16 Minutes on the News #49: U.S. Government Hacked; Scaling Ethereum

We’re back to covering multiple items on our show 16 Minutes — which covers the news, occasional explainers, and teases apart what’s hype/ what’s real — as well as where we are on the long arc of innovation:

#1 Hackers spied on U.S. Treasury emails and other federal agencies through malware installed (indirectly via a third-party provider) over a year ago, but the hack was just revealed this weekend and confirmed in a statement from the National Security Council yesterday. It could be one of the largest (publicly disclosed) hacks of late, so former CSO and a16z operating partner for security Joel de la Garza shares the breaking news and developing story as well as where this fits in overall security trends — with Sonal Chokshi.

#2 The first of several planned Eth2 upgrades to Ethereum recently went live: the Beacon Chain. Given that DeFi (decentralized finance) and other decentralized applications are often in the headlines, and that Ethereum has experienced growing pains in the past, a16z crypto partner Ali Yahya breaks down what this is and why the news matters in the big picture — with Zoran Basich.

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