Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company has no plans to change its long-term strategy for the Metaverse, despite operating losses for its Reality Labs business peaking in 2022. Meta’s Q4 earnings released on Feb. 1 show Reality Labs lost $13.7 billion in 2022 — the largest ever yearly losses recorded for its metaverse-building division. The fourth quarter was particularly costly, with the division losing nearly $4.3 billion, which was also the largest quarterly loss within the department since financials for the business were first published. On a Feb. 1 earnings call, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was steadfast …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared three “huge" opportunities yet to be realized in crypto, including mass crypto wallet adoption, inflation-resistant stablecoins, and Ethereum-powered website logins. During an interview with Bankless co-owner David Hoffman, Buterin shared his outlook for the crypto industry in 2023, responding to Hoffman’s raised concern that the “adoption wave” for decentralized applications is now over and that there’s “less opportunity” for developers to come in and build new decentralized applications. Buterin instead shrugged off the “limbo period” that Hoffman eluded to, firstly suggesting that more developments need to be made on cryptocurrency wallet infrastructure in order …

The internet — arguably the greatest invention in human history — has gone awry. We can all feel it. It is harder than ever to tell if we are engaging with friends or foes (or bots), we know we are being constantly surveilled in the name of better ad conversion, and we live in constant fear of clicking something and being defrauded. The failures of the internet largely stem from the inability of large tech monopolies — particularly Google and Facebook — to verify and protect our identities. Why don’t they? The answer is that they have no incentive to …

In changing the name of its parent company to Meta, Facebook put a stake in the ground: It would be the symbol of the evolution of the internet, the metaverse. Whether we liked it or not. According to Meta, the metaverse is “a set of digital spaces to socialize, learn, play and more.” Its first true attempt came in the form of Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality universe so lifeless and devoid of content that it has people asking if the metaverse is a step forward or backward. Thankfully, it won’t matter. The metaverse, a term from long before Facebook …

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced on Nov. 28 that it has fined Facebook developer Meta €265m for breach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Specifically, the commission stated that it had fined Meta for failing to design Facebook in such a way that it would protect users from data breaches. The announcement followed a more than year-long investigation that began in April, 2021. The breach itself occurred even earlier, in late 2019. Data Protection Commission announces decision in Facebook “Data Scraping” Inquiry: https://t.co/xW9nVqiJ2Y pic.twitter.com/6iDYnyVk5R — Data Protection Commission Ireland (@DPCIreland) November 28, 2022 The data …

For decades, banks and insurance firms employed the same mostly static but highly profitable and centralized business models. Also for decades, Big Tech firms such as Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Google have monopolized user data for their profit. However, blockchain projects could significantly challenge Big Tech’s grip on user data. In 2015, the future of money was at the forefront of financial experts’ minds at the World Economic Forum in Davos. There, they started to seriously focus on the challenges presented by the rise of Bitcoin (BTC), digital assets and fintech. The world of finance began to realize that …

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has appointed restructuring administration firm Kroll as its agent to track all claims against FTX and ensure interested parties are notified of developments throughout its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Known as the “claims and noticing agent,” Kroll was appointed to the role on Nov. 12 with the news made public on Nov. 17, and aims to compile a database of all claims against FTX Trading and 101 affiliated companies. Press Release: FTX Group has established Kroll as its claims agent, and all official documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court can be found online at https://t.co/7Bsn9Ggckf. …

Attention is the lifeblood of Dogecoin (DOGE) and other memecoins. Much like earnings drive the price of corporate shares, the size and quality of attention captured by memecoins drive their price action. Successful crypto traders understand that DOGE and its kin are not just chips in the “great shitcoin casino” but are, in fact, tradable derivatives of human attention. They are tradable assets backed by zeitgeists. Trading memecoins isn’t just about spinning the wheel but about weighing the coin’s valuation against the amount of attention it’s receiving. As crypto influencer Cobie said, “Smart traders start selling as ownership and valuation …

The Facebook parent company Meta announced that about 13% of its current workforce has been cut in the first mass layoff in the company’s history. In a letter to his employees, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the layoffs and also reiterated that the hiring freeze, which began earlier this year, will be extended into the first fiscal quarter of next year. According to the statement published through Meta’s newsroom, the layoffs terminated 11,000 jobs. The initial rumors of layoffs emerged over the weekend on Nov. 6 via Wall Street Journal report from inside sources. Zuckerberg says he takes full responsibility …

Social media and tech giant Meta is reportedly gearing up for “large-scale layoffs” this week amid rising costs and a recent collapse of its share price. According to Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on Nov. 6 citing people familiar with the matter, the planned layoffs could impact thousands of employees in a broad range of divisions across Meta’s 87,000-strong workforce. It is not currently understood whether the firm's Reality Labs division, which registered a $3.7 billion loss in the third quarter, would see staff cuts. Last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would be focusing its investment …

Since the introduction of ICQ — the progenitor of online chat applications — the expectation from instant messaging (IM) services has never changed. Users simply want them to work, which apparently turned into a tall order, given the frequent downtimes most popular chat apps experience nowadays. Launched the same year as Bitcoin (BTC), WhatsApp is one of the most widely used chat apps on the planet. Owned by Meta (the stable of which also boasts Instagram and Facebook), WhatsApp stands as the epitome of centralized services. That’s why when the service goes down, it has a much broader impact than …

It’s been just over a year since social media giant Facebook rebranded as Meta at the Facebook Connect conference on Oct. 28, 2021. The name change reflected the company’s growing ambitions to transcend past social media and into the world of Web3, crypto, NFTs, and the Metaverse — virtual worlds where consumers are likely to spend more of their time for both work and play. The company has been busy. In December 2021, Meta debuted its Horizon Worlds virtual reality social networking project, while it also opened up advertising for more crypto ads on Facebook. In April 2022, reports emerged …