*By Jacqueline Corba*
The hedge fund Morgan Creek is betting on the power of blockchain to digitize company equity.
The fund's blockchain group is focused on converting traditional paper equity into tokens. This can create a more open free market for investors, and can help regulators, said Anthony Pompliano, a partner at Morgan Creek Blockchain Capital.
"The blockchain actually manages not only the equity or the capital stack but also all transactions with that equity," he said in an interview with Cheddar.
Morgan Creek Capital Management will invest $500 million in blockchain technology. The hedge fund [acquired Pompliano's Full Tilt Capital](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-27/morgan-creek-acquires-full-tilt-capital-for-blockchain-push) in March, two months after Full Tilt went all in on cryptocurrency.
"In the digital world what ends up happening is the protocol in which these transactions are happening has the rules written into them, so the rules are written in software and would not let me make a non compliant trade," Pompliano said. "We actually think that the regulators, at some point in the future, are going to mandate that every company in the world tokenizes their equity."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-hedge-funds-are-betting-big-on-blockchain).
Affirm, a pioneer of the buy now, pay later model, has acquired Returnly, which specializes in making online returns more seamless.
CEO Mark Zagorski of DoubleVerify spoke with Cheddar about how a spike in digital advertising and the minefields of fraud and brand safety for advertisers made it the right time to go public.
Microsoft is offering a rare peek behind the "cloud" with virtual tours of its Azure public data centers.
A fiery crash near Houston with no one behind the wheel of a Tesla is drawing scrutiny from federal agencies that could bring new regulation of electronic systems that take on some driving tasks.
Venmo will allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on its app, the latest mainstream financial platform to wade into alternative currency like Bitcoin.
Despite a measurable impact that the COVID-19 pandemic made on carbon emissions throughout 2020, researchers are warning that to hold back climate change, nations need to keep pushing for reductions.
Garry Kasparov is launching an online platform called Kasparovchess that will allow chess fans to play and learn online.
Apple said it has an agreement to reinstate Parler, the social network popular with supporters of former President Donald Trump it kicked off its app store in January over ties to the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol.
Two federal agencies are sending teams to investigate the fatal crash of a Tesla near Houston in which local authorities say no one was behind the wheel.
NASA's experimental Mars helicopter has taken flight. The little 4-pound helicopter named Ingenuity rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars on Monday, achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet.
