I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent two weeks reading up on NFTs and cryptocurrencies. I have strong opinions. It’s another week with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, intellectual property disputes are at the center of COVID-19 relief efforts in poor countries, Coinbase is trying to go public but has serious issues with customers, and Microsoft is in talks to buy a gaming network. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
COINBASE CRYPTO HAS CUSTOMER PROBLEM
The cryptocurrency guys are all on the hype about how cryptocurrency will change the world and how people view money. But in an industry in which payments take minutes to clear, rampant volatility, and no knowledge of where to go for help, there’s a lot that needs to be done to have faith in 1 and 0 cash. Cryptocurrency trading post, Coinbase, is poised for an IPO soon with many customers complaining that their accounts are hacked, funds frozen, or locked. Coinbase has said that it has 2,000 human beings for support calls, and are working under an extreme set of circumstances since crypto exchanges are constantly trading. I’ll admit, I am critical of cryptocurrencies and I think it’s a way for moneyed people to make more money by soaking in capital from people who can’t afford it. There I said it. And if you think I’m hating on cryptocurrencies read this other article on NFTs.
UGGHHH, MICROSOFT IS IN TALKS TO BUY DISCORD
Yesterday, news surfaced that Microsoft is in talks to buy the freely available Discord chat and community service for 10-BILLION-DOLLARS-WITH-A-B. Discord is a service that brings a 100 million users together. It’s primarily a gaming community site, and I have played a few rounds of DnD there. Strategically, Microsoft can bring 100 million monthly users onto its XBOX platform making more games and content available to that community. Discord for its part has been trying to expand beyond gaming into other areas. We’ve been reporting on massive acquisitions on First News 570 and it looks like they won’t be letting up. And, I’m doing the wrong stuff.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AROUND CORONAVIRUS CURE COULD SLOW RECOVERY
We’ve been reporting on various aspects of coronavirus since the pandemic began and an interesting turn on the vaccine’s distribution revolves around the use of patents. In 2016, Dr. Barney Graham, a US scientist working at the National Institutes of Health devised a molecular engineering method that could swap amino acids in a coronavirus protein. The method could be used as a universal key to create vaccines for any coronavirus including MERS, the flu, and COVID-19. Since the work was paid for by US taxpayers, and done at government labs, a patent for the technique is about to be awarded to the US government in a couple of days. The technique in this patent is what is used by the Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson vaccines and is the reason why a discovered occurred so swiftly. The US had always planned to inoculate Americans first and give away doses to the rest of the world. The problem however is that poorer countries are now experiencing variants of COVID-19 and want to manufacturer doses locally which means they need access to US patented technology. My opinion is conflicted, I think we should be giving this vaccine away for free, COVID-19 is a killer and we’re all affected. I also think that we SHOULD NOT give away techniques and technology when we’ve made it. Innovation and the pay day at the end, frankly, is what led to such a swift discovery.