The Daily Index — Friday, June 16, 2023 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

APOLLO-RELATED BLACKOUTS

Reddit has informed moderators that it plans to replace resistant moderation teams to keep spaces open and accessible to users. Reddit's Moderator Code of Conduct says that Reddit has the duty to keep communities operational if users rely upon them. Many subreddits went dark between Monday and Wednesday to protest Reddit's pricing for its API. Some have made the decision to continue the blackout indefinitely. Reddit's CEO said that the blackouts had no significant impact and that there were no plans to change the API pricing.

macrumors.com · 3 min

TLDR Web Dev

NETWORK PROTOCOLS RUN THE INTERNET

Distributed systems send data over the network using various network protocols. This article explains how common network protocols work, where they are used in distributed systems, and how to troubleshoot common problems.

blog.bytebytego.com · 3 min

TLDR Crypto

CUSTODIAN

BlackRock has applied to the SEC to launch a Bitcoin ETF named iShares Bitcoin Trust. The proposed ETF aims to provide investors with simplified exposure to Bitcoin. However, approval for such an ETF remains uncertain, as the SEC has previously resisted such launches. Currently, the SEC is involved in a legal dispute with Grayscale regarding a similar proposal. Interestingly, Coinbase is listed as the custodian of the Bitcoin the trust would be holding even though they are currently being sued by the SEC.

cnbc.com · 3 min

TLDR Founders

SYNTHESIA RAISES $90M SERIES C

Synthesia announced a $90M Series C funding round led by Accel. The funds will boost their mission to make video creation easy for everyone, driving their AI research, and enhancing their collaborative video editing platform with better avatar technology, real-time collaboration, and enhanced sharing functionality.

synthesia.io · 5 min

TLDR

WITH FORD AND GM'S HELP, TESLA REIGNITES THE CHARGING STANDARD WAR

The Combined Charging System Type 1 (CCS1) standard seemed like it had become the charging system for electric vehicles until recently, when Ford and General Motors both signed deals to adapt their electric vehicles to use Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS). While the majority of new EVs in the US will use the NACS in the future, recently passed legislation will mean that CCS1 charging infrastructure will still be built into public charging network charging ports. Updating the regulation would cause extensive retrofit costs for public charging networks.

arstechnica.com · 7 min

TLDR

VIRGIN GALACTIC STARTS COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHTS IN TWO WEEKS

Virgin Galactic is starting commercial spaceflight services at the end of the month. The company plans to begin working through its ticket-holder backlog through monthly launches after two initial missions. The first will be a scientific research mission and the second will be the first real private astronaut flight. Virgin Galactic plans to increase its launch cadence to reduce scarcity and lower the price. Its launch method involves dropping a spacecraft from a custom carrier jet at a high altitude and taking off from there.

techcrunch.com · 2 min

TLDR

INTEL TO START SHIPPING A QUANTUM PROCESSOR

Intel is starting to ship its Tunnel Falls processor to research labs. The 12-qubit chip will be sent to the Universities of Maryland, Rochester, and Wisconsin and the Sandia National Lab. Intel hopes that researchers will help the company characterize sources of error and determine which form of qubits provide the best performance. Details about the Tunnel Falls processor and how it works are available in the article.

arstechnica.com · 4 min

TLDR

THE NEW LANGUAGE MODEL STACK

The adoption of language model APIs is creating a new stack. This article looks at data from a survey across 33 companies in the Sequoia network to better understand the applications people are building and the stacks they are using. Almost all the companies surveyed use OpenAI's GPT and believe that a retrieval system is a key part of their stack. The field is moving too quickly for anyone to be confident in predicting what the end-state stack will look like, but LLM APIs and frameworks like LangChain are likely here to stay. It is still early days for the AI industry and there will be more opportunities for founders as the technology continues to develop.

sequoiacap.com · 10 min

TLDR

BUYOUT

Wargraphs, a Paris-based company with one employee and two products, League of Graphs and Porofessor, was acquired by MOBA Network last week for 50 million Euros. The company's tools can be used to help players see and understand invaluable statistics for the game League of Legends. Wargraphs made 12.3 million Euros in sales during the year leading up to November 2022 by selling advertisements. Its apps have over 800,000 daily users. MOBA Network plans to further develop the assets and expand into new games and markets.

arstechnica.com · 3 min