🐶 The Rise of Dogecoin and Privacy Tech

In 2012 around 2.5 billion gigabytes of global data was generated daily. By 2025 that number will balloon to 463 billion gb, thanks to smartphones, autonomous cars, wearables, 5G, and other new technologies. Coupled with this growth is the explosion in data breaches and irresponsible data practices and the government's power to buy consumer data for "profiling" and "security". VPNs and Tor browsers aren't enough anymore. And strict privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA don't cover the world outside Europe. 

All of this has led to massive demand for development of privacy technology. 

But who's funding privacy tech?

For the last decade, privacy tech was trumpeted as one of the next ‘big things’ for investors. The sector amassed nearly $10 billion in investment in 2019. Crunchbase lists 207 privacy startups (as of April 2021) that have together raised more than $3.5 billion over hundreds of individual rounds of funding. And it’s not just bigger, established businesses offering privacy and compliance tech; brand-new startups are filling in the gaps in this emerging space.

Clearly, privacy is getting increasingly dearer.

Ground reality

The Good: Dogecoin, like Gamestop, has made people rich. That's right, the joke currency has turned millennial into millionaires. Here's a story about a 33-year-old Redditer who turned his $180,000 investment in DOGE into $1 million in 40 days. 

The Bad: This dogecoin frenzy has been driven largely by retail traders hoping to get rich real quick. People aren't buying the cryptocurrency because they think it has any meaningful value. They are simply trying to join the bandwagon, hoping others will pile in, push the price up and then they can sell off and make a quick buck.

In fact, last month's blockchain data released that an anonymous person or group controls around 28% of all the dogecoin tokens - proving that only few retailers own large proportions of the cryptocurrency. Which means it means it only takes one person to dump all their holdings for the DOGE market to tank. 

• Netflix shares fell by over 13% after a drastic slowdown in subscriptions (50% less than expected). Meanwhile Disney+ subscriptions crossed a 100 million in March, thanks to Marvel and Mandalorian. 
• Google Earth's new update - Timelapse - gives you a 3D video of how the world has changed in the past 4 decades - a satellite capture of over 24 million high-res images of every part of the Earth over the last 37 years. 
• Clubhouse recently completed a fresh round of Series C funding, taking its valuation to $4 billion.  
• The Turkish Central Bank plans to ban the use of cryptocurrencies for any transactions within the country. Bitcoin and Ethereum - the two largest cryptocurrencies - fell in value by 4% and 3.9% in value as a result of the announcement
• Facebook announces new Clubhouse-style audio formats - including live audio rooms and Spotify-partnered podcast (called Project Boombox).    
• EU plans to ban Artificial Intelligence systems considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods and rights of people.
• According to a report by American Express, travel and entertainment expenses jumped 40% month over month in March.