The Best of Protocol
10+ most popular Protocol articles, as voted by our community.
We reported on the people, power and politics of tech.
Protocol on China
How Chinese tech companies took over the world in 2021
From the Middle East to Latin America, Chinese tech companies are everywhere.
Protocol on CSS
Protocol on Gaming
How Chess.com built a streaming empire
Twitch users watched 18.3 million hours of chess content in January, nearly as much as they consumed throughout 2019. Last week, chess even surpassed League of Legends, Fortnite and Valorant as the…
Phil Spencer delivered the ultimate pitch for Xbox’s future
Xbox chief Phil Spencer made headlines this week by laying out his company’s position on cloud gaming, subscriptions, and the fraught acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Protocol on Hiring
You hired a deepfake: Get ready for the rise of imposter employees
New technology — plus the pandemic remote work trend — is helping fraudsters use someone else’s identity to get a job.
«It’s unlikely that a cybercriminal would get a job using deepfake audio clone, but attackers can (and do) use cloned human voices for workplace phishing attacks.»
Anti-perks at work
We know there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Still, the idea that many corporate benefits aren’t always a benefit recently touched a nerve on Twitter.“Been thinking about anti-perks in tech jobs.…
Protocol on Startups
How Discord (somewhat accidentally) invented the future of the internet
Discord's founders just wanted to create a way to talk to their gamer friends. They created something much bigger.
How much are founders paying themselves?
It can be “a flex” for startup founders to take no salary. Be careful about that.
Protocol on Tesla
The injustice of Tesla’s Austin Gigafactory
Elon Musk promised an “ecological paradise,” but his newest Gigafactory is anything but so far for those living in its shadow.
Protocol on Twitter
How Twitter hired tech's biggest critics to build ethical AI
Twitter's META team is made up of some of tech's most notorious critics, and two more will soon be joining them: Sarah Roberts and Kristian Lum.
«She'd always felt that algorithmic accountability and ethics should shape not just how Twitter used algorithms, but all practical AI applications.»
Protocol on Venture Capital
Notion still wants to become 'the next Microsoft'
Notion COO Akshay Kothari says there’s room to grow, aided by a new CFO who knows how to take a company public.
«That concept of public company readiness is just a framework,” Katkar said. “But in reality, I think even large private companies benefit from operating that way.”»
Popular
These are some all-time favorites with Refind users.
Why AI and machine learning are drifting away from the cloud
Cloud computing isn’t going anywhere, but some companies are shifting their machine learning data and models to their own machines they manage in-house. Adopters are spending less money and getting…
Brands are flooding the metaverse, but gamers just don’t care
Most people just want to play games. The brands are moving in anyway.
Yes, you can short a startup
With synthetic derivatives, hedge funds can bet against a startup’s price and VCs can de-risk an aging portfolio.
Why Cloudflare's march into network security can't be ignored
As Cloudflare seeks to win over enterprises with its zero-trust security services, CEO Matthew Prince told Protocol, “We just come at [cybersecurity] differently than all of the other vendors that are…
Can Matt Mullenweg save the internet?
He's turning Automattic into a different kind of tech giant. But can he take on the trillion-dollar walled gardens and give the internet back to the people?
«“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”»
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