India’s Central Bank says cryptocurrency ‘may even be worse’ than Ponzi schemes – TechCrunch

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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Tuesday, February 15, 2022! We have a busy slate for you today, including news sure to annoy the blockchain faithful, new funds, Facebook’s latest rebrand and more.

But first, in an essay on TechCrunch, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argues against “the unfettered ‘side-loading’ of apps.” It is an interesting argument against Windows and the larger Web (we kid), but does raise notable points regarding mobile security and consumer expectations. It’s worth reading regardless of your priors. – Alex

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • India continues to debate the fate of cryptocurrencies: A nation’s regulatory and banking bodies debating blockchain technology and its related tokens is a daily occurrence. But when an official from India’s central bank compares cryptocurrencies to Ponzi schemes, we take note. That the latest broadside against crypto comes after the country discussed a new tax proposal for the asset/currency class is a slight surprise.
  • Goodbye News Feed, hello Feed: Facebook is shaking up its branding around its news feed product, now known by the simple moniker “Feed.” TechCrunch also notes that the company is rolling out a Facebook News product in the French market, so we could see a divergence between feed and news at the company. How you feel about this set of changes will depend on your view of the company, I reckon, but it didn’t poll well on Twitter, at least thus far.
  • Intel shells out $5.4B for Tower Semiconductor: As more capital flows into the market for designing and manufacturing chips, the announcement of new deals isn’t a huge surprise. This time chip company Intel intends to pay billions for Tower, which, we note, fits into the U.S. giant’s larger manufacturing goals that it had previously announced.

Startups/VC

What’s a startup really worth? Data from PitchBook indicates that 2021 turbocharged the pace at which startups raised capital, yes, but also pushed the prices paid for startup shares to the stratosphere. The result?…

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