You may not believe it, but I actually took some time off last weekend! I have an all day release planning meeting and the rest of the weekend should be coasting down hill. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s news: El Salvador is the first country to tenderly spend BitCoin, the FAA grounds Virgin Galactic, and Elizabeth Holmes v US heats up. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
EL SALVADOR FIRST TO ACCEPT BITCOIN AS LEGAL TENDER
Yup. That’s right. Yesterday, El Salvador became the first country to accept BitCoin as legal tender. Which means businesses will be obliged to accept BitCoin as a form of payment for goods and services. El Salvadorean consumers will can submit BTC and US dollars for payments hence forward. El Salvadoreans are further encouraged to spend BTC thanks to the government’s new app which promises to give each citizen $30 in BitCoin after they’ve activated the digital wallet. BitCoin is highly volatile shifting between $20,000, $63,000, and $30,000 per BTC in the last year. Some consumers are excited, others are highly concerned about how secure their earnings will be.
THERANOS TRIAL STARTS, HOLMES PAINTS HERSELF AS VICTIM
I. Am a startup founder. *gasps* I get it. Startup founders are often high energy, high merchant, and the future is so bright individuals. Startup founders often overstate, it’s a problem, and that’s the defense Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes is using in her and Theranos wire fraud trial. US prosecution is trying to paint Elizabeth Holmes as defrauding investors out of almost $700 million in funding, versus inventing a product that wasn’t right or ready and flaming out like many startups do. Honestly, it’s hard to say if Holmes lied about the super fast and easy blood testing kits it was promising, or if she didn’t know what she was talking about. In the end, Holmes wasn’t the genius the press and investors made her out to be. But, investors aren’t the smartest people in the room anyway.
VIRGIN GALACTIC GROUNDED UNTIL FAA COMPLETES INVESTIGATION
After flying so high, it sucks to be pulled back to the ground. The FAA has grounded Virgin Galactic after its SpaceShipTwo aircraft veered off of its intended flight plan during its reentry. SpaceShipTwo is the craft Richard Branson was onboard during his flight into lower Earth orbit. Flight paths are critical for maintaining safe skies and SpaceShipTwo’s course deviated from the filed flight plan. Virgin Galactic says that the deviation was a minor, but purposeful course correction and that their flights are safe. Virgin Galactic will be able to resume flights as soon as the FAA completes an investigation into the flight and certifies VG is ready to blast off.
A big Apple event is scheduled for September 14th. I’ll be here and on-the-air next Thursday to report on what we believe will be the new iPhone 13 and possibly a new Apple Watch. Mark it on your calendar.
Hey, did you know I have a new book coming out. Subscribe to my mailing list at lessonsoncomputing.com to stay in the know.