Nick Arnett retweeted
The area of repacks that will be heavily scrutinized by law (especially in California) are the buybacks. Traditional packs don’t offer buybacks. With cards, you don’t immediately get offers to sell 80% back. So the simple “they are digital version of yesterday’s packs” doesn’t on its face sidestep scrutiny.
SCOOP: Before launching its digital rips product, PrizePicks sent a briefing to every state attorney general and met with gambling regulators to share what they were planning.
It was a proactive move to assuage concerns that digital rips could be considered gambling, and may undwork for broader gambling industry adoption of digital rips.
While digital rips seem to meet the standard definition of gambling—the customer pays for a random chance to win a prize of monetary value—PrizePicks' view is that they are simply digitizing the age-old practice of opening a pack of physical trading cards, which isn't considered gambling under the law.
“This is much more like an e-commerce transaction than it is a form of gambling,” PrizePicks chief legal officer Jason Barclay tells me.
Still, Barclay says “we recognize that anything in the sports entertainment space can be subject to abuse, can be subject to addiction.”
About half of Wednesday’s press release announcing PrizePicks Packs is dedicated to consumer protection measures that come with the product: Customers need to be 18 years old and the app has built in deposit limits. Users have the option to cut themselves off, a casino-industry practice known as self-exclusion.
Gambling or not, the trading card market has certainly become speculative.
An index of trading card values tracked by Card Ladder is outpacing the S&P 500. Trading card manufacturers promote buying card packs in search of rare cards as if they were jackpot lottery tickets.
Trying to win a rare trading card by spending $2,500 on a fantasy-sports app might seem strange to some. But as an @EilersKrejcik report points out, “A generation raised on Pokémon, skins and digital goods already assigns real value to noncash assets. A $1,000 card can be a grail, a status object and an asset at once; for the right consumer, the chance to acquire it can be more compelling than an equivalent cash payout.”
(video via @AldrinResearch)
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I’m deleting my Coinbase account after 10+ years of being a customer.
Slab packs/digital rips are predatory slot machines, plain and simple. They’re bad for the hobby and they’re bad for consumers when not introduced with strong responsible purchasing tools, which at best will likely be an afterthought to Coinbase (as they were/still are for Coinbase Predict).
Stop turning everything into a casino.
Slab packs/digital rips are predatory slot machines, plain and simple. They’re bad for the hobby and they’re bad for consumers when not introduced with strong responsible purchasing tools, which at best will likely be an afterthought to Coinbase (as they were/still are for Coinbase Predict).
Stop turning everything into a casino.
Your binder is about to get a major upgrade.
Rip packs on your phone.
Every pull backed by a real, physical card.
Vault it or ship it.
Soon on Coinbase.
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Nick Arnett retweeted
Today we're announcing $75M to build Solcoa One, our 500-tonne rare earth metallization plant in Nevada.
At Solcoa, we believe rare earths are the foundation of America's next great industrial era. An era we intend to win on the merits, with superior American technology.
At Solcoa, we believe rare earths are the foundation of America's next great industrial era. An era we intend to win on the merits, with superior American technology.
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Nick Arnett retweeted
“We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Godspeed, Artemis II.
Godspeed, Artemis II.
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Too many scientific breakthroughs fall through the cracks of the current system. Too weird to get funded, too unconventional to get published. If that's you, we want to hear from you.
Applications are open for our 2026 Flux cohort. We'll pick up to 10 teams working on sci fi science to back with a $100K investment (and potential for more). The weirder the better!
1517.substack.com/p/flux-capacit…
Applications are open for our 2026 Flux cohort. We'll pick up to 10 teams working on sci fi science to back with a $100K investment (and potential for more). The weirder the better!
1517.substack.com/p/flux-capacit…
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Nick Arnett retweeted
Aliens (completely bewildered): so the groundhog
Me: is clairvoyant, yes
Me: is clairvoyant, yes
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Been a blast working with Samay and watching Alteon's progress. Love when tech is inspired by nature. I had no idea albatrosses were such fascinating birds (highly recommend going down that rabbit hole!) until Samay mentioned them as his inspiration on our first pitch call.
Can't wait to see them reach that 417 day milestone!
Can't wait to see them reach that 417 day milestone!
The Wright Brothers gave humanity flight, Alteon exists to give humanity (almost) perpetual flight.
Alteon Energy builds the world’s highest endurance airplanes – ones that can fly for ~417 days at a time without landing.
Today, I’m excited to share with the world our first n – the Infinidrone 🧵
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lol clearing out my old newsletters folder and saw this. I never had an FTX account so I knew it was phishing but didn't catch the domain until I saw the note from the very thoughtful scammers reminding the recipient to verify the domain. Thanks for the warning, mr scammer 🫶
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Nick Arnett retweeted
What are you doing during SF tech week?
We are bringing the next generation (through our 2E camp) around to sci fi startups founded by 19 year olds!
We are bringing the next generation (through our 2E camp) around to sci fi startups founded by 19 year olds!
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Nick Arnett retweeted
You are not the darkness you have endured. You are the light that survived.
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Nick Arnett retweeted
The people I admire most have a way of escaping the bubble of modern culture. Some via religion, some via old books, some via time in nature. Without such an escape, propaganda wins. You stop thinking for yourself. Modern delusions grow into an all-consuming mind virus.
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Been dipping my toes into astrophotography recently.
Staring into the the cosmos, I can't help but wonder if someone, somewhere out there among the stars, is staring back -- feeling the same awe and wonder as I do in the moment.
What a beautiful sky we all share on this mote of dust.
Staring into the the cosmos, I can't help but wonder if someone, somewhere out there among the stars, is staring back -- feeling the same awe and wonder as I do in the moment.
What a beautiful sky we all share on this mote of dust.
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RT @hvdesmusic: this is how i look at the flight attendant so she knows im awake and want a treat
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Me when an investor asks to meet to talk about one of our portcos and then asks if they can have our diligence notes
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