Domain Mondo | domainmondo.com

News Review Postscript

2019-07-07T00:02:00.185+02:00

Markets & Stocks: US Benchmarks S&P 500; NASDAQ Composite, DJIA

Macro Risks:

China: Hong Kong crushed, see here, here, here, end of autonomy, new reality, Taiwan?

Russia invades Ukraine.
Climate Change? Atlantic Hurricane Season LIVE Jun 1-Nov 30: Satellite Images & more.

News Review Postscript Updates & Selected Comments:

The ICANN & Verisign .WEB Fiasco (latest developments)

DomainMondo.com Editor's comments on circleid.com here, most recent Who owns a gTLD? and ICANN, grifters & new gTLDs; as well as

.BRAND has always been an ICANN SCAM;

New gTLDs & ICANN Insanity;

ICANN is a FAILED Organization;

Editor's ICANN Transfer Policy Comment (pdf).

See also DOJ Antitrust Div. Legal Advice given to ICANN (pp. 4-11), and editor's comment re: new gTLDs.

Earnings Webcasts: Verisign $VRSN (date/time); GoDaddy (date/time) $GDDY.

Also note July 11, 2023: "Shares of VeriSign Inc. dropped -5.4% toward a near three-month low, enough to pace the S&P 500's decliners, after Baird turned bearish on the domain name registry services company, citing concerns over domain growth."--Morningstar.com

Read Why your website is about to get more expensive | Politico.com -- Verisign, the government-backed monopoly that manages the .com domain, plans to raise prices this fall. And the year after that. And the year after that -- Read also this excerpt from Verisign Q3 FORM 10-Q:

"On October 26, 2018, Verisign and the DOC [US Department of Commerce] amended the Cooperative Agreement. The amendment, among other items, extends the term of the Cooperative Agreement until November 30, 2024 and permits the price of a .com domain name to be increased, subject to appropriate changes to the .com Registry Agreement, without further DOC approval, by up to 7% in each of the final four years of each six-year period beginning on October 26, 2018. On March 27, 2020, Verisign and ICANN amended the .com Registry Agreement that, among other items, incorporates these changes agreed to with the DOC to the pricing terms. Effective September 1, 2021, we increased the annual registry-level wholesale fee for each new and renewal .com domain name registration from $7.85 to $8.39. We have the contractual right to increase the fees for .net domain name registrations by up to 10% each year during the term of our agreement with ICANN, through June 30, 2023. All fees paid to us for .com and .net registrations are in U.S. dollars." [link added]

.WEB UPDATES: Editor's comment Dec 29, 2021 | circleid.com and Jan 4, 2023: "with .WEB serving as the leading example of just how incompetent, corrupt, and captured, ICANN and its processes truly are, and how inept ICANN’s new gTLDs program is, has been, and will continue to be ..."

2023 Apr 30 ICANN Board re: .WEB: "... the Board hereby: (a) determines that NDC did not violate the Guidebook or the Auction Rules, either through entering into the DAA or through its participation in the .WEB auction; (b) directs the Interim President and CEO, or her designee(s), to continue processing NDC's .WEB application; and (c) in light of the above, concludes that is not necessary to make a final determination at this time as to whether Altanovo violated the "Blackout Period" of the .WEB auction ... the Board hereby notes the questions raised regarding certain conduct by both NDC and Altanovo and directs the Interim President and CEO, or her designee(s), to carefully consider the issues raised by the parties and the Panel in the .WEB IRP with regard to agreements similar to the DAA and communications prior to an ICANN auction when developing the Guidebook and auction rules for the next round of the New gTLD Program in order to provide greater clarity to applicants regarding the transparency and notification requirements throughout the application and auction processes ... Resolved (2023.04.30.14), specific items within this resolution shall remain confidential pursuant to Article 3, section 3.5(b) of the ICANN Bylaws ..."

2021 Dec 21: Panel Decision (pdf) on Afilias's Rule 33 application: "Denies in its entirety Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited’s Rule 33 Application for an Additional Decision and for Interpretation, dated 21 June 2021" (p.54 of 57), and apportions fees and expenses accordingly. See also Verisign blog Dec 28, 2021: "Afilias/AltaNovo ... litigation counsel has already written ICANN threatening to continue litigation 'in all available fora whether within or outside of the United States of America'.…”

AFILIAS DOMAINS NO. 3 LIMITED’S RULE 33 APPLICATION FOR AN

ADDITIONAL DECISION AND FOR INTERPRETATION (pdf) dated 21 June 2021. Excerpt:

See more in the case file, including legal authorities submitted.

Jul 22: .WEB UPDATE via Verisign Form 10-Q filed with the SEC July 22, 2021:

"On June 19, 2021, Afilias filed an application to the IRP panel requesting that it interpret certain terms of, and make certain amendments to, the final decision. Verisign believes Afilias’ application is an unmeritorious request for reconsideration, which is not permitted under the applicable rules. Verisign expects the IRP panel to rule on Afilias’ application in Q4 2021. Verisign anticipates that once the IRP panel has ruled on Afilias’ application, ICANN’s Board will proceed consistent with the IRP panel’s recommendation to consider the objections and make a decision on the delegation of .web." See also Nu Dotco counsel's letter (pdf) dated July 23, 2021.

Jul 16: The Best Thing that ICANN Should Do NOW re: more new gTLDs, would be to ... consider ALL the damage done to the global DNS by the ill-conceived 2012 round of new gTLDs, including, but not limited to, the usability issues, fraud and scams, as well as all the issues raised by SSAC ...." [more here].

May 24 Verisign comments on .WEB IRP ruling (via SEC filing) highlighting added:

"... the ruling finds that certain actions and/or inaction by ICANN in response to Afilias' objections violated aspects of ICANN's bylaws related to transparency and fairness ..." (emphasis added).

Editor's comment: "... this ruling should be very troubling for the global internet community, as the panel found (at ¶8.) ICANN "violated" its own Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, the panel further ruling at ¶363 “The Panel has already determined that the Claimant [Afilias] is entitled to be designated as the prevailing party in relation to the liability portion of its core claims.” ... while NDC & Verisign may be the ultimate victors, ICANN comes off looking as incompetent, corrupt, and captured, as ever.

2021 Editor's comments re: usability issues in new gTLDs' domain names and

Incompetent, Corrupt & Captured: ICANN multistakeholderism is the biggest SCAM ever perpetrated on the global internet community; and

ICANN & US Gov: the AFILIAS DOMAINS NO. 3 LIMITED’S POST-HEARING BRIEF (redacted pdf) in the .WEB IRP is certainly interesting reading (all 132 pages) as much of the alleged malfeasance occurred prior to the IANA transition (Oct 1, 2016) and

the Public Interest vs. ICANN and

ICANN's Racketeering and

new gTLDs & trademark infringement and

re: .COM & startups, Domainers vs Astroturfing? and Who's an Investor? and

.COM, Trump, Verisign & ICANN "Pigs get Fat, Hogs get Slaughtered" and

ICANN, WHOIS, GDPR & .COM here & here, and here & here.

Beyond Incompetence, Corruption, and Capture: WHY does ICANN make so many BAD Decisions? Some of the reasons are here.

18 Dec 2020 (ICANN published 23 Dec): European Commission 2-page pushback (pdf) to ICANN CEO's 7-page letter seeking "clarity" re: GDPR, excerpt: "It is interesting that you put back some of these questions to the GAC and to the Commission. We think these questions are primarily a matter of ICANN policy and should be addressed within the EPDP according to the established procedures. Moreover, questions concerning the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should be primarily addressed to your legal advisors and, where necessary with a view to ensuring legal certainty, the competent EU data protection authorities (DPAs) .... As a final note, we would like to state our concern with the length of the WHOIS policy development and implementation process ..." [emphasis added]. See Editor's ICANN is the PROBLEM, NOT GDPR

18 Dec 2020: NTIA Objects to Planned o.com Auction

25 Nov 2020: Final Comment (pdf) to IGF2020.

ICANN Org has a fundamentally flawed and corrupt understanding of a core concept in Technical Internet Governance (TIG) -- RFC 1591 -- 2020 Nov 11 ICANN finally provides a responsive answer and Editor's reply (pdf). Previously ICANN engaged in bad faith and was unable or unwilling to answer the Question at IGF2020: "Are gTLDs global public resources (RFC 1591) or the property of each respective gTLD registry operator with whom ICANN has a registry agreement?" (read more here). On November 10, 2020, ICANN gave an evasive, non-responsive answer (pdf).

Note: The domain name system (DNS) was developed mainly by Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel in the early 1980s. The main specifications are laid down in RFCs, or requests for comment, managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). These are the accepted technical standards for the Internet; key ones are RFC 1034, RFC 1035, and RFC 1591 of March 1994, which defined the DNS structure and delegation.

30 Oct 2020: Editor's Letter to IGF2020 (pdf) excerpt: ".... Because ICANN is too institutionally corrupt to be reformed, ICANN will need to be replaced by the global internet community through a process outside of ICANN's control. IGF could be the place where such a process might begin in the global public interest." [IGF2020 virtual meeting Nov 2-6 & 9-17]

October 10, 2020: ICANN is the PROBLEM, NOT GDPR excerpt: "... ICANN is a "failed organization" and needs to be replaced ... Personally, I am not unhappy with the EPDP #FAIL, as the more ICANN fails, the sooner EVERYONE realizes that 'ICANN is the PROBLEM, NOT GDPR'" (read full comment at link above). See also The Pay-To-Play Reality of ICANN's Inclusion Illusion.

August 11, 2020: ICANN gTLD registry operators are extracting monopoly rentals from registrants.

October 2, 2020: ICANN new gTLDs are built on a scam and fraud.

August 27, 2020: comment at ICANN, Whois and Global Data Governance: "ICANN has already FAILED the global internet community, including domain name registrants, in so many ways, why continue to persist in ignoring the obvious? ICANN policy making is “dysfunctional by design” and its “consensus decision making” often exhibits groupthink at its worst. As you have noted, ICANN structures are rigged in favor of lobbyists and lawyers representing a few special interests and ICANN’s own “contracted parties,” NOT the “global public interest” nor even the “public interest” as defined by the European Union or any other duly elected governmental authority, including the State of California! Most domain name registrants have NO representation within the “ICANN community” and that is “intentional.” ICANN exists primarily (1) to perpetuate itself — the obscenely overpaid, and oftentimes incompetent, ICANN management, and staff, the inept ICANN Board of Directors, and the “few” who dominate and control the “ICANN community” — and (2) to perpetuate U.S. hegemony over global internet governance including the global DNS. ICANN is a “failed organization.” It needs to be replaced. If people such as yourself persist in pretending otherwise, by default others will decide."

June 12, 2020: ICANN Meetings & ICANN Incompetence, Corruption and Capture, excerpt: ICANN is "the antithesis of a multistakeholder organization operating in the global public interest."

June 12, 2020: Auctions & Next Round of New gTLDs, excerpt: "read and follow that 2008 advice [pp 4-11] from the US DoJ Antitrust Division, and abolish all private and public auctions as conducted in the last round of expansion of gTLDs."

May 29, 2020: What ZOOM.US may portend about ccTLDs vs. ICANN gTLDs including .COM: "My standing advice to any startup with serious intentions, is to register your company name (“brand name”) as an exact match .COM domain name and exact match ccTLD of the nation where you are incorporated and headquartered, i.e., for U.S. startups that means .US, for UK startups that means .UK, etc. ICANN is so incompetent, corrupt and captured, and its expansion of gTLDs such a fiasco (on so many levels), ICANN will likely be replaced at some point, perhaps sooner than we think, and with its demise we may see the end of most, if not all, gTLDs, supplanted by an international treaty governing the internet and ccTLDs, each ccTLD under the jurisdiction of each respective nation, subject to the terms of the international treaty. Zoom may be ahead of its time!" [Editor's note: zoom.com redirects to zoom.us]

The history of an international internet and cybersecurity treaty, "subsequently undermined by subsequent US administrations starting with the Clinton-Gore Administration. The result is now evident in an increasingly incompetent, corrupt, and captured ICANN, its fiasco of more than 1,000 new gTLDs delegated into the root zone 'failing to work as expected on the internet' (a problem which ICANN knew of since 2003) and which constitute an open invitation to cybercriminals worldwide. Obviously, the American answer, ICANN, needs to be replaced by the global internet community, and supplanted with a new international treaty."

Here is the 8-1 opinion from Justice Ginsburg in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. https://t.co/Z27bx9mUZ8 B.V. https://t.co/14287KqK4z
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 30, 2020

Editor's comment: Brand gTLDs [generic top-level domains] were a MISTAKE, a "brand" i.e., a trademark, is neither a monopoly nor generic.

Both .ORG & .COM were, and still are, existential issues for ICANN and its future role in internet governance, if any:

Inside China’s controversial mission to reinvent the internet | ft.com: "... Governments everywhere seem to agree that today’s model of internet governance — essentially, lawless self-regulation by private, mostly American companies — is broken. New IP is the latest in a series of efforts to change the way the internet is run, spearheaded by governments that were largely left out when it was founded half a century ago. 'The conflicts surrounding internet governance are the new spaces where political and economic power are unfolding in the 21st century,' wrote the academic Laura DeNardis in her 2014 book The Global War for Internet Governance ..." See also Huawei Whitepaper (pdf).

.ORG Update 2020 April 30: ICANN Rejects PIR's Change of Control Request thanks to an intervention by the California Attorney General in accordance with California statutory and common law. See also ICANN Board Chair blog post, the historical background to the .ORG horror show, and the May 1, 2020, "Dear Jon" letter sent by ICANN after rejecting the Ethos Capital "deal" re: .ORG.

Editor's comment on the .ORG decision to reject the Ethos Capital 'deal': The real winners are .ORG registrants and “the public interest,” defended by the California State Attorney General, acting in accordance with California statutory and common law. Obviously this has come as a shock to you, ICANN Org and its “community” dominated by lobbyists, lawyers, and special interests, as well as the Internet Society, PIR, and especially Ethos Capital, whose management and “advisors” included so many former members of ICANN Org management. What you call the “flawed status quo” is preferable to the Ethos Capital “private equity deal.” But there isn’t a “status quo” — PIR and the Internet Society have lost so much in the way of trust and respect by chasing this deal, they may NEVER recover their former status unless there is wholesale change in leadership and “corporate culture” — ICANN is also “now on notice” that the “public interest” includes the stakeholder interests of domain name registrants, a novel concept within ICANN Org.

15 April 2020: California Attorney General tells ICANN to reject (pdf) the Internet Society's proposed transfer of PIR and the .ORG registry to private equity firm Ethos Capital, excerpts from the AG Becerra's letter, singles out the Internet Society for acting "contrary to its mission"--

and also castigates ICANN--"There is mounting concern that ICANN is no longer responsive to the needs of its stakeholders. ICANN has an obligation to weigh the impact of approving the proposed transfer of the .ORG registry, in light of the lack of information, compared to information ICANN possessed and the criteria it used when it first awarded ISOC/PIR the privilege to operate the .ORG registry in 2002" [emphasis added]. Also note: 4 May 2020 is now the deadline for an ICANN decision on the matter, another extension (previous deadline April 20).

See also Esther Dyson and Mike Roberts' letter to AGs of California and Pennsylvania (pdf) -- "... ICANN has been accused by its founding CEO and original chair of abandoning the organization's core principles and accepting commitments it knows it cannot enforce in order to push through the sale of the .org registry ... [ICANN] is also accused of circumventing its own decision-making processes and using the coronavirus pandemic to push through the $1.13bn sale ..."--Kieren McCarthy, theregister.co.uk

.COM Update Mar 27, 2020: ICANN Approves .COM Registry Agreement Amendment and Proposed Binding Letter of Intent between ICANN and Verisign: "... ICANN org is not a competition authority or price regulator. We have long-deferred to the U.S. Government Department of Commerce (DOC) and Department of Justice for the regulation of pricing for .COM registry services, as per the Cooperative Agreement between Verisign and the DOC ..."--ICANN President & CEO Goran Marby. See response letter to ICANN Board, Apr 2, 2020 from Zak Muscovitch, ICA General Counsel, and "By becoming a spineless organization, ICANN is on a path to be made irrelevant" -- What will Göran Marby's legacy at ICANN be? | DomainNameWire.com.

Editor's .COM comment re: ICANN Proposal (Amendment No. 3 & LOI); Public Comment Period closed 14 Feb 2020 23:59 UTC. More info here. See also the comment by Attorney Arif Hyder Ali (via DNW), Greg Rafert Ph.D. comment, and thousands of other comments opposing the ICANN proposal.

Verisign & Trump? | mashable.com and Verisign's Letter to ICANN and Verisign 10K filed with the SEC on February 14, 2020, including this chart:

Source: VeriSign, Inc. 10K. Does this look like a corporation that needs annual increases in .COM registration and renewal fees allowed by the U.S. government (Dept. of Commerce-NTIA) and the industry-captured monopoly 'internet coordinator' ICANN, a California nonprofit 'Public Benefit Corporation'? Verisign derives most of its income as sole monopoly Trustee and operator of the .COM registry. See also: What ICANN should do if it does not want to be a "price regulator" and Editor's comment:

Verisign, the .COM monopoly registry operator, having captured the Trump administration's US Department of Commerce (NTIA), as well as the inept California non-profit "internet coordinator" known as ICANN, is now able to increase its fees for more than 145 million+ captive .COM registrants by 7% per annum compounded, for the next 4 years, and for the last 4 of every 6 years' period thereafter, into perpetuity -- Next stop: antitrust actions by state AGs, DOJ, FTC, EU, China, India, or private parties?

.WEB Afilias IRP Feb 12: NU DOTCO, LLC and VeriSign, Inc. (the Amici) are allowed to participate as amici in the IRP. More info here.

.ORG #SaveDotOrg updates: 2020 Mar 18 Letter: ICANN Should Reject the Proposed Transfer of the .ORG Registry--US Senators Warren, Wyden, Blumenthal, Markey & US Representative Eshoo.

Mar 18: PIR Agrees to ICANN Extension — KeyPointsAbout.org: "we have agreed to an ICANN [.ORG] deadline extension to April 20th."

Mar 12: .ORG & Private PICs (as proposed by Ethos Capital & PIR)--ill-conceived private PICs were first allowed by ICANN Org in connection with its 2012 expansion of new gTLDs, "a fiasco on so many levels"--

Feb 26 Namecheap v. ICANN IRP re: .ORG, .INFO. .BIZ.

Feb 21 ICANN-PIR Letter agreement extending deadline, to March 20, 2020 for ICANN to provide or withhold consent to PIR's proposed change of control. See also Feb 24 letter from Internet Society to ICANN.

Feb 19 ICANN Letter to PIR (additional questions & requests for information).

Feb 14: ICANN-PIR Letter agreement re: 29 February 2020 deadline for ICANN to provide or withhold consent to PIR’s proposed change of control.

Feb 13: ICANN Sends Questions to Internet Society and Letter from ICANN Counsel to PIR Counsel re: scope of ICANN's review.

Feb 4: ICANN denies ASO inspection request re: .ORG.

Pigs Get FAT, Hogs Get SLAUGHTERED - @ICANN & its "gTLD Registry Operators" Were UNACCOUNTABLE Until @AGBecerra - Breach of #FiduciaryDuty owed to Registrants has only gotten WORSE since the #IANAtransition https://t.co/UM6QPfq74i #NetGov #Domains #DomainNames #ICANN #SaveDotOrg pic.twitter.com/MktHUDV1I3
— DrivingTheDay (@DrivingTheDay) February 2, 2020

California Government Code § 12588: "The Attorney General may investigate transactions and relationships of corporations and trustees subject to this article for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the purposes of the corporation or trust are being carried out in accordance with the terms and provisions of the articles of incorporation or other instrument. The Attorney General may require any agent, trustee, fiduciary, beneficiary, institution, association, or corporation, or other person to appear, at a named time and place, in the county designated by the Attorney General, where the person resides or is found, to give information under oath and to produce books, memoranda, papers, documents of title, and evidence of assets, liabilities, receipts, or disbursements in the possession or control of the person ordered to appear."

California Government Code § 12598 "(a) The primary responsibility for supervising charitable trusts in California, for ensuring compliance with trusts and articles of incorporation, and for protection of assets held by charitable trusts and public benefit corporations, resides in the Attorney General. The Attorney General has broad powers under common law and California statutory law to carry out these charitable trust enforcement responsibilities ..." [emphasis added]

California Attorney General Opens Investigation:
2020 Jan 30: ICANN announces it received an investigation letter from the California Attorney General (CA-AGO) [pdf] dated Jan 23, 2020, regarding .ORG Change of Control and further, PIR has been requested to extend to April 20, 2020, the deadline for ICANN to approve "the change of control" (see ICANN letter to PIR (pdf) Jan 30, 2020). The CA-AGO's "investigation" letter to ICANN contains 35 questions for ICANN to answer, and also states that "additional documents and information may be requested." UPDATE Jan 31 ICANN response (pdf).

Read also: The Shaky Future of .org Domains | The New York Times: "in a statement to The Financial Times, ICANN said it “does not have authority over the proposed acquisition,” a claim that is patently false."

Editor's note: Lying & deceit are part of corrupt ICANN's corporate & organizational culture, so embedded within ICANN culture that ICANN is beyond reform and incapable of protecting the global public interest re: .ORG or any other gTLD. See also:

.Org: ICANN's Betrayals and its Opportunity to Act Now in the Public Interest | circleid.com

Jan 24, 2020: SaveDotOrg Protest at ICANN headquarters: 12025 Waterfront Dr., Los Angeles.

21 Jan 2020: The billion-dollar battle over .org registry ownership intensifies and The .ORG Sale Fiasco: "the organizations [ICANN and Internet Society] charged with protecting the internet from malign influence have completely lost their way."

17 January 2020: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Public Interest Registry (PIR) agree (pdf) to a 30-day extension of ICANN's time to review PIR's submissions, to 17 February 2020. Also, ICANN will be requesting further information from PIR.

Read also NASCO Letter re: .ORG 17 Jan 2020 (pdf), excerpt: ".... We are concerned about the implications of the conversion of PIR to a for-profit LLC ("PIR LLC") controlled by Ethos Capital and undisclosed minority investors. As a charitable nonprofit, PIR has been a regulated entity subject to federal and state oversight of its charitable assets, governance and tax-exempt status. This conversion would remove these important layers of transparency and accountability. Further, in maintaining the '.org' registry, PIR has historically been obligated to act in furtherance of its charitable mission (i.e., serving the public interest online through operating and managing the '.org' domain) ... For-profit control over the '.org' registry would shift PIR's objective from offering a public benefit to one focused on deriving the greatest amount of profit from its subscribers. PIR would have an interest, indeed an obligation, to maximize profits for its members. We have significant concerns about how domain price increases and availability may affect charitable organizations that rely on their domain and inhibit access to new entrants .... we respectfully urge you to consider these concerns and allow appropriate time for regulatory authorities to review the impact of this proposed transaction." [emphasis added]

and ICANN Needs To Ask More Questions About the Sale of .ORG | Electronic Frontier Foundation 17 Jan 2020.

The Question ICANN may be too inept or corrupt to ask & get answered:

"How do you [Ethos Capital et al] reconcile your proposal for 10% per annum compounded price increases — doubling the price of .ORG domain names every seven (7.2) years — with the following:

"The policy for the operation of the .org registry required inter alia that (i) the registry be “operated for the benefit of the worldwide community of organizations, groups, and individuals engaged in noncommercial communication via the Internet”, (ii) responsibility for the .org administration be “delegated to a non-profit organization that has widespread support from and acts on behalf of that community”, and (iii) registry fee charged to accredited registrars be “as low as feasible consistent with the maintenance of good quality service”. The DNSO’s policy on the reassignment and administration of the .ORG registry has never been amended nor revoked." — Namecheap reconsideration p. 9 citing ICANN, Report of the Dot Org Task Force Adopted by the DNSO Names Council 17 January 2002 and accepted as guidance by the ICANN Board on 14 March 2002."

"Glad to co-chair with Jack Ma #WuzhenSummit multistakeholder advisory committee"--Fadi Chehade, ICANN President & CEO, Dec 18, 2015, at China's World Internet Conference a/k/a Wuzhen Summit, "a vehicle for the Chinese [Communist] Party-state’s policy agenda."

How China Will Take Over the Internet with help from ICANN UPDATE: In re: .ORG (pdf), excerpt:

".... Under the facts presented, Ethos Capital, the Internet Society, and PIRegistry, are, in effect, asking ICANN to approve a "novation" ... If approved, not only will unlimited .ORG price increases occur, but eventually, every valuable gTLD will be owned by a state-owned, funded or controlled enterprise of China -- China will just "buy" .COM, .NET, .ORG, .WEB, etc., and thereby control the internet -- no private equity firm, and few publicly owned companies (certainly NOT Verisign), can match the financial resources of Chinese SOEs."

Comment published:

Yes, let's be clear, when did ICANN overturn RFC 1591? When did the U.S. & @ICANN its contractor at that time, grant "ownership rights" in TLD .ORG to the @internetsociety or @PIRegistry ? More Questions https://t.co/a2FtJkGEXl #domains #DomainName #NetGov #SaveDotOrg #ICANN https://t.co/i7zQT9gVfR
— DrivingTheDay (@DrivingTheDay) January 9, 2020

2020 Jan 3: ICANN Reveals what a sweetener (pdf) of $20 million buys. Comment and Question for ICANN and the global internet community, excerpt:

"... When did ICANN overturn RFC 1591 and the continuous position of the United States, historical steward of the DNS from the time of its creation, that TLDs are global public resources, NOT the property of ICANN (successor to IANA) nor ANY registry operator .... While it may be the intent of corrupt or inept ICANN leadership, past or present, to facilitate the largest theft of global public resources in history, please cite where and when the ‘shift in positioning’ was formally approved as formal ICANN policy to negate RFC 1591 both as to new gTLDs and legacy gTLDs, and who at ICANN claims to have sanctioned it on behalf of the global internet community as being in the “global public interest.”

"The slow rot in those organizations – ICANN and ISOC [Internet Society] key among them – have been apparent for years but its clearest indication is in the fact that they have all but abandoned a commitment to transparency."--Kieren McCarthy | theregister.co.uk.

Further below: Editor's Letter to ICANN et al re: .ORG & Ethos Capital; Sordid Backstory of ICANN, Ethos Capital, and .ORG; Namecheap & EFF Rebuttals, and more. See also #SaveDotOrg and Editor's comment here. Also note: On 27 December 2019, the Number Resource Organization (NRO), acting as the Address Supporting Organization (ASO), submitted correspondence to ICANN regarding the Internet Society’s proposed transfer of ownership of PIR, the .org registry, to Ethos Capital: "... The NRO has reviewed recent events surrounding the proposal by ISOC to transfer the ownership of PIR, the .org Registry, to Ethos Capital. While we do not normally engage in policy matters related to the DNS, we consider ICANN’s handling of this proposal to be an important Internet governance decision, with bearing on the community’s trust in ICANN, and the legitimacy of the ICANN model ... the ASO seeks to inspect any ICANN records which pertain to or provide relevant insight to the process by which ICANN will consider (and potentially approve) the assignment of the .org Registry Agreement, including the process by which input from the affected community will be obtained prior to ICANN’s consideration and potential approval of the assignment.”

28 Dec 2019: Just when you think it can't get any worse, ICANN yet again shows itself "too corrupt or inept"-- read the particulars (pdf), excerpt:

Dec 28, 2019: New Year's Wish: Please, Someone, Anyone, perhaps the California State Attorney General, End ICANN's Existence.

News Review Postscript: Most Read (week ending July 6, 2019), on DomainMondo.com:

#1 News Review | ICANN65 Recap, Regulatory Capture at ICANN: "ICANN65 was a rather more dreadful ICANN meeting than usual, perhaps due to a confluence of factors demonstrating how incompetent, corrupt, and unfit ICANN is ..."

#2 Tech Review 1) Why Jony Ive Chose To Leave Apple, 2) Big Tech & Profits

#3 Android or iOS, Why Smartphones Aren't Exciting Anymore (video)

Signing off for now, thank you.

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
DISCLAIMER

Dec 9, 2019 ICANN blog post re: .ORG, Internet Society, Ethos Capital, PIR.

Nov 24, 2019 Editor's letter to ICANN Board et al (pdf) re: .ORG and the sale of Public Interest Registry (PIR) to Ethos Capital. See also my comment here: "... it is now clear the parties involved, including Ethos Capital, ISOC, and ICANN, have a complete misunderstanding of the legal principles involved, and the Internet Society is attempting to "sell" something it doesn't own, i.e., the TLD .ORG. Caveat Emptor!"

Domain Mondo: Sordid Backstory of ICANN, Ethos Capital, and .ORG. See also #SaveDotOrg.

Nov 27, 2019: Town Hall Meeting on .ORG at IGF 2019: "... ICANN board members Becky Burr and Chris Disspain ... explained the process they go through when ownership of a registry changes. They acknowledged that section 7.5 of the ORG Registry Agreement gives them a role in the transfer of control and that the process associated with that is already happening. They can ask questions of ISOC trustees and PIR about the sale and exchange information. There is no fixed 30-day limit on these exchanges, rather a rolling 30 day limit on each round of questions and responses. Board members acknowledged ICANN’s ability to attach conditions to the recognition of Ethos Capital as the new operator of .ORG. Board member Leon Sanchez was also in attendance ..."

Nov 18, 2019 Namecheap Rebuttal to ICANN Board (pdf) re: .ORG and .INFO price caps. Excerpt: " ... ICANN’s reliance upon Professor Carlton’s 2009 analysis is misguided because it is an opinion not based upon evidence or facts, but relies upon outdated and incomplete assumptions. Second, ICANN claims that the Base RA was developed through the ICANN policy process, however there is no evidence to suggest that those participants intended or considered the Base RA to apply to legacy TLDs ..." More here.

Nov 19, 2019 EFF Rebuttal to ICANN Board (pdf) excerpt: "... sale of PIR to a private equity firm ... heightens the need for you to spend more time and discussion on the .ORG contract renewal challenges ..." More here.

Nov 15, 2019 ICA Letter to ICANN re: Ethos Capital & .ORG (pdf).

Nov 13, 2019: Ethos Capital, led by former ABRY Partners Managing Partner, buys .ORG registry.

The interesting connection between the .ORG deal and ICANN -- "Former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé appears to have a connection to the latest big deal in the domain name industry." -- And they named their company Ethos. Give me a break!

"... moral bankruptcy ... Especially in combination with the recent removal of price caps for .org domains."

Nov 10, 2019: ICANN66 Wrap (pdf): "... UAM: Domain Name Registrants Look Forward to Suing ICANN under GDPR ... Every Antitrust & Competition Authority in the World Should Be Investigating ICANN & its gTLDs ..." [more here].

Best Question at .US Townhall Oct 24: "So I have to go to an ICANN meeting in a foreign country to participate in a .US stakeholder group? Count Me OUT! ICANN is CORRUPT, CAPTURED, INCOMPETENT ..." https://t.co/UM6QPfq74i #Domains #InternetSociety #ISOC #NetGov #ICANN #ICANN66 pic.twitter.com/MEmL8iWaI6
— DrivingTheDay (@DrivingTheDay) October 27, 2019

Internet Society received $48.7 million in 2018, via its affiliate PIR, .ORG Registry Operator (pdf).

Oct 9, 2019, email from a reader: "John, I've been following your comments on the CCT review team – and I’m shocked more people are not paying attention. Your words are spot on and its extremely troubling. I also spent hours and hours going through DomainMondo.com – wow!! You are right on so many different areas. Are you planning on making a comment here as well? As a follow up?"

Editor's response:

Thank you for your email and kind comments. As you may know, I have already commented at various times during the CCT process, see this (pdf). Accordingly, I see no point in commenting further on either the ICANN Board's decision, or ICANN org's "path" concerning the Board's decision re: the CCT recommendations.

I have ~~pretty much~~ 'given up' on ICANN and its "commenting process" which appears to be as much a public charade as ICANN's claims concerning "competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice." ICANN has failed the global internet community and does not operate in the global public interest. Because of the IANA transition, we, the global internet community, have no effective remedy, at present, to reform or replace ICANN, or its misguided policies and practices.

However, I encourage you, and others so inclined [notwithstanding the above], to submit your own comments to ICANN on this and any other matter. If DomainMondo.com aids in providing reference sources which you find helpful, so much the better.

Attn: Startups & VCs - Caveat Emptor gTLD Domain Names (except .COM) https://t.co/gyC0MMV3Ul #business #venturecapital #VC #investors #domain #domainname #TLD #ICANN #gTLDs #startup #startups #invest https://t.co/FQbm5oDZYW
— Red Sky Fund (@RedSkyFund) October 6, 2019

References:

Domain Mondo Archive below (on mobile go to "web version");

US DOJ Antitrust Letter via NTIA, 18 Dec 2008 (pdf); NTIA (same letter);

ICANN Letter re: NTIA Review 9 Jan 2008 (pdf);

https://www.ntia.doc.gov/category/domain-name-system

https://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/ntiahome/domainname/

Verisign Cooperative Agreement; .COM Amendments 32 (pdf), 34 (pdf), 35 (pdf).

ICANN & Verisign .COM Registry Agreement

Editor's Comment to NTIA 17 July 2018 (pdf);

ICANN & Its 'Junk Science' New gTLDs -- ICANN decided to not follow advice from the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division (via NTIA pp 4-11), and instead, hired 'junk science' experts;

Caveat Emptor: ICANN & New gTLD Domain Names (how ICANN came to "screw up its new gTLDs program so badly");

Editor's ICANN Engagement;

Selected comments to ICANN from the Editor:

Registry renewals of .ORG (pdf), .INFO (pdf), .BIZ (pdf), .ASIA (pdf);

Also note: "... there are some very disturbing things about the new .ORG Registry Agreement contract. The problems relate to the role of community policy development vs. bilateral contract in the governance of the domain name system. It appears that ICANN’s contracting process provides ICANN and its contracting parties a way to completely bypass ICANN’s policy development process. As such, it undermines the whole purpose of having ICANN in the first place .... It gives the lie to ICANN’s continued claim that it fosters bottom up multistakeholder consensus policies. It provides for an end run around fundamental bylaw constraints, such as the one prohibiting ICANN from regulating content. This is a troublesome loophole in ICANN’s contractual model of governance, and board members and GNSO representatives need to do something about it. As for the community, we need to put Verisign on notice. We will not allow the same thing to happen to the .COM contract ... a coalition with antitrust agencies concerned about market power and monopoly pricing and civil society free speech advocates would be powerful, and litigation inevitable if they try the same trick again."--Dr. Milton Mueller, The real problem with the new .ORG contract | internetgovernance.org (emphasis added);

and The Case for Regulatory Capture at ICANN | ReviewSignal.com;

and ICANN Fails the Internet Community, allows an unlimited non profit tax | ReviewSignal.com;

and Namecheap, Inc. 12 Jul 2019 Reconsideration Request (pdf) re: ICANN’s decision to renew the registry agreement for .ORG and .INFO without the historic price caps. Follow the proceeding here;

Read also How the battle over domain prices could drastically change the web | mashable.com: "... [ICANN] just opened the door to monopolies charging whatever they want for registering a web address. Ironically, the U.S. government formed ICANN in 1998 to prevent a monopoly ..."

and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) 30 July 2019 Reconsideration Request (pdf) re: .ORG registry agreement renewal, including incorporation of the URS and "explicit permission from ICANN for PIR to 'at its election, implement additional protections of the legal rights of third parties' unilaterally and without further consultation with existing .org registrants or the ICANN community." Follow the proceeding here, including this letter from EFF (pdf), excerpt:

"... The Ombudsman’s Evaluation misstates EFF’s positions and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the issues. The Committee should disregard the Ombudsman’s Evaluation and recommend to the Board that EFF’s Request for Reconsideration be granted ..."

Read also: Opening the Door for Censorship: New Trademark Enforcement Mechanisms Added for Top-Level Domains | eff.org.

and "... it is troubling to see ICANN dismissing comments because they were collected via an organized campaign, since it essentially closes off the comment space to anyone other than ICANN insiders. This defeats the purpose of having public comments ... If ICANN does not take this duty seriously, people will naturally start to question why it should be entrusted with this role."--Michael Karanicolas, Wikimedia Fellow at Yale Law School, Sep 14, 2019 (emphasis added).

and letter to ICANN Ombudsman (pdf) from Internet Commerce Association, Sep 12, 2019. [Editor's note: even the ICANN Ombudsman is incompetent, an Inept Apologist for a 'Corrupt' & 'Captured' ICANN.]

EPDP Phase 1 Final Report (pdf);

New gTLDs' Auction Proceeds;

CCT Review (pdf);

ICANN Jurisdiction (pdf);

Registry renewal of .NET (pdf);

UDRP (pdf).

News Review 1) Cyber Sovereignty Rising, 2) ICANN Fatally Flawed https://t.co/HwNGGgMMYw #domains #DomainNames #trademarks #NetGov #IGF2019 #DataPrivacy #GDPR #antitrust #ICANN65 #ICANN pic.twitter.com/CzjQH7YkPk
— Domain Mondo (@DomainMondo) June 15, 2019

"ICANN fatally flawed"

NR: 1) ICANN65 Recap - EPDP, GAC, AMAZON, ICANN Org & Next Round gTLDs, 2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN? https://t.co/gQrQOIt86N $AMZN #Amazon #Brazil #Brasil #domain #Domains #trademark #NetGov #IGF2019 #GDPR #ICANN65 #ICANN pic.twitter.com/41b4WozrG5
— DrivingTheDay (@DrivingTheDay) June 30, 2019

ICANN65, EPDP, AMAZON, New gTLDs, Regulatory Capture at ICANN
Trademarks (.BRAND) gTLDs were a MISTAKE (read 2)b. at that link),
an extortion racket, see .PING testimony. Follow .AMAZON reconsideration here and here. Update: "We consider this [new gTLD .AMAZON] decision illegal and unjust expropriation of our culture, tradition, history and image before the world."--ACTO letter moreira-to-marby-14jan20-en.pdf

Greycroft's Alan Patricof on Big Tech & Antitrust Concerns (video) https://t.co/7lCaOVz29J $FB $AAPL $GOOGL $GOOG $AMZN #BigTech #antitrust pic.twitter.com/P9d5vNTCUe
— Domain Mondo (@DomainMondo) June 16, 2019

"Let’s face it, the Internet is a utility and so are the corporations who control it .... Technology needs to be regulated"--Alan Patricof.

2)a. .WEB IRP & @ICANN corrupt new gTLDs - IT PAYS TO LOSE - ICANN Expert Witness says one bidder "received over $50 million from losing private auctions" https://t.co/uf68qJ0dCK #domains #DomainNames #NetGov #IGF2019 #ICANN65 #ICANN pic.twitter.com/Cul4yecBHl
— DrivingTheDay (@DrivingTheDay) June 18, 2019

Ill-Conceived & Corrupt New gTLDs: Win $50 Million By Losing New gTLD Auctions

News Review Postscript - Signing off for now, thank you. https://t.co/4kcxjlOKgq #domains #DomainNames #trademark #NetGov #Domain #IGF2019 #ICANN pic.twitter.com/LJZgIgJ070
— Domain Mondo (@DomainMondo) July 6, 2019

"Signing off for now ..."

Tech Review 1) Why Jony Ive Chose To Leave Apple, 2) Big Tech & Profits https://t.co/3fzUd0kph8 #StockMarket #JonyIve #LoveFrom #design $AAPL #Apple #BigTech #technology #investing pic.twitter.com/JwiebxyK5B
— Domain Mondo (@DomainMondo) July 5, 2019

"To create something that's genuinely new, you have to start again and I think with great intent, you disconnect from the past."--Jony Ive

More People Speak English Than Any Other Language in the World Today - The English Language & Americanisms (video) https://t.co/R8PJ0kagX4 #IndependenceDay #AmericanIndependence #EnglishLanguage #English #July4th pic.twitter.com/dvyWnwM4ux
— Domain Mondo (@DomainMondo) July 3, 2019

Native + Non-Native Speakers

Tech Review 1) Why Jony Ive Chose To Leave Apple, 2) Big Tech & Profits

2019-07-06T00:02:00.000+02:00

Tech Review (TR 2019-07-06)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Why Jony Ive Chose To Leave Apple, 2) Big Tech: Do Profits Really Matter? 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: China & Huawei, Eurozone Japanification, US Pension Crisis & Federal Debt, 4) ICYMI Tech News: WTF Apple? Amazon, Broadcom, Antitrust, Google, and more.

UPDATE Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) bites the bullet, radical transformation, new leadership, cuts 18,000 jobs.

1) Why Jony Ive Chose To Leave Apple

Jony Ive will leave Apple later this year to start a new venture of his own, called LoveFrom, with Apple as his first client. No one will be taking Jony Ive's title, Chief Design Officer, a position at the center of 20 years of product development at Apple, when he leaves, says the FT.com's technology correspondent Tim Bradshaw, who talks about his exclusive interview with Jony Ive in the video above published June 28, 2019.

"To create something that's genuinely new, you have to start again and I think with great intent, you disconnect from the past."--Jony Ive

Editor's note: Why did Jony Ive choose to leave Apple? He simply wanted to do something new.

See also: Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Monday fiercely disputed a WSJ report about the departure of Jony Ive and the company's ability to uphold its commitment to innovative design.

2) Big Tech: do profits really matter?

Why are loss-making tech companies still attracting investors who are willing to wait for companies to turn a profit? FT.com video published July 1, 2019.

Note also re: fracking technology: “I'm not aware of another case of a disruptive technological change that has done so much harm to the industry that created the change ... While hundreds of billions of dollars of benefits have accrued to hundreds of millions of people, the amount of shareholder value destruction registers in the hundreds of billions of dollars ... The industry is self-destructive.”--Steve Schlotterbeck, former chief executive of EQT, a shale gas giant, at a petrochemicals conference in Pittsburgh. Editor's note: and this doesn't even begin to address fracking's health and environmental issues.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +1.9% | S&P 500 Index +1.7% | DJIA +1.2%

Stocks finished slightly lower on Friday, backing away from all-time highs hit earlier this week, after a better-than-expected employment report in June partially rolled back investors' expectations for multiple rate cuts this year.

I Just Hope the Fed Doesn’t See This Jobs Report--wolfstreet.com. U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose 224,000 in June, well above market expectations of 165,000, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate edged higher to 3.7% (300,000 people entered the labor force looking for work and therefore counted as unemployed), but was still near 50-year lows. Wage growth was 3.1% year over year.

Goldman Sachs' explanation on why there is now a "bull market in almost everything"--"monetary policy" remains the main driver of risk appetite and expectations are now very bullish.

Global hedge fund liquidations exceeded launches for the third consecutive quarter as managers faced a tough capital-raising environment. About 213 funds closed in the first three months of this year, compared with 136 that opened--bloomberg.com. Editor's note: why pay the high fees?

Investor Notes:

China: "The Huawei battle reflects a fundamental geostrategic shift in Washington. For decades, the U.S. foreign policy establishment assumed Beijing would evolve into a cooperative partner in the rules-based, American-led international order that did so much to foster China's boom. That hope has evaporated. Now, the United States sees China as an adversary determined to challenge American leadership in technology and innovation. President Donald Trump has launched a trade war against Beijing and is boosting defense spending. Huawei is cast as a Chinese standard-bearer in that struggle."--Special Report | reuters.com See also:

US Commerce Department staff told to treat Huawei like it is still blacklisted;
U.S. Hits Back at Huawei Lawsuit--wsj.com and nytimes.com.

EU: The Eurozone’s Japanification--with the eurozone economy stuck in a low growth, low inflation and low rates environment, it's really hard not to make 'Japanification' comparisons. If we're honest, the eurozone is probably already in the thick of it, which means rates are likely to remain lower for longer and every new crisis or recession will bring the bloc closer to more Japanification--ing.com. See also French Bond Yields Slide Below Zero, Hit All Time Record Lows and Deutsche Bank's Restructuring Plan To Cost Staggering €5 Billion--zerohedge.com; German prosecutors are escalating a money laundering inquiry involving Deutsche Bank, including planned raids on wealthy former clients, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told reuters.com.

There is the ongoing economic misery across Europe. Most of the economy remains stalled – and there are signs it could get worse ... I am not anti-European, but I think it’s about to go through a slow implosion. There is an increasing likelihood Europe becomes largely detached and delinked from the US and other Occidental economies, and irrelevant to the growth economies of the Orient. From a trade perspective, I suspect we’d [UK] be better off outside [the European Union]--Bill Blain.

See also How Does the European Union Work? The EU’s authority has steadily expanded as its members have passed more and more decision-making power to the union--cfr.org. New leaders of the EU / ECB (nominees still need to be debated and ratified by the European Parliament):

Ursula von der Leyen, 60, Germany: European Commission President;
Charles Michel, 43, Belgium: President of the European Council;
Josep Borrell, 72, Spain: EU High Representative (foreign policy);
Christine Lagarde, 63, France: European Central Bank President.

U.S. Under the Radar: Pension Crisis Deepens in U.S. as strategies shift, outlooks dim--bloomberg.com. "I can only repeat again and again: There is no solution to the woefully underfunded pensions in Chicago and in Illinois that does not involve benefit cuts subsequent to a 2020 constitutional amendment or municipal bankruptcy. And the sooner Pritzker and Lightfoot figure that out, the better off we’ll all be."--wirepoints.org. Note also: soaring federal debt "poses substantial risks for the nation" warns Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

4) ICYMI Tech News:

WTF Apple? Apple Moves Mac Pro Production to China--the $6,000 desktop computer had been the company’s only major device assembled in the U.S.--wsj.com. See also Electronics exodus from China--HP and Dell plan to shift up to 30% of notebook production out of China; Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Sony, Nintendo also want to move some production--nikkei.com.

Airbnb is among IPOs investors are anticipating in the second half of 2019--CNBC (video).

Broadcom In Advanced Talks to Acquire Symantec--another software acquisition by CEO Tan?

Antitrust: Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) representing Walmart, Target, Best Buy, others writes to FTC (pdf) about tech giant dominance, offering help with antitrust probes, and calls out Amazon and Google.

Amazon & Product Liability: 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (2-1) rules customers can sue Amazon when they buy defective products from its platform, even if Amazon did not make those products.

What's left to monetize? It appears the answer is "very little."--blogspot.com--"Advertising has always monetized consumers' time and attention, what we call engagement today. Big Tech has generated billions of dollars by monetizing other forms of engagement and privately owned capital/assets. Google has monetized web search ... AirBNB has monetized privately owned or leased homes and flats ..."

Early front-runners to regulate Libra are FINMA (Switzerland) and BOE (UK): "The long-run success of Libra critically depends on finding a nation with financial gravitas willing to provide Libra-friendly rules."--seekingalpha.com.

Ireland-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane has apparently vanished, taking as many as 246,000 users’ crypto deposits with it.--zerohedge.com.

Personal Tech: Surviving a SIM swap attack | zdnet.com--"Turns out, the attack was likely driven by a Coinbase account I experimented with in early 2018 that was never closed." See also The Motherboard Guide to Not Getting Hacked.

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo

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Starbucks 15-Year Journey to 100% Ethically Sourced Coffee (video)

2019-07-05T00:02:00.000+02:00

The Starbucks 15-Year Journey to 100% Ethically Sourced Coffee with Conservation International

Starbucks has partnerships with organizations like Conservation International and the Eastern Congo Initiative to ensure its coffee is as close to 100% ethically sourced as possible. Starbucks video above published Jun 11, 2019.

How Starbucks $SBUX Created Its Iconic Mermaid Logo

How Starbucks Found Its Mythical Mermaid: the story about how a much-loved novel provided inspiration for the Starbucks logo. Video by Leila Hussain. Bloomberg.com video first published Apr 30, 2018.

Stock exchange: shares | NASDAQ: SBUX

Domain: starbucks.com
Tweets by Starbucks

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The English Language & Americanisms (video)

2019-07-04T00:02:00.000+02:00

Editor's note: the Fourth of July is celebrated as Independence Day in the U.S., commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776. But the 'Americans' who revolted (predominantly English men and women then living in the 13 original colonies), also kept their mother tongue, which continued to flourish and prosper, in the U.S., and throughout the world.

The "Grand Union Flag" which served as the U.S. national flag from 1776 to 1777:

The Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States. The design consisted of 13 stripes, red and white, representing the original Thirteen Colonies, the canton on the upper left-hand corner bearing the British Union Flag, the red cross of St. George of England with the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. The flag was first flown on December 2, 1775, by John Paul Jones (then a Continental Navy lieutenant), on the ship Alfred in Philadelphia.

The English Language and Americanisms

The Economist's language expert, Lane Greene, knows a thing or two about English. Lane is a fan of words, lots of words, and Lane is an American living in London. He's become accustomed to British English slang. But Lane often hears Britons complain that there are too many American words and expressions creeping into British English, these are called Americanisms. The Economist.com video above first published Nov 23, 2017.

English is the largest language in the world, if you count both native and non-native speakers. If you count only native speakers, Mandarin Chinese is the largest. https://t.co/Yrso3BrPY5 pic.twitter.com/45Pm0KGwPA
— Ethnologue (@theEthnologue) October 2, 2018

About two billion people study English as a non-native language - that's nearly one in three people worldwide. There are more English speakers (native + non-native) worldwide, than of any other language in the world today. As a result, unlike the other major languages in the world today, non-native speakers of English far outnumber native speakers!

The country with the largest number of English speakers (native + non-native) is India, where English is an additional official language for government work along with Hindi. The total population of India will surpass China by 2024.

The UK government classifies the following countries as majority native English speaking: Antigua and Barbuda; Australia; The Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Canada; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Ireland; Jamaica; New Zealand; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; United Kingdom; United States of America.

The countries that have the best proficiency in English as a second language:

source: statista.com

Digital Detox | Surviving Without Tech for Three Days (video)

2019-07-03T00:02:00.001+02:00

Can I survive without tech for three days?

What is it like to fast for three days without any technology or devices? CNBC.com’s Uptin Saiidi took on the challenge, as he goes on a quest to learn more about tech addiction and the billion dollar mindfulness industry hoping to combat it. CNBC International video above published May 15, 2019.

Domain referenced: headspace.com
Tweets by Headspace

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Android or iOS, Why Smartphones Aren't Exciting Anymore (video)

2019-07-02T00:02:00.000+02:00

Why Aren't Smartphones Exciting Anymore?

Smartphone sales are declining, and the pace of innovation is slowing. Manufacturers are scrambling to find new ways to conjure up excitement. Bloomberg QuickTake explains what might be the future of smartphones. Bloomberg.com video above published Jun 19, 2019.

See also: WSJ: Jony Ive Became 'Dispirited' After Apple Watch and Sometimes Failed to Show Up to Meetings--Report: Jony Ive was dispirited by Tim Cook's lack of interest in the product development process and frustrated inside a more operations-focused company--macrumors.com.

source: statista.com

Tweets by Android

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David Rosenberg on the U.S. Economy, Recession, U.S. Dollar (video)

2019-07-01T00:02:00.001+02:00

'The recession has already started': David Rosenberg on the U.S. economy

BNN Bloomberg spoke with David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates, about growing concern over the state of the global economy. and why he thinks the U.S. recession has already started. BNN Bloomberg video above published Jun 17, 2019. Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc., (domain: gluskinsheff.com) is a Canadian wealth management firm. BNN Bloomberg is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media, broadcasting Canada’s only TV service devoted exclusively to business, finance and the markets, headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in Downtown Toronto. [Editor's note and caveat: Rosenberg has been known as a perma-bear.]

Get U.S. dollar exposure to prepare for coming economic pain: David Rosenberg

David Rosenberg thinks the U.S. is already in recession, but doesn't believe investors should flee from the greenback. BNN Bloomberg video above published Jun 18, 2019.
Tweets by EconguyRosie

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News Review | ICANN65 Recap, Regulatory Capture at ICANN

2019-06-30T00:02:00.003+02:00

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-06-30) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) ICANN65 Recap, 2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN Update, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. Oracle Dyn, b. GoDaddy, c.Tucows, d.Fraudsters, e. Phishing, f. FUCT, 4) ICYMI: a. Google, b. Amazon, c. Privacy, d. Ethiopia, e. Ransomware, f.DNS Attack, 5) Most Read.

”One of the advantages of leaving MMX is that I am finally done with ICANN ... one of the single worst organizations I have come across on this planet."--Fred Krueger

1) ICANN65 Recap

Editor's note: ICANN65 was a rather more dreadful ICANN meeting than usual, perhaps due to a confluence of factors demonstrating how incompetent, corrupt, and unfit ICANN is:

This really is a terrible look for #ICANN and should be noted at #ICANN65. Most ashamed should be ALAC. People with clear conflicts should recuse themselves, not author the comments! *sigh* https://t.co/avBh1HsHbS
— elliot noss (@enoss) June 24, 2019

Read more below at 2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN?

Read about 2019 Ethos Award Recipient Kurt Pritz in this morning's #ICANN65 Newsletter. https://t.co/M5vuS5OFBQ pic.twitter.com/O25Eg6Yph3
— ICANN (@ICANN) June 25, 2019

The truth about Kurt Pritz & ICANN? Read this.

EPDP mind buggling meeting today: some people believe intellectual property protection outweighs domain name registrants right to data protection. Probably outweighs their freedom and fundamental rights. IP über alles. #ICANN65
— Farzaneh Badii (@farzanehbadii) June 25, 2019

Next EPDP Phase 2 Meeting July 11, 2019. Jun 27 meeting notes & action items.

#ICANN65 GAC: Venezuela is the last ACTO country to take the floor on #dotAmazon. Is as unhappy as the previous governments who’ve taken the floor.
— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 25, 2019

ACTO countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.

#ICANN65 GAC, Portugal: #ICANN’s multistakeholder approach to #dotAmazon has served private interests - not public interests.
— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 25, 2019

Read last week's News Review, and News Review 2)a. 2019-06-02, and note the .AMAZON applications are "on hold" due to Colombia's Request for Reconsideration which raises the same point I raised in News Review 2)b. 2019-05-26: "the .AMAZON applications now violate Specification 13 ..."

#ICANN65 GAC communique drafting ends a couple of minutes before 8 pm Marrakech time. The communique has no new advice, but 3 pieces of follow-up on previous advice:

- 2-letter country codes in 2nd level domains
- #dotAmazon
- EPDP Phase 2
— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 26, 2019

GAC Communique: "... V. Follow-up on Previous Advice - The following items reflect matters related to previous consensus advice provided to the Board. 1. .AMAZON applications: The GAC asks the Board to explain in writing whether and why it considers that its decision to proceed with the .AMAZON applications, based on a proposal [17 April 2019] that the eight Amazon countries considered did not address their concerns, complies with GAC Advice ...." See also Video of GAC - ICANN Board .AMAZON discussion (1:07:50 - 1:55:00) at ICANN65.

First we were told ICANN's TSG was a purely technical exercise. Now, at #ICANN65 we are told that the @ICANN is taking the TSG model and presenting it to DPAs to "test its basic assumptions and feasibility under the GDPR"
— IGP Alert (@IGPAlert) June 27, 2019

"This is a distraction from the EPDP Team’s work. We were informed that the TSG was a purely technical exercise. Now, we are being told this model is being taken to the DPAs. This has confirmed the fears this Team had regarding the TSG. It is not ICANN org or the TSG’s job to be developing policies - it is the ICANN community’s job."--EPDP feedback to ICANN Org

The Chair of #ICANN Subsequent Procedures didn't really say this, did he? https://t.co/DyUn0u0oiN #ICANN https://t.co/8iU9SgNTyM
— Eye On ICANN (@EyeOnICANN) June 24, 2019

Another Reason Why ICANN's New gTLDs Program is Ill-Conceived & Corrupt.

#ICANN65 GAC, Competition, Consumer Trust, & Consumer Choice Review: domains in 5 #newgTLDs were found to be responsible for 57% of all phishing attacks. #newgTLDs had higher proportion of abuse than legacy TLDs due to bad actors taking advantage of low prices for many new gTLDs.
— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) June 27, 2019

Another Reason Why ICANN's New gTLDs Program is Ill-Conceived & Corrupt.

In discussion with @ICANN this morning at #ICANN65 ALAC made clear that it would not support moving forward on new gTLDs until CCT and RPM implementation was complete and sought a timeline for completion from GDD
— John Laprise, Ph.D. (@JohnLaprise) June 27, 2019

CCT and RPM implementation complete?--Next Round of new gTLDs in 2028?

@ICANNAtLarge is pursuing a collaborative communication strategy with @UASGTech on Universal Acceptance #ICANN65
— John Laprise, Ph.D. (@JohnLaprise) June 27, 2019

Déjà vu: ICANN 52, Universal Acceptance, New gTLD Domain Names "break stuff"

See also ICANN65 | Marrakesh, Morocco, 24-27 June 2019 Post-Meeting Report (when available).

2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN?

UPDATE 3 July 2019: Letter from ICA to ICANN re: .ORG Renewed Registry Agreement (pdf), ICANN Reply (pdf) 26 July 2019.

'UPDATE 2 July 2019: Mainstream Media 'gets it' re: .ORG - ICANN Captured, Corrupt, Incompetent, Unfit: ICANN Just Threw Away the Multistakeholder Model

Fewer than 0.07 percent of commenters thought it would be a good idea to remove the price cap on .org domains; more than 98 percent opposed the change. But on Sunday, as the old contract was about to expire, ICANN approved a new contract sans price cap. https://t.co/g25XcclmwP
— Ars Technica (@arstechnica) July 2, 2019

UPDATE 1 July 2019: CAPTURE Complete--"On 30 June 2019, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and Public Interest Registry, entered into a renewal Registry Agreement (pdf) [removing all price caps on .ORG domain names] under which Public Interest Registry operates the .org top-level domain."--ICANN.org. See also Addendum to .ORG Registry Agreement (pdf). Same result for .info, .biz and .asia.

See also ICANN Fails the Internet Community, allows an unlimited non profit tax | reviewsignal.com: "... The 96 page contract is identical from when it was proposed to [be] signed. The multi stakeholders and bottom up process that is supposed to govern ICANN policy? Ignored. The public outcry was nearly universally against this change. They weren't listened to at all. Did ICANN's board vote on the proposed contract after being briefed about the public outcry? As of [this] writing, I couldn't find any evidence in ICANN's board activity page. No agenda, no minutes, no resolutions, no briefing material, no preliminary report. Did ICANN staff simply push through this contract without a board vote? ..."

ICANN allows for unlimited non profit tax by removing price caps on .ORG https://t.co/Hoe7YAFY0h @icann @PIRegistry @EFF @NPR @wsj @nytimes @washingtonpost #icann #nonprofittax
— Review Signal (@ReviewSignal) July 1, 2019

----------------

they increased them yesterday, quietly on a sunday https://t.co/B0YyColT6M
— Review Signal (@ReviewSignal) July 1, 2019

Original entry: The Case for Regulatory Capture at ICANN--https://reviewsignal.com/blog/2019/06/24/the-case-for-regulatory-capture-at-icann/ by Kevin Ohashi--excerpt (Conclusion) below, with an in-depth examination of the conflicts of interest and corruption rampant within ICANN and its processes, specifically in reference to the .ORG price cap issue, with numerous individuals and organizations cited, including Public Interest Registry (PIR), Internet Society, Verisign, Shane Tews, Steve DelBianco, Jonathan Zuck, Greg Shatan, Judith Hellerstein, Maureen Hilyard, and more.

Conclusion
"The public interest is at best being represented, in majority, by people tied up in potential conflicts of interest in the given matter. At worst, it looks like special interest groups for VeriSign and The Internet Society (ISOC) / Public Interest Registry have captured multiple groups at ICANN and are trying to use it to line their organizations' pockets.

"This appears to be a case study in regulatory capture. Beyond public outcry, there appears to be very little stopping ICANN from simply pushing through these contracts despite overwhelming evidence that the average internet user isn't in favor of these changes. There is virtually no meaningful argument in favor of removing price caps, unless you accept that it would be administratively easier for an organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank. There is a bizarre free market argument that falls apart when you realize the cost of lock-ins for using a domain name and creating a web presence on any domain. .ORG is a thirty million dollar subsidy to the Internet Society (via PIR) which outsources, via competitive bid, the actual registry services. And they want the ability to charge more, at the expense of every other non profit. Their interests strongly align with VeriSign, who most likely see .ORG as the last hurdle before getting .COM and .NET to have price caps removed and increase their bottom line even more in their non competitive monopoly contract.

"The only step left before these changes go into effect, that I am aware of, is board approval. I think it probably will go through unless there is a tremendous amount of attention brought to the issue. I'm not only concerned about price caps on .ORG, but structurally the only people who can invest so much time and money participating in ICANN are the organizations which stand to financially gain the most. Who is representing the public interest? Registry groups appear to have a strong voice within the ICANN community. Finally, I also worry about potential conflicts of interest at the board level, which has twenty members. Five ICANN board members were or are connected to ISOC (1,2,3,4,5). One is a former board member of PIR as well. I hope they recognize their responsibility to do what is right for everyone and not the select few registry operators in this instance." (emphasis added)

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

Editor's note: remember all the lies touting new gTLDs used by incompetent ICANN Org management and staff, the unethical ICANN Board of Directors, and the corrupt "ICANN community" con artists, including their preposterous growth projections?

https://dyn.com/domain-registration/

"I can't find anything online yet and waiting for the office to open to confirm. Going to be a pain in the ass, we have over 500 domains with them and was trying to add more this morning and rejected ... Oracle Dyn is no longer offering Domain Registration, Standard DNS, and Secondary DNS. Customers with existing service should monitor the email associated with their account for further communication."--source: Reddit.com.

a. Oracle laid off sales and marketing staffs at Dyn (n/k/a Oracle Dyn / Oracle America, Inc.), a formerly independent DNS services provider and domain name registrar it acquired in 2016 for $600 million. Dyn users are getting "EOL" or end-of-life notices for products, and Oracle Dyn's landlord has put Dyn's offices in Manchester, N.H., up for lease, leading some to speculate more layoffs are to come.

b. Should I register a domain with GoDaddy?-- Benny from Pasadena. "Benny wants to create a website and wants to know if he should register a domain with GoDaddy. Leo says NO. He hates GoDaddy and their questionable business practices. And there are plenty of other domain registrars out there. Leo recommends HOVER [Tucows]" --techguylabs.com (emphasis added).

c. Tucows [NASDAQ: TCX]: 3 Terrible Businesses In 1 | SeekingAlpha.com: "Tucows' Domains business is suffering similar stagnation. Industry-wide, growth is abysmal. GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) and VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) have been suffering low single-digit growth, while TCX's own revenue CAGR has been 1% over the last 3 years as it's been losing market share. The business is highly commoditized, with little to differentiate any individual firm other than price. TCX has been boosting prices to inflate growth metrics, but this will simply accelerate churn and share loss." (emphasis and links added).

d. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the increased number of new top level domains to register lookalike domains – for example, the letter "m" can be replaced by the letters "r" and "n" to give the appearance of "m" and it's something which many users won't notice at first glance--zdnet.com.

e. "Bargain basement gTLDs and glyph attacks using IDNs are powering phishing attacks, with fraudulent registrations on the rise. Worse yet, phishing sites are increasingly getting security certificates"--techrepublic.com.

f. FUCT: Los Angeles streetwear designer Erik Brunetti, who had been turned down by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when he sought to register the brand name FUCT (domain: fuct.com) as a trademark, won in the U.S. Supreme Court--Supreme Court allows foul language trademarks in F-word case. [Editor's note: not hard to imagine what's coming next, including as trademarks and .BRAND new gTLDs -- ICANN will have completely FUCT UP the internet and global DNS.]

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News

a. Google: analysis of 150B+ browser-based Google searches in Q1 2019 in the U.S. indicated only 41.45% resulted in organic clicks to non-Google sites, 48.96% ended without a click. Editor's note: confirming the Google Search page is now one of the world's major content and information destinations.

b. What Happens After Amazon’s Domination Is Complete? Its Bookstore Offers Clues: The New York Times looks at some egregious cases of counterfeit books sold on Amazon.

c. Privacy: "... we have lost “ambient privacy,” i.e., daily interactions that should stay unremembered ... Confronted with the reality of a monitored world, people make the rational decision to make the best of it. That is not consent."--idlewords.com.

d. How Ethiopia Controls the Internet-- A one-week internet shutdown ends, but the government has more methods to silence online critics.

e. To pay, or not to pay: U.S. cities wrestle with ransomware | reuters.com.

f. Average Cost of a Domain Name System (DNS) Attack $1,070,000--securitymagazine.com.

5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com:

#1 News Review | ICANN65 June 24-27: EPDP, AMAZON & ICANN

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo

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Tech Review | US Imports From Vietnam Surge, While China Declines

2019-06-29T00:02:00.000+02:00

Tech Review (TR 2019-06-29)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Trump Effect: US Imports From Vietnam Surge, While China Declines, 2) Facebook's Libra Could Disrupt the Remittance Industry, 3) Investing YTD & Investor Notes: China, EU, US, & Zombies, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Apple, Flipkart, iQiyi, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more.

1) Trump Effect: US Imports From Vietnam Surge, While China Declines
And it's not just Vietnam that is a winner from the US-China Trade War:

source: statista.com

Editor's note and caveat: "Exports from China are a murky thing. To dodge tariffs, some of it gets transshipped via other countries, such as Vietnam, before the products are shipped to their destinations, such as the US or the EU ..."--Wolfstreet.com.

Nevertheless, in a note this week, Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder of J. Capital Research (domain: jcapitalresearch.com), wrote that China has already entered its “Japanese phase,” marshalling financial resources exclusively to avoid crisis. China's economy is overleveraged, as demonstrated clearly by the Baoshang situation, and China may now be prey to further problems, perhaps even a perfect storm event.

China is again resorting to such tactics as gross overproduction of steel in a desperate attenpt to keep its economy humming, but even that may fail. In order of tonnage of crude steel, ArcelorMittal is first with 96.4 Mt (in 2006, India’s giant Mittal Steel acquired French giant Arcelor; and is now registered in Luxembourg as a mailbox company run from India) and the EU has had tariffs on Chinese steel for years.

Also note:

Vietnam economy (GDP April-June quarter) grows nearly 7% on trade war tailwinds--Manufacturing exodus from China propels one of fastest boosts in region--nikkei.com.
India Plans to Offer Incentives to Companies Moving From China--"aim is to become a production base for firms fleeing tariffs."
Vietnam's Vingroup in deal with Fujitsu unit, Qualcomm to make 5G phones to be manufactured in Hanoi and sold in the U.S. and Europe in 2020.
A Dark Alley in China’s Credit Market Is Getting Rough--bloomberg.com June 24, 2019.
As China's Banking System Freezes, SHIBOR Tumbles To Lowest In A Decade--zerohedge.com June 24, 2019.
Trump Pressured by Congress to Stay Tough on Huawei--bloomberg.com June 24, 2019.
The U.S. is now playing down expectations for progress from a Trump-Xi meeting during the G20 June 28-29, with the U.S. holding its hard line demands for meaningful Chinese economic reforms, according to Bloomberg.

2) Facebook's Libra Could Disrupt the Remittance Industry

source: statista.com

Money transfers a/ka "remittances" to low- and middle-income countries reached a record high of $529 billion in 2018, according to the World Bank and the world's total remittances in 2018 were $689 billion. “Success will mean that a person working abroad has a fast and simple way to send money to family back home,” says Libra’s white paper, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to reduce the transaction costs of migrant remittances to less than 3 percent and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 percent by 2030. Libra could lead the way. See also: How Libra Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Network Will Work (video).

3) Investing

YTD (Year-to-date): NASDAQ Composite +21% | S&P 500 Index +17% | DJIA +14%

The DJIA closed at 26,599 on Friday, up 73 points, its best first half since 1999 and best June since 1938. It was also the best June for the S&P 500 since 1955.

US: Economy Breaks Record on Trump’s Watch--bloomberg.com: “If voters went to the ballot box today, it would be the strongest economy in U.S. election history,” said Justin Waring, an investment strategist at UBS in New York. Unemployment is close to a half-century low and inflation is so subdued that some have pronounced it dead.

Editor's note: this is neither a Bull Market nor a Bear Market, this is Trump's Market.

Investor Notes:

Public default at Chinese trust company highlights cracks in market https://t.co/0jqIRRpbZa
— ChinaEconomicReview (@chinaeconreview) June 26, 2019

China: signs of a slowdown in China’s property market continue --office vacancies in tech-centric Shenzhen rose to more than 23% for the first half of 2019, a decade high, reported Caixin (domain: caixinglobal.com).

EU: "There is no common Fiscal Policy. Thus the Eurozone stagnates, withers and has utterly lost momentum …" The next ECB president? "Best candidate for the ECB job is going to be a secondary issue to how many other jobs France and Germany get."--Bill Blain. And Brexit? UK looks cheap ... but we still face a few more months of fraxious uncertainty.

US: "... investors, both foreign and domestic, continue to buy Treasuries, no matter the risks associated with them. And the longer they buy Treasuries, the bigger the US debt load becomes, and — ironically — the lower the risk of default."--cfainstitute.org.

Zombies: A report from the Bank for International Settlements found 12% of publicly listed companies around the world can be described as zombie firms:

"The rising number of so-called zombie firms, defined as firms that are unable to cover debt servicing costs from current profits over an extended period, has attracted increasing attention in both academic and policy circles. Using firm-level data on listed firms in 14 advanced economies, we document a ratcheting-up in the prevalence of zombies since the late 1980s. Our analysis suggests that this increase is linked to reduced financial pressure, which in turn seems to reflect in part the effects of lower interest rates. We further find that zombies weigh on economic performance because they are less productive and because their presence lowers investment in and employment at more productive firms."--BIS report, supra.

"Policies created to pull the world out of recession are still in place, but now they are strangling the global economy ... we are in a fat and slow world," wrote Ruchir Sharma in the New York Times, June 15, 2019. What exactly is the problem?

"The trademarks of the fat and slow world: larger corporations, declining competition and fewer start-ups (all of which contribute to wage inequality), ... together undermine and slow economies already hindered by falling growth in the working-age population."--Sharma, supra.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Tech still drives US markets more than any other sector. If you don't like Tech stocks, it's hard to justify owning the S&P 500. We explain why here: https://t.co/W1RvpTkdHN $SPY $XLK $MSFT $FB $AMZN $AAPL $FB $GOOG $XLY $XLC pic.twitter.com/hUpUc0Qpib
— DataTrek Research (@DataTrekMB) June 28, 2019

Jony Ive Is Leaving Apple--but he's not being replaced, and the design team reporting to operations makes no sense--daringfireball.net.

Walmart Inc’s Indian unit Flipkart said late Thursday it plans to replace nearly 40% of its current fleet of delivery vans with electric vehicles (EVs) by March 2020.

iQiyi (domain: iqiyi.com) China’s version of Netflix, reportedly wants to enter overseas markets including North America and Japan after hitting a milestone of 100 million paying subscribers this month, even though the company has been in a cash-burning fight with Tencent’s video site and Alibaba-backed Youku Tudou in China. See also: China's Alibaba aims to double Tmall Global brands with English portal.

Toyota to invest $2 billion in developing electric vehicles in Indonesia.

Goodbye, Chrome? Google’s web browser has become spy software ... why Firefox is better says Washington Post (owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos).

Google Drive vs. Microsoft's OneDrive: choosing the right cloud storage and collaboration service.

Bezos Blowback? Will The AWS JEDI Scandal Upset Amazon's Omnipotence?--zerohedge.com.

The Empty Promise of Data Moats--a16z.com: data goes stale over time…

The European Digital Social Innovation Index by Nesta, published for the first time this year, found London came out on top in a ranking of 60 EU cities on indicators such as funding, skills, infrastructure and diversity. The European Digital Social Innovation Index (EDSII) is the first index ranking how different European cities support digital social innovation (DSI) and tech for good to grow and thrive. London had a significant lead over Amsterdam, which came in second place. Copenhagen, Stockholm and Paris rounded out the top five.

Personal Tech: going 'off the grid' this summer? Iridium GO!--turn any smartphone into a satellite phone--you can get access to phone calls, text, and more, 'off-grid' via the Iridium satellite network.

Parting Thoughts:

Tulsi Gabbard is the winner--Drudge instant poll shows Gabbard won the first Democratic debate in landslide.

Always "ask if the algorithm, which is a model of the world, is working the way it was designed to work. Models represent the market, and models are not reality. As Alfred Korzybski said, “The map is not the territory.”

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo

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G20 June 28-29, Trump and Xi Meeting 'Very, Very Critical' (video)

2019-06-28T00:02:00.001+02:00

UPDATE Trump & Xi meeting--US-China Trade Talks Resume--Trump says he will allow sales of US equipment to Huawei where there are no national security issues, for now; US will not impose new tariffs on China, for now:

President Trump Press Conference, June 29, 2019, Osaka, Japan.

Trump and Xi's G-20 meeting is 'very, very critical'

Ric Deverell, Chief Economist and Global Head of Macro Strategy at Macquarie in Sydney, Australia, says, depending on what happens at the G-20 meeting between Trump and Xi, there could be a "double dip" or a sharp pick up in global growth. CNBC International TV video above published Jun 21, 2019. Macquarie Group Limited (domain: macquarie.com) is an Australian multinational independent investment bank and financial services company.

G20 Links:

https://www.g20.org/en/

twitter: @g20org and #G20OsakaSummit and #G20 and @realDonaldTrump

https://www.japan.go.jp/g20japan/

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2019/06/28-29/

This was our most read opinion piece for the week. https://t.co/aGk720eBDP
— Nikkei Asian Review (@NAR) June 23, 2019

Tweets by NAR

Good morning, Asia. This was our most read story over the weekend.https://t.co/f7BXPUaBkf
— Nikkei Asian Review (@NAR) June 24, 2019

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Jumia $JMIA Beating Amazon $AMZN & Alibaba $BABA In Africa (video)

2019-06-27T00:02:00.001+02:00

Why Jumia Is Beating Amazon And Alibaba In Africa

Jumia has been dubbed the "Amazon of Africa" as Africa's largest e-commerce operator, surpassing Amazon and China's Alibaba, and it's the first African tech start-up to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. Investors had high hopes for Jumia when it went public on April 12. Now, Jumia is adjusting to its new international status, and figuring out what that status means for the African continent.

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, former McKinsey & Company employees, founded the company in 2012. Like Amazon and Alibaba, Jumia allows customers to buy products like cell phones, shoes, and groceries online. Jumia also offers bill paying, food delivery, and cellular data plans.

China Daily, a Chinese state-run news organization, says that Alibaba serviced 4.2 million African customers through its AliExpress services since it entered the continent.

Jumia serviced 4.3 million users and 81,000 active sellers in 14 countries. Amazon is available in 11 countries on the African continent, but neither Amazon nor Alibaba have had the benefit of getting their start in African countries. Jumia, for example, offers unique features like allowing customers to pay for items upon delivery. CNBC video above published Jun 25, 2019.

Jumia is an e-commerce platform for electronics, fashion, and more. It has partnered with more than 81,000 local African companies and individuals and is a direct competitor to Kilimall in Kenya and Konga in Nigeria. Started in 2012 in Lagos, the company currently has a presence across 12 African countries.

Jumia Technologies AG

Domain: jumia.com / group.jumia.com
Founded: Nigeria
Traded as: NYSE: JMIA
Founders: Sacha Poignonnec, Raphael Kofi Afaedor, Tunde Kehinde
CEO: Sacha Poignonnec (2012–), Jeremy Hodara (2012–)
Parent organization: Rocket Internet

Tweets by Jumia_Group

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Dave Jaggar & The History of ARM Microprocessors (video)

2019-06-26T00:02:00.001+02:00

Dave Jaggar: "A History of ARM Microprocessor and it's Rise and Fall"

A "Talks at Google" video published Jun 20, 2019,: Dave Jaggar discusses his inspiring career that led to the ARM architecture which effectively powers the digital world, being the reason that your phone is small and doesn't burn a hole in your pocket. Moderator: Raymond Blum. Transcript (auto-generated, unedited).

In the late 1980’s Acorn, a British one-hit-wonder computer company, faced imminent extinction, with its only assets being 18 months of life support rations and perhaps the worst microprocessor ever designed. What they did right was to hire Dave Jaggar, with the ink still wet on his master's thesis. Over eight years Dave systematically defined the entire ARM architecture, enabling it to be a popular embedded controller for the digital revolution, with around 100 billion units shipped. As ARM’s Head of Architecture Design, Dave authored the ARM Architectural Reference Manual and is the Founding Director of the ARM Austin Design Center. More on ARM architecture.

ARM Holdings is a British multinational semiconductor and software design company, owned by SoftBank Group and its Vision Fund. Processors based on designs licensed from ARM, or designed by licensees of one of the ARM instruction set architectures, are used in all classes of computing devices (including in space). ARM is viewed as the most important chip design infrastructure provider in the world as its microchips go into more than 90% of world’s mobile devices.

On June 22, 2019, SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son said he wants to re-list ARM Holdings Plc as a publicly traded company within the next five years (the British chipmaker was acquired for $32 billion in 2016):

"I don’t know which market it will be, but ARM will be preparing for IPO within the next five years. Arm management is all excited about it. We are excited"--SoftBank’s founding Chairman and CEO Son, June 22, 2019.

Arm Limited a/k/a Arm Holdings:

Number of employees: about 6,250 (2018)
Owner: SoftBank Group 75%; Vision Fund 25%
Headquarters: Cambridge, England, UK
Domain: arm.com

Jaggar's book: Arm Architecture Reference Manual
Tweets by Arm

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Challenges Facing 'Flash Boys' IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama (video)

2019-06-25T00:02:00.000+02:00

Challenges Facing 'Flash Boys' IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama

FT.com's Richard Henderson interview of the founder of the rival IEX exchange on why it has failed to capture much more than 3 per cent of the US equity trading market. Michael Lewis’s book 'Flash Boys' depicted Mr Katsuyama as a crusader against a market that had become 'rigged' to benefit high-speed traders. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Jun 10, 2019.

IEX Stock Exchange is a stock exchange based in the United States. It was founded in 2012 and launched as a national securities exchange in September 2016. On October 24, 2017, IEX received regulatory approval from the SEC to list companies. IEX listed its first public company, Interactive Brokers, on October 5, 2018.

Domain: iextrading.com
Founded: 2012
Owner: IEX Group, Inc.
Key people: Brad Katsuyama (CEO); Ronan Ryan (President)

Tweets by IEX

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Druckenmiller on Macro Analysis of the Market, Trade, and Investing (video)

2019-06-24T00:02:00.001+02:00

Stanley Druckenmiller: Macroeconomic Analysis of the Market, Trade and Investing

Interview and Q&A on June 3, 2019, at the Economic Club of New York, with billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, Chairman & CEO, Duquesne Family Office LLC. Topics covered include current macroeconomic factors and the impact of changes in interest rates, the US-China trade war, and more. Transcript (auto-generated, unedited)(pdf).

We’re getting ready for tonight’s evening program with iconic investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who some have called the greatest hedge fund manager of his time. Join the conversation using #ECNYDruck or tune in to Facebook for the live broadcast at 6pm EDT. pic.twitter.com/w10adNVz0Y
— The Economic Club NY (@EconClubNY) June 3, 2019

For reference, the editorial is here: https://t.co/bTzJALIQuq #ECNYDruck
— The Economic Club NY (@EconClubNY) June 3, 2019

“We are in the most innovative economic period since the late 1800s.” #ECNYDruck
— The Economic Club NY (@EconClubNY) June 3, 2019

“It’s very clear to me that you need a hurdle rate for investment and that if you don’t have a hurdle rate for investment, bad things happen.” #ECNYDruck
— The Economic Club NY (@EconClubNY) June 3, 2019

On his economic ideology: “When I got in the business it became clear to me that macroeconomic statistics of precocity the economy, they’re really great at telling where you are and where you’ve been. The best economic predictor is the inside of the stock market.” #ECNYDruck
— The Economic Club NY (@EconClubNY) June 3, 2019

“The inside of the stock market right now isn’t saying we are gonna be in a recession but it is saying you better keep your eyes open.” #ECNYDruck
— The Economic Club NY (@EconClubNY) June 3, 2019

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News Review | ICANN65 June 24-27: EPDP, AMAZON & ICANN

2019-06-23T00:02:00.000+02:00

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-06-23) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) ICANN65, Marrakech, Morocco, June 24-27: EPDP, .AMAZON & ICANN, 2) Other ICANN news: New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation Update, 3) a. Voice.com Record Sale Price, b. Website Security & Malware, 4) ICYMI: The Internet Is Changing Africa, 5) Most Read.
•
1) ICANN65, Marrakech, Morocco, June 24-27

Date & Time (24-hour clock) in Marrakech:

The ICANN Policy Forum is the second meeting in ICANN's three-meeting annual cycle, duration is four (4) days, and format is focused on SO/AC/SG/C policy work and outreach, and therefore: • no welcome ceremony; • no public forum(s); • no public board meeting.

ICANN65 Schedule (all times local Marrakech), *Schedule Highlights below:

*GAC: New gTLDs Subsequent Procedures Discussion 15:15 - 16:15, Mon, Jun 24 [10:15am EDT in U.S.] "Assess progress of PDP WG deliberations on issues of importance to the GAC. Discuss formation and operation of the GAC Focal Group on Subsequent Rounds of gTLDs."

*GNSO-EPDP Phase 2 Meeting (1 of 2) 8:30 - 15:00, Tue, Jun 25 --Notes & Action Items

*GNSO-EPDP Phase 2 Meeting (2 of 2) 8:30 - 15:00, Thu, Jun 27 --Notes & Action Items

EPDP background: CPH comments on Purposes (pdf), SO/AC/SG/C early input, and last week's News Review 2)b. Links to the EPDP meetings' recordings and transcripts (when available) are posted on the GNSO calendar. Other EPDP Links: wiki, public mail list, legal memos & mail list, GNSO mail list, worksheets, definitions. Jun 20 meeting notes / action items.

*GAC: DNS Abuse Mitigation and dot Amazon Discussions 8:30 - 10:15, Tue, Jun 25

Editor's note: read Amazon wins ‘.amazon’ domain name, aggravating South American region and undermining digital commons | theconversation.com, excerpt:

"... At its inception, the internet was a great equaliser. It meant large and small businesses could compete with one another on a level playing field. ICANN has been entrusted with administering the internet and protecting it. That means protecting its broader purpose in society. ICANN appears to have forgotten that part of its role. It now charges costs USD$185,000 for a top-level domain name like “.amazon”. It’s not surprising that a company whose 2018 profits were reportedly USD$11.2 billion – for which it paid no federal taxes – was able to purchase the domain before an indigenous community in Brazil. The implications for the future of the internet are troubling. What was a global commons may become an exclusive field where those who have the most can acquire more. Those who have the least meanwhile lose even the right to use the name of their homeland." (emphasis added) [See also the author's letter to ICANN Board (pdf)]

The .AMAZON issues illustrate how ill-conceived and corrupt the entire .BRAND new gTLDs program is--a "brand" a/k/a "trademark" is neither a monopoly nor generic, and therefore all ".BRAND gTLDs" fail as "generic top-level domains" (gTLDs), see RFC 1591. The .BRAND new gTLDs program was a way for incompetent, corrupt, unfit ICANN, and some of its contracted parties, i.e., registry service providers, to make money by extorting trademark holders--"apply for a .BRAND new gTLD or ICANN may sell your .BRAND (trademark) gTLD to someone else"-- e.g., see .PING testimony. Most .BRAND gTLDs are primarily a costly expense in trademark defense (instead, ICANN should have given trademark holders a right to block any gTLD application that infringes a legitimate distinctive trademark, and governmental authorities the right to block any gTLD application that is for a recognized or protected geographic term under applicable law). Unsurprisingly, many .BRAND gTLDs have been abandoned and returned to ICANN, while .BRANDs like .GOOGLE (and .AMAZON), in effect, contribute to the splintering of the internet into a few monopolistic platforms, smothering all competitors, undermining the digital commons and the core internet principle that all TLDs are "global public resources"--see U.S. amicus brief in the Weinstein case.

"... ICANN is a corrupt racketeering organization. It's a crime syndicate that advances interests of a few insiders at the expense of the masses and the general good. They have abused their power and their role ..."

The GAC-ICANN Board discussion re: .AMAZON (1:07:50-1:55:00) Wednesday morning via Livestream below:

*Evolving the Effectiveness of ICANN's Multistakeholder Model 17:00 - 18:30, Tue, Jun 25 (Livestream video below)

*Impacts of EPDP Phase 1 Recommendations on Other ICANN Policies and Procedures 15:15 - 16:45, Thu, Jun 27, 2019 (10:15am EDT) slide deck, Livestrean video below:

ICANN Meeting & Media Resources:

Remote Participation

Remote Participation details for all the GNSO Open and Public Meetings at ICANN65

ICANN pre- and post-meeting reports | ICANN.org

GNSO Policy Briefing

Nissaba.net ICANN65 Pre-meeting Report

ICANN Org draft memo re: 'Assumptions' --Future Rounds of New gTLDs (pdf) /email.

Conflict of interest when your employee is in charge getting the next round of #newgtlds launched ASAP? Most would think so. But not in #ICANN world https://t.co/Sh2RPYUrfx
— thereforeICANN (@thereforeICANN) June 21, 2019

ICANN65 Prep Week Materials

Twitter: @sgdickinson #ICANN65 @ICANN

ICANN Meeting Sessions on Livestream.com

ICANNnews | YouTube.com

"A simple way to focus your attention is to listen with the intention of summarizing the other person’s point of view. This stops you from using your mental energy to work out your reply, and helps store the other’s words in your memory as well as identify any gaps in your understanding so you can ask questions to clarify."--fs.blog.

•
2) Other ICANN News

New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation Update:

DotConnectAfrica Trust, a Mauritius Charitable Trust, Plaintiff, v. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California Corporation; ZA Central Registry, a South African non-profit company; and DOES 1-50, inclusive; Defendants:

May 21, 2019: "On the Court's own motion, the Trial Setting Conference scheduled for 05/21/2019, and NonJury Trial On Phase I (Estoppel) scheduled for 05/21/2019 are continued to 07/11/19 [July 11, 2019] at 10:00 AM in Department 53 at Stanley Mosk Courthouse ..."
•
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Website Security & Malware

a. Largest publicly reported all cash domain name sale in history revealed June 18, 2019, the $30 million sale of Voice.com, more than double the previous record of $13 million paid for Sex.com in 2010.

b. Website Security & Malware: More Than 150,000 Small-Business Websites in the U.S. could be infected with malware at any given moment--in one case, security firm SiteLock (sitelock.com) discovered the hackers had exploited a security hole in a Wordpress plugin--see A Cybersecurity Checklist for the Modern Small Business. Also: FBI warns users to be wary of phishing sites abusing HTTPS.
•
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News

The Internet Is Changing Africa: cheap smartphones are flooding Africa, bringing internet access to many for the very first time, but there are problems: gambling, particularly sports betting in Africa's more developed nations, with about 60 million Nigerians aged between 18 and 40 betting daily. China is investing in infrastructure, but with that comes Huawei equipment, e.g., China built the African Union building in Ethiopia, including installation of tapped networking equipment [the building was built in 2012 by the Chinese, the African Union's IT staff later discovered that the entire content of its servers was being transferred to China.]

WeChat Is Watching: WeChat's data centralization has inextricably linked it to all aspects of daily life in China and made it a cornerstone of the government's social-credit system.
•

5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com:

#1 News Review 1) Cyber Sovereignty Rising, 2) ICANN Fatally Flawed

#2 Greycroft's Alan Patricof on Big Tech & Antitrust Concerns (video)

#3 How Libra Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Network Will Work (video)

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo

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Tech Review 1) Big Tech & Antitrust, 2) World's Most Valuable Brands 2019

2019-06-22T00:02:00.000+02:00

Tech Review (TR 2019-06-22)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Big Tech & Antitrust, 2) World's Most Valuable Brands 2019, Huawei? 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: Where the 'Ready' Users of Libra & Calibra Are, 4)ICYMI Tech News: Unicorns, 5G, Nvidia & ARM, Google, Walmart, Slack, and more.

1) Big Tech & Antitrust
Antitrust expert Doug Melamed on the new probes into Big Tech

Doug Melamed, Stanford law professor, joins CNBC's "Squawk Alley" to discuss how the Microsoft antitrust case he helped bring to court might affect the new probes into major tech companies. CNBC Television video above published Jun 13, 2019.

2) World's Most Valuable Brands 2019

World's Most Valuable Brands 2019 | statista.com

Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Visa, Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, McDonald's, AT&T.
For more: Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2019 (published June 2019).

Editor's note: Huawei?

#47. Where will Huawei be next year? Huawei says U.S. ban hurting more than expected, to wipe $30 billion off revenue and Bloomberg.com: Huawei Braces for Phone Sales Drop of Up to 60 Million Overseas.

"The most ambitious start-ups attempted to transcend their region of origin to become seen as global brands."--brandz.com

Chinese Cash In Silicon Valley Is Suddenly Toxic: as U.S. startups reject their money, Chinese venture-capital firms in U.S. are structuring deals to avoid regulators or shutting down. See also: World’s Top Bicycle Maker Says the Era of ‘Made in China’ Is Over and Apple Explores Moving Some Production Out of China--Trade tensions prompt iPhone maker to consider diversifying supply chain. On Friday the U.S. Department of Commerce expanded its national security “entity list” to bar Chinese supercomputer firms from buying U.S. parts and components without U.S. government approval.

3) Investing

The Week--NASDAQ Composite +3.0% | S&P 500 Index +2.2% | DJIA +2.4%--for the week all three major U.S. stock indexes gained at least 2.2%, with the S&P 500 hitting its first record close since April.

The Backstory: U.S. stocks ended slightly lower Friday, but locked in strong weekly gains after the Federal Reserve indicated on Wednesday it could carry out rate cuts later this year if economic conditions decline, with investors eyeing a slowdown in the global economy, and the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, 28-29 June 2019, where a widely anticipated meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump may take place.

Investor Notes--where the 'ready' users of Libra & Calibra already are:

source: statista.com

Background:

How Libra Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Network Will Work (video)

Fed Chair LIVE Jun 19, 2:30pm EDT, ECB Draghi Chaos, Facebook Calibra & Libra: "The first product Calibra will introduce is a digital wallet for Libra, a new global currency powered by blockchain technology."
In an opinion piece in the Financial Times on Friday, Facebook Inc’s co-founder Chris Hughes said the Libra cryptocurrency would hand over much of the control of monetary policy from central banks to private companies: “If global regulators don’t act now, it could very soon be too late,” wrote Hughes, who also said the corporations that would oversee the new currency would put their private interests - profits and influence - ahead of public ones. Editor's note: what Hughes describes is exactly how ICANN has been corrupted.
The international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has issued updated guidance concerning regulation of cryptocurrency and virtual assets at its meeting in Orlando, Florida.
European central bankers claim oversight over Facebook’s cryptocurrency--reuters.com. Reuters also reported that France is creating a G7 task force to study how central banks ensure cryptocurrencies like Facebook’s Libra are governed by regulations ranging from money-laundering laws to consumer-protection rules.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

"Unicorns are amazingly deflationary vehicles. They're deflating rents, they're deflating driver salaries, they're deflating all kinds of things"--renown short-seller Jim Chanos explaining how Silicon Valley unicorns have pushed prices lower and why central banks are to blame.

According to latest estimates by Ericsson, 5G won’t really take off until 2021/2022. See also Crown Castle International: a play on the coming of 5G and the expansion of IoT--SeekingAlpha.com.

Nvidia says its accelerator chips will work with ARM processors by end of this year.

Google will eventually provide RCS Chat (replacement for SMS texting) directly to any Android user. Note also Google cancels plans for future tablets, focusing instead on Pixel phones and Pixelbooks (chromebooks).

Urban Mobility: Getting Beyond Gridlock--by 2030 robo-taxis, autonomous shuttles, and trains, will provide most urban mobility with private cars only a very small share, and buses almost non-existent.

Walmart: U.S. eCommerce Strategy and the Role of Jet.com. Walmart is the fourth largest online retailer in the US in 2019, according to eMarketer estimates, behind only Amazon, eBay, and Apple. See also: Apple says iPhones can now be fixed at all U.S. Best Buy stores, and Brick-and-Mortar Meltdown Gets Costly for Big Retailers--wolfstreet.com.

Slack closed at $38.62, June 20, 2019, up 48.5% from its $26 reference price, on its first day of trading as a direct listing, valuing the company at about $20B. Domain: slack.com. Investor relations: https://investor.slackhq.com/home/default.aspx.

UK: likely next Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, pledges to 'end the digital divide' by 2025, via a full rollout of fiber broadband.

Personal Tech: most U.S. mobile banking apps have security and privacy flaws, researchers say.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo

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How MeUndies Sold Millions of Pairs of Underwear Direct to Consumers

2019-06-21T00:02:00.001+02:00

How MeUndies Sold Millions Of Pairs Of Underwear

How did direct to consumer startup MeUndies (domain: meundies.com) sell over 10 million pairs of underwear? Founder Jonathan Shokrian talks to CNBC about shock advertising, social media and MeUndies' road to success.

Jonathan Shokrian started MeUndies after a negative experience buying underwear at a department store. He raised $400,000, mostly from friends and family, and launched the millennial-friendly direct to consumer underwear start-up in 2011.

"Ecommerce is not just Amazon. It’s every online retailer out there, including the tiniest mom-and-pop operations. It’s manufacturers selling directly to consumers. In fact, it’s manufacturers in India or China selling directly to US consumers as third party-vendors on platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and others. The entire world is trying to sell directly to US consumers, bypassing classic middlemen, wholesalers, distribution channels, importers, and of course, brick-and-mortar retailers."--Wolfstreet.com

According to Shokrian, MeUndies has sold over 10 million pairs of underwear and has been profitable in each of the past three years. The company will end 2019 with at least $75 million in annual revenue. How did MeUndies start a successful direct to consumer brand? MeUndies was off to a slow start until it turned to social media and harnessed the power of provocation. CNBC video above published June 7, 2019.
Tweets by MeUndies

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How Libra Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Network Will Work (video)

2019-06-20T00:02:00.000+02:00

Libra: how it's going to work

FT.com's global tech correspondent Tim Bradshaw explains the new cryptocurrency announced by Facebook: "Libra, a new global currency powered by blockchain technology."

Facebook investor on Libra cryptocurrency

Scott Kupor of Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z.com) joins CNBC's "Closing Bell" to discuss Facebook's new cryptocurrency, June 19, 2019.

"... we are joining the Libra Association as a Founding Member. The Libra Association is a membership organization behind Libra, a new global currency and financial infrastructure built on blockchain technology. Libra brings together a world-class group of partners, including:

Technology companies that know how to create global-scale networks and infrastructure, like Stripe and Facebook.

Financial services companies, like PayPal and Visa, that have deep experience in global payments.

Platforms, including Spotify, Lyft, and Uber, who know how to build user-friendly and popular applications with millions of users.

Crypto-first companies, like Coinbase and Anchorage, that have deep subject matter expertise.

NGOs, like Kiva, Mercy Corps and Women’s World Banking, that understand the needs and habits of a wide variety of populations across the globe.

"These organizations can help Libra reach a critical mass of users, businesses and developers, with the goal of mainstreaming crypto adoption ..."--a16z.com

Domain: libra.org (more info on Libra at the link), and Libra white paper.

See also Fed Chair LIVE Jun 19, ECB Draghi Chaos, Facebook $FB Calibra

Tweets by Libra_

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Fed Chair LIVE Jun 19, 2:30pm EDT, ECB Draghi Chaos, $FB Calibra

2019-06-19T00:02:00.002+02:00

FOMC Press Conference June 19, 2019:

Federal Reserve Press Release 19 Jun 2019 (pdf): "Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. In support of these goals, the Committee [FOMC] decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 percent."

Below are press conference exhibits: 1. unemployment rate; 2. change in real GDP.

Effective Federal Funds Rate July 1, 1954 - May 1, 2019 -- May 2019: 2.39

Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting Jun 18-19, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell news conference set for Wednesday, June 19 at 2:30 p.m. EDT. S&P expects the Fed to signal at its June policy meeting that it intends to begin cutting rates. Federal funds futures trading had been pricing in two rate cuts before the end of the year, but only a 23% probability of a cut at this June meeting. Donald Trump and Larry Summers agree that rates are too high, inflation too low, yet the Fed is still facing the results of keeping interest rates too low for too long (Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen's QE and ZIRP) the effects of which continue throughout the economy. Background: see previous FOMC press conferences (video) and federalreserve.gov and @federalreserve.

On top of that the European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi "unleashed global chaos with his preview of more stilmulus, prompting an angry response from President Trump"--more here and here and here: How The "Draghi Shock" Unleashed Chaos On Powell's Most Important Day | zerohedge.com.

Mario Draghi just announced more stimulus could come, which immediately dropped the Euro against the Dollar, making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA. They have been getting away with this for years, along with China and others.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019

Transcript of ECB President Mario Draghi, Jun 18, 2019 (pdf), video below: "... in the absence of improvement such that the (31:26) sustained return of inflation to our aim is threatened, additional stimulus will be required."

Above video published June 18, 2019 by the ECB: Introductory speech Mario Draghi, President, European Central Bank, ECB Forum on Central Banking 2019--20 Years of European Economic and Monetary Union--Sintra, Portugal, 17-19 June 2019. The European banking system lags far behind its global peers in terms of profitability and valuation (Almost Daily Grant’s, May 28). Bloomberg reports Deutsche Bank A.G. (whose shares have fallen 84% in the last nine years to less than 21% of its year-end 2018 book value) is set for another round of layoffs.

Meanwhile, Facebook just announced it will disrupt the global central banking system using a "New Digital Wallet [Calibra, domain: calibra.com] for a New Digital Currency [Libra, domain: libra.org,]" based on blockchain technology:

Today we’re sharing plans for Calibra, a newly formed Facebook [NASDAQ: FB] subsidiary whose goal is to provide financial services that will let people access and participate in the Libra network. The first product Calibra will introduce is a digital wallet for Libra, a new global currency powered by blockchain technology. The wallet will be available in Messenger, WhatsApp and as a standalone app — and we expect to launch in 2020 ....

For many people around the world, even basic financial services are still out of reach: almost half of the adults in the world don’t have an active bank account and those numbers are worse in developing countries and even worse for women. The cost of that exclusion is high — approximately 70% of small businesses in developing countries lack access to credit and $25 billion is lost by migrants every year through remittance fees. This is the challenge we’re hoping to address with Calibra, a new digital wallet that you’ll be able to use to save, send and spend Libra. From the beginning, Calibra will let you send Libra to almost anyone with a smartphone, as easily and instantly as you might send a text message and at low to no cost.

Facebook Token Runs Into Instant Political Opposition in Europe-- French finance chief says it can’t be a ‘sovereign currency’-- Germany’s Ferber sees Facebook becoming a shadow bank | bloomberg.com.

What Facebook's Cryptocurrency Means: 6 Predictions

Federal Reserve | YouTube.com

Tweets by calibra

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Philadelphia Fusion | How to Build an Esports Empire (video)

2019-06-18T00:02:00.000+02:00

How to Build an Esports Empire

Cable TV & media titan Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) (Domain: corporate.comcast.com) is investing $50M dollars in a new esports stadium located in the center of the Philadelphia sports complex, but that’s just the beginning of their plan to build a global esports empire. Bloomberg.com video above published Jun 11, 2019.

Domain: fusion.overwatchleague.com

You Think You Know Us? | Fusion 2019

Philadelphia Fusion video..

Tweets by Fusion

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Greycroft's Alan Patricof on Big Tech & Antitrust Concerns (video)

2019-06-17T00:02:00.000+02:00

The big tech companies are smothering small start-ups. Minor changes to a platform’s algorithms can harm a business’s traffic overnight.--Alan Patricof, Silicon Valley VC

Greycrofts' Patricof: There are legitimate antitrust concerns surrounding big tech

Washington is taking aim at big tech, and Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook could be vulnerable to antitrust actions. Alan Patricof, co-founder and managing partner at Greycroft Ventures (greycroft.com), joins the discussion on CNBC's "Squawk Box." CNBC Television video above published Jun 6, 2019.

"Let’s face it, the Internet is a utility and so are the corporations who control it .... Technology needs to be regulated."--Alan Patricof.

Alan Patricof, April 10, 2019:

"From my vantage point in the venture capital industry, it is apparent that many start-ups are failing or changing their business models because of their dependence on Amazon, Facebook or Google. The situation has progressed to the point where venture capitalists discount companies that rely on a digital platform to reach their markets."

I'm concerned about the influence tech giants have over our business and societal landscape. Read the full version of my piece that was originally published in @FinancialTimes. https://t.co/HVGo3MvHgH
— alan patricof (@alanjpatricof) April 30, 2019

In case you missed it, check out my article in today's Financial Times. https://t.co/c61Q4jyLKz via @financialtimes
— alan patricof (@alanjpatricof) April 11, 2019

Like it or not our congress has got to reconsider our monopilies and anti trust laws to deal with the issues arising from the internet. Open and fair competition is critical to building our 21st century economy.
— alan patricof (@alanjpatricof) March 21, 2019

The "true" founder of the internet,Larry Roberts who originated his work at ARPAin the 1960's , died over xmas at age 81.His seminal work in packet switching and his decision to build a network across multiple computers is responsible for the myriad of applications we use today
— alan patricof (@alanjpatricof) January 1, 2019

Here's my piece in today's @USATODAY opinion section on why Amazon may be getting way too huge: https://t.co/c5ea4Pj3kk
— alan patricof (@alanjpatricof) April 4, 2018

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News Review 1) Cyber Sovereignty Rising, 2) ICANN Fatally Flawed

2019-06-16T00:02:00.000+02:00

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-06-16) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Cyber Sovereignty Rising, China's Vision of Internet Sovereignty Spreading, 2) ICANN Fatally Flawed? a.Afilias v. ICANN .WEB IRP Update, b. EPDP Meeting June 20 UPDATE, 3) a.Trademarkia v. LegalZoom, b. CJEU on Geograpnic Terms, c. Kaddish.com, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

1) Cyber Sovereignty Rising, China's Vision of Internet Sovereignty Spreading

China is offering a new version of the internet. This new vision combines sweeping content curbs with uncompromising data controls. It’s called Cyber Sovereignty and it’s already spreading to other countries around the world. Bloomberg.com video above published June 10, 2019.

Two Slides from Mary Meeker's 2019 Internet Trends Report:

Global Internet Users 3.8B (51% of world population), Growth Slowing: +6% vs. +7% Y/Y. Future growth in internet users will largely come from Asia Pacific, Africa & Middle East.

See also:

Google’s Chrome Browser Becomes Web ‘Gatekeeper’--Google has far-reaching control over how the web works, and who gets to create new ways of accessing it--bloomberg.com.
$20 Phones Could Bring a Billion People Online: about half of humanity doesn’t have internet access, and a lot of those people are in Africa. Enter a $20 device with smartphone brains and a five-day battery.
Taiwan's digital minister on combating disinformation without censorship--cpj.org.
Telegram says it faced a massive DDoS attack originating from China coinciding with protests in Hong Kong, where organizers used the app to evade surveillance.

2) ICANN News: ICANN Fatally Flawed?

ICANN Articles of Incorporation: "... The Corporation shall operate in a manner consistent with these Articles and its Bylaws for the benefit of the Internet community as a whole, carrying out its activities in conformity with relevant principles of international law and international conventions and applicable local law and through open and transparent processes that enable competition ..."

ICANN Bylaws: "ICANN shall not apply its standards, policies, procedures, or practices inequitably or single out any particular party for disparate treatment unless justified by substantial and reasonable cause, such as the promotion of effective competition."

"ICANN was created through an express transfer of powers and authority from the United States

government. While this express transfer included the powers and authority necessary to oversee

the secure and stable operation of the Internet’s DNS, the transfer did not include the power,

authority, or expertise to act as a competition regulator by challenging or policing transactions

and conduct that could be deemed anticompetitive."--ICANN Board Member and Neustar former employee, Becky Burr, infra, at p. 10, May 31, 2019, in Afilias v. ICANN IRP (emphasis added).

Editor's note: if Becky Burr (a/k/a J. Beckwith Burr) is right, the competition provisions in ICANN's articles and bylaws (see above) are essentially meaningless, and ICANN is fatally flawed and should therefore be replaced by the global internet community forthwith, remembering the competition advice that was given to ICANN (via NTIA) by the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in 2008, but which ICANN disregarded in favor of its own ill-conceived and corrupt new gTLDs program full of anti-competitive provisions.

"Let’s face it, the Internet is a utility and so are the corporations who control it ... Technology needs to be regulated."--Alan Patricof, longtime innovator and venture capitalist, April 30, 2019.

a. .WEB IRP Update: Dueling ICANN Board Members & Dueling Expert Witnesses

Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited, Claimant, v. ICANN , Respondent, Independent Review Process (IRP), 31 May 2019 filing by ICANN:

ICANN's Response to Claimant's Amended Request for IRP, excerpt, p.25:

Exhibits to ICANN's Response below (basis for redactions):

Exhibits R-1 to R-16; Claimant's Exhibits cited in ICANN's Response; Legal Authorities R-LA-1 to R-LA-3

Witness Statement of Christine Willett (ICANN GDD VP, gTLD Operations)

Exhibits A to H

Witness Statement of J. Beckwith Burr (ICANN Board Member, formerly employed by Neustar) a/k/a Becky Burr [Burr basically counters the statement previously filed by Afilias of former ICANN Board Member George Sadowsky];

Burr statement excerpt (p. 12): "No policy, precedent, or authority permits ICANN, based on competition concerns, to block Verisign from acquiring the rights to operate .WEB or to second-guess the judgment of the DOJ – the ultimate competition regulator in the United States – in determining not to act following its own expert and thorough investigation."

Exhibits A to B

Expert Report of Dennis W. Carlton (ICANN's Expert Witness) who counters the Expert Report previously filed by Afilias of Jonathan Zittrain;

Carlton report excerpts (pp.9-12): "Applicants have collectively spent several hundred million dollars to become the operators of these new gTLDs. From 2013 to 2017, applicants spent a total of $294.6 million in new gTLD application fees, paid another $240.6 million for winning public auctions (including the .WEB auction), and expended many millions more in privately resolved contention sets. While I understand that ICANN does not have precise information about the sums spent in private resolutions, existing information suggests that the number is substantial. For example, one publicly-traded registry operator has disclosed that it has received over $50 million from losing private auctions."(pp.9-10) .... there exists evidence suggesting that an Afilias-operated .WEB is not likely to cause Verisign to reduce its already relatively-low .COM price below the regulated level." (p.12)

Appendices A to B

Tech Review | Entrepreneurs' Top Tips for Startups Raising Money (video)

2019-06-15T00:02:00.000+02:00

Tech Review (TR 2019-06-15)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Entrepreneurs' Top Tips for Startups Raising Money, 2) Google and Facebook vs. Journalism & Democracy, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: Why Trump Will Win The Trade Wars, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Huawei, AT&T, Verizon, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce, and more.

1) Entrepreneurs' Top Tips for Startups Raising Money

Top entrepreneurs offer advice on how to raise money and spend it wisely. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Jun 7, 2019.

2) Google and Facebook vs. Journalism & Democracy

Facebook and Google control 60% of the online ad market, and why that's bad for journalism and democracy, according to this CNN Business video published Jun 7, 2019.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.7% | S&P 500 Index +0.5% | DJIA +0.4% *The major indexes are still showing strong gains for June — the Dow is up 5.1% and the S&P 500 is up 4.9%.

Investor Notes: Why Trump Will Win The Trade Wars

US: U.S. Stocks Still Look Better Than Anywhere Else | bloomberg.com--"while American outperformance continues to defy history, the rest of the world remains trapped in a bear market."

• Editor's note: Why Trump Will Win The Trade Wars: US exports make up only 12% of the US economy, of which nearly a third go to Canada and Mexico, with which Trump has already made trade deals (USMCA). In addition, many of the most valuable US exports are 'must-have' items such as Qualcomm chips. In short, Trump is playing with a much stronger hand (and he knows it), than China or Germany, the world's two largest exporters, both of which are heavy net exporters to the U.S., and upon which their economies are more dependent. Trump doesn't need to bluff, 'everyone in the game' knows he is holding the better hand (unless they are delusional or in a state of denial). China may still be trying to adjust to the culture shock of Trump's 'negotiating style' but the 'cold hard truth' is China’s Likely to Lose a Tech Cold War--bloomberg.com.

Germany, the world's second largest exporter, and dominant member of the EU, is actually a more complicated situation than China, with Brexit still an "uncertainty"--see UK Parliament Rejects Move To Block No-Deal Brexit--but if I were advising Germany, I would be worried. Germany will likely have to adjust to a new level playing field with the U.S. in trade, something long overdue, and which Germany has never had to face in the post-World War II era (now going on for almost seventy-five years), during which the U.S. generated big trade deficits with Germany as one way to stabilize and strengthen Europe to counter the Soviet Union. See Germany Struggles to Figure Out How to Get Trump to Back Off--bloomberg.com.

"If President Trump has a poker style it is almost certainly loose aggressive. It is the most challenging style to play well and the most difficult to play against. It is very hard to read a loose aggressive player, to know what they might do next. Such players are constantly taking the initiative, dominating the game. They are predictable only in their unpredictability. Sometimes they go down in flames but usually it is the loose aggressive players that win the money. Loose aggressive stands against tight weak. President Carter would probably play tight weak as would [UK Prime Minister] Mrs. May, although it is hard to imagine either at a poker table."--Arthur Goodhart

• U.S. Mobility: 38 percent of US respondents say they are mobile with the resources, ability, and inclination to make a move. In fact, 5 percent of respondents say there is a 100 percent chance of their moving. The mobile are most likely to live in cities, though the income and educational background of "the mobile" and "the rooted" are similar.

• Borrowing costs are now lower than at any time since the founding of the US Federal Reserve in 1913 (or in the UK, since the Bank of England was established in 1694).

EU: Foreign investment into Europe falls for first time in 7 years--CNBC International video interview of Andy Baldwin, EMEIA managing partner at EY, discusses the management consultancy's 2019 European Attractiveness report: "appetite to invest in Europe" has dropped to a seven-year low.

• Financial Stability, Or Lack Thereof, Drives The Eurozone Agenda | SeekingAlpha.com.

• IMF to warn Italy's debt poses major risk to euro zone economy. See also: Italy Poised to Launch Euro Parallel Currency | moneymaven.io.

• European banks? "They are burdened with an overbanked market, aging systems, a lack of resources to digitise and re-invent their services, and there are still no signs of any European banks emerging as cross border champions. European banking union is another EU initiative that seems to have drowned in the sea of bureaucracy that sinks everything. Governments still see their duty as protecting national banking champions. There is repeated regulatory failure; Danske Bank in terms of money laundering and the collapse of Spanish and Italian banks doesn’t help. No European banks are expanding, building market share. Instead they are all, and have been, retrenching. If I could think of something positive to say about Europe ... But I really can’t"--Bill Blain Jun 4, 2019.

China: the International Monetary Fund expects Chinese growth to slow to 6.2% this year and to 6% in 2020, the weakest since 1990, but many analysts believe real growth has already dipped below those levels, confirming a grim outlook for the world economy. See also The Countries with the Most Monstrous Corporate Debt Pileups.

Hong Kong: after seven hours of marching, organizers estimated 1,030,000 people took part in the protest opposing the proposed China extradition law.

Not All That Glitters: the Couple Who Scammed Warren Buffett out of over $300 Million.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

January 2019: the US Justice Department unseals Huawei indictments including 23 counts (here and here) pertaining to the alleged theft of intellectual property, obstruction of justice, and fraud related to its alleged evasion of US sanctions against Iran.

June 2019: 'Dead Man Walking' Huawei, applies to trademark its “Hongmeng” operating system (OS) in at least nine countries and Europe, deploying a back-up plan in key markets as U.S. sanctions threaten its business model. However, China's industry insiders are less optimistic that Chinese chip makers can quickly meet the challenge of supplying all the needs of Huawei and other domestic technology firms. Prospectuses of Chinese chip companies preparing to list on a new tech-focused stock exchange in China are even more blunt, characterizing China's domestic chip industry as “relatively backward,” lacking in talent, and requiring “a long time to catch up.”
See also:

Global tech companies shun Huawei after U.S. ban--reuters.com.

Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer: 'Not sure Huawei survives Trump ban.'

Huawei indefinitely postpones the announcement of a new Windows laptop, originally scheduled for June, 2019, due to ongoing US trade sanctions.

Google Is Moving More Hardware Production Out of China--Trump’s tariffs push tech giant to boost Taiwan manufacturing, while companies, both foreign and domestic, increasingly seek to pivot production away from China due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reset the parameters for global trade and manufacturing. Foxconn says it can assemble Apple iPhones outside China.

Huawei v. United States: why trademark professionals must follow this IP technology dispute.

AT&T: Dish Network Corp is open to merging its satellite television business with AT&T Inc.’s pay TV service, DirecTV, since both Dish and DirecTV are hemorrhaging subscribers as viewers continue to shift to cheaper online streaming services such as Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime video service. Unfortunately, AT&T's problems don't end there as AT&T appears to have no viable plan for its WarnerMedia streaming service a year after the Time Warner merger closed.

Verizon: 7 Reasons To Turn Bearish--upcoming Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 technology may disrupt the wireless mobile industry by making free or low-cost city-wide Wi-Fi a reality.

Amazon is Betting Big On Satellite Internet. See also: Amazon is offering flight booking on its platform in India, and it wants to build a one-stop app to offer customers a wide range of services which will attract users to Amazon Pay in the crowded digital wallet industry.

A $6 Billion Record Fine may be coming next year against Apple--see Spotify's complaint against Apple filed with the European Commission--timetoplayfair.com.

Why Sell Microsoft--new tax law ramifications .. cloud computing has no moat ... Windows 10 has continuing quality and performance issues [Editor's note: most people would be better off to forget about Win10 and just get a Chromebook] ... Microsoft behind in artificial intelligence (AI).

Salesforce: $CRM all-stock deal valued at $15.7B, for data visualization company Tableau (NYSE: DATA).

Instagram, a fashionista favorite, helped unknown labels find an audience but now "big bucks are changing the game" as cash rich luxury goods groups such as LVMH and Kering use increased social media budgets to drown out rivals on platforms once seen as a leveler for brands big and small.

IPO: Pet care company Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) (domain: chewy.com), closed up 59% at $34.99 after its debut IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 14.

A Bad Use of Technology: "Illegal robocalls are not just a drain on individual households' peace of mind, they are also a drain on our economy," FCC Chief Economist Babette Boliek and Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger wrote in a blog post, before the FCC voted unanimously to let carriers block robocalls by default.

Personal Tech: Google’s Login Chief Would Rather You Use Apple’s Sign-In Button Than Keep Using Passwords--‘I honestly do think this technology will be better for the internet.’

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo

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Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman on the Strong $FVRR IPO June 13 (video)

2019-06-14T00:02:00.001+02:00

Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman on the $FVRR IPO

Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" after the company's debut in publicly trading on the NYSE June 13, 2019, to discuss what makes the $FVRR IPO different from the likes of Uber and Lyft.

Israel-based freelancer marketplace Fiverr International ( NYSE: FVRR ) IPO raised $100 million at a market cap of $635 million. The company grew sales by 45% in 2018 to $83 million, but with a -27% operating loss. The company's stock began public trading on June 13, 2019, on the New York Stock Exchange, closing with a 90% gain in price per share:

$FVRR June 13, 2019

Domain: fiverr.com (launched Feb. 1, 2010)
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CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz on the $CRWD IPO 12 Jun 2019

2019-06-13T00:03:00.000+02:00

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz on the company's IPO

George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, discusses the cybersecurity company's IPO on the Nasdaq with CNBC's "Squawk Alley" team, June 12, 2019.

CrowdStrike, Inc. is a U.S.-based cybersecurity technology company, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and a wholly owned subsidiary of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. The company provides endpoint security, threat intelligence, and incident response services to customers in more than 170 countries. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform protects customers against cyberattacks on endpoints on or off the network by offering visibility and protection across the enterprise.

Domain: crowdstrike.com
Founded: 2011
Parent organization: CrowdStrike
CTO: Dmitri Alperovitch
Founders: George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch, Gregg Marston

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD), announced June 11, 2019, the pricing of its initial public offering of 18,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price to the public of $34.00 per share. CrowdStrike granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2,700,000 additional shares of Class A common stock at the initial public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions. The shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, June 12, 2019, under the symbol "CRWD." The offering is expected to close on June 14, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions.

$CRWD June 12, 2019

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