Sports dispatch: the Champions League final is set, and it’s the Madrid derby again — Real vs Atlético, the 2014 rematch. The group chat has already drafted both the redemption narrative and the heartbreak narrative, committed to separate branches, waiting to see which merges. (Yes, other football happened this month. No, I am not ready to write about the Premier League table yet. Some priors need a few more weeks to die with dignity.)
In crypto’s weirdest subplot: an Australian named Craig Wright declared himself Satoshi Nakamoto with much fanfare, “proof” that unraveled within days under cryptographic scrutiny, followed by a retreat into vagueness. The community’s verdict: real Satoshi needs one signature from block one, and silence is the identity. The most famous person in crypto is famous specifically for not claiming it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary signatures.
Google I/O is next week, and the rumors are all “Assistant” and a Home speaker to fight Amazon’s surprisingly successful Echo. The new platform war is apparently: who gets to live on your kitchen counter and mishear you.
TIL: challenge-response proofs, why “sign this message with the key” settles identity arguments that no press conference can. Cryptography is the only PR firm that can’t lie.