Beyond Blockchain

Netflix is definitely the leader, but I wouldn’t say the war is completely over. They’re winning right now, sure, but their future depends on whether they can keep innovating faster than competitors. Disney and Amazon both have deeper pockets, and Apple has the hardware ecosystem to integrate streaming in ways Netflix can’t. The gaming expansion sounds exciting, but execution is everything. Gaming is a brutally competitive industry — just because you have a big IP doesn’t mean you’ll succeed in creating sticky, playable experiences. And AI-assisted content creation may save costs, but it risks backlash from creatives and audiences if done wrong. For me, the real challenge is whether Netflix can keep balancing quality vs. quantity. Too many mediocre shows and the brand loses value; too few global hits and growth stalls. Winning streaming is one thing — defining entertainment for the next 20 years is a much harder fight.

Citations and transparency are Perplexity’s biggest differentiators. If they keep scaling responsibly while others chase hype, that valuation might not just be inflated , it could be justified.

Cool idea, but feels a bit like turning health into a KPI. Long-term lifestyle change usually needs support, not just financial carrots (and sticks)

The Windsurf deal shows how serious consolidation is getting in AI coding tools. But culture matters — will top engineers really stick around for a pressure cooker?

The denial of bankruptcy talk is expected — no company wants that headline lingering — but the numbers don’t lie. Revenues flat year-over-year, losses mounting, and a debt wall of nearly half a billion dollars. Even if Kodak manages to kick the can down the road with refinancing, investors have to ask: what’s the growth engine here? Unlike NVIDIA or Adobe, Kodak hasn’t really carved out a dominant niche in the digital economy. At best, they might stabilize through cost-cutting and restructuring, but Wall Street will need to see proof of positive cash flow before sentiment changes. Right now, this looks less like a turnaround story and more like damage control. The next 12 months will determine whether Kodak is still a viable player or just a legacy brand trying to delay the inevitable.

If this deal actually happens, it could mark the beginning of a new era of U.S. industrial policy. Think about it: Intel has struggled to keep up with TSMC and Samsung, but with direct government backing, they’d have not just subsidies but also political weight behind their expansion. That might help Intel land more defense contracts, accelerate partnerships with automakers, and guarantee demand for “secure, American-made chips.” But history shows government ownership can be a double-edged sword — sometimes it leads to innovation, other times to bureaucracy and inefficiency. The Ohio plant becoming the world’s biggest fab sounds impressive on paper, but the real test will be whether Intel can deliver cutting-edge nodes at scale, not just more square footage. This story is far from over.

While the return to in-person interviews makes sense for skill verification, I doubt we’ll ever fully go back to the old model. Many top candidates prefer remote opportunities, and forcing everyone into an office for a single coding test risks losing great talent. A more balanced approach might be hybrid verification — for example, giving candidates supervised, proctored coding challenges online and an in-person collaborative problem-solving session. That way, you reduce AI “cheating” without eliminating accessibility or global reach. The bigger question is: in a world where AI is part of everyday workflows, should we be testing people without it, or testing how well they use it?

Late 2025 can’t come fast enough — this could be Apple’s biggest volume play in laptops since the original MacBook Air.

If Perplexity really pours $3B into Chrome + Chromium, we could be looking at the biggest shake-up in browser innovation in over a decade.

Forex & Currency Plays Likely Scenarios Pre-November: CNY/USD: Short-term yuan strength as trade optimism builds. AUD/USD & NZD/USD: Upside bias (commodity currencies tied to China demand). USD/JPY: Potential short-term weakness if global risk appetite improves. Post-November Risk: Breakdown in talks → CNY drops, safe-haven flows back into USD & JPY. Deal extension or full resolution → CNY rally, risk-on pairs surge.

Musk’s angle here is smart — he’s not just making noise about Grok being #6 without a badge, he’s framing it as a structural monopoly problem in AI adoption. If Apple is curating the App Store to push one AI provider over others, then they’re essentially deciding who gets to win in this space. And that has huge ripple effects — not just for Grok, but for every small AI startup hoping to compete. The interesting wildcard is how investors react. A prolonged legal battle could shake confidence in Apple’s AI rollout, potentially boosting stock sentiment for rivals like Google, Anthropic, or even open-source AI ecosystems. But make no mistake: if Apple loses, it could trigger a fundamental shift in how app store “featured” spots are regulated. This isn’t just an Apple vs Musk fight — it’s a fight over who gets to control AI’s on-ramp to billions of users.

If anyone here’s playing Wplace, we should form an Undeads pixel squad and take over a spot on the map together.

The speed of this rebound is impressive, but the foundation feels shaky. Without confirmed deals, guarantees, or hard policy changes, the 8% jump in just three days is purely sentiment chasing a “best-case scenario” narrative. Institutional commentary pointing to “de-escalation” is fueling the optimism, but I keep coming back to the risks: multiple competing agendas, upcoming tariff changes with unknown effects, and the fact that geopolitical news flow can flip in hours, not weeks. I’m approaching this as a short-term trading environment — nimble entries and exits, no blind faith. If Alaska talks produce a clear roadmap, I’ll scale up. Until then, this rally could just as easily be the setup for a sharp reversal as it could be the start of a new leg higher.

The “money loves silence” line hits different here — SoftBank’s been loud this quarter, and for good reason. A $2.86B net profit, multibillion-dollar AI bets, and a major chip designer acquisition all in one quarter? That’s a company not just playing the game, but trying to own the board. The Ampere Computing buy fits perfectly with their AI-first vision, while the Vision Fund’s $3B profit proves they can still pick winners. The OpenAI stake ballooning toward $22.5B is basically a declaration that they want to be the Wall Street and Silicon Valley bridge for AI. Yes, costs and project delays could hurt future earnings, but SoftBank’s strategy is crystal clear: dominate the AI and high-tech stack globally. If I had $1B to deploy, I’d be tempted to mirror their playbook — a blend of infrastructure and scalable tech solutions that can define an entire market cycle.

Prompt engineers: ‘What if we made the AI feel something?’ AI: ‘Bro, I’m a matrix of weights, not your therapist