Tesla pausing Bitcoin payments wipes $366 billion from its value, eBay starts selling NFTs, and Wattpad plans to add 100 jobs in Canada.
It’s all the tech news that’s got people buzzing right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday, May 14 and I’m your host Alex Coop.
One of Elon Musk’s tweets took a squeegee to the cryptocurrency market yesterday. When the Tesla CEO tweeted that Tesla will pause accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, Bitcoin’s price tumbled downhill, dropping to $48,500 and wiping as much as $366 billion off of the market. The reason for the pause, Musk explained, was out of concern for climate change and the enormous amount of power bitcoin uses. One estimate suggests that Bitcoin uses as much electricity as Argentina. It’s kinda ironic that the company seen as the pinnacle of environmentally friendly vehicles was accepting such a wasteful payment method. Musk did not mention whether it will accept Bitcoin again in the future.
When one door closes, another one opens. While Tesla just stopped accepting Bitcoin, eBay is eyeing its viability as a payment method. Additionally, the online marketplace announced yesterday that it will allow sales of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. A non-fungible token operates over the blockchain and is a unique identifier for digital media. Each token is unique and can’t be replaced. This gives the buyers irrefutable proof of ownership of an original digital piece, which can be useful for collectors. It helps the creators, too, as it provides a new channel to sell unique art. [LinkedIn]
Wattpad, a Canadian–or was Canadian–story platform is planning on adding 100 jobs to its business, mostly in Toronto and Halifax. The new roles will include positions in engineering, content, and marketing. The company was bought out on Monday by South Korea entertainment company Naver, which owns Webtoons that sees 76 million monthly users. Together, the two companies will collaborate on content, said Webtoon CEO Jun Koo Kim in a statement to BNN Bloomberg.
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