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Day: November 10, 2022

Charted: The Dark Web Price Index 2022

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

The average price of common items sold on the Dark Web

Click to view a larger version of the graphic.

The Dark Web Price Index 2022

Did you know that the internet you’re familiar with is only 10% of the total data that makes up the World Wide Web?

The rest of the web is hidden from plain sight, and requires special access to view. It’s known as the Deep Web, and nestled far down in the depths of it is a dark, sometimes dangerous place, known as the darknet, or Dark Web.

This graphic by Enrique Mendoza provides us a glimpse at this shrouded part of the internet, showing us some of the common items that are sold on there, and how much they typically cost.

A Brief Introduction to the Dark Web

Before diving in, it’s worth quickly explaining what the Dark Web is, and how people typically gain access to it.

Unlike the ordinary web (which is also known as the Surface Web), the Dark Web cannot be accessed through a regular browser such as Chrome or Safari. Rather, users need to access it anonymously via a Tor browser.

Tor, which is short for “The Onion Router,” is a special portal that connects users to Dark Web websites in a complicated way that ultimately protects the user’s identity. This means users can access websites anonymously.

How Tor Browser Works

The Dark Web can be a breeding ground for illegal activity, where people can buy things like contract killings, drugs, malware, and other people’s personal information.

Product Price Breakdown

How much (Read more...)

META Lesson 2: Accounting Inconsistencies and Consequences

by Aswath Damodaran

In my last post, I used Facebook's recent troubles to talk about the importance of corporate governance, and how we, as investors, have abandoned the power to change management at many younger tech companies in return for being able to invest in young tech companies, with growth potential and well-regarded founders. In this post, I will revisit Facebook's most recent earnings report, and argue that while it contained disappointing news on growth and profitability, the bad news was exaggerated by systematic inconsistencies in how accountants categorize expenses, skewing earnings and invested capital down in firms that don't fit the accounting prototype. That skewing can affect valuation and pricing judgments about these firms, and correcting accounting inconsistencies is a key step towards leveling the playing field.

Accounting 101

   I am not an accountant, and have no desire to be one, but I have used their output (accounting statements) as raw material in valuation and corporate finance. As I look at accounting from the outside, I see the primary role of accounting as recording and reporting, in a consistent and standardized form, the answers to three basic questions:

  1. What does a business own? List out the assets that a business has invested in, and how much it spent on those investments and perhaps what these assets are worth today.
  2. What does the business owe? Specify the contractual commitments that a business has to meet, to stay in business. Simply put, this should include all borrowings, but is not restricted to (Read more...)

Visualizing Mismanaged Plastic Waste by Country

by Christina Kostandi

mismanaged plastic waste around the world by country

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Visualizing Mismanaged Plastic Waste by Country

Plastic is one of the most useful materials around, but its proliferating use has created a ballooning heap of plastic waste, with more than 350 million tonnes generated each year.

Only a fraction of plastic waste is recycled, and about one-fifth ends up in the mismanaged category, meaning that it is dumped or littered without proper waste management practices. Mismanaged plastic waste threatens the land and marine environments, and most of it doesn’t decompose, polluting the environment for hundreds of years.

The above infographic visualizes the largest contributors of mismanaged plastic waste in 2019, based on data from a study by Meijer et al. published in the Science Advances journal.

The Largest Contributors of Mismanaged Plastic Waste

Asian countries account for the majority of global mismanaged plastic waste (MPW), and many of the top plastic-emitting rivers are concentrated in the region.

India and China are the only countries to account for over 10 million tonnes of MPW, although that could partly be driven by their sheer population numbers.

Country/RegionMPW (Read more...)

How Sustainability Indices Can Support the Global ESG Push

by Jenna Ross
This post is by Jenna Ross from Visual Capitalist

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The following content is sponsored by ICE

How Sustainability Indices Can Support the Global ESG Push

The rise of sustainable investing has been fueled by a growing awareness of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. 

Alongside this, many investors want to have a positive impact. The issuance of impact bonds—where proceeds are used for a specific social or green cause—rose by 58% from 2020 to 2021.

Sustainability indices play a key role in the market, helping investors and portfolio managers benchmark performance and create new ESG investment products.

In this graphic from ICE, the last in a three-part series on the ESG toolkit, we explore the different types of ICE Sustainability Indices.

1. Green, Social, and Sustainable Bond Indices

What they do: Track bonds that promote climate change mitigation or that aim for positive social outcomes, such as reduced poverty levels. 

Investors can also access sub-indices that track debt in specific currencies, or that cater to different risk appetites via investment grade or high yield bonds.

The face value of many of these sustainability indices has grown considerably in recent years.

IndexDec 2018Dec 2020Jul 2022
ICE Green, Social,
and Sustainability
Bond Index		$272B$972B$1.7T
ICE BofA Green
Bond Index		$240B$572B$980B
ICE Sustainable
Bond Index		$23B$233B$421B
ICE Social
Bond Index		$11B$167B$333B
ICE Global High Yield
Green, Social &
Sustainable
Bond Index		 (Read more...)

Escaping Hell’s Flywheel: Building Non-inflationary Distribution Channels  

by Michelle Kung

If you were interested in quickly launching a startup, here’s an easy formula for finding product market fit. First, identify an existing product in an industry with a low NPS (like most financial services) that has not traditionally been sold …

The post Escaping Hell’s Flywheel: Building Non-inflationary Distribution Channels   appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

In Good Times, FOMO beats Diligence

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

red and blue light streaks
Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

Ever since the FTX story broke, I have had two recurring thoug. This energy companyrace reminds me of Enron, the energy company that wanted to make markets in everything — especially in gullibility. I wrote about their remarkable similarities in my piece for The Spectator, which is a new outlet where I have recently become a contributor.  

In my piece, I wrote:

“Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Softbank, Lightspeed, Temasek, Blackrock and others invested over a billion in the company which at one time was valued at $32 billion. FTX and Alameda Research’s intermingled ownership should have raised eyebrows, but history shows greed trumps diligence.”

According to media reports, Sequoia wrote off its entire $213.5 million investment in the company. The question is not just Sequoia, but how did all these giants of risk capitalism not notice the most basic of all risks? They aren’t alone: FTX investor is a who’s who of Silicon Valley and technology investing.

And no, I don’t include SoftBank in that list. The Vision Fund might as well rename itself a “vision less” fund, for they have shown a great propensity for losing a lot of other people’s money. The other investors, however, did surprise me. Paradigm is likely going to lose its $278 million investment. And they were the crypto experts. So many of the crypto insiders I have spoken to have nothing kind to say about SBF and aren’t surprised that a strong puff of wind (Read more...)

Charging access is still the “new” problem for Electric Vehicle commercial fleets

by Anamaria Iuga
This post is by Anamaria Iuga from Seedcamp

Our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal’s Q & A with Niall Riddell and André Pinho, founders of Paua, on the interoperability of an ever-expanding yet fractured charging network and making Electric Vehicle (EV) charging user-friendly 

On a recent epic road trip across the UK this summer, I had my high hopes of a seamless charging experience shattered. Besides having to queue up at some stations, finding others out of service, and installing at least 15 apps to cover all the services on offer, I found the cost of electricity for EV charging to be all over the map – ranging from 28p to nearly £1 depending on where the stations were based and their speed of charge.

This cost variance is much wider than in petrol/diesel vehicles and feels like an unfair penalty for those wishing to help the environment through cleaner vehicles. To aggravate things further, charging speeds range from dead slow to 50x faster depending on where the charger is. These further exacerbate the problem of range and cost anxiety for EV owners – after all, time is money. The reality is most people and businesses care more about their time when they are travelling from A to B than p/kWh.

Despite current geopolitical and energy market developments, the demand for Electric Vehicles is on the rise. Customers’ demands are also changing, putting pressure on EV infrastructure providers to offer higher-quality services. In particular, for commercial fleets, for which reliability and cost efficiency are make-or-break factors, improved (Read more...)

A Few Good Stories

by Collab Fund
This post is by Collab Fund from Collab Fund

I recently had lunch with a guy who’s close with Warren Buffett.

This guy – we’ll call him Jim (not his real name) – was driving around Omaha with Buffett in late 2009. The global economy was crippled at this point, and Omaha was no exception. Stores were closed, businesses were boarded up.

Jim said to Warren, “It’s so bad right now. How does the economy ever bounce back from this?”

Warren said, “Jim, do you know what the best-selling candy bar was in 1962?”

“No.” Jim said.

“Snickers,” said Warren.

“And do you know what the best-selling candy bar is today?” Warren said.

“No,” said Jim.

“Snickers,” said Warren.

Then silence. That was the end of the conversation.

I think what Buffett meant was: Focusing on what’s never going to change is more important than trying to anticipate how something might change.

Virtually everything was in short supply during World War II. The U.S. Army produced over 100 million uniforms to supply the Allies, which left little fabric left over for civilian clothes. It got worse in 1943 when the Army mandated that the synthetic material typically used in bathing suits had to be reserved for making military parachutes.

Clothing companies got creative by designing bathing suits with less and less fabric. One French designer named Louis Réard took it to the extreme, designing a bathing suit with as little fabric as he could get away with.

Réard introduced the new bathing suit in 1946. When deciding what to (Read more...)

A Few Good Stories

by Collab Fund
This post is by Collab Fund from Collab Fund

I recently had lunch with a guy who’s close with Warren Buffett.

This guy – we’ll call him Jim (not his real name) – was driving around Omaha with Buffett in late 2009. The global economy was crippled at this point, and Omaha was no exception. Stores were closed, businesses were boarded up.

Jim said to Warren, “It’s so bad right now. How does the economy ever bounce back from this?”

Warren said, “Jim, do you know what the best-selling candy bar was in 1962?”

“No.” Jim said.

“Snickers bar,” said Warren.

“And do you know what the best-selling candy bar is today?” Warren said.

“No,” said Jim.

“Snickers bar,” said Warren.

Then silence. That was the end of the conversation.

I think what Buffett meant was: Focusing on what’s never going to change is more important than trying to anticipate how something might change.

Virtually everything was in short supply during World War II. The U.S. Army produced over 100 million uniforms to supply the Allies, which left little fabric left over for civilian clothes. It got worse in 1943 when the Army mandated that the synthetic material typically used in bathing suits had to be reserved for making military parachutes.

Clothing companies got creative by designing bathing suits with less and less fabric. One French designer named Louis Réard took it to the extreme, designing a bathing suit with as little fabric as he could get away with.

Réard introduced the new bathing suit in 1946. When deciding (Read more...)