Indiegogo has announced some big changes for its crowdfunding platform. The biggest move is that it's transitioning from an open platform to a closed one, with the goal of eventually vetting every campaign before it goes live. In a blog post, Indiegogo's vice president of product and customer trust Will Haines noted that when the company started in 2008, the idea was to let anyone raise money for just about any purpose with few restrictions.

"However, I’ve learned that 'open' is not what our community wants," Haines wrote. "Crowdfunding is not shopping — people generally understand that now — but it also shouldn’t be a leap in the dark. And it certainly can’t be scamming. Our community of backers is the reason that anything happens on Indiegogo, and they are counting on the platform to be a safe, trusted space to engage with innovation."

As such, Indiegogo will scrutinize projects more closely before those seeking funding can push their campaigns live. Under what the company is calling The Guidepost Program, Indiegogo will do more to ensure that projects have a viable plan to follow through and fulfill their rewards.

Haines stressed that Indiegogo can't guarantee every campaign will deliver on its promises, but it "can protect backers from unfeasible projects and outright scams. We now have the resources and expertise to apply this level of scrutiny to all of our largest campaigns and will expand it to every campaign moving forward."

Indiegogo has expanded its trust and safety team to help it screen campaigns, and it formed a review board to oversee the riskiest campaigns and the "most impactful" decisions made by the trust team. In addition, the company has teamed up with GoFundMe to create the Crowdfunding Trust Alliance. The group's goal is to share best practices and discuss industry trends, and it aims to enlist other reputable crowdfunding platforms.

One feature that's on the way to Indiegogo is the Trust Loyalty Program. This will highlight campaigns from creators who have run successful projects in the past. Haines wrote that Indiegogo will "tailor our vetting to match the historical risk level of these entrepreneurs."

There have been many crowdfunding-related scams and allegationsof fraud over the years, as well as campaigns for products that don't seem to pass the smell test. It's likely a net positive that Indiegogo is getting more serious about screening campaigns, even if some legitimate projects might fall through the cracks. In any case, it's still wise to exercise caution whenever you consider contributing to a campaign, since there's always going to be at least a little risk.

Twitter is adding yet another feature to make Spaces more discoverable. On Friday, the company announced the addition of Topics. As the name suggests, they’re essentially pre-defined tags you can use to help like-minded individuals find your audio rooms. You can add up to three Topics to a Space. Some of the ones you can use currently include "entertainment," "world news" and "gaming."

At launch, the feature is somewhat limited. It’s only available to select Android users, there are only 10 total Topics to choose from and Topics only work in English. However, Twitter said iOS support is coming soon, and that it will expand the number of available Topics “as we build together.”

Like the API v2 update the company announced back in August, it’s safe to say Twitter’s hope here is to encourage greater use of Spaces by making it easier to find audio rooms, particularly the ones that align with your interests.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration plans to implement new measures to make it more difficult for hackers to profit from ransomware attacks using cryptocurrencies. As early as next week, the Treasury Department will reportedly impose sanctions and guidance designed to discourage organizations from using digital currencies to pay for ransoms.

Per The Journal, among the measures the agency is considering are fines and other penalties aimed at businesses that cooperate with hackers. Later in the year, the Treasury Department is also expected to implement new anti-money laundering and terror-financing regulation to limit further the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method for ransoms and other illegal activity.

The incoming sanctions will reportedly single out specific traders and exchanges instead of casting a wide net and attempting to disrupt the entire crypto ecosystem. In addition to harming organizations that may have facilitated ransomware payments in the past, the hope is that sanctions will scare most cryptocurrency platforms from processing those types of transactions in the future.

“An action of this kind would be an aggressive, proactive approach to going after those who facilitate ransomware payments,” Ari Redbord, a former Treasury Department official, told The Journal.

The measures would be the latest attempt by the Biden administration to tackle the issue of ransomware attacks following a year in which they’ve increased in frequency and severity. After the Colonial Pipeline attack led to fuel shortages in parts of the US, the president signed an executive order that called for, among other things, improved information sharing between federal agencies. More recently, the Department of Homeland Security laid out mandatory rules that call on pipeline operators to appoint cybersecurity coordinators and report incidents to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.