Author: Queenie Wong

Coinbase on Monday became the first cryptocurrency exchange to join the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, marking a pivotal moment for the digital assets industry.The inclusion on the S&P 500 also was a point of pride for Coinbase, which consumers use to buy, sell, transfer and store various cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. The S&P 500 tracks the stock performance of 500 leading publicly traded companies in the United States.“This milestone represents what the true believers, from retail investors to institutional investors to our employees and partners, knew all along. Crypto is here to stay,” said Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong in a post on the social media platform X.Coinbase first made its public debut in 2021, when it listed its shares on the Nasdaq. Initially based in San Francisco, Coinbase became a remote-first company and isn’t headquartered in one city. The move comes as the Trump administration bolsters an industry that backed the Republican president’s return to the White House. While cryptocurrency companies expect to face a more friendly regulatory environment under Trump, who also launched his own meme coin, they’re still encountering familiar hurdles over data security and privacy that are putting a damper on their shining moment. Last week, Coinbase revealed it was hit with a cyberattack that could cost it $180 million to $400 million, according to a filing last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said that cybercriminals bribed customer support agents overseas to steal data from its customers so they could trick Coinbase users into handing over their crypto.The criminals obtained information such as names, phone numbers, emails, the last four digits of people’s Social Security numbers and other valuable data for less than 1% of its users. Coinbase has refused to pay a $20-million ransom demand by hackers. Instead, it is offering a reward for that amount to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.The cyberattack isn’t the only problem Coinbase is still tackling. The New York Times first reported that the SEC is also investigating Coinbase, which says it has more than 100 million verified users, over whether the company misstated that figure. And Coinbase is facing a lawsuit in Illinois over whether it illegally collected, stored and kept biometric data, such as the face scans users provided for identity verification. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a statement that the SEC’s inquiry was a “holdover” from the Biden administration and involved a metric the company no longer uses.“While we strongly believe this investigation should not continue, we remain committed to working with the SEC to bring this matter to a close,” Grewal said.Wall Street has not been rattled by the controversy around the company.Coinbase’s stock surged 24% when it announced last week that it would join the S&P 500. On Monday, the company’s shares closed $263.99 per share, virtually unchanged.Mark Palmer, an tech industry analyst for Benchmark Equity Research, said in a note that while the data breach is concerning, it appears to be an “one-off event rather than a symptom of more pervasive security issues.” The firm views the SEC investigation “as little more than noise that is highly unlikely to have any material impact on any of the drivers of the bullish thesis on the company’s stock,” Palmer wrote in the note.Coinbase’s first quarter revenue reached $2.03 billion, up 24% year-over-year, but slightly missed analyst’s expectations. The company’s net income was $66 million down, from $1.8 billion during the same period last year. More to Read

Microsoft is slashing its Silicon Valley workforce.The tech giant, which is based in Washington but also has Bay Area offices, is cutting 122 positions in Silicon Valley, according to a layoff notice sent to the California Employment Development Department this week.Microsoft cited a reorganization and restructuring within the company as the reason for the job cuts.Bay Area Microsoft employees, who will lose their jobs in July, were working remotely or out of offices in Mountain View and Santa Clara, Calif. Microsoft also owns LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, that is based in Sunnyvale.The layoffs in California make up a fraction of the 6,000 workers the Redmond-based tech company is cutting. Microsoft said Tuesday that it’s shedding roughly 3% of its global workforce, making it one of the company’s largest job cuts in two years. It’s the latest in a series of layoffs that continue to rattle the tech industry since 2022.The job cuts come as the rise of artificial intelligence, which can also generate code, is raising questions about how technology will impact software engineers and other workers.Software engineering roles made up 53% of Microsoft’s job cuts in Silicon Valley, according to data provided to the EDD. Positions in product management, applied sciences, electrical engineering and other fields were also eliminated. In April, Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said that as much as 30% of the company’s code is written by AI during a conversation with Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at the social network’s AI developer conference. Zuckerberg has also said that he thinks AI will be able to write code like a mid-level engineer in 2025.As Microsoft competes with other major tech companies such as Google and Meta to release more popular AI-powered tools, the company said it’s trying to increase how fast it moves by reducing the number of managers. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” Jeff Jones, a Microsoft spokesperson, said in a statement.The company also said it’s trying to reduce redundancies while also empowering employees to spend time on more meaningful work by leveraging technology. As of June, Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers and more than half of those workers were in the United States, the company’s annual report said.Microsoft reported revenue of $70 billion for the third quarter of its fiscal year ending in March, a 13% increase compared to the same period last year. The company’s net income was $26 billion, up 16% year over year. The Associated Press contributed to this report. More to Read

SAN FRANCISCO — Earlier this month, a mysterious store selling a vision of the future opened its doors in downtown San Francisco’s Union Square district. A cryptic message appeared on the storefront window: “World is the real human network. Anonymous proof of human and universally inclusive finance for the age of AI. Millions of humans in over 160 countries. Now available in the USA.”The store attracted a small crowd and curious onlookers. People took turns scanning their eyes by peering into white devices known as orbs — to prove they are human. Then they received, free of charge, a verified World ID they could use to log into online services and apps. As an extra bonus, participants were given some Worldcoin cryptocurrency tokens.Some just observed from a distance. “I’m afraid to walk inside,” said Brian Klein, 66, as he peered into the window on his way to the theater. “I don’t want that thing taking any of my data and biometric scanning me.”The futuristic technology is the creation of a startup called Tools for Humanity, which is based in San Francisco and Munich, Germany. Founded in 2019 by Alex Blania and Sam Altman — the entrepreneur known for OpenAI’s ChatGPT — the tech company says it’s “building for humans in the age of AI.” In theory, these iris scans offer a safe and convenient way for consumers to verify their human identity at a time when AI-powered tools can easily create fake audio and images of people.“We wanted a way to make sure that humans stayed special and essential in a world where the internet was going to have lots of AI-driven content,” said Altman, the chairman for Tools for Humanity, at a glitzy event in San Francisco last month.Like the early stages of Facebook and PayPal, World is still in a growth phase, trying to lure enough customers to its network to eventually build a viable service.A chief draw, World says, is that people can verify their humanness at an orb without providing personal information, such as, their names, emails, phone numbers and social media profiles.But some are skeptical, contending that handing over biometric data is too risky. They cite instances where companies have reported data breaches or filed for bankruptcy, such as DNA research firm 23andMe.“You can’t get new eyeballs. I don’t care what this company says. Biometric data like these retinal scans will get out. Hacks and leaks happen all the time,” said Justin Kloczko, a tech and privacy advocate at Consumer Watchdog. “Your eyeballs are going to be like gold to these thieves.” 1 2 3 4 1. An orb. 2. Frankie Reina, of West Hollywood, gets an eye scan. 3. A woman is reflected in an orb while getting an eye scan. 4. Frankie Reina waits to be verified after getting an eye scan. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) World has been making waves in Asia, Europe, South America and Central America. More than 12 million people have verified themselves through the orbs and roughly 26 million have downloaded the World app, where people store their World ID, digital assets and access other tools, the company says.Now, World is setting its sights on the United States. The World app says people can claim up to 39 Worldcoin tokens, worth up to $45.49 if a user verifies they’re human with an orb. World plans to deploy 7,500 orbs throughout the U.S. this year. It’s opening up spaces where people can scan their eyes in six cities — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, Miami and Nashville. The L.A. space opened on Melrose Avenue last week.Backed by well-known venture capital firms including Bain Capital, Menlo Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, Tools for Humanity has raised $240 million, as of March, according to Pitchbook.The crypto eye-scanning project has stirred up plenty of buzz, but also controversy. In places outside the United States, including Hong Kong, Spain, Portugal, Indonesia, South Korea, and Kenya, regulators have scrutinized the effort because of data privacy concerns. Whistleblower Edward Snowden, who leaked classified details of the U.S. government’s mass surveillance program, responded to Altman’s post about the project in 2021 by saying “the human body is not a ticket-punch.” Ashkan Soltani, the former executive director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, said that privacy risks can outweigh the benefits of handing over biometric data.“Even if companies don’t store raw biometric data, like retina scans, the derived identifiers are immutable … and permanently linked to the individuals they were captured from,” he said in an email. World executives counter that the orb captures photos of a person’s face and eyes, but doesn’t store any of that data. To receive a verified World ID, people can choose to send their iris image to their phone and that data are encrypted, meaning that the company can’t view or access the information. Frankie Reina, of West Hollywood, left, gets an eye scan with the help of Myra Vides, center. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) The idea for World began five years ago. Before the popularity of ChatGPT ignited an AI frenzy, Altman was on a walk with Blania in San Francisco talking about how trust would work in the age where AI systems are smarter than humans. “The initial ideas were very crazy, then we came down to one that was just a little bit crazy, which became World,” Altman said onstage at an event about World’s U.S. debut at Fort Mason, a former U.S. Army post in San Francisco.At the event, tech workers, influencers and even California Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie wandered in and out of a large building filled with orbs, refreshments and entertainment. Tools for Humanity Chief Executive Blania highlighted three ways people could use their verified World ID: gaming, dating and social media.Currently, online services use a variety of ways to confirm people’s identities including video selfies, phone numbers, government-issued IDs and two-factor authentication. World recently teamed up with gaming company Razer, based in Irvine and Singapore, to verify customers are human through a single-sign on, and is placing orbs in Razer stores. Blania also touted a partnership with Match Group, where people can used World to verify themselves and their ages on apps such as Tinder , an effort that will be tested in Japan.“We think the internet as a whole will need a proof of human and one space that I’m personally most excited about will be social,” Blania said at the San Francisco event. Alex Blania, the chief executive of Tools for Humanity, speaks onstage during an event for the U.S. launch of World at Fort Mason Center on April 30 in San Francisco. (Kimberly White / Getty Images for World) Back at the World store in San Francisco, Zachary Sussman was eager to check out the orbs with his two friends, both in their 20s. “For me, the more ‘Black Mirror’ the technology is, the more likely I am to use it,” Sussman said, referring to the popular Netflix sci-fi series. “I like the dystopian aesthetic.”Doug Colaizzo, 35, checked out the store with his daughter and parents. Colaizzo, a developer, described himself as an “early adopter” of technology. He already uses his fingerprint to unlock his front door and his smartphone to pay for items.“We need a better way of identifying humans,” he said. “I support this idea, even if this is not gonna be the one that wins.”Andras Cser, vice president and principal analyst of Security and Risk Management at Forrester Research, said the fact that people have to go to a store to scan their eyes could limit adoption. World is building a gadget called the “mini Orb” that’s the size of a smartphone, but convincing people to carry a separate device around will also be an uphill battle, he said.“There’s big time hype with a ton of customer friction and privacy problems,” he said.The company will have to convince skeptics like Klein to hand over their biometric data. The San Francisco resident is more cautious, especially after he had to delete his DNA data from 23andMe because the biotech company filed for bankruptcy.“I’m not going to go off and live in the wilderness by myself,” he said. “Eventually, I might have to, but I’m going to resist as much as I can.” More to Read