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Physical Alt 75m Series 70m Kumparaktechcrunch

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physical alt 75m series 70m kumparaktechcrunch

physical alt 75m series 70m kumparaktechcrunch

When we last checked in with Alt back in March, it had just raised $31 million for its alternative asset platform — a platform, thus far, used primarily by those looking to research, trade and securely store high-value sports cards.

Just a few months later, the company has raised a $75 million Series B from a roster of top investors and pro athletes, made big hires and is prepping to launch its mobile app, all while it starts to expand the scope of the alternative assets it covers.

While Alt’s initial focus was sports cards — a category that founder Leore Avidar knows quite well — it has recently expanded to support other types of trading cards. Poke around its exchange and you’ll already find first edition Charizards and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in the mix with rare Kobe and autographed Kaepernick cards. In time, they’re looking to expand beyond cards and into other alternative assets.

“Our goal is to be in things from sneakers, to watches, to NFTs,” Avidar tells me, referring to sports cards as their “proof point.”
To sell a card on Alt, its condition must first be judged by one of the already well-established grading groups (PSA, BGS or SGC) then sent to Alt’s “Vault” — a light-controlled, temperature-controlled, fire-protected facility that the company casually refers to as “the Fort Knox of cards.” Once there, ownership can be instantly transferred from buyer to buyer (with Alt taking a 1.5% cut on each sale). By default, purchased cards stay in the vault; owners are free to have their cards pulled from the vault and shipped to them, but Avidar tells me that “99%” of cards stay in the vault after a transaction. They’re mostly buying these cards as investments, not to put on display. I’m also told that Alt users have stored over $70 million worth of cards in the vault so far.

Alt shares much of the data it has on cards; its market trends page charts out which categories have proven most popular in recent weeks, and highlights the players whose cards have seen the biggest shifts in value over the last seven days. Individual listings show the prices a given card has sold for over the last year and offer up an “Alt value” — a Zestimate-style worth estimate based on all of the recent transaction data Alt has access to.

Alt’s team is growing pretty quickly, with Avidar noting that the company currently sits at around 60 employees. Notably, it recently hired Nicole Colombo, previously eBay’s GM of collectibles and trading cards, as its first president.

Next up on the company’s roadmap? Launching its mobile app. After spending its life thus far in the browser, Alt says its iOS and Android apps should launch later this month.

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MICROSOFT IS IN TERMS TO BUY SPEECH TECHNOLOGY COMPANY NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS FOR ABOUT $16 BILLION, OR $56 A SHARE, A 23% OVERPAYMENT TO NUANCE’S FRIDAY CLOSE, According to Sources (BLOOMBERG)

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MICROSOFT IS IN TERMS TO BUY SPEECH TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

Bloomberg:

According to sources, Microsoft is in advanced talks to acquire Nuance Communications, a provider of speech technology, for about $16 billion, or $56 per share, a 23% premium to Nuance’s Friday close. The proposed price would value Nuance at $56 per share. This week could see the announcement of a deal.

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Nine widely used WiFi routers had 226 vulnerabilities.

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Nine widely used WiFi routers had 226 vulnerabilities.

Even when using the most recent firmware, security researchers examined nine widely used WiFi routers and discovered a total of 226 possible vulnerabilities in them.

Millions of people use the tested routers, which are made by Asus, AVM, D-Link, Netgear, Edimax, TP-Link, Synology, and Linksys.

The TP-Link Archer AX6000, which has 32 problems, and the Synology RT-2600ac, which has 30 security flaws, are the two devices with the most vulnerabilities.

The examination process
In partnership with CHIP magazine, researchers at IoT Inspector conducted security tests with a focus on models primarily used by small businesses and residential users.

According to Florian Lukavsky, CTO & Founder at IoT Inspector, “vendors provided them with current models, which were upgraded to the newest firmware version, for Chip’s router review.”

“IoT Inspector automatically examined the firmware versions and searched for more than 5,000 CVEs and other security flaws.”

Although not all defects posed the same risk, the researchers discovered a few widespread issues that impacted the majority of the evaluated models:

The firmware contains an outdated Linux kernel.
stale VPN and multimedia features
over-reliance on BusyBox’s earlier iterations
weak default passwords like “admin” are used
Hardcoded credentials are present in plain text.
Changing the router’s default password when configuring it for the first time is one of the most crucial steps you can take to secure it, according to Jan Wendenburg, CEO of IoT Inspector.

Whether an IoT device is used at home or in a corporate network, changing the password upon first use and turning on automatic updates must be regular procedure, according to Wendenburg.

In addition to manufacturer-introduced vulnerabilities, utilising an IoT device with the adage “plug, play, and forget” poses the greatest risk.

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MASSACHUSETTS COURT SUPPORTS A REQUEST FROM THE IRS TO OBTAIN THE RECORDS OF ALL CIRCLE CUSTOMERS WHO HAD $20K+ IN CRYPTO TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN 2016 AND 2020 (ZACK SEWARD/COINDESK)

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MASSACHUSETTS COURT

Massachusetts court supports a request from the IRS to obtain the records of all Circle customers who had $20K+ in crypto transactions between 2016 and 2020  —  A Massachusetts court is supporting a request from the IRS to obtain the records Circle customers, the Department of Justice said.

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