maxwell
@maxwellstrachan
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journalist | maxwellstrachan @gmail .com | on signal at 310-614-3752
New York, NY
Joined July 2009
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Last Seen Profiles
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I am so, so amazingly excited to join the brilliant team at Well next month!
We’re thrilled to announce that Maxwell Strachan is joining Well as a senior editor to lead features coverage.
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The anger at BuzzFeed revealing the creators of Bored Ape says a lot about what the next 5 years will look like.
This is a brand raising millions of dollars from one of the world’s most powerful VC firms at a $4 billion valuation. Yet, people believe they are just like them.
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absolutely horrifying: amazon’s algorithm identified a product that people were using to commit suicide.
it then started to recommend additional products that made the suicide easier to executte.
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It's hard right now to think through the ramifications of a new Web 3 world where people who head some of the more influential organizations remain wholly anonymous—and are vigorously defended for doing so. But seems like we better think through them fast!
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Peloton’s departing CEO: $119 million in stock sales
Peloton’s departing president: $105 million in stock sales
2,800 laid-off workers: complimentary Peloton memberships
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A new tech startup wants to gamify the U.S. court system by allowing everyday Americans to bet on lawsuits using tradable crypto tokens. It calls the process an "initial litigation offering."
I spoke to one of the founders about the concept.
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A top Ukrainian politician asked crypto exchanges to freeze all Russian accounts to aid the war effort.
Binance, the world's largest exchange, said doing so "would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists."
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I spent a lot of this year trying to figure out why VCs seem to love Web3 so much—and how that global pivot to Web3 is warping the tech industry. Here is my best attempt at an answer.
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Some very personal news: Today is my last day at Motherboard/VICE. It's a little scary, but I am excited for whatever comes next.
At the risk of coming across as overly self-promotional, I wanted to highlight some of my past work below. I’d love to write and edit for you.
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New: Coinbase shut off 1,100 employees’ access to their work email and other company systems before laying them off today.
“Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information, it was unfortunately the only practical choice.”
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If widely adopted, such a system would turn the vacation market into a sports ticket-like economy, in which hotel scalpers buy up hot dates and resell them for a profit, and customers likely lose money if they need to cancel last minute.
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I tried to unpack why the crypto/NFT community was so righteously enraged by
@katienotopoulos
naming the founders of the extremely successful Bored Ape Yacht club; what that says about the ideological underpinnings of web3; and where we go from here.
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One crypto exchange CEO said such a move would go against Bitcoin’s “libertarian values” and that crypto was supposed to be “a weapon for peace, not for war.”
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Hotels are adopting an NFT-based system, in which stays are converted to NFTs, which the customer must sell to someone else if they decide to cancel.
The system benefits hotels—who don't have to refund cancellations—by putting the onus on customers.
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TikTok has become a breeding ground for terrible, viral financial advice. Like “Don’t max out your 401(k)" and “Use your student loans to buy a fixer-upper.”
I spoke with
@TikTokInvestors
about what he’s taken away from a year of scouring the platform.
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You might not realize it—because it's not always disclosed—but many influencers posting about this or that cryptocurrency going 🚀 to the moon 🚀 are paid to do so:
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Ryval users buy tokens in legal cases they suspect have a good chance of success, then either hold them or trade them until the case is settled, when they cash in.
“Let's say, the plaintiff gets a big ruling from the court—not a win, but a big ruling. The price may go up."
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A remarkable statement by the director of Larry David’s crypto commercial, now that the market is down
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Motherboard bought $200 of ethereum and donated it to ConstitutionDAO to find out more about how the constituion-buying thing worked.
Almost 50% of the money was eaten up by middle-man fees.
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this chart of omicron going from comprising 0.7% of U.S. COVID cases to 73.2% in two weeks is one of the more memorable i can ever remember
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Voyager customers tell me they are struggling and fear they have lost their life savings after the crypto firm suspended withdrawals and declared bankruptcy.
“It's ruined me,” said a Chicago financial adviser. “I have to start my whole life again.”
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a few weeks ago, i was offered the opportunity of a lifetime. then—without warning—it was ripped out from underneath me
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new study finds reducing welfare benefits leads to a high enough increase in crime so as to offset taxpayer savings—basically the government doesn’t save much but ends up with a less safe society
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For this piece, I spoke with people who have recently entered Gamblers Anonymous.
All of them became addicted to gambling via their phones, which they said made it easier to hide and harder to quit. The effects on both their finances and relationships were heartbreaking.
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New: I asked Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation why the country canceled its crypto airdrop.
He said it became clear people were exploiting the possibility by sending tiny donations in hopes or profiting. "I don't think it's ethical."
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New: A SpaceX engineer who recently left the startup says “misogyny is rampant” at the Elon Musk-led startup.
She says she received little to no support on the numerous occasions she brought claims of sexual harassment to her superiors and HR.
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While a lot of Web3 founders seem genuine in their goal of creating a better internet, there is little doubt that tech is now full of people bolting on Web3 elements in order to garner investor interest and survive.
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Elon Musk, the former SpaceX engineer says, shows traits similar to that of “a sadistic and abusive man.”
She says he manufactures “a scarcity complex” and “pushes engineers to the point of burnout.”
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incredible WSJ reporting here on facebook's backroom dealings after haugen's leak.
the strategy:
- distract Dems with reason to be mad at GOP
- convince GOP that Haugen was untrustworthy Dem plant
- avoid a united anti-FB political front
and it worked.
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@katienotopoulos
I asked
@molly0xFFF
of
@web3isgreat
about the anger over the BuzzFeed piece and the role of pseudonymity and found her answer enlightening
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Coinbase statement —>
Coinbase tells us that it will not comply with request to ban all Russian users, cites 'economic freedom' and says ban would harm ordinary citizens
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‘We're Going to Make the Rich Pay,’ Joe Manchin Tells Protesters From His Yacht
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If you were laid off from Coinbase today, please reach out. Signal number is 310-614-3752.
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had ziti for three days and would already literally die for him
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New: Real estate agents in Miami, SF, NYC tell me the luxury market is crumbling as the rich try to offload properties ahead of the recession becoming official.
One SF agent has received a single phone call about a new $3.5M condo she listed 2 weeks ago.
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In late May, Coinbase also sent emails to a number of hires telling them that the hiring freeze would not affect them, explaining that “this does not impact the offers of any employees who have already signed.”
They then rescinded the offers.
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.
@paulkrugman
says the cryptocurrency movement shows similarities to the pre-crash subprime housing boom, since it has so effectively targeted:
- minority groups
- those without college degrees
- working class
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I spoke to the people behind the Miami crypto bull, who said it was “emotional” watching the robot statue with laser eyes get unveiled Wednesday.
“We really want this to become the most famous, iconic statue in the world.”
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New: A cryptocurrency “community project” promised to help close the wealth gap by democratizing, tokenizing, and fractionalizing real estate.
It paid influencers for promotion, took people’s money, then shut down and vanished.
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nothing like a nice side salad along with my nightly double whiskey
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My latest interview is with the SEC’s former head of internet enforcement, who has become one of the most staunch and credentialed crypto critics around.
We spoke about his fears, Biden’s EO, crypto partisanship and regulatory capture, and more.
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i will go to my grave arguing that society needs to go back to using phrases like “selling out”
Kacey Musgraves has shared her rendition of Coldplay’s “Fix You” as part of Chipotle's stop-animation film titled A Future Begins:
@KaceyMusgraves
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My latest story tries to disentangle and otherwise unpack the surprisingly creative, wildly speculative, occasionally tense, and always weird world of metaverse real estate.
“There’s a lot of hype, and it's not healthy,” one CEO told me.
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One thing that stood out to me while speaking to these Voyager customers was how many of them were financially literate and naturally frugal, but had become hooked by the lure of unsustainable returns from a "safe" crypto company.
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I spoke with Silicon Valley's Jimmy O. Yang and
@briannekimmel
about their decision to decline paid offers to promote crypto companies.
“To promote a cryptocurrency where they could lose everything is really not a position either of us want to be in.”
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The metaverse company Somnium Space is working on an AI/VR feature called "Live Forever” mode, which will allow people to talk to (and hang out with) their dead loves ones in the metaverse.
I spoke to the CEO about it.
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The development has left a number of investors flummoxed, unsure why Silicon Valley has become entranced by the allure of NFTs, crypto, and the like.
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@ChrisJBakke
don't miss this incredible description of the project by an enthusiastic investor
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'Let’s Save Some Lives': Crypto Community Rushes to Ukraine’s Defense Armed With NFTs, DAOs
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I spoke to the CEO of an NFT marketplace that had to shut down the sale of NFTs after getting overwhelmed by counterfeits and bad actors.
"This is an ecosystem-wide problem," he told me. “They’d come in and keep overwhelming us."
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@caseyjohnston
i started watching all movies and tv with subtitles a while ago and it was a game-changer
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have been in writing hell—really struggling to write an overly long and complicated story (for my small brain) that in my heart i know very few people will read. i love my job.
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a lot of the most justified criticisms of the media industry indirectly boil down to a frustration with the consequences of entrusting a tentpole of democracy to intense free-market competition
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a DAO is currently going through the web 3.0 equivalent of a corporate raid
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I regret to inform Twitter that the “NFT the color spectrum” thing is not the worst idea to come out of Web 3.0.
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new: zillow is pausing its plans to massive scale up its home-buying operations. no new contracts for the rest of the year.
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It's merely embarrassing that hundreds (thousands?) of Elon fan boys spend their days defending the richest person in the world online. But it also makes me think about what it must be like to grapple with such people inside one of his companies.
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3AC chaos continues. The crypto trading platform Voyager says it plans to pursue recovery of the funds through the legal system.
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a diligent reader notes the vatican probably didnt want to provide an exclusive interview to a company called vice
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The founders of a prominent crypto hedge fund—two high school friends who became billionaires taking risky bets—have gone MIA as their business partners scramble to minimize the damage amid indications the fund has been wiped out.
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My latest story takes a close look at 401(k) giant Fidelity's crypto-loving CEO and her historic decision to allow Americans to bet 20 percent (!) of their retirement savings on Bitcoin, and the Labor Department's fight to stop others from doing the same.
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Andreessen Horowitz just closed a $60 million funding round into a metaverse real estate company
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There are (inevitably) concerns about the system being created. One of the clearest critiques came from Hilary Allen, who compares tokens to credit default swaps. “Now, it's the asset itself that is synthetic.”
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I hope this provides some clarity on a confusing space, which has a lot of genuine people working in it (and a lot of smart investors) but also a lot of warped incentives.
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everyone’s talking about the cube’s stop in central park. not enough focus on its time at a black tie wall street gala last night
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the “Earthverse”—i.e. the real world— is a word we didn’t need
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in the new york region, omicron made up:
- 2.4% of cases two weeks ago
- 92% by satuday
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New: longtime VC
@wolfejosh
talks about the systemic dangers of the global YOLO investing mentality, the religious dedication to Elon-like hype over Buffett-style fundamentals, and what he sees as a dot com-like pyramid scheme in the making.
See quote:
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Honestly, I was confused too, and I wanted to find a better answer than that Web3 is the hot new thing or solved all life’s problems.
Some answers:
1-Smart investors believe Web3's unclear valuation metrics give them an advantage, especially compared to software businesses.
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Airbnb performs background checks on millions of its users for safety reasons. But the company's decision process can be opaque and involve bans for being “closely associated with a person who isn’t allowed to use Airbnb," which Airbnb deduces using location and email info.
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One metaverse selling point millennials and Gen Z can expect in the coming years: “Can’t afford a physical home? Buy the next best thing!”
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I spoke to a large number of people about the booming VC market, which is causing such a stressful and fierce competition to dole out cash that some people are getting nervous.
Here’s my attempt to figure out what’s happening and its potential effects.
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Voyager had said just last month that customers assets were "safe" since it took a "low-risk approach to lending,” only working with “reputable counterparties."
One of those loans was for $650M to 3AC.
“They fooled the customers,” said one Voyager customer.
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the new Google Docs feature suggests edits to MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but not to a transcribed interview of David Duke using the N-word
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genuine tweet warning: had a great time running the NYC half-marathon!
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The co-founders of the digital wallet system MetaMask spoke with me in their first joint interview about the project, the crypto’s ecosystem, and what can be fixed.
Below are 10 notable quotes from the interview.
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As a result, some entrepreneurs are feeling pressure from investors to add a token, even if it doesn’t make sense or customers don’t want it.
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God help me, I wrote about Bored Apes, BuzzFeed, “doxxing” and the oncoming culture war over web3 and the future of the internet
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2006: Oprah gives away Pontiac sedans to entire studio audience.
2022: Paris Hilton shills NFTs and offers everyone in studio audience one from her new collection, which was released on a platform that she joined last June as an investor and adviser.
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please also read the story i spent roughly 100x more time on
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New: Another OpenSea user has sued the platform after getting his Bored Ape stolen, meaning the company is now facing at least three such lawsuits.
The company could be sitting on a ticking time bomb, according to an outside lawyer.
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