Category: 3. Business

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Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square and founder of Bluesky, is back with another potentially disruptive and decentralized app: “bitchat.”

Like Twitter and Bluesky, bitchat is a social app, but it’s not a social media platform. Instead, bitchat is a peer-to-peer messaging app, and is unique among the myriad of messaging options available already, as it does not operate over the internet. Rather than connect to wifi or a cellular network, bitchat is designed to operate over Bluetooth, specifically Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh networks. In theory, it would allow bitchat to function even when networks are down. In the event you can’t connect to either cellular or wifi, bitchat would still function. (Though expanding satellite communications may give bitchat a run for its money.)

How does bitchat work?

According to the app’s white paper, bitchat relies on the devices running it to communicate with each other over BLE. As such, your device connects to another user’s device within Bluetooth range, their device connects to another in Bluetooth range, and so on. “Local clusters” are made up of the device within Bluetooth range (typically 33 feet, though the white paper says roughly 30), where “bridge nodes” can connect those clusters when they overlap in range. With enough devices, you create a network where one user is able to message another well outside the usual Bluetooth range.

It’s sort of like how networks like Apple’s Find My work. Products like AirTags communicate via Bluetooth with other devices on the Find My network. But where an iPhone will connect to the internet to ultimate update your AirTag’s location, bitchat never needs to connect to the internet: It’s all Bluetooth based.

The design also accounts for users that are unavailable at the time you send a message. If you send it to a regular user, the message will be cached for up to 12 hours before sending, though messages you send to “favorite peers” can be cached indefinitely. Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted, while group messages (yes, bitchat supports group messaging) can be password protected if you so choose. You can set group messages, or “channels,” with a channel name prefixed with a # (e.g. #channelname), and you can transfer the ownership of a group chat if you wish.

Bitchat might not be secure at this time

While Dorsey suggests the app has user privacy and security in mind, it isn’t perfect. The app’s github page even presents a warning at the top, reading: “Private message and channel features have not received external security review and may contain vulnerabilities. Do not use for sensitive use cases, and do not rely on its security until it has been reviewed. Work in progress. Public local chat (the main feature) has no security concerns.” According to TechCrunch, that warning was not present when the app first launched.

TechCrunch highlights a number of security concerns testers have discovered while using the app. One found that it is possible to pretend to be another users’ contact, and trick the app into marking them as a “Favorite” contact—a feature that is supposed to guarantee the contact is who they say they are. Another user raised an issue with the app’s “forward secrecy” feature, which is supposed to prevent bad actors from successfully breaking encryption even if they access the encryption key for your message. Still another found a security flaw that might allow a bad actor to overflow memory to another location, which could enable hacking.

It’s clear that the app has a ways to go to iron out its privacy and security functions, so, at this time, it might not be the best idea to try it out—or, at least, to send sensitive information.

How to try bitchat

If you’re okay taking on the security risks, you can try out bitchat today—though set up is a bit complicated. There is a TestFlight beta program for iPhone and Mac, but it’s full.

Bitchat’s GitHub page has three options for setup on Mac: You can get things up and running via XcodeGen, which is the recommended method; Swift Package Manager; or start a manual Xcode Project by copying over all Swift files from the bitchat directory on GitHub.

Personally, I’ll wait until the app is fully realized on iPhone and Mac before giving it a shot. But if there are any peers in your area on bitchat, you’ll be able to start chatting.

Happy Friday, traders. Welcome to our weekly market wrap, where we take a look back at these last five trading days with a focus on the market news, economic data, and headlines that had the most impact on gold prices and other key correlated assets— and may continue to in the future.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Gold prices showed volatility but ended the week higher, closing above $3355/oz.
2. Market movement was driven largely by trade war rhetoric and tariff actions, not hard data.
3. Despite hawkish FOMC minutes, gold prices held firm and continued to climb.
4. New copper tariffs heightened industrial metal volatility, supporting gold’s safe-haven appeal.

So, What Kind of a Week Has it Been?

Gold’s five-day chart has what looks like a deep sawtooth pattern up until a sharp line higher here at the end. This is misleading, however, as the yellow metal’s range for most of the week has been just $20-30/oz. While it’s a concerning realization for experienced traders who want a more concrete set of inputs to base their price projections on, this first full week of trading in July seems to have gold moving in very “vibes-based” trends.

Light Data, Heavy Rhetoric

That observation is due in part to the fact that there is a very light data calendar this week. In fact, “data” suggests more tangibility than is really there for the single major macroeconomic input we received— the meeting minutes from last month’s FOMC. The rest of the trading momentum for gold, as well as the US Dollar and other related major asset classes, was heightening rhetoric around the Trump Tariffs and still-present risk of a full-on trade war sparked by the US.

Tariff Turbulence and the Dollar

The Dollar strengthened considerably at the start of the week as traders braced for Wednesday, originally tipped to be the date that the White House’s “Freedom Day” tariffs were scheduled to take effect. This had the impact of weighing gold prices down as far as $3300/oz in Sunday evening trade, but here the metal found supportive buyers. And as the start of the US’ Monday came with early indications that the Trump Administration was ready to back down on its threats, gold found headroom again and climbed somewhat easily back to $3330 and above.

Of course, the pattern repeated itself—initiated by new and destabilizing, if vague, threats on trade restrictions— and again the Greenback’s rally tripped gold spot prices lower. This time, gold has to fall far enough to briefly test the water below support (roughly $3290) before rallying again.

Fed Minutes vs Market Momentum

Where we might have actually anticipated weakening gold prices was in the wake of the FOMC minutes, which painted a picture of the US central bankers as hardly eager to cut rates in the immediate term, especially not later this month. This is despite recent public commentary from some Fed officials (potentially angling for the White House’s good graces when Chair Powell’s term expires) to the contrary.

We looked for such a strong signal that a lower rate environment, expected to directly benefit gold investment, would weigh down on the yellow metal, but in fact, prices not only held relatively steady, but have mostly only risen since the Fed Minutes were made public.

Tariffs Hit Copper—Gold Follows

Thursday and Friday’s trading has seen gold continue to climb for now three consecutive sessions, and is looking set to close the week above $3355/oz. This is due in large part to the announcement of new tariffs imposed by the US vastly outstripping the few announcements (or even suggestions) of deals being reached with trade partners.

Gold’s climb and general feel of volatility also relates closely to the White House now directly levying tariffs in the metal commodities space with a 50% duty on copper. Copper and gold are not quite directly linked, but copper market changes often ripple through to another industrial metal—silver— which does often push or pull on the gold market with considerable force.

Next Week’s Data Watch

Next week, we get a little closer to the world of the real, at least in terms of macro data, with an updated consumer inflation print on Tuesday and Retail Sales on Thursday. Whether or not hard numbers can reassert control over the markets’ mood from the intangibility of uncertainty remains to be seen.

In the meantime, traders, I hope you can get out and safely enjoy your weekend for the next couple of days. After that, I’ll see you back here next week for another market recap.

CNN
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The chief executive of the world’s leading chipmaker warned that while artificial intelligence will significantly boost workplace productivity, it could lead to job loss if industries lack innovation.

“If the world runs out of ideas, then productivity gains translates to job loss,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria when asked about comments made by fellow tech leader Dario Amodei, who suggested AI will cause mass employment disruptions.

Amodei, the head of Anthropic, warned last month that the technology could cause a dramatic spike in unemployment in the very near future. He told Axios that AI could eliminate half of entry-level, white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to as much as 20% in the next five years.

Huang believes that as long as companies come up with fresh ideas, there’s room for productivity and employment to thrive. But without new ambitions, “productivity drives down,” he said, potentially resulting in fewer jobs.

“The fundamental thing is this, do we have more ideas left in society? And if we do, if we’re more productive, we’ll be able to grow,” he said.

The increase in AI investments, which fueled a massive technology boom in recent years, has raised concerns about whether the technology will threaten jobs in the future. Roughly 41% of chief executives have said AI will reduce the number of workers at thousands of companies over the next five years, according to a 2024 survey from staffing firm Adecco Group. A survey released in January from the World Economic Forum showed 41% of employers plan to downsize their workforce by 2030 because of AI automation.

“Everybody’s jobs will be affected. Some jobs will be lost. Many jobs will be created and what I hope is that the productivity gains that we see in all the industries will lift society,” Huang said.

Nvidia, which briefly reached $4 trillion in market value, is among the companies leading the AI revolution. The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker’s technology has been used to power data centers that companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google use to operate their AI models and cloud services.

Huang defended the development of AI, saying that “over the course of the last 300 years, 100 years, 60 years, even in the era of computers,” both employment and productivity increased. He added that technological advancements can facilitate the realization of “an abundance of ideas” and “ways that we could build a better future.”

Artificial intelligence is also likely to change the way work is done. More than half of large US firms said they plan to automate tasks previously done by employees, such as paying suppliers or doing invoices, according to a 2024 survey by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Richmond.

Huang said that even his job has changed as a result of the AI revolution, “but I’m still doing my job.”

Some companies also use AI tools, like ChatGPT and chatbots, for creative tasks including drafting job posts, press releases and building marketing campaigns.

“AI is the greatest technology equalizer we’ve ever seen,” said Huang. “It lifts the people who don’t understand technology.”

Fareed Zakaria’s interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang can be seen on “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday 10 a.m. ET/PT.

The dollar turned in its best weekly performance in more than four months as President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats heightened concern that escalating trade tensions will stoke inflation and derail a rally in risk markets.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.73% this week, the best showing — by a hair — since the week of Feb. 28, after falling for two weeks before that. The Japanese yen, British pound were among the worst performers in the Group of 10 this week.

Story Continues

Despite the end of solar panel tax incentives under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, globally, solar is having a moment. The World Economic Forum reported that renewable energy capacity increased by 15.1% in 2024, with much of that driven by solar growth in China.

“Some point in the last five years or so, we crossed an invisible line where it became cheaper to generate power from the sun and the wind than it did from setting coal and gas and oil on fire,” said author and environmentalist Bill McKibben. “That’s an epochal moment in human history.”

In his upcoming book, “Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization,” McKibben looks at how the explosive growth of the solar industry could pave the way for a more climate-resilient future. McKibben spoke with “Marketplace” host Amy Scott about the book; the following is a transcript of their conversation.

Amy Scott: So why solar? Why is that a last and maybe our best chance at avoiding climate calamity?

Bill McKibben: You know, I’ve been working on climate change for a very long time, Amy. I wrote the first book for a general audience about what we then called the greenhouse effect back in the 1980s and the first hint that we’ve actually had of something that’s scaling fast enough to make even a small difference in how hot this planet gets has been the explosion in the last two years of the amount of solar power on this planet. Last year, 95% or so of new electric generating capacity came from the sun and the wind, and that’s remarkable. You can see it happening everywhere. It’s centered in China, which is building about half the clean energy on the planet. Forget petrostates, they’re now the world’s first ‘electrostate.’

Scott: I mean, it’s really remarkable. Why has this happened in just the last couple of years?

McKibben: Money, money, money. Some point in the last five years or so, we crossed an invisible line where it became cheaper to generate power from the sun and the wind than it did from setting coal and gas and oil on fire. That’s an epochal moment in human history. We really could wind down combustion quickly on this planet, saving something of the climate, preventing millions of deaths a year from breathing the bad effects of that combustion, and, not in a minor way, we could also take some of the pressure off the geopolitics of this earth. It’s pretty hard to fight a war over sunshine.

Scott: But the myth that solar is expensive is so pervasive. You write it’s considered like the full the Whole Foods of energy, but actually it’s more like Costco. Why is that so sticky?

McKibben: Well, it’s because it’s been true for 40 or 50 years. Ever since we started talking about this stuff, we’ve called it alternative energy, and that’s because fossil fuel was always, and remains, fairly cheap. But activists and government policy makers set the conditions that began to allow demand to build, and as that demand built across the world, but especially in China, people figured out how to make really cheap solar panels. There’s now parts of Europe where people are putting up solar panels instead of fences, because it’s cheaper than buying good wood. It’s only in the US where we’re, at least for the moment, determinedly turning our back on all of that.

Scott: Right? We have to talk about the 900-page Republican tax cut and spending bill known as the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill,’ that became law and will essentially remove incentives for solar power here in the United States. How big of a setback is that for the overall energy transition?

McKibben: It’s a huge setback for the American role in that energy transition, but in the long run, it’s probably going to be at least as big a problem for us economically. We’re essentially ceding the future to the Chinese, and it’s possible that 20 years from now, the U.S. will be a kind of museum of coal-fired power plants and internal combustion engines, while the rest of the world has moved on to cheap, clean technology. That would be a great shame, and it’s not inevitable. Even with the current powers that be, there’s a lot that can be done at the state and local level to surge ahead with renewable energy, even while Washington is sticking its head as far down the sand as it can get.

 Scott: As you mentioned, China is leading the solar revolution, leaving the United States behind. You’ve been to China’s Solar Valley. What did you see there?

McKibben: Well, I’ve been to China a bunch of times and watched different phases of this, including the very early ones. The Chinese figured out early on that this was where the future lay, and that’s why now the pace at which they’re doing this is truly incredible. In May of this year, China was putting up a gigawatt’s worth of solar panels, and a gigawatt’s worth of solar panels is the rough equivalent of a nuclear or a coal-fired power plant, they were doing that every eight hours. Can you imagine building a nuclear plant every eight hours? That’s essentially what they were doing, and they’ve coupled it, of course, with the technologies to take full advantage of all that electricity.

Scott: All this kind of makes you wonder, does the world even need the U.S. to be fully on board? Can we get to a livable climate ceiling without U.S. involvement?

McKibben: The problem is not only that we’re still second-biggest source of carbon in the world, but also that the other thing that the Trump administration is doing is trying very hard to sell our fossil fuels abroad. For the moment, we’re going to have to do this without the help of Washington. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it. You know what state in America is putting up renewable energy far faster than any other?

Scott: I do know the answer, but yeah, it’s a surprise.

McKibben: The Lone Star state of Texas and and it’s because they understand the economics of it. That’s what’s keeping their rapidly expanding grid affordable and, probably just as importantly, reliable.

Scott: I was telling my producer before we started that reading the book is kind of an emotional roller coaster. It’s at times extremely hopeful and also very depressing. At the end of the book you write that when you finished writing your first book about climate change, “The End of Nature,” you felt catatonic. But after this book, 40 years later, you felt a combination of sadness and exhilaration. Why exhilaration?

McKibben: Well, at the prospect that there’s finally something we can do that can scale. I’m sad because of all that we’ve already lost and will continue to lose, but we finally have something that, if we decided to do it at the pace that it’s possible to do it at would get us somewhere.

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