Explainers
Practical explanations of the systems behind everyday technology and money.
How to Read a Post-Incident Report
Read the impact, timeline and follow-up actions separately to understand an outage and its unresolved work.
Status Page During an Outage: Why It Lags Behind the Problem
Your app is failing and the provider's page is still green. Where the first minutes go, and where to look instead.
3D Secure Explained: Why Some Card Payments Ask for a Second Step
Why your bank asks you to approve some online card payments, when it can skip the step, and who pays for fraud.
Chargeback Fee: What a Disputed Card Payment Costs a Merchant
The chargeback fee Stripe, PayPal and Square charge, and the other costs of a disputed card payment.
Interchange-Plus vs Flat Rate: Choosing a Card Pricing Model
Interchange plus vs flat rate: one rate for every card, or the real cost of each card plus a markup.
Interchange Fee Explained: Where a Card Payment Fee Goes
Interchange fee explained: one processing fee on the statement, three payments to three different parties.
Before You Give an AI Agent Access to Your Inbox
Reading mail and sending it are different permissions. Start with the job you actually want done.
10 People Shaping Fintech
Ten people whose work helps explain where payments, digital banking and financial infrastructure are going.
How Funding Changes a Software Product
Customer cash and outside investment create different room to hire, price and wait for growth.
Why AI Services Need More Than Powerful Chips
Memory, networking, storage and scheduling determine whether expensive processors stay busy.
Ethereum Layer 2: what gets cheaper?
Moving execution changes the cost of a transaction. It also adds details about bridges, withdrawals and trust.
Passkeys: Setup, Sync and Recovery
A passkey can simplify signing in. Before replacing a password, check how you will recover access.
Why Revenue Per User Can Mislead at an AI Startup
Two customers can pay the same subscription and generate very different computing and support costs.
What a VPN Can Hide, and What It Cannot
Changing the route of your traffic changes who can observe it. It does not erase your account or browser.
Stablecoin Payments: Where the Fees Come From
A low network fee is only one part of moving money from a customer's wallet to a merchant's bank.
Why an AI Benchmark Win May Not Help With Your Work
A leaderboard measures a test. Your workflow adds documents, tools, delays and costly mistakes.
Before You Move Your Notes, Test the Export
A readable file is a good start. Links, attachments and dates decide whether your notes survive a move.
What You Approve When You Connect a Crypto Wallet
A connection, a signature and a spending permission can appear in similar popups but have different effects.
What a Startup Funding Round Does Not Tell You
The amount raised and the valuation are a starting point. The terms, revenue and cash needs tell another story.
Why One Cloud Outage Can Break Unrelated Apps
Different logos can sit on the same DNS, login, storage or hosting service.
Why a Cross-Border Transfer Can Still Take Days
The international message can arrive quickly while the recipient's money waits in the last mile.
Local-First Apps: What Works Without the Internet?
Offline editing, syncing and backing up solve different problems. A local copy does not guarantee all three.
Running AI on Your Laptop: What to Check First
Memory, model files and cloud settings matter more than a screenshot of a local chat window.
What Happens After You Tap Your Card?
The terminal's approval is one step in a longer journey from a payment request to settled funds.
Start with a question you recognize: what happens after tapping a card, which permissions an AI assistant needs or whether your notes will survive a move to another app. These guides connect the visible interface to the mechanisms behind it, using clear examples and links to original documentation.
The library spans AI, Payments & Fintech, Crypto & Web3, Apps & Software, Tech & Internet and Startups & Ventures. Each desk also has current reports for readers who want to follow new developments.
Begin with 10 People Shaping Fintech for an introduction to influential contributors, or visit the news desk for recent releases. Our guides describe researched information without implying hands-on tests that have not taken place.