. Tesla has been double-charging some customers for new cars, CNBC reports. 
2. Volkswagen is the real April Fool, after completely lying on the record about a supposed rebrand to “Voltswagen.”
3. LinkedIn is hard at work building a Clubhouse clone.
4. Apple’s WWDC21 developer conference will be held in AR and VR only. 

MAP RESEARCH

Google Maps is adding a whole bunch of new features: indoor AR directions, redesigned interfaces for multimodal transportation, toggles for eco-friendly routes, and filters for weather and air quality. Google says it’s on track to ship 100+ “AI-powered improvements” to Maps.

Said it before, will say it again: Google Maps has mobility superapp potential. 

ICYMI

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

• Reining in the AI megamodels
• Robo-delivery update
• Peloton’s new bets 

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

No, Apple’s WWDC21 developer conference won’t be held in AR and VR only. But it will be online and free, from June 7–11. 

✢ A Note From eToro

***eToro USA LLC; Investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal.