🚨 WazirX Hack, SpaceX's ISS Task, Google Investigated

Good morning. It’s Thursday, July 18. Today we are covering:

• India's WazirX confirms security breach following a $230M 'suspicious transfer' 

• SpaceX is building a superpowered spaceship to scrap the International Space Station for NASA

• Italy's antitrust takes aim at Google over personal data usage

• Meta explores stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica

• Companies need to stop taking the easy way out on climate goals

Let’s dive in

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India's WazirX confirms security breach following a $230M 'suspicious transfer' 

By Manish Singh via TechCrunch 

• WazirX, an Indian crypto exchange, halted withdrawals after losing $230M in a security breach involving a compromised multisig wallet.

• The assets, including significant quantities of SHIB, Ethereum, Matic, and USDT, were reportedly stolen and offloaded on Uniswap; Elliptic linked the hackers to North Korea.

• Liminal, responsible for the wallet infrastructure, stated their ecosystem wasn't breached; CoinSwitch and CoinDCX assured their customers of their funds' security amidst the incident.

𝕏: Massive hack on the largest local CEX in India. Government relations in India were already dicey so I expect they roll out another ban. Doesn’t look good for WazirX, as no way their valuation comes close to covering these losses to even try an equity bailout. - Adam Cochran (@adamscochran)

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SpaceX is building a superpowered spaceship to scrap the International Space Station for NASA

Business Insider

• NASA and SpaceX revealed plans to deorbit the ISS in the early 2030s using a supercharged Dragon spaceship equipped with 46 Draco engines.

• The enhanced Dragon will push the ISS out of orbit, ensuring a controlled descent to a remote ocean grave, with the mission's complexity highlighted by SpaceX's Sarah Walker.

• NASA will pay SpaceX up to $843 million for the decommissioning, marking a significant chapter in space exploration as the ISS nears the end of its operational life.

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Italy's antitrust takes aim at Google over personal data usage

Reuters

• Italy's antitrust agency launched an investigation into Google and its parent company Alphabet over alleged unfair commercial practices involving users' personal data.

• The watchdog claims that Google's consent request for connecting multiple services may constitute a misleading and aggressive commercial practice, failing to clearly inform users about the impact on their personal data.

• Google is accused of presenting its consent request in a way that could limit users' freedom of choice, potentially inducing them to agree to combined usage of their data across different Google services.

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Meta explores stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica

By Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli via Financial Times

• Meta is considering a multibillion-euro investment in EssilorLuxottica to advance its development of smart glasses.

• The potential investment follows the successful launch of the revamped Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and aims to deepen their existing collaboration.

• EssilorLuxottica’s stock rose nearly 5% after the news, and the company recently acquired Supreme for $1.5 billion, planning to launch new Supreme smart sunglasses with Meta.

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Companies need to stop taking the easy way out on climate goals

By Casey Crownhart via MIT Technology Review 

• Companies often take the easy way out on climate goals by purchasing cheap carbon credits instead of directly reducing emissions.

• Net-zero emissions claims can be misleading, as they may rely on questionable offsets rather than actual emission reductions.

• Google is shifting focus from buying offsets to investing in sustainable methods, indicating a potential move towards more genuine climate action.

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Trending in AI

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• Apple says its OpenELM model doesn’t power Apple Intelligence amid YouTube controversy

• How AI is driving the venture capital market

• Silicon Valley Libertarians Ponder Universal Basic Income as AI Wipes Out Jobs

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— Jose Montes de Oca

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