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26th of March, 2025. Evolution takes time.

26th of M was originally published in Aergo blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Many of our clients at Dock Labs have been asking for clarity on the current state of remote verification of mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs), specifically regarding the ISO 18013-7 standard.

Here’s what we know:

The Sui blockchain, with its high throughput, low latency, and secure smart contract capabilities, presents a compelling opportunity to revolutionize traditional payment processing. This article delves into how traditional payment processing compute resources can be mapped to the Sui blockchain. It also explores the potential of Move smart contracts to create a seamless interface between these two systems.

Sui's Advantages for Payment Processing

Sui possesses several key features that make it well-suited for payment processing:

High Throughput: Sui can process tens of thousands of transactions per second, far exceeding the capacity of many traditional payment systems. This is achieved through its innovative consensus mechanism and parallel execution capabilities1.

Low Latency: Sui boasts sub-second finality for many transactions, ensuring near-instantaneous settlement of payments. This is crucial for time-sensitive applications and enhances the overall user experience1.

Object-Centric Model: Sui structures data as independent objects rather than accounts. This model simplifies data management, improves efficiency, and enables parallel transaction processing2.

Parallel Execution: Unlike traditional blockchains that process transactions sequentially, Sui can execute many transactions in parallel. This significantly increases throughput and reduces latency, leading to faster payment processing and lower fees3.

Move Programming Language: Sui utilizes Move, a secure and efficient smart contract language designed specifically for blockchain applications. Move's features, such as its resource-oriented programming model and formal verification capabilities, enhance the security and reliability of payment processing solutions2.

Move Smart Contract Capabilities for Payment Processing

Move offers several powerful features that can be leveraged to build robust and efficient payment processing solutions on the Sui blockchain:

Resource-Oriented Programming: Move's unique approach to resource management ensures that digital assets are handled securely and cannot be accidentally lost or duplicated. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity of payment transactions4.

Formal Verification: Move supports formal verification, allowing developers to mathematically prove the correctness of their smart contracts. This enhances the reliability and security of payment processing applications4.

Parallel Execution: Move is designed to support parallel execution, enabling Sui to process multiple transactions concurrently. This significantly improves throughput and reduces latency, leading to faster payment processing5.

Flexibility and Composability: Move allows developers to define custom data structures and create complex interactions between smart contracts. This flexibility enables the development of innovative payment solutions tailored to specific needs6.

Security and Safety: Move incorporates strong security features to prevent common vulnerabilities, such as reentrancy attacks and unauthorized access to funds. This enhances the security of payment transactions and protects user assets5.

Traditional Payment Processing Compute Resources and Sui Blockchain Mapping Traditional Resource Sui Equivalent Move Contract Potential Point of Sale (POS) System Sui Wallet, dApps Smart contracts can facilitate secure and instant payment processing at the POS, integrating with existing POS systems or creating new decentralized POS solutions. For example, a retail store could use a Sui-based POS system to accept payments directly from customers' Sui Wallets, eliminating the need for intermediaries and reducing transaction fees7. Encryption Layer Sui's cryptography primitives Move's security features and Sui's object-centric model can be leveraged to create secure encryption layers for protecting sensitive payment data. Smart contracts can be used to encrypt payment information before it is transmitted, ensuring confidentiality and preventing unauthorized access8. Payment Gateway Sui-based payment gateways Smart contracts can be used to build decentralized payment gateways that facilitate secure and efficient routing of payments across different platforms. These gateways can automate payment authorization, settlement, and reconciliation processes, reducing manual intervention and improving efficiency9. Decryption Layer Sui's cryptography primitives Similar to the encryption layer, Move smart contracts can be used to create secure decryption layers for authorized access to payment data. This ensures that only authorized parties, such as the merchant or the acquiring bank, can decrypt and access the payment information10. Fraud Monitoring & Detection System On-chain fraud detection modules Smart contracts can be designed to analyze transaction patterns and identify potentially fraudulent activities in real-time. By monitoring transaction data for anomalies, such as unusual spending patterns or suspicious account activity, these modules can help prevent fraud and protect users11. Payment Processor Sui-based payment processors Move smart contracts can automate payment processing tasks, such as transaction validation, settlement, and reconciliation. This can streamline payment operations, reduce manual effort, and improve efficiency11. Card Network Sui-based decentralized network Sui's object-centric model can be used to represent card networks and facilitate secure and efficient card transactions. Smart contracts can be used to manage cardholder data, authorize transactions, and settle payments between issuing and acquiring banks12. Issuing Bank Sui-based token issuance platforms Smart contracts can be used to issue and manage tokens that represent fiat currencies or other forms of value. These tokens can be used for payments within the Sui ecosystem, enabling seamless and efficient transactions13. Acquiring Bank Sui-based acquiring services Smart contracts can automate the process of acquiring payments from merchants and settling funds with issuing banks. This can reduce processing times and improve efficiency for both merchants and banks14. Storage Database Sui's object store Sui's object store provides a secure and efficient way to store payment data, transaction history, and other relevant information. This ensures data integrity and availability, while also enabling efficient retrieval and analysis of payment data15. Redundancy Sui's consensus mechanism Sui's consensus mechanism ensures redundancy and fault tolerance, guaranteeing the integrity and availability of payment data. This prevents data loss and ensures that payment processing can continue even in the event of network failures or individual node outages16. Sui's Mysticeti Protocol and Consensus Algorithm in Traditional Payment Processing

Sui's Mysticeti protocol and consensus algorithm offer significant advantages for payment processing:

High Throughput: Mysticeti enables Sui to process tens of thousands of transactions per second, exceeding the capacity of most traditional payment systems1.

Low Latency: Mysticeti achieves sub-second finality for transactions, ensuring near-instantaneous settlement of payments1.

Reduced Costs: Sui's efficient consensus mechanism minimizes computational overhead, leading to lower transaction fees compared to traditional systems. While gas fees on Sui are determined by both computation and storage, the overall efficiency of the platform contributes to lower costs2.

Enhanced Security: Mysticeti is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus protocol, providing robust security against attacks and network failures17.

These features make Sui well-suited for handling the high volume and speed requirements of modern payment systems.

DeepBook's Potential in Traditional Payment Processing

DeepBook, a decentralized central limit order book (CLOB) built on Sui, offers several features relevant to traditional payment processing:

Enhanced Liquidity: DeepBook provides a platform for pooling liquidity, enabling efficient matching of buy and sell orders for various assets. This can improve liquidity for payment transactions and facilitate faster settlements18.

Improved Price Discovery: DeepBook's CLOB structure facilitates transparent price discovery, ensuring fair and efficient pricing for payment transactions. This can benefit both buyers and sellers by providing a clear and accurate view of market prices19.

Reduced Costs: DeepBook's decentralized nature eliminates intermediaries, potentially lowering transaction fees compared to traditional payment systems. This can make payment processing more cost-effective for businesses and consumers20.

By integrating DeepBook's functionalities, traditional payment systems can benefit from increased efficiency and reduced costs.

Sui's Integration of Ondo Finance USDY and Its Implications

Sui's integration of Ondo Finance USDY, a tokenized US Treasury product, offers insights into how traditional payment systems can leverage tokenized assets:

Increased Accessibility: Tokenized assets like USDY provide a way for users to access and transact with traditional financial instruments on the blockchain. This can democratize access to financial products and services, making them available to a wider range of users21.

Enhanced Liquidity: Tokenized assets can be easily traded on decentralized exchanges, increasing liquidity and facilitating faster settlements. This can improve the efficiency of payment systems and reduce settlement times22.

Improved Efficiency: Smart contracts can automate the management of tokenized assets, streamlining processes and reducing operational costs. This can lead to more efficient and cost-effective payment solutions23.

24/7 Global Transactions: Tokenized assets can be integrated with existing payment networks, such as Mastercard's Multi-Token Network, to enable seamless and instant access to traditional financial instruments. This can facilitate 24/7 global transactions and improve cash management for businesses23.

By incorporating tokenized assets, traditional payment systems can offer new functionalities and improve efficiency.

Sui's Advanced Features for Payment Processing

Sui incorporates several advanced features that can further enhance payment processing:

Dynamic Fields: Dynamic fields allow for flexible data management within objects, enabling the representation of complex payment data and facilitating adaptability to evolving payment needs25.

Randomness: Sui supports verifiable randomness, which can be used to ensure fair transaction processing and prevent manipulation in payment systems25.

Package Upgrades: Sui allows for seamless upgrades of smart contract packages, enabling continuous improvement and adaptation of payment processing solutions without disrupting existing functionalities25.

Sponsored Transactions: Sui supports sponsored transactions, allowing applications to cover gas fees on behalf of users. This can simplify payment processing for users and improve accessibility25.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Sui integrates zero-knowledge proofs, enhancing privacy and security in payment transactions by enabling verification of information without revealing the underlying data25.

Advanced Cryptography: Sui utilizes advanced cryptography primitives to ensure the security and integrity of payment data and transactions25.

Benefits and Challenges of Sui-Based Payment Processing

Integrating traditional payment processing with the Sui blockchain offers numerous benefits:

Seamless Transactions: Sui enables streamlined payment processing, reducing friction and improving the customer experience26.

Multiple Payment Options: Sui can support a wide range of payment methods, including traditional options like credit cards and digital wallets, as well as emerging options like cryptocurrencies26.

Enhanced Security: Sui's robust security features and consensus mechanism protect payment data and transactions from fraud and unauthorized access.

Increased Efficiency: Sui's parallel execution and low latency capabilities improve the efficiency of payment processing, reducing settlement times and operational costs.

Transparency and Auditability: Sui's blockchain-based nature ensures transparency and auditability of payment transactions, fostering trust and accountability.

However, some challenges need to be addressed:

Scalability: While Sui is designed for high throughput, ensuring scalability to handle the massive volume of global payment transactions requires ongoing development and optimization27.

Interoperability: Integrating Sui with existing payment systems and infrastructure requires establishing interoperability standards and protocols27.

Regulation: The evolving regulatory landscape for blockchain technology and digital assets needs to be carefully navigated to ensure compliance and legal certainty for Sui-based payment solutions27.

Sui's unique features, such as its object-centric model, parallel execution, and Move programming language, provide solutions to many of these challenges.

Conclusion

The Sui blockchain presents a compelling opportunity to revolutionize traditional payment processing. By leveraging Move's advanced smart contract capabilities, payment processors can create more efficient, secure, and accessible payment solutions. Sui's high throughput, low latency, and object-centric model address key challenges in traditional payment systems, while features like DeepBook and tokenized assets further enhance its potential. The integration of Ondo Finance USDY demonstrates how Sui can bridge traditional finance with the blockchain, paving the way for innovative payment solutions that combine the best of both worlds. As Sui continues to evolve and mature, it is poised to become a leading platform for the future of payment processing, driving innovation and transforming the way we transact value.

Works cited

Mysticeti - Sui, accessed March 12, 2025, https://sui.io/mysticeti

What is Sui Network? (SUI) How it works, who created it and how it is used | Kraken, accessed March 12, 2025, https://www.kraken.com/learn/what-is-sui-network-sui

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Move on Aptos Goes Beyond Ethereum: Why Move is the Best Smart Contract Language | by VibrantX Finance | Mar, 2025 | Medium, accessed March 12, 2025, https://medium.com/@VibrantxFinance/move-on-aptos-goes-beyond-ethereum-why-move-is-the-best-smart-contract-language-7d65e503dc7b

Smart Contracts (Move) - Aptos Docs (en), accessed March 12, 2025, https://aptos.dev/en/build/smart-contracts

Move Concepts - Sui Documentation, accessed March 12, 2025, https://docs.sui.io/concepts/sui-move-concepts

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awesome-move/README.md at main - GitHub, accessed March 12, 2025, https://github.com/MystenLabs/awesome-move/blob/main/README.md?ref=blog.sui.io

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Decryption in a smart contract - Ethereum Stack Exchange, accessed March 12, 2025, https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/13161/decryption-in-a-smart-contract

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Move - A Web3 Language and Runtime - Aptos Docs (en), accessed March 12, 2025, https://aptos.dev/en/network/blockchain/move

Programmable bank accounts: unlocking the future of finance with smart contracts | by Jonny Fry | Mar, 2025, accessed March 12, 2025, https://jonnyfry175.medium.com/programmable-bank-accounts-unlocking-the-future-of-finance-with-smart-contracts-90239cb293ea

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What is Smart Contract Storage Layout? - Alchemy Docs, accessed March 12, 2025, https://docs.alchemy.com/docs/smart-contract-storage-layout

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Mysticeti – The Consensus Mechanism of Sui - blockscholes, accessed March 12, 2025, https://www.blockscholes.com/premium-research/mysticeti-the-consensus-mechanism-of-sui

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Keyfactor research finds that about 18% of RSA-based digital certificates have flaws ranging from trivial to very serious. A new tool promises to find them.

Welcome to ID Tech’s digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today: New Report Tracks Progress, Challenges in […]

The post ID Tech Digest – March 13, 2025 appeared first on ID Tech.

Identity Week has released an insightful new report titled “Transformative Women: Women’s Inclusion in the Evolving Identity Industry,” edited by Evie Kim Sing. The detailed analysis explores the current landscape […]

The post New Report Tracks Progress, Challenges in Identity Industry’s Gender Inclusivity appeared first on ID Tech.

Smart Eye Technology has partnered with fintech advisory firm Finov8r to bring advanced fraud prevention capabilities to U.S. community banks. The strategic alliance aims to integrate Smart Eye’s continuous authentication […]

The post Smart Eye Partners with Finov8r to Boost Community Bank Fraud Prevention appeared first on ID Tech.

Chinese scientists have developed what they claim is the world’s most powerful spy camera, capable of facial recognition from space using quantum-based “ghost imaging” technology. The breakthrough camera system, developed […]

The post New Chinese Quantum Camera Enables Facial Recognition from 100km appeared first on ID Tech.

A new legal challenge has been filed in Kenya’s Milimani Law Courts against the Maisha Namba digital identity system, raising serious concerns about potential discrimination and privacy violations that could […]

The post Legal Challenge Targets Kenya’s New Digital ID System Over Rights Concerns appeared first on ID Tech.

AuthenticID and Authvia have announced a strategic partnership to enhance security in digital payments through AI-powered identity verification. The collaboration will integrate AuthenticID’s identity verification platform into Authvia’s Text-to-Pay and […]

The post AuthenticID and Authvia Partner to Combat AI-Powered Payment Fraud appeared first on ID Tech.

FacePhi has achieved strong results in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s latest face liveness detection testing program, demonstrating a remarkably low error rate of less than 0.2 percent in […]

The post FacePhi’s Face Liveness Tech Achieves 99.8% Accuracy in DHS Security Tests appeared first on ID Tech.

Inverid has announced that its ReadID identity verification solution now meets the ETSI 119 461 standard’s requirements for unattended remote identity proofing at the highest assurance level. The company has […]

The post ReadID Biometric Verification Now Certified for Highest EU Identity Standard appeared first on ID Tech.

Neural Defend, an AI cybersecurity startup focused on deepfake detection, has secured over $600,000 in pre-seed funding to combat the rising threat of AI-powered financial fraud. The funding round was […]

The post AI Startup Neural Defend Raises $600K to Combat Deepfake Financial Fraud appeared first on ID Tech.

T-Mobile, Thales and SIMPL ease IoT deployments with a flexible and secure connectivity solution prezly Thu, 03/13/2025 - 15:00 By combining T-Mobile’s robust network, Thales’ industry-leading expertise in connectivity management, and SIMPL IoT’s advanced platform, the relationship sets a new benchmark by radically simplifying IoT deployments. The collaboration aims to deliver seamless and secure connectivity to embedded SIM (eSIM) enabled devices across industries such as Retail, Healthcare, Utilities, and Logistics. The joint offer ensures that enterprises can easily tailor their IoT solutions to meet their specific needs without compromising security, efficiency, or cost-effectiveness.

In an era where seamless connectivity is paramount for IoT deployments, a strategic collaboration between T-Mobile, Thales and SIMPL IoT is set to redefine device management in the massive IoT market. Indeed, managing large-scale deployments with numerous device configurations presents significant challenges related to security, simplicity, and connectivity. This collaboration addresses these challenges by providing IoT players with a secure end-to-end solution that manages devices’ initial connectivity and life cycle.

All eSIM-equipped devices managed by SIMPL IoT come pre-loaded with a T-Mobile bootstrap profile, ensuring immediate and reliable initial connectivity out of the box. This enables devices to immediately connect to the most suitable cellular network through Thales Adaptive Connect when deployed in the field. When end customers opt to continue using T-Mobile’s network for operational use, they simply remain on the preloaded profile powering their connected use cases.

The integration of Thales Adaptive Connect with SIMPL’s platform allows customers to automatically manage device connectivity in real-time. Through a user-friendly web portal, enterprises and OEMs can now remotely update device connectivity, streamlining deployment and maintenance processes.

This eliminates the logistical and operational hurdles of updating devices manually or swapping SIM cards significantly as once installed in the field, devices equipped with eSIMs instantly connect to the most appropriate cellular network. This game-changing solution leverages eSIM and GSMA SGP.22/32 technologies, enabling businesses to overcome traditional connectivity constraints.

“This collaboration delivers what IoT enterprises truly need—eSIM and connectivity that simply works. We're eliminating complexity and the fear of eSIM so businesses can focus on innovation, not infrastructure management,” said Ryan Keefe, Chief Operating Officer at SIMPL.

"Thales, SIMPL, and T-Mobile are united in shaping the future of eSIM technology, delivering advanced platforms and pioneering commercial solutions that help our customers thrive," said Mike Fitz, Vice President of Solution Sales, T-Mobile for Business. "By providing seamless, out-of-the-box connectivity and essential tools for global scalability, we empower businesses to grow without limits. This game-changing approach simplifies complex supply chain and IoT connectivity decisions, reinforcing our commitment to innovation and customer success."

“The collaboration between T-Mobile, and SIMPL IoT and Thales represents a major step forward in addressing the challenges of scalability, security, and adaptability in IoT connectivity. With the adoption of Thales Adaptive Connect*, businesses across industries can confidently scale their IoT operations while ensuring seamless, secure, and future-proof connectivity,” said Eva Rudin, Vice President Mobile & Connectivity Solutions at Thales.

* The first market ready solution leveraging both GSMA SGP.22 and SGP.32 technologies.

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies for the Defence, Aerospace, and Cyber & Digital sectors. Its portfolio of innovative products and services addresses several major challenges: sovereignty, security, sustainability and inclusion.

The Group invests more than €4 billion per year in Research & Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies.

Thales has more than 83,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2024, the Group generated sales of €20.6 billion.

/sites/default/files/prezly/images/MCSStock-200225-123Ref-001.jpg Contacts Cédric Leurquin 13 Mar 2025 Type Press release Structure Digital Identity and Security In an era where seamless connectivity is paramount for IoT deployments, a strategic collaboration between T-Mobile, Thales and SIMPL IoT is set to redefine device management in the massive IoT market. Indeed, managing large-scale deployments with numerous device configurations presents significant challenges related to security, simplicity, and connectivity. This collaboration addresses these challenges by providing IoT players with a secure end-to-end solution that manages devices’ initial connectivity and life cycle. prezly_740553_thumbnail.jpg Hide from search engines Off Prezly ID 740553 Prezly UUID 134d804d-a2d8-4dae-accf-27d89ae023c0 Prezly url https://thales-group.prezly.com/t-mobile-thales-and-simpl-ease-iot-deployments-with-a-flexible-and-secure-connectivity-solution Thu, 03/13/2025 - 16:00 Don’t overwrite with Prezly data Off

Ocean Protocol has joined forces with Aethir, a leader in decentralized cloud computing with over 400,000+ state-of-the-art GPU containers available across 95 countries, to provide AI builders with the computing resources needed to develop and scale AI agents. This collaboration integrates Aethir’s infrastructure with Ocean’s data-sharing technology, ensuring secure and efficient AI model deployment. The Aethir DePIN stack specializes in supporting AI innovators with reliable, secure, and scalable GPU resources required to efficiently power the most demanding AI workloads.

What Are Ocean Nodes?

Ocean Nodes is a decentralized framework by Ocean Protocol that enables secure and efficient sharing of data and computational resources for AI development, leveraging blockchain technology to enhance scalability, privacy, and accessibility. In summary, it is a practical decentralized solution designed to facilitate the building and deployment of powerful AI models.

Using them eliminates the complexities of traditional setups by integrating key tech stack components like Ocean Provider, Aquarius, and Compute-to-Data (C2D) into a single, modular system. This enables developers to focus on building and scaling AI models without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

Ocean Nodes are democratizing access to large-scale models, decentralizing the process, and providing a secure way to monetize and protect intellectual property (IP).

What This Means

AI development requires two ingredients: data and computing. Through this partnership, we’re ensuring AI builders can access both. Ocean Protocol will provide AI builders with the computing infrastructure. At the same time, Aethir will support promising AI builders with GPU computing grants. GPU computing power has become a critical resource for the constantly evolving AI industry, and AI agents are among the sector’s most innovative use cases. Together, Aethir and Ocean Protocol will support the next stage of AI evolution.

Compute Grant Prizes for AI Builders
Aethir will provide compute grant prizes to Ocean Foam Data Challenges winners, helping them launch AI agents using Ocean’s decentralized tech.

Fast-Tracking for AI Builders
AI startups and developers leveraging Ocean’s stack will gain access to Aethir’s $100M Ecosystem Fund, giving them early-stage support to scale their projects.

Supporting Decentralized Science AI (DeSci AI)
Ocean will promote Aethir as a compute partner for AI-driven scientific research, helping to power decentralized, privacy-first solutions in science and beyond.

Why This Matters

By integrating Ocean’s secure data-sharing infrastructure with Aethir’s decentralized computing power, we’re creating an ecosystem where AI innovation can scale without compromising privacy, ownership, or accessibility.

This partnership provides AI developers with access to high-performance computing at a fraction of traditional cloud costs, ensuring that even smaller teams can train and deploy AI models efficiently.

Aethir’s infrastructure removes the reliance on centralized providers, offering a more open, permissionless alternative. With Aethir’s decentralized cloud computing support, AI agent builders will have industry-leading GPU infrastructure at their disposal to train and launch never-before-seen agentic platforms capable of solving real-world problems across various industries.

At the same time, Ocean’s tech stack ensures data security and monetization, allowing developers to maintain full control over their datasets while building and scaling powerful AI applications.

With this collaboration, AI builders can move faster, scale smarter, and unlock new opportunities without limitations.

What’s Next?

Ocean and Aethir will work together on a case-by-case basis, ensuring AI builders get the computing power they need when needed. This means more opportunities, more funding, and more innovation in decentralized AI. The AI industry is rapidly growing and evolving, carrying numerous market opportunities along the way. With our joint expertise in AI infrastructure and GPU computing, Ocean Protocol and Aethir are positioned to support AI innovation with critical infrastructure at scale.

About Aethir

Aethir is revolutionizing DePIN with its advanced and distributed enterprise-grade GPU compute infrastructure tailored for AI and gaming. Aethir aims to serve enterprise AI clients who need the world’s most powerful AI chips, such as NVIDIA H100s and H200s, as well as innovative Web2 and Web3 gaming companies with hundreds of thousands of cloud gaming players with best-in-class experiences around the world. All of this is accomplished with a decentralized architecture, bringing the GPU cloud to the community and making computing accessible for all.

Backed by leading Web3 investors like Framework Ventures, Merit Circle, Hashkey, Animoca Brands, Sanctor Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC), and combined with a large node sale, Aethir has over $150M to power the ecosystem. Aethir is paving the way for the future of decentralized GPU computing.

About Ocean Protocol

Ocean was founded to level the playing field for AI and data. Ocean tools enable people to privately & securely publish, exchange, and consume data. Ocean Protocol is a founding member of the ASI Alliance.

Ocean Protocol x Aethir to Expand Access to Decentralized Compute for AI Builders was originally published in Ocean Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Predictoor DF132 rewards available. DF133 runs Mar 13— Mar 20th, 2024 1. Overview

Data Farming (DF) is an incentives program initiated by ASI Alliance member, Ocean Protocol. In DF, you can earn OCEAN rewards by making predictions via ASI Predictoor.

Data Farming Round 132 (DF132) has completed.

DF133 is live today, March 13. It concludes on March 20th. For this DF round, Predictoor DF has 3750 OCEAN rewards.

2. DF structure

The reward structure for DF133 is comprised solely of Predictoor DF rewards.

Predictoor DF: Actively predict crypto prices by submitting a price prediction and staking OCEAN to slash competitors and earn.

3. How to Earn Rewards, and Claim Them

Predictoor DF: To earn: submit accurate predictions via Predictoor Bots and stake OCEAN to slash incorrect Predictoors. To claim OCEAN rewards: run the Predictoor $OCEAN payout script, linked from Predictoor DF user guide in Ocean docs.

4. Specific Parameters for DF133

Budget. Predictoor DF: 3750 OCEAN

Networks. Predictoor DF applies to activity on Oasis Sapphire. Here is more information about Ocean deployments to networks.

Predictoor DF rewards are calculated as follows:

DF Buyer agent purchases Predictoor feeds using OCEAN throughout the week to evenly distribute these rewards.

Expect further evolution in DF: adding new streams and budget adjustments among streams.

Updates are always announced at the beginning of a round, if not sooner.

About Ocean, DF and ASI Predictoor

Ocean Protocol was founded to level the playing field for AI and data. Ocean tools enable people to privately & securely publish, exchange, and consume data. Follow Ocean on Twitter or TG, and chat in Discord. Ocean is part of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

In Predictoor, people run AI-powered prediction bots or trading bots on crypto price feeds to earn $. Follow Predictoor on Twitter.

DF132 Completes and DF133 Launches was originally published in Ocean Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Empowering the Open Web: Learn how Fastly supports ToS;DR, a non-profit that makes internet terms of service easy to understand and improves online transparency.

Explore the evolving threat of botnet attacks, including insights on how hacker groups like Dark Storm operate.

Welcome to ID Tech’s digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today: Swedish Migration Agency Seeks Info for […]

The post ID Tech Digest – March 12, 2025 appeared first on ID Tech.

By Helen Garneau

Does this sound familiar: You’re finally taking that long-awaited Caribbean holiday. Got your passport? Check. Better keep it handy, because you’ll need to show it eleven times before you hit the beach. Oh, and don’t forget your username and password to your work computer while you’re away on vacation—nothing like spending your first day back sitting on hold with IT trying to resent your password and trying to log back in.

Or this: You’re out to dinner with an old friend when an urgent text pops up — a high-value customer has locked themselves out and needs your help getting back in. Again. Then an email from legal pops up: data regulations changed (again), and there’s been yet another authentication factor added to your systems. Seriously, how is MFA still not enough?

Managing digital identity is a time-sucking, money-burning nightmare. Businesses pour billions into KYC and IDV, only to end up with more friction, more delays, and more CAPTCHA clicks.

There’s a better way. Stop wasting money—start making it.

Here are three ways your digital identity decisions are costing you big — and how Indicio Proven helps you flip the script.

1. You’re spending too much on identity verification (and it’s still a mess)

Let’s be real — making a purchase or opening a new account online can be a nightmare. Businesses spend millions every year on KYC checks, manually verifying documents, and waiting on IDV providers to confirm someone is who they say they are. Meanwhile, you are stuck jumping through hoops, uploading selfies, scanning IDs, and refreshing inboxes, hoping for that magical “You’re Verified” email.

Every minute a business waits is money lost. Cart abandonments, incomplete sign-ups, and frustrated users means money is wasted on a process that actively drives customers away.

How Indicio Proven fixes this:

Indicio Proven transforms identity verification into a revenue-generating asset with verifiable credentials and decentralized identity. With Verifiable Credentials, you can verify your identity once and reuse that verification anywhere. Instead of waiting days for KYC approval, just present a digital credential that proves your identity information — instantly. No need to fill out more paperwork, do repeated checks, or pay extra fees to IDV providers. More importantly, no more lost customers due to frustration.

It’s like getting an express pass at an amusement park — straight to the fun (or in your case, straight to becoming a paying customer).

2. You’re paying for compliance over and over again

Compliance isn’t optional. Regulations like eIDAS 2.0, GDPR, CCPA, and various financial compliance laws mean businesses have to verify identities, minimize personal data storage and purpose and maximize security, and try to meet some level of industry standards. And that costs money — a lot of money.

The problem? Every time you need to verify identity at a different touchpoint, the business essentially pays for compliance all over again. Whether it’s opening an account, making a large transaction, or accessing a new service, the same process is repeated over and over.

How Indicio Proven fixes this:

With decentralized identity and verifiable credentials, compliance becomes portable. Instead of verifying your identity from scratch every time, you rely on credentials derived from information that has already been issued and verified.

You control your data, meaning you don’t have to hand over your personal data anymore for another business to store and secure in order to authenticate who you are the next time you visit. This reduces your risk (of a data breach) and the cost of data compliance and security to the business.

Think of it like a digital passport: Once issued, it works everywhere; but unlike a paper booklet, you can send a verifiable digital passport electronically, anywhere.

3. You’re missing out on the opportunity to make money from identity

Here’s the kicker for businesses: Identity verification isn’t just a cost—it can be a revenue stream.

Right now, companies spend billions verifying identities but don’t make a dime off that effort. Once you verify a customer, the process ends, and you’re left with nothing but an invoice at the end of the month from the IDV you happen to be using at the moment.

But what if you could turn identity verification into a business model and free yourself from expensive IDV bills? What if, after you go through the effort of verifying someone, you could issue a credential that they can use elsewhere—and YOU get paid for it?

How Indicio Proven fixes this:

With Indicio Proven, you don’t just verify users—you issue Verifiable Credentials that other businesses can trust. That means you can build trust networks, where other companies rely on your verified credentials instead of doing their own KYC from scratch. And guess what? They’ll pay you for it.

Think of it as TSA PreCheck. You’ve already proven you’re a trusted traveler, so you don’t have to go through security every time. Now imagine if TSA got paid every time another airline used that verification. That’s the model businesses can tap into with Verifiable Credentials.

The bottom line: Stop losing money and start making it

Picture this: instead of spending time proving you’re a human and jumping through endless verification hoops, you get your information verified once and can use that credential everywhere.

Instead of pouring your budget into more layers of software in hopes you’ll meet some magic threshold of compliance for managing customer data, you have a secure, privacy-preserving system that does the heavy lifting for you.

Instead of identity being a burden, it becomes a business advantage.

This isn’t some distant future — it’s possible right now. The companies that are embracing verifiable credentials today are the ones that will be leading the industry tomorrow.

So, are you ready to stop wasting money and start making identity work for you? The future of digital identity isn’t just about compliance—it’s about opportunity.

And with Indicio Proven, you can finally seize it!

###

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The post Three digital identity headaches you can stop today appeared first on Indicio.

With Europe leading the charge in regulating the crypto space globally, one of the most significant developments has been the introduction of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations tailored specifically to cryptocurrencies.

The post Understanding AML European Crypto Regulation first appeared on ComplyCube.

The executives will be investigated under Spain’s “discovery and disclosure of secrets” law.

This session, featuring Paul Kenny (VP of Customer Success EMEA and APAC at Daon) and Pedro Torres (CEO of Youverse), took a deep dive into why identity companies are embracing verifiable credentials, how biometric-bound credentials address major security and privacy gaps, and what these technologies mean for users and the future of digital identity.

In this blog, we’ve distilled the key insights and takeaways from the conversation—covering real-world use cases, common misconceptions, and the evolving role of verifiable and biometric-bound credentials in identity verification.

Companies are running more security and collaboration applications, and many pay for "best-of-breed" solutions instead of saving with bundles, Okta's annual survey finds.

Thales among the world’s top 100 most innovative companies for the 12th year, according to Clarivate prezly Wed, 03/12/2025 - 14:00

In 2025, Thales ranks among the top 0.01% of the most innovative companies and institutions worldwide, out of more than one million organisations, according to the Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovators™. This year, 22 European companies and institutions, including 7 in France, feature in this globally recognised innovation ranking. Clarivate assesses not only the quantity but also the quality of patents filed. Thales is the French company with the longest consecutive presence in this Top 100.

Thales holds over 21,000 patents and patent applications, protecting around 400 new inventions each year, half of which relate to key technological fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud technologies, and quantum technology. In AI, Thales is the leading European patent applicant for critical systems, with over 40 new inventions each year protected by a patent or patent application, and a portfolio of 300 inventions. In quantum technology, Thales is also the leading European patent applicant in its ecosystem, both in the fields of quantum sensing and quantum communication*, with a portfolio of over 70 protected inventions.

"This 12th recognition primarily rewards our 4,000 inventors, each of whom has at least one patent to their name. It is also a testament to Thales’s ambitious innovation strategy, built on collaboration and anticipation of technological breakthroughs. In a world where the pace of change is accelerating, the company continues to invest in strengthening its unique technological leadership,” said Patrice Caine, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer.

Thales’s strong commitment to innovation provides a key differentiator for its products and solutions. It is also a major driver of attractiveness for the company, which is accelerating its transformation into a full learning company. A total of 3,000 researchers and 30,000 engineers are involved in Research & Development, with €4.2 billion invested annually in R&D, including over €1 billion in self-funded research. By 2028, Thales plans to invest €5 billion annually in its R&D activities.

* primarily in the field of quantum communication for Space

/sites/default/files/prezly/images/Thales_LAS_2022_Saint%20Heand%20%2855%29_0.jpg Documents [Prezly] PR_Thales among the worlds top 100 most innovative companies for the 12th year according to Clarivate (003).pdf Contacts Cédric Leurquin 12 Mar 2025 Type Press release Structure Group In 2025, Thales ranks among the top 0.01% of the most innovative companies and institutions worldwide, out of more than one million organisations, according to the Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovators™. This year, 22 European companies and institutions, including 7 in France, feature in this globally recognised innovation ranking. Clarivate assesses not only the quantity but also the quality of patents filed. Thales is the French company with the longest consecutive presence in this Top 100. prezly_740157_thumbnail.jpg Hide from search engines Off Prezly ID 740157 Prezly UUID b43c8b32-4fe6-4595-ab01-92145633b8c5 Prezly url https://thales-group.prezly.com/thales-among-the-worlds-top-100-most-innovative-companies-for-the-12th-year-according-to-clarivate Wed, 03/12/2025 - 15:00 Don’t overwrite with Prezly data Off

The collaboration brings seamless, scalable tokenization infrastructure to private markets, eliminating technical barriers and accelerating adoption.

Luxembourg, 12 March 2025 – Yooro, the pioneering securitization-as-a-service platform, has partnered with Tokeny, the leading onchain finance operating system, to transform the accessibility and efficiency of private market investments. By integrating Tokeny’s enterprise-grade tokenization technology, Yooro can seamlessly issue, manage, and distribute tokenized securities, unlocking new levels of liquidity and accessibility in private markets.

Through this partnership, Yooro leverages Tokeny’s white-label platform to enable frictionless tokenization, much like Shopify allows businesses to launch online stores without technical complexity. The collaboration eliminates the technical barriers historically associated with digital assets, allowing professional investors across the EU, UK, Switzerland, and the UAE to access private market opportunities with unprecedented ease.

Simplifying Private Markets Through Tokenization

Traditional private markets remain complex, slow, and highly fragmented, relying on intermediaries to facilitate transactions between investors. Tokenization fundamentally changes this paradigm by allowing assets to move freely while maintaining compliance through programmable rules. By building compliance directly into the digital assets via the ERC-3643 standard, Yooro ensures security and regulatory adherence, while giving investors full control over their holdings.

At Yooro, our mission is to simplify private market securitization and make high-value opportunities accessible. Partnering with Tokeny allows us to remove technical barriers and provide our investors with a seamless, compliant, and scalable tokenization solution. This is a crucial step towards building a truly borderless and efficient private market ecosystem. Milo GuastamacchiaCEO & Founder of Yooro Mass adoption happens when technology complexity disappears. With this partnership, we’re making tokenization as simple as possible for Yooro and its investors. By leveraging the ERC-3643 standard through our tools, Yooro’s tokenized assets will be natively interoperable across the RWA and DeFi ecosystems, ensuring a future-proof and seamlessly connected financial infrastructure. Luc FalempinCEO Tokeny

A Scalable and Compliant Infrastructure

With Tokeny’s technology, Yooro gains access to an institutional-grade tokenization platform that integrates essential services across issuance, servicing, and distribution. The platform is designed to eliminate silos, ensuring assets are natively interoperable with the broader financial ecosystem. Key benefits of the partnership include:

Frictionless Tokenization: A no-code, white-label solution enabling Yooro to issue and manage digital securities effortlessly. Embedded Compliance: Digital assets remain fully compliant with regulations, ensuring only approved investors can hold them. Greater Liquidity and Accessibility: Tokenized assets can be traded peer-to-peer among qualified investors, unlocking liquidity in previously illiquid markets. Composability: Yooro’s tokenization infrastructure can easily interact with other ERC-3643-compatible applications to add new features.

Transforming the Future of Private Market Investments

Private markets have historically lagged behind in modernization, but the Yooro-Tokeny partnership marks a significant step forward in democratizing access to these investments. By leveraging Tokeny’s battle-tested technology—which has facilitated over 3 billion onchain operations over 7 years—Yooro is poised to scale private market securitization like never before.

This collaboration underscores a shared vision to reshape private market investments, removing inefficiencies and bringing them into a fully digital, interoperable, and compliant future.

Media Contact:
media@yooro.io

About Yooro

Yooro is transforming private market investments with its technology-driven securitization-as-a-service solution. By integrating blockchain, smart contracts, and tokenization, yooro simplifies and accelerates access to unlisted investments across venture capital, private debt, real-world assets, and more. Professional investors across the EU, UK, Switzerland, and the UAE rely on Yooro for secure, efficient, and scalable securitization solutions. Learn more at www.yooro.io.

About Tokeny

Tokeny is the leading onchain finance operating system. The award-winning fintech empowers financial institutions with enterprise-grade tokenization solutions built on the open-source ERC-3643 standard. The white-label platform and APIs unify fragmented onchain and offchain workflows, integrating essential services to eliminate silos and enable seamless issuance, transfer, and management of tokenized securities. Trusted globally, Tokeny has successfully executed over 120 use cases across five continents and facilitated 3 billion onchain transactions and operations. Learn more at www.tokeny.com.

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The post Yooro and Tokeny partner to simplify private market investments for EU, UK, Swiss, and UAE Investors via tokenization appeared first on Tokeny.

Hayatın her alanında olduğu gibi iş dünyasında da dijital dönüşüm hız kesmeden devam ediyor. Geleneksel yöntemlerin yerini artık daha hızlı, daha güvenilir ve çevre dostu dijital çözümler alıyor. Peki, bu dönüşümün en güçlü oyuncularından biri olan e-Mühür (Elektronik Mühür) hakkında ne kadar bilgi sahibiyiz?

This year is shaping up to be an incredibly important year for innovations related to stablecoins, with regulators and policymakers around the world taking steps to promote the responsible growth of stablecoins. 

Moonlight: Thales Alenia Space to develop the space segment of the navigation system orbiting around the Moon tas Wed, 03/12/2025 - 11:06 Moonlight: ESA program to create a satellite constellation in lunar orbit for advanced communications and navigation services Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space will design and develop the Navigation System and satellite navigation infrastructure  Telespazio is prime contractor for the Moonlight Program, having previously signed a EUR 123 million contract with ESA to implement the design phase of the infrastructure

Cannes, March 12th, 2025 - Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has signed a contract with Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), to design and develop the space segment of the Navigation System and satellite navigation infrastructure for ESA’s Moonlight Lunar Communications and Navigation Services (LCNS) program.

Moonlight is an ESA program led by Telespazio to create a satellite constellation orbiting the Moon and designed to provide advanced communication and navigation services.

The program will allow precise and autonomous moon landings as well as surface mobility, while facilitating high-speed, low-latency communication and data transfer between Earth and the Moon. This infrastructure is paramount to mankind's long-term return and presence on the Moon, also improving efficiency and significantly reducing operational and usage costs.

On October 15, 2024, Telespazio signed a contract with ESA to guide and develop the LCNS program. This project involves an industrial consortium of specialized companies, with Telespazio serving as the prime contractor and responsible for the overall system. Within the framework of the consortium, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the design and development of the LCNS Navigation System and of the satellite navigation infrastructure.

4 lunar elliptical orbit navigation satellites - Moonlight ©Thales Alenia Space/Briot

Specifically, in collaboration with a network of Italian and international companies and universities, Thales Alenia Space will be responsible for the design, development and deployment of four lunar elliptical orbit navigation satellites. Additionally, the company will develop key elements of the Earth mission segment and oversee the complete testing and validation of the first satellite navigation system orbiting the Moon.

“We are extremely proud to be key in pillar in Moonlight program, providing the navigation system and infrastructure that will orbit around the Moon” said Giampiero Di Paolo, Deputy CEO and Senior Vice President, Observation, Exploration and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space. “The partnership with Telespazio, in line with the Space Alliance’s objectives, will ensure the development of a complete turnkey solution for the European Space Agency. Thales Alenia Space is the ideal partner for such an ambitious program leveraging both the expertise developed in Satellite Navigation systems and infrastructures as illustrated through major projects such as Galileo, and leveraging the experience acquired in the field of Space Exploration and orbital infrastructures”.

“This contract represents another step forward in the solid collaboration between Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space within the Space Alliance, confirming the strategic value of this partnership in the field of space infrastructure,” said Gabriele Pieralli, CEO of Telespazio. “Together, we are providing ESA with a complete and innovative solution for lunar navigation, combining Telespazio’s expertise in managing and integrating large-scale space programs with the engineering excellence of Thales Alenia Space. The Moonlight program, confirming Italy’s leadership in space exploration, is a unique opportunity to strengthen Europe’s role in space exploration and enable future lunar missions with advanced and reliable technologies.”

ABOUT THALES ALENIA SPACE

Drawing on over 40 years of experience and a unique combination of skills, expertise and cultures, Thales Alenia Space delivers cost-effective solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments and private industry alike count on Thales Alenia Space to design satellite-based systems that provide anytime, anywhere connections and positioning, monitor our planet, enhance management of its resources, and explore our Solar System and beyond. Thales Alenia Space sees space as a new horizon, helping to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of approximately €2.2 billion in 2023 and has around 8,600 employees in 8, countries with 16 sites in Europe. www.thalesaleniaspace.com
 

ABOUT TELESPAZIO

Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), is one of the world's leading operators in space services: from the design and development of space systems to the management of satellite launch and in-orbit control services; from Earth observation, integrated communications, satellite navigation, and positioning services to scientific programs. The company plays a key role in its reference markets, leveraging over 60 years of technological expertise, infrastructure, and participation in space programs such as Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus, COSMO-SkyMed, and Moonlight. Telespazio, together with Thales Alenia Space, forms the "Space Alliance" and generated a revenue of €700 million in 2023, with 3,300 employees in fifteen countries. www.telespazio.com

/sites/default/files/database/assets/images/2022-10/New_Banner.jpg 12 Mar 2025 Thales Alenia Space Type Press release Structure Space Moonlight: ESA program to create a satellite constellation in lunar orbit for advanced communications and navigation services Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space will design and develop the Navigation System and satellite navigation infrastructure  Telespazio... Hide from search engines Off Don’t overwrite with Prezly data Off Canonical url https://www.thalesaleniaspace.com/en/press-releases/moonlight-thales-alenia-space-develop-space-segment-navigation-system-orbiting

When customers apply for insurance, they’re trusting your company with sensitive information. A seamless KYC process strengthens that trust, while a slow, clunky process can drive them away. Insurance companies must balance robust fraud prevention with efficient onboarding to comply with regulations and keep customers satisfied. iComply’s all-in-one solution streamlines every step of the KYC process, eliminating manual work and reducing compliance risks.

The Importance of KYC in Insurance

KYC processes are critical to verifying identities, assessing risk, and detecting fraud. However, many insurers still rely on disjointed systems that create delays, increase costs, and leave room for error. A modern approach makes KYC faster, more secure, and customer-friendly.

How iComply Enhances the KYC Process for Insurers 1. Streamlined Identity Verification

iComply automates ID checks with secure document uploads and biometric verification, confirming authenticity in seconds. No more back-and-forth emails or manual approvals.

2. Real-Time Risk Scoring and Screening

Sanctions, PEP screenings, and adverse media checks happen instantly using data from over 150 million sources, helping detect fraud and tailor due diligence by risk level.

3. Centralized Document Management and Reporting

Clients upload documents through a secure portal, and your team accesses everything in one place with customizable reports ready for audits.

4. Continuous Monitoring

iComply tracks ongoing client activity, flagging unusual behavior to ensure continued compliance long after onboarding.

The Bottom Line

With iComply’s integrated platform, insurers can reduce onboarding times, prevent fraud, and maintain regulatory compliance with ease. Turn your KYC process into a competitive advantage. Let’s make compliance simple—contact us today to learn how.

The ability to do work with one account was revolutionary at the time AD was developed, said Deuby.

Governments often face challenges in fully delivering on their commitments to enhancing both freedom and safety for their residents, as balancing the two can be very complex. Utah’s new State Bill 260 introduces principles for a state-endorsed digital identity that puts Utahns in control of their identities and includes a suite of guaranteed freedoms and protections to increase user choice, prevent surveillance, and respect privacy.

The Lehi, Utah-based civil libertarian Libertas Institute describes the bill as “an ambitious policy prescription of privacy protection, individual autonomy protection, and anonymity.” This bill comes at an important time to combat the rise of AI-enabled fraud, address violations of privacy practices, and growth in the adoption of digital IDs in the US. New technologies such as Verifiable Digital Credentials (VDCs) would now make the bill implementable. Most importantly, it offers an opportunity for major advances in autonomy, privacy, and security of individuals in the digital world, creating a bulwark for the next era of U.S. cybersecurity and cyberfreedoms.

Technology's privacy strengths can only reach their full potential if legislation supports and protects them. Utah SB260 strongly supports this goal by banning surveillance, enforcing selective disclosure, keeping digital identity fully optional, and notably preventing government officials from demanding “device handover.” These elements of SB260 can create a strong baseline for digital ID within Utah and even for other states.

The State Does Not Establish an Individual's Identity

Clearly stated in § 63A-16-1202(1)(b)/(c), “the state does not establish an individual’s identity” and “the state may, in certain circumstances, recognize and endorse an individual's identity.”

This is fundamentally different from programs where a government authority defines someone’s ability to be recognized and exist. Instead, it recognizes that human beings already exist in their own right and that the state’s role is to provide assistance to humans, so they can be recognized and have the ability to manage the state endorsement in the ways prescribed by the code.

Prohibiting Digital Surveillance and Data-sharing

The code further requires that when a state-endorsed digital identity is presented, any data from the interaction is only used for the reason intended by the document’s owner. The validator accepting the document, whether a bartender, law enforcement officer or TSA agent, can’t share data about the contents of an ID or the time or context in which it was presented for validation. That includes prohibiting data-sharing with private companies that might want to use it for marketing or other purposes.

The provision also prohibits “surveillance, visibility, tracking, or monitoring” by any government agency or other person who accepts a digital ID. This is important because, while the digital signatures that validate digital credentials can be confirmed “locally” by some validators–that is, without sending a message to a central server–some validators will need to query a server or database, which if not implemented with the proper safeguards can create “phone home” surveillance. The anti-surveillance provision of SB260 bans using those queries as a source of surveillance data. 

Further, the bill’s broader privacy demands incentivize the building of ID systems with anti-surveillance mechanisms, such as private information retrieval.

Selective Disclosure Protects Sensitive Personal Information

SB260 enshrines selective disclosure as a principle of privacy protection. Selective disclosure is a unique advantage of digital identity documents. A physical ID means handing over every bit of information to a validator, even irrelevant and risky data like your address. However, when a digital ID is presented, the user can select exactly what information they wish to share.

For example, SB260 specifies that a digital ID user must be able to “verify that the individual's age satisfies an age requirement without revealing the individual's age or date of birth.” This is particularly important because a birth date is so-called “personal identifying information,” or PII, that can be leveraged for cyberattacks. Keeping it and other sensitive information private when it’s not truly necessary to share helps keep users safe and in control.

No Forced Device Handover

Utah’s proposed bill also ensures that “a governmental entity or a person may not require an individual to surrender the individual's mobile communication device to verify the individual's identity.” That is, a user has the right to keep their phone when they are presenting a digital ID for scanning.

This is particularly important when it comes to law enforcement because privacy laws defining police access to phone data are still an ambiguous patchwork. Depending on many factors, it may be legal for a police officer in physical possession of a phone to access data the user didn’t intend to share, creating major privacy and security risks. This provision makes clear that Utahns have the right to refuse any such request from a police officer or any other government official.

Digital Identity is Optional

A final key provision of SB260 is that digital identity tools will remain entirely optional–no government entity can require a digital ID to provide benefits or provide any “material benefit” as an incentive for the use of a digital ID. This is important for accessibility and equity reasons since many residents may face challenges transitioning to new technologies, and others may simply choose not to use a smartphone.

However, overall public trust is also at stake here: nothing is more likely to make Americans suspicious of a digital tool than being forced to use it by the government. By keeping digital ID optional, while enforcing the core benefits that make it appealing to users, SB260 creates the best possible conditions for trust and adoption of a tool that will benefit users most of all.

A Defining Moment for User-Controlled Digital IDs

Digital IDs are here to stay. The rapid growth of digital ID programs in New York, California, and 11 other US states is not slowing down, and as digital IDs can be used over the internet, it will unlock a myriad of new use cases and mass adoption. That’s why it’s so critical that legislation and technology work together to convey a user-first approach at this moment. We believe that SB260 has the right stock for this, and many of its elements could be adopted in other states and even countries.

About SpruceID: SpruceID is building a future where users control their identity and data across all digital interactions.

myLaminin, the most complete, integrated, and secure Research Data Management (RDM) platform on the market.

 

GM HEARTLAND “GM” is out, “GN” is in — and not just because of the ungodly hour we’re sending it out. We’ll be in dark mode for the foreseeable future, until we make it through the dark night of the $SOL.

 

—El Prof, Muhammed & Chad

 

MONEY MONEY MONEY

TOKEN

PRICE CHANGE

PRICE

Solana ($SOL)

-12.48%

$125.40

Helium ($HNT)

-8.65%

$2.72

Pyth ($PYTH)

-21.04%

$0.14

Raydium ($RAY)

-29.22%

$1.52

(Price changes reflect past 7 days as of 3.11.25)

Summer Trenches Beat Winter Ones

The crypto influencer event at the White House was a nothing burger, the strategic digital asset reserve is over-hyped, and markets are lingering at relative lows. In other words, it may be warming up outside, but it’s starting to feel a lot like crypto winter in here.

Sometime this year, the U.S. Treasury will likely refinance the country’s debt. With trade wars raging and the equities market looking too hot to touch (not to mention overweighted by a handful of companies whose entire value is based off of things junior product managers can vibe-code into existence over a weekend and give away for free) the markets are wrecked.

According to some fringe theorists on X, that could be a good thing for taxpayers in the form of the interest that’s paid on the government’s debt. Illuminati master plan aside, it does stand to reason that a weakened equities market means a stronger bonds market, and also usually means that the Treasury can refinance at better rates. So there’s no reason for Trump to change up his strategy for the moment, especially while it’s playing lip service to the crypto supporters and fed haters.

What does it mean for the rest of us? 

Well, I’m no financial expert, but I’d buckle up for a fair amount of volatility until the end of September and beginning of October. There’s may still be money in day-trading or swing-trading, but I’m a degen, not a gambler. Personally, I’ll just keep on diamond-handing, and scooping up Solana SOL.X ( ▼ 1.4% ) at discount bargains. 

In my eyes, the ecosystem is still taking meaningful steps forward at a sustainable pace. Jump Crypto just released a new validator client for Solana, Firedancer. And although adoption currently sits at less than 2%, the demonstrated increased throughput means a higher yield TPS on the network. In short, Solana is only getting faster. And this could reasonably increase to 10% by this summer; many validator clients are run by large projects that will likely make their own competitive upgrades.

Elsewhere, communities are applying tried and tested use cases to Bitcoin and other tokens as an alternative payment processing and collection system for their businesses. Some friends of ours stayed at a BitcoinBNB over their trip to SXSW this year. Mass adoption in action.

What I’m trying to say is, the house only wins if you sell. Don’t play with leverage, accumulate daily or weekly, and expect to keep going sideways for at least the next 6 months. Hodl on.

—El Prof

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The Missing $LINKS

There’s a lot of pressure in today’s market. Oh, yeah. Lotta pressure. But you gotta rise above it. And what better way to relieve the pressure than by hitting a ball with a big stick?

In one of the most practical endorsements of the diamond hand strategy I’ve seen in my years covering crypto, LinksDAO — which we first covered more than two years ago in the spiritual predecessor to this newsletter — has emerged from the sand trap to provide holders some long-awaited utility.

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) first came together in 2021 to “democratize the country club membership experience”. In the years since, it has purchased just two clubs — one in Scotland, and now, one in our backyard.

LinksDAO just bought up the shuttered Hillcrest Country Club, situated in our heartland home base, Kansas City, MO. It won’t open for another year at least, but it admittedly marks a big step toward the DAO’s theoretical leisure ecosystem, a network of courses and clubs run on its token LINKS.NFT ( 0.0% ).

Now, as with most DAOs, its vision isn’t exactly the most straightforward or accessible crypto use case. The organization blew up at the same time as other blue-chip relics of the NFT era. (Evinced by its partnerships with the likes of Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, and Pudgy Penguins.) And while it still sells NFTs, they don’t quite function as the all-access pass once-promised. Its ETH.X ( ▼ 0.88% ) based passes run somewhere from $200 to $700 and merely provide a discount to a full membership, which can still run upwards of $10,000.

So long-term hodlers may not have lucked into becoming full-blown trust fund bunnies, but hey. It’s cool to see a major DeFi player try to follow through on a promise. With golf’s growing popularity, particularly among younger, more tech-savvy generations, the time is ripe for a change in how the sport is experienced and enjoyed. Through the power of blockchain, LinksDAO offers its members more than just a place to play — it allows them to help shape and expand the future of the sport, and maybe, just maybe, make it a modicum more accessible.

Anyway, if you’re wondering if we bought a LinksDAO NFT, yes, of course we did. Who wouldn’t want to own a piece of the future, even if it’s a deeply silly one.

—Muhammed

SEATTLE: March 11, 2025: Digital Knowledge, a pioneer in e-learning over the past three decades, is partnering with Indicio to improve the use of verifiable digital credentials for educational achievements. The Japanese company will use Indicio Proven to add a digital wallet to its Skill+ platform, allowing individuals and organizations to collect Open Badges from multiple platforms and simplify their use and verification.

By incorporating Indicio Proven, Digital Knowledge will be able to offer its customers Open Badges 3.0, the field-leading digital credential format for educational credentials, grades, certificates, diplomas, and attestations of skills.

Open Badges 3.0 allows people to directly store digital proofs of their achievements locally on their mobile devices and share them directly with employers and institutions  in a way that can be independently verified. This significantly enhances their usability, as the holder of an Open Badge isn’t depending on a third party for hosting and verification, and an employer or school can instantly authenticate the information in the Open Badge.

With the Indicio Proven digital wallet, all of these credentials are easily managed in a secure, privacy preserving way, making it easier for people to share skills and achievements across various platforms.

“The expansion in e-learning, especially around micro-credentials, needs an expanded, efficient, and simple way for people to hold and share these qualifications, and this is what we are providing in partnership with Digital Knowledge,” said Heather Dahl, CEO of Indicio. “Open Badges 3.0 brings significant advantages in usability, security, and privacy. People now have a fast, convenient, and secure way to hold and share their achievements as they progress through their schooling and careers. No need to wait for a university to dig out a paper copy of a diploma or transcript. Issue an Open Badge once, share as often as you want from your phone, verify anywhere in seconds.”

About Digital Knowledge

Digital Knowledge’s mission is to make the distribution of information and knowledge via the Internet more efficient and effective, and to contribute to the realization of a better knowledge society. Our goal is to provide society with a distribution service for knowledge content on the Internet that is both “easy to understand” and “easy to create.”

About Indicio

Indicio is the global leader in verifiable digital identity solutions, trusted by enterprises and governments worldwide to streamline operations, eliminate errors, and prevent fraud. Our award-winning flagship solution, Indicio Proven, is the gold standard in digital identity, biometrics, identity access management, and data verification to enable faster, more secure digital interactions — saving organizations time, money, and risk while delivering a superior user experience.

With a team of world-class experts and a commitment to innovation, Indicio helps businesses and governments implement secure, convenient, and adaptable identity solutions to improve user experience.

To learn more about Open Badges and Skill+ you can watch the recent Indicio Meetup video featuring Digital Knowledge.

If you have questions about decentralized identity or have a use case you’d like to discuss with our team please reach out to Indicio.

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The post Digital Knowledge Japan and Indicio partner on e-learning, digital wallets, Open Badges 3.0 appeared first on Indicio.

Thales delivers the Dual Travelling Wave Tubes for the ASTRA 1Q satellite built by Thales Alenia Space prezly Tue, 03/11/2025 - 14:00 Thales today announced that it has delivered the Ku-band Dual Travelling Wave Tubes (Dual-TWTs) for the ASTRA 1Q satellite ordered by the Luxembourg-based provider of global content and connectivity solutions, SES. Based on Thales Alenia Space’s Space INSPIRE product line, ASTRA 1Q is a flexible, software-defined satellite, reconfigurable in orbit. This solution signals a major advance in geostationary satellites used for telecommunications. The delivery of the Dual-TWTs for the ASTRA 1Q marks a significant technological step forward, enhancing the satellite’s communications and data management to boost both performance and operational reliability.
ASTRA 1Q © Thales Alenia Space/E. Briot

Thales has more than 23,200 TWTs in orbit to date, consolidating its reputation as an innovator, while also expanding its portfolio of spaceborne amplification products through the introduction of a new generation of spaceborne TWTs, the Dual-TWT. Combining reduced weight and size with high performance, this new solution fully meets the requirements for active-antenna amplification systems designed for software-defined flexible satellites. With its two versions, the Dual-TWT can address both the Ku and Ka frequency bands.

Thales Alenia Space’s Space INSPIRE solution (INstant SPace In-orbit REconfiguration) underpins a new generation of highly flexible telecom satellites, reconfigurable in orbit so they can quickly adapt to fast-changing markets and user requirements.

The Space INSPIRE product line was developed with the help of French space agency CNES. Several components from European companies for the product line also had support from the European Space Agency (ESA) via two ARTES (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems) programs (Artes Competitiveness & Growth, and Novacom II).

Featuring key components like Thales’ Ku-band Dual-TWTs, the ASTRA 1Q satellite takes its place as a keystone for new-generation spacecraft, significantly boosting their capacity for communications and satellite services.

Three leading-edge Thales facilities team up to manufacture Dual-TWTs: Ulm in Germany, and Thonon-les-Bains and Vélizy in France.

Advantages of the first flight set delivered: Advanced technology Dual-TWTs are designed to offer high reliability and performance in restricted space environments. They are easily integrated on the ASTRA 1Q satellite antenna at Thales Alenia Space, for a critical contribution to the ASTRA 1Q program.

With this major technological step forward, Thales confirms its leadership in the space market.

“We’re honored to play a key role in the ASTRA 1Q satellite by supplying these latest-generation Dual- TWTs to the prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space. Our successful delivery of this shipset for the first flight model illustrates Thales’ ability to quickly supply cutting-edge technology solutions that will shape the future of space communications,” said Charles-Antoine Goffin, Vice President, Microwave and Imaging Systems, Thales.

/sites/default/files/prezly/images/ASTRA-1Q_Copyright_Thales%20Alenia%20Space_Briot_0.jpg Documents [Prezly] PR - Thales delivers the Dual Travelling Wave Tubes for the ASTRA 1Q satellite built by Thales Alenia Space - 11-03-2025.pdf Contacts Cédric Leurquin 11 Mar 2025 Type Press release Structure Space Thales has more than 23,200 TWTs in orbit to date, consolidating its reputation as an innovator, while also expanding its portfolio of spaceborne amplification products through the introduction of a new generation of spaceborne TWTs, the Dual-TWT. Combining reduced weight and size with high performance, this new solution fully meets the requirements for active-antenna amplification systems designed for software-defined flexible satellites. With its two versions, the Dual-TWT can address both the Ku and Ka frequency bands. prezly_739712_thumbnail.jpg Hide from search engines Off Prezly ID 739712 Prezly UUID 988da884-2147-499c-bd7d-367d870f2aa9 Prezly url https://thales-group.prezly.com/thales-delivers-the-dual-travelling-wave-tubes-for-the-astra-1q-satellite-built-by-thales-alenia-space Tue, 03/11/2025 - 15:00 Don’t overwrite with Prezly data Off

From NHI to AI to Shared Signals, even in CIAM it comes back to standards versus reality.

Identity standards paint a perfect future: passwordless logins, verifiable credentials, and seamless trust. I love that picture; I want to frame it. Alas, legacy IAM, tight budgets, and a business case that still boils down to ‘but will customers complain?’ prevent us from getting there from here.

Nowhere is this tension more visible than in Consumer Identity and Access Management (CIAM). The security vs. usability tradeoff has always been a knife fight, and now we’re throwing in regulatory compliance, the rising costs of fraud, and the ever-present specter of “but our customers will complain.” So, let’s talk about what standards assume, where reality kicks in, and how organizations can actually make progress.

The Issue: Standards Define a Destination, But Legacy Systems Control the Journey

Standards bodies like NIST, ISO, and ETSI (under eIDAS2) have done their job: They’ve painted a picture of where we should be. The problem is that standards assume a level of infrastructure readiness that simply doesn’t exist in many organizations.

From a security perspective: Passwords are an outdated, high-risk authentication method. We should be moving toward passwordless logins, strong authentication, and identity federation. But if you’re running a legacy IAM system that predates modern best practices, you’re not just flipping a switch to make that happen.

From a business perspective: The cost of migration is non-trivial. Budgets are tight, and while security teams may want to modernize, getting executive buy-in requires proving a return on investment. “It’s more secure” is not a compelling business case, especially when ripping out legacy authentication systems means overhauling customer login experiences.

From a user perspective: Legacy authentication methods, for all their flaws, are familiar. Customers know how to enter a password (even if it’s “password123”). Introducing new login methods, such as passkeys, decentralized identity wallets, and multi-factor authentication, can introduce friction, and friction equals drop-off.

Standards define where we want to go—but legacy systems decide how fast we can get there. If your team is working through what’s actually feasible—or trying to stay ahead of standards while managing existing infrastructure—I can help you make sense of the trade-offs. See how I work or Let’s talk.

The Challenge in CIAM: Modernization Without Losing Customers

CIAM isn’t just a backend challenge, it’s a user experience challenge. Security teams might dream of a world where everyone uses phishing-resistant authentication, but if that world means adding too much friction, users will revolt.

Consider some of the “solutions” proposed:

Passwordless authentication: Great in theory, but if customers aren’t ready for passkeys, you’re not solving a problem—you’re creating one. Decentralized identity: It might be the future, but consumers don’t want to manage DID documents or cryptographic keys. Verifiable credentials: Wonderful for privacy and security, but adoption is painfully slow outside of niche use cases.

Users hate complexity, and CIAM modernization efforts must balance security with the absolute necessity of seamless customer experience.

Standards vs. Reality: What Do They Assume? Standards BodyFocus AreaRegulatory BackingWhat It AssumesReality CheckNIST (SP 800-63, etc.)Digital identity guidelines, authentication assuranceU.S. federal agencies must follow; widely referenced globallyOrganizations can implement strong authentication (MFA, passkeys, federation)Many consumer apps still struggle with basic 2FA adoptionISO/IEC (24760, 29115, etc.)Identity management, authentication assurance frameworksTreaty-based; adopted by national governments and industryStandardized identity assurance will improve security across sectorsAdoption varies; private sector uptake is slow outside compliance-driven industriesETSI (EN 319 411, etc.)Trust services, digital identity regulations (especially in the EU)Required for EU digital identity initiatives like eIDASInteroperability between EU countries will streamline identity verificationEach country implements differently, causing fragmentation and complexityW3C (Verifiable Credentials, DID Core, etc.)Decentralized identity, privacy-enhancing authenticationNo regulatory backing; industry-drivenA privacy-first, user-controlled identity future is achievableAdoption is niche and fragmented; industry buy-in is inconsistentIETF (SD-JWT, OAuth, etc.)Selective disclosure, token-based authenticationNo regulatory requirement but widely adopted in industryPrivacy-preserving JWTs will improve data minimization without breaking compatibilityAdoption is early-stage; requires infrastructure most orgs don’t yet have How Do We Bridge the Gap? Migration Strategies for Legacy Systems

It’s easy to say “just modernize,” but for organizations dealing with decades of technical debt, it’s not so simple. Here’s what is more likely to work:

Instead of a risky rip-and-replace, introduce new authentication methods alongside legacy systems: Enable passkeys as an optional login method first, rather than forcing a switch overnight. Allow progressive adoption of MFA, requiring it only for high-risk activities before making it universal. Deploy verifiable credentials in controlled, low-risk scenarios, such as employee logins, before scaling to customers. Hybrid IAM: Layer Modern Authentication on Top of Legacy Systems

Most organizations can’t replace their IAM stack overnight, so extend it instead:

Use federation (OIDC, SAML) to bridge old and new identity providers, enabling secure single sign-on (SSO). Introduce adaptive authentication that steps up security dynamically, rather than disrupting all users at once. Leverage external identity providers (e.g., social login, IDPs) where appropriate to offload identity management. Use Regulatory Compliance as a Modernization Lever

Regulations often force organizations to upgrade security; use them to drive investment:

Prioritize upgrades that align with eIDAS2, NIST, or ISO mandates to future-proof your IAM. If budgets are tight, look for grants or incentives that support compliance-driven security improvements. Advocate for clearer timelines on deprecating outdated authentication methods so you can plan ahead. Design for Customers, Not Just Security

Users resist change—modernization efforts need to be seamless, not disruptive:

Reduce friction by keeping familiar login options (passwords) available while transitioning to stronger authentication. Offer clear, user-friendly messaging explaining why new login options improve security without making things harder. Give users control over delegation (e.g., letting caregivers access accounts securely rather than sharing passwords). Final Thoughts: Standards Are Great for Tomorrow, But Reality Wins Today

Standards define the future. But businesses don’t live in the future—they live in budget cycles, tech debt, and customer expectations. Modernizing CIAM isn’t about ‘just implementing passwordless’—it’s about navigating the messy in-between. The real challenge? Making progress without breaking what still (sort of) works.

So, next time someone says, “just implement passwordless authentication,” remind them: standards define where we want to go, but legacy systems dictate how fast we can get there.

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The post Standards vs. Reality: The Long Tail of Legacy Systems appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.

Dark Skies: The Role of Multilayered Air Defence at the Frontline Language English simon.mcsstudio Tue, 03/11/2025 - 08:58

Ivor Humphrey, Directed Energy and Maritime Missile Sales Manager

With traditional air defences struggling to keep up, and nations looking to adapt, it’s clear that what worked previously won’t work when facing an increasingly complex and inherently unpredictable aerial landscape.

The aptly named ‘dark drone’ flies fast and undetected, bypassing sensors to arrive with deadly intent, all without raising any alarms.

“We’re not ready for what is coming our way in four or five years,” Mark Rutte said recently. Scenarios, such as the above, embody the NATO Secretary General’s stark warning. 

No doubt, in part, he had in mind advanced ballistic missiles, capable of traveling thousands of miles, and hastening urgent calls for the UK to increase spending on air and missile defence. But while ICBMs present a substantial challenge, transformation on the battlefield comes from threats that are smaller, readily available and potentially vast in number.  Drones – proliferating and exploiting rapidly advancing technology to hide from view – are reshaping how we think about frontline protection.

 The need for an Integrated Airspace-protection Systems (IAS) approach – blending human-machine-teaming, rapid-response systems and layered defence networks – has never been more urgent. Fulfilling this need requires a fundamental shift in how armies are defended, structured and resourced, both in strategy and mindset. 

Integrated Airspace-protection Systems (IAS) combine sensors, effectors, and processing advancements to protect against emerging threats – from drones to missiles. By integrating real-time detection, and shortening the time to engagement, and neutralisation, IAS enables coordinated responses which enhance speed and survivability. The Tactical Challenge: Survivability 

Whether from a foxhole or a battle tank, a soldier under-fire likely has one thought permeating their headspace: “See first, shoot first, survive another day.” But the asymmetric threats posed by one-way, dark, and swarm drones are turning situational awareness into a relentless challenge more akin to “see more, shoot more, survive another hour”. As they spread, proliferate and open up new lines of attack, it’s not without some irony that FPV drones both amplify this challenge and offer an advantage, making survival a race to outsee and outgun the enemy in real time. 

Such threats need layered, integrated, defensive systems if they’re to be countered effectively. Identifying dark drones, for instance, requires layering multiple sensors into a detection and monitoring package – a system designed with RF detect, radar and optical sensors that can not only identify the presence and location of the drone but also that of the operator. Armed with the ability to disable the arrows as well as the archer, soldiers can claw back the time to reset, recalibrate and respond in kind. 

This layered approach is part of a larger, integrated IAS strategy that blends advanced algorithms, AI, sensor integration, kinetic weapons and EW to detect, engage and neutralise masses of UAS’ that threaten to converge and swarm all at once. In such situations – where every second counts and the sheer volume of noise, danger and data can overwhelm human judgement – advanced algorithms and AI can help reduce the cognitive burden of operators, enabling them to do what they do best - make fast and evidenced decisions. 

Combined with the effect of Radio Frequency Direction Energy Weapons (RFDEW), these technologies are capable of defeating close-in mass swarm attacks that would overwhelm traditional air defence measures – protecting soldiers, safeguarding systems, and enabling mission success.

 

RapidDestroyer
In a mass swarm scenario, technologies like Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapons (RFDEW) are particularly well-suited for countering small, fast-moving drones within tight timeframes. 

Thales’ RapidDestroyer can neutralise swarms of drones for just pennies per shot, making it an ideal companion to conventional short-range air defence systems like the Lightweight Multi-role Missile (LMM).

The Operational Challenge: Interoperability

NATO Steadfast Defender 24, the Alliance’s largest exercise in decades, comprised 90,000 troops across 32 allies. The clarity of the exercise’s aim – to be a “clear demonstration of our unity, strength and determination to protect each other, our values and the rules-based international order” – belies the technical complexity behind it.

Integrating different defence systems, both within national forces and across allied coalitions, is as much an astonishing feat as it is an imperative task. The British Army – and forward-deployed nations more widely – are recognising more and more that they can’t operate in isolation. Countering the aerial threats of peer and near-peer adversaries not only requires layered systems, sensors and effectors but also layered nations. 

Different member states, branches of service or even deployed contractors will bring something different to the battlefield, creating a patchwork of technologies and operational procedures. As modern systems integrate into traditional air defences, this patchwork only becomes bigger, messier, harder to manage and increasingly fragile. Even one wrong stitch can lead to vulnerabilities in joint operations.

The success of deployments and exercises like Steadfast Defender is, of course, determined by their people – but the technical prowess is defined in terms of open architectures and interoperability standards that allow for more flexible integration across diverse technologies. 

The Strategic Challenge: Procurement

The value of these integrated technologies isn’t some intrinsic, immutable quality – rather, it lies in what they empower personnel to do. It’s a value that can’t be realised if they’re not reaching the front line in time. 

Technology cycles are accelerating. In Eastern Europe, quick and dirty innovation is flourishing on the battlefield as both sides study, test, replicate and improve on each other’s threats and defences. Yesterday’s dark drone might be tomorrow’s drone-hunting-drone, for instance, often rendering hard-won advantages obsolete in a matter of months. To keep up, defence must shift from gold-plated procurement to spiral capability development: a constantly-on and rapidly evolving process of development, design acceptance and delivery, at a higher TRL than before. 

The ends may be clear, but the ways and means are complex and multifaceted. Armed forces, industry and researchers all have a part to play in agreeing and accelerating adaptive, agile procurement models that support ongoing R&D and iterative integration. When it comes to fostering innovation, reward must be balanced with risk; careful consideration and strategic testing will be needed to prevent missteps and safeguard against the pitfalls of premature adoption. Early-stage prototyping, field testing and continuous feedback loops can help here, allowing for real-time adjustments that refine technologies through practical use. 

cortAIx, created by Thales, is an AI accelerator that will equip armed forces, aircraft manufacturers and all critical infrastructure operators with highly secure solutions to provide them with more efficient data analysis and decision support.

Given the intent from the MOD, the skill from industry and the will from both, there’s no reason to think procurement can’t be transformed from a transactional process into a tactical asset – a dynamic, agile ally that moves as fast as the battlefield. 

Layering the solution, limiting the threat

Calls for 'MOD-led, industry-enabled innovation' provide a blueprint for how defence companies and the end customer must collaborate, with agility, to accelerate bringing the latest technologies into service.  When the MOD requested that Thales accelerate its RF Directed Energy Weapons into service, for instance, we rallied the partners and, together, we’re working on getting RapidDestroyer off the production line and onto the front line as early as later this year.

More widely, NATO’s ability to preserve peace hinges on rapid adaptation, integration and innovation among and between its allies. A multilayered defence strategy demands a similarly dynamic approach to technology design, development and procurement, driven by cross-domain expertise, nimble procurement and heavy investment in R&D.

Mark Rutte’s warning is an unignorable reminder: as the battlefield promises nothing apart from rapid, inevitable change, the only constant will be the need for bold, collaborative and agile defence innovation. The point isn’t whether we can adapt; it’s that we must adapt fast enough.
 

/sites/default/files/database/assets/images/2024-12/RFDEW-Banner.png 11 Mar 2025 United Kingdom With traditional air defences struggling to keep up, and nations looking to adapt, it’s clear that what worked previously won’t work when facing an increasingly complex and inherently unpredictable aerial landscape. Type News Hide from search engines Off

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The incidents occurred in 2020 and 2021, and exposed the data of 165,000 people in New York state.

TL;DR
Extrimian merges AI with Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) to redefine secure digital identity management. Their solutions offer AI-driven fraud detection, Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) for privacy, and dynamic Trust Registries for compliance. With real-world applications in finance, healthcare, and government, Extrimian empowers users to control their data while cutting verification times by 70%. Explore their tools to future-proof your identity strategy.

AI and SSI: The Next Frontier in Secure Digital Identity with Extrimian The Digital Identity Crisis: Why SSI and AI Matter Now

Identity fraud surged by 44% in 2023 (Javelin Strategy), costing businesses $4.45 million per breach (IBM). Traditional systems fail because they centralize data, creating single points of failure. Enter Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), a decentralized framework where users own and control data via W3C Verifiable Credentials (VCs) and Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs). When supercharged with Artificial Intelligence (AI), SSI becomes a proactive shield against threats. Extrimian’s AI-SSI integration delivers:

90% faster fraud detection using machine learning. 70% reduction in KYC onboarding times via automated ZKPs. Real-time compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and eIDAS. Deep Dive: How Extrimian’s AI-SSI Engine Works 1. AI-Powered Threat Intelligence

Extrimian’s AI models analyze 10,000+ global identity patterns daily, identifying anomalies like forged credentials or suspicious issuer behavior. For example, a credential from an unverified university triggers an alert, cross-referenced against their Trust Registry 2.0—a decentralized ledger of vetted entities.

Technical Insight:

Algorithm: Gradient Boosting Machines (GBMs) trained on historical fraud data. Data Sources: Interpol databases, academic institutions, and financial blacklists.

Case Study: Many industries reduced fraudusing Extrimian’s AI-SSI stack. Read more.

2. Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs): Privacy Meets Efficiency

ZKPs let users prove credentials without revealing underlying data (e.g., age verification without disclosing birthdates). Extrimian’s AI optimizes ZKP workflows:

Automated Proof Generation: Reduces computational overhead by 40%. Context-Aware Sharing: AI suggests minimal data disclosure based on verifier requirements.

How ZKPs Work:

Cryptographic Basis: Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge (SNARKs). Example: A hospital shares patient eligibility for a trial without exposing medical history.

Internal Link: ZKPs Explained

3. Trust Registry 2.0: AI-Driven Compliance

Extrimian’s registry evaluates issuers using:

Reputation Scores: Updated hourly via NLP analysis of issuer audits and user feedback. Regulatory Alignment: Auto-flags entities non-compliant with eIDAS (EU) or NIST (US).

Data Point: 98% accuracy in blocking fraudulent issuers since 2022.

Industry Transformations: Extrimian in Action Finance: From Days to Seconds Problem: Manual KYC delays cost banks $1.3 billion annually (Deloitte). Solution: AI validates employment history and income via VCs, slashing mortgage approvals from 30 days to 8 hours.

Test the solution: 

Extrimian Wallet for Banks with miBA credentials – for GCBA citizens

Extrimian Solution for Bank—Open a new bank account securely and quickly without sharing unnecessary data, removing third parties, and streamliningtedious processes.

Healthcare: Secure, Interoperable Records Problem: 34% of breaches target healthcare (HIPAA Journal). Solution: ZKP-secured patient portals let doctors access critical data (e.g., allergies) without full records. Government: Tamper-Proof Voting Problem: Voter fraud in 2022 U.S. midterms affected 0.1% of ballots (MIT). Solution: Blockchain-backed digital IDs ensure 1 person = 1 vote.

*Contact us to schedule or see a demo for other industries such as Health, Travel & Hospitality, Education, Retail, Government, and more.

External Link: Know more about the QuarkID protocol for Latam citizens in which Extrimian was technical provider of the coder, and support team for the implementation.

The Road Ahead: Extrimian’s Vision for 2025 Decentralized AI Networks: Federated learning trains models without exposing raw data. Biometric SSI: Facial recognition + liveness detection for borderless authentication. Quantum Resistance: Post-quantum algorithms (e.g., CRYSTALS-Kyber) to counter future threats.

Extrimian’s No-Code SSI Solutions: Democratizing Decentralized Identity with AI
Extrimian bridges the technical complexity of SSI with an intuitive, no-code platform powered by AI, enabling businesses and individuals to deploy decentralized identity systems in minutes—no coding expertise required. Through a user-friendly interface, users can:

Generate W3C Verifiable Credentials: Define credential schemas (e.g., employee badges, medical licenses) using AI-guided templates. Automate DID Creation: AI agents handle cryptographic key generation and blockchain registration, eliminating manual coding. Seamless Integration: Connect SSI workflows to existing systems (e.g., HR software, EHR platforms) via pre-built APIs or drag-and-drop plugins.

For example, a healthcare provider can issue tamper-proof patient IDs without writing a single line of code, while a university automates diploma issuance using AI-curated templates. Extrimian’s AI assistant provides real-time guidance, translating user inputs (e.g., “I need to verify customer ages”) into compliant SSI workflows. Result: Teams reduce deployment time from weeks to minutes, bypassing the need for SSI certifications or blockchain expertise.

Explore Extrimian’s ID Connect | The No-Code AI-Driven Product for data verification and management: https://extrimian.io/products

Why to choose Extrimian solutions:
“By 2025, every interaction—from logging into apps to voting—will be rooted in SSI. AI ensures it’s seamless and secure.”

Call to Action

Download Our AI-SSI Playbook Book a Demo Join Our Webinar: AI & SSI in Travel & Hospitality ft. with DIF (Decentralized Identity Foundation)

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The post AI for Data Security and Verification first appeared on Extrimian.

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Thales and SES demonstrate compatibility of secure anti-jamming waveforms with MEO satellites prezly Mon, 03/10/2025 - 16:00 Thales's Modem21 system typically equips sovereign, ultra-resilient geostationary satellites offering secure, high-data-rate military satellite communications services with high levels of jamming protection. With the deployment of new satellite constellations, the armed forces are now taking steps to extend their coverage and develop hybrid satcom capabilities that will complement the services provided by geostationary satellites. Feasibility studies conducted under a defence technology project (PTD) for the French defence procurement agency (DGA) have demonstrated the compatibility of the Modem21 system with the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation operated by SES. This demonstration of Modem21's capacity to operate with non-geostationary MEO satellites opens up new opportunities for the deployment of hybrid solutions combining ultra-secure communications based on sovereign military satellites in geostationary orbit with commercial MEO constellations in equatorial or polar orbit offering enhanced security and anti-jamming performance.
@SES

In October 2024, Thales and SES for the first time demonstrated the compatibility of Thales's Modem21 system with SES's O3b mPOWER satellites, establishing the system's capacity to operate with commercial MEO constellations.

"Multi-orbit compatibility of Modem21 with the SES constellation underscores the feasibility of future hybrid satellite solutions for the armed forces that will continue to meet the security and jamming protection requirements of military operations," said Alexandre Bottero, Vice President, Networks and Infrastructure Systems, Thales.

"As governments address the growing need for multi-orbit capabilities to guarantee the resilience, security and sovereignty of their communications, we are delighted to be aligning our efforts with those of our technology partners to help achieve these objectives. The combination of Thales's Modem21 with SES's innovative second-generation O3b mPOWER MEO system promises to deliver the high levels of technical performance and security required while ensuring that government customers preserve full control of their networks," said Roy Sielaff, Vice President, Space & Defence Europe, SES.

Hybridisation of sovereign and commercial satellite communications is a major opportunity for the armed forces to assert their connectivity superiority. With the demonstration of Modem21 operating with the O3b mPOWER satellites in SES's MEO constellation, Thales is paving the way to the development of new capabilities in hybrid, multi-band, multi-operator environments to meet the needs of the armed forces. Modem21 has already been deployed in various theatres of operations to provide command posts with secure communications capabilities. The system was selected by NATO about ten years ago and is fully compliant with STANAG 4606, NATO’s Electronic Protective Measures (EPM) standard.

The disruptive technology behind its communications protocol has been selected by about a dozen governments around the world.

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies for the Defence, Aerospace, and Cyber & Digital sectors. Its portfolio of innovative products and services addresses several major challenges: sovereignty, security, sustainability and inclusion.

The Group invests more than €4 billion per year in Research & Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies.

Thales has more than 83,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2024, the Group generated sales of €20.6 billion.

/sites/default/files/prezly/images/Generic%20banner%20option%202%20%282%29_27.png Contacts Cédric Leurquin 10 Mar 2025 Type Press release Structure Defence and Security Defence In October 2024, Thales and SES for the first time demonstrated the compatibility of Thales's Modem21 system with SES's O3b mPOWER satellites, establishing the system's capacity to operate with commercial MEO constellations. prezly_737192_thumbnail.jpg Hide from search engines Off Prezly ID 737192 Prezly UUID 87fb26c0-36d9-4e2f-ab04-2adea6557767 Prezly url https://thales-group.prezly.com/thales-and-ses-demonstrate-compatibility-of-secure-anti-jamming-waveforms-with-meo-satellites Mon, 03/10/2025 - 17:00 Don’t overwrite with Prezly data Off

Feds regarded the attack and laundering of funds to involve the effort of various attackers.

For years, proving your age online has long been a frustrating process. Users upload a government-issued ID, wait for approval, and hope the system—or a human reviewer—doesn’t flag it for further checks. Not only is this slow and intrusive, but it’s also easy to bypass with borrowed or fake documents.

AI is changing that. Instead of relying on easily manipulated paperwork, today’s online identity verification systems use biometric and behavioral data to confirm whether someone is old enough to access age-restricted content. AI makes verification faster, smarter, and more secure while reducing friction for legitimate users.

But AI isn’t a silver bullet. While it slows deepfakes, synthetic identities, and document fraud, businesses need to balance privacy concerns, algorithmic bias, and evolving regulations. The challenge isn’t just making age assurance more effective—it’s ensuring it remains fair, secure, and privacy-conscious.

So, how exactly is AI reshaping the landscape? And what should companies consider when adopting these technologies?

What Is Age Assurance?

At its core, age assurance is about determining whether a user meets the minimum age for certain content, services, or products. It’s critical for protecting minors, preventing fraud, and staying compliant with laws like COPPA (U.S.), AADC (EU), and the Online Safety Act (UK).

There are two main approaches:

Age verification confirms a user’s exact age using government-issued IDs, credit card records, or mobile carrier data. Age estimation uses AI-driven biometric and behavioral analysis to predict a user’s likely age without requiring official documentation. From Liminal’s Market & Buyer’s Guide for Age Assurance, Page 16

AI-driven models are not just replacing traditional document checks; they are enabling real-time, adaptive verification, reducing friction while increasing security and fraud resistance.

Traditional Methods vs. AI-Powered Solutions

Manual ID checks were once the go-to method for age verification. Users uploaded a government-issued ID or other documents, which were then cross-checked against ID manuals and data sets. Over time, automation was introduced to streamline parts of this process, but fundamental issues remained:

This process came with serious flaws:

Slow & Frustrating → Lengthy processing times frustrate users. Privacy Risks → Storing IDs increases exposure to fraud. Easy to Cheat → Minors can use borrowed or fake documents. Not Scalable → Manual reviews can’t handle millions of users efficiently.

AI-powered solutions remove these pain points. Instead of relying on easily manipulated documents, AI uses facial recognition, behavioral signals, and liveness detection to verify users in real time—without storing excessive personal data.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Age Assurance

Instead of just checking a document, AI-powered age assurance takes a more dynamic approach by analyzing a person’s unique traits. Facial recognition technology can estimate whether a user is underage without storing personal details, making the process both efficient and privacy-conscious. At the same time, behavioral analytics monitor how users interact with a platform, flagging patterns that suggest they may be younger than they claim.

Beyond these methods, deepfake detection plays a critical role in preventing fraud, ensuring that AI-generated videos or manipulated images can’t be used to bypass verification. Meanwhile, AI-driven document authentication is improving online identity verification by catching subtle forgeries that human reviewers might otherwise miss.

For businesses, this shift leads to fewer manual checks, faster processing, and a smoother experience for legitimate users—without creating new loopholes for fraudsters to exploit.

AI-Powered Fraud Prevention in Age Assurance

Fraudsters are always evolving, but AI is making it harder for them to cheat the system. Two of the most challenging fraud tactics today are synthetic identities and deepfake fraud, both of which have become harder to detect and cheaper to execute.

Stopping Synthetic Identity Fraud

Synthetic identities are like digital chameleons—fraudsters blend real and fake details to create entirely new (but convincing) personas. These identities can slip past traditional verification methods because they look legitimate on the surface. But AI-powered defenses are catching up fast. Here’s how:

Behavioral Analysis → AI watches how users interact over time—how they type, move through a site, and even make payments. Fraudsters tend to behave differently than real users, and AI picks up on those subtle differences. Cross-Checking Data → Instead of verifying just one piece of information, AI cross-references multiple sources—credit histories, public records, and known fraud databases—to spot mismatches that give away synthetic identities. Machine Learning & Pattern Recognition → AI learns from past fraud cases, continuously improving its ability to detect fake profiles by identifying patterns that human reviewers might miss. AI-Powered Document Checks → Even when fraudsters submit “official-looking” IDs, AI scans for subtle signs of tampering—like mismatched fonts, odd lighting, or altered personal details.

These tools, combined with real-time risk assessments, make it significantly harder for fraudsters to create and use synthetic identities successfully.

Preventing Deepfake Fraud

Deepfake technology has made it scarily easy to create hyper-realistic fake images and videos, allowing fraudsters to impersonate real people. The good news is that AI can fight AI:

Liveness Detection → Ever noticed how people naturally blink, shift their expressions, or adjust their posture? Deepfakes struggle with these real-life nuances. AI-powered liveness detection can analyze micro-expressions, eye movement, and facial depth to confirm a person is actually present. Advanced Facial Recognition → AI compares user-submitted selfies or videos with previously verified images to catch even the slightest inconsistencies that signal a deepfake. Image & Video Forensics → AI can break down visual elements—like unnatural lighting, weird pixel patterns, or facial distortions—to detect manipulated media before it fools the system. Challenge-Response Tests → Asking users to complete real-time actions—like turning their head, smiling, or speaking a phrase—adds an extra layer of security that deepfakes struggle to replicate convincingly.

By combining these techniques, AI-powered verification systems can shut down deepfake attempts before they get past the first checkpoint.

(from Liminal’s Market & Buyer’s Guide for Age Assurance, Page 33) Enhancing Secure Access Control Through AI

In industries where verifying a user’s age is critical—like alcohol and tobacco sales, online gambling, and adult content platforms—businesses need stronger, more adaptable verification methods. AI-powered access control allows companies to layer multiple verification techniques, ensuring that only legitimate users get through.

For higher-risk scenarios, businesses can combine selfie-based authentication with document scans for extra security. Instead of relying on one-time ID checks, AI continuously monitors risk in real time, flagging suspicious activity as it happens. This is especially useful in cases where users might try to borrow an ID, create a fake profile, or use manipulated images to bypass restrictions.

By making access control dynamic and responsive, AI helps businesses enforce age restrictions and regulatory compliance without frustrating legitimate users. Whether it’s a quick facial scan, behavioral analysis, or cross-referencing multiple data points, AI ensures the right people get access—while keeping fraudsters out.

Real-World Applications of AI in Age Assurance

New laws are forcing companies to rethink age verification systems, and AI is already playing a major role in compliance.

Age Verification Texas: Pornhub Compliance Challenges

The Pornhub age verification laws in Texas require adult platforms to implement stricter age verification measures. Initially, these regulations relied on manual ID-based checks, but platforms quickly faced backlash over privacy concerns and user friction. To comply while maintaining user trust, many are turning to AI-driven facial recognition, which verifies age without storing personal documents. This approach helps businesses meet regulatory requirements while reducing fraud risks and improving user experience.

Google’s AI-Powered Age Assurance

Google has taken a proactive approach to age assurance across its platforms, leveraging AI to make verification more accurate and user-friendly. One major example is YouTube’s AI Verification System, which was introduced after self-reported birthdates proved unreliable for restricting access to age-sensitive content. Instead of relying on document uploads, YouTube’s system uses Google’s broader AI-driven verification methods to dynamically assess whether a user meets the required age criteria.

Beyond YouTube, Google applies these AI-powered techniques across its ecosystem, ensuring that minors are restricted from accessing age-sensitive services while keeping verification seamless for legitimate users. Similarly, other tech giants like Meta are implementing AI-driven age assurance to balance compliance, fraud prevention, and user convenience, reflecting a broader industry move toward smarter, more adaptable verification methods that protect minors without creating unnecessary barriers for real users.

(From Liminal’s White Paper: The Age-Verified Internet – Strategies for Safer Online Experiences, Page 4)

Industries Leveraging AI for Age Estimation and Verification Gaming & Dating Sites

Online gaming and dating sites are increasingly adopting AI to ensure user authenticity and safety. For instance, gaming platforms utilize age estimation and behavioral tracking to prevent minors from accessing mature content. Similarly, dating apps employ facial recognition to verify that new users meet age requirements, fostering a safer environment for all participants.

Fintech, Banking, and Gambling 

In regulated sectors like fintech, banking, and gambling, accurate and scalable age verification is crucial to prevent fraud and comply with legal standards. AI-driven solutions detect fake IDs, synthetic identities, and document tampering, thereby reducing onboarding delays while maintaining high-security levels. This approach ensures that services are accessible only to eligible individuals, safeguarding both the institutions and their clients.

Alcohol and Tobacco Sales

Retailers and e-commerce platforms selling alcohol and tobacco face strict age restrictions and growing pressure to prevent underage purchases. AI-powered age assurance solutions help these businesses verify customer age in real-time by using document authentication, facial recognition, and behavioral analysis. Whether self-checkout kiosks scan IDs or online stores verify buyer credentials, AI ensures compliance while streamlining the purchasing process for legal customers.

(From Liminal’s White Paper: The Age-Verified Internet – Strategies for Safer Online Experiences, Page 5)

Evaluating Age Assurance Systems

Implementing AI-driven verification is just one piece of the puzzle—businesses also need to ensure that these systems actually work as intended. The best solutions find the right balance between accuracy, speed, user experience, and fraud prevention while staying compliant with regulations.

To compare different approaches, companies turn to age-assured program reviews, which assess how well these systems perform in real-world scenarios. These reviews help answer critical questions: How often does the system mistakenly approve underage users? How many legitimate users get unfairly blocked? How fast and smooth is the verification process?

By understanding these factors, businesses can choose a system that doesn’t just check a compliance box but actually makes verification secure, efficient, and frustration-free for real users.

Key Metrics for Effectiveness

According to our Market and Buyer’s Guide for Age Assurance, decision-makers prioritize accuracy, completion speed, and user experience when selecting an age verification system. Key performance indicators include:

Accuracy rates → How well AI determines a user’s age. False acceptance & rejection rates → Are minors mistakenly approved or adults incorrectly denied? Completion & abandonment rates → If users drop off, verification may be too slow or intrusive. Time to completion → How quickly can users verify their age?

The goal is high accuracy with minimal friction—a system that wrongly rejects legitimate users or lets fraudsters through ultimately fails at its job.

Future Trends and Innovations in Age Assurance

As regulations tighten and fraud tactics become more sophisticated, the future of age assurance will prioritize privacy-first verification, real-time risk assessment, and seamless identity tracking across devices. Businesses need solutions that not only verify age accurately but also protect user privacy and minimize friction.

Emerging Technologies in Age Verification

The push for privacy-first verification is reshaping how companies handle age assurance. Users expect security without overexposing their personal data, and businesses must comply with stricter regulations. The next phase of age assurance will focus on privacy-first verification, real-time risk assessment, and seamless identity tracking across devices.

On-Device Processing reduces reliance on external servers, lowering the risk of data breaches while improving speed. Zero-Knowledge Proofs allow platforms to confirm a user meets age requirements without storing or sharing unnecessary details. Decentralized ID Systems let users verify their age once and carry a reusable digital credential across platforms instead of repeatedly submitting documents.

These advancements strengthen security while putting users in control of their own data.

(From Liminal’s White Paper: The Age-Verified Internet – Strategies for Safer Online Experiences, Page 6)

Real-Time Audience Segmentation

Most age verification happens once at sign-up, but AI is enabling continuous, real-time adjustments based on user behavior and risk factors.

Platforms can dynamically modify access based on content type, location, or browsing behavior. If an account shows patterns consistent with a minor trying to bypass restrictions, additional verification can be triggered.

This approach helps businesses enforce age-appropriate access without disrupting legitimate users.

Cross-Device Identity Graphing

Users frequently switch between devices, and traditional verification methods struggle to keep up. AI-driven identity graphing helps platforms connect identities across multiple devices to ensure consistent age restrictions.

Fraudsters attempting to bypass verification on a new device can be flagged. Minors using multiple accounts to avoid restrictions can be identified. Users can verify their age once and maintain access across all their devices without repeating the process.

By eliminating gaps in identity verification, businesses can maintain security without frustrating legitimate users.

Conclusion

AI has transformed age verification from a slow, manual process into an instant, automated system that improves security and privacy without increasing friction. Facial recognition, behavioral analysis, and fraud detection tools have made verification faster and more reliable, reducing reliance on outdated document-based checks.

For businesses, this shift isn’t just about convenience. AI-driven solutions help companies stay compliant with evolving regulations, prevent fraud, and protect minors from accessing restricted content. More importantly, they play a critical role in trust and safety, ensuring that platforms can verify users without compromising privacy or creating unnecessary barriers.

The future of digital identity will be privacy-first, with on-device verification, zero-knowledge proofs, and decentralized credentials allowing users to prove their age without oversharing personal data. The question isn’t if AI will power age assurance but how businesses will use it responsibly and ethically. For businesses that want to stay ahead, the message is clear: Adapt now, or struggle to keep up later.

The post How AI Is Changing Age Assurance for Good appeared first on Liminal.co.

Truid Joins Forces with Kivra to Shape the Future of Digital Identity

At Truid, our mission has always been to empower individuals with greater control over their digital identity. Today, we are excited to share a significant milestone in our journey - Truid is joining forces with Kivra. Their acquisition of Truid's technology platform and team marks a major step forward in accelerating the development of a secure and user-centric digital identity wallet.

Thales Joins IMC to Strengthen IoT Security and Connectivity Language English fanny.theulot Mon, 03/10/2025 - 10:59

Thales has joined the IoT M2M Council (IMC), marking a significant step forward in our mission to enhance awareness around the vital importance of digital device connectivity and security. Our involvement with IMC underscores our dedication to advancing robust security measures and promoting effective IoT solutions globally.

 

Leading the joint IMC/GCF task force on IoT security

We are proud to take on a leading role in the newly established Joint Task Force on IoT Security, a collaboration between IMC and the Global Certification Forum (GCF). This joint initiative focuses on developing comprehensive global security standards to address critical IoT security challenges. Our recognized expertise in eSIM technology and IoT security will be instrumental in ensuring that connected devices remain secure throughout their entire lifecycle.

 

Enhancing IMC with Thales's comprehensive IoT solutions

Our membership in IMC allows us to bring a suite of advanced IoT solutions that enhance both connectivity and cybersecurity, enabling seamless management of IoT device security lifecycles. Recognized by industry analysts as a leader in eSIM solutions, Thales offers device makers and OEMs the adaptability to choose and manage telco networks globally. These solutions are designed to optimize operations, mitigate risks, and simplify the IoT journey for enterprises, contributing significant value to IMC's objectives. Thales' suite of cybersecurity solutions includes:

Embedded Secure Hardware Elements: These elements protect IoT devices from attacks throughout their lifecycle, ensuring end-to-end security. Advanced Connectivity Management Services: Compliant with all GSMA eSIM standards (SGP.22, SGP.32, and SGP.02), providing enhanced flexibility in managing telecom networks. Digital Identity Management: We offer secure management of digital identities, keeping IoT devices safe from unauthorized access and threats. Our role in boosting IMC's impact

By joining IMC, Thales will leverage the council's platforms to build awareness and promote the adoption of secure IoT solutions. Our eSIM technology, will benefit manufacturers and OEMs by offering a single solution for Connectivity Management and Security Lifecycle. This collaboration further enables IMC to drive the advancement of IoT security and connectivity, aligning with our shared goal of fostering secure IoT environments.

“We’ll use IMC platforms to build awareness. The eSIM is a technology that will allow manufacturers deploying connected devices to gain flexibility in the networks they use – and manufacturers are also a major IMC demographic. The fact that the IMC is taking the lead in IoT security was also key in our decision to join the group, as with the usage of eSIM as a Root of Trust, we will deliver a single solution for Connectivity Management and Security Lifecycle,” says Gregory Laloy, Thales’ Head of IoT Product Line. Stay tuned for updates on our contributions to the IoT security landscape as we collaborate with IMC. For more information about the Joint Task Force on IoT Security, visit IMC-GCF Joint Task Force on IoT Security.

/sites/default/files/database/assets/images/2025-03/tel-imc-banner_0.png 10 Mar 2025 Digital Identity and Security IoT Mobile Thales has joined the IoT M2M Council (IMC), marking a significant step forward in our mission to enhance awareness around the vital importance of digital device connectivity and security. Our involvement with IMC underscores our dedication to advancing robust security measures and promoting effective IoT solutions globally. Type News Hide from search engines Off

SKY Perfect JSAT Selects Thales Alenia Space to build “JSAT-32” Communications Satellite tas Mon, 03/10/2025 - 08:33

Tokyo / Cannes, March 10 2025 – Asia’s largest satellite operator SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT) and Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), have announced the signing of a contract to build geostationary communications satellite “JSAT-32”.

Operating in the Ku and Ka frequency bands, JSAT-32 will provide coverage over Japan and its surrounding seas, with newly added spot beams for mobility applications. JSAT-32 will serve as a future replacement for existing SKY Perfect JSAT satellites that provide communication and distribution services in Japan. 

JSAT-32 ©Thales Alenia Space/Briot 

As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space will be responsible for the design, manufacturing, testing and delivery of the satellite to the designated launch pad. The company will also provide the associated ground segment. With a launch mass of 3.7 tons, JSAT-32 will be built on Thales Alenia Space’s Spacebus 4000B2 platform, renowned for its robustness, reliability and time-to-market efficiency. The satellite is scheduled for launch in 2027, and will be designed to have an in-orbit lifetime of over 15 years.

“The procurement of JSAT-32 is part of our strategic investment, aligning with our long-term satellite fleet refresh plan,” said SKY Perfect JSAT President and CEO Eiichi Yonekura. “With its additional Ka-band payload, JSAT-32 will enhance our ability to meet growing mobility demands, including national security needs. As we continue the procurement of JSAT-31, we look forward to leveraging Thales Alenia Space’s proven technology and expertise.”

“I would like to sincerely thank SKY Perfect JSAT for renewing its trust in our company,” said Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “JSAT-32 is the second satellite we will deliver to SKY Perfect JSAT, after JSAT-31 ordered in 2024. This new contract further underscores the success of our robust and proven Spacebus 4000 product line, which has represented a total of 42 satellite programs, including 16 based on Spacebus 4000B2 product.”

JSAT-32 Summary

1.    Satellite Bus    
Thales Alenia Space : SpaceBus 4000B2

2.    Satellite Specifications    
(1) Frequency bands : Ku and Ka
(2) Primary coverage : Japan
(3) Target launch date : 2027
(4) Service life : more than 15 years

Related Links

May 27, 2024 News Release: SKY Perfect JSAT selects Thales Alenia Space to build a new cutting-edge software-defined satellite "JSAT-31"
SKY Perfect JSAT selects Thales Alenia Space to build a new cutting-edge software-defined satellite “JSAT-31” | Thales Alenia Space 

About SKY Perfect JSAT

Asia's largest geostationary satellite operator, SKY Perfect JSAT, has been delivering reliable communications and broadcasting solutions for over 35 years. Our Space Business provides satellite coverage from North America to the Indian Ocean, supporting both commercial and government connectivity needs. We are expanding our Space Intelligence Business by leveraging satellite data and developing the non-terrestrial network "Universal NTN" to enhance connectivity, contribute to disaster preparedness and national security, and advance toward a super-smart society. In the Media Business, we operate the "SKY PerfecTV!" multi-channel Pay-TV platform in Japan and are extending our services through the Fiber-optic Alliance Business and tailored Media Solutions. We're also exploring Connected TV and Web3 to drive growth in the evolving media landscape.
SKY Perfect JSAT Group Website: www.skyperfectjsat.space/en
Space Business Website: www.skyperfectjsat.space/jsat/en/

About THALES ALENIA SPACE

Drawing on over 40 years of experience and a unique combination of skills, expertise and cultures, Thales Alenia Space delivers cost-effective solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments and private industry alike count on Thales Alenia Space to design satellite-based systems that provide anytime, anywhere connections and positioning, monitor our planet, enhance management of its resources, and explore our Solar System and beyond. Thales Alenia Space sees space as a new horizon, helping to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of approximately 2.2 billion euros in 2023 and has around 8,600 employees in 16 sites in 8 countries across Europe. www.thalesaleniaspace.com 

THALES ALENIA SPACE – PRESS CONTACTS 

Tarik Lahlou
Tel: +33 (0)6 87 95 89 56    
tarik.lahlou@thalesaleniaspace.com

Catherine des Arcis
Tel: +33 (0)6 78 64 63 97
catherine.des-arcis@thalesaleniaspace.com

Cinzia Marcanio
Tel.: +39 (0)6 415 126 85
cinzia.marcanio@thalesaleniaspace.com

 

/sites/default/files/database/assets/images/2022-10/New_Banner.jpg 10 Mar 2025 Thales Alenia Space Type Press release Structure Space Tokyo / Cannes, March 10 2025 – Asia’s largest satellite operator SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT) and Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), have announced the signing of a contract to build geostation... Hide from search engines Off Don’t overwrite with Prezly data Off Canonical url https://www.thalesaleniaspace.com/en/press-releases/sky-perfect-jsat-selects-thales-alenia-space-build-jsat-32-communications-satellite

The SoSafe Cybercrime Trends 2025 report also covers supply chain risks and cyber resilience inequality.

Elliptic’s data and intelligence was used by the US Secret Service in their investigation into the sanctioned Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, resulting in the takedown and freezing of assets, announced today.

Elliptic developed proprietary, industry-leading techniques to identify wallets controlled by Garantex – despite its efforts to conceal its blockchain activity. This provided valuable intelligence to investigators, as well as users of Elliptic’s sanctions screening tools.

This work reveals that Garantex has engaged in crypto transactions worth more than $60 billion since it was sanctioned in 2022. In total Garantex has transacted over $96 billion.

Garantex has been used in sanctions evasion by Russian elites, as well as to launder proceeds of crime including ransomware, darknet market trade and thefts attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

 

We sat down with the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Holvi, a leading digital banking service for freelancers and small businesses, to discuss fraud, compliance, and the strategies needed to stay ahead in an evolving financial landscape.

As an avid sailor, René knows that navigating risks is all about reading the conditions, adjusting course and staying prepared for unpredictable challenges.

“There’s no business without risk – it’s just part of the game,” says René. And in the financial industry, it’s a high-stakes game with ever-changing rules, where the cost of losing is staggering. In fact, $1.03 trillion was lost to scams globally in 2024 and between €715 billion and €1.87 trillion of global GDP is tainted by money laundering each year – an amount so massive it rivals the economy of entire countries like Italy or Switzerland.

The risk is not just a challenge, but an existential threat that can erode customer trust, destroy businesses and fuel further crime. Every laundered euro is not just a loss on a balance sheet, but also in human lives, as it funds human trafficking, terrorism, drug trade and more, devastating real lives of entire communities.

Plus, the opponents are relentless – always innovative, mastering the art of exploiting vulnerable individuals through psychological manipulation and constantly finding new attack techniques – even as regulations tighten. “In this era, new fraud patterns arise and disappear faster than static processes and systems can evolve,” René explain. Traditional fraud prevention simply can’t keep up. Especially now with the rise of AI-driven fraud and synthetic identities, it’s like racing against a fleet of expert sailors in ever-changing winds. The right strategy isn’t just about reacting to sudden gusts, but about reading the conditions, adjusting sails early, and maintaining an edge to stay ahead of the competition. For René, the only way forward is to fight fire with fire, with “detection and analysis capabilities needing to make use for the same technology” in order to keep pace and eventually overtake malicious actors.

For René, the key to success isn’t eliminating risk – it’s managing it. “You need to see the full picture, not just individual threats. Some risks are worth taking, while others need to be mitigated.”

Just as in a regatta, where a sailor may take a longer route to catch the best wind or make tactical manoeuvres to gain an advantage, navigating risk in finance means knowing when to hold steady and when to change course. So, there’s always a trade-off: security versus customer experience, compliance versus agility; “Balancing security with a smooth customer experience is always a challenge, especially in a regulated industry,” René acknowledges.

Some friction is unavoidable, but what matters is how we handle it – making sure it’s transparent and makes sense to the customer.

René Hofer, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Holvi.

In fact, friction can sometimes be positive, as it can reassure customers that the process is thorough. And research shows that when friction enables decisions, customer satisfaction can improve. Ultimately, this approach ensures that the balance between efficiency and trust is maintained. “At the end of the day, safety comes first. There’s no way around that,” says René.

This challenge is further complicated by a fragmented regulatory landscape. Even within the European Union there are countries like Germany enforcing strict regulatory measures under the GDPR and AML directives while other countries such as Ireland offer more flexible interpretations of these rules. “Honestly, it’s frustrating,” René admits. “Identity verification should be standardized, but it’s not – so we work with flexible solutions that adapt to local requirements without adding unnecessary complexity for customers.”

Staying ahead of evolving regulations is like sailing in unpredictable waters – you don’t always know when the wind will shift, but you must be ready to adjust your sails. Only those who anticipate changes and prepare accordingly will keep moving forward instead of being caught adrift. “It’s about being informed and ready to adapt,” says René. “You can’t predict every regulatory change, but you can build a system that adapts. That means staying ahead of trends, designing flexible processes, and making compliance part of everyday decision-making.”

Businesses must leverage technology and the expertise behind it, with software providers acting as key teammates in staying connected with regulatory bodies for timely product updates. “We rely on tech, strong data sources, and – most importantly – people who know how to interpret and act on that information. Regulations will always change, so the best approach is to embed flexibility into how we operate rather than treating compliance as something we “catch up on” later.”

Despite these challenges, René remains optimistic. The financial industry, regulators and businesses all share the same mission: securing a trustworthy financial ecosystem. The key is collaboration. “If you demand adaptability, show that you’re willing to adapt, too,” he advises. “Engage early, share insights and build relationships based on transparency.”

The challenge of risk and compliance is never over, and the conditions will always shift. But as René puts it, the real question isn’t whether businesses can avoid rough seas – it’s whether they’re charting a course for success or just trying to stay afloat.

By

Nikita Rybová
Customer Marketing Manager at IDnow
Connect with Nikita on LinkedIn

Thales Unveils New Vehicle Mounted SquadNet Radio Language English simon.mcsstudio Fri, 03/07/2025 - 12:42

Thales has released a new Vehicle Mounted SquadNet Radio. The vehicle installation enables secure voice and data services to be shared seamlessly between platform and soldier. 

The Vehicle Mounted SquadNet Radio offers full interoperability with the soldier radio to provide secure and reliable voice connection. It delivers low latency blue force tracking between vehicles and troops to prevent fratricide and improve coordination. Furthermore, it can exchange data such as target locations and pictures between vehicles and troops, enabling the queuing of vehicle mounted optics and weapons or retransmission to other platforms to better support dismounted operations. 

Thales has secured an initial customer for the Vehicle Mounted SquadNet Radio and will commence deliveries in 2026. Prototype units are available.

/sites/default/files/database/assets/images/2025-03/Boxer-no-person-banner_3.png 12 Mar 2025 United Kingdom Thales has released a new Vehicle Mounted SquadNet Radio. The vehicle installation enables secure voice and data services to be shared seamlessly between platform and soldier. Type News Hide from search engines Off

In a recent conversation with Paul Grassi, Principal Product Manager for Identity Services at Amazon, we learned about their plans to integrate mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs) and the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet. 

Instead of the old process of verifying IDs, Amazon is moving towards a model where they simply accept already-verified digital credentials. In this email we’ll break down three key areas from our discussion:

Possible Use Cases & Customer Benefits Amazon’s Roadmap for mDLs and EUDI Challenges in Implementing mDLs

March 07, 2025: ShareRing is thrilled to announce that James Aitken has joined the team as our new Marketing Lead. With years of experience driving marketing strategies for leading Web3 and blockchain companies, James brings a wealth of expertise in scaling blockchain ventures and executing high-impact campaigns. His appointment marks a pivotal moment as ShareRing shifts its focus from product development to aggressive growth and market expansion.

James will spearhead the enhancement of our marketing function—overseeing the planning and execution of innovative marketing campaigns and customer acquisition initiatives. His strategic vision is set to amplify ShareRing’s presence and accelerate adoption of our decentralized identity solutions and privacy Layer 1 blockchain technology on a global scale.

“Joining ShareRing at this exciting time is a tremendous opportunity,” said James Aitken. “I’m inspired by the innovative spirit and cutting-edge technology that ShareRing embodies. My goal is to drive strategic marketing initiatives that not only increase our brand visibility but also empower our users to experience secure, trustless digital interactions. I look forward to collaborating with the team and our community to take ShareRing to unprecedented heights.”

CEO Ryan Bessemer added, “James’ understanding of the blockchain ecosystem and his proven success in scaling marketing operations make him the ideal Marketing Lead for our transition into growth mode. His dynamic approach will be instrumental in positioning ShareRing as the go-to solution for decentralized digital identity worldwide.”

James will be actively engaging with our community across social channels, ready to answer questions and share insights. We encourage everyone to connect with him and join us as we embark on this transformative phase.

Learn more about ShareRing and our innovative technology at https://sharering.network.

The post James Aitken Joins ShareRing as Marketing Lead appeared first on ShareRing.

The Verida AI beta is officially live. A groundbreaking solution that puts users in control of their data while enabling powerful AI integrations. By leveraging secure and confidential APIs, developers can now incorporate private user data into AI inference and training with explicit user consent.

With data stored fully encrypted on the Verida Network and made available via the Verida Confidential Compute infrastructure, users can rest assured that their data remains private at all times — even during AI processing.

This beta release is a milestone in our mission to redefine personal data privacy, user consent, and AI-driven innovation.

Key Highlights and Capabilities: Developer APIs: Easily integrate user-owned, encrypted data into AI applications, unlocking new possibilities in personalization and contextualization. Consent-Based Data Access: Enable users to connect their personal data for AI inference and training, ensuring they maintain full control. Growing Data Connector Ecosystem: Out-of-the-box connectors for Google (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and YouTube) and Telegram. Upcoming connectors include Notion, Slack, and Spotify. Seamless Integration with the “Connect Verida” Button: Just a few lines of code to allow users to authenticate with their Verida identity and grant safe, consent-based data access. Advanced Chat Search: Unlock full chat thread histories to provide Large Language Models (LLMs) with the context needed for richer, more accurate responses. Full-Text Search: Provides superior retrieval for user data use cases compared to many vector database solutions. Advanced RAG Pipeline (v2): Out-of-the-box LLM access that can securely read user data, reducing the need to operate or train third-party LLMs. Developer Dashboard: A newly introduced console for registering apps, obtaining initial free credits, and experimenting with the available APIs in a sandbox environment. Verida Token (VDA): The VDA token powers Verida AI, with each API request deducting credits from deposited VDA tokens. Developer Grants: Funding is available for building or integrating applications using Verida AI, and for creating new data connectors. Get Started Today

This beta release is an important step toward our vision of a privacy-preserving, user-centric AI future, and we invite you to be part of it.

Explore Documentation: Access in-depth guides and tutorials. Access the Developer Console: Register your application and obtain developer VDA credits Register for Starter VDA Credits: Kick-start your development without upfront costs. Join Our Developer Community: Collaborate with fellow builders and stay updated on the latest releases.

We can’t wait to see how you harness the power of user-owned data and secure AI with Verida AI.

The “Connect Verida” Button

One of our standout features is the “Connect Verida” button. This simple, yet powerful component can be integrated into your application with just a few lines of code:

Secure Verida Identity Authentication: Ensure users authenticate safely to your application. Consent-Based Access: Users grant or revoke access to their private data at any time. Privacy-Preserving Personalization: Offer personalized experiences without compromising user privacy.

This easy-to-use button ensures your users retain complete control of their data while you tap into rich, contextual information to power AI-driven experiences.

Verida AI RAG (v2): Next-Generation AI Capabilities

Where applications want an out-of-the-box Large Language Model that understands private user, Verida AI provides agent based API endpoints that are trained to understand user data.

Our updated Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) engine introduces powerful upgrades to how applications interact with user data:

Accurate Metadata Extraction: Improve how your AI model interprets and organizes user content. Sophisticated Privacy Controls: Only request access to data you need and the LLM will only access that data, providing strict guardrails to ensure sensitive data isn’t exposed. Enhanced Prompting Services: Maintain extended context for truly personalized AI outputs, without compromising user privacy.

These advancements open the door to new classes of intelligent apps capable of delivering tailor-made insights while adhering to robust privacy standards.

Expanded Web2 Data Connector Ecosystem

Verida’s ecosystem of data connectors is continuously expanding, enabling developers to access diverse third-party data sources — always with user consent. Today, we support:

Google: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, YouTube Telegram Coming very soon: Notion, Slack, Spotify

All data is synchronized on demand and securely stored in encrypted databases on the Verida Network. Our open-source Data Connection framework streamlines the process of integrating with popular platforms. Developers can also build new connectors or request connectors through our public roadmap.

Looking to build your own connector? See our Build a Connector getting started guide.

New Developer Console & Tooling

We’ve completely overhauled the developer experience with a new Developer Console — your central hub for configuring your apps, monitoring usage, and running tests in an isolated sandbox environment.

Key Features Credit Balance & API Requests Easily track your free credit allocations and monitor API usage in real-time.

2. User Connections

Gain insights into how many users have connected their Verida accounts to your application.

3. Sandbox Environment

Build Auth Requests: Create and manage authentication tokens. Manage API Scopes: Configure scopes to ensure granular data access. Make API Requests: Test endpoints and debug responses. Browse Data with Auth Tokens: Inspect encrypted user data from within the console.

With the Developer Console, you can optimize your app’s performance and gain a clear overview of user engagement and resource usage.

Powered by the Verida Token (VDA)

The Verida token (VDA) underpins the entire Verida AI platform. Developers deposit VDA tokens to cover API requests, with tokens consumed for each call. This token-based model not only ensures a sustainable ecosystem but also aligns incentives for privacy-preserving innovation.

Learn more about VDA token.

Developer Grants

We’re committed to fostering a thriving ecosystem of privacy-centric AI developers. Two types of grants are available:

Application Integration & Development Grants Integrate Verida AI technology into your existing apps or build innovative new solutions using our APIs.

2. Data Connector Development Grants

Contribute to our ever-growing list of data connectors by building integrations with new platforms.

If you have a vision for how Verida AI can transform a particular industry, product, or platform, we want to hear from you!

Visit our grant application page to get started.

The importance of user-owned data for AI

Verida AI infrastructure enables application developers to build AI products and services using private user data.

Big tech owns us all. They own our data and they monetize our data without any of that value being returned to us. Verida enables users to take custody of their data and use it at their leisure thanks to selective disclosure and permissioned access. Users have full control and choice.

Verida enables developers to build hyper-personalized AI agents based on personal data or aggregated personal data, without compromising individual information.

The problem with big tech data usage is that individual data packets can be traced back to you as a user. But this is no longer necessary. Verida’s confidential infrastructure enables user data to be pooled so the underlying information is available for LLM’s to learn and benefit, without this data being tied to you as an individual, in turn delivering a more equitable result for both user and application.

The future of privacy-preserving AI is here — let’s build it together.

Verida Unlocks Personal, Private AI with Beta Release was originally published in Verida on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Getting job seekers into the right roles and incentivizing residents to develop skills both have huge implications for a region's economic productivity and residents' happiness. Online networking and application platforms have made hiring far more effective in the 21st century, but the use of artificial intelligence by job applicants threatens to undermine that progress.

Now, Verifiable Digital Credentials supporting Digital Learning and Employment Records, or LERs, are being used across the U.S. in hopes of rescuing the hiring process while making it easier than ever to reliably connect skilled workers with employers who need them. LERs are digital documents controlled by the holder and verifiable with an issuer’s cryptographic signature. 

That means employers can trust that a diploma, certification, or past employment record is trustworthy without the shockingly laborious process of verifying it directly with the issuer — even when the credential is presented online. The possibilities for making hiring more efficient and effective are hard to overstate — but trustworthy credentials are bigger than that. Their adoption would make skills-based training courses more significant in the hiring process, incentivizing more lifelong learning and ultimately creating a more skilled workforce and vibrant economy.

A New Foundation for Digital Trust

Digital Education and Learning Credentials can now take the form of Verifiable Digital Credentials, or VDCs. VDCs are an innovation that uses cryptography to create trustworthy and non-duplicable digital documents whose source and authenticity are confirmed by cryptographic signatures that can be verified in person or online. VDC technology is already used to secure Mobile Driver's Licenses (mDL), which are being rapidly adopted in the United States. 

These trustworthy digital documents are beginning to be used to record and verify educational and employment credentials, from one-off training workshops to certifications to advanced degrees. Systems using LERs to connect job seekers to employers are in the very early stages, but they’re being piloted in collaboration with employers and educators, such as by Alabama’s Credential Registry and the Colorado Workforce Development Council. 

Fighting Credential Fraud

The first problem that LERs can help solve is one perhaps as old as civilization itself. As much as we would love to trust our fellow human beings, the fact is that job searchers, to put it politely, embellish credentials and experience at an alarming rate.  

Depending on which study you read, anywhere from 25% to a shocking 70% of job applicants admit to lying on a resume. Surprisingly, according to a survey by ResumeLab, candidates with more credentials, like a Masters degree or a PhD, are significantly more likely to lie.

Actively rooting out such deceptions is unsustainably time-consuming – one medical firm surveyed for our Colorado project reported using 17 different systems to vet applicants. Advice for recruiters trying to detect fraud reflects the hopelessness of the situation, leaning heavily on nostrums like “trust your gut.”

Quite obviously, that’s not good enough. Hiring the wrong person is very costly, wasteful, and disruptive for any given firm - and it happens all the time, adding headwinds to entire economies.

The Recruiting AI-Pocalypse

The appearance of powerful “large language models” like ChatGPT in the past two years has added even more challenges to the job search and recruiting process. By making it easier to create materials like cover letters and resumes, LLMs have unleashed a flood of applications. According to recruiters and firms, as many as half of all job applicants are using AI for cover letters or other elements of their job materials.

The disjointed or odd output of many LLMs makes these AI applications relatively easy to detect (and reject) when a human reviews them. However, application spam is severely disrupting the work of recruiters seeking top-quality candidates and even increasing the risk of deceptive job applications since LLMs have a tendency to “hallucinate” data, even if an applicant had no intention to deceive.

“We’re definitely seeing higher volume and lower quality, which means it is harder to sift through [applications],” recruiting firm CEO Khyati Sundaram recently told the Financial Times. By making it even harder and slower to fill open roles, AI spam adds another drag on innovation, profits, and growth.

In some jurisdictions, AI can be used to screen and categorize applications (ironically helping to address the problem that it has created). In others, including the entire European Union, automating job application processing is tightly restricted.

However, under either circumstance, recruiters should aim to apply nuanced human judgment as often and carefully as possible. LERs help maximize human choice by making it much easier to confirm that the information an applicant submits is actually accurate.

How do Digital Credentials Work?

LERs and other Verifiable Digital Credentials are digital records with cryptographic “seals” that affirm their authenticity and prevent them from being copied or stolen. VDCs are stored and managed by digital wallet software similar to Apple Pay and can be presented over the internet, either sent as part of an application or integrated into a job marketplace. 

For instance, a chef or server could attach a trustworthy food handler’s license as part of an application to a restaurant without the restaurant having to verify its validity separately. Digital credentials can also contain detailed information, such as an applicant’s performance in a course, making selecting between applicants easier than relying on self-reported claims. This combination of speed, reach, and trustworthiness means recruiters can reliably find the best applications without worrying if they’re misleading. 

But LERs also stand to increase the quality of the talent pool itself over time, by making training more transparent and actionable. “What gets measured, gets managed” is a truism often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker, and it applies to individuals as much as organizations: a certification is more appealing to learners if it leads to a permanent, detailed, shareable record likely to have a real impact on their future.

Like many systems, LER adoption for job credentials has something of a chicken-and-egg problem: both credential issuance and credential acceptance have to be in place for either one to be effective. That’s a major reason states are leading the way: they’re in a position to push forward both sides of the market. 

Building Better Job Markets

The path to fully implementing verifiable digital work and education credentials for job searchers may be a long one—coordinating educators, employers, and systems will be challenging. But LERs are based on existing open and interoperable technical standards, meaning there are already agreed-on “rails” for building them, and first movers won’t risk being left behind by future progress.

The trust created by better credentialing systems will help recruiters fight AI spam, put workers in the right jobs, and maximize the benefit of education. Early movers, such as the most innovative states, universities, and employers, stand to pull ahead of competitors who follow - both in shaping the future of these systems and in reaping their benefits. 

If you’re interested in exploring the possibilities, please reach out: SpruceID is ready to help. 

Contact Us

About SpruceID: SpruceID is building a future where users control their identity and data across all digital interactions.

How Auth0 can support your product at any stage in your journey

Decentralized reusable identity is rapidly shifting from an abstract vision to an urgent business imperative. 

In a recent live event, we hosted identity experts James Monaghan and Jamie Smith, co-founders of MISSION, who shared practical strategies to help organizations adopt this technology.

In our recent discussion with Viky Manaila (Trust Services Director at the Intesi Group) and Vedran Lalic (Digital Identity Consultant at the World Bank), we explored how eIDAS 2.0 is set to transform digital identity across Europe. 

From seamless onboarding to frictionless travel, the impact is huge. But who stands to benefit the most? And what hurdles still need to be overcome?

Let’s dive in.

Strict. Expensive. Complex. Is the German online gaming market even worth entering? IDnow’s VP of Global Gaming joins other industry experts to explore the state of play in what could be the European country with the most untapped potential.

When compared to other European countries, Germany’s online gambling market is in its infancy, still taking its first steps. In fact, it was just July 2021 when the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag  (German Interstate Treaty on Gambling) came into effect, which effectively legalized and regulated it across all 16 states. 

Four years later, the industry is worth about €3 billion per annum. Although certainly a decent amount, when compared to more mature markets like the UK, which generates around €8.3 billion of annual income, it is rather underwhelming, especially considering there are 15 million more people in Germany than the UK. 

Reasons for Germany’s sluggish growth in the online gaming market range from low deposit limits, heavy advertising restrictions, major compliance burdens, and, of course, the struggle to tempt players away from the black market, which still remains incredibly popular in the country. 

Interested in how Germany is attempting to tackle unregulated gambling, read our ‘Exploring black market gambling in Germany’ blog.

In February 2025, to explore the challenges facing operators, and share strategies on how to capitalize on the complex but lucrative market, Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk, VP of Global Gaming at IDnow attended a webinar with Dimitry Voelkle, Managing Director at Zelda Consulting GmbH and Faruk Aydin, Chief Revenue Officer at the Revpanda Group. 

Missed it? Don’t worry – here are our top 3 takeaways:

1. Strict regulations can be both a blessing and a curse.

If you want to become a major player in Europe, it’s essential to have a presence in Germany. However, it’s safe to say that that won’t be easy. In fact, there are many German regulations and requirements that could put operators, especially international operators, off.

I always say that regulation is good if the regulation is good. The fact remains that in 2007, 55% of the German population gambled but that figure dropped to 30% in 2021 following the introduction of regulations. The German regulator must ask itself why this happened.

Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk, VP of Global Gaming at IDnow

There is a long list of requirements that operators must follow to become a licensed gaming operator in Germany. For example, besides ensuring onboarding and registration processes comply with strict BaFin AML directives, operators must also obtain an annual ISO 27001 security audit certificate. Further requirements include needing to be headquartered in Germany and have German language proficiency to fill out license applications in the native language. Other potentially off-putting stipulations include:

Deposit limits: Players are only able to deposit a maximum of €1,000 per month across all licensed platforms. 

Stake limits: Players can bet a maximum of €1 per spin on slots and must wait 5 seconds between spins. 

Game restrictions: German players that have migrated from unlicensed platforms – of which there are still millions – may find their favorite game unavailable as live casino games, progressive jackpots and live bets are all prohibited on regulated platforms. Not being able to offer players their favorite game is, of course, an additional challenge for operators. 

Advertising: Operators are subject to very narrow windows within which to advertise. No ads can be broadcast between 6am-9pm on TV, radio or any other medium. Influencer marketing is also prohibited, as are ads that target minors or other vulnerable groups.

Discover more about German online gambling regulations in our blog, ‘Online gambling in Germany: Regulations, restrictions, and ramifications.’

Gambling regulations 101: Europe and the UK. Discover how gaming operators can keep pace with the ever-growing multi-jurisdictional landscape in Europe and beyond. Read now 2. Money’s too vast to [not] mention.

There is one thing that prospective operators need in abundance before they begin their German gaming journey (besides patience!): money.  

After paying a non-refundable application fee of €185,000 to the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), operators can gain a license, which is typically valid for 5 years, but can be renewed for 7. However, the financial outlay doesn’t stop there. German gaming operators are also required to pay a so-called ‘security deposit,’ which acts as a bank guarantee to protect player funds. Based on the operator’s projected monthly turnover, this can range from the minimum of €5 million to €50 million. 

It doesn’t stop there. Alongside the tripling cost of player acquisition, there are annual supervisory fees, which operators must pay to cover GGL’s regulatory oversight and additional compliance costs like connecting to the ‘limit control database’ to enforce the €1,000 monthly deposit limit, among others. 

Lastly, operators are subject to quite high taxes, with a 5.3% stake tax applied to every single euro wagered. In a bid to offset these costs, many resort to lowering the ‘return-to-player’ percentage (the amount paid back to players). 

However, with a population of over 84 million and vast numbers of the public still using black market platforms, there is clearly opportunity for those that a) have the patience and money to enter and b) can tempt black market players to the regulated environment. But how exactly can operators do that?

3. Always room for something new and novel.

There are still opportunities in the German online gaming market, especially for those that can offer something different to underserved demographics, such as the younger (20-30 years of age), multicultural generation. 

This is because much of the current marketing – and available games – cater to an older audience. So, if operators can offer the games that people want to play (e.g. Book of Ra), and a simplified, compliant user experience then there are valuable opportunities to capture the attention of a new generation of Germans. 

“At IDnow, we see compliance as an enabler not a burden. One of the major reasons we offer player feedback surveys after every verification is to discover what players value, which then informs the tweaks we make to the user experience and subsequent player education. Through player feedback, we learn whether more instructions are required and gather opinions and issues with the design and UX etc,” said Roger. 

As Germany is such a comparatively young market, creating an environment that is attractive to the players, operators and the regulator requires open and transparent dialogue about how to take the market forward.

Click below to watch the full session:

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For a deep dive into the compliance challenges facing global operators, including analysis of some interesting regional differences, read our ‘Exploring the gambling industry’s top compliance challenges in 2024 and beyond’ blog.

Learn more about how our identity verification solutions can help maximize conversions while fighting fraud in the Gaming industry.

By

Jody Houton
Senior Content Manager at IDnow
Connect with Jody on LinkedIn

Investment unlocks the next stage of growth and innovation for digital identity leader in Europe 

MUNICH and LONDON – March 6, 2025 – IDnow (or “the Company”), a leading identity verification platform provider in Europe, today announced a new strategic investment from Corsair Capital (“Corsair”), a specialist investment firm targeting payments, software, and business services investments in the financial services market. With this transaction, Corsair will acquire a majority stake in the Company from existing shareholders, reinforcing its commitment to fueling IDnow’s continued growth and leadership position within the European identity market, and into other regions globally.

Founded in 2014, IDnow builds proprietary, AI-powered identity verification technologies that address the cybersecurity and digital verification needs of global enterprises and leading international brands across financial services, telecommunications, travel & mobility, gaming and other industries.

Corsair first invested to support the growth of IDnow in October 2019 when it acquired a minority stake in the business. Since Corsair’s initial investment, IDnow has strengthened its technical leadership position, grown its portfolio of differentiated identification solutions, and completed two strategic acquisitions which expanded the company into new geographies including establishing a leadership position in France. Through this transaction, Corsair aims to further accelerate IDnow’s growth and the Company’s position as a European leader with a comprehensive suite of solutions, strong positions in multiple geographies, and with additional acquisitions bringing added scale and reach.

“Since our founding a decade ago, IDnow has become a market leader in identity verification in Germany and France. During this time, we have achieved significant success in delivering strong results and growing our customer base, and with today’s announcement we aim to solidify our commitment to positioning the Company for future success,” said IDnow CEO Andreas Bodczek. “Corsair’s increased investment underscores their confidence in our vision and speaks to the synergies we have achieved through our collaborative relationship. With this deeper partnership, we can continue to transform and ensure our platform continues to evolve.” 

“We are thrilled to expand our partnership with IDnow,” said Raja Hadji-Touma and Edward Wertheim, Partners at Corsair. “Since our initial investment, we’ve witnessed IDnow build significant momentum and achieve impressive scale. We are excited by the opportunity to deepen our partnership with IDnow’s talented management team, and we look forward to supporting their next chapter of innovation and growth.”

“Building IDnow has been an incredible journey over the past 10 years together with Armin Berghaus, Dennis von Ferenczy and Sebastian Baerhold, and we believe today’s announcement enables us to strengthen our capabilities and capitalize on the vast market opportunity available to us,” said Felix Haas, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of IDnow. “Corsair’s resources and expertise will help accelerate growth and unlock new opportunities for the Company and I’m confident this partnership will drive progress and expansion in ways that will benefit IDnow, its customers and the industry as a whole.”

About IDnow 

IDnow is a leading identity verification platform provider in Europe with a vision to make the connected world a safer place. The IDnow platform provides a broad portfolio of identity verification solutions, ranging from automated to human-assisted from purely online to point-of-sale, each of them optimized for user conversion rates and security. 

In 2021, IDnow acquired the French market leader for identity technology, ARIADNEXT, and the German identity Trust Management AG, enabling IDnow to offer its customers one of the broadest identification solutions through a single, integrated platform. 

The company has offices in Germany, United Kingdom, and France and is backed by renowned institutional investors, including Corsair Capital and Seventure Partners. Its portfolio of international clients spans a wide range of end markets including financial services, telecommunications, travel & mobility, gaming and other industries. 

About Corsair Capital

Corsair is a specialist investment firm offering opportunities for investors and solutions for companies across its private markets Buyouts and Infrastructure businesses. The firm’s buyouts business is a financial services investor focused on making control investments in three verticals: payments, software, and business services. The infrastructure business operates as a strategic partnership with Investcorp as of December 2023. Investcorp Corsair focuses primarily on value-add opportunities in transportation, logistics, and associated infrastructure subsectors, blending operating platforms and deep sectoral expertise with equity sponsorship. Corsair has invested $13.6 billion in capital across buyouts and infrastructure since inception. For more information, please visit www.corsair-capital.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

 

Predictoor DF131 rewards available. DF132 runs Mar 6— Mar 13th, 2024 1. Overview

Data Farming (DF) is Ocean’s incentives program. In DF, you can earn OCEAN rewards by making predictions via Ocean Predictoor.

Data Farming Round 131 (DF131) has completed.

DF132 is live today, March 6. It concludes on March 13th. For this DF round, Predictoor DF has 3750 OCEAN rewards.

2. DF structure

The reward structure for DF132 is comprised solely of Predictoor DF rewards.

Predictoor DF: Actively predict crypto prices by submitting a price prediction and staking OCEAN to slash competitors and earn.

3. How to Earn Rewards, and Claim Them

Predictoor DF: To earn: submit accurate predictions via Predictoor Bots and stake OCEAN to slash incorrect Predictoors. To claim OCEAN rewards: run the Predictoor $OCEAN payout script, linked from Predictoor DF user guide in Ocean docs.

4. Specific Parameters for DF132

Budget. Predictoor DF: 3750 OCEAN

Networks. Predictoor DF applies to activity on Oasis Sapphire. Here is more information about Ocean deployments to networks.

Predictoor DF rewards are calculated as follows:

DF Buyer agent purchases Predictoor feeds using OCEAN throughout the week to evenly distribute these rewards.

Expect further evolution in DF: adding new streams and budget adjustments among streams.

Updates are always announced at the beginning of a round, if not sooner.

About Ocean, DF and Predictoor

Ocean was founded to level the playing field for AI and data. Ocean tools enable people to privately & securely publish, exchange, and consume data. Follow Ocean on Twitter or TG, and chat in Discord. Ocean is part of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

In Predictoor, people run AI-powered prediction bots or trading bots on crypto price feeds to earn $. Follow Predictoor on Twitter.

DF131 Completes and DF132 Launches was originally published in Ocean Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Fastly's February 2025 DDoS report reveals a 285% month-over-month surge in DDoS attacks. Learn about key trends, targeted industries, and actionable security guidance.

Scalper bots dominate high-demand product launches, leading to instant sellouts and frustrated customers. Learn how retailers can fight back and restore fairness.

The post Radiant Logic Welcomes Sam Erdheim as Head of Marketing appeared first on Radiant Logic.

The China state-sponsored espionage group compromises IT and cloud companies to attack customers.

Verifiable Credential technology has a critical role to play in making AI systems work for companies and consumers — simplify compliance with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act and provide the safety and security that everyone wants.

By Trevor Butterworth

Between hype and fear lies compliance, and the EU Artificial Intelligence Act of 2024 sends a clear signal that businesses will pay heavily for noncompliance with the bloc’s rules for safe and trustworthy AI systems: up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover. Fines for violating the rules are even higher: up to €35 million or 7% of global turnover. 

Similar to the EU’s data protection regulations (GDPR), the legal reach of the AI Act is long: if your AI — or a subcontractor’s AI — ends up processing the data of an EU citizen, you’re liable — and  it doesn’t matter if you or your subcontractor are based outside the EU. 

And while regulation typically lags behind technology, the EU appears to recognize the need for urgency in keeping pace with how AI is being deployed and continually updating its risk-based approach.

How will this shape the pace and scale of AI adoption and innovation for business and public sector use cases? 

A risk-based approach to AI systems

The first thing to note is that the act is broken into four levels of risk, with the highest risks being unacceptable and, therefore, prohibited. For example, Article 5,  prohibits malicious or exploitative uses of AI that violate human rights and exploit people’s vulnerabilities, engage in social or criminal profiling, or scrape people’s biometric data to create facial recognition biometric databases.

The second category of risk is for “for high-risk AI systems,” such as those used in autonomous vehicles, for diagnosing disease, for grading exams, or assessing eligibility for loans —or as a safety component in a system. These AI systems “must meet strict requirements and obligations to gain access to the EU market. These include rigorous testing, transparency and human supervision.”

The third category is for AI systems deemed to be of  “limited risk.” This includes AIs that directly interact with people, such as chatbots and digital assistants, AIs that generate synthetic content or generate deceptive synthetic content for manipulative purposes, such as deepfakes, and AIs used for biometric categorization or emotional recognition. 

These systems are allowed if they are transparent, meaning that people know they are interacting with an AI or AI-generated content.

It’s also important to remember that the EU AI Act sits on top of GDPR, which means that any AI system that processes the data of an EU citizen (of which there are 450 million) is also subject to rules on data minimization, purpose limitation, and consent — legal considerations that need to be considered when it comes to AI solutions that require access to people’s personal data.

This is where decentralized identity’s ability to efficiently manage AI transparency, GDPR, permissioned access, consent, data minimization and purpose limitation enables AI systems to interact with people in a  safe, secure, privacy-preserving way — and in a way that enhances their performance.

Permissioned access

A key element of decentralized identity is that — in the language of GDPR — data subjects are able to hold their data using Verifiable Credentials stored in a digital wallet on a mobile device. This means that data is fully portable. The data is also cryptographically verifiable without having to check in with the source or a third-party. And this means: 

1. A person can share it directly by consent.

2. That consent can be recorded by the relying party for audit.

3. The source of the data is immediately verifiable.

4. The data shared can be trusted and immediately acted on because it has been digitally signed by the original issuer.

This makes the permissioned access vastly simpler to manage in terms of basic usability. Think about an airline chatbot or digital assistant interacting with a passenger who has missed their flight. The passenger can simply swipe or use voice consent for the assistant to access their relevant flight data stored in a credential — as opposed to the passenger having to manually input all these data fields by going outside of the chat UI to find the data. 

Suddenly, chat is much easier to use — and now there is permissioned access, we can develop personalized services through loyalty program credentials. We can combine search with small language models to solve sets of recurring problems or processes. We can integrate payments in a secure way. 

Know your chatbot, assistant, agent 

All these things can be achieved efficiently and effectively not just because we have AI systems but because we have decentralized digital identities for seamless authentication built on verifiable credentials. 

It is only because the AI can verify a “government-grade” digital identity, such as a Digital Passport Credential, that the AI can be certain the data it is accessing really belongs to the person it should belong to. It can verify that the person paying for a service is the authentic account owner. 

And this authentication works both ways. In terms of transparency, people are not just going to want to know that they are interacting with an AI, they are going to want to know that it’s a legitimate, trustable AI agent they are interacting with before they give it permission to access their data.

Get this right and you deliver superlative services and value. You get to build trust networks that create new, dense partnerships between businesses and with customers. You eliminate the kind of inefficiencies that frustrate people in basic digital interactions, and you remove the obstacles to interacting at scale. And with the integration of search, you remove the need for intermediaries as a cost. 

Europe is on the right path with decentralized digital identity — but it needs to up its technical game to meet AI

We’re excited about the EU’s embrace of decentralized digital identity (in the form of the specifications eIDAS 2.0 and EUDI), but we also must point out that successfully navigating agentic AI (something barely mentioned in the EU AI Act because the tech is moving faster than the regulation) will require more sophisticated decentralized identity solutions than those specified.

Specifically, the DIDComm communications protocol is critical to making  human-agentic AI interaction safe, secure, and workable. 

The good news is the protocol specified by eIDAS 2.0, Open ID is interoperable with DIDComm. Indicio has also successfully combined both protocols in a single workflow for seamless international travel.

To learn more about how Indicio Proven can help you to develop a global decentralized identity solution that works with Europe and can be used with AI systems, contact us here.

 ###

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The post Agentic AI and the European Union: Decentralized identity can alleviate concerns while accelerating usability appeared first on Indicio.

MySudo is coming for your desktop! 

We’re excited to announce the release of MySudo Desktop, a new companion product for MySudo app.  

MySudo Desktop is the next evolution of our ever-growing MySudo product family and joins MySudo Mobile and MySudo Browser Extension to complete the trifecta of MySudo products. We also have MySudo VPN (the most private VPN on the market) and the new RECLAIM digital identity footprint management tool, so check out those too if you haven’t already.  

Releasing MySudo Desktop is part of our ongoing commitment to meet our loyal users where they’re at. Most of us regularly switch between mobile, tablet and desktop, so it’s handy to take our Sudos everywhere we go.  

If you love MySudo, you’ll want to get MySudo Desktop because: 

MySudo Desktop levels up your MySudo experience: MySudo Desktop will give you another convenient place to access your Sudos. In this first release of MySudo Desktop, you will be able to send and receive encrypted and standard email within each of your Sudos and easily switch between Sudos, and we will soon add Sudo messaging to the mix. We also have some other great features in the pipeline, including more encrypted communications and an integration of MySudo Desktop with MySudo Browser Extension. 
  MySudo Desktop puts your Sudos at your fingertips when you’re away from your phone. Once MySudo Desktop offers more features of the mobile app (we’re working on it!), you’ll have ready access to your Sudos both on your mobile and at your desktop. As you know, Sudos are secure digital profiles with phone, email, handles, and virtual cards to use instead of your own. You can use your Sudos to: 
  Protect your information. Anywhere you’d normally use your phone number, email or credit card, use your Sudos instead. Sign up for deals and discounts, book rental cars and hotel rooms, pay for concerts or a coffee, all without giving away your personal information. Read: From Yelp to Lyft: 6 Ways to “Do Life” Without Using Your Personal Details.  Secure your chat. Call, text and email securely inside the app with other users via your Sudo handle or communicate standard outside the app with everyone else. Your Sudo phone and email work just like your private ones and they protect you from spam and scams.   Organize your life. Shop through a Sudo, sell through a Sudo, eat through a Sudo, live through a Sudo. Sudos have so many uses (here are six, for starters). Using many different Sudos unlocks the power of compartmentalization, the most powerful data privacy strategy in the world, and is just like wearing many different hats in life, which most of us already do, right? 

MySudo Desktop has the same superior security and safety features as MySudo. MySudo Desktop is brought to you by Anonyome Labs, the same company behind MySudo, MySudo VPN (the most private VPN on the market) and the new RECLAIM digital identity footprint management tool.  
 
Explore all the privacy and security features packed into MySudo app and why, for example, MySudo virtual cards are more private than a bank’s version. You might also like to do a deep dive on our encryption and how we keep your data safe.  

Anonyome Labs believes being private doesn’t mean opting out of online services or hiding from the world. Instead, we empower people to determine what information they share, and how, when and with whom they share it—and MySudo Desktop is another way to do just that. 

MySudo Desktop is now available on both MacOS and Windows. Take it for a test drive and let us know what you think! 
 

Want more? Check our popular blog and podcast today! 

The post MySudo Desktop is Here: 3 Good Reasons to Get it Now!  appeared first on Anonyome Labs.

Understanding the new eIDAS regulation from 09 Apr 2025 till 09 Apr 2025 Trudy Zomer 05 March 2025 - 13:14 Online

For banking professionals across Europe interested in the implications of the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) for the financial sector, INNOPAY and Lissi – a leading developer of secure digital wallet solutions – are co-hosting a webinar. Don’t miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding and prepare for upcoming regulatory changes.

What you will learn Hear a roundup of the impact of eIDAS regulations on financial institutions. Dive into the practical aspects of mandatory adoption, including onboarding and authentication for log-in and payment processes, to enhance your strategic operations. Receive updates on the latest advancements in the Large Scale Pilots (driving the specifications of EU Digital Identity Wallets in a wide range of use cases) that are test driving the specifications of the EUDlW in a range of use cases before wider rollout. See a live demonstration of a payment solution integrated within a digital wallet, showcasing cutting-edge technology in action.
Speakers Adrian Doerk, Co-Founder & Adoption Executive at Lissi Vincent Jansen, Vice President at INNOPAY Mauritz Wilkes, Manager at INNOPAY
Who should attend 

This webinar is designed for professionals who are responsible for onboarding, implementing Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), and managing payment processes and digital channels (mobile/web) within banking institutions across Europe.

Event details Date: 9 April Time: 16:00-17:00 CET Language: English

Register today to secure your spot for this engaging session. It promises to enhance your insight into EUDIW’s impact on your institution and help you stay ahead in the evolving landscape of financial services.

Try Kin - Personal AI

In our last article, we explored why memory is essential for personal AI. It lets conversations continue, while helping to make pattern recognition and emotional intelligence possible for AI assistants.

However, designing an effective memory system is much harder than it might seem. It’s actually one of the biggest challenges facing the artificial intelligence industry right now.

I’m Simon Westh Henriksen, Co-Founder of Kin. As CTO, I’m dedicated to making Kin the most personal, private, and trustworthy AI assistant we can - all while showing why this technology is cutting-edge along the way.

Follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok and X - or join Kin’s Discord

That’s because, at the end of the day, AI chatbots are at their most intuitive when they can be spoken to like a human. But the natural adaptiveness, selectivity, and overall power of the human memory is easy to take for granted - especially when you’re building an AI’s memory from scratch to support it.

AI memory must be intentionally designed to balance a number of things humans naturally handle, like:

recall

forgetting (yes, really)

contextual awareness

ethical considerations

All so it can feel natural to talk to, while still serving as a reliable and private data store.

So, let’s talk about what makes that so difficult - that’ll let us home in on particular problems (and Kin’s solutions) in our next articles.

Your personal AI needs to be (slightly) forgetful

Human memory, as we all know, cannot perfectly recall everything. Instead, memories our brains deem ‘less significant’ often fade away unless they are refreshed - following a pattern mapped out by scientific models like the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve.1

A personal AI needs to do something similar - remembering what matters, while allowing irrelevant or outdated information to fade away.

However, it’s not that simple. Given the AI’s role to support human memory, and its artificial nature as an AI chatbot, things can get complicated.

Some example challenges:

Remembering too much information leads to cluttered storage and outdated facts, which can cause inefficient memory processing.

Forgetting too much risks losing essential context, leading to unnatural and frustrating interactions.

Should AI memory decay naturally over time? Or would it be more helpful remembering every important memory, and just filtering out trivial facts?

How can AI determine the importance of a memory? A user saying “I just had lunch” should not be treated the same as “I just got married” - but either one could be important in conversations.

(Some) facts evolve, and your AI companion needs to know that

As humans, we constantly update our beliefs and opinions based on new experiences. And sometimes, they change for no reason at all.

When this information changes, it’s often easy for us to update our memories without a second thought. We know when new changes must replace old information (“I got a new job”), and when multiple things can be true at once (“I have a dog (but also a cat)”).

However, when building an AI’s memory, we have to decide how it does that.

Personal AI needs to manage this systematically, efficiently, and transparently - all while staying smooth and intuitive for users. That creates the following problems.

Some example challenges:

If a user first says, "my favorite color is red," and later says, "my favorite color is blue," does the AI replace the old fact or track how preferences evolve?

If a user states, "I work at Company A," and later, "I work at Company B," should the AI assume a job change, or does the user have multiple jobs? Should it ask?

Some facts naturally expire and evolve (“I live in Paris” can change with a move). How should AI track and update evolving facts?

If a user mentions “Karen” multiple times, but refers to different people, how does AI differentiate between them without mistakes or constant questioning?

How you understand context needs to be taught to artificial intelligence

Human memory doesn’t just store facts - it also stores context around them. We remember details differently based on emotional importance, sensory input, and relevance, to name a few.

You may recognise a pattern here: this is yet another thing we do subconsciously that an AI’s memory needs to be designed to do across different languages and cultures. These are some of the issues that come with that.

Some example challenges:

How much detail should be stored? Should it capture every word of a conversation, or extract key themes? How are misinterpretations prevented?

How should AI determine relevance? Should it weigh emotionally significant moments more heavily? Or is it more situational than that?

Can AI dynamically adjust memory depth, summarizing older interactions while keeping recent ones detailed? Where is the cut-off point for ‘older’?

How should AI group memories into episodes? For instance, an event like “My wedding” consists of multiple related memories - how does AI cluster them into a coherent narrative?

AI assistants work with many types of data

Memory for personal AI isn’t limited to conversational interactions.

Users may share Journal entries, images, documents, health data, calendar events, and external articles, to name a few.

A truly personal AI must not only learn from anything that is shared with it, but also understand why the user shared it, then make and record the appropriate insights.

Here’s an idea of the unique challenges each data type comes with.

Some example challenges:

Conversational Memory: Correctly interpreting and recording tone, intent, and context.

External Media: Determining the user’s interest, concern, or agreement with shared content, and its relevance to any current conversations.

Journals and Notes: Balancing privacy with deep learning insights.

Health Data: Processing trends and ensuring understanding while ensuring user privacy.

Calendar Data: Aligning memory with real-world commitments and priorities.

Events as entities: Recognizing events like “TechCrunch 2025”, and understanding them as time-sensitive memories.

Time is even more confusing for AI chatbots than it is for you

Human memory naturally organizes events in a time-based sequence - but even we often struggle with ambiguous time frames like ‘soon’ or ‘next year.’

For natural conversation, an AI must interpret these vague and contextual words correctly most of the time - and do so across all the languages it supports. Otherwise, it’ll be much harder to discuss things like time management with it.

Developing the robust temporal models to track these kinds of evolving user interactions comes with many difficulties, including the following.

Some example challenges:

"I’m fixing my bike soon" vs. "I’m having a baby soon" - the meaning of "soon" changes drastically with context.

Should an AI prioritize recent memories over older ones when making decisions?

How should an AI handle evolving plans, such as tracking a trip from early planning to completion?

How should an AI handle memories with varying levels of time specificity (year, year+month, exact date)? Would a ‘time-tree’ structure help?

Your personal AI doesn’t know how memories should be strengthened

Certain memories stick with us more than others due to emotional significance, repetition, and personal importance.

An AI must mimic this selective reinforcement well enough for its memory to allow useful and natural conversations to take place, like preparing for a difficult conversation at work.

Predictably, that means we run into a few important questions as we figure out exactly what methods should be used to do this.

Some example challenges:

Should an AI reinforce memories based on repetition, emotional markers, or explicit user signals? If it should be a mix, what percentage of each should be used?

Should an AI infer importance based on user engagement, such as frequent references to a topic?

How can an AI mimic human-like recall, where some memories are instantly accessible while others require effort to retrieve? Should it even try?

Can an AI store emotions related to memories, and recognize that emotionally-charged experiences often have stronger retention?

AI assistants don’t have human brains (for memory storage) like you

The human brain is a sophisticated memory storage and retrieval system - one an AI can’t take advantage of directly.

Instead, an AI memory requires structured storage techniques to be designed and implemented into it by hand.

Creating the right data model for efficient retrieval is critical to ensuring relevant, accurate interactions - and of course, isn’t straightforward.

Some example challenges:

Should an AI use a fixed data schema (structure), or an adaptive format that evolves over time?

How can an AI efficiently retrieve relevant parts of past interactions, without overwhelming users with unnecessary details?

Vector databases can allow for information like memories to be searched for through understanding a search’s meaning and intent, rather than just its keywords (semantic search). But how should an AI ensure it doesn’t under- or over-interpret the search, and skew the results?

Graph-based memory can help track relationships - but does it make recollection too complex?

Hybrid models combine structured and unstructured data, but balancing them effectively requires careful design. Is it worth the effort?

How can an AI dynamically prioritize the most relevant memories, outside of choosing the most recent or most-frequently discussed/recalled?

Should an AI generate memories based on data inferences (e.g. “User seems to enjoy hiking based on this discussion about it”)? How do we distinguish inferred knowledge from explicit facts?

Personal AI only has the morality and trust we give it

As personal AI becomes more trusted and more effective with its memory, the ethical questions of what it will do with its user’s personal data, and how it will protect the privacy of it, will only grow.

For an AI to reach its full potential as a personal assistant, its users must fully trust that their data is handled responsibly and transparently. Otherwise, the AI will never be told everything it needs to provide an individual and insightful service.

The privacy and security of AI data is already one of the most-discussed issues in the industry, but developing a memory system also brings additional challenges.

Some example challenges:

How can developers ensure an AI’s memory will be secure and respect sensitive user data?

Users should be able to view and edit what the AI remembers easily. How can this be made robust and intuitive?

AI must avoid reinforcing harmful biases through selective memory retention. How can this be reduced, and the AI taught to recognise and repair it if it happens?

Who controls the AI’s memories—the user or the platform? How is that made clear?

If a user says “I don’t like when you ask about my love life,” should an AI remember this as a rule for future interactions? What rules should surround meta-learning like this?

Unlocking the potential of AI-powered memory with Kin

As this series so far has begun to show, memory can transform even a basic ChatGPT-like system into a true personal companion.

However, the challenges in building an effective memory system are substantial, and have only been skimmed over here. But, solving them opens up the possibility for something incredible: AIs which truly understand us, grow with us, and provide meaningful, long-term support.

Our AI team is working on making Kin the realisation of that possibility. Every part of Kin needs to be imbued with functionality and privacy in equal measure for this - and its memory is no small part of that.

In the next articles, as promised, we’ll get a little more technical. They’ll dive into the specific challenges and innovative solutions around some of the concepts we raised here, and explore how the future of personal AI memory is being shaped.

From understanding time intuitively, to branching out from Android and iOS to desktop, to potential integrations with cloud services like Gmail and Google Drive (we only just added Calendar integration), it’s looking like an exciting place.

Stay tuned.

1

Murre, J.M.J.; Dros, J. 2015. “Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve”. PLOS ONE, 10(7). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120644 [accessed 03/05/2025]

İş dünyasında esen dijital dönüşüm rüzgârı sayesinde geleneksel yöntemler, yerini pratik, hızlı ve çevre dostu çözümlere bırakıyor. Eskiden saatler hatta günler süren işlemler, şimdilerde birkaç tıkla tamamlanabiliyor. Peki, serbest meslek erbapları için bu dönüşüm ne anlama geliyor?

Ethereum DAOs are changing the game in the world of blockchain, and they’re definitely worth paying attention to. If you’re into DAO Ethereum, you’re witnessing the next evolution of decentralization. These organizations are built on Ethereum’s blockchain and give power back to the community, making decisions together in a transparent, fair, and automated way. Let’s break it down and see why this is the future.

Learn more: Discover What an Ethereum ETF Is

What Is a DAO Ethereum?

A DAO Ethereum is an organization that’s run by its community and operates without any central authority. Instead of one person or group calling the shots, DAO Ethereum is powered by its members. Decisions are made through proposals, which are voted on by token holders. Everything is recorded on the Ethereum blockchain, which means it’s fully transparent, and everyone can see the process in action.

In simple terms, DAO Ethereum is an organization that runs on code. Smart contracts take care of all the decision-making, making it more automated, secure, and trustworthy than traditional models. If you hold governance tokens, you have a say in how things run. It’s about collective control and participation.

Why DAO Ethereum is Gaining Popularity

DAOs are exciting because they’re shifting the power dynamic. Instead of relying on a small group of people to make decisions, DAO Ethereum puts control in the hands of the community. Whether it’s a DeFi project, an NFT marketplace, or a community fund, DAO Ethereum gives everyone a chance to get involved and contribute to the organization’s growth.

Ethereum DAOs are also game-changers because they offer complete transparency. Every decision made, every vote cast, is available for anyone to review on the blockchain. It’s decentralized, autonomous, and open for anyone to join. This kind of accountability and transparency simply doesn’t exist in traditional organizations.

Learn more: Top 5 New Ethereum DApps You Need to Try

The Rise of Ethereum DAOs

Ethereum DAOs have come a long way since the infamous The DAO hack in 2016. Back then, The DAO was a groundbreaking project designed to create a decentralized venture fund, but it was hacked and lost millions of dollars. It was a tough lesson for the Ethereum community, but it led to major improvements in Ethereum’s security.

Since then, Ethereum DAOs have evolved significantly. DAO Ethereum projects today are more secure, better structured, and have a much stronger community. As Ethereum’s ecosystem continues to grow, DAO Ethereum is becoming an essential part of how we govern decentralized projects, especially in DeFi and NFTs.

4 Key Features of DAO Ethereum

Here’s the thing—DAO Ethereum isn’t just a cool idea, it’s a functional way to run organizations. Here’s what makes it stand out:

Decentralization: No single person or group controls the decisions. It’s all about the community and the collective power of its members. Transparency: Every decision, vote, and action is recorded on the blockchain. You can literally see everything happen in real-time. Autonomy: Smart contracts handle the operations. No need for middlemen, no delays, everything happens automatically. Inclusivity: Anyone with tokens can participate. It’s an open system where your voice matters, whether you’re a whale or a small holder. Ethereum DAOs and Their Role in DeFi and NFTs

Ethereum DAOs have become integral to the world of DeFi. Projects like MakerDAO, Uniswap, and Compound rely on DAO Ethereum governance to make important decisions about protocol changes, fees, and more. Without DAO Ethereum, there’s no community-driven development in DeFi.

But it’s not just DeFi that’s benefiting from Ethereum DAOs. The NFT world is also getting a taste of decentralized governance. Projects like ConstitutionDAO showed that DAOs could be used to pool resources and make collective decisions about assets. Whether it’s creating NFTs or managing a collection, DAO Ethereum provides a framework for governance and decision-making.

The Challenges Ethereum DAOs Face

Of course, DAO Ethereum isn’t without its challenges. Here are some hurdles they need to overcome:

Security: Smart contracts can be exploited, and while Ethereum DAOs are improving, they’re still vulnerable to hacks. Centralization: In some DAOs, a few people hold a lot of the governance tokens, which can create a power imbalance. Legal Uncertainty: DAOs exist in a legal grey area. There’s no clear legal framework for DAOs yet, which could be problematic for participants. Slow Decision-Making: Because decisions require voting, it can take time for DAOs to react to fast-moving changes. This delay could be an issue during market crashes or urgent situations. The Future of Ethereum DAOs: Scaling and Overcoming Limitations

The future of DAO Ethereum is all about scaling. As Ethereum 2.0 rolls out, DAO Ethereum will become more efficient and secure, handling larger volumes of transactions and governance proposals. Ethereum is evolving to support DAOs on a much larger scale, and with Layer 2 solutions like Optimistic Rollups, the experience will be smoother than ever.

DAOs will continue to grow, and as they scale, the governance models will become more sophisticated. DAO Ethereum could soon be the go-to governance model for all kinds of decentralized organizations, from financial protocols to digital art projects. It’s an exciting time to be part of the DAO Ethereum movement.

How to Get Involved in Ethereum DAOs

Getting involved in a DAO Ethereum is easier than you think. Here’s how you can join the fun:

Buy Governance Tokens: Most DAOs require you to hold their governance tokens to participate. Buy some tokens on an exchange or from the DAO itself. Join the Community: Participate in the DAO’s discussions. This is where you can vote on proposals, suggest changes, and make your voice heard. Engage with Proposals: Proposals are the heart of DAO governance. If you have an idea for improving the DAO, submit a proposal for the community to vote on. Conclusion

Ethereum DAOs are leading the way in decentralized governance. They’re transparent, community-driven, and operate with smart contracts, making them more efficient than traditional systems. While there are challenges to overcome, DAO Ethereum has already proven that decentralization can work. As Ethereum grows and evolves, DAO Ethereum will be at the heart of the decentralized future.

Learn more:

How to connect Ethereum with Other Blockchains

Ethereum Address Lookup: Quickly Find and Track ETH Transactions

How to unstake ETH on coinbase

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post The Rise of Ethereum DAOs: Exploring the Future of Decentralization appeared first on Herond Blog.

Weekly Updates: Week 31

📢 Marketing Updates

🔹 Know Your Crypto: Solana Deep Dive

We’re spotlighting Solana this month! Get insights into:

✅ What makes Solana unique compared to other blockchains

✅ The best dApps and games currently thriving on Solana

✅ How Safle simplifies your Solana experience

🔹 Gaming & Web3: Tackling Bots and Spam

Our focus is on gamers, game aggregators, and developers. One of the biggest challenges in the space is handling bots and spam. Safle is stepping up with auto-detection mechanisms, ensuring a fair and seamless gaming experience for all.

🚀 Product Updates

🔹 Embedded Wallets Development Underway

We’ve completed the functional and technical planning for embedded wallets, marking a significant step towards seamless integration. Development is now in full swing, and we’re excited to bring this feature to life soon! Stay tuned for further updates.

🎮 Safle ID for Web3 Games

We’re re-envisioning Safle ID with a focus on Web3 Games. Know any game that should integrate SafleID? Let us know!

Discover more: SafleID for Web3 Gaming

Thank you for your continued support in shaping the future of Web3 with Safle.

Team Safle

🚀 More updates coming soon!

Every lawyer knows the drill: a new client comes in, and compliance kicks off. You need their ID, proof of address, maybe a video call, and before you know it, the process becomes a series of emails, follow-ups, and frustration.

Your client starts questioning the experience, and honestly—so does your team. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Let’s rethink compliance as an opportunity to build trust, not add friction.

Smooth, Secure, and Stress-Free

The key to compliance isn’t more steps—it’s the right system to handle everything efficiently. Here’s how:

Real-Time Risk Assessments: Sanctions and PEP screenings happen in seconds, not hours. Simple Document Collection: Clients upload IDs securely, and iComply validates them instantly—no more chasing files. Seamless Video Verification: Whether you prefer live peer-to-peer calls or automated verification, your client’s time is respected.

The result? A white-glove onboarding process that protects your firm and makes clients feel secure.

No More Patchwork Systems

Many firms juggle multiple tools for KYC, AML, and document management—leading to wasted time and missed details. iComply brings everything into one platform:

A custom-branded portal for clients. Automatic alerts when you need follow-ups. One-click compliance reports for audits.

Less juggling. More peace of mind.

Why This Matters

With regulators like FinCEN increasing scrutiny, law firms face mounting pressure to stay compliant. But those who streamline now get a competitive edge—faster client engagements, fewer errors, and more time for billable work.

The Bottom Line

When compliance works with you, not against you, it strengthens client relationships from day one. With iComply, your firm can provide a seamless, secure experience—and show clients you’re as efficient as you are trustworthy.

Let’s make compliance the easiest part of your client journey. Ready to see how? Reach out today.

The post Breaking Down Silos: Enabling Operational, Cybersecurity, and Regulatory TPRM Success appeared first on Liminal.co.

Team process: A big thing that’s currently missing for Holochain is an accessible and accurate road-map displaying our progress in an easy way to understand.  In moving toward this, one of the team’s practices since the beginning of 2025 has been discipline in estimating issues from our back-log as we work through them.  This is allowing us to track our burn-down rate which enables us to start making predictions about when features will be completed.  If you’ve been following these Dev Pulses, you will have seen me pointing to Github repos where you can see this work, but I know it’s quite hard to make sense of that information, especially in terms of making projections of when a given release will land.

So, our goal is to end up with a roadmap that shows the following:

What features and functionality will be in upcoming Holochain releases and related tools When these releases are to be expected How many github issues are involved, and what’s the total story-point estimates for them A projection based on the last 2 months story-point burn-down for weeks till completion

To start with, this road-map will be updated manually on a weekly basis based on the data from our github project, and later we’ll get it automated.  The tooling for getting the work done up on the website is in progress, but just as a demonstration of that, I can report that our current burn-down average is 19.3 story-points per week, and, as of the end of February there are 101 remaining story-points toward the Holochain 0.5 release, which puts that release at about 5 weeks out.  

Here’s a preview of how this may look on the website: 

The point of working this way isn’t to promise a delivery date, it’s to make as transparent to the world what we know about ourselves.   We can’t promise that other un-estimated work will get added between now and release,  and we might also decide that we can move some of the estimated work into our 0.6 release plan.  But we will be able to make visible where we are in the current plan. 

Holochain Core & Networking: Kitsune 2 integration into Holochain core is going full steam and is about 40% done (15 estimation points out of 41).  I’m particularly excited that included in this work are some initial scenarios to run Kitsune 2 on our Wind Tunnel testing framework.

Runtimes: Launcher is in the process of being updated to Holochain 0.4.1. We are testing release candidates with and some of our sample apps KanDo and TalkingStickies plus Mewsfeed have been published to its app library for folks to play with. Our work on the next version of the Android runtime that will be used on the Volla phone for both the messaging and backup app is moving along smoothly.

Dev Tooling: scaffolding We keep steadily working on the scaffolding tool, both doing bug fixes and updates on the 0.4 & 0.5 lines.  This includes fixes to the Lit & Vue templates, upgrading Vue to the default Composition API, improvements to custom handlebars templates, dependency updates, etc.  Our intent here is to make sure that when 0.5 is released, the scaffolding will be fully ready at the same time.

Dev Docs: These last two weeks have provided a bumper crop of developer build guides:

hApps DNA Properties Connecting the Parts Connecting a Front End Calling Zome Functions Signals Validation Capabilities Querying Source Chains

Additional Components: We have started work on a simple tool that will be used by Holo and can be used in other contexts too, which provides connection for HTTP requests through a very simple web-gateway to a running Holochain application.  You can track the progress of this work here: https://github.com/holochain/hc-http-gw.

Hong Kong’s main regulator for cryptoasset activity has set out an ambitious roadmap for oversight of the industry - part of Hong Kong’s efforts to establish itself as a hub for financial services innovation. 

Türkiye’de e-dönüşüm pazarının lider kuruluşu TÜRKKEP, 2024 yılı Bölgesel Bayi Toplantılarını başarıyla tamamladı. İstanbul, Antalya, Ankara ve Gaziantep’te gerçekleştirilen toplantılara, Türkiye genelinde hizmet veren 120’ye yakın başvuru merkezi katıldı. Toplantılarda bayilerle bir araya gelen TÜRKKEP Genel Müdürü Olcay Yıldız, TÜRKKEP gelirlerinin son 5 yılda 8 kat büyüdüğünü açıkladı.

AI agents are making decisions without you? Explore the challenges of AI autonomy and discover why human oversight is crucial for responsible AI. Learn how asynchronous authorization and CIBA can help you keep humans in the loop for critical AI actions.

Financial institutions face mounting risks from cyber threats, system failures, and third-party vulnerabilities. To help address these challenges, in 2023 the European Union introduced the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), a landmark regulation designed to strengthen the financial sector’s ability to withstand ICT (Information and Communication Technology) related disruptions. As the compliance deadline of January 2025 has now passed, businesses must prioritise operational resilience, and at the heart of this mandate lies the crucial need for trustworthy and reliable organisational identity.

What is DORA?

DORA was enacted on 16 January 2023 and became fully applicable on 17 January 2025. It establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital operational resilience in the EU financial sector, standardising how institutions manage ICT risks, respond to incidents, and oversee third-party service providers.

The regulation applies to banks, insurers, investment firms, and a broad range of financial entities, requiring them to:

Implement rigorous ICT risk management measures. Report major ICT-related incidents in a timely manner. Conduct digital operational resilience testing to identify vulnerabilities. Manage risks posed by third-party ICT service providers. Foster information sharing on cyber threats and best practices.

DORA seeks to ensure that financial institutions and their third-party providers maintain strong security postures to mitigate operational risks. This is particularly critical as institutions increasingly rely on third-party service providers, including cloud computing and cybersecurity service providers, for their day-to-day operations. The regulation acknowledges the growing interconnectedness of the modern financial ecosystem.

Understanding ICT in the Context of DORA

ICT, or Information and Communication Technology, refers to the broad range of technologies and services used to store, process, and transmit data. In the context of DORA, ICT encompasses everything from cloud computing services and data centres to cybersecurity solutions and network infrastructure. Given the increasing reliance on third-party ICT providers, ensuring their resilience and accountability is crucial for the financial sector’s stability.

The Role of Organisational Identity

One of DORA’s key provisions is the requirement for financial institutions to maintain an up-to-date register of all third-party ICT providers that support critical functions. To ensure transparency and regulatory compliance, these providers must be uniquely identifiable via an organisational identity.

LEI vs. EUID: Identifying Third-Party Providers

DORA specifies two possible organisational identifiers for third-party ICT service providers: the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) and the European Unique Identifier (EUID).

LEI (Legal Entity Identifier): A globally recognised, 20-character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies legal entities involved in financial transactions. The LEI enhances transparency by providing a standardised, internationally accepted means of identification. EUID (European Unique Identifier): A European-based identifier primarily used within the EU’s business registry system. While useful within Europe, it lacks the global scope and interoperability of the LEI.

Using identifiers like the LEI or EUID can significantly improve the ability of regulators and financial institutions to track third-party ICT providers, mitigating risks associated with outsourcing and reliance on external vendors. The unique identification of ICT providers ensures accountability and supports better decision-making in operational risk management.

Why the LEI is the Stronger Choice

While both identifiers serve the purpose of organisation recognition, the LEI is the only global organisational identifier. Its adoption under DORA could facilitate broader compliance efforts, streamline reporting, and reduce operational risks across international supply chains. By requiring ICT service providers to register and maintain an LEI, financial institutions can ensure better data consistency, regulatory alignment with the 300+ regulations that require LEIs, and protect more effectively against identity fraud.

The benefits of the LEI extend beyond regulatory compliance. Because it is a universally recognised identifier, providing a live record public record of “who is who?” and “who owns whom?” it adds significant efficiency and anti-fraud value to cross-border transactions by enhancing the transparency in the global financial system. For financial institutions operating with complex group structures and across different jurisdictions, the LEI provides a reliable and globally standardised means of identifying business partners and third-party providers, with a goal of reducing the complexity of compliance across different regulatory regimes.

In contrast, while the EUID serves a valuable role within the EU, it is clearly designed for European residents and organisations. For example, only EU-based organisations can issue compatible digital wallets and digital credentials. This limitation makes it a partial solution at best for financial institutions engaged in global operations, where third-party providers may be based in different countries. In addition, the technical and legal specifications for organisational identities under EUID are still under heavy development and subject to change – as is the cost. Therefore, LEI arguably performs as the more versatile, readily adoptable and future-proof option for meeting DORA’s requirements.

Statistics – the impact of DORA

Although it is still early days since DORA was enacted, the Global LEI System (GLEIS) is already seeing positive impact. Since DORA went live, the LEI universe has seen substantial growth across Europe, Asia, and the Americas in key regions supporting the EU finance industry with ICT services. Comparing new LEI issuance in January 2024 to January 2025, year-on-year growth rates stand at 30% in Europe, 45% in the Americas, and 75% in Asia. While not all of this growth can be attributed solely to DORA, given the influence of over 300 other regulations requiring LEI, the immediate effect should not be overlooked.

Next steps for Financial Institutions

With the DORA compliance deadline already passed, financial institutions must act swiftly to ensure they meet the regulatory requirements. Organisations should begin by assessing their current third-party risk management frameworks and ensuring that all third-party ICT providers are properly identified using an LEI or EUID.

If your institution is preparing to comply with DORA, Ubisecure RapidLEI can support you in understanding the LEI requirements of DORA and provide the solution to efficiently manage LEIs for both your group and your clients.

As a GLEIF-accredited LEI Issuer and the world’s largest provider of Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), RapidLEI plays a pivotal role in ensuring LEIs are accessible across all jurisdictions and industries. Our automation and technology-driven approach enables rapid issuance and streamlined management, positioning us as a trusted partner for some of the world’s leading financial institutions as they navigate regulatory requirements impacted by the LEI.

Financial institutions seeking to enhance their LEI capabilities can leverage our GLEIF-approved Validation Agent (VA) programme to streamline LEI registrations, automate processes, and efficiently manage LEIs at scale.

Contact Ubisecure RapidLEI today to discuss how we can support your institution.

 

Further reading: European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and European Banking Authority (EBA) report on technical standards for ICT services.

The post DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) and the role for Organisational Identity appeared first on Ubisecure Digital Identity Management.

Such leaked data could be leveraged by threat actors to facilitate identity theft attacks.

Data-driven Product Launch — Onfido Studio

Over the past 3 years at Onfido I’ve been involved in multiple product launches, watching their development from an idea to an MVP, to a product serving hundreds of customers and millions of users.

Throughout the journey, very limited resources were available online, so I decided to share my own experience here.

Product Discovery

At Onfido, we use AI to automate digital identity verification for thousands of businesses worldwide. Our proprietary AI has been built over ten years by a dedicated team of hundreds of researchers, engineers and data scientists to make our analysis fair, fast and accurate. In our standard product, the verification is done using a photo of a government-issued document and matching it with facial biometrics.

We wanted to develop a new, customisable product that would fit more of our customers’ use cases and enable our customers to create their user journeys. What we wanted to achieve was a no-code product, where a customer could combine different verifications — biometric, data, fraud signals — with custom logic. This would allow our customers to trigger the right experience for every end user and respond to changing market conditions while also navigating KYC and AML compliance.

For instance, for one client receiving the same end user’s document multiple times can be a sign of fraud, while for others it can be part of their legitimate use case — reverification. A typical example of reverification is when an already onboarded user verifies themselves to make a bank transfer or recovering their account after having lost a passport. Some customers accept expired documents from specific regions. This rule can be customised using a logical condition to accommodate their requirements.

A customer can create their own verification workflow from scratch combining verification methods, configuring necessary capture steps, adding conditions and defining outcomes. A basic example of an onboarding workflow can be the following:

Onboarding workflow in Studio workflow builder

First, the user is asked to submit their personal information, including their first name, last name, and date of birth. In the next step, they upload a photo of their document, which is used for document verification. After that, they take a selfie for biometric verification. If both the document and selfie pass verification with no signs of fraud, the applicant is approved. If any issues are detected, the application is flagged for further review.

At this stage there is no data available specifically related to this product yet, however a data scientist can validate that there’s potential value by aiding market research. Could this product fill any potential gaps in the market? Could it solve some customer pain points? Does it have potential to bring value?

We can run different simulations on existing customer data and see how adopting Studio impact the main metrics. We can estimate how many more users can succeed the verification if we allow expired documents from certain geographies. We can calculate the average time we save for the end user if we introduce a parallel verification execution.

Data Strategy Measuring Success

Defining metrics before a product launch is crucial for ensuring the success and scalability of the product. Metrics serve as a guiding framework to measure performance, track goals, and make informed decisions from day one.

While many frameworks are available, we found that none offered an out-of-the-box solution for a highly customisable B2B product. As a result, we adapted some metrics from our standard product and developed new ones to track adoption and other product-specific aspects.

High level:

Usage e.g. The number of daily users Outcomes e.g. The number of successful verifications, the number of fraudsters caught

Adoption:

The number of clients using the product The number of workflows per client

Product stability:

Drop off e.g. the number of users not completing the workflow Flow duration e.g. the median time it takes to complete the workflow Error rate e.g. the percentage of workflows that have errors Efficient Data Model

To track these metrics, the data has to be structured in a way that facilitates efficient storage, retrieval, and analysis. We started from an event based raw data which was a product requirement. The goal was to create a pivotable, aggregated and insightful data model from these events, that is simpler and faster for querying.

For the first iteration, we’ve identified the necessary event payloads based on the key metrics and product sketches. We began with the minimum viable requirements while ensuring the design remains scalable as the product evolves. We’ve established the key entities and their relationships:

User (user_id, client_id) Workflow (workflow_id, client_id, node_id) Event (event_id, user_id, event_type, workflow_id, node_id, timestamp)

An Event is associated with a User and a Workflow.

Brainstorming data requirements

We could’ve stored everything in one event table and for some use cases that would be enough. For instance, to calculate the number of document captures or to calculate how often the customers are using logical conditions.

However, often the questions we’re interested in are more complicated than that. How many users with a French ID have fraudulent selfies? To calculate this, we need to have the result of document classification from the document report node, and we need to combine that with facial similarity report result. To recap the computational steps needed:

Group events by users For each user, identify their document type For each user, identify facial similarity report result Aggregate users who have a French ID and fraudulent facial similarity report result

When working with event data, our primary goal is to analyse user journeys, which consist of sequences of events. To do this effectively, we need to aggregate events within these journeys to create structured representations, on a different level such as workflow level or user level, which serve as higher-order units of analysis.

We defined tables based on the identified levels of granularity:

Raw events table — the source table with raw events emitted by the Studio service.

| Event ID | User ID | Event Type | Workflow ID | Node ID |Timestamp |

We created an aggregated workflow table:

| Workflow ID | Client ID | User ID | Result | Duration | Workflow Start Time | Workflow End Time | Document Type | Document Report Result | Bio Report Result |

The workflow table aggregates the event-level data down to an individual workflow level, where an example workflow starts with a user submitting their personal information and ends with either approval or review. The aggregated table contains information on the overall result as well as different verification results. It contains information on when the workflow started, when it was completed, what duration it had.

This modelled data is easy to work with, we can easily answer the question above with the following query:

SELECT COUNT(workflow_id)
FROM workflow_table
WHERE document_type = 'FRA_ID'
AND result = 'Abandoned'

This table is also of lower volume (contains fewer rows) than the raw event one, so it’s faster to query. While the raw events are typically immutable, the modelled data can change depending on business logic, resulting in adding more columns or modifying the existing ones.

Observability

Creating the first dashboard before a product launch was crucial for several reasons:

Building a dashboard sometimes reveals overlooked details — such as missing event properties or gaps in the data model that make certain metrics difficult to track (a special mention to our favourite challenge: symmetric aggregates with percentiles). Having a dashboard allows tracking key metrics from day one. It ensures that there’s a baseline we can measure our performance against. Without dashboards, detecting and diagnosing issues can take longer. With proper monitoring in place, we can quickly spot bugs, performance bottlenecks and other unexpected behaviour during the testing phase. Dashboards give stakeholders — product managers, engineers, leaders — immediate visibility into product performance. Finally, dashboards offer real-time insights into user behaviour, engagement, and adoption. This allows for data-driven adjustments to the product, marketing strategies, and onboarding processes based on actual usage patterns.

We kicked off with a team exercise to translate product requirements and key metrics into a dashboard sketch. We began by listing the questions we wanted to answer and identifying the necessary metrics, grouping them into categories such as high-level outcomes, product performance, and user behaviour.

Next, we sketched out the top-priority metrics, selecting the most suitable chart types for each. We also considered filters and interactivity — ensuring we can later refine data by date, region, SDK type, and other relevant factors. This sketching process helped us quickly align on expectations and avoid unnecessary revisions later.

Brainstorming the first dashboard

It also helped us discover missing event payloads and necessary changes to the data model.

First Beta Clients

As we finished the internal testing phase, we started offering Studio in beta to the first customers. Two good data science practices at this stage are:

Choosing the Minimum Viable Audience wisely — these first clients were the ones who can benefit from Studio the most, the ones that needed the flexibility of creating custom workflows Gradual Rollout allows to fix unexpected issues before they affect a lot of users. Another benefit is that simulations often don’t reflect real performance of the system, gradual rollout helps test the system under actual conditions, ensuring performance stability.

The main challenge, however, wasn’t related to data science — it was ensuring we had enough table stake features to get customers adopting it. Moreover, we discovered that due to different sources for customer data we couldn’t properly track who’s interested in adopting studio and anticipate the increasing volumes.

Having dashboards provided great quantitative insights into different workflows our customers created for their use cases, however having their direct feedback was crucial. It highlighted gaps in our monitoring that we hadn’t initially considered. For example, we weren’t tracking how often customers modified their workflows, which often had an impact on SDK versions and overall outcomes.

We initially provided customers with a basic dashboard, but we quickly realised it likely won’t be sufficient for them to dive deeper into the reasons behind metrics.

Internal testing account dashboard

For example, customers wanted the ability to investigate whether users abandoning verification was linked to specific devices, SDK versions, or regions to improve their performance.

A highly customisable product requires providing customers with detailed insights as they navigate translating their use cases to workflows. They need the ability to optimise and fine-tune their workflows. This was the challenge we set out to solve for general availability release.

Data-driven product launch — Onfido Studio was originally published in Onfido Product and Tech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What if fraud prevention was, you know, a shared effort? That’s where the Shared Signals Framework (SSF) comes in! The idea behind shared signals is simple: instead of each company detecting threats on its own, organizations (or systems within an organization) can share security events—like compromised credentials or suspicious logins—in real-time. The SSF, developed by the OpenID Foundation, is designed to make this happen, enabling faster fraud response, better risk assessment, and improved user security across platforms.

The promise of shared signals is real-time fraud detection and better security. But here’s the catch—every signal costs money. And in a world where cloud services charge per API call, this ‘stronger security’ might come with a hefty price tag. So, who actually pays for all this? And is it worth it?

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be diving deeper into the consumer identity and access management (CIAM) space, exploring which standards are—or should be—most influential. It may seem like a bit of a jump from where I started the year, but it makes sense in my head. I started by focusing on Non-Human Identity (NHI); that was a continuation from last year. But that led me to AgenticAI and whether we can differentiate online between AI’s and humans. It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump from there right into AI-enabled fraud, which is solidly in the sphere of CIAM. But thinking about fraud, authentication, and so on, is what leads to to today’s focus: how to effectively signal when something has gone horribly wrong.

And that’s where the SSF comes in.

What Is the Shared Signals Framework (SSF)?

The SSF is an emerging standard from the OpenID Foundation designed to facilitate real-time sharing of security events between organizations. Instead of each service defending against threats in isolation, SSF enables collaborative security—a switchboard where different organizations share security events to build a stronger defense against fraud and cyber threats.

The Continuous Access Evaluation Profile (CAEP), part of SSF, takes this a step further. It allows organizations to continuously assess access permissions in real-time, responding to changes like credential compromise or session revocation without waiting for a traditional token expiration.

Shared Signals is one of the more interesting standards to watch in Consumer IAM—but where is it actually gaining traction? If you’re keeping an eye on vendor adoption or wondering how the standards process could shape its future, I can help you make sense of what’s happening. See how I work or Let’s talk.

If you’d like to learn more about SSF and CAEP, the Identity Defined Security Alliance has a great video for you.

The Cost-Security Dilemma in CIAM

While SSF promises improved security, there’s a major challenge: cost. In a cloud-based CIAM model, every API call costs money. Implementing SSF and CAEP means a significant increase in API calls, leading to higher cloud service expenses. Organizations must balance these costs against the need for robust security, which is no small feat.

FactorStronger Security (Shared Signals)Lower Cost (Traditional CIAM)Threat DetectionImmediate, real-time responsesDelayed, batch-based reviewsFraud PreventionHigh (shared risk signals)Lower (limited to local detection)API CostsHigh (constant event updates)Lower (fewer real-time calls)Privacy ConcernsMore data sharingLess cross-platform exposureAdoption BarrierExpensive for smaller orgsMore affordable, but riskier Why This Matters for CIAM

SSF and CAEP offer real benefits for consumer IAM, but they also raise some tough questions:

Stronger Security: Real-time event sharing means faster responses to security threats. If a user’s credentials are compromised on one platform, other connected services can take action immediately. Better User Experience: CAEP reduces the need for frequent re-authentication while maintaining security. Alignment with Zero Trust: These protocols ensure that access decisions are always based on the latest security signals.

However, there are also real concerns:

Skyrocketing API Costs: The more signals you share, the more you pay. Data Privacy & Compliance: Sharing security events involves sensitive user data, requiring strict privacy controls. Trust Issues: Why should one organization trust another’s signals? What if bad actors inject false signals into the system? Potential Solutions for CIAM

So how do we keep the security benefits without the runaway costs? A few approaches might help:

Prioritize filtering high-risk events to reduce unnecessary API costs. Implement machine learning-driven fraud detection to reduce unnecessary security event generation, ensuring Shared Signals are only triggered for high-risk activities. Move away from centralized cloud services in order to distribute the load and reduce costs. Explore cost-sharing with industry consortiums to lower API expenses.. Can CIAM Trust Shared Signals?

One of the biggest concerns with real-time event sharing is trust. Imagine an attacker compromises a user’s account on Platform A. If Platform A sends an immediate “compromised account” signal to Platform B, Platform B could block access before damage is done. Yay! But what if attackers send fake signals to lock out legitimate users? Or flood the system with false alerts to create chaos? This is why trust—and verification—are critical in Shared Signals adoption.

To prevent abuse, SSF includes security measures like:

Authentication & Authorization: Using OAuth to ensure only trusted entities can send or receive events. Event Verification: Security Event Tokens (SETs) are digitally signed JWTs, allowing receivers to verify authenticity. Stream Management: Organizations control which signals they subscribe to, reducing exposure to irrelevant or malicious events. Mutual Agreements: Organizations define rules and expectations for shared events, limiting abuse potential. The Future of SSF and CAEP

Right now, SSF is still in an implementer’s draft stage, meaning there’s room for improvement before it becomes a full standard. The OpenID Foundation’s working group continues to refine the framework, considering real-world challenges like API costs and error handling.

For CIAM providers, the key takeaway is this: SSF and CAEP are powerful tools, but they come with trade-offs. Finding the right balance between security, cost, and trust will determine whether these standards become game-changers or just another expensive security upgrade.

What do you think—should companies embrace real-time shared signals, or do the risks outweigh the benefits?

Want more posts like this? Subscribe and get new insights delivered straight to your inbox.

The post Shared Signals: Who Pays the Price for Stronger Identity? appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.

Our digital identities have become as crucial as our physical ones, and inequality exists within the digital identity space as much as it does in any part of human life. Learn more about challenges faced within the IDV space.

The post Gender Inequality in the Digital Identity Space first appeared on ComplyCube.

In today's digital-first workplace, organizations are increasingly focused on the concept of digital employee experience (DEX or EX). Just as companies invest in seamless digital experiences for customers, they must ensure employees have frictionless access to the tools, systems, and resources they need to do their best work. But what exactly is digital employee experience, and why should it be at the forefront of every company’s strategy?

GM HEARTLAND

—El Prof, Muhammed & Chad

MONEY MONEY MONEY

TOKEN

PRICE CHANGE

PRICE

Solana ($SOL)

+1.00%

$144.19

Helium ($HNT)

-9.16%

$3.00

Pyth ($PYTH)

-16.07%

$0.17

Save ($SLND)

+0.88%

$0.29

(Price changes reflect past 7 days as of 3.4.25)

That tidy 1% weekly gain for $SOL does not accurately represent its rollercoaster ride this past week.

The token soared nearly 25% in a single day after Trump announced a federal crypto reserve, but crashed back down to earth as the trade war ramped up and the broader market sold off.

Analysts say it is consolidating around $140 with a $130 support level. Determining if it will break out or break down in the near term depends on whether you believe Trump is a good businessman, or just played one on TV.

Mr. Meme Goes To Washington

In the short history of this publication, we’ve probably leaned a little too heavily on the phrase, “Memecoins have gone mainstream.” After all, memes are, damn near by definition, mainstream. But they’ve taken another meaningful step toward the seat of cultural and political power, moving beyond the acronymic in-joke of the extrajudicially-created DOGE to become the topic of a bonafide US policy proposal.

The proposed MEME Act was recently introduced by US Representative Sam Liccardo (D-CA), a Silicon-Valley-elected candidate looking to restrict politicians from launching or promoting memecoins. This comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s launch of his own memecoin ahead of his inauguration, $TRUMP, which reportedly raked in some $100M in trading fees — much of which was no doubt contributed by foreign actors looking to curry favor.

While I love the sentiment of preventing politicians from leveraging their positions of power to accept not-so-anonymous bribes and manipulate public financial markets for their own gain, the alleged poster child for some of those nefarious activities hilariously lives down the street from the freshman congressman. I’m talking of course about the legendary trader, Nancy Pelosi, whose investments are the subject of many Twitter accounts and automated trading strategies, given her suspiciously consistent track record as one of the world’s top investors. I only pick on her, because she and Liccardo play for the same team, and this legislation simply targets emerging technologies, not the root corruption at play.

But the sector moves so fast that this topic, chosen at our weekly planning meeting on Thursday, is no longer the biggest news story of the week. On Sunday, Trump announced a “Crypto Strategic Reserve” including not just Bitcoin and Ethereum, but also XRP, Cardano, and, yes, Solana.

(No $mother yet, but at this rate, just give it a few days.)

But back to Solana, our namesake. The main critique I’ve seen of its inclusion in this strategic asset reserve is that it’s not… American enough? The argument came from Byron Gilliam in a Blockworks Daily op-ed, who pointed out that the Solana Foundation is based in Switzerland, blithely ignoring the “decentralized” in “DeFi”. He then proceeded to, in this writer’s humble opinion, further undermine his credibility by positing Ripple as a more legitimate inclusion, given its Delaware Corporation status, and despite being a centralized banking Ponzi.

Here’s what Gilliam — and seemingly so many others I speak to on a regular basis — continue to misunderstand. Cryptographic technology promises a future where everything to the smallest fragment of data coming off an application system’s streaming exhaust is logged on-chain for some AI agent to analyze and use to make predictions. That’s a lot transactions. The token with the ability to transact on this network most efficiently will become the most valuable, regardless of its market cap.

(Non-technical folks may have an antiquated understanding of the term transaction. To tech nerds, it means interacting with a database, and that happens with every keystroke I type, and retype these words with.)

That’s still the big picture view, to be clear. The larger macro-economic state of things due to Trump Tariffs, Europe’s consequential isolationist turn, and the downturn in risk behavior evinced by Pump.Fun’s fall from 300k daily active gamblers down to 150k suggests we could be heading for a bear market in the near-term.

But I’m no bear. We previously remarked on how the the distance from the Bitcoin halving to Pete Davidson’s “What’s an NFT?” SNL sketch was around 9 months. The crypto market is now approaching the dreaded Pete Davidson period. And there’s always resistance at the previous / new highs before it really breaks away for the cycle. The question is, what’s going to spark the movement?

—El Prof

Render Unto Caesar

Render Network is a game-changer, and it’s already transforming the way creatives handle one of the most demanding tasks in their workflow: rendering.

(A word which here, in the context of digital visual arts, means the process of generating a final image or animation from a 3D model or scene, using software to simulate lighting, textures, and effects. It transforms the computer-generated data into a realistic or stylized visual output, such as a still image or a video sequence.)

At first glance, decentralized GPU rendering might seem a bit unconventional. Rendering is a heavy computational task, after all. But Render Network is already providing real-time rendering across thousands of GPUs worldwide, offering creators near-limitless scalability with unprecedented affordability.

Traditional rendering methods have been deeply centralized — tied to expensive render farms or the raw power of high-end workstations. But Render Network is tearing down those silos, creating a decentralized, blockchain-powered system that taps into a global pool of idle GPU power.

Here’s where it gets most interesting for us. Render Network doesn’t just offer a cheaper, more scalable solution — it also gives creators full control over their data and projects. With Render Network, you can store your data securely and manage your workflow on your terms without worrying about being locked into centralized systems.

Render Network is yet another example of our favorite crypto use case, as a secure store of data to be strategically and lucratively deployed. Render Network creates an ecosystem where users can not only take advantage of global rendering power but also contribute to it. Individuals with unused GPU resources can monetize their hardware, creating a truly decentralized market for rendering power. It’s a system where everyone benefits — from the creator who needs rendering capacity to the provider who can profit from idle hardware.

With the continued growth of decentralized technologies, Render Network is positioned at the forefront of a much larger movement. As more creatives, developers, and organizations adopt the platform, we’ll see this model extend beyond rendering into other areas of creative production, ultimately unlocking new opportunities for digital work that were previously inaccessible.

With Render Network, the next stage in the creative cycle is not only about speed and cost — it’s about embracing a new way of working. A way that puts control in the hands of the creator and makes powerful resources available to everyone, everywhere.

—Muhammed

Explore the evolving landscape of AI in the wake of DeepSeek's impact, as businesses shift from hype-driven spending to rational adoption.

How innovations in biometric, AI-ready and quantum-ready methods could reshape identity.

No matter what field you are working in, good data collection and management isn’t just nice to have, it's essential.

The post Database 23ai is Multi-Modal, What Does That Mean? appeared first on Mythics.

In what is being described as the largest digital crypto scam ever, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has fallen victim to a massive hack, losing an estimated $1.5bn in Ethereum. Learn more about the impact of the digital heist.

The post Bybit Faces $1.5bn Loss in Digital Crypto Scam first appeared on ComplyCube.

Discover the latest releases, updates, events, and all things developer-related from Auth0!

Hey folks 👋

We’re back again with the second issue of Kinside Scoop to share all the new improvements and current kinnovations…

(see what we did there?)

😂

Don’t mind us.

Let’s dive in…

This time we’ll go through:

This week’s super prompt

What's new with KIN 🚀

Our new articles series

Our current reads

Our online vibe

Join the community on Discord, LinkedIn and TikTok

Super prompt: Learn How do you define trust? Create a self-reflective quiz with questions to explore personal trust definitions, comparing task-based, relationship-based, and cultural perspectives. Start with a brief introduction and clear instructions, max 100 characters. Quiz me one question at a time, each multiple-choice question should include real-world examples and varied trust perspectives, with optional reflection prompts. Retain responses to generate a summary with key takeaways, a comparative analysis, and actionable trust-building strategies. Display all answers before analysis, using clear formatting for readability. Use relatable and simple words, jargon-free. Remember my responses.

If you have Kin installed, click the button below to try this prompt in Kin ☺️

Open Super Prompt - Click here

What's new with KIN?🚀 New and improved calendar integration 📅

Over the past two weeks, we secretly launched Kin’s calendar integration.

Now Kin can help you prepare for what’s ahead and keep your schedule in check, without the mental load.

Turn it on and try the personalized reminder: “Prepare my day.”

We’ve made updates based on early feedback, and there’s more to come over the next few weeks.

Your schedule isn’t just a list of meetings.

It’s a reflection of your priorities.

Kin is here to help you focus on what matters.

Fewer bugs, smarter reminders ⏰

We’ve been improving how Kin handles scheduling and reminders so they feel more helpful, not repetitive.

Fixed calendar syncing issues so integration should now run more smoothly.

Refined reminder notifications to make them smarter, less frequent, and with better timing.

A smoother experience for Android users 📱

If you’ve run into crashes on Android, this update should make a big difference.

We found and fixed multiple issues, so Kin should feel more stable and reliable moving forward.

A refreshed profile screen 👤

Editing your username is now simpler than ever with our redesigned profile screen.

A small change, but one that makes Kin feel even more personal to you.

More control over chat highlights ✨

You can now toggle message highlights on or off in Settings > Appearance.

Customize your chat view to match the way you work best.

Autocorrect is back in journals ✍️

We heard you and we’re happy to say that autocorrect is back!

No more distracting typos.

Go to KIN

New articles series 📑

For the next few weeks, our CTO Simon will have a new article series.

He’ll be exploring the challenges around creating accurate memory in personal AI, why you’d even want to, and how Kin is taking a cutting-edge approach to solving this problem.

Our first article is all about outlining the importance of memory in personal AI, (so we can spend next week explaining why it’s so difficult).

Read the first article here

Speaking truth on TikTok @kinpersonalaiWhen we said get some rest we didn’t mean here at the office 😂 #officehumor #selfcare #fyp #corporatehumor #mentalhealth Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser Our current reads

Articles shared in our #market-research channel

Article: One in five employees in Denmark in mentally straining conditions.
READ - The Copenhagen Post

Tool: Rapid prototyping tool for building mobile apps with react native
READ - App Alchemy

Article: Could AI translate animal communication?
READ - The Conomist

Paper: Agentic Deep Graph Reasoning Yields Self-Organizing Knowledge Networks
READ - Arxiv org

Share your thoughts 💡

This update is all about helping you stay organized and making Kin feel more natural to use.

We hope it helps ❤️

Try out the calendar integration and let us know what you think!

We’re always improving and your feedback shapes what’s next.

Don’t hold back. We’re all ears.

Reply to this email or share your thoughts directly in the app (just take a screenshot 💬 ☺️)

Until next time,

The Kin team

Last week, the crypto world was shaken to its core when hackers executed a sophisticated attack on Bybit's cold wallet system, making off with $1.46 billion in digital assets. This wasn't just another crypto hack. It was the largest cryptocurrency theft in history and potentially the largest single theft of any kind ever recorded. In this article, we outline how Elliptic's real-time intelligence not only tracked these stolen funds, but has already led to some recoveries. 

February 2025 Memecoins Are Crashing, Hackers Are Cashing In, Where Are Smart Investors Moving Next?

Over the past month, we’ve attended key events across the U.S., Europe, and now in Hong Kong. One thing is clear: RWA tokenization dominates conversations at institutional and retail events. Investors are looking for real-value backed onchain assets.

The Memecoin Bubble Is Bursting

The wild speculation around memecoins is collapsing, leaving investors with massive losses. Trump Token, which once surged by 800%, has crashed over 80% from its peak. Similarly, Libra, a memecoin promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei, experienced a rapid rise before plummeting over 95% within hours.

The damage is widespread. Over $38.91 billion has been wiped out from the memecoin market in the past one month, according to the data from Coinmarketcap.

Bybit Hackers Used Memecoins for Money Laundering

Memecoins are not just trapping investors in financial losses, they are also being used for money laundering and cybercrime. The Bybit hack, where the Lazarus Group stole $1.5 billion, revealed how hackers exploit memecoins to wash illicit funds.

According to blockchain analyst Atlas, the hackers first sent 60 SOL to an anonymous wallet and used Solana’s PumpFun platform to launch a fake memecoin called QinShihuang.

They manipulated trading activity, buying and selling the token among themselves to create the illusion of high demand. This practice, known as wash trading, generated $42 million in fake trading volume, making it harder for investigators to trace the stolen assets.

To further cover their tracks, the hackers attracted real investors, mixing their stolen funds with legitimate transactions. Many traders, seeing the hype around QinShihuang, unknowingly jumped in, only for the hackers to cash out, leaving them with worthless tokens.

RWA Tokens: The Market’s Answer

With memecoin speculation collapsing and money laundering concerns escalating, investors are searching for a safer and more sustainable path. Tokenized RWA is the answer. It’s the bridge between crypto infrastructure and institutional finance, bringing real asset-backed value on-chain.

We’re already seeing this shift with large tokenized money market funds and trendy RWA blockchains like the upcoming ONDO chain, Mantra, and Plume gaining momentum. But what’s next to make the transition of the whole financial system a reality? Which RWA project will take the spotlight by building a massive supply of qualitative assets on-chain?

We might have found the answer. Stay tuned! 

Tokeny Spotlight

BLOG

Breaking the Silos: The path to shared liquidity with ERC-3643

Read More

Consensus HK

RWA tokenization is accelerating in Asia with Hong Kong being at the forefront.

Read More

RWA Summit London

 Tokenized Money Market Funds (MMFs), the future of institutional collateral?

Read More

TOKENY TALENT

We interviewed one of our first employees, UX/UI Designer and Front-end developer, Nida Orhan

Read More

RWA Paris

Our CEO spoke about “Digital Asset Custody & Tokenization: Securing RWA with Cutting-Edge Custody Solutions”

Read More

Digital Assets Week HK

Hong Kong’s regulators, asset managers, and industry leaders are fully committed to making tokenization a reality.

Read More Tokeny Events

Policy Week
March 10th-14th, 2025 | 🇦🇺 Australia

Register Now

Crypto Assets Conference
March 26th , 2025 | 🇩🇪 Germany

Register Now

Digital Asset Summit 2025
March 18th-20th , 2025 | 🇺🇸 USA

Register Now ERC3643 Association Recap

🎉 Celebrating 100 members! The ERC3643 Association is growing, RWA adoption is accelerating, and something big is coming. Stay tuned for March!

Subscribe Newsletter

A monthly newsletter designed to give you an overview of the key developments across the asset tokenization industry.

Previous Newsletter  Mar3 Memecoins Are Crashing, Hackers Are Cashing In, Where Are Smart Investors Moving Next? February 2025 Memecoins Are Crashing, Hackers Are Cashing In, Where Are Smart Investors Moving Next? Over the past month, we’ve attended key events across the… Feb3 Trump Administration’s Impact on Tokenization: Is the Golden Age Upon Us? January 2025 Trump Administration’s Impact on Tokenization: Is the Golden Age Upon Us? For years, US financial institutions have faced significant hurdles in adopting tokenization,… Dec9 Bitcoin Hits $100K: The Tokenization Tipping Point? December 2024 Bitcoin Hits $100K: The Tokenization Tipping Point? Last week, Bitcoin hits $100k! This milestone, fueled by institutional adoption and a promising regulatory shift… Oct21 Institutional Tokenization 3.0: Break Silos October 2024 Institutional Tokenization 3.0: Break Silos Since Tokeny started building tokenization solutions in 2017, we have seen financial institutions exploring tokenization of assets in…

The post Memecoins Are Crashing, Hackers Are Cashing In, Where Are Smart Investors Moving Next? appeared first on Tokeny.

Hi there, Heroes & Heroines!

February has been a whirlwind of progress and community spirit, and we’re excited to share all the highlights with you. Building on the momentum from January, we’ve focused on refining our platform and strengthening our community bonds. Your enthusiasm and support are the driving forces behind our achievements, and we’re committed to delivering an even better Herond experience.

Product Updates

We’ve been hard at work addressing your feedback and enhancing our platform’s performance. Our latest Android update, Version 2.1.2, tackles two key issues:

Reduced App Size: We’ve fixed a bug of increasing app UI on certain devices. Stabilized Tab Groups: Fix the bug of closing a tab leading to app crash if the tab is in a tab group.

We’re dedicated to continuous improvement, so keep your feedback coming!

Community and Events

February was a month of vibrant community engagement, highlighted by our ongoing partnership with Voltix AI and the launch of new initiatives:

Herond Browser X Voltix Partnership

Our newest partner is Voltix AI. They help you turn idle CPUs into power for AI & DePIN solutions. This collaboration sparked immense interest, with over 90,000 entries in our 1.3X multiplier campaign!

Want to join us? Check out this post for details.

Partnership Giveaway

To celebrate our VoltixAI partnership, we hosted a 500 USDT giveaway. 25 lucky winners, chosen randomly from the multiplier campaign participants, received their prizes directly to their wallets.

Miss this opportunity? No worries, more to come in the future with extra gifts, so stay tuned to our social media channels.

Action Surge – The First Wave

February also saw the launch of “Action Surge“, a program designed to reward engagement on both Discord and Twitter. Participants earned points by interacting with our posts, which could then be exchanged for various rewards. The first wave of rewards saw our digital store cleared out instantly, highlighting the enthusiasm and demand within our community. We will continue to provide more opportunities to earn points and claim rewards in the future, with Season 2 starting this March 4th.

Herond Poker Tournament!

The Herond Poker Tournament, powered by LePoker, continues to be a popular event. On March 1st at 16:00 UTC is another exciting round with a $100+ USDT prize pool. Early Supporters and OGs received extra bonuses, adding to the competitive spirit. This bi-weekly event is the perfect opportunity for our community to demonstrate their poker prowess and claim substantial rewards.

Looking Ahead

We’re incredibly grateful for the active participation and valuable feedback from our community. Your input drives our development and helps us create a better platform for everyone. We’re excited about the future and are committed to delivering more innovative features, engaging events, and rewarding experiences. Stay connected with us on our social media channels for the latest updates and announcements.

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post Herond Browser: February 2025 Report appeared first on Herond Blog.

In an era where security threats are increasing and workforces operate in digital environments spanning the globe, your identity and access management (IAM) solution needs to keep pace. An outdated system can expose your business to a range of vulnerabilities and inefficiencies. 

 

Here are five key signs it’s time to modernize:

Discover how a developer-friendly CDN can enhance DevOps workflows, improve performance, and deliver seamless user experiences with Fastly and Google Cloud.

Implications of DOGE on Government Research Grants Recent cost-cutting initiatives under the Department of Government Expenditures (DOGE)...

The union of blockchain and AI is ushering in a collaborative, secure, and efficient research space setting the pace of future innovation.

AAA (Authentication, Authorization, Accounting) helps developers secure web apps by verifying users, controlling access, and tracking actions.

If you’ve been following the latest developments in digital identity, you’ll know that business models for decentralized solutions—especially under the European Digital Identity (EUDI) framework—are a hot topic. 

Recently, we hosted a conversation with Joran Frik, a Senior Manager at Deloitte who has spent the past seven years advising on digital identity strategy, enterprise solutions, and citizen-centric identity initiatives.

During the session, Joran presented a deep dive into how EU Digital Identity wallets fit into broader identity ecosystems. He explained the importance of aligning government mandates, private-sector incentives, and end-user benefits—an essential triangle that can make or break adoption. 

Below, you’ll find the full takeaways from this insightful exchange.

We are sending on the last day of the month again, whoops. Product development has mostly been geared primarily towards our client’s launch next week, but internally we’ve been building to advance our tokenized project management tool.

Dogfooding the product myself, and with our new hires, we’ll hopefully be able to start putting this agency support reward and growth tool to good use, as our team creeps back up to 11 active team members.

We have 2-3 weeks remaining to find a 1-3 motivated investors who can write a check of $50-150k to invest in playhaus, and help us utilize the $50k MTC investment grant we were awarded in October of last year. So we thought we’d our latest pitch deck with you.

*if you need a refresher, we’ve been on a mission to build a smart wallet for digital identity since October 2020, because, especially in the age of AI, we believe people should have full ownership over their data & digital breadcrumb trail.

Subscribe to Heart&Sol

Stay update to date with all things at the intersection of AI & web3 with our weekly newsletter, Heart&Sol.

Subscribe playhaus BTS

The internet is changing really quickly. Be it AI, web3, quantum, or security encryptions. Organizations of all sizes are going to have to contend with changes to their infrastructure yet again, and speed will be much more crucial for survival.

Fortunately, our company playhaus has a plan to address this opportunity. And everything from our market entry in AdTech, and our focus on a consumer friendly interface, will give us the out of left field appearance as we tackle the next generation of digital asset management.

Changes in legislation are creating an operating differential between those businesses that have their data operations under control, and those who don’t. Passing on higher advertising (and surely other) costs in exchange for the disorder.

Which is why we are operating as an advertising agency, to offer our services to the 9/10 businesses without this critical infrastructure in place; offering our SaaS tool as an exclusive part of our offering. Developing a true, organic PMF iterating on the early product with some close customers.

This approach has allowed us to become an integrated technology partner with one of our customers to assist in the build out of their audiobook marketplace and streaming platform, as well as local partnerships with groups with working on KC’s hosting of the World Cup next summer.

We operate as an Agency, so our retainer & White Label SaaS pricing look very similar. Our intent is to scale as a white label product to other agencies & community portals started by industry KOLs.

We know there’s no true competition to us in the “traditional wallet” space since everyone is focused on offering financial products. Which is why we are focused on positioning ourselves as a business support product for our identity, and not web3 first.

Our team is well versed in Advertising, Data Science, and web3 Technologies

Our most significant achievement to date is the launch of our software at the end of January 2025.

Whether or not we raise any funding in the next few weeks, our plan is to continue to acquire customers for our agency, leveraging the software to service them. We’ll primarily be focused on adding ad channels, marketing operations, feature sets, but also features that support our customers’ portals’ development.

The money will be used to purchase more engineering hours, creative production hours, and advertising clicks, so that we can produce case studies from our own content showcasing how our tools grew it’s audience cost effectively.

We expect to have our product interface and customer onboarding smoothed out in the next 18 months, so that we can raise one follow on round for dollars to scale with advertising further.

Take a big risk and bet on the team that’s building the future of data ownership and governance for the last four years.

(we have an appendix, but we’ll spare you)

playhaus ASKs/REQUESTs/INTROs

With our product launched we are looking for clients with consumer facing businesses to use our tool, to save money on their digital advertising campaigns. We want to deploy this with companies who are already advertising their business, whether they do it themselves, or have a marketing department to run things. We work with B2B solutions as well, but where sales cycles are less than 3 months.

If you know a business owner, or a marketing manager, of a consumer facing business earning more than $2M+ in annual revenue, than you are our ideal client. Or you know an agency servicing them, we like them too.

Share with them our sign-up page. 

MONEY MONEY MONEY

TOKEN

PRICE CHANGE

PRICE

Solana ($SOL)

-39.61

$145.20

Helium ($HNT)

-22.56%

$3.30

Pyth ($PYTH)

-31.03%

$0.20

Raydium ($RAY)

-68.62 %

$2.35

(Price changes reflect 1 Month as of 2.28.25)

**NFA** Our exit horizons are around December 2025. Never pull your entire bag.

The bull run is extremely volatile every time, there’s just more inexperienced participants and charlatans in the mix.

These are great opportunities to get your average price down if you hold Bitcoin, Solana or any core utility tokens that the future internet will depend on.

AFTER THOUGHTS

web3 technology solves real problems and playhaus is focused on that, especially Solana since it’s the most promising blockchain from a consumer product developers point of view.

Latest Content

Heart&SOL #40 (newsletter)

Weekly Mojo #30 (video)

Processing emotions with KIN

Some conversations sit heavy on your chest before you even speak them aloud.

It feels like you’re breathing in less air, like your heart is tightening with the weight of the words you haven’t even said yet.

You think about them in every inch of silence in your day, replaying scenarios in your head, wondering if you’re overreacting or if your concerns are valid.

You edit and re-edit your sentences before speaking them, trying to anticipate every possible reaction.

You wonder if you’ll come across as too blunt or too passive…

If you’ll sound too emotional or too detached.

You ask yourself whether it’s even worth bringing up at all…

Whether it’s better to just let things go for the sake of peace and avoiding discomfort.

But conflict at work isn’t just about disagreements…

It’s about navigating relationships, power dynamics, and emotions.

It’s about knowing when to speak up and how to do it in a way that moves things forward instead of making them worse.

It’s about being truthful to yourself while remaining empathetic to others.

Martha knows this all too well.

About Our User…
Martha, a brilliant, bright-minded product manager with over a decade of experience, is no stranger to these challenges. Known for her sharp insights and warm, positive energy, she’s the kind of person who can light up a room while keeping a clear, strategic mind. She thrives on learning, mentoring, and leading with empathy, and she’s always looking for ways to refine her approach—whether that means testing new AI tools or finding better ways to navigate team dynamics.

Managing a team means making decisions, not just about projects, but about communication, how to guide conversations, how to give feedback, and how to handle inevitable moments of friction.

For her, addressing conflict isn’t about avoiding it, it’s about making sure she approaches it thoughtfully, considering both perspectives and potential impact.

And sometimes, before stepping into those conversations, she just needs a space to think.

That’s where Kin comes in.

A thought partner for tough conversations Talking things through with KIN

Martha didn’t start using Kin with work in mind.

At first, it was just an experiment, something she played around with as part of her creative hobbies.

She wanted to see how different AI tools could help with writing, especially for brainstorming character dialogues.

At the time, Kin felt different from other AI assistants.

It wasn’t just about providing generic answers, it had a certain energy, a personality that sometimes surprised her.

“I found that Kin was pretty good at brainstorming character dialogue and running character simulations,” she shared.

“It would always have this ‘girl boss’ energy, encouraging my characters to stand up for themselves, even when that wasn’t what I was going for in the story.”

What started as a tool for writing slowly became something more.

Without even realizing it, Martha began turning to Kin to process her thoughts about work.

“I started sharing thoughts about my team with Kin casually, even before you made the pivot,” she said.

It wasn’t something she consciously planned, it just felt natural to test out how Kin would respond to different workplace situations she was thinking through.

Clarity before action

Some workplace challenges aren’t just about what to do, but how to do it…

While understanding how you feel.

For Martha, Kin became a way to work through thoughts before bringing them into real conversations.

She didn’t need Kin to tell her what to do, but she found it useful in helping her organize her thoughts, identify potential blind spots, and check her own biases before making decisions.

“Sometimes I’d observe something on my team and ask Kin, ‘Is this interaction ethical? Is it unbiased? Is there bias I should be aware of?’” she explained.

Kin didn’t replace real conversations with her team. It didn’t take the place of a mentor, a therapist, or a manager.

But it gave her a space to process situations before stepping into them, helping her articulate her thoughts more clearly and recognize things she might not have otherwise.

And in one case, Kin’s insights made her rethink an entire career decision.

A career-altering perspective Reflecting with Kin

Martha was wrestling with an issue she witnessed on her team and was unsure of how to feel about it or what (if anything) she should do.

When she brought it to Kin, she wasn’t expecting a concrete answer, but Kin offered an observation that stuck with her.

“Kin pointed out that there were a few ethical concerns and suggested I keep an eye on how similar situations were being handled elsewhere. It wasn’t pushing me in a direction, just offering perspective,” she said.

At first, she didn’t think much of it. But as time passed, and the situation evolved, she started to see things more clearly.

“A little time passed, and I realized Kin was absolutely right. I ended up making the decision to switch teams and change direction,” she shared.

Martha is clear about what Kin is and what it isn’t. She doesn’t treat it as a coworker or someone replacing real human input.

But it’s a tool she’s learned to use in a way that feels natural to her.

“I understand that Kin is safe because I’ve been to some of Volodya’s talks…he’s very explicit about privacy and security,” she said.

“As a product manager and someone who manages a dev team, I know that Kin is actually more secure than GPT or other OpenAI systems.”

Still, she acknowledges that AI is an evolving space, and people are still figuring out what role it plays in their workflows.

“There’s a part of us that gets entertained by AI, and that’s valid too,” she reflected.

“But until everyone figures out their own relationship with Kin, no amount of streaks or incentives will change how people use it.”

For Martha, Kin is useful, but not in the way a coworker would be.

She doesn’t see it as part of her team, but rather as something that helps her think before she steps into conversations that matter.

“If Kin made it clearer that it’s not a team member, that you don’t have to put on a work facade, that it’s just ready to talk about work-related things without being work itself, I think that would be really helpful,” she said.

Final thoughts

Workplace conflict is uncomfortable.

It’s also inevitable.

It’s part of showing up fully in your career, even when it feels easier to stay quiet.

Martha doesn’t use Kin to escape difficult conversations, she uses it to prepare for them, to refine her thoughts, and to enter them feeling more sure of herself.

“At the end of the day, AI won’t solve workplace conflict for you,” she said.

“But it can help you feel more prepared, more self-aware, and more confident in how you handle it.”

And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need.

The user approved this article beforehand and gave consent for her story to be shared.

Thanks for reading KIN! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Liminal members enjoy the exclusive benefit of receiving daily morning briefs directly in their inboxes, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve with the latest industry developments for a significant competitive advantage.

Looking for product or company-specific news? Log in or sign-up to Link for more detailed news and developments.

Here are the main industry highlights of this week week impacting identity and fraud, cybersecurity, trust and safety, financial crimes compliance, and privacy and consent management.

🪄Innovation and New Technology Developments

Global Airports and Airlines Accelerate Biometric Check-Ins Amid Privacy Concerns

Biometric check-ins and bag drop processes are expected to be in place at over half of global airports by 2026, with 70% of airlines planning to adopt biometric identity management by 2025, according to SITA’s 2024 report. This adoption is anticipated to improve passenger processing times by 30% and reduce wait times by 60%. In 2024, airlines and airports invested around $46 billion in IT, focusing on biometrics, AI, and cybersecurity. However, concerns about data privacy and compliance with border regulations remain significant challenges. (Source)

Google Replacing SMS Authentication Codes for Gmail With QR Codes to Boost Security

Google is phasing out SMS authentication codes for Gmail in favor of QR codes to enhance security and reduce fraud. Gmail spokesperson Ross Richendrfer noted that SMS codes are vulnerable to abuse by criminals and social engineering attacks. The transition to QR codes aims to bolster account protection by eliminating these risks. (Source)

Indian Government Strengthens Telecom Security With Aadhaar-Based SIM Verification and AI Fraud Detection

India is strengthening telecom security by introducing the Digital Integrated Verification System (DIVS) for SIM card registrations. The DoT now mandates Aadhaar-based biometric verification for new SIM activations to prevent fraud. New rules include multi-angle customer photos, SIM count monitoring per identity, and AI-based fraud detection. Retailers issuing fake SIMs will face penalties, enhancing security and aiding law enforcement. (Source)

💰 Investments and Partnerships

IBM Acquiring DataStax to Boost AI, NoSQL, and Homeland Security Data Solutions

IBM plans to acquire DataStax to strengthen its AI and NoSQL data capabilities, benefiting homeland security agencies. DataStax’s Apache Cassandra expertise supports mission-critical applications, including for the VA and DISA. Integrating its hybrid vector database with IBM’s watsonx could enhance intelligence analysis, threat assessment, and zero trust security while enabling secure, scalable cloud data management. (Source)

ClearScore Secures €36.1 Million Debt Financing From HSBC to Expand Products and Services

London-based fintech ClearScore has secured €36.1 million in debt financing from HSBC Innovation Banking UK, which first backed the startup in 2017. ClearScore CFO Brian Cole says the funds will be used to expand the company’s product range and distribution channels. Founded in 2015, ClearScore initially offered an app to help consumers manage their credit scores and has since broadened its focus to include a data-driven credit marketplace and open banking services. (Source)

UK Regulator Approves IBM’s $6.4 Billion Acquisition of HashiCorp

The U.K.‘s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved IBM’s $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp. The CMA conducted a preliminary investigation but decided not to escalate it further, with a full explanation of its decision expected later. This approval aligns with the U.K.’s recent approach to avoid obstructing international tech deals. The acquisition still faces review by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. IBM originally aimed to close the deal by the end of 2024. (Source)

NinjaOne Raises $500 Million at $5 Billion Valuation to Expand Autonomous Endpoint Management

NinjaOne, a Texas-based endpoint management company, raised $500 million in Series C funding from ICONIQ Growth and CapitalG, reaching a $5 billion valuation. The funds will enhance autonomous endpoint management and support the $252 million acquisition of Dropsuite for cloud data backup. Founder-led and debt-free, NinjaOne serves clients like Nvidia, Lyft, and Porsche, offering centralized monitoring, remote control, automated patching, and real-time alerts across multiple platforms. (Source)

Secret View Partners With iDenfy to Enhance Identity Verification and Compliance

Secret View has partnered with iDenfy to enhance identity verification and ensure DAC7 and GDPR compliance. iDenfy’s KYC platform, biometric facial recognition, and liveness detection verify user identities and government-issued documents from 200+ countries. The integration streamlines tax reporting, strengthens privacy protection, reduces fraud, and ensures compliance with global KYC standards. (Source)

A10 Networks Expands Cybersecurity Portfolio With ThreatX Protect Acquisition

A10 Networks, Inc has acquired ThreatX Protect’s assets and key personnel to strengthen its cybersecurity portfolio with web application and API protection (WAAP). This move enhances A10 Defend, securing applications across various environments. ThreatX Protect adds AI-driven threat mitigation, API protection, bot management, and a next-gen firewall. Remaining ThreatX assets will rebrand as Run Security, with TX Prevent becoming RS Prevent. The deal’s financial terms were undisclosed but are expected to modestly boost A10’s earnings without impacting its 2025 outlook. (Source)

Illuma Labs Secures Strategic Financing From Stifel Bank to Advance Voice Biometrics and Market Expansion

Illuma Labs secured strategic financing from Stifel Bank to enhance its voice biometrics technology and expand market reach. The funding will help financial institutions improve consumer interaction security. This follows a $9 million Series A round and Illuma’s recognition for deepfake detection at FinovateFall 2024. CEO Miland Borker highlighted the financing’s role in strengthening their capabilities. (Source)

⚖️ Policy and Regulatory

Chegg Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google Over AI Search Summaries

Chegg has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google, claiming its AI-generated search summaries reduce traffic to Chegg’s site and impact revenue. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., alleges Google’s “AI Overviews” unfairly use Chegg’s content while limiting visibility for competitors, violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. CEO Nathan Shultz argues this reinforces Google’s monopoly, while Google denies the claims, asserting its AI benefits users and broadens site traffic distribution. (Source)

OKX Exchange Operator Aux Cayes FinTech Admits to AML Violations and Agrees to $504 Million Fine

OKX operator Aux Cayes FinTech admitted to violating AML laws and will pay over $504 million in fines, per the U.S. Department of Justice. For over seven years, OKX failed to enforce AML policies, allowing $5 billion in suspicious transactions. Despite KYC requirements, employees allegedly helped users bypass them. OKX cited “legacy compliance gaps” and stated U.S. users are no longer on the platform. Meanwhile, cases against crypto firms like Robinhood and Coinbase have been dismissed. (Source)

DISA Global Solutions Data Breach Exposes Information of Over 3.3 Million Individuals

DISA Global Solutions suffered a data breach affecting over 3.3 million people, including 360,000 in Massachusetts. Between February 9 and April 22, 2024, a hacker accessed its network, compromising Social Security numbers, financial data, and government-issued IDs. Due to limited logging, DISA couldn’t determine the full extent of the data exfiltrated. The company has notified affected individuals and authorities. (Source)

UK Government Shuts Down One Login Inclusion and Privacy Advisory Group

The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) has closed the One Login Inclusion and Privacy Advisory Group (OLIPAG), formed in 2023 to advise on privacy, inclusion, and accessibility. The 20-member group met from November 2023 to May 2024, affirming existing identity assurance principles, which GDS has updated in its documentation. GDS plans to form a new advisory group with a broader scope, though details remain unclear. Uncertainty also surrounds DSIT’s role in digital identity initiatives like the mobile driver’s license and Gov.uk digital wallet. (Source)

Critical Vulnerability in Enterphone MESH Allows Unauthorized Access to Buildings Across U.S. and Canada

The Enterphone MESH door access system by Hirsch has a critical vulnerability due to an unchanged default password, allowing remote access to doors and elevators in multiple U.S. and Canadian buildings. Hirsch refuses to fix it, claiming it’s “by design” and that customers should have changed the password. Security researcher Eric Daigle found 71 exposed systems using default credentials, granting access to building controls. Rated 10/10 in severity, the flaw is easily exploitable with publicly available credentials. Despite the risk, Hirsch has only advised customers to follow setup instructions without committing to a fix. (Source)

Australia Bans Kaspersky on Government Systems Over National Security Concerns

Australia has banned Kaspersky security software on government systems due to national security concerns over foreign interference, espionage, and sabotage. A Department of Home Affairs risk assessment highlighted potential misuse of user data. Government agencies must remove Kaspersky by April 1, 2025, though exemptions may apply with safeguards. The ban also covers critical infrastructure and aligns with the U.S. ban in mid-2024 on Kaspersky sales and updates. (Source)

Health Net Federal Services Settles Cybersecurity Compliance Allegations for $11.25 Million

Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) and parent company Centene Corporation will pay $11.25 million to settle allegations of falsely certifying cybersecurity compliance under their Defense Health Agency (DHA) TRICARE contract. The DOJ claims that between 2015 and 2018, HNFS failed to implement required security measures but still submitted false compliance certifications. While HNFS and Centene deny wrongdoing, they agreed to the settlement, which does not protect them from future legal actions if new evidence arises. (Source)

🔗 More from Liminal

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New reports provide a detailed analysis of market trends, vendor capabilities, and compliance challenges.

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Stay ahead of market shifts, outperform competitors, and drive growth with real-time intelligence.

Liminal CEO Summit 2025

Stay tuned for updates on the event—T-minus 4 days until our 4th annual exclusive CEO gathering in Laguna, California.

The post The State of Identity appeared first on Liminal.co.

When you stake your ETH on Coinbase, you’re helping secure the Ethereum network and earning rewards. But what happens when you need to access your staked funds? In this guide, we’ll show you how to unstake ETH on Coinbase, so you can withdraw your coins whenever you choose. Whether you’re adjusting your strategy or need funds for other investments, understanding the process is essential.

Learn more: Top 5 New Ethereum DApps You Need to Try

Why Stake Your ETH in the First Place?

Staking ETH is an excellent way to earn rewards while contributing to the security and stability of the Ethereum network. When you stake your ETH, you essentially lock it into the network, and in return, you earn ETH as rewards. By staking your ETH, you’re helping to secure the network, store data, and validate transactions. This process is known as Proof of Stake (PoS).

But why would you ever want to unstake ETH? Well, there are a few reasons. You might want to access your funds for other investments, or perhaps you feel that staking is no longer the right strategy for you. No matter the reason, knowing how to unstake ETH on Coinbase is crucial for those moments when you need liquidity or flexibility in your investments.

Learn more: Understanding the Challenges of ETH Mining

The Pre-Unstaking Checklist Before Untasking 

Before you can successfully unstake your ETH on Coinbase, there are a few important conditions you must meet to ensure a smooth process.

Verified Identity (VI)

Your Coinbase account needs to be fully verified before you can unstake your ETH. This is to ensure your account is secure and complies with all regulatory requirements. If your identity isn’t verified yet, you may need to submit identification documents such as a government-issued ID or proof of address. Completing this step ensures that your funds are protected and that Coinbase can verify the legitimacy of your account.

Minimum Balance and Eligibility

Coinbase may require you to meet specific balance thresholds to unstake ETH. Check the current staking protocol’s minimum requirements to ensure you meet these criteria. Some protocols may only allow unstaking once a minimum amount of ETH has been staked, while others may have different rules based on the amount staked. Make sure your staked ETH qualifies for unstaking before beginning the process.

Eligibility Criteria

Coinbase may have additional eligibility requirements depending on your location or the staking conditions. These criteria may vary based on regulatory restrictions or other platform-specific policies. It’s important to check whether your region allows unstaking or if there are any restrictions that could affect your ability to withdraw your ETH.

How to Unstake ETH on Coinbase: Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to unstake your ETH? Here’s how to do it on Coinbase.

Step 1: Log In to Coinbase
Use your credentials to log in to your Coinbase account. If you’re using the mobile app, ensure it’s up to date for the best experience.

Step 2: Navigate to “My Assets”
Once logged in, go to the “My Assets” section. This is where you’ll see all your crypto holdings, including your staked ETH.

Step 3: Select the ETH You Want to Unstake
Find the Ethereum (ETH) asset that you’ve staked. Click on it to see detailed information about your balance and staking rewards.

Step 4: Click on “Unstake”
Look for the “Unstake” button. It might be labeled slightly differently depending on updates, but it will be clear. Click this option to begin the unstaking process.

Step 5: Enter the Amount to Unstake
Next, you’ll be prompted to enter the amount of ETH you wish to unstake. Double-check the amount to avoid any errors.

Step 6: Review the Transaction
Before finalizing, you’ll be able to review the transaction. This is your chance to ensure everything looks good.

Step 7: Confirm with Two-Factor Authentication
For extra security, Coinbase may ask for two-factor authentication (2FA). Follow the prompts to confirm your unstake request.

Step 8: Wait for the Process to Complete
After confirming, your unstaking request will be processed. Keep in mind that the time it takes for ETH to be unstaked can vary depending on network traffic and Coinbase’s processing time.

3 Common Issues When Unstaking ETH

While unstaking ETH on Coinbase is generally simple, users may encounter a few common issues. Here are some troubleshooting tips:

1. Verification Problems
If you’re facing trouble with identity verification, make sure all your documents are updated and correctly submitted. Double-check that your personal info matches Coinbase’s records. If issues persist, contact Coinbase support.

2. Unstake Button Not Visible
If the unstake button is missing, ensure that your ETH meets the minimum requirements for unstaking and is properly staked. Also, check if you’re eligible based on Coinbase’s rules.

3. Delays in Processing
Sometimes, unstaking can take longer due to network congestion or Coinbase’s processing times. If it’s taking longer than expected, keep an eye on your account for updates. If delays persist, contact Coinbase support for help.

By following these tips, you can quickly resolve common issues and successfully unstake your ETH.

Conclusion

Learning how to unstake ETH on Coinbase isn’t difficult, but it’s crucial to understand the steps and conditions involved. By following this guide, you can easily manage your staked ETH and access your funds when needed. Keep in mind the potential penalties for early withdrawal, the impact on rewards, and the delay in trading. Whether you’re adjusting your strategy or need liquidity, knowing how to unstake ETH on Coinbase gives you control over your investments.

Learn more: Discover What an Ethereum ETF Is

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post How to unstake ETH on coinbase appeared first on Herond Blog.

Perpetual crypto trading has become one of the most popular ways to invest and trade in the digital asset space. But one crucial element that every trader needs to understand is funding rates. So, how do you get low funding rates on perpetual crypto? Let’s break it down.

Learn more: What makes the hash rate higher?

What Are Funding Rates in Perpetual Crypto?

Funding rates are the periodic payments exchanged between long and short traders on perpetual contracts. Unlike traditional futures, these rates are used to keep the contract price close to the spot price. If funding rates are high, it could be expensive to hold a long position. Conversely, low funding rates make it cheaper to hold a position.

In short, getting low funding rates on perpetual crypto is essential for minimizing costs. Traders with low funding rates will often have a competitive advantage.

Learn more: Understanding Mutual Funds: A Simple Explanation

How Are Funding Rates Calculated?

Funding rates are calculated based on the interest rate difference between the positions of long and short traders. Factors like market sentiment and the supply-demand imbalance on a specific asset influence these rates. For instance, if a large number of traders are long on a specific crypto, funding rates will typically increase.

The formula used can vary by exchange, but they usually consider the difference in borrowing costs and the price deviation of the perpetual contract. To get low funding rates, understanding how exchanges calculate them is crucial.

Example of Funding Rate Calculation

Funding rates are determined by the interest rate difference between long and short traders. If there are more long traders, funding rates for longs will typically rise to balance the market.

For example, let’s say you want to trade Bitcoin (BTC) on Binance. If the long traders are paying 0.05% per 8 hours and short traders are paying 0.02%, the funding rate difference is 0.03% (0.05% – 0.02%).

Market sentiment also plays a role. If BTC is rising in price and many traders are going long, the exchange might raise the funding rate to encourage short positions, creating a supply-demand imbalance. Additionally, if the BTC perpetual contract is trading at a 1.5% premium over the spot price, the exchange could increase the funding rate by another 0.01% to keep the contract aligned with the spot price.

Combining these factors, the total funding rate for long positions could be 0.06% every 8 hours (0.03% interest rate difference + 0.02% sentiment factor + 0.01% price deviation).

Understanding how exchanges calculate funding rates helps traders find opportunities for lower costs and better trading strategies.

Why Do Funding Rates Fluctuate and How Does This Affect Traders?

Funding rates fluctuate mainly due to market conditions. If more traders are betting on price increases (longs), funding rates rise, as the market becomes more expensive to enter. Conversely, if more are betting on a price drop (shorts), rates fall.

For traders, fluctuating funding rates mean that timing is everything. If you’re long during a high funding rate period, you might be paying a premium just to hold your position. Therefore, keeping track of the market is key to getting low funding rates on perpetual crypto.

Learn more: How to save your crypto transaction fees

How to Get Low Funding Rates on Perpetual Crypto

To get low funding rates on perpetual crypto, following a few smart strategies can save you significant costs. Here’s how:

Choose the Right Exchange

Not all exchanges offer the same funding rates. Some platforms, like Binance and Bybit, generally have lower funding rates than others. This is because each exchange calculates funding rates based on its own interest rate models and market conditions. To find the best deal, compare funding rates across various exchanges before making a trade. Tools like FundingRate.io can help you easily track and compare funding rates in real-time.

Trade in Off-Peak Times

Funding rates are often influenced by market volatility. During periods of high trading activity, such as when there’s a major news event or price movement, funding rates tend to rise as demand for certain positions increases. To secure lower rates, aim to trade during quieter times, when market sentiment is more stable, and fewer traders are competing for positions. These off-peak times often provide an opportunity to enter positions at a lower cost.

Position Size and Strategy

Adjusting your position size can also affect the funding rate you pay. Larger positions often attract higher funding fees, especially when market sentiment is skewed toward one direction. Consider scaling down your positions to minimize the impact of funding fees. Additionally, if you expect funding rates to rise, it might make sense to close positions or hedge them to reduce exposure to high fees.

Arbitrage

If you’re experienced, you can take advantage of arbitrage opportunities between exchanges. Sometimes, funding rates differ significantly across platforms. By opening positions on different exchanges and holding them at the same time, you can potentially profit from these discrepancies. However, this requires precision, as the timing of trades and market conditions need to be perfect. But for traders who can master arbitrage, it’s a clever way to reduce funding costs.

6 Risks When Dealing with Funding Rates

Funding rates can lower costs, but they come with risks. Sudden changes and market imbalances can lead to unexpected costs and potential losses. Here are some common risks when dealing with funding rates:

Market Bias and Volatility
High funding rates often indicate a strong market bias in one direction (either long or short). Betting against this trend can be risky, as the market may continue to move in the dominant direction, increasing the costs of holding positions. Changes in Exchange Policies
Exchanges may periodically adjust their funding rate formulas or policies. These changes could result in unexpected increases in funding rates, which might catch traders off guard and negatively impact their positions. Unexpected Funding Rate Increases
A sudden rise in funding rates can lead to unexpected costs, potentially wiping out profits. Traders may not anticipate these rate hikes, especially if market conditions shift abruptly. Market Manipulation and Market Sentiment
In periods of extreme sentiment or manipulation (such as pump-and-dump schemes), funding rates can spike unpredictably. Traders who aren’t careful might find themselves paying high rates while the market moves against them. Short-Term Liquidity Risks
During high funding rate periods, liquidity can sometimes dry up. If you want to exit your position but can’t do so at a reasonable price, the cost of funding could continue to rise. Overleveraging Risks
With high funding rates, traders who are overleveraged face greater risks of liquidation. High rates can drain the margin faster than expected, especially if the market moves against your position. Conclusion

Getting low funding rates on perpetual crypto requires strategy, timing, and market awareness. Choosing the right exchange, monitoring market conditions, and using smart techniques like arbitrage can make a significant difference.

By understanding how funding rates are calculated and the factors that influence them, you can lower your costs and maximize your profits. So, if you want to thrive in the volatile world of perpetual crypto trading, start by focusing on how to get low funding rates.

Learn more: How to save your crypto transaction fees

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post How to get low funding rates on perpetual crypto appeared first on Herond Blog.

Wakka Wakka Nation Partners with Sovereign Wallet for Digital Financial Sovereignty

February 2025 — The Wakka Wakka Nation, a sovereign Indigenous nation in Australia, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sovereign Wallet Co., Ltd. to implement the MetaMUI Digital National Identity and Digital National Currency System. This initiative focuses on guaranteeing the constitutional right to a monetary system free from inflation and with preserved value. It also emphasizes ensuring that Wakka Wakka Bungoo is backed by tangible assets such as gold and silver.

With this agreement, Wakka Wakka becomes the third Indigenous nation to embrace MetaMUI’s blockchain-powered financial sovereignty model, following the successful adoption by the Yidindji Nation in 2022 and the upcoming implementation in the Birri Gubba Nation. Discussions are actively progressing with multiple Indigenous nations to expand this self-sovereign digital economic model, reinforcing a growing Indigenous financial network across Australia.

The Wakka Wakka Nation’s adoption of the MetaMUI Digital National Identity and Digital National Currency System will establish a self-governed digital identity framework for its citizens, businesses, and organizations. This system ensures privacy, security, and financial autonomy, reinforcing the nation’s control over its economic future. Alongside this, the Wakka Wakka Digital National Currency will support Indigenous trade, minimize dependence on external financial intermediaries, and maintain financial operations even during emergencies and natural disasters.

Building on the success of the Sovereign Yidindji Dollar, launched through MetaMUI’s Digital National Currency Cloud Service in 2022, the Wakka Wakka Nation joins Yidindji and Birri Gubba in co-developing the Allodial Unity Digital Dollar (AUDD) — a multi-sovereign digital currency initiative that enables seamless cross-border Indigenous trade. Unlike centralized monetary unions, the AUDD framework allows each participating nation to retain its own sovereign currency while benefiting from a unified digital economic ecosystem.

Iirragala Radjah Radjah, Minister of Law for Wakka Wakka Nation, highlighted the significance of this initiative:
“For generations, we have fought to maintain our sovereignty — our right to govern ourselves, protect our lands, and make our own decisions. This partnership is more than technology; it is about reclaiming what has always been ours. With this new digital financial system, we ensure that our people have the tools to thrive in the modern world while remaining rooted in our traditions.”

Phantom Seokgu Yun, CEO of Sovereign Wallet Co., Ltd., shared his excitement for this expanding movement:
“We are honored to collaborate with the Wakka Wakka Nation in this initiative, ensuring that Indigenous nations lead the way in establishing a monetary system where currency value is preserved, allowing them to have a financial system that guarantees individual wealth and independence.”

The Wakka Wakka Digital National Identity and Currency System is set to launch in the first half of 2025, marking a major milestone in Indigenous financial sovereignty. This initiative represents a significant step towards a global Indigenous financial network — one where sovereignty is not just recognized but actively lived, strengthened, and protected.

About Sovereign Wallet Co., Ltd.

Sovereign Wallet is committed to delivering financial sovereignty to millions through its identity-based blockchain technology. The company’s flagship product, MetaMUI, revolutionizes digital identity and currency by promoting self-sovereign finance and building sustainable, inclusive economic models. MetaMUI’s hybrid blockchain structure uniquely suits digital national currency, digital stock exchanges, and cross-border payments, reinforcing Sovereign Wallet’s vision of a decentralized, sovereign, and self-sustaining global economy.

About Wakka Wakka Nation

The Wakka Wakka Nation is a sovereign Indigenous nation in Australia, committed to self-determination and economic independence. After a 25-year legal battle, the Federal Court recognized their native title claims in southern Queensland in 2022, marking a historic victory. As Queensland’s third-largest Aboriginal group, Wakka Wakka upholds their constitutional rights to self-governance, private ownership, and fair trade. Their vision
prioritizes financial sovereignty and a self-sustaining economy, ensuring long-term prosperity. Queensland’s largest Aboriginal community is Yarrabah, home to the Gunggandji and Yidinji peoples.

#SWN #MetaMUI #SovereignWallet #DigitalIdentity #Decentralization #IndigenousSovereignty #WakkaWakka #IdentityBlockchain #FinancialInclusion #FutureofMoney #ChainedCash #CrossBorderPayments #Sovereignty #IndigenousNation #DigitalNationalCurrency #IndigenousNationalInfrastructure

MetaMUI Linktr

The Developer Podcast is back, focusing on all things integrator this season! In this introductory episode, you’ll meet the hosts and learn what’s in store for the rest of the season. We’ll get more hands-on with technical and architectural identity integration topics through the season.

You can also find this eposode in audio form on Casted or your favorite source of podcasts. If it’s missing from your preferred podcast platform, please let us know in the comments below.

More episodes are coming soon, but if you can’t wait, check out last season for some still-relevant identity insights.

SMS-based, two-factor authentication (2FA) has long been a staple security measure for many online services, including Gmail. However, as the tech industry shifts towards more secure authentication methods, it has become evident that SMS codes are no longer the ideal solution. In a recent reveal, a Gmail spokesperson has confirmed that Google is planning to phase out SMS codes for authentication, marking a significant change for billions of users worldwide.

This move by Google validates HYPR's long-held belief that passwords and SMS codes are inherently insecure and susceptible to various attacks. HYPR has been a leader in the passwordless authentication space, advocating for and implementing more secure methods like passkeys and QR codes for years.

Drawbacks of SMS-based 2FA

While SMS-based 2FA has been widely adopted, it comes with several inherent security vulnerabilities that can compromise user accounts:

Phishing risks: Threat actors can trick users into sharing their SMS codes, granting them unauthorized access to accounts. Reliance on carrier security practices: The security of SMS codes heavily depends on the user's mobile carrier, which may have varying levels of protection against attacks. Accessibility issues: Users may not always have access to the device receiving the SMS codes, making it difficult to authenticate their identity.

Moreover, SMS verification codes have become a target for criminals, who exploit them for various scams.

Google's Decision to Move Away from SMS Codes

In a conversation with Forbes, Gmail spokesperson Ross Richendrfer revealed Google's intention to move past passwords and SMS messages for authentication. According to Richendrfer, Google currently uses SMS verification for two primary purposes:

Security: Verifying that the service is dealing with the same user as before. Abuse control: Preventing fraudsters from abusing Google's services, such as creating thousands of Gmail accounts to distribute spam and malware.

However, SMS codes present numerous challenges, as outlined by Richendrfer and his colleague Kimberly Samra:

Phishing risks: Users can be tricked into sharing their SMS codes with threat actors. Accessibility concerns: Users may not always have access to the device receiving the codes. Carrier security practices: The security of SMS codes relies on the user's carrier, which may have varying levels of protection.

Richendrfer emphasized that if a fraudster can easily trick a carrier into obtaining someone's phone number, the security value of SMS is significantly diminished.

Moreover, SMS verification codes are often at the heart of many criminal operations, such as traffic pumping scams, artificial traffic inflation, and toll fraud. These scams involve fraudsters manipulating online service providers to send large numbers of SMS messages to numbers they control, thereby earning money for each delivered message.

Gmail's Transition to QR Codes for Authentication

To address the security concerns associated with SMS codes, Gmail is set to introduce a new phone number verification process in the coming months. Instead of receiving a 6-digit SMS code, users will be presented with a QR code that they need to scan using their phone's camera app.

The benefits of QR codes for authentication, as stated by Google, are threefold:

Reduced phishing risk: Since there are no shareable codes, the risk of users being tricked into sharing their security codes with threat actors is significantly reduced. Decreased reliance on phone carriers: In most cases, Google users will no longer need to rely on their phone carrier for anti-abuse protections. Mitigation of global SMS abuse impact: The transition to QR codes will help reduce the impact of rampant, global SMS abuse. HYPR applauds Google's move to QR codes, a technology we have been championing for years. We have recognized the inherent limitations and vulnerabilities of SMS codes and have been actively implementing QR code authentication across our platform.
HYPR's Implementation of QR Codes

At HYPR, we have integrated QR codes into various aspects of our identity assurance platform, including:

Onboarding: New users can be onboarded seamlessly and securely using QR codes to verify their identity and register their devices. Reprovisioning: If a user loses or replaces their device, they can quickly and easily reprovision their credentials using a QR code. Fallback: In situations where a user's primary authentication method is unavailable, QR codes can serve as a secure fallback option.

Demo example of HYPR's QR code implementation

Our commitment to QR code authentication stems from our understanding of its security benefits. Unlike SMS codes, QR codes are less susceptible to phishing attacks, as they are not shareable codes. Moreover, QR codes do not rely on carrier security practices, making them a more reliable authentication method.

Expert Perspective on QR Code Authentication

While Google's decision to deprecate SMS codes is a positive step, it's important to remember that QR codes are not without their own security considerations. As a relatively new technology for authentication, QR codes may not be viewed with the same level of suspicion as other, more established phishing techniques. This lack of awareness can be exploited by threat actors.

However, HYPR's CEO, Bojan Simic, emphasizes the importance of context and implementation when evaluating the security of QR codes. "While it's true that QR codes can be exploited in phishing attacks, the context in which they are used significantly impacts their security," says Simic. "When implemented correctly, as part of a comprehensive, passwordless MFA platform, QR codes offer a significant security advantage over SMS codes and passwords."

Simic further explains, "HYPR's implementation of QR codes leverages device-bound credentials and cryptographic techniques that mitigate the risks associated with phishing and session hijacking. This ensures that even if a user scans a malicious QR code, their credentials remain secure."

To further enhance security, HYPR's platform incorporates additional layers of protection, such as:

Risk-based authentication: HYPR Adapt analyzes various risk signals, such as user behavior, device posture, and location, to assess the risk associated with each authentication attempt. This allows for dynamic adjustments to the authentication process, ensuring that only legitimate users gain access. Identity verification: HYPR Affirm provides a deterministic way to prove a user's identity, preventing account takeover attacks that exploit social engineering and help desk vulnerabilities. By combining QR code authentication with these advanced security measures, HYPR provides an end-to-end secure authentication solution that mitigates the risks associated with both traditional and emerging attack vectors.
Beyond QR Codes: HYPR's Comprehensive Approach to Identity Assurance

Gmail's plan to phase out SMS codes in favor of QR codes marks a significant security moment for Google and its billions of users worldwide. By addressing the vulnerabilities associated with SMS-based authentication, Google aims to provide a more secure experience for its users. This move aligns with HYPR's mission to deliver passwordless identity assurance by unifying phishing-resistant authentication, adaptive risk mitigation, and automated identity verification.

HYPR's innovative identity assurance platform empowers organizations to embrace phishing-resistant authentication methods like passkeys, and allow for more secure alternatives like QR codes, ensuring a seamless and secure user experience. As the tech industry continues to evolve, HYPR remains committed to staying ahead of the curve, providing cutting-edge solutions that safeguard digital identities.

To learn more about how HYPR can help your organization transition to more secure authentication methods and enhance your overall security posture, please contact us or schedule a demo today.

Authentication policies in Identity and Access Management (IAM) are the bedrock of modern enterprise security. They control who accesses what, safeguarding your organization's crown jewels — its data and systems. But deploying new (or even tweaking existing) policies can feel like navigating a minefield. One misstep can trigger accidental lockouts, open up security gaps or even bring operations to a screeching halt.

Wouldn't it be great if you could take those policies for a test drive before unleashing them on your users? Now you can. HYPR's Policy Simulation lets you do just that — validate your authentication policies in a safe and controlled environment, so you can be sure they work exactly as intended before they go live.    

Deploy with Confidence, Secure by Design

Run simulations to see precisely how policy changes will impact user access before they're enforced. This proactive approach eliminates the risk of:

Accidental Lockouts: No more locking out legitimate users from critical resources.     Security Gaps: Prevent unauthorized access and keep your sensitive data locked down tight.     Operational Disruptions: Ensure business continuity by preventing access issues that impact productivity.    

HYPR Policy Simulation lets you fine-tune your configurations without impacting real users, ensuring a smooth and secure transition for every policy update.    

Test Drive Your Security with Policy Simulation

The HYPR Policy Simulation feature is accessed through the HYPR Adapt policy engine within the HYPR Control Center. From there, you can define a new risk policy, selecting from built-in templates or crafting custom rules tailored to your specific requirements.  

Once your policy is defined, you can select a real user account from your system to use in the simulation. This allows you to see how the policy would affect an actual user's access without any real-world impact. You can also specify a timeframe for the simulation, determining the period for which you want to analyze real user events.  

With the user and timeframe selected, HYPR Policy Simulation would process the user's events and evaluate how the policy would impact their access. The results are displayed in an easy-to-understand format, showing whether the policy would have blocked or allowed access based on the user's behavior.  
This allows you to fine-tune your policies before deployment, ensuring they work exactly as intended. By testing in a simulated environment, you can identify and address any potential issues before they impact real users.

Policy Simulation Demo The Future of IAM is Here

HYPR Policy Simulation eliminates the guesswork from authentication policy management. Say goodbye to accidental lockouts, security vulnerabilities and frantic troubleshooting.

With HYPR, you can:

Deploy with Confidence: Test and validate changes before they impact your users. Implement Proactive Security: Ensure your policies meet your security and compliance needs. Optimized Operations: Save time, reduce help desk tickets and gain valuable insights.

Read more about HYPR’s adaptive risk engine, HYPR Adapt, or arrange a custom demo to see it in action.

Predictoor DF128 rewards available. DF129 runs Feb 13— Feb 20th, 2024 1. Overview

Data Farming (DF) is Ocean’s incentives program. In DF, you can earn OCEAN rewards by making predictions via Ocean Predictoor.

Data Farming Round 128 (DF128) has completed.

DF129 is live today, Feb 13. It concludes on February 20th. For this DF round, Predictoor DF has 37,500 OCEAN rewards.

2. DF structure

The reward structure for DF129 is comprised solely of Predictoor DF rewards.

Predictoor DF: Actively predict crypto prices by submitting a price prediction and staking OCEAN to slash competitors and earn.

3. How to Earn Rewards, and Claim Them

Predictoor DF: To earn: submit accurate predictions via Predictoor Bots and stake OCEAN to slash incorrect Predictoors. To claim OCEAN rewards: run the Predictoor $OCEAN payout script, linked from Predictoor DF user guide in Ocean docs.

4. Specific Parameters for DF129

Budget. Predictoor DF: 37.5K OCEAN

Networks. Predictoor DF applies to activity on Oasis Sapphire. Here is more information about Ocean deployments to networks.

Predictoor DF rewards are calculated as follows:

DF Buyer agent purchases Predictoor feeds using OCEAN throughout the week to evenly distribute these rewards.

Expect further evolution in DF: adding new streams and budget adjustments among streams.

Updates are always announced at the beginning of a round, if not sooner.

About Ocean, DF and Predictoor

Ocean was founded to level the playing field for AI and data. Ocean tools enable people to privately & securely publish, exchange, and consume data. Follow Ocean on Twitter or TG, and chat in Discord. Ocean is part of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

In Predictoor, people run AI-powered prediction bots or trading bots on crypto price feeds to earn $. Follow Predictoor on Twitter.

DF128 Completes and DF129 Launches was originally published in Ocean Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Predictoor DF130 rewards available. DF131 runs Feb 27 — Mar 6th, 2025 1. Overview

Data Farming (DF) is Ocean’s incentives program. In DF, you can earn OCEAN rewards by making predictions via Ocean Predictoor.

Data Farming Round 130 (DF130) had 37,500 OCEAN in rewards; as did most of the DF rounds before it. DF130 has completed.

DF131 is live today on Feb 27. It concludes on March 6th.

👀 Starting with DF131, Ocean Predictoor OCEAN rewards have changed to 10% of before, from 37,500 OCEAN/week to 3750 OCEAN/week.

Therefore as of DF131, Predictoor DF has rewards of 3750 OCEAN/week.

The remaining rewards will be redirected towards other incentives in the future. It is a work in progress — stay tuned!

2. DF structure

The reward structure for DF131 is comprised solely of Predictoor DF rewards.

Predictoor DF: Actively predict crypto prices by submitting a price prediction and staking OCEAN to slash competitors and earn.

3. How to Earn Rewards, and Claim Them

Predictoor DF: To earn: submit accurate predictions via Predictoor Bots and stake OCEAN to slash incorrect Predictoors. To claim OCEAN rewards: run the Predictoor $OCEAN payout script, linked from Predictoor DF user guide in Ocean docs.

4. Specific Parameters for DF131

Budget. Predictoor DF: 3750 OCEAN

Networks. Predictoor DF applies to activity on Oasis Sapphire. Here is more information about Ocean deployments to networks.

Predictoor DF rewards are calculated as follows:

DF Buyer agent purchases Predictoor feeds using OCEAN throughout the week to evenly distribute these rewards.

Expect further evolution in DF: adding new streams and budget adjustments among streams.

Updates are always announced at the beginning of a round, if not sooner.

About Ocean, DF and Predictoor

Ocean was founded to level the playing field for AI and data. Ocean tools enable people to privately & securely publish, exchange, and consume data. Follow Ocean on Twitter or TG, and chat in Discord. Ocean is part of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

In Predictoor, people run AI-powered prediction bots or trading bots on crypto price feeds to earn $. Follow Predictoor on Twitter.

DF130 Completes and DF131 Launches. Reward amount shifted. was originally published in Ocean Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As quantum computing advances, it brings immense potential for innovation, but also profound risks to digital security. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has taken a proactive step in addressing these challenges by releasing three new Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC): FIPS 203, 204, and 205. These standards aim to fortify systems against quantum attacks, ensuring the continued protection of sensitive information. For the identity and access management (IAM) industry, understanding and adopting these standards is crucial to maintaining trust and security in an era of quantum uncertainty.

 

What does the decentralization driving the European Union’s digital identity specifications (eIDAS 2.0 and EUDI) mean for the future?

 

By James Schulte

 

One way to see eIDAS is as the virtual extension of Europe’s single market: The free movement of goods, services, capital, and people throughout the EU’s member states.

With verifiable digital credentials managed from digital wallets, EU citizens and companies will be able to access government, commercial, and financial services seamlessly from anywhere in the EU in a privacy-preserving, secure way.

This is the immediate benefit, a much simpler, streamlined way of managing the duties of citizenship and the necessities of business.

But if we drill down to a more fundamental level, it’s more transformative and exciting than that.

What decentralized identity really means is that information can be permissioned to go from anywhere to everywhere, seamlessly, securely, and instantly.

This is the real revolution in communications.

Identity is more than just who you are

To understand why this is a revolution, we need to understand that identity covers anything that can be identified and hold an identifier.

Obviously, this means people, organizations, government agencies, companies; but it also means connected devices such as drones, robots, and sensors. But less obviously, and increasingly important, digital identity applies to chatbots and AI agents. Even objects can have identities if they can be continuously identified through cameras and sensors and manipulated through spatial technologies.

As all these entities can be assigned identifiers, they can be issued with Verifiable Credentials containing contextual information that can be shared and authenticated seamlessly.

If you trust the source of the credential, you can trust the information contained in the credential and be certain that it hasn’t been altered.

This is why Verifiable Credentials are the building blocks for a new era of innovation: They enable instant, portable trust — from the real world to the virtual and back to the real world.

Three examples of verifiability’s impact on the future

Mitigating the existential threat of biometric identity fraud: Biometrics were supposed to solve the problem of passwords as identifiers. Your biometrics are unique to you, instantly verifiable, can’t be forgotten, and don’t need to be changed every few months.

Except, in order to authenticate a liveness check, we ended up storing biometric data in the same way we stored passwords and usernames: centralized databases.

A biometric data breach is much more of an existential risk because, unlike a password, you can’t (really) change your face if your biometric is stolen. And then generative AI fraud came along with the capacity to fake your biometrics.

Decentralized Identity and Verifiable Credentials solve these problems. With an authenticated biometric in a Verifiable Credential, you no longer have to store biometric data in a centralized database to verify it. The person simply “brings their own biometrics,” and presents their biometric credential at the same time as they perform a liveness check; the software compares the two to ensure they match.

This also mitigates attempts at deepfake phishing: A liveness check has to be corroborated with an authenticated biometric bound to the real owner and their device.

This makes complying with Europe’s regulations on biometric protection SO much simpler!

Connecting Europe to the world and the world to Europe: Decentralized identity and Verifiable Credentials come in different flavors, some with more advanced features that have compelling benefits for business. The key will be to make all these flavors blend seamlessly so that interoperability is frictionless.

Here, the future is very close. Indicio has already successfully combined an EU-specified identity (IATA’s OneID) with a digital passport credential (ICAO DTC Type 1) in a digital wallet to make each step of an international journey seamless.

Digital travel is driving interoperability between different protocols and standards, and Indicio is focused on making multi-credential workflows as simple as possible to connect Europe to Asia, Africa, and Canada.

This doesn’t just scale the market for digital travel, the fact that seamless border crossing requires the highest possible assurance means that digital passport credentials will be the most powerful form of decentralized identity, deployable across use cases where authentication is critical such as financial services and payments.

Generating portable, resilient, and reliable digital infrastructure: In enabling information to go from anywhere to everywhere, decentralized identity removes both the practical constraints on creating markets (the cost and complexity of direct integrations and the security required for centralized identity authentication) and provide these markets with trustable data for instant decision making.

There’s a lot going on here, but think of it this way: Markets no longer need intermediaries or third-party rails to function as information brokers. If you trust the source of the credential, you can trust the information in the credential. And with the authenticated biometrics providing the highest grade of digital identity assurance, you can integrate AI-enabled chat and search in a permissioned way, and include direct payments across secure, peer-to-peer channels.

The combination of authenticated identity for people and agents, permissioned data access, secure communications, and AI driven search has explosive growth potential. It means that any entity can create a trust network and the trust network can share any kind of information securely between its members.

With the right communications protocol, Verifiable Credentials become digital rails for portable trust.

Before the future, today

Ok, maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves — or at least the EU. We must note that the EU digital identity standards — at present — shy away from full decentralization. But this is a look at the future. When Apple’s iPod was first launched, promising “ a 1000 songs in your pocket,” people didn’t immediately see that it would be the foundation for a phone 5,000 times more powerful in computing power than the supercomputers of the 1980s.

Technology is filled with examples where the initial use cases and specifications rapidly seed innovation. EUDI is a catalyst for European innovation, digital public infrastructure, and a new era in data privacy and security.

If you want to drive this innovation, we have some recommendations:

Choose a system that equips you to manage the diverse approaches to digital identity and streamline them into a simple workflow. Simply put, Europe is not going to be a walled garden for digital services and ecommerce. You’re going to want a system that can easily navigate between OID4VC and DIDComm. Choose a system that allows you to accelerate to country-level and global scale in credential management. Mediation — the ability to connect to mobile devices and handle high volume credential issuance and verification is non-negotiable. The promise of a better digital world begins with delivering solutions that work. Choose a technology that will be able to manage agentic AI, authenticated biometrics, and connected devices. Start fast with simple use cases, master the technology, and then scale to do the beat-the-competition stuff. Choose a team with global experience who can deliver a business solution and not just a technical implementation.

In short, choose Indicio Proven: It can handle the wave of innovation that’s coming, and it’s backed by the team building that future right now.

Contact us to see a demo, discuss strategy, or start using Verifiable Credentials to simplify your business!

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The post The future of EUDI: Why decentralized identity is a revolution in communications appeared first on Indicio.

The $DOCK to $CHEQ token migration has been a success! The vast majority of token holders have already migrated their $DOCK tokens to $CHEQ, and the process has been smooth and without delays.

As we approach the final phase, this is an important reminder:

The Token Migration Ends on March 15th

As planned, the migration will officially close on March 15th at 12:01 AM UTC. If you haven’t migrated your tokens yet, the coming weeks will be your last opportunity to do so.

If you still hold $DOCK tokens, make sure to complete your migration before the deadline to ensure a seamless transition to $CHEQ.

As of March 15th, the Dock blockchain network will be shut down, and the $DOCK token wallet will no longer be active.

Important details for stakers and validators:

Starting March 5th, we’ll reduce the number of active validators, leaving only Dock Labs' validator pool running in preparation for the shutdown.

We advise all validators and stakers to begin unbonding now to ensure their tokens are ready for migration as soon as possible. The unbonding period is currently 7 days. Starting March 5th, the unbonding period will be removed, allowing you to unbond your tokens immediately. If you start unbonding before March 5th, you will still need to complete the full 7-day unbonding period, even after the change.

How to migrate your DOCK tokens to CHEQ Before you start Ensure you have a compatible wallet for $CHEQ. If you don’t already have one, follow these instructions to set one up. We recommend using the Leap wallet, which has a browser extension and a mobile wallet on both Android and iOS, and can be easily connected during the migration process. There is another alternative which is to use the Keplr wallet. Update your wallet software to their latest versions. This ensures compatibility with the new system and reduces the likelihood of encountering bugs or issues during migration. Note that the migration must be done through the Dock browser-based wallet. If you use the Dock Wallet App or Nova Wallet, you can easily add your account to the Dock browser wallet by following these steps. Read and understand the migration's terms and conditions. Make sure you are familiar with the terms before proceeding. You can review them here. Migrating your DOCK tokens Access the migration page
Click here to visit the migration page and begin the process. Connect Leap or manually enter your cheqd account
Connecting the Leap wallet ensures that the tokens are sent to the cheqd account you control. If you do not see your Leap accounts in the dropdown, follow these steps to set up your Leap wallet for cheqd. Select your Dock account
If your account isn’t already added, follow these instructions to add it. Accept the Terms & Conditions
Once you've reviewed the T&Cs, click Submit to confirm your migration request.

The full balance of your Dock account will be migrated in a single transaction, partial amounts are not permitted. Once submitted, your $DOCK tokens will be burnt, and the converted $CHEQ tokens will be sent to your designated cheqd wallet using the swap ratio of 18.5178 $DOCK to 1 $CHEQ. 

The migration process typically takes 1-2 business days, after which your $CHEQ tokens will be available in your cheqd wallet. 

Please follow these steps carefully, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our team at support@dock.io.

Note: If you need any transaction reports from the Dock blockchain for tax purposes, make sure to download them from our Subscan blockchain explorer before March 15, 2025.

The Future of Decentralized ID

Dock and cheqd will continue as independent companies serving distinct market sectors in unique ways. By merging their tokens, expertise, and strategic focus, they will drive their shared vision forward with unstoppable momentum.

This token merger has been a monumental leap forward. By merging the $DOCK token with $CHEQ, we are unlocking unprecedented opportunities for our community, positioning you at the cutting edge of decentralized identity innovation.

The future of decentralized digital identity is bright, and with your $CHEQ tokens, you'll be part of a dynamic, growing ecosystem that is set to lead the industry. 

Dock and cheqd will shape a world where secure, verifiable credentials are the norm, and your involvement is key to making this vision a reality. The journey ahead is filled with potential, and we are thrilled to have you with us as we pave the way for the next era of digital identity.

GM HEARTLAND

The entire range of the human experience can be seen in the Solana price chart.

—El Prof, Muhammed & Chad

MONEY MONEY MONEY

TOKEN

PRICE CHANGE

PRICE

Solana ($SOL)

-19.20%

$135.77

Helium ($HNT)

-9.51%

$3.24

Pyth ($PYTH)

+1.48%

$0.21

Save ($SLND)

-3.75%

$0.29

(Price changes reflect past 7 days as of 2.26.25)

ByBit Hack on a Two-Bit Blockchain

The afore-pictured downturn in our favorite token’s value would suggest some major breaking news in the crypto space. Did FTX crash again or something?

This time around, the truth is not nearly as exciting. That’s a good thing.

There were two big news stories last week. First, on February 20, the SEC ended a number of lawsuits against and/or investigations into major crypto exchanges and slashed the size of its task force from 50 attorneys to 30. Subsequently, $1.5 billion worth of our least favorite token, $ETH, was stolen from Dubai’s ByBit exchange, by far the biggest heist in crypto history.

Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

Despite ample X rumors that it was an inside job, there is little hard evidence that the ByBit situation had anything to do with fraud. Reporting says the money was stolen by a sophisticated hacker group out of North Korea known as the Lazarus Group, acting independently. (No, not our friendly neighborhood fine art printing shop.)

The rumors stem from a supposed social engineering tactic that deceived the participants of ByBit’s multi-signature execution. Crypto natives are convinced that at least one of the seasoned signers in charge of security — and, thus, auditing any transactions — should have noticed the issue.

But regardless of whether or not the major centralized exchanges (predominantly outside of the U.S.) are engaging in practices that defraud their trading customers, there is a real concern about the way in which the ByBit hack was conducted. It laid bare the fragility, not just of Ethereum, but of the core infrastructure underpinning most layer-2 security architectures: the multisig wallet.

A multi-signature wallet requires multiple private keys to authorize a transaction. It ensures that no one person can access funds without collaboration, requiring a predefined number of signers, such as 2-of-3, to approve any action. They are incredibly widespread, but evidently, far from foolproof. Multisig wallets can be vulnerable to key loss, hacking, or compromise of multiple signers.

Beyond that specific point of compromise, the hack exposes the downsides of these systems’ complexities. You could argue that complexity creates more barriers for cyber threats to overcome, but it also creates more attack surfaces for hackers to accomplish exactly what Lazurus did.

All in all, it’s just another data point in my advocacy for L1-only solutions to scale a decentralized world computer and empower internet users with privacy and data value rights. This attack is an example on the vulnerability of the systems that currently connect L1s to L2s. What it proves to me is that L2s are just middle-man leech systems, best reserved for the role of dApps, not secure protocol infrastructure.

With ETHDenver — and, consequently, a lot of headline-grabbing L2 announcements — on the horizon, my perspective is an unpopular one. But simply put, ETH is bad for the future of decentralization and empowering the end user. It lends itself to large institutions. And if we’re just going to recreate the Big Tech environment, what is the fucking point of any of this?

Which brings us back to the market side of things. The ByBit hack probably put downward pressure on Ethereum, and contagion runs rampant in the crypto space. (The average Bitcoin buyer probably doesn’t know there’s a difference between L1s and L2s to begin with.) But crypto bull markets are always volatile, and this time around, there isn’t a bubble that can be popped by a few bad actors. We got to the recent all-time highs through steady building and innovation, which I believe will bring us back to and beyond them.

In 2025, it’s not about the breaking news and bad actors. The technology solves real problems, and the teams focused on those use cases will outlive the charlatans and card houses. The cream always rises to the top.

—El Prof

Pushing the Nvlope

We’re pretty radical about data ownership here in the -land. But we’re rational about it as well.

We know that, despite the privacy concerns and potential monetary benefits, the average person doesn’t give a damn about whether or not Google and its extensive network of third-party advertisers has their birthday, home address, and maybe the odd Social Security number in there too. But there’s one category of information I’d argue each and every one of us don’t want falling into the wrong hands: our medical data.

Now, the definition of “wrong hands” may differ from person to person, but there’s one thing constant for everyone. It’s very rarely in your hands. For decades, patient medical data has been locked away in centralized systems, difficult to access, share, or monetize.

But just as blockchain is transforming finance and genomics, it’s now revolutionizing healthcare. A web3-powered radiology platform called Nvlope is designed to break down data silos, give patients control over their medical imaging, and create new revenue streams for both individuals and facilities.

With Nvlope, facilities can earn from data monetization even without adopting the software. If a patient monetizes their radiology data, the originating facility automatically receives Radiology Permission Tokens (RPTs) held in escrow, ensuring they benefit from revenue sharing. Over time, this model could lead to free imaging services, offsetting costs through the power of blockchain-based microtransactions.

All that raises the crucial question: Has Elon Musk heard of this? As the government faces growing pressure to reduce federal healthcare spending, web3 could offer a genuine solution to automate processes, open new revenue sources, and ethically integrate AI into medicine.

With Nvlope’s Digital Artifacts, patients can:

Securely store and share imaging records across institutions.

Monetize their bio-assets, creating new value from their medical history.

Compare radiology data with genomics, AI analysis, and interdisciplinary studies to unlock new healthcare insights.

Along with GenoBank.io, which we spotlighted two weeks ago, Nvlope is building a Proof of Need (PoN) framework, where digital assets across different medical service lines verify real-world demand for decentralized healthcare solutions. By linking genetic and radiology data, patients can participate in research, AI-driven diagnostics, and tokenized health ecosystems—all while maintaining full sovereignty over their data.

With Nvlope, patients reclaim ownership of their radiology records while providers tap into new revenue streams powered by web3. This is more than just a technology shift — it’s a fundamental change in how healthcare data is stored, shared, and valued.

Your doctor is likely no stranger to awkward questions. So why wait? Ask if they can mint your medical records today!

—Muhammed

At SpruceID, we believe that any successful digital identity program must be open and interoperable, allowing many identity issuers and verifiers to share standardized technical “rails.” This opens the playing field for competitive innovation, both in technical approaches and business focus, making sure that every possible advantage of digital identity reaches the real world.

This open-network model fundamentally relies on another kind of openness: open-source code and software. The basic idea of open source is that it can be freely viewed, borrowed, and modified, an ethos that has been fundamental to the progress of digital technology as a whole. It’s sometimes referred to as FOSS, for “free and open source software.”

Open source can also provide substantive security and interoperability advantages specific to identity systems, particularly for digital wallets. Read on for a concise breakdown of those advantages and why the many new players joining the digital identity ecosystem should seriously consider an open source approach.

What is ‘Open Source’?

At root, “open source” describes a type of copyright license attached to a published piece of software. There are many types of open-source licenses, each with specific permissions and limits on how the software can be borrowed from, transformed, and used. For instance, some FOSS licenses allow reused code to be integrated into copyrighted commercial products, while some do not.

The goals of open source were first laid out in the late 1980s by pioneering hacker Richard Stallman, and one major motive was simple efficiency. Many different software packages include very similar modules or functions under the hood, and making those components freely reusable has contributed massively to the success of the software industry. SpruceID is very proud to share its work with identity developers via SpruceKit, our open-source package of tools for building identity with digital credentials, and on our extensive Github repository here. (We even just completed a full DevDoc content review & refresh here: https://www.sprucekit.dev.) 

A recent study from the Harvard Business School found that this sort of efficiency amounted to a staggering $8.8 trillion in value for technology firms, which would have to spend 3.5 times more on development costs without open source. It’s important to point out that open-source isn’t simply a free lunch, though: if you’re using open-source components in a project, there’s an expectation that you’ll make your own contributions in return. That’s why SpruceID is an active supporter of open source initiatives: we’re a founding member of the Open Wallet Foundation, and we fund initiatives to support open source developers in the ecosystem. 

Open Source Means Trust Assurance

The security and trust advantages of open-source software development may be even more significant than the efficiency benefits. Because open-source code is publicly viewable, it has the potential to be vetted by many more developers than would review it within a single organization. Furthermore, code components that are deployed across many software packages have a head start on “real-world” testing.

This benefit is particularly relevant - perhaps even essential - for wallet software. That’s because many of the security protections of wallet software are deep in the code, particularly including how user data is stored and shared. The ability to review the underlying code is the best way to make sure, for instance, that a wallet is interacting with a device's secure element chip correctly or that it can’t be subverted by a ‘rooted’ operating system.

It’s important to note that making code publicly viewable should not be a security risk for revealing specific tokens, passwords, or access codes. One might compare it to looking at a diagram of a lock: open source will reveal if the lock’s design is flawed in a way that could be exploited, but it won’t let you create a key that would open any specific lock. 

Of course, as with all software, it’s important to apply security precautions. For open source, projects can evolve rapidly, and while the community often identifies vulnerabilities quickly, users must stay vigilant. It’s necessary to regularly update dependencies, review project activity, and verify package integrity. Automated vulnerability scanning and ensuring third-party code aligns with organizational security policies can offer further protection. With thoughtful management, open source can be leveraged confidently without compromising security.

Innovation in More Directions

Finally, the core advantage of open-source software is that it allows software builders to innovate faster by building on work that has come before. Open source licenses allow code to be freely modified, meaning a developer can borrow something close to what they’re trying to create and then add modifications specific to their goals, which may be quite different than the functionality of the library it’s built upon. 

This “building on the work of others” can be particularly powerful for applications that run on open data standards, including digital credential wallets. A wallet may integrate preexisting components that handle the underlying standards and then build specific features that expand on that shared foundation for its particular use cases. This could be something as simple as tailoring the aesthetics and layout of a user interface or more nuanced details such as creating more detailed security or adding more sharing options.

This capacity for innovation then has a positive flipside, which is the freedom to not innovate. Credential wallets, in particular, can be quite basic re-uses of existing code, or experimental forks veering off into new territory. That makes the open source approach particularly appealing for state governments or other entities testing the waters: a project can be tailored to the capacity and experience of staff and constituents as needed. But for those adopters of Open-Source, no matter where the project ends up, you may already be standing on the shoulders of giants.

Let’s Build the Future of Digital Identity Together

SpruceID is committed to advancing open source solutions that empower individuals and organizations with secure, privacy-preserving digital identity tools. Whether you're developing credential wallets, integrating verifiable credentials, or exploring decentralized authentication, we’d love to collaborate.

Get in Touch

About SpruceID: SpruceID is building a future where users control their identity and data across all digital interactions.

Try Kin - Personal AI

At Kin, we recognize that personal AI and AI companions are new technologies and relationships that people are not experienced with, and need to learn about to get the most out of. As a privacy-first startup, our team understands the importance of data privacy in artificial intelligence.

To help our users, we're starting article series like this one, which will cover not just how we make these elements of personal intelligence work ethically, but why you should care about them at all. As business owners and individuals increasingly adopt AI-powered solutions, from ChatGPT to Copilot, understanding these concepts becomes crucial.

I’m Simon Westh Henriksen, Co-Founder of Kin. As CTO, I’m dedicated to making Kin the most personal, private, and trustworthy AI assistant we can - all while showing why this technology is cutting-edge along the way

Follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok and X - or join Kin’s Discord

As you probably guessed, this series is on the role of memory technology in personal AI, and why it's essential for improving your experience with AI models and your own AI.

This article will focus on why you should even care in the first place.

Introducing a new relationship: Personal AI

Meeting your AI companion is a little different to meeting a new person - Kin is always available in real-time, infinitely patient, and can be tailored to your specific requirements quite unlike any other technology.

However, much like any new person you meet, memory is essential to that conversation.

Without it, your AI assistant would unknowingly ask the same questions over and over, much like one of the many characters talking to Phil Connors (Bill Murray) in Groundhog Day. Just like any other AI chatbot, it would have absolutely no way to recall previous interactions.

Imagine meeting that new person, and having to repeat the same conversations every time you meet. Eventually, you would give up. No bond would grow, because as our trust article series noted, connection relies on shared experiences and understanding. Any effort made to teach the language model about you, or personalize its responses, would be lost.

So, a personal AI without memory is just another chatbot - useful for basic workflows and automation, but incapable of deep, ongoing support. That's the biggest reason memory is important to you as a user, but not the only one.

You need the power of pattern recognition

Humans are excellent at recognizing patterns in others, and even in things that don't have them (just Google "paradolia"). However, we can often struggle to see patterns in ourselves.

This can be as big as a friend noticing that you keep falling into the same toxic relationship patterns before you do - or as small as you not realizing that the only way you remember your keys in the morning is to leave them by the door.

Recognizing these patterns in ourselves often takes multiple mistakes and years of conscious self-reflection. Machine learning and AI agents, on the other hand, excel at pattern recognition - when paired with an effective memory system. A well-structured memory allows artificial intelligence to analyze user behaviors over time, so it can point out these things as insights offering and help prevent you from repeating mistakes.

In this way, AI chat can act as a mirror, reflecting back on past choices, behaviors, and trends in a way that enhances self-awareness and personal growth.

And, more importantly, it can do all of this without you pouring over your Journal entries from months ago - if you even wrote any in the first place.

Memory makes your conversations fluid

Memory isn't just about recalling facts—it's about continuity and natural language understanding. A great memory system allows AI to store, retrieve, and understand a spectrum of information, from minor preferences to significant life events:

The small things: Remembering favorite colors, dietary restrictions, or daily habits.

The big things: Keeping track of important relationships, major life events, and personal growth over time.

Without this nuance, AI might recall your breakfast habits of the last month - but not your life goals. That can make a Sunday-night conversation about what you should do with your life likely to include much more cereal than you were expecting.

A proper memory depth, then, enables AI to work out its own context and continuity - so you can spend more time talking to it naturally, and less time explaining how there are bigger things in your life than tomorrow's chocolate crunch.

Short-term & long-term memory are essential

In a similar vein, for AI to be truly personal, it must manage both short-term and long-term memory effectively:

Short-term memory: Retaining details from an ongoing conversation to maintain context.

Long-term memory: Remembering past interactions, user preferences, and historical insights to enhance understanding over time.

Without short-term memory, your personal AI will struggle to craft a coherent and constructive response to each new message.

But, without long-term memory, your personal AI will be incapable of recalling and analyzing past information - not to mention the personalizations you've made.

A good AI will have this dual-memory structure so that it can engage in meaningful conversations with thoughtful, personalized responses - not generic answers.

AI assistants should grow with you

You can probably see where this is going. Just like its memory of you can help you grow, a personal AI's understanding of its users and the world should help it grow too.

A good memory system will allow AI to evolve alongside its user, adjusting and refining its approach based on past interactions, use cases, and user feedback.

At its core, its this adaptability that makes a personal AI 'personal' in the first place: if it can't tailor its responses to your dislike of the color red, or, say, overly polite feedback - it might as well just be any other AI Chatbot out there.

However, it goes deeper than that. Memory can help AI with:

Context-Aware prioritization: This is where the AI intelligently adjusts its focus based on the user's current life circumstances and trends, rather than merely following static routines.

For example, if you're stressed at work, the AI might emphasize stress reduction techniques, provide time management suggestions, or offer strategies to improve productivity. Or, during a period of personal reflection, it could prioritize emotional insights and goal-setting guidance.

But it needs to remember your current situation (and differentiate it from your "stress" over your cold takeout fries) in order to do that.

Communication style adaptation: Where the AI learns how you like to speak and be spoken to, so you can feel more comfortable and the AI can stop asking you tell it what 'skibidi toilet' means.

Predicting needs: Where the AI proactively suggests actions to you based on your past behavior, like reminding you to buy groceries on your usual shopping day. It needs to be able to recall, understand, and analyze past conversations in order to figure that information out.

Supporting you is everything

All of this sets a program up to be an effective personal AI, but to build true rapport, an AI must do more than remember and understand facts - it needs to recognize and respond to the emotional patterns they represent.

By remembering details about your life, and understanding their relation to your feelings, personal AI can offer more empathetic and context-aware on-demand support than any other AI. This could look like:

Recognizing mood shifts: "You seem to be more stressed than usual. Has something changed at work?"

Understanding emotional triggers: "I'm noticing that you often feel ignored before an argument begins. Would you like to discuss that?"

Kin & the future of your AI companions

As this article has come to imply, truly personal AI should function as a combination of a friend, a coach, and a mentor. Each plays a distinct role in our lives, but none has complete insight.

AI, with an advanced memory system, can bridge these gaps.

Unlike human relationships, where sharing personal information always comes with a degree of uncertainty regarding how it will be received, AI can and should offer a safe space where you have control over your data and interactions. It's what we built Kin to do.

By remembering, adapting, and providing insightful feedback, memory-equipped personal AI has the potential to revolutionize how we understand ourselves, make decisions, and interact with the world. This is why memory is not just an enhancement—it is the foundation of a truly intelligent, useful, and personal AI. And that’s why it’s the foundation of Kin.

So, why is personal AI with a memory system like this so rare? We'll discuss that in our next article.

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed new regulations requiring businesses performing Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to collect robust geolocation data. IP addresses alone are no longer sufficient due to their vulnerability to masking and manipulation. This regulatory shift aims to enhance customer verification and strengthen defenses against financial crime.

The Regulatory Shift: Why Geolocation Matters

IP addresses, long used to infer a user’s location, can be spoofed or masked by VPNs and proxies. FinCEN’s latest regulations call for more precise geolocation data as part of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) efforts. This ensures financial institutions can confidently verify where their users are located during key transactions.

iComply’s Advanced Edge-Computing Solution

To help our clients meet these new requirements, iComply has released a significant enhancement to our edge-computing platform, integrating:

Precise Geolocation Tracking: Uses multiple data points—including GPS and Wi-Fi positioning—for an accurate, real-time user location. Device Fingerprinting: Creates a unique device profile based on hardware and behavior to detect fraud attempts and unauthorized access. Live Biometric Verification: Confirms that the user completing verification is physically present and matches their registered identity. Why This Matters to Your Business Regulatory Compliance: Stay ahead of new FinCEN requirements with secure, compliant KYC workflows. Fraud Prevention: Multi-layered verification methods prevent spoofing and protect customer accounts. User-Friendly Experience: Our seamless integrations keep the verification process quick and frictionless for users. Stay Compliant and Confident

The financial compliance landscape is evolving rapidly. iComply’s latest technology ensures you can meet these stricter regulatory standards without sacrificing security or user experience.

Get in touch today to learn how iComply can future-proof your KYC and KYB processes and keep your business compliant, secure, and trusted by your customers.

Innovative companies are reshaping CX with instant gratification, consistency, and hyper-personalization, raising consumer expectations and market standards.

In today’s cybersecurity landscape, it is essential to protect sensitive information, especially for businesses working with U.S. federal...

ComplyCube, a leading KYC, AML, and IDV provider, has partnered with StartDock, one of the fastest-growing co-working space providers in the Netherlands. This partnership strengthens the security of StartDock’s community.

The post StartDock Partners with ComplyCube’s Advanced KYC Platform first appeared on ComplyCube.

The irony with urgently questioning how to tell whether something is an AI or a person is the fact that we’re struggling just as much to distinguish humans from… well, other humans. This is, in fact, not a new problem at all. After writing about the AI vs Human issue in a previous post, I’m finding some interesting crossover back into the consumer IAM (CIAM) space. And since I’ll be talking at Authcon in May (a CIAM event), it’s time for me to start writing about that.

CIAM operates on a few basic assumptions:

You are who you say you are. The device in your hand belongs to you. Once authenticated, your access is legitimate.

These assumptions break down when AI enters the chat. Not just AI-generated deepfakes or synthetic identities but also when identity systems are confronted with very human behavior: social engineering, shared devices, and fraud within trusted circles.

So, yeah: we’ve been discussing the same challenges in non-human identity and CIAM for a long time, and the industry still isn’t ready.

The “Friends & Family” Problem

Identity professionals love to talk about preventing fraud, but we usually focus on external threats: account takeovers, credential stuffing, or phishing. But what happens when the fraudster is someone the victim knows?

Your 10-year-old figures out your phone password and orders $300 of Roblox currency. Your spouse knows your device unlock code and, months after the breakup, logs in to access old messages. A caregiver managing an aging parent’s finances suddenly has full control over their retirement accounts. None of these people “hacked” anything—but they still bypassed authentication controls.

“Friends & family” fraud (closely related to second-party fraud) is where a close contact exploits a trusted relationship to gain unauthorized access. It’s a growing issue in banking, payments, and digital services. The protections we have today, such as FIDO2 passkeys, device-bound authentication, and biometric logins, are based on the assumption that the person holding the phone is the legitimate user. That’s great and probably correct most of the time. It is not, however, what we see in real-world use cases where:

Kids log in to their parents’ accounts to bypass spending limits. Partners access each other’s devices for “convenience” but later use that access for harm. Caregivers and family members manage logins for aging parents or disabled relatives.

Payment providers like Stripe report that fraud, including instances where the “victim” is complicit or unaware, is on the rise. But businesses still treat identity verification as largely a binary problem: Either you pass authentication or you don’t. There’s little room for contextual fraud signals that account for real-world relationships. But maybe that is changing.

What AI Agents Teach Us About Trust & Delegation

In the non-human identity world, we are learning to recognize that trust is fluid. AI agents, machine-to-machine (M2M) services, and API-based workloads (hopefully) authenticate using delegation models such as:

OAuth 2.0’s client credentials flow allows one service to act on behalf of another without requiring persistent user authentication. Zero-trust architectures don’t assume a system is trustworthy just because it authenticated once. Instead, they rely on continuous verification based on real-time risk signals. SPIFFE/SPIRE Workload Identity enables automated identity verification for cloud workloads, reducing reliance on static credentials.

These models allow non-human agents to establish trust dynamically, adjusting permissions based on risk and usage patterns. Meanwhile, human identity systems remain largely static—once authenticated, users are granted broad access without continuous validation.

AI-driven fraud is shaking up identity proofing, but no single standard has emerged as the clear best practice. If your organization is figuring out which standards to follow—or how to engage in shaping them—I can help. See how I work or Let’s talk.

CIAM + AI Agent Match Up

This sounds a lot like what people have been promoting for other business sectors, including CIAM. The identity challenges addressed in machine-to-machine interactions—like delegation models, continuous authentication, and risk-based access—might offer useful lessons for consumer identity. Instead of treating authentication as a single, binary event, what if consumer identity systems incorporated the same dynamic trust models that AI agents and workloads are learning to use?

For example, let’s talk about a few of these best practices:

Time-boxed authentication: Require step-up verification if behavioral patterns change, similar to OAuth2 access token expiration. (There’s a lot to know about tokens; it’s a worthwhile rabbit hole to go down.) Delegated identity models: Instead of just “logging in,” make it easy for users to grant role-based access to trusted individuals (like caregivers) with explicit constraints. Shared signals integration: If a device suddenly authenticates multiple users in a short window, should the system flag that? (I really need to write more about shared signals in a future blog post. In the meantime, you might want to read the Shared Signals Guide.) Standards & Real-World Adoption Challenges

To be fair, these ideas aren’t new. The pieces are already in place in various standards:

NIST SP 800-63-4 (granted, still in draft) acknowledges that “possession-based” authentication (passkeys, WebAuthn) should be paired with risk signals to mitigate fraud. The OpenID Shared Signals Framework (SSF) (also still in draft) allows identity providers to exchange risk indicators across ecosystems. ETSI TS 119 461 (not in draft; in fact, the most recent version was published in February 2025) defines identity-proofing best practices for high-trust authentication though it focuses more on initial onboarding than ongoing verification

But as much as I love standards, I am the first to admit that you can develop the best, most awesome, whizbang standard in the world, but if no one adopts it, you have nothing.

Tech companies are prioritizing user convenience over fraud controls. Privacy regulations limit shared risk signals across platforms (GDPR, CCPA). Legacy systems struggle to support continuous, adaptive authentication.

And so, we’re left with a system where strong authentication protects against external attackers, but leaves us vulnerable to the people we know.

Where Does CIAM Go From Here?

If AI agents can authenticate with conditional trust models, why can’t we? It’s time to stop treating authentication as a single yes/no event. We already know what to do. The only question is—are we ready to act?

Passkeys & biometrics aren’t a silver bullet. We need fraud models that account for who is using a device—not just that they authenticated successfully. Shared signals must extend beyond traditional fraud detection. If identity systems could track delegation patterns, we could detect anomalies before damage occurs. The industry needs to rethink “authentication” vs. “authorization.” Just because you logged in doesn’t mean you should have full access.

By now, CIAM is realizing that they have a problem when it comes to AI agents. The solution to those problems, however, should be a fairly familiar refrain of best practices we’ve been talking about for years. If we can say we’re going to learn from NHI as people approach it as a greener field (it isn’t, really, but tell that to the hype cycle), then let’s do it. Let’s take advantage of the energy around NHI and AI and do what we’ve always known we should. Fraud is only getting worse.

What do you think? Are passkeys and device-based authentication creating new fraud risks? Have we finally reached the point where the ROI for implementing these best practices is enough to make it a priority?

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The post What AI Agents Can Teach Us About Fraud in Consumer Identity appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.

Recently, we hosted a conversation with Paul Grassi, Principal Product Manager for Identity Services at Amazon. 

During the session, Paul offered a deep dive into why Amazon is “doubling down” on digital credentials and their plans to accept existing verified credentials directly from trusted issuers like U.S. states and, soon, EU member states under the upcoming EUDI mandate.

The discussion highlighted how wallet-based identity isn’t just a technical upgrade but a significant shift in user experience, privacy controls, and regulatory compliance. 

While mDLs and the EUDI wallets promise a more frictionless onboarding process, their success depends on widespread adoption, reliable standards, and seamless integration with existing business models.

Below, you’ll find the full takeaways from this insightful exchange.

Have you ever wanted to invest in stocks or bonds, but felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of options? If you’re new to investing, it might sound like a puzzle. But what if you could simply pool your money with others to invest in a variety of assets without doing all the heavy lifting? That’s where mutual funds come in. Let’s break it down!

Learn more: Understanding the Benefits and Challenges of ICOs

What Are Mutual Funds?

In simple terms, mutual funds are investments that pool money from lots of different investors. Then, a professional manager uses that pooled money to buy a mix of stocks, bonds, and other assets. Instead of buying individual stocks or bonds yourself, you invest in a mutual fund and let experts handle the details.

The real magic of mutual funds is diversification. By investing in a fund, you’re spreading your risk across a range of different assets. If one stock or bond performs poorly, others in the fund might do better, balancing things out.

Learn more: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing Your Own Research (DYOR) in Cryptocurrency

How Do Mutual Funds Work?

Imagine you and a group of friends each throw some cash into a pot. A fund manager is the one who decides how to invest that money. The best part? You don’t have to worry about picking individual stocks or bonds. The fund manager does it all for you.

Mutual funds can be:

Actively managed: A team of experts picks investments and changes them regularly to try to outperform the market. Passively managed: These funds track a market index (like the S&P 500) and have lower fees since no one is actively picking stocks.

You earn money from mutual funds in three main ways:

Dividends: When the fund holds stocks that pay dividends, you’ll get a share of that income. Capital Gains: When the fund sells an asset for a profit, you get a cut of the earnings. NAV Growth: If the value of the assets in the fund increases, the price of your shares in the fund goes up too. Types of Mutual Funds

There are many types of mutual funds, and each serves a different purpose depending on your financial goals.

Equity Funds: These funds invest mostly in stocks. They’re great for people looking for higher potential returns and willing to take on more risk. Fixed Income Funds: These focus on bonds and other debt instruments. They’re less risky but typically offer lower returns than equity funds. Index Funds: A passive option that tracks a specific market index, like the S&P 500. These funds are generally low-cost and perform similarly to the overall market. Balanced Funds: These invest in a mix of stocks and bonds to provide both growth and stability.

Each of these types fits different investment strategies. So, whether you want aggressive growth or steady income, there’s a mutual fund for you.

4 Benefits of Investing in Mutual Funds

Investing in mutual funds comes with several key advantages that make them a popular choice for both beginners and experienced investors. Here’s why mutual funds might be the right choice for you:

Diversification: Reducing Risk

Instead of putting all your money into one or two stocks, mutual funds pool your money with other investors and invest in a variety of assets like stocks, bonds, and sometimes even real estate. This means your investment is spread across dozens or even hundreds of different securities, which helps reduce risk. If one asset performs poorly, others in the fund may perform better, balancing out the losses.

Professional Management: You Don’t Have to Be an Expert

One of the biggest perks of mutual funds is that you don’t need to be a financial expert to get started. Fund managers—professional investors with deep knowledge of the market—handle all the decision-making for you. They decide which stocks or bonds to buy, when to buy them, and when to sell, ensuring your portfolio is actively managed according to the fund’s strategy.

Low Costs: Affordable Investment Options

Mutual funds, especially index funds, tend to have lower costs compared to other investment types. Index funds are passively managed and track a market index (like the S&P 500), so their fees are minimal. While actively managed funds can have higher fees due to professional management, the low-cost options in mutual funds make them an affordable choice for many investors.

Accessibility: Invest with Any Budget

Whether you have $100 or $10,000 to invest, mutual funds offer an accessible way to enter the market. Because you can buy shares in a fund, you don’t need large amounts of money to gain exposure to a diverse set of assets, making them perfect for investors at all financial levels.

Learn more: What is a Validator? A Guide to Proof of Stake

How Much Can You Make from Investing in Mutual Funds?

Let’s put it into perspective. If you invested $10,000 in a mutual fund that performed at an average annual return of 7% (a reasonable figure over the long term), here’s how your investment could grow over time:

After 1 year: You’d have $10,700. After 5 years: Your investment would grow to around $14,025. After 10 years: You’d have around $19,671.

Of course, mutual funds can go up or down in value, and returns are never guaranteed. But over time, they offer the potential for steady growth.

The 3-5-10 Rule for Mutual Funds

Here’s a simple guideline: the 3-5-10 rule. It suggests that you should consider holding onto your mutual fund investment for different periods based on performance:

3 Years: Evaluate if the fund is doing what it should. Are you seeing growth? 5 Years: You should see decent returns by this point. If not, it might be time to reassess. 10 Years: Historically, mutual funds are a long-term play. Over a decade, the odds of your investment performing well are much higher. Mutual Funds vs. ETFs: What’s the Difference?

You might have heard of ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds), and while they’re similar to mutual funds, there are a few key differences:

Liquidity: ETFs can be traded throughout the day, just like stocks. Mutual funds, on the other hand, are bought or sold at the end of the day based on their Net Asset Value (NAV). Costs: ETFs usually have lower fees because they’re often passively managed. Mutual funds, especially actively managed ones, tend to have higher fees. Flexibility: ETFs are more flexible, allowing you to trade any time during market hours. Mutual funds can only be bought or sold at the close of trading.

Both can diversify your portfolio, but ETFs tend to be more liquid and cheaper.

Conclusion

Mutual funds offer an easy way for beginners to get into investing without needing to know everything about the stock market. They provide diversification, professional management, and accessibility, making them a solid choice for anyone looking to grow their money over time.

Whether you’re starting with $100 or $10,000, there’s a mutual fund for you. So, take the plunge, do your research, and let mutual funds help you reach your financial goals!

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post Understanding Mutual Funds: A Simple Explanation appeared first on Herond Blog.

Ever had a moment where you’re scrolling through your Solana wallet, wondering, “Where did that token go?” or “What’s the status of my last NFT mint?” Well, viewing Solana transaction code doesn’t have to be a mystery. Whether you’re a developer, investor, or just a curious crypto enthusiast, knowing how to track your Solana transactions and viewing Solana transaction code is crucial.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to track your Solana transactions, find your transaction IDs, and get all the juicy details behind the scenes. Ready to dive in?

Learn more: Exploring the Solana Ecosystem: The Future of Blockchain Innovation

What is Solana? A Quick Overview

Before we jump into transaction tracking, let’s quickly recap what Solana is and why it’s so popular. Solana is a high-performance blockchain known for its lightning-fast transaction speeds and super low fees. Whether you’re dealing with decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, or building on smart contracts, Solana’s scalability makes it a go-to for developers and users alike.

But behind all that speed, there’s a lot happening in the background — and that’s where transaction IDs come into play.

The Role of Transaction IDs in Solana

So, what exactly is a transaction ID? In Solana, the transaction ID (or signature) is a unique string of characters that identifies each transaction on the blockchain. It’s like your receipt after buying something online — but way cooler because it’s immutable and transparent on the blockchain.

Why does it matter? If you’re managing assets, tracking NFT sales, or just trying to check if your transaction went through, the transaction ID is your key to understanding exactly what happened. It helps you audit, trace, and troubleshoot any issues related to your transactions.

Learn more: The Impact of Web3 on Various Industries

Methods for Viewing Solana Transaction Code

There are a few ways you can go about viewing Solana’s transaction codes, but the most popular method involves using Solana’s Web3.js API. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a full-fledged developer to get started.

Using Solana’s Web3.js API

Solana’s Web3.js library allows you to interact with the blockchain and retrieve transaction data. The most important function we’ll use here is getSignaturesForAddress. This function lets you pull up all transactions associated with a given address (be it a wallet, mint address, or program ID).

Here’s a quick breakdown of what you’ll need:

Node.js (version 16.15 or higher) Yarn installed (or npm works too) Solana Web3.js Some basic JavaScript knowledge

Once you have everything set up, you can query Solana for transaction history related to any address. Here’s how you can set it up:

Create a Project Directory:

mkdir get_sol_tx

cd get_sol_tx

echo > log.js

Install Dependencies:

yarn init -y

yarn add @solana/web3.js@1

Set Up the Code:

In your log.js file, add the following code to establish a connection to Solana’s blockchain and get transaction signatures:

const solanaWeb3 = require(‘@solana/web3.js’);

const endpoint = ‘https://example.solana-devnet.quiknode.pro/000000/’;

const solanaConnection = new solanaWeb3.Connection(endpoint);

const searchAddress = ‘YOUR_ADDRESS_HERE’;

This basic setup connects you to the Solana blockchain through an RPC endpoint (you can use public nodes, but QuickNode is an excellent choice for speed).

Retrieving Transaction Details via the Web3 API

Now that you’re connected to Solana’s network, let’s get into viewing solana transaction code.

The getSignaturesForAddress Method

This function is a game-changer. By calling it, you can retrieve all transactions associated with a particular address. You can specify how many transactions you want to pull (up to 1000), and even filter them by date.

Here’s how to retrieve transactions and view essential details like signature, status, and block time:

const getTransactions = async (address, numTx) => {

    const pubKey = new solanaWeb3.PublicKey(address);

    let transactionList = await solanaConnection.getSignaturesForAddress(pubKey, { limit: numTx });

    transactionList.forEach((transaction, i) => {

        const date = new Date(transaction.blockTime * 1000);

        console.log(`Transaction No: ${i+1}`);

        console.log(`Signature: ${transaction.signature}`);

        console.log(`Time: ${date}`);

        console.log(`Status: ${transaction.confirmationStatus}`);

        console.log((“-“).repeat(20));

    });

};

getTransactions(searchAddress, 3);

This script will give you a list of recent transactions tied to the address you’re interested in, along with their respective transaction IDs and other key details. It’s that simple!

Learn more: How to connect Ethereum with Other Blockchains

Diving Deeper: Parsing Transaction Details

Now, you have the transaction IDs, but what’s inside them? To get a deeper understanding of each transaction, you can use getParsedTransaction.

This method provides additional insights into what each transaction is doing, such as the program interactions and instructions executed. Here’s how to extract that data:

const getTransactions = async (address, numTx) => {

    const pubKey = new solanaWeb3.PublicKey(address);

    let transactionList = await solanaConnection.getSignaturesForAddress(pubKey, { limit: numTx });

    let signatureList = transactionList.map(transaction => transaction.signature);

    let transactionDetails = await solanaConnection.getParsedTransactions(signatureList);

    transactionList.forEach((transaction, i) => {

        const date = new Date(transaction.blockTime * 1000);

        const transactionInstructions = transactionDetails[i].transaction.message.instructions;

        console.log(`Transaction No: ${i+1}`);

        console.log(`Signature: ${transaction.signature}`);

        console.log(`Time: ${date}`);

        console.log(`Status: ${transaction.confirmationStatus}`);

        transactionInstructions.forEach((instruction, n) => {

            console.log(`—Instructions ${n+1}: ${instruction.programId.toString()}`);

        });

        console.log((“-“).repeat(20));

    });

};

With this, you’ll be able to see what programs or smart contracts interacted with each transaction. It’s like opening the hood of the transaction to see what’s really going on!

Real-World Example: Tracking Transactions in Action

Let’s put everything into practice. Suppose you want to track transactions for a Solana wallet or an NFT mint. Here’s what you can do:

Grab your wallet address or mint address (example: vines1vzrYbzLMRdu58ou5XTby4qAqVRLmqo36NKPTg). Run the script to pull up the transaction history for that address. See the transaction details, including the IDs and the programs involved.

This is super helpful for tracking NFT sales or token transfers. You can even check it out on Solana’s Explorer to compare and confirm your results.

Using Solana Explorer for Transaction Tracking

Not a coder? No worries! You can always head over to the Solana Explorer for a visual look at your transactions.

Go to Solana Explorer. Search for your address or transaction ID. See all your transaction history and detailed logs in one easy-to-navigate interface.

It’s perfect for anyone who prefers a no-code solution to view transaction data and stay updated.

Tracking Solana Events

Solana allows smart contracts (programs) to emit events. These are similar to Ethereum’s events but have a few key differences. Instead of querying past events, you need to watch for events in real-time.

If you want to listen for specific events (like when a token is transferred or an NFT is minted), you can set up an event listener using the Anchor framework. It’s like getting notified every time something cool happens on the blockchain.

Troubleshooting & Best Practices

While Solana’s transaction tracking is pretty straightforward, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

Check your connection: Make sure your RPC endpoint is working properly (QuickNode is a great choice for faster responses). Handle errors: Sometimes, transactions might fail due to network congestion or misconfigured endpoints. Always check your logs! Optimize queries: Don’t pull unnecessary data. Limit your query to only what you need to avoid API limits. Conclusion

Now that you know how to view and track Solana transactions like a pro, there’s nothing stopping you from diving deep into the world of Solana blockchain! Whether you’re building DApps, tracking NFT mints, or just keeping an eye on your assets, the transaction ID is your key to transparency and security.

Learn more: What is a Blockchain Explorer and How Does It Work?

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post Tracking Solana Transactions: Find Your Transaction ID & Details appeared first on Herond Blog.

This blog post forms part of our 2025 Regulatory Outlook series. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be outlining key regulatory and policy trends we expect to see across the coming year. 

New skills unlocked with Okta Learning!

In een nieuwe aflevering van de Data Sharing Podcast gaat host Hidde Koning in gesprek over de wereld van zakelijke kredietverstrekking met Bartjan van der Jagt, Manager Intermediair Zakelijk bij ABN AMRO. Het gesprek draait om de rol van data en digitalisering in zakelijke kredietverstrekking, de uitdagingen rondom fraude en fouten, en de toegankelijkheid van digitale diensten.

Teknoloji hayatımızın her alanını hızla dönüştürmeye devam ediyor. Bankacılıktan alışverişe, eğitimden sağlığa kadar her şey dijital bir forma kavuşmuşken, ticari işletmelerin bu dönüşümden etkilenmemesi mümkün mü? İşte bu noktada, dijital fatura sistemleri devreye giriyor ve iş dünyasının en büyük faaliyetlerinden biri olan fatura yönetimini kolaylaştırıyor.

The post Link Index for Age Verification 2025 appeared first on Liminal.co.

Predictoor DF129 rewards available. DF130 runs Feb 20— Feb 27th, 2024 1. Overview

Data Farming (DF) is Ocean’s incentives program. In DF, you can earn OCEAN rewards by making predictions via Ocean Predictoor.

Data Farming Round 129 (DF129) has completed.

DF130 is live Feb 20. It concludes on February 27th. For this DF round, Predictoor DF has 37,500 OCEAN rewards.

2. DF structure

The reward structure for DF130 is comprised solely of Predictoor DF rewards.

Predictoor DF: Actively predict crypto prices by submitting a price prediction and staking OCEAN to slash competitors and earn.

3. How to Earn Rewards, and Claim Them

Predictoor DF: To earn: submit accurate predictions via Predictoor Bots and stake OCEAN to slash incorrect Predictoors. To claim OCEAN rewards: run the Predictoor $OCEAN payout script, linked from Predictoor DF user guide in Ocean docs.

4. Specific Parameters for DF130

Budget. Predictoor DF: 37.5K OCEAN

Networks. Predictoor DF applies to activity on Oasis Sapphire. Here is more information about Ocean deployments to networks.

Predictoor DF rewards are calculated as follows:

DF Buyer agent purchases Predictoor feeds using OCEAN throughout the week to evenly distribute these rewards.

Expect further evolution in DF: adding new streams and budget adjustments among streams.

Updates are always announced at the beginning of a round, if not sooner.

About Ocean, DF and Predictoor

Ocean was founded to level the playing field for AI and data. Ocean tools enable people to privately & securely publish, exchange, and consume data. Follow Ocean on Twitter or TG, and chat in Discord. Ocean is part of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

In Predictoor, people run AI-powered prediction bots or trading bots on crypto price feeds to earn $. Follow Predictoor on Twitter.

DF129 Completes and DF130 Launches was originally published in Ocean Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Businesses need to strike the perfect balance between speed and security with a comprehensive identity verification service. Discover why digital identity verification plays a crucial role in fraud prevention and onboarding.

The post The Identity Verification Onboarding Bottleneck first appeared on ComplyCube.

Last updated: 5th March 2025

On February 21st 2025, approximately $1.46 billion in cryptoassets were stolen from Bybit, a Dubai-based exchange. Initial reports suggest that malware was used to trick the exchange into approving transactions that sent the funds to the thief.

This is by the far the largest crypto heist of all time, dwarfing the $611 million stolen from Poly Network in 2021 (and the vast majority of these funds were eventually returned by the hacker). In fact this incident is almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind in all time, a record previously held by Saddam Hussein, who stole $1 billion from the Iraqi Central Bank on the eve of the 2003 Iraq War.

Senior QA Tester | Remote

 

 

Who we are

We build the world’s leading digital identity and Verifiable Credential technology. We bring complete solutions that fit into an organization’s existing technology stack, delivering secure, trustworthy, verifiable information. Our Indicio Proven® flagship product is the world’s most advanced solution for decentralized identity using Verifiable Credentials and Open Badges 3.0. 

As a rapidly growing start-up we need team members who can work in a fast paced environment, produce high quality work on tight deadlines, work without supervision, show initiative, innovate, and be laser focused on results. You will create lasting impact and see the results of your work immediately.

As a Senior QA Tester, you will play a crucial role in managing the tasks needed to assist in delivering a quality product to Indicio’s clients. As an experienced tester, you will play a key mentor role for other testers on the team. Your expertise in manual and automated testing techniques will be vital in enhancing Indicio’s overall product quality and usability.

We have bi-weekly sprints, daily standups, and pair programming sessions. We have optional opportunities for mentoring others, open source community participation, and leadership opportunities. This is a full-time position with company benefits including:

Subsidized healthcare  Matching 401k Unlimited PTO 14 Federal paid holidays

Indicio is a fully remote team (our Maryland colleagues have a co-working space) and our clients are located around the world. Working remotely requires you to be self-motivated, a demonstrated team-player, and have outstanding communication skills. 

We do not conduct live coding interviews, but we do like to talk about your favorite projects and may ask for code samples if you are shortlisted.

Responsibilities Review requirements, specifications, and technical design documents to provide timely and meaningful feedback Participate in design reviews and provide input on requirements, product design, and potential problems Create detailed, comprehensive, and well-structured test plans and test cases Estimate, prioritize, plan, and coordinate testing activities Design, develop, and execute automation scripts using open source tools Identify, record, document thoroughly, and track bugs Perform thorough regression testing when bugs are resolved Develop and apply testing processes for new and existing products to meet client and internal needs Communicate and collaborate with internal teams (e.g. developers) to identify system requirements Investigate the causes of non-conforming software and train users to implement solutions Document detailed application procedures to assist with repeatable testing for Indicio staff and clients Required Skills Knowledge of software QA methodologies, tools and processes Experience in writing clear, concise, and comprehensive test plans and test cases Hands-on experience with automated testing tools Experience working in an Agile/Scrum development process Ability to multitask, organize, and prioritize work independently Must live in the United States and be legally able to work here without visa sponsorship Nice to have but are not required Experience with performance and/or security testing  Leadership experience

We highly encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply – even if you don’t have experience in all the requirements and nice to haves. We particularly want to meet underrepresented people in the technology industry.

As a Public Benefit Corporation, a women-owned business, and WOSB certified, Indicio is committed to advancing decentralized identity as a public good that enables all people to control their online identities and share their data by consent. 

Apply today! Application

The post Senior QA Tester | Remote appeared first on Indicio.

Senior Software Engineer | Remote Who we are

We build the world’s leading digital identity and Verifiable Credential technology. We bring complete solutions that fit into an organization’s existing technology stack, delivering secure, trustworthy, verifiable information. Our Indicio Proven® flagship product is the world’s most advanced solution for decentralized identity using Verifiable Credentials and Open Badges 3.0. 

As a rapidly growing start up we need team members who can work in a fast paced environment, produce high quality work on tight deadlines, work without supervision, show initiative, innovate, and be laser focused on results. You will create lasting impact and see the results of your work immediately.

As a full stack engineer on our Enterprise team, you will be responsible for architecting, describing, and implementing backend features and APIs and the UIs that utilize them. Your work will be divided between work on the core Proven product and customizations to meet customer requirements. You will play a key role in building the server and web-based software that makes our customers and their partners and users successful. 

We have bi-weekly sprints, daily standups, and pair programming sessions.. We have optional opportunities for mentoring others, open source community participation, and leadership opportunities. This is a full-time position with company benefits including:

Subsidized healthcare  Matching 401k Unlimited PTO 14 Federal paid holidays

Indicio is a fully remote team (our Maryland colleagues have a co-working space) and our clients are located around the world. Working remotely requires you to be self-motivated, a demonstrated team-player, and have outstanding communication skills. 

We do not conduct live coding interviews, but we do like to talk about your favorite projects and may ask for code samples if you are shortlisted.

Responsibilities Understand requirements, design and scope features, and generate stories, tasks, and estimates Work with other team members to coordinate work and schedules Write high quality software and tests Assist our testing team to document features and create testing procedures Manage tasks in Jira and communicate via Slack and Zoom Required skills Expert in JavaScript Deep experience with Node.js, Express.js, and React.js Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining RESTful APIs Experience implementing and maintaining UIs Expert in using git, docker, bash 5+ years relevant work experience Must live in the United States and be legally able to work here without visa sponsorship. Understanding of basic cryptography principles (hashing, symmetric and asymmetric encryption, signatures, etc.) Nice to have but are not required Understanding of basic blockchain principles, verifiable credentials, and/or SSID Experience contributing to open source software projects Python development experience Working understanding of Websockets Well-formed opinions on state management Functional skills with Curl / Postman Comfortable using Linux/Unix environments Utilization of TDD methodologies Experience working in an agile environment

We highly encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply – even if you don’t have experience in all the requirements and nice to haves. We particularly want to meet underrepresented people in the technology industry.

As a Public Benefit Corporation, a women-owned business, and WOSB certified, Indicio is committed to advancing decentralized identity as a public good that enables all people to control their online identities and share their data by consent.

The post Senior Software Engineer | Remote appeared first on Indicio.

For developers tasked with building global applications, choosing the right authentication solution is crucial. Auth0's ability to bridge the gap between enterprise and consumer needs makes it a standout choice in the crowded authentication landscape.

Liminal members enjoy the exclusive benefit of receiving daily morning briefs directly in their inboxes, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve with the latest industry developments for a significant competitive advantage.

Looking for product or company-specific news? Log in or sign-up to Link for more detailed news and developments.

Here are the main industry highlights of this week week impacting identity and fraud, cybersecurity, trust and safety, financial crimes compliance, and privacy and consent management.

🪄Innovation and New Technology Developments

JPMorgan Payments Prioritizes Palm Vein Biometrics For Global Rollout

J.P. Morgan Payments is focusing on palm vein biometrics as a key part of its strategy, planning a larger rollout in 2026 after user research and pilot programs. The company has launched two biometric payment terminals: Paypad, featuring an eight-inch display with palm vein and facial recognition, and Pinpad, a smaller device with a number pad and biometric scanning. Both support various payment methods and are set to launch in the U.S. in late 2025 before international expansion. This initiative follows trials with PopID and aligns with the industry’s growing adoption of biometric payments, led by giants like Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon. (Source)

Georgia Launches Tender for National Digital Identity Wallet Proof of Concept

Georgia has initiated a tender for a proof of concept to create a national digital identity wallet that will issue verifiable credentials based on Georgian ID card data. Managed by the Public Service Development Agency (PSDA) and financed by the World Bank through a $102.9 million initiative, the wallet aims to enhance secure identity management for citizens and businesses while adhering to GDPR and eIDAS standards. It will integrate with eID services for identity verification and KYC checks, serving sectors like travel, healthcare, and education. Applicants must have international experience and contracts worth at least $2 million. The initial selection closes on March 18, 2025, with a proposal request anticipated in April 2025. (Source)

Palo Alto Networks Raises Revenue Forecast on Strong AI-Driven Cybersecurity Demand

Palo Alto Networks raised its full-year revenue forecast, expecting strong demand for its AI-driven cybersecurity solutions as enterprises focus on digital threat protection. CEO Nikesh Arora noted that Q2 performance was boosted by AI adoption and cloud investment. Analysts see Palo Alto as having a competitive edge in this space due to its proprietary data and technology. The company announced a partnership with IBM UK for the Emergency Services Network and added former Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt and ex-UBS CEO Ralph Hamers to its board. It now expects fiscal year 2025 revenue between $9.14 billion and $9.19 billion, with Q2 revenue rising 14% to $2.26 billion. (Source)

💰 Investments and Partnerships

LexisNexis Risk Solutions Acquires IDVerse To Boost AI-Powered Fraud Detection And Identity Verification

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has acquired IDVerse, an AI-powered document authentication and fraud detection provider. IDVerse’s technology, which verifies over 16,000 identity document types globally, will enhance LexisNexis’ platforms, including RiskNarrative and IDU. This acquisition improves identity verification capabilities by incorporating biometric and AI-driven fraud detection tools, strengthening fraud prevention efforts, and addressing emerging threats like AI-generated fraud and deepfakes. (Source)

SGNL Raises $30 Million To Advance Identity First Security And Real-Time Access Management

Identity management startup SGNL has raised $30 million in Series A funding, led by Brightmind Partners, totaling $42 million in funding. Its identity-first security solution automates real-time access decisions, eliminating static credentials and enhancing security. This approach improves security, reduces costs, and simplifies compliance by dynamically managing access. The new funding will aid in market expansion, product development, and support for open security frameworks. (Source)

Experian and ValidMind Partner To Automate Model Risk Management and Enhance Compliance

Experian and ValidMind have partnered to enhance model risk management by integrating ValidMind’s governance automation with Experian’s Ascend Platform. This collaboration aims to boost regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and model governance by automating documentation, validation, and monitoring. It supports financial institutions in meeting compliance requirements like SR 11-7 and the EU AI Act, while facilitating faster adoption of AI-driven models. Early adopters report improved audit readiness and reduced documentation timelines, setting a new industry standard for scalable model risk management. (Source)

Hightouch Raises 80 Million In Series C, Doubling Valuation To 1.2 Billion

Hightouch, a customer data platform startup, has raised $80 million in a Series C round led by Sapphire Ventures, doubling its valuation to $1.2 billion. Co-founded by former Segment executives, Hightouch helps marketing and sales teams synchronize data warehouses with various tools, utilizing AI for personalization and automation. Key products include its CDP for marketing campaigns and AI Decisioning, which optimizes customer engagement. Launched in August 2024, strong demand for AI Decisioning drove the funding, despite the company’s previous financial efficiency. Hightouch serves major clients like Spotify and PetSmart, aiming to expand its AI capabilities. (Source)

Menlo Security Acquires Votiro Cybersec To Enhance Zero Trust File And Data Security Capabilities

Menlo Security Inc. has acquired Votiro Cybersec Ltd. to boost its zero-trust file and data security capabilities by integrating Votiro’s technology into its browser security solution. Votiro’s ZT Cloud platform removes file-borne threats from emails, web downloads, and collaboration tools, and integrates with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Zscaler. This acquisition enhances Menlo’s provision of zero-trust access for enterprise workflows and prevents data leakage. CEO Amir Ben-Efraim emphasized that this move strengthens Menlo’s market leadership with a comprehensive workspace security solution. Prior to the acquisition, Votiro raised $32.5 million in venture capital from investors like Harvest Lane Asset Management and Senetas Corp. (Source)

Bain Capital Withdraws From Fuji Soft Bidding War As KKR Strengthens Position

Bain Capital has discontinued its pursuit of Fuji Soft, ending its bidding war with KKR for the Japanese software company valued at over $4 billion. After planning a tender offer at ¥9,600 per share, Bain opted out following discussions with founder Hiroshi Nozawa. In contrast, KKR raised its offer to ¥9,850 per share and extended the tender period, having already secured a one-third stake in the company. This pattern highlights the growing influence of foreign private-equity firms in Japan’s M&A market as companies restructure. (Source)

UK Partners With Anthropic To Boost AI-Driven Digital Services And Economic Growth

The UK government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Anthropic to explore how AI can enhance access to online services, underscoring a commitment to responsible AI and digital identity. This partnership aligns with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s goal of AI-driven economic growth, potentially generating £100 billion in tax revenues by 2040, while also aiming to sustain the UK’s digital leadership amidst global shifts and concerns over AI governance. (Source)

Drata Acquires SafeBase for $250 Million to Strengthen Security Compliance and Trust Management

Drata has acquired SafeBase , a software security review startup, for $250 million to enhance its trust, governance, and risk management services. SafeBase will operate independently, with its co-founders in leadership roles, while integrating its security questionnaire automation into Drata’s platform. This acquisition responds to growing demand for trust management solutions due to increased reliance on third-party vendors and stricter regulations. Drata, which has raised over $300 million and serves over 7,000 customers, aims to create a seamless compliance and risk management ecosystem, solidifying its leadership in security automation. (Source)

⚖️ Policy and Regulatory

DeepSeek Halts Chatbot App Downloads in South Korea Amid Privacy Concerns

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea due to privacy concerns raised by the Personal Information Protection Commission. The apps were removed from the App Store and Google Play, with DeepSeek agreeing to enhance privacy protections before relaunching. While existing users can still access the app, authorities advise against entering personal information. Concerns include unclear third-party data transfers and excessive data collection. Many South Korean agencies and companies have restricted the app’s use, with DeepSeek having around 1.2 million users in the country as of late January, second only to ChatGPT. (Source)

Norway Indicts Four for $87 Million Crypto Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

Norwegian authorities have indicted four individuals in an $87 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme that defrauded thousands globally. The scam, disguised as a multi-level marketing operation, sold “product packages” with false promises of lucrative investments in gas, mining, and real estate. Investigators found no real investments were made, and it operated as a Ponzi scheme, using new deposits to pay earlier investors. Over 700 million kroner was laundered through a Norwegian law firm and transferred to accounts in Asia, aided by professional facilitators. (Source)

UK Government Pressures Apple to Weaken iCloud Encryption, Sparking Privacy Concerns

Brazil has established a Federal Biometric Service to manage the issuance of the national identity card (CIN), which requires both fingerprint and facial biometrics in accordance with NIST, ISO/IEC, and ICAO standards. The system must comply with specific false non-identification and false positive rates for various match types. The law also requires liveness detection—Level 1 for low-risk and Level 2 for high-risk transactions—based on NIST evaluations. With 20 million CINs issued since 2022, the government plans to release its implementation strategy within 90 days, integrating this biometric service with the Gov.br digital identity system. (Source)

US Court Ruling Against Ross Intelligence Sets Key Precedent In AI Copyright Law

A recent U.S. ruling against Ross Intelligence determined that using Thomson Reuters’ copyrighted headnotes for training its AI legal research platform infringes copyright, establishing a precedent in AI copyright law. This decision poses challenges for AI companies facing over 39 similar lawsuits by emphasizing the commercial impact of use rather than transformative fair use. While it doesn’t directly affect companies like OpenAI and Midjourney, it bolsters copyright holders’ positions, and experts believe the reasoning could apply to generative AI models, although the legal landscape is still evolving and may change on appeal. (Source)

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The post The State of Identity appeared first on Liminal.co.

How to add Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA) to an Express + Typescript API using the OpenFGA Javascript and Node.js SDK.

Tokeny's Talent 21 February 2025 Talent Interview | Nida Talent Interview | Nida Tokeny's Talent 21 February 2025 Nida Orhan is UX/UI Designer and Front-end Developer at Tokeny, she joined the company in 2017. Reflecting on the 7-year Journey You’ve been with the company since the very beginning, as the UX/UI Designer & Front-end Developer. How has the company supported your growth during this time?

Over the past seven years, the company has given me the opportunity to take on diverse challenges that have expanded both my UX/UI design and frontend development skills. Working on multiple products simultaneously has strengthened my ability to manage priorities effectively while delivering high-quality designs. Working on complex challenges within our comprehensive platform has strengthened my ability to balance usability, technical constraints, and business objectives when designing UI solutions. I’ve gained extensive experience in Web3 UX design, frequently pioneering new UI patterns and crafting user experiences tailored to the evolving needs of DeFi and emerging technologies. The trust and autonomy I’ve been given have allowed me to experiment, learn, and continuously improve, while also staying up to date with the latest design trends and technologies. Additionally, the collaborative environment has provided a great space for exchanging ideas and learning from talented colleagues across different teams.

Tokeny’s Culture Involvement Tokeny has grown significantly since you joined. How has the company culture evolved in your opinion?

The company has maintained its core values of collaboration, innovation, and openness, even as it has grown. In the early days, everything was fast-paced and dynamic, with a smaller team making quick decisions. As we expanded, we introduced more structured processes, improving efficiency and ensuring that our work scaled effectively.

“Tokeny has retained a strong sense of teamwork and a supportive atmosphere, where everyone is encouraged to share ideas and contribute.” “Tokeny has retained a strong sense of teamwork and a supportive atmosphere, where everyone is encouraged to share ideas and contribute.” How would you describe your own personal growth within the company?

Initially, my focus was purely on executing designs and implementing frontend features, but over time, I’ve taken on more responsibility in shaping the overall user experience of our products. Being the sole designer has required me to be adaptable, balancing creativity with practicality. As our team has expanded, I’ve gained valuable experience collaborating across departments and working with professionals from diverse backgrounds, enhancing my ability to communicate, adapt, and align design solutions with various perspectives.

“This journey has reinforced my confidence and problem-solving abilities, making me a stronger professional overall.” “This journey has reinforced my confidence and problem-solving abilities, making me a stronger professional overall.” Company Values in Practice You mentioned in your previous interview how much you appreciated the collaborative and friendly team culture. Can you share an example of a project where you or your team used this collaboration, and how it was received?

One good example is the development of the token settings configuration. Due to its complexity, it required close collaboration between the product, design, development, and blockchain teams to create an intuitive user experience while staying within technical constraints. Through continuous iteration, feedback sessions, and collective problem-solving, we refined the interface into a solution that was both user-friendly and technically robust.

Reflections and Future Outlook If you could give advice to your younger self, just starting out at Tokeny, what would it be?

I would tell myself to embrace the fast-paced nature of a growing company and take initiative. In the beginning, I sometimes hesitated to push my ideas forward, but over time, I learned that being proactive and vocal about design decisions leads to better outcomes. Also, I’d remind myself that adaptability is key—things change rapidly, and staying flexible and considering future goals of the product while keeping the user experience at the center is the best approach.

“I see Tokeny further solidifying its position as a leader in digital asset infrastructure, with the ERC-3643 standard becoming more widely adopted across the industry.” “I see Tokeny further solidifying its position as a leader in digital asset infrastructure, with the ERC-3643 standard becoming more widely adopted across the industry.” As someone who has been with the company through significant milestones, where do you see Tokeny going in the next five years, and how do you envision your role evolving in that journey?

As Tokeny scales, establishing and growing a strong network and community around this ERC-3643 standard will be crucial, alongside continuous innovation in new products. This evolution will introduce more sophisticated UX/UI challenges, demanding increasingly agile and adaptive design approaches. I envision myself playing a key role in shaping these advancements, ensuring our solutions remain both powerful and user-friendly.

More Stories  Talent Interview | Nida 21 February 2025 Tokeny’s Talent | Philippe’s Story 30 January 2025 Tokeny’s Talent | Christian’s Story 17 January 2025 Tokeny’s Talent | Satjapong’s Story 19 November 2024 Tokeny’s Talent | Jordi’s Story 1 November 2024 Tokeny’s Talent | Shurong 18 September 2024 Tokeny’s Talent | Omobola 25 July 2024 Tokeny’s Talent | Cristian 13 June 2024 Tokeny’s Talent | Adrian 15 May 2024 Tokeny’s Talent | Fedor 10 April 2024 Read More Stories Join Tokeny Family We are looking for talents to join us, you can find the opening positions by clicking the button. Available Positions

The post Talent Interview | Nida appeared first on Tokeny.

By Steve McCown

Today’s news is filled with articles and discussions about digital identity, credentials, passwordless logins, etc. Inevitably, articles gravitate towards digital wallets, some pending ‘wallet war’, and who will win it. The short answer is … everyone.

When modern digital identity technologies emerged, they introduced new cryptography, keys, tokens, and other security data and they required a specialized type of storage that developers called a ‘wallet’. Wallet apps quickly emerged to enable users – with no interest in cryptography other than it increases security and privacy – to push a button and securely access whichever service they were seeking. Lots of wallet apps emerged … and Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, etc. all took notice.

Today, the Apple Wallet or the Google Wallet is on nearly every mobile. So, did they win the so-called wallet war? Sort of, but not exactly. Depending on which mobile device you use, you have an Apple or Google wallet and almost certainly use it. However, whether you know it or not, you have other ‘wallets’ on your device and you use them regularly, too.

As one example, most airlines have their own wallet, but they don’t call it a wallet. Flying Delta Airlines? You probably have the Fly Delta app. This app lets you search, compare, and book flights. It helps you change seats to get that inch or two of extra leg room. It also prompts you to check in, creates a boarding pass, and even helps you find your new gate when your flight is moved. For identity, it manages your government ID data, your passport, and credit cards. For air travel, it does pretty much everything. So, why are we still using the Apple Wallet?

While the Fly Delta app focuses on Delta’s flying experience, the Apple Wallet (or Google Wallet) does a bunch of other random, but really important, things. It stores payments and lets you pay online and at contactless terminals, and maintains an itemized list of purchases. It also stores insurance cards, movie tickets, membership cards, and a limitless set of cards with QR codes. So, if Apple’s wallet does all of that, why would you need anything else?

While the Apple Wallet is very general purpose, it can’t do all the specialized things that apps like Delta’s do. While you’ll use Delta’s to search, book, and carry out your travel plans, Fly Delta also lets you save your boarding pass as a card with flight info and a boarding QR code into your Apple Wallet. Why do they work together? Isn’t there a war over wallet adoption? Not really.

While the infamous Browser Wars battled over control of your web experience, today’s wallet apps specialize by providing different functionality, which means you will likely want several – and you will want to them to work together. Domination may have been the previous goal, but today, we want our apps to work together to give us a seamless, interoperable experience as we bounce from app to site to service and then into another app. Consumers want an easy, seamless experience that just works – since that’s how we think.

So, is a wallet an app or a feature of an app? 

The answer is yes, because wallets (or rather wallet functionality) are in everything. Some apps are called wallets (e.g., Apple Wallet, Google Wallet) and we see them that way. Some apps have wallets inside (e.g., Fly Delta, Amazon, eBay) and we use them that way. Don’t get hung up on whether an app is a wallet, or a wallet is (part of) an app. Ask two questions and keep asking them:

Is it secure? Does it use all the right encryption and standardized protocols and does use them in the right way?  Does it maintain YOUR privacy? Does it keep your data private, or does it sell your identity, purchase, and usage data and exchange all that with social media and data brokers?  

Keep asking those questions, ask them of every provider, and don’t stop asking. As you ask about wallet privacy and security, you can also ask whether they comply with the latest industry standards. Emerging standards help providers enhance security and privacy, comply with national legislation (e.g., GDPR), and avoid data breach embarrassments. A new generation of cryptographic identity standards and protocols are currently available from industry standards organizations, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), OpenID Foundation, Trust over IP, etc. These standards groups are creating blueprints that are becoming the backbone of national legislation, such as Europe’s eIDAS Regulation, which “facilitates secure cross-border transactions by establishing a framework for digital identity and authentication … to create confidence in electronic interactions and promote seamless digital services in the EU.”

So, is a wallet an app or does an app contain a wallet? While the answer is a definitive yes, now you know that the real questions are How is it built?, Does it comply with industry standards?, and Will it protect my identity and my data?

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The post Is an App a Wallet or is a Wallet an App? appeared first on Anonyome Labs.

2024 was a pivotal year for the adoption of mobile driver’s licenses (mDL), with many new states moving to adopt this new form of privacy- and security-enhancing digital identity. However, many of these projects are still being tested, with elements still to be explored and refined.

One of those is accessibility in emerging technology. Digital credentials like mDL are crucial to many basic aspects of life, like all forms of identity documentation, and must be usable by as many people as possible. It’s vital to ensure, for instance, that the visually impaired can present credentials in various contexts. There are upsides to explore, too: What benefits might people gain from new digital identity tools?

The good news is that, while challenges remain, mobile devices and apps already offer comprehensive accessibility options that extend to digital credentials—in fact, mobile devices have become powerful tools for improving the lives of those with disabilities. For some types of disabilities, such as mobility impairments, digital credentials offer further quality-of-life improvements.

What Does Accessibility Mean?

Information technology built for accessibility must abide by four core principles outlined by the World Wide Web Consortium. These principles are sometimes referred to by the acronym POUR, for Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

Tools should be Perceivable even for those with constrained senses; they should be Operable with a variety of input mechanisms, including keyboards, touch, or voice controls; and they should be clear so they’re easily Understandable. Finally, infrastructure should be Robust in its formatting and presentation, enabling a variety of user agents and assistive technologies to interpret and present data to users.

For state and local governments in the U.S., making web and mobile tools accessible is mandatory under the Americans with Disabilities Act and its evolving rules. These rules ensure that everyone can benefit from the convenience of the internet to engage with vital government processes like voting and paying taxes.

But serving as many users as possible is also just good business for private firms: more than 4 million Americans, for instance, have serious or total loss of vision, 11 million have serious hearing loss or total deafness, and more than 12%, or 40 million, have impaired mobility. Overall, according to the CDC, nearly 29% of American adults have some form of disability.

That’s not a group businesses can afford to leave underserved.

Digital Tools for the Visually Impaired

The first accessibility challenge you’re likely to consider when thinking about the mobile driver’s license is for users with visual impairments. For example, one common way a digital credential might be presented is as a QR code, which is likely to be quite difficult for someone who can’t see the scanning device.

The good news is that the phone itself is far less of an obstacle. A sighted person might assume that the lack of tactile feedback like braille would make using a smartphone nearly impossible for a blind person, but in fact, smartphones have shown many advantages for the blind. Thanks to screen-reader software and gesture-based controls built natively into both Apple and Android devices, according to one expert, “the vast majority of everyday actions that needed the help of a third person a few years ago can now be done on the phone.”

For mDL users, that means a screen reader will let them find the correct wallet and credentials. As VDCs become more common, this might even become a more accessible option than paper credentials: It’s relatively rare for certifications or identity documents to be offered with braille options, and while the percentage of visually impaired people who use braille is not well-studied, it seems surprisingly low: only about 7% in the U.K., for instance. Digital credentials could, in practical terms, be more accessible than paper documents. 

This does require the designers of credentials and wallets to comply with the POUR tenet of robustness: data must be easy to read for a variety of user agents. While wallet designers will need to be specifically attentive here, one of the great strengths of verifiable digital credentials is that they conform to universal standards – meaning that the data in the credentials themselves will be consistently categorized and formatted by default, making it easy for agents to interpret for users.

Read More: Who Should Build a Digital Wallet?

The question of scanning or presenting credentials in various contexts is thornier. While we don’t claim to have the answer, one possible route would be to use sound to guide users to a scanner: a scaled-down analog to the audio beacons that are common for U.S. crosswalks and increasingly used in other settings. 

Security as Accessibility

The largest group of Americans with disabilities is people who face cognitive impairments, defined as serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions. A substantial portion of this group is made up of older Americans – and they are disproportionately victims of fraud and phishing attempts. 

While VDCs can't stop scammers from asking for an intrusive amount of personal data or prevent phishing of passwords, they can bring an additional element of security to common transactions with trusted verifiers, such that any fraudulent activity will stand out. If a bank is routinely asking for a verifiable digital credential before transferring money, it will be obvious if that credential isn't required or if the verifier is not the normal requester for a fraudulent transfer.

Of course, mDL and other forms of VDC are novel technologies that may be off-putting or confusing for those with cognitive impairments, regardless of their theoretical benefits. This is one important reason that VDC-based identity, whatever its advantages, should be offered as an optional, convenient supplement for paper-based documents rather than a required substitute.

The Big Benefit of Digital Credentials: Secure Remote Services

Mobility impairment is the second-largest type of disability impacting Americans after cognitive impairment. This is where the mobile driver’s license and other VDCs have the potential to truly shine: because they are reliable for acceptance online, digital credentials can enable new kinds of remote services for people who face challenges moving around. This potentially includes not just reliably proving identity online but eventually presenting a variety of other documents, from marriage certificates to property titles and medical history.

Discussion around digital credentials has often touched specifically on financial services and benefits provision, particularly relevant for people with a disability since some may receive financial assistance. Reliable digital identity and credentials can also open employment opportunities for the mobility impaired: remote work is ideal for many people with mobility challenges, and digital credentials used for secure access control can make more roles available remotely.

While work remains to carefully understand and address user needs, a close look shows that digital credentials are starting from a very strong position for accessibility. As the verifiable digital credential ecosystem develops, SpruceID is committed to maximizing that potential for the benefit of all Americans.

Explore Accessible Verifiable Digital Credentials

At SpruceID, we’re committed to making digital identity solutions accessible, secure, and user-friendly for everyone. As mobile driver’s licenses and verifiable digital credentials continue to evolve, ensuring inclusivity is key to unlocking their full potential. If you’re interested in learning more about how SpruceID is advancing accessibility in digital identity—or if you’d like to explore how these solutions can benefit your organization—reach out to us today.

Get in Touch

About SpruceID: SpruceID is building a future where users control their identity and data across all digital interactions.

This month, we’ve got everything, from rogue presidents to ground-breaking fines. Buckle up for this month's dose of Crypto as regulations take center stage and the sector continues to grapple with ever-evolving challenges.

The post The CryptoCubed Newsletter: February Edition first appeared on ComplyCube.

The Ultimate Web3 Gaming Identity 🎮 The Ultimate Web3 Gaming Identity One ID to Rule Them All

Picture this: You’re a Web3 gamer, conquering kingdoms in one world, trading rare artifacts in another, and building empires across multiple chains. But wait, there’s a problem your achievements, assets, and progress are scattered across different wallets and games. It’s like being a superhero with multiple secret identities. Cool? Maybe. Convenient? Definitely not.

The Potential: A Unified Digital Identity

Imagine a world where all your gaming glory, digital assets, and on-chain activities unite under one verified profile. One ID to rule them all (yes, just like the One Ring, but less evil). That’s the power of ID V2. It bridges the gap between fragmented identities, creating a seamless, engaging, and personalized Web3 experience for gamers and businesses alike.

The Problem: Fragmentation is the Villain

The Web3 space is booming, but let’s be real — it’s a hot mess when it comes to managing identities. You need different wallets for different games, your achievements are scattered, and personalized rewards? Forget about it. Businesses, on the other hand, struggle to understand player behavior, leading to spammy campaigns and inefficient airdrops. It’s like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with pieces from different sets.

Enter the Hero: ID V2

ID V2 is here to save the day. It’s an on-chain and interoperable identity and reputation-enabling infrastructure designed to unify all your digital personas. Think of it as the ultimate passport for the Web3 universe, combining your wallets, gaming data, and on-chain activities into one verified profile. Whether you’re slaying dragons or trading NFTs, Safle ID V2 keeps track of it all, seamlessly.

But that’s not all — it’s also wallet-agnostic, meaning you can use it across different blockchains and games. Whether you’re playing on Ethereum, Polygon, or some futuristic chain yet to be invented, ID V2 has got you covered.

How Does It Work?

Imagine Ron, an avid Web3 gamer who uses two different wallets to play his favorite games. Axie Infinity wants to reward him based on his progress in Wild Forest, but they can’t track his achievements because his identities are fragmented. Enter Ron’s ID V2 Profile — a unified identity that aggregates his credentials and performance across games and chains. Now, Axie Infinity can offer Ron personalized rewards, making his gaming experience more exciting and engaging.

Key Features That Make ID V2 Legendary: Cross-Game and Cross-Chain Asset Visibility: See all your achievements and assets in one place, no matter where you earned them. Data-Driven Insights: Businesses can now target and retain high-value players with personalized campaigns. Gasless Onboarding: Seamlessly join new games without the hassle of switching wallets or creating new identities. Bot Prevention: By verifying genuine player identities, ID V2 weeds out bots, ensuring a fair gaming environment. Personalized Rewards: Players receive rewards tailored to their gaming habits and engagement levels. For Users: One ID, Endless Possibilities

With V2, gamers get a unified identity that works across all games and dApps. No more juggling multiple wallets or losing track of achievements. Plus, they get personalized rewards and can compete in a user-owned, ecosystem-independent gaming network. It’s like having a VIP pass to every digital universe out there.

For Businesses: Game-Changing Insights and Engagement

Businesses gain valuable insights into player behavior, allowing them to create targeted marketing campaigns and personalized offers. It also boosts loyalty and engagement, with retention rates increasing by up to 35% on Day-7 and player lifetime value soaring by 50–70%.

Why ID V2 is a Game-Changer

SafleID V2 isn’t just about unifying identities it’s about building a data-driven, personalized, and interconnected Web3 ecosystem. It creates a win-win scenario where players enjoy seamless experiences and rewards, while businesses maximize engagement and growth.

Ready to Join the Revolution?

ID V2 is rewriting the rules of Web3 identity and gaming. Whether you’re a gamer or a business, it’s time to level up. Learn more about how ID V2 can transform your Web3 journey visit Safle today!

🚀 More updates coming soon!

How do you live in a house that isn’t property? How might reimagining our relationship with the house create space for Indigenous Reconciliation? And how might this support the thriving of the next seven generations? Radicle Civics, 7GenCities and the Property & Beyond Lab explore this proposition in one of the first exhibitions and workshops on FreeHouse Tkaronto.

In early October last year, Dark Matter Labs and 7GenCities, by the kind invitation of our friends at Evergreen, participated in the annual Evergreen Conference 2024, on the theme of “unlocking public spaces for people and planet.” Apart from hosting a workshop on our toolkit for Open Space Resilience Tool Embedding Reconciliation, developed by TreesAI and 7GenCities for Evergreen, we also showcased for the first time in public our FreeHouse Tkaronto proposition, as a conference exhibit and a workshop. This blog documents our work so far, and what’s coming next.

What is FreeHouse? FreeHouse at the Desgin Museum’s Future Observatory Display

FreeHouse, a concept of a self-owning house existing beyond property relations, has been an ongoing exploration across many parts of DML, including most recently as a display at the Design Museum’s Future Observatory exhibition, and a Life Ennobling Economics and Radicle Civics discussion on how housing can be financed non-extractively. For us, self-ownership is a core provocation of the Property & Beyond Lab and creates the space to ask critical questions about our relationship with housing, including:

How do you live in a house that owns itself?
If there isn’t an owner that has all the rights over a house because it owns itself, how can we make decisions over housing and its value for the commons? What if a house could generate value beyond extracting rent?
Housing is treated as a commodity that allows the owner to extract rent. But a house could generate energy, reduce flood risk, improve biodiversity, sequester carbon, improve health, and more. What would generative housing look like instead? What if the materials of a house are leased from the Earth and not owned?
A house is made up of many materials, some of which often end up in landfill at the end of its life. If we didn’t own the house’s materials but they were on loan from the Earth, how might we care for and reuse them more responsibly? FreeHouse Tkaronto: a housing model that creates space for restoring longstanding Indigenous relationships with the land

FreeHouse Tkaronto is our first place-based proof-of-possibility proposed for Toronto, building on our collaborator Callum Nolan’s research on the viability of regenerative housing models on Toronto’s ravines.

What we call Toronto occupies the homeland of present-day Treaty 13 holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabeg, Wendat and Haudenosaunee Confederacies. Not only do we acknowledge their custodianship over this land, but we should also understand that these and other Nations have sacred, longstanding and multivalent relationships with the land based on kinship, reciprocity and stewardship that have cared for this land over generations.

It is only since the imposition by colonialism of western conceptions of property — the idea of enclosing and controlling a piece of land — that property has become the predominant form of relationship between humans and the land. This has underpinned many of the systemic issues around housing inequality today, which are especially stark in the context of Toronto, where house prices are growing four times faster than incomes, while housing supply is failing to meet growing demand, with almost 93,000 on the social housing wait list.

Canada is an outlier among G7 countries in terms of housing unaffordability, measured by real house price to income ratio. Image source: Callum Nolan based on data from OECD

FreeHouse Tkaronto, as a demonstrator of a house beyond property relations, is therefore not for us just a thought exercise, but a critical step in Indigenous reconciliation. We hope to prove the possibility of an alternative housing model that moves beyond property and extraction, and instead recenters Indigenous land relationships built on interdependent and reciprocal interactions with the land and structures that we create as home. FreeHouse Tkaronto could prove a pathway for systems change, decolonising the problematic systems that have underpinned the multiple crises we face, from climate to housing.

Why Toronto’s ravines?

Toronto’s ravine system is one of the things that makes the city unique: these blue-green networks of rivers and urban forests run all the way from its green belt to its city centre, and is in fact the largest in any city in the world.

There is already an intergenerational tradition of Indigenous stewardship in the ravines. Ravines have naturally demarcated territory before superimposed property and administrative lines, their streams and rivers made them a hub of trade and travel, and the site of many communities and settlements. The Carrying Place trail followed what is now known as the Humber River, and was one of the most important First Nations trade routes.

Mapping the social factors of the ravines, from land ownership, Indigenous sacred fire sites, to existing community housing. Image source: Callum Nolan

Restoring connections and access to the land is a critical dimension of Indigenous reconciliation today. In more recent years, there have been Indigenous stewardship initiatives of municipally-managed lands, such as the role of Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle in Toronto’s High Park Oak Savannahs, and the Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag land-based learning and sustainable urban design program. These initiatives situate diverse Indigenous knowledges within conservation and regenerative land relationships, and provide opportunity and access to land for urban Indigenous Community, as part of a deeper reconciliation process.

Since Ontario’s Conservation Authorities Act 1946, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is responsible for managing the ravines, with a unique governance arrangement. TRCA owns up to 60% of the land designated as ravines, where it has management agreements with the City of Toronto. For land the TRCA does not own but falls within the ravine designation, TRCA requirements take precedence over all other regulations (e.g. for building permits), and TRCA undertakes work for environmental/ remediation purposes, including on private land (e.g. backyards) that fall under this designation. The TRCA and the City of Toronto are critical decision-makers in how the ravines are stewarded.

The TRCA recognises the value that the ravines provide to the city: they estimate that the ravines contribute ecosystem services worth CA$800 million annually and they admit this is a conservative estimate where over half of this figure is the social value from the use of the ravines for recreation, with only a select number of co-benefits accounted with an existing body of evidence. The value of flood risk mitigation, biodiversity (beyond the social value of “knowing natural areas exist”), and its synergetic impact on urban climate resilience is notably absent.

Mapping the ecological factors of the ravines, from restoration priority, water quality, vegetation health, to ongoing remediation projects. Image source: Callum Nolan

Yet not all ravine land is fulfilling its full regenerative potential for Toronto’s commons. Callum Nolan’s remote sensing and GIS analysis of the ravine network, using water quality data and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imaging (an indicator of vegetation greenness and plant health), reveals parts of the ravine system that have been degraded due to human intervention, including hard surfaces and canalisation, contrary to the ravines’ popular image as “untouched wilderness.” This is corroborated by the TRCA’s own Integrated Restoration Prioritization index which identifies parts of the ravines with high priority for ecosystem restoration, based on aggregating metrics such as natural cover, aquatic systems, altered hydrology, connectivity and natural heritage value. By combining multiple metrics, we can already begin to identify potential sites which could host an alternative model for restoring and caring for the ravines.

Reconciliation and restoration on the ravines: a strategic opportunity

The FreeHouse Tkaronto proposition is simple: creating regenerative, truly affordable housing on degraded land along valuable ravine ecosystems for residents who will support land stewardship inspired by Indigenous land practices.

The model works in two parts: firstly the FreeHouse’s regenerative design principles will ensure that the home is built in a non-extractive and sustainable way. This crucially recontextualises the home not as a commodity, but a confluence of relationships: that with its inhabitants (comfort, design for minimal maintenance, the steward’s rights), and the wider ecosystem (energy use and generation, heating, urban drainage, biodiversity and use of resources). The development of the FreeHouse will also provide an opportunity to remediate the past ecologically-damaging interventions of the site as part of its landscaping, such as reusing or removing grey infrastructure while restoring naturalised watercourses, and re-wilding the riparian landscape.

Secondly, the model recognises that Indigenous knowledges and practices are rooted in an embodied presence on the land. How would a steward who actually lives on the land understand the entangled ecological and social relationships around the ravines differently from a conservation worker who manages it as part of a portfolio of responsibilities? And how would this embodied knowledge shape how they care for the land differently?

We suggest that, under guidance and leadership of Indigenous knowledge holders, a model of resident stewardship could support the flourishing of the ravines and the value they add to the city’s commons. This could be through supporting activities to restore and preserve the ravine environment (e.g. caring for saplings), or developing intelligence of the ecosystem’s health through experiencing it daily (e.g. observing wildlife, plant health, water quality, etc.). This builds on initiatives that already exist in the ravine context, such the Indigenous-led Turtle Protectors program, and the TRCA’s own efforts, such as its Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP) programs, which involve local communities in the stewardship of urban nature in their areas. There are also initiatives across Canada to enable Indigenous stewardship in public land practices.

The strategy weaves together a commons of multiple actors across the ravines.

It is the ambition of the model to realise housing as a genuine commons: weaving together multiple actors, from Indigenous stewardship leads, residents, to public authorities in mutually beneficial relationships, and creating value in their entanglement that is greater than the sum of its parts. This would also be reflected in the strategic design components required, such as the governance and decision-making design of this commons, the stewardship agreement between resident and the commons, and frameworks for understanding the multivalent and holistic outcomes created by the FreeHouse and the steward’s care.

Exhibition and Workshop at the Evergreen Brickworks The Freehouse Tkaronto display at the Evergreen Conference

As part of the two-day Evergreen Conference, we were offered the opportunity to exhibit at Brickworks’ Young Centre, where we showcased the FreeHouse Tkaronto proposition in public for the first time.

Apart from exhibition boards that summarise the FreeHouse Tkaronto proposition, the exhibition also featured provocative objects that captured the FreeHouse concept, including those featured in our Design Museum’s Future Observatory exhibition. This included a sample of a cross-laminated timber structure ‘on loan from the Earth’ showing repairs and records of its past lives. A ‘receipt for ecosystem services’ was also displayed, to raise questions over what generative value a house could have beyond extracting rent. As an interactive conversation prompt, we also had a mock stewardship agreement with flash cards allowing visitors to suggest what a fair combination of rights and responsibilities for a FreeHouse resident should be.

The exhibition also summarised our analysis of the ravines within the city limits, understanding the different entangled relationships that are inherent in ravine land in two maps. In ‘Ecology of the Ravines’, we show NDVI analysis, water quality, Integrated Restoration priority, and areas of TRCA ownership together with a selection of relevant conservation projects. In ‘Community around the Ravines’, we map out lost/buried rivers, significant Indigenous historical sites, sacred fire sites, community housing schemes, in relation to areas of TRCA ownership and ravine and green space zoning designations, with a selection of Indigenous and community-led initiatives.

Finally, the exhibition features an illustrative drawing of a FreeHouse Tkaronto situated in the landscape, exploring what the different forms of value the ravines create for the city, and how this could be augmented by the FreeHouse design and the resident stewards.

The Evergreen Conference provided an opportunity to receive feedback from actors involved in placemaking, from architects and urban designers, members of community organisations, environmental consultants, to people who work for municipal and conservation authorities. Visitors were invited to leave their feedback, with a few recurring themes that stood out. There was appreciation of the power in fundamental reframing ideas about property in relation to housing and resources that have been embedded deeply in the very culture.

However, there were also concerns over the fact that much local political effort has been invested in ensuring that ravines are protected from development. Even if the FreeHouse Tkaronto strategy aimed to remediate the ecologically-degraded parts of the ravine, it could set a precedent for ravine development, including in its more extractive forms. We will work closely with the TRCA, as the permitting authority for ravine land, to ensure that this unintended consequence is avoided.

Finally, we also learned of existing precedents for an integrated stewardship-housing model in and around Toronto. For example, Parks Canada’s Rouge National Urban Park, operates realty services for properties (including residential) inside the national park, offering leases for tenants who commit to responsible stewardship of the heritage buildings, and protecting the built and natural environment of the park. The TRCA, which also owns 118 residential properties, also similarly leases homes on a stewardship basis. These serve as local precedents for models of combining housing, stewardship in conservation areas, on which FreeHouse Tkaronto can build.

Rightsholder & Stakeholder Engagement Workshop Rightsholder and stakeholder workshop at the Evergreen Brickworks

On the day after the Evergreen Conference, we organised a half-day workshop to take a focused deep dive into the proposition for feedback and exploring next steps. It was co-hosted by 7GenCities (Jayne Engle, Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook), Dark Matter Labs (Calvin Po, Callum Nolan, Sofia Valentini), and the City of Toronto’s Indigenous Affairs Office (Selina Young, Fred Martin, Emma Cooper).

Attendees also represented different stakeholders in the system. This included:

Dr Hopi Martin from Edge of the Bush (Ojibwe Developmental Psychology and Education Oshkaabewis — Sacred Helper, Messenger, Fire Keeper, Lodge Caretaker) Colleagues from across different parts of the TRCA: Sonia Dhir (TRCA’s government and community relations liaison) Steven Heuchert (TRCA’s development, planning, and permits) Edlyn Wong (TRCA’s property) Nicola Hives from the Toronto Foundation Michelle Baldwin from Community Foundations of Canada Lois Lindsay from Evergreen Canada who also kindly provided the venue situated in the heart of the Don Valley and the ravines.

It should be noted that pre-workshop briefings and conversations were held with some of the attendees, as well as a number of Indigenous Elders and housing and community advisors who were unable to attend the workshop at the Brick Works. Ideas, concerns and recommendations from these engagement sessions helped to shape and refine thinking, design and planning of the workshop and exhibit, and overall project.

The workshop began in ceremony with the asemaa or sacred tobacco teaching co-led by Dr. Hopi Martin (Lenni Lenape + European) and Fred Martin (Anishinaabe + Mi’kmaq), and deep sharing of local Anishinaabe knowledge and wisdom traditions situated on the land and in place, within the context of Waasayishkodenayosh or the Lower Don River watershed. An Waabizheshi Oshkaabewis of the Ojibwe Martin Clan (Sacred Helper, Messenger, Fire Keeper, Lodge Caretaker), Hopi’s generous teachings wove together a rich, multi-layered spiritual, cultural and natural basket to hold and nourish the dialogues and collective sensemaking. Hopi leads the Edge of the Bush, an Indigenous-led land-based learning initiative with partners like Evergreen. Fred is Senior Project Manager at the Indigenous Affairs Office and Waterfront Secretariat, City of Toronto.

The Indigenous co-holder at 7GenCities, Tanya (Akawaio-Kapon/mixed), shared a futuring narrative she created for the initiative, FreeHouse Tkaronto: Reimagining our relationships to land and housing as a common good, where she invited us to collectively imagine a future Tkaronto where we were re-rooted into the lineage of place and First Peoples, landscapes, entangled human and more-than-human relationships, and Indigenous stewardship traditions of the Lower Don watershed and ravines. She invited us to imagine manifesting an emergent housing system based on deeper, more reciprocal and re-sacralized land relationships, where housing is allocated and governed as a common good. To imagine also FreeHouse Tkaronto as a proof of possibility for a vibrant housing commons embedded in: intrinsic forms of valuation, collectively defined and mutually agreed upon resident and land stewardship rights, and roles and responsibilities inspired and guided by diverse, long held Indigenous land protocols and practices.

Rightsholder and stakeholder workshop at the Evergreen Brickworks

Jayne, Calvin and Callum then gave a recap of the FreeHouse Tkaronto concept and how it sits in the wider context of 7GenCities and Dark Matter Labs’ work, and building on the learnings of Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities (Engle, Agyeman & Chung-Tiam-Fook, 2022) and FreeLand. The structure of the workshop was focused on collecting feedback across different parts of the proposition, and then taking a deeper dive into selected comments for open discussion.

One of the most important comments that arose is how our work learns the lessons of Indigenous place-based knowledge. For example, ‘Tkaronto’, originates from the Kanyen’kehà:ka phrase meaning “where there are trees standing in the water.” This etymology for what would become the city Toronto’s name, and also the name of our FreeHouse, embodies a special relationship with water and the natural watercourses. It was also raised that in some First Nations languages, city is conceptualized in more inclusive and relational ways, such as the Nêhiyaw (Cree) word for city: otenaw literally translates as ‘a circle of hearts coming together’. Indigenous languages and narratives should be central in communicating the vision of FreeHouse, and what it means for humanity and the planet being in relationship, instead of the technical language of policy, such as ‘frameworks’ and ‘mapping’, that DML is often accustomed to. We should therefore also reflect on different media of communication, beyond ‘decks’ and ‘papers’, and consider the role of the arts and other forms of storytelling.

This was also related to a reflection about how FreeHouse Tkaronto relates to the wider political context over Indigenous reconciliation. It was noted that it is coming up to ten years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was concluded, which is a key milestone for assessing progress. There was also a discussion about how FreeHouse Tkaronto and the concepts of self-ownership and stewardship sits in relation to Land Back movements, and the tensions that will need to be addressed.

Understanding the wider context of historic injustice will be essential in finding the right approach. Engagement of, and centering, Indigenous Community and Indigenous housing leadership at all stages of visioning, building and implementing a proof of possibility was deemed paramount by Indigenous co-hosts. When considering how we will design governance and decision-making processes, there was a question of what Indigenous-led stewardship means tangibly. It was raised that, based on past experiences, Indigenous People having an equal seat at the table is not enough. We must consider what safeguards need to be put in place, who might need to give up power, and also what systems need to change to enable this approach.

Similarly, the financing approach must not simply “look for new money” but be aware of the overwhelming wealth that has been extracted by dispossessing Indigenous Peoples of their lands and breaking treaty agreements. When the legal and regulatory barriers to this work are encountered, their role in entrenching and reinforcing the status quo should be considered, as should their origins and legitimacy, especially in relation to natural and Indigenous laws. It was suggested that a ‘regulatory sandbox’ approach can be used to carve out a space for restoring these systems.

The current approaches to conservation are still very much oriented around ‘control’, rather than one of ‘being in relation’. There have been attempts at ecosystem compensation which aims to quantify and replace loss of ecosystem value with creation and restoration projects, but this is still based on a premise of avoiding harm and could move further towards regeneration. The balance between a holistic approach and measurable outcomes will also require consideration, especially when accepting funding and investment. Furthermore, there is much political capital invested in this paradigm of control (especially over development permits) as it is seen as “the last protection left” for the ravines from being developed, echoing feedback from the exhibition.

For FreeHouse Tkaronto to serve as a demonstrator of regenerative approaches, it must navigate these tensions carefully. One compelling suggestion was that instead of building literally in ravine-designated areas, FreeHouse could choose ecologically-degraded sites adjacent to ravine land. The remediation would therefore be a way of “extending the ravine network”, creating net positive ecological value while avoiding the political risk of setting precedents for ravine development and opening the door to expanding settlement in the ravines. This would also sidestep some of the practical difficulties (e.g. safe access and insurability challenges) associated with flood and erosion-prone land. A Sustainable Drainage Strategy (SuDS) strategy for ravine-adjacent land could also reduce downstream risk, as demonstrated in similar precedents such as Mimico Creek.

An indicative mapping study of potential sites that can ‘extend the ravines’ through the regenerative development of FreeHouses, subject to further analysis on property ownership.

Our initial mapping study above, based on an indicative sample area of the city, is already highlighting a number of potential sites. We have identified vacant land or unproductive surface parking lots adjacent to the TRCA-regulated ravines area could be remediated as a way of “extending the ravines” while developing FreeHouse Tkaronto. As part of further site analysis studies, which would be conducted as part of the next phase of work, we would further refine the study by considering additional search criteria such as land ownership. We could explore how these ravine-adjacent opportunities coincide with lands that are publicly owned (whether at a municipal, provincial, or federal level) where there is a compelling case to use them to generate value for the public good. Other factors affecting the viability of FreeHouse development would also be considered.

A potential site for prototyping FreeHouse Tkaronto connected to the 72km circular Loop Trail in Toronto’s Don Valley ravine network, is at a very early stage of discussion with Evergreen. Another possible site suggested was the car park of the new TRCA headquarters, which has unrealised land use and ecological restoration potential.

Next steps

We are in the developmental stage of building foundations and partnerships for this emergent project and we will continue to work on ideating and co-building this work in 2025, with potential next steps including:

We will continue building FreeHouse Tkaronto as a proof of possibility in an extremely timely moment of housing crisis; emerging recognition for Truth & Reconciliation and Indigenous leadership (including land stewardship approaches); climate breakdown; political and economic uncertainty; and rising momentum for transformative innovation in housing and civic infrastructures, regenerative land relationships, and collaborative and Indigenous co-led governance approaches. This work includes:

Continue to build relationships and partnerships with interested co-builders, rights holders and stakeholders, and funders Continue to explore and develop key foundations: i.e. ravine ecology and climate resilience, Indigenous land stewardship and regenerative value, design and delivery, regulatory and legal considerations, residence stewardship agreement and multi-actor governance, and financing and funding options. Secure substantial funding for this developmental work on the project, as well as to build the prototype. Deepening engagement with Indigenous Community i.e. local Knowledge Keepers, urban housing organisations and land stewards; and non-Indigenous local land stewards including a community engagement workshop. Continuing site analysis and selection studies for FreeHouse prototype e.g. assess feasibility and risks of potential ecologically-degraded sites adjacent to ravine land in the Don Valley, Tkaronto, and their potential to generate ecological and social value. Studying context-based precedents of housing commons and Indigenous land stewardship and co-governance relevant to Tkaronto context: e.g. community land trusts and Toronto’s Port Lands Waterfront Revitalization and Indigenous Cultural Revitalization.

We will have take a special focus on planning the governance design process for FreeHouse Tkaronto:

Developing ideas for structuring collaborative governance including Indigenous co-governance; Exploring the challenges of multi-actor governance i.e. time needed to build consensus while maintaining momentum; finding shared purpose; Prioritizing Indigenous perspectives and co-leadership; and Mapping the design journey, with transparency in sharing challenges, decisions, and influence of institutional and political systems. If you are interested in getting involved and work with us on these next steps, or would like to get in touch, please contact us at freehouse@darkmatterlabs.org.

This blog was written by Calvin Po with Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook, Jayne Engle and Callum Nolan. The FreeHouse Tkaronto exhibition at the Evergreen Conference was produced by Callum Nolan and Calvin Po. Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook’s futuring imagination narrative can be accessed here: FreeHouse Tkaronto: Reimagining our relationships to land and housing as a common good.

We would like to thank the City of Toronto’s Indigenous Affairs Office for co-hosting the workshop with us. We would like to thank all the attendees for the time and care they took in exploring FreeHouse Tkaronto with us, and for their feedback on this article.

To learn more about the wider arcs of DM which this work brings together, please check out:

Radicle Civics

7GenCities

Property & Beyond Lab

FreeHouse Tkaronto was originally published in Dark Matter Laboratories on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Deep search is a technique that many aren’t familiar with, but it’s incredibly useful for those who need to find more precise information on Google and other search engines. Instead of simply typing in a keyword, these deep search tricks help you discover accurate, relevant results that meet your needs. Let’s explore some simple yet effective tips to help you search more efficiently and accurately!

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Deep Search Tools and Techniques on Google

Google offers a range of deep search tools that allow you to find exactly what you need. With simple tricks like using quotation marks or excluding keywords, you can save time and quickly access the information you need.

Search for Exact Phrases

When you want to perform an advanced search for an exact phrase, the best method is to put it in quotation marks. This tells Google that you’re only interested in pages with that exact phrase.

Example search: “Deep search techniques”

This will return pages that contain the exact phrase “Deep search techniques” as you requested.

Excluding Keywords

To eliminate irrelevant results, you can use the minus sign (-). Simply add a minus sign in front of any keyword you want to exclude from the advanced search results.

Example search: SEO -Facebook

This will find SEO-related information, but without any results related to Facebook.

Using “OR” in Searches

When you want to search for either one keyword or another, use the “OR” operator (must be in uppercase).

Example search: “SEO” OR “Digital Marketing”

This will return results related to both SEO and Digital Marketing, expanding the scope of your deep search.

Search by Text, Title, or URL

You can search for information within a page’s content, title, or URL using operators like allintext:, allintitle:, and allinurl:.

Example search: allintext:”Advanced search”

This will return pages that include the phrase “Advanced search” in their text content.

Other Deep Search Tricks

In addition to these basic tricks, there are many other deep search techniques to help you extract information faster and more accurately. You can try special commands like “site:”, “related:”, or “link:” to find information more effectively in specific situations.

Search Within a Specific Website

If you want to perform an advanced search within a specific website, use the site: operator.

Example search: site:seothetop.com “SEO”

This will return articles related to “SEO” only from the website seothetop.com.

Search for Related Websites

Use the related: command to find websites with similar content to the one you know.

Example search: related:seothetop.com

This will help you explore websites with similar content, useful when searching for alternative sources of information.

Search for Websites Containing Links

If you want to find websites that link to a specific page, use the link: operator.

Example search: link:seothetop.com

This will show pages that contain links to seothetop.com, valuable for backlink analysis in SEO.

Search Using Synonyms

Use the tilde (~) symbol to search for synonyms, which helps expand the scope of your advanced search.

Example search: ~marketing

Google will search for synonyms of “marketing,” including “digital marketing,” “advertising,” and more.

Deep Web: How to Explore the “Deep” Part of the Internet What is the Deep Web?

The Deep Web is the portion of the internet that cannot be found using regular search engines. This area contains private databases, legal documents, personal accounts, and other content that can only be accessed through specialized deep search engines.

The Difference Between the Deep Web and the Dark Web

The Deep Web and the Dark Web are often confused, but they are actually two distinct parts of the internet. The Dark Web is a section of the Deep Web, but it is associated with illegal activities and can be dangerous. It’s important to understand this difference to avoid potential risks when accessing these areas.

Learn more: Why Your Keyboard Isn’t Working and How to Fix it

Deep Search Engines for Exploring the Deep Web

To explore deeper resources within the Deep Web, users need specialized deep search engines, which are different from those used on the surface internet.

Torch: One of the oldest and most notable advanced search engines for the Deep Web, Torch allows users to access documents, forums, and other resources that regular search engines like Google cannot index. It supports searches on websites with a “.onion” domain, providing access to hidden resources deep within the internet.
DuckDuckGo: Known for its commitment to privacy on the surface web, DuckDuckGo also supports deep searches in the Deep Web. It does not store user information and helps search for hidden websites, ensuring privacy during web browsing. DuckDuckGo does not track or record any search history, making it ideal for users who want to maintain anonymity when browsing the Deep Web.
Ahmia, Haystack, Yippy: Other specialized advanced search engines like Ahmia, Haystack, and Yippy are designed to access the darker parts of the internet. These tools allow users to search hidden sites without being tracked or having their data recorded, ensuring security and privacy. All of these engines support access to “.onion” websites, allowing users to search the Deep Web safely and effectively. Benefits of Using Deep Search

Using deep search techniques offers numerous benefits, not only helping you find more precise information but also supporting SEO optimization and protecting your privacy online. Let’s explore these benefits to enhance your search experience.

For SEO

Deep search tricks not only help users find accurate information but also play a key role in improving SEO effectiveness. When used correctly, you can discover high-quality content, valuable websites, and build an effective backlink strategy. Optimizing keywords and searching for external linking opportunities will help your website rank higher on search engines, increasing your online presence.

Finding Accurate Information

By using deep search tricks, you can access more precise information and avoid distractions from irrelevant results. With special search commands like “site:”, “intitle:”, “inurl:”, you can quickly find websites and documents that are directly related to your needs, saving time and effort in your research.

Protecting Personal Information

Deep search techniques also play a crucial role in protecting your privacy online. These tools allow you to have better control over sensitive information when searching, avoiding the leakage of personal data. Using secure deep search engines also helps minimize unauthorized access and misuse of personal data from unknown sources.

Conclusion

Deep search is not only a powerful tool for accessing information but also an effective way to protect your privacy and reputation. Use these tips to fully harness the resources the internet has to offer, whether you’re diving deep into a subject, researching specific websites, or exploring the vast Deep Web. Start using these deep search techniques today for more accurate, efficient, and secure searches!

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About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post Mastering Deep Search: Advanced Search Strategies appeared first on Herond Blog.

Google’s SafeSearch feature helps you avoid inappropriate content such as explicit material, violence, or other unsafe information. However, there may be times when you want to broaden your search results and access more detailed information. In these cases, you will need to turn off SafeSearch. But how do you turn SafeSearch off on your computer or mobile phone? Let’s explore this below!

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What is SafeSearch?

SafeSearch is a Google feature that filters search results, automatically removing inappropriate content such as violent images, explicit material, or other harmful information. It’s an incredibly useful feature for families, teachers, and anyone who wants to ensure children or users aren’t accidentally exposed to harmful content. With SafeSearch on, browsing the internet becomes safer and easier, especially for those responsible for protecting children from inappropriate information.

Learn more: How to Extract Text from Images: A Simple Guide

Why Should You Turn SafeSearch Off?

When SafeSearch is enabled, you won’t have access to all search results because some content is filtered out. However, turning off SafeSearch allows you to access more in-depth data, which can be crucial for certain fields that require detailed information. Let’s dive into why turning SafeSearch off might sometimes be necessary.

Expanding Search Results: Turning off SafeSearch opens the door to more comprehensive search results, providing access to details that might be hidden with SafeSearch on. This gives you the chance to find more in-depth data, including valuable information that might otherwise be excluded.
Specialized Needs and Research: If you’re a researcher, teacher, or working in a field that requires detailed information like medicine, art, etc., turning off SafeSearch is essential. Sometimes, to ensure you don’t miss any important resource, you need unrestricted access to all search results.
How to Turn SafeSearch Off on Laptop and Phone (Android & iOS)

If you want to easily access information without restrictions, turning off SafeSearch is a good option. Here’s a quick guide on how to do it on both computers and mobile devices, from Android to iOS, with just a few simple steps.

Turning Off SafeSearch on Laptop

To disable SafeSearch on a laptop, follow these simple steps within Google:

Open your browser and go to Google’s homepage. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Settings,” then select Search Settings. In the SafeSearch filters section, you’ll see the option to Turn on SafeSearch. Uncheck this box to turn off the feature. Finally, make sure to click Save to confirm. Once completed, your search results will no longer be limited by SafeSearch filters. Turning Off SafeSearch on Mobile (Android/iOS)

Turning off SafeSearch on mobile is also quick and easy:

Open the Google app or your web browser. Tap the Menu icon (usually three horizontal lines or dots) and select Settings. In the Settings section, find SafeSearch, and switch it to Off. Don’t forget to save your changes to activate the setting. Now you can access broader search results without being restricted by SafeSearch. Common Issues When Turning Off SafeSearch

While turning off SafeSearch brings many benefits, there might be a few issues that you could encounter along the way. Let’s explore some common problems users face when trying to disable this feature and how to fix them quickly.

Unable to Turn Off SafeSearch: Sometimes, you may find that you can’t turn off SafeSearch. This could be due to settings imposed by your internet service provider or security software. If you encounter this issue, try contacting your service provider or checking any active security software on your device.
Network or School Settings: Certain public networks or schools may have SafeSearch locked for protection. In this case, you won’t be able to change the settings unless you have access to the network’s admin settings.
Security Software: Some security or internet monitoring software can block the ability to turn off SafeSearch. You may need to check your settings or temporarily disable the security software to make changes. Conclusion

Turning off SafeSearch can help you broaden your search capabilities and access deeper resources, especially when you need detailed information for professional research. However, it’s important to weigh the risks of potentially encountering inappropriate content. Consider carefully and adjust the settings according to your needs and the environment in which you’re using your device.

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About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post How to Turn Off SafeSearch appeared first on Herond Blog.

Slow internet speed can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you’re working, studying, or just enjoying some entertainment online. When your internet connection slows down, it disrupts everything from your job to your fun activities. But don’t worry, there’s no need to immediately call your service provider. The following 5 easy tips will help you boost internet speed at home without any technical expertise!

Learn more: Maintaining Optimal CPU Temperature for Peak Performance

Why Is My Internet Speed So Slow?

Before diving into solutions, it’s important to understand why your internet may be running slow. Identifying the causes will help you find the most effective way to improve your connection. Here are some common reasons for slow internet speed:

Poor Router Placement 

Many people overlook the placement of their router, but it’s one of the most important factors affecting signal strength. If your router is placed in a corner of the house, near windows, or behind thick walls, the signal will weaken. To get the best performance, make sure your router is centrally located in your home.

Too Many Devices Connected Simultaneously 

When too many devices (phones, laptops, TVs, tablets, etc.) are connected to the same wifi network, the bandwidth gets shared among them, causing slower speeds. This is especially noticeable when there are activities that consume a lot of bandwidth, like streaming videos or gaming.

Submarine Cable Issues 

If you’re using fiber optic internet, slow speeds might be due to problems with the submarine cables (also known as undersea cables). These are crucial for global internet connectivity, transmitting data across continents and oceans, and all kinds of issues like weather disruptions or technical faults can cause slowdowns.

Wrong Wi-Fi Frequency Band 

Sometimes, slow internet isn’t about the connection itself but rather the frequency band your router is using. The 2.4GHz band is often crowded due to interference from devices like microwaves or Bluetooth gadgets. Switching to the 5GHz band can help reduce interference and boost internet speed.

Hardware or Software Issues 

Your computer or devices could also be the cause of slow internet. If you haven’t updated your software or drivers, or if there’s malware, your connection might be affected. A quick fix is to ensure your system is up to date and free of viruses.

Learn more: Text to Speech: Create Natural-Sounding Voiceovers in Minutes

5 Simple Tips to Boost Internet Speed

Now that you know why your internet might be slow, let’s explore some easy and effective ways to boost internet speed at home.

Clear Your Browser Cache and History

When you browse the internet, your browser stores data like cache, cookies, and browsing history. If you don’t clear them, it can slow down your browsing experience. Regularly deleting this data will free up space and improve the browser’s performance. This is a quick and simple fix for boosting your browsing speed.

How to do it: Simply go to your browser settings and choose the option to clear browsing data (cache, cookies, and history).

Change Your Bandwidth Limiting Settings

Windows computers may have bandwidth-limiting settings that can slow down your connection. You can adjust these settings by heading to Settings > Network & Internet section on your computer and tinker with the options. You’ll notice a significant improvement in your internet speed.

Switch Wi-Fi Bands

If you’re using the 2.4GHz band, you may be experiencing interference from other devices. Switch to the 5GHz band for faster and more stable internet. The 5GHz band is less crowded and can handle higher speeds, especially when multiple devices are connected.

Place Your Router in an Optimal Location

Router placement plays a huge role in signal strength. Ideally, your router should be placed in the center of your home, away from walls, metal objects, and electronic devices. By doing so, you’ll ensure a stronger and more stable Wi-Fi connection, which means better internet speed.

Set Up Stronger Wi-Fi Security

If your Wi-Fi isn’t secure, other people might be using your network without your permission, which could slow down your internet speed. Set a strong password for your Wi-Fi and enable WPA2 or WPA3 security to limit access. This will keep your network secure and improve internet performance.

Conclusion

Boosting your internet speed at home is easier than you might think. With just a few simple adjustments, like clearing your cache, switching bands, or relocating your router, you can enjoy faster and more stable internet. So, why wait? Try these tips today and experience the difference! And don’t forget to share these tips with your friends and family, so they can enjoy better internet speeds too!

Learn more: Boost Your Network Security with a Firewall App Blocker

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post How to Boost Your Internet Speed: Simple & Effective Tips appeared first on Herond Blog.

Discover how constraints can drive creativity and technological breakthroughs as we look back on the transformative impact of resourcefulness in the tech industry.

How to navigate Europe’s new digital identity and wallet standards without your development team grinding to a halt? Here’s why Indicio is your copilot and how we take a 360-degree approach to successful deployments.

By Heather Dahl

The European Union’s new digital identity specifications — eIDAS 2.0 and EUDI — are transformative. They will change the way we digitally interact with each other, with government services, and with business. By creating a digital architecture for seamless trust, they will seed a new era of innovation.

Which is all very exciting. But implementation of decentralized identity is not always as simple as it sounds. Speaking from experience, before great things can be built, gnarly technical challenges and unfamiliar specifications must be overcome. And for anyone who has been watching the eIDAS 2.0 and EUDI development wave, the surf is… rough.

I’ve no doubt you have an ace technical team. But let me illustrate the development challenge you face and then talk about this challenge as a business proposition.

Are you sure you’re going to get to deployment? We’ve seen many teams fail to achieve lift off after a long and costly runway.

The Indicio recipe

It’s not just that our team has your back, whether it’s at 4am or half a world away; it’s that we have all your bases covered. Engineering a decentralized identity solution isn’t just about code: it’s about architecture, business strategy, governance policy, and marketing.

Solutions don’t work in a vacuum, they have to work with business logic, government policy, consumer behavior and expectations, and through successful change management and marketing. When we talk about integrating a solution, we mean integration across all these dimensions. And this is what makes Indico different. We integrate all these dimensions into a solution. We’ve honed this 360-degree approach through successful deployments for SMEs and global enterprises across different industries and sectors.

This is why our solutions work. This is why customers become clients and global enterprises become partners. We’re your team. We’re an extension to your innovation lab and marketing department, your sales and strategy. We’re driving success across all dimensions.

Build faster, smarter with Indicio

So, back to eIDAS 2.0 and EUDI. Why not just start ahead? Why not skip a costly development timeline and layer proven technology into your existing systems?

The benefits are clear. You get to focus your team on the solutions you can build and sell. And you get a system that provides global interoperability and global scalability.

Our team has already solved the challenges your team will face.

Our team has unmatched global experience to help you get the right combination of technology and strategy to drive success.

Our team can provide all the elements critical to success right now, whether that’s mediation to country-level verification, the infrastructure and policy to run a trust network, or the certified training to support a deployment.

Finally, because we’re already where you want to be, we’re focused on building the features to put you ahead of your competition, such as the workflows to make European digital credentials interoperate with the rest of the world.

EUDI and eIDAS represent a tremendous opportunity. Indicio is your copilot to get there.

Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest from Indicio and the decentralized identity community

The post Why experience matters with EUDI: There’s more to decentralized identity success than code appeared first on Indicio.

Blog 19 February 2025 Breaking the Silos: The Path to Shared Liquidity with ERC-3643

Originally published in the GDF Annual Report 2024, published in February 2025

Authors Luc Falempin CEO at Tokeny Daniel Coheur CCO at Tokeny

Liquidity drives markets. Yet, in tokenized real-world asset (RWA) and securities markets, liquidity remains trapped in silos, unable to reach its full potential. Distributors operate as isolated ecosystems, and investors are limited to closed networks. As financial services progress on-chain, the question underpinning how to better facilitate this adoption is clear: how do we unlock true liquidity and scale the market?

Authors

Luc Falempin
CEO at Tokeny

Daniel Coheur
CCO at Tokeny

The pain of siloed liquidity

Today, tokenized markets operate in isolation. Distributors list assets on their platforms, but each platform functions as a closed ecosystem, limiting liquidity to its internal investor base. An investor placing an offer on one distributor’s platform relies entirely on that platform’s order book to find a counterparty.

This fragmentation stifles market activity. Offers go unmatched, trades are delayed, and assets remain underutilized. Tokenization and its underlying technology promises to solve these inefficiencies, rather than exacerbate them. The issue is not with the concept of tokenization, but in evolving our understanding of how liquidity functions on-chain – a paradigm fundamentally different from anything we have seen before.

Shared liquidity is the future

On-chain liquidity is supposed to be shared. It breaks down silos, creating a global marketplace where offers flow seamlessly across platforms. Distributors still maintain their unique platforms and investor relationships but can now tap into a dynamic and giant order book shared by the entire ecosystem.

The benefits of shared liquidity are profound:

For investors: Access to a global pool of liquidity without leaving their trusted distributor’s platform. They see more opportunities,experience faster transactions, and benefit from a more vibrant market. For distributors: An expanded role as enablers of global liquidity. They can curate assets fort heir investor networks while participating in a larger and more active ecosystem. For issuers: Increased market activity and visibility for their assets, unlocking value and accelerating adoption. ERC-3643: The open-source standard enabling market liquidity

The ERC-3643 standard enables shared liquidity by allowing issuers to issue, manage, and distribute permissioned tokens. It enables compliance, composability, and interoperability.

Built-in compliance: Compliance is embedded directly at the token level. ERC-3643 tokens include transfer restrictions and identity-based validation, ensuring that only eligible investors can participate. Unauthorized users and transactions will be denied automatically. Interoperability: ERC-3643 is built on top of ERC-20, making it interoperable directly with the entire EVM ecosystem. It brings a standardized compliance layer to ensure seamless and compliant interaction across platforms. Composability: ERC-3643 is modular and adaptable. It can add additional functionalities by combining them with other smart contracts, such as the DINO liquidity protocol, which allows investors (directly or via distribution platforms) to publish Delivery vs. Delivery (DvD) offers on- chain. Shared DvD offers: Redefining liquidity as we know it

The DINO liquidity protocol transforms the blockchain network into a distributed marketplace, where distributors connect and seamlessly transact together, without sharing their clients.

The most fascinating aspect of the shared order book is the self-executing DvD smart contracts that power ERC-3643 token offers, enabling complete on-chain automation. By redefining liquidity and breaking down silos, they transform blockchain into a seamlessly interconnected global marketplace.

Once investors publish a DvD offer, it instantly becomes visible across all distribution platforms. When a buyer accepts the offer, whether on the same platform or a different one, the DvD smart contract verifies everything:

Eligibility: The buyer’s onchain identity is validated to ensure compliance. Compliance rules: Transfer restrictions and conditions are automatically enforced. Balance check: The buyer’s wallet is checked to confirm sufficient funds.

Once all conditions are met, the transaction is settled instantly, without counterparty risk or intermediaries.

“This is not only a faster way to trade, but also a completely new experience. Investors can participate in secondary trading with the simplicity and speed of an e-commerce transaction. Click. Trade. Done.”

Luc Falempin, CEO at Tokeny

“This is not only a faster way to trade, but also a completely new experience. Investors can participate in secondary trading with the simplicity and speed of an e-commerce transaction. Click. Trade. Done.”

Luc Falempin, CEO at Tokeny

Shared Standards, Shared Success

The tokenized markets are advancing rapidly, driven by the adoption of shared standards that foster trust, compliance, and operational efficiency. ERC-3643, supported and recognized by major financial and regulatory institutions like ABN AMRO, DTCC, Fasanara, ESMA, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Global Digital Finance, and Deloitte, has emerged as a cornerstone of this progress and exemplifies industry collaboration in creating a unified framework for issuers, distributors, and investors. Its success underscores the importance of standardization in unlocking liquidity, reducing market fragmentation, and enabling a more efficient, interconnected financial ecosystem.

Subscribe to our insights Memecoins Are Crashing, Hackers Are Cashing In, Where Are Smart Investors Moving Next? 3 March 2025 Breaking the Silos: The Path to Shared Liquidity with ERC-3643 19 February 2025 Trump Administration’s Impact on Tokenization: Is the Golden Age Upon Us? 3 February 2025 Bitcoin Hits $100K: The Tokenization Tipping Point? 9 December 2024 Institutional Tokenization 3.0: Break Silos 21 October 2024 RWA and DePIN: The Future of Assets and Infrastructure 15 October 2024 Amsterdam Teambuilding Fuels Our Mission for Open Finance 6 September 2024 Transaction Privacy: The Last Blocker for Massive Open Finance Adoption 1 August 2024 Tokenized Securities Unaffected by MiCA, Utility Tokens and Stablecoins Face Stricter Rules 28 June 2024 The Complete Tokenization Process 26 June 2024

The post Breaking the Silos: The Path to Shared Liquidity with ERC-3643 appeared first on Tokeny.

A shortage of trained tech workers is a key issue in holding back the development of growth fuelled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the APAC region.

In AI-advanced markets like Singapore, replacing legacy technology and addressing financial hurdles are paramount when it comes to successfully integrating AI and unlocking the full potential of digital tech.

The post Shortage of APAC tech workers is holding back AI-fuelled growth appeared first on Veracity Trust Network.

James is a compliance officer at a growing asset management firm. After landing a new institutional client, his team is preparing for increased regulatory scrutiny. James knows that building a robust Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program is essential—not just to meet regulations, but to safeguard the firm’s reputation.

With AML regulations tightening and financial crimes evolving, James needs a streamlined approach to compliance. Here’s how his team gets it right.

Laying the Groundwork with Customer Due Diligence (CDD)

James’s first priority is verifying the identity of clients and assessing their risk profiles. Instead of relying on manual checks, his team adopts a digital onboarding system:

Clients upload ID documents securely, which are scanned and validated using optical character recognition (OCR). A live selfie ensures biometric verification to prevent identity fraud. The system cross-checks client data with global sanctions lists in real time.

By automating routine checks, James’s team handles larger client volumes without delays and identifies potential risks early.

Spotting and Reporting Suspicious Activity

One morning, James reviews an alert: a client’s transaction pattern has shifted unexpectedly. The system’s machine learning models detect anomalies that suggest potential layering of funds.

With just a few clicks, James’s team:

Documents the findings in an automated Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). Submits the SAR directly to regulators within the required timeframe.

Automated reporting cuts hours of manual work and ensures regulatory deadlines are never missed.

Keeping Records Secure and Accessible

AML regulations require James to keep records of client verification and SARs for years. His firm’s secure cloud-based system ensures:

Records are encrypted and accessible only to authorized users. Retention policies are enforced automatically to comply with regulations. An audit trail is generated for transparency and easy reporting during reviews.

This system reduces the risk of human error and makes audits seamless.

A Quick-Start Guide for Every Business

AML compliance can be simplified with the right tools and strategies. Here’s a recap of key steps:

Implement Digital Onboarding: Verify customer identities quickly and securely. Automate SAR Submissions: Ensure timely reporting with minimal manual input. Centralize Record Keeping: Maintain secure, accessible records for audits. Adopt a Risk-Based Approach: Focus efforts where they matter most. Train Your Team: Equip employees with the knowledge to spot and act on red flags.

By building a strong AML program, firms like James’s don’t just meet regulatory standards—they build trust, protect their business, and contribute to the fight against financial crime.

Join e-learning experts Digital Knowledge for an in-depth discussion of Skill+, the company’s innovative digital badge wallet using Open Badge 3.0 at the upcoming Indicio Identity Community Meetup! Skill+ simplifies the collection and management of Open Badges from multiple platforms, helping individuals and organizations efficiently organize and verify digital credentials.

By Tim Spring

The e-learning market is estimated to be worth a staggering $933.5 billion by 2032. Driven by the growth in online work and school, this exploding sector offers a convenient way to become certified in a skill or obtain a degree. But these degrees or certifications are prone to being lost or defrauded and require checking in with the school to verify. What we need is a better way for students to store their credentials, and a faster, easier way for businesses and schools to verify these achievements.

Digital Knowledge is an expert in e-learning, with a track record of 27 years in the business and over 2000 schools and companies served. Their latest product, Skill+ enables students to hold their credentials locally on their mobile devices using Open Badges 3.0. These new credentials are then shareable with the tap of a button, and can be verified by the university or business requesting them without the need to check in with the issuing institution, saving days or weeks of time.

Join the next Indicio Meetup to see the technology in action. Takahiro Hata, Senior Fellow, Yuki Ooba, KnowledgeDeliverSkill+ Project Manager, and Jason Gettys, KnowledgeDeliverSkill+ Badge API Engineer, will be joining us to discuss the solution and why they chose to build it this way in depth. 

You will see:

A comprehensive overview of Skill+: Discover how Skill+ supports both Open Badge 2.0 and the more secure Open Badge 3.0 standards, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of digital badges.

A step-by-step demo: Learn how to seamlessly import badges from popular platforms such as Credly, Badgr, and LecoS into your Skill+ wallet.

An interactive Q&A: Engage with our experts to address your specific questions and gain insights into maximizing the potential of Skill+ for your professional development.

Why Open Badges?

Open Badges 3.0 uses Verifiable Credentials and decentralized identity principles to ensure that digital badges can be independently verified and trusted without relying on a central authority. This advancement makes it easier to share skills and achievements across various platforms while maintaining authenticity and control over personal credentials.

Open Badges are quickly gaining adoption across the education industry with 88.2% of respondents in a recent report saying that digital badges are necessary for the future of education and business. The time saved by not needing to jump through hoops to double check the presented information is invaluable. For a more in-depth look at the technology and its use in education you can read a recent article from Indicio.

How can you use this powerful technology for your business?

If you want to use Open Badges Skill+ might be the solution for you. Digital Knowledge has a wealth of experience in the e-learning space and is incredibly knowledgeable on the subject. Be sure not to miss their presentation and demonstration at the Indicio Meetup on Feb 25 at 5 PM Pacific time.

To bring similar portability and verifiability to data across your organization, we recommend looking into Indicio Proven. It provides the ability to store any personally identifying information inside a Verifiable Credential and make it easily shareable from the user’s mobile device. It has been used for a variety of use cases, including access and management, biometric authentication, Open Badges implementations and more. The best part is that it’s a complete solution, no need for complex integrations or DIY, the Indicio team can get you set up quickly,  offering a better experience for your users.

If you have any questions or would like more information or to discuss a specific use case please reach out to our team.

Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest from Indicio and the decentralized identity community

The post Prepare for the future of e-learning with Skill+ and Open Badges appeared first on Indicio.

Leading figures in the US Congress have offered the strongest signal yet that they are serious about passing landmark legislation on cryptoassets. 

GM HEARTLAND

I hate the way that you pump, the way that you dump, the way that you shill…

—El Prof, Muhammed & Chad

MONEY MONEY MONEY

TOKEN

PRICE CHANGE

PRICE

Solana ($SOL)

-14.68%

$168.37

Helium ($HNT)

-9.26%

$3.43

Pyth ($PYTH)

+1.26%

$0.21

Save ($SLND)

-0.62%

$0.29

(Price changes reflect past 7 days as of 2.18.25)

Give Me Utility, Don’t Give Me $LIBRA

Well, not to blow our own vuvuzela, but our pivot to utility came at the perfect time.

The mood of the week has been blowback to key opinion leaders (KOLs) who have spent much of the bull cycle trumpeting the speculative meme projects they were investing into their large follower bases to sell for a profit. All textbook insider trading schemas, openly admitted to by the LA Vape Cabal and other current “darlings” of the Solana shitcoin casino. 

Chief among these KOLs: Argentinian President Javier Milei. The world leader is facing a federal probe for his role in promoting and allegedly launching $LIBRA. No, not that $LIBRA — Facebook’s defunt token from last cycle, IYKYK. (What’s Zuckerberg batting these days? .201?) Also an abject failure, this $LIBRA was developed with the help of the now-infamous Hayden Davis, who rugged most of Twitter with coin. Its market cap went from $2.6B to $0.8B in less than an hour of the token’s launch, and now sits at a dismal $300M.

All of this degenerate news that we said was finally being purged from our weekly writing is the very evidence the wider space may be pivoting toward utility too. 

So what does real utility look like? We’ve spent plenty of time discussing Helium, the clearest protocol-as-a-service value proposition around. (Even Big Telecom is bought in.) And we’ve also touched on how memecoins have been leveraged by brands like Iggy Azalea and Pudgy Penguins to monetize fan communities in new ways.

But to understand the full potential of crypto utility, let’s first take a step back and talk about the state of the technology, its parts, and the implications. Web3 technology largely consists of decentralized communications protocols with varying degrees of auditable logs for transactions related to using the protocol. 

Bitcoin, the most famous of these protocol, is a digital money transfer service. It leverages complex math, distributed processing and storage, and defined hard limits on scarcity, in order to ensure the integrity of the system without having a bank running the books in the middle.

That idea inspired Ethereum to build the World Computer, a blockchain protocol focused on bringing the transparent audibility of the financial ledger to other systems reliant on account-keeping — think video games, social and streaming platforms, or business software. Much of Ethereum’s ecosystem has focused on the financialization of different assets on the Layer-2 (read: middle-men) blockchains, in order to meet the cost-related challenges of scaling the network.

Then, there is Solana, which has iterated on the original concept of a world computer to build what it calls a real-time state machine: a database that can read and write transactions at the speed at which users are generating them. This blockchain protocol is 100-1000x faster than Ethereum, with a demonstrated track record of getting faster and more distributed over time.

With artificial general intelligence (AGI) potentially on the horizon, unique and verified datasets are the moats necessary to build the AI companies of the future. Solana not only scales to onboard consumers, but to license their data to the future of AI agents.

There are a lot of smoke and mirrors in the web3 spaces. Rather than doomscrolling X for the next cool (KOL?) thing, we’d recommend the unsexy and TradFi-coded process of due diligence. Do your research into each new project and prioritize those with an understanding of data and its importance to shaping intelligence systems in their domain. This will continue to be the differentiating force between projects that succeed here long-term, and those that go the way of the $LIBRA(s).

To that end, the dePIN projects building on Solana understand that securing the data on a Layer-1 — and doing so cheaply — is an incredibly important piece to scaling their unit economics in the future. And that’s why this publication continues to shout that transactions per second (TPS) is king when it comes to evaluating the protocols themselves.

—El Prof

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How Meow Is Redefining Business Banking

In the early days of fintech, startups like Brex and Mercury gained traction by offering streamlined banking solutions to startups and small businesses. But much like early web2 banking platforms, these services often replicated traditional models with little innovation beyond the user interface.

Now, a new wave of fintech disruptors is emerging — not with a bang, but a meow.

Meow started as a crypto yield platform, but it is quickly scaling toward a powerhouse in business banking. Unlike legacy fintech that relies on traditional infrastructure, Meow is designed for agility, giving businesses instant access to high-yield Treasury bills (T-bills), FDIC-insured checking accounts, and even venture debt solutions.

At its core, Meow enables businesses to put their idle cash to work without the complexity of hiring a corporate treasurer. The platform’s key offerings include:

T-bill investments: Businesses can park cash in government-backed securities, earning safe, high yields previously accessible only to large corporations.

High-interest checking accounts: Through partnerships with traditional banks, Meow offers businesses up to $125M in FDIC insurance.

Venture debt & founder mortgages: Startups can access funding through Meow’s marketplace, where banks and private credit firms bid on financing opportunities.

Meow’s efficiency-driven model took on fresh luster when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed in March 2023. Amid the banking crisis, startups and small businesses rushed to find alternative cash management solutions. Within a month, Meow secured $500M in deposits, proving that businesses were actively seeking a more agile, tech-driven banking solution.

Meow wasn’t always an heir apparent to that title though. It launched in 2021 as a crypto lender. ICYMI, those weren’t exactly the “winners” of that particular bull cycle. But the following year, as major players like TerraUSD and Three Arrows Capital collapsed, Meow’s founders made a bold decision — returning customer funds and pivoting away from the volatile crypto lending space.

But while it has stripped away some of the volatility, the web3 ethos remains part and parcel with Meow’s operations. Its automation-heavy and efficiency-first approach mirrors the decentralization movement in crypto, where smart contracts replace middlemen and minimize operational overhead. While fintech giants continue to burn cash on high marketing budgets and bloated headcounts, Meow is busy proving out a viable alternative.

Much like how DeFi challenged traditional finance, Meow is challenging outdated banking models by offering businesses:

Full autonomy over their financial strategy without complex corporate treasury teams.

Access to institutional-grade financial tools without legacy banking bureaucracy.

A lean, transparent, and technology-driven approach to managing corporate capital.

The future of business banking isn’t just about offering higher yields. It’s about redefining efficiency, transparency, and control. With Meow’s relentless focus on innovation, this future is already here. I am there already. Be there too.

—Muhammed

Summary

This episode explores the importance of standards, the role of identity in cybersecurity, and the challenges faced by organizations in managing identity security effectively. The conversation highlights the need for innovation and collaboration in the identity space, as well as the critical nature of identity being an attack surface - especially vendors in the JML firing line. How can behaviour monitoring help?

Keywords

identity security, funding news, leadership changes, market trends, cybersecurity, access management, identity governance, AI in security, standards in identity, identity as a service, identity management, security controls, behavioral analysis, customer experience, identity standards, identity security, digital identity, identity governance, cybersecurity, identity threats

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

03:12 Market News: Funding and Innovations

12:37 Leadership Changes in Identity Security

14:04 The Evolution of Identity Security

24:11 Identity as a Strategic Business Element

25:57 The Security Landscape and Vendor Commitments

28:00 Evolving Security Controls in Identity Management

30:11 Behavioral Analysis: The Missing Piece

32:00 The Strategic Importance of Identity Management

34:03 Identity as a Brand and Customer Experience

35:58 The Maturity of Identity Solutions

37:56 Decoupling User Experience from Identity Security

39:49 Complexity in Identity Standards and Security

44:07 Emerging Threats and the Need for Standards

Imagine being able to prove you’re old enough to buy a drink without flashing your ID—or proving you have insurance without handing over your policy details. Sounds like magic? It’s just math. Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) might be the biggest leap for privacy since encryption, but they also come with serious challenges. Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the future of this technology.

If you’re not familiar, ZKPs are a cryptographic technique that allows one party to prove something to another party without revealing any other information beyond the proof itself. It’s no wonder these have been heralded as the holy grail for privacy-preserving selective disclosure.

Audio Blog

ZKPs have the attention of several standards development communities and have for a while. (Mike Jones did a great presentation at EIC in 2023 that touched on ZKPs; check out the slides starting around slide 26). I get it. ZKPs are mathematical magic, especially for applications like age verification, secure access control, and decentralized identity systems. But like any technology, they come with their own set of challenges. For one, they have a high computational cost, requiring powerful devices to execute the complex math behind them efficiently. The equipment required to support that computational effort is expensive, raising questions of scalability. There are also several ZKP algorithms out there; I don’t know what happens when competing platforms don’t support each other’s algorithms. These questions take my brain to one uncomfortable question: Are ZKPs going to widen the digital divide?

Understanding Zero-Knowledge Proofs

At their core, ZKPs allow someone (the prover) to convince another party (the verifier) that a statement is true without sharing any additional details. For example, imagine proving you know the solution to a puzzle without revealing the solution itself. This is achieved through advanced cryptographic algorithms that ensure the verifier gains confidence in the proof while learning nothing else. (I’m just saying that “mathematician” and “magician” sure sound similar. But I digress.)

ZKPs do promise some very sexy things:

Privacy: They enable granular data sharing, revealing only the necessary information. Security: They lower the risk of data breaches by limiting the exposure of sensitive data. Versatility: They can be applied across various fields, from financial transactions to identity verification, because every sector has use cases for this.

But, sexy math doesn’t mean solving for everything:

Computational Intensity: The algorithms are resource-heavy, demanding significant processing power up to and including specialized hardware. Device Dependency: Effective use often requires high-end (read: expensive) devices, limiting accessibility. Complexity: Developing and implementing ZKPs is technically challenging and requires significant expertise. ZKPs in Standards Development

In the world of digital identity, ZKPs have come up quite a bit in the verifiable credentials space. Standards development groups like those in the IETF working on selective disclosure (e.g., SD-JWT, SD-CWT) are exploring how ZKPs can be integrated into identity systems to improve privacy and security. Research groups like the IRTF’s Crypto Forum Research Group (CFRG; more on them later) are also looking at work in this space and how it might apply to standards under development. Age verification tends to be the most popular example, though there are others that apply in healthcare, public sector, banking, etc.

Zero Knowledge Proofs are just one piece of the standards puzzle. If your team is figuring out how to engage in standards development—or just needs to stay ahead of what’s coming—I can help. See how I work or Book a quick chat.

While ZKPs offer innovative solutions to challenging problems, they won’t work for everyone. For example, in settings where access to high-end devices or strong network connections is limited, alternative methods of selective disclosure may be more practical. Verifiable credentials based on attribute-based encryption or other techniques might complement ZKPs to create more inclusive systems.

Despite the promise of solving very thorny privacy problems, there’s a tension here between innovation and inclusivity. As we’ve seen with other technologies, the benefits often go first to those who can afford cutting-edge devices, leaving others behind. Standards development communities, particularly those involved in the digital credentials space, are positioned to address this gap, but it requires intentional design choices and collaboration across stakeholders.

Balancing Innovation with Equity

Here’s what’s making me anxious: The promise of ZKPs shouldn’t come at the cost of equity. If the future of privacy relies on technology that only the most privileged can access, then we’ve failed a significant portion of the global population. So let’s think about how to advance in a few more areas. (There is work going on in each, but let’s not get complacent):

Optimizing Algorithms: Continued research should focus on reducing the computational burden of ZKPs, making them more efficient and accessible. Device Compatibility: Developing lightweight ZKP implementations that work on older or less powerful devices is crucial. Privacy Alternatives: While ZKPs are a powerful tool, they’re not the only path to privacy. There are other technical mechanisms to explore. Collaborative Standards: Standards bodies must prioritize equity, ensuring that technical specifications account for diverse use cases and resource constraints. Non-Human Identities and ZKPs

ZKPs aren’t just about humans; they have a significant role to play in NHI as well. Devices, software agents, and even digital twins increasingly operate in environments where trust and privacy are critical. Here’s where ZKPs come into play:

Device Authentication and IoT: ZKPs can allow IoT devices to securely prove their identity without exposing sensitive information. For example, a smart thermostat could authenticate itself to a central hub without revealing its serial number or full configuration. Machine-to-Machine Communication: ZKPs enable machines to verify each other’s credentials securely, such as an autonomous vehicle proving it has insurance coverage. Supply Chain and Provenance: Digital twins of products can use ZKPs to prove authenticity or origin without disclosing the entire supply chain.

However, just as with human identities, there are challenges. Many non-human entities, like IoT devices, are resource-constrained and may struggle to handle the computational demands of ZKPs. These limitations further highlight the importance of making ZKPs more accessible, not just for individuals but for organizations and devices with limited resources.

What’s Next for ZKPs?

The future of ZKPs is as exciting as it is complex. One organization leading the way in advancing ZKP research and development is the CFRG. Part of the IRTF, CFRG brings together cryptographers, researchers, and industry professionals to explore cutting-edge cryptographic techniques, including ZKPs. Their work helps ensure that standards and implementations are both secure and practical for real-world use.

In addition to CFRG’s efforts, ongoing research (NIST is just one example) focuses on optimizing algorithms to reduce computational overhead and developing hardware accelerators to make ZKP technology more efficient and accessible. Collaboration across academia, industry, and standards bodies is necessary to overcome current limitations and ensure ZKPs can be deployed equitably.

Ultimately, the journey to mainstream adoption of ZKPs will require thoughtful design, practical implementation, and a commitment to inclusivity. By leveraging the work of groups like CFRG and fostering collaboration, we can ensure that ZKPs advance privacy and benefit everyone.

A Quick Compare and Contrast FeatureZKPsCurrent Models of Selective DisclosurePrivacy LevelExtremely high (reveals nothing but the proof)Partial (shares limited info)Computational CostHigh (math is hard!)Lower (simpler cryptography)Device RequirementsExpensive hardware needed?Works on most devicesAdoption BarrierComplexity, costMore familiar, easier to deploy Wrap Up

Zero-knowledge proofs are an exciting innovation that could actually make privacy a technically viable and enforceable thing online. Their ability to enable secure, selective disclosure is amazing, and their potential applications are as diverse as the people on the Internet. But as we push the boundaries of what’s possible with the latest technologies, we must also ensure that privacy is not a privilege reserved for those with the latest devices.

By balancing innovation with accessibility, I think we can build a future where everyone benefits from the advancements in privacy-preserving technology. ZKPs are undoubtedly a step in the right direction, but they’re just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Let’s make sure we’re solving it with everyone in mind.

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The post Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Privacy, Innovation, and Equity appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.

Staying compliant with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is no small task.  This why our mission is to make your compliance process faster and more efficient, as well as error-proof. Thus, we are thrilled to be able to share that with our latest sprint we've rolled out a bunch of new updates that will (hopefully) be worth your while.

Across North America, effective Research Data Management (RDM) is essential for securing and maintaining grant funding.

The post [Event Report] Digital Knowledge New Year Conference 2025: Presentations by MyNavi and Indicio (USA) on the Frontline of “Strategic DX and the Use of Educational Technology” appeared first on Indicio.

INNOPAY at Dynamo Cloud Business Forum 2025 from 05 Mar 2025 till 06 Mar 2025 Trudy Zomer 17 February 2025 - 13:39 Milan, Italy 45.485610316152, 9.2017896

Join Mariane ter Veen, Director of Data Sharing at INNOPAY, at the prestigious Dynamo Cloud Business Forum taking place on 5-6 March 2025 at the Excelsior Hotel Gallia in Milan, Italy. Mariane will delve into the critical topic of digital sustainability, a key aspect of today's data-driven economic frameworks.

The forum is set to explore a range of pivotal themes centred on Europe's digital future, with discussions aimed at fostering a robust and independent European digital market. Mariane will address innovative strategies to enhance digital sustainability, emphasising responsible and efficient data usage that supports long-term economic growth, resilience and ecological stability.

This in-person, by-invitation-only event promises insightful exchanges and networking opportunities, gathering leaders and experts across the technology and digital policy landscape. 

For more details on the event and the full programme, visit de website of Dynamo Cloud Business Forum 2025.

We unpack the findings from IDnow’s recent UK and France Fraud Awareness Reports to explore the differences in perceptions of fraud, preferences of identity verification solutions and much more.

Separated by just 34km of the English Channel, there are many things that France and the United Kingdom have in common: size of populations, diversity of cultures, and, unfortunately, alarming rates of fraud.  

In France, victims of financial fraud and scams lose at least €500 million annually, while in the UK, the problem appears to be even more pronounced. In fact, in just the first half of 2024, over £570 million was stolen in payment fraud alone. 

In 2024, we published the IDnow UK Fraud Awareness Report, which surveyed members of the British public to explore the nation’s awareness of the latest fraud terms, the industries considered most susceptible to fraud, and how commonly Brits used risky channels like unencrypted messaging platforms to transfer copies or scans of ID documents. Last month, we published an edition focused on France, ‘Fraude bancaire : enquête sur la confiance des Français envers leur banque’ [Bank fraud: survey of French people’s confidence in their bank]. 

Referring to the recent French Report, Cyril Patou, Vice President of Sales (France) at IDnow said: “The results highlight the importance of increased awareness and having open dialogue between financial institutions and users to move forward together in the fight against fraud.” 

In this blog, we explore the differences in results between the two nations and consider why a tailored, culture-specific approach to fraud prevention – and identity verification – is required.

UK Fraud Awareness Report 2024 Learn more about the British public’s awareness of fraud and their attitudes toward fraud-prevention technology. Read now Loyalty, trust and public awareness of fraud.

While 54% of UK respondents said they would consider switching banks if they were a victim of bank fraud, only 27% of French respondents agreed, indicating that either the French were more loyal to their banks or accepting of falling victim to fraud. Surprisingly, 11% of French respondents said they had been victims of bank fraud yet had still not changed banks.  

When it comes to fraud terms, the Brits tend to be more informed than their French counterparts. For example, over half of UK respondents said they had heard of ‘deepfakes’ (videos of digitally created people that are typically used to obfuscate the user’s identity), while 42% of French said they had not heard the term combined with a further 25% who said they had heard of deepfakes, but didn‘t know what it means.  

Both countries are currently experiencing a rise in sophisticated digital fraud techniques, including deepfakes. In a recent post on social media, French President Emmanuel Macron shared a montage of deepfake videos featuring himself in popular movies, commenting “nicely done.” In the UK, recent Ofcom data shows that 43% of individuals aged 16 and older have seen at least one deepfake online in the last six months. Deepfakes have clearly arrived and being used for both fun and fraudulent purposes. In fact, the UK government recently declared deepfakes as the “greatest challenge of the online era.”

Attitudes on whether banks are adequately protecting their customers against fraud like deepfakes are largely the same in France (72%) and the UK (73%), leaving more than a quarter of respondents in both countries that either disagree or just don’t know – suggesting better education on not only the latest fraud terms but banks’ methods of fraud prevention is needed.

Which industries cause the French and British public the most concern?

Both France and the UK agree that the riskiest industry when it comes to fraud is financial services (65% and 75% respectively) followed by online shopping. Clearly, these are both industries where it serves for customers to be as cautious as possible, as bank and e-commerce accounts store important personal identifiable information that can be misused for fraudulent purposes. 

Third on the ranking of riskiest industry is social media fraud, which is where a lot of fraud originates, especially social engineering. Discover all about the rise of social media fraud, and how one man almost lost a million euros to a pig butchering scam in our blog, ‘The rise of social media fraud: How one man almost lost it all.’ 

One of the major differences seen in the IDnow Reports is the perception of public services as a potential source of fraud. While in France, nearly a third of the French population (32%) are concerned, just 13% of the UK public appear worried about eGovernment fraud. Could it be that the French are just more critical of eGovernment services or perhaps it’s just that a higher percentage of the French population are using eGovernment services. 

It appears to be the former, as in 2023, just 34% of the French public reported high or moderately high trust in the national government, below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s average of 39%.

Identity crisis? The future of digital identity in the UK. Download to discover all about the UK’s past, present and likely future usage of digital IDs. Read now Government and public preferences in identity verification solutions.

Most industries are either required by regulation to implement identity verification checks or have chosen to do so to optimize processes or fight fraud. Such checks are required for account opening in Banking, compliance checks in Crypto, age verification in Mobility, streamlined check-in processes in Travel, financial risk checks in Gambling, and contract signing in Telecommunication.   

Identity verification requires users to provide and have information associated with their identity verified. This may be checking an identity document, such as a driver’s license, passport, or a nationally issued identity document or by biometric authentication of users’ attributes like fingerprints or facial features. 

Each country tends to have different approaches to fraud prevention and identity verification processes, which is often determined by regulatory requirements. In Germany, for example, video verification is required when opening bank accounts due to strict AML/GwG requirements, however this may all be set to change in the near future. 

In France, the government has a national digital identification program and provides citizens with electronic ID cards that facilitates secure access to various services. This centralized system enhances the efficiency of identity verification processes across both public and private sectors. France also has FranceConnect, the national digital identity federator, where users verify themselves for eGovernment and other regulated services. Our report found that the concept of digital identities was familiar to 72% of French respondents. Plus, a large majority of French (70%) said they would be prepared to use a digital identity to access bank accounts or carry out important transactions.

Learn more about our digital identity wallet product, YRIS, which features on FranceConnect here. 

In the UK, there is currently no one consistent and coherent ID system, with companies instead relying on database checks and document checks of different forms of ID, including driving licences and passports. However, the government is experimenting with various ways of modernizing its approach, including the 2023 release of a Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) – a set of rules and standards designed to establish trust in digital identity products. 

There was also a flurry of activity at the beginning of 2025 with the announcement that the government planned to launch the GOV.UK Wallet, which was very quickly followed up by panicked questions regarding its impact on the DIATF. 

Once launched, the holders of the GOV.UK Wallet will be able to: 

Securely save government-issued digital documents   Present these documents to organizations, businesses and other parts of government to prove age, identity, or eligibility for services 

When asked which identity verification method they considered the most trustworthy for a secure, reliable and accurate process, 20% of French respondents said document capture and facial recognition, while 42% of UK respondents cited a combination of electronic identity data checks and document capture and facial verification. 

While 16% of French respondents would prefer an expert-led identification process like VideoIdent, just 9% of UK respondents felt the same way. Seemingly, the French are more open-minded toward expert-led solutions than the Brits. However, products like IDnow’s customizable VideoIdent Flex are now becoming increasingly popular in European countries outside Germany, where they have typically enjoyed much success due to national BaFin (Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) online onboarding regulatory requirements. 

There are clearly differences between the two nations when it comes to awareness of fraud, the industries considered riskiest and their preferred methods of identity verification. However, what is consistent in both the UK and France is the ever-present risk of fraud and the need for a collaborative push by regulatory and government bodies and financial services to commit to fraud prevention. 

Thankfully, whether automated or expert-led, online or in-person, IDnow offers one of the widest ranges of identity verification and digital signature solutions in Europe and beyond. Learn more about how our solutions can be used to prevent fraud while maximizing conversions by clicking the relevant category above. 

Interested in what our customers said were their top identity verification challenges last year and how they planned to tackle fraud in 2024? Read our ‘Fraud in 2024: IDnow customers have their say.’ blog 

By

Jody Houton
Senior Content Manager at IDnow
Connect with Jody on LinkedIn

Where are all the people? Takeaways from the Paris AI Safety Summit — from ‘plug baby plug’ to power to the people

Written by Emrys Schoemaker — Senior Director of Advisory & Policy at Caribou Digital.

The Paris AI Action Summit is over, and the scene set for the subsequent one, which will be hosted by India. This year’s Summit followed previous meetings in Bletchley Park, UK (2023), and Seoul, South Korea (2024). Ostensibly, the convenings aimed to agree on guardrails for the future of AI.

The Paris AI Summit characterized the times in which it was held — one of fragmenting geopolitics, divergent priorities, and the growing pursuit of sovereign interest over collective good.

Many observers concluded that not only was the Summit more of a trade fair for Paris’s AI ambitions — with French President Macron’s ‘plug baby plug’ a, umm, plug for the country’s nuclear industry, but it was also a failure on its own terms. Although more than sixty countries, including China, India, and Germany, signed on to a declaration that committed to “ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all,” both the US and UK refused to do so, with US Vice President J. D. Vance saying the United States would work to retain its dominance in AI.

There were bright spots. The commitment to Current AI, a $400-million fund focused on building “open, people-first technologies,” offers hope, yet the initiative will have to demonstrate how it can have ecosystemic impact and bend the arc of AI development toward the good.

My main takeaway from the AI Summit is that, despite the increasingly centralized, mega investment focus of Big Tech AI that seems to be rushing headlong to doomsday land, the most interesting developments are in fact the opposite: away from the big companies, where efforts focus on shifting power toward people.

I saw this at the African AI Village, an independent meeting convened by a coalition of leading African organizations, including Qhala and Smart Africa, and supported by the likes of Mozilla, CEIP, and others. Three themes struck me:

Decentering and decolonizing power: Calls to stop asking for permission and instead to build African AI models, applications, and skills are growing increasingly confident. We can’t underestimate the importance of China’s DeepSeek AI models here in demonstrating that the AI field can be disrupted. Decentering principles of data governance and turning to Indigenous forms of knowledge: The Maori Data Governance Principles are an example of this approach. The Maori Principles have also informed work Caribou has done with UNDP on governance frameworks for digital ID and forthcoming on data exchange and digital ID. Dependency on metal, especially data centers, to maintain sovereignty: Africa has only 155 data centers. In 2023 these generated less than 1 megawatt (MW), compared to 88 in the US and 73 in the EU. Analysts suggest that Africa desperately needs as much as 1,000 MW and 700 facilities if African AI is going to be independent of the hyperscale cloud and computing providers.

The other theme that stood out in this technology-focused Summit is people. In the headlong rush to greater investment, including in AI for defense, the struggle to put people first continues. The Computer Says Maybe live-streamed review of the Summit captured this trend.

Where are all the people? There was a general consensus that the Summit had not done enough to focus on people or risk. The few references to people, such as the launch of Current AI, the public interest AI fund, were welcome, but not enough. The challenge of mobilizing public engagement — and protest — was also flagged as a barrier to influence and advocacy. One explanation for this was the challenge of “showing the bodies”; in contrast to other digital technologies where harms are readily apparent, the harms from AI are difficult to link directly to the technology. Increasing emphasis on developing AI diagnostic tools and methods to strengthen AI accountability led to a discussion about the role of more constructive engagement: the diagnostician vs. the clinician. The former simply identifies problems, while the latter provides constructive solutions. Importantly, there was widespread agreement among panel members about the importance of criticism, with one panel member noting that “criticism is service.”

But the big elephant in the room was geopolitics. Not just the geopolitics of AI — with US Vice President Vance “warning Europe to go easy on regulating US tech firms” — but the broader geopolitical context in which AI sits. The very rapid changes taking place in the United States, the decline in multilateral approaches to addressing global challenges, including but not only AI, are factors that will shape the future role of digital technologies in politics and everyday life. So we must take much greater account of the geopolitics in which technologies exist if we are to address the challenges of power.

Where are all the people? was originally published in Caribou Digital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Keeping your CPU cool is essential for performance and longevity. If you’re into gaming or handle demanding tasks like video editing, you’ll want to make sure your CPU doesn’t overheat. Let’s break down why good CPU temp matters and how to maintain it for the best performance.

Learn more: Why is my laptop so slow? How to speed up

What is a Good CPU Temperature?

Knowing what constitutes a “good” CPU temperature can make all the difference for your system. Here’s what you should aim for a good CPU temp, depending on what you’re doing:

Idle Temperature: When your computer isn’t doing much (just sitting on the desktop), the ideal CPU temperature should be between 30°C to 50°C. If it’s higher than this, it’s worth checking your cooling system.
Normal Use: For tasks like browsing, watching videos, or light gaming, temperatures between 50°C to 75°C are totally fine. Anything higher may indicate you need better airflow or cooling.
Heavy Load: If you’re gaming or running demanding software, temperatures between 70°C to 85°C are typical. Once it hits above 85°C, that’s when you need to start thinking about cooling options.
Maximum Temperature: At maximum load, such as gaming at full throttle or rendering videos, Intel CPUs should stay under 90°C, while AMD CPUs should aim to stay below 92°C. Temperatures above this for extended periods could damage your hardware.

Learn more: What Does It Mean When Your Browser Crashes Out? Troubleshooting Guide

What Affects Your CPU Temperature?

There are several factors that can cause your CPU to run hotter than usual:

Workload: The more your CPU is working (e.g., heavy gaming, 3D rendering), the higher the temperature. The CPU has to process a lot more information, generating heat in the process.
Ambient Temperature: If your room is too hot, your CPU will naturally run hotter. Cooling systems work better in cooler environments.
Cooling System: If your CPU cooler isn’t up to the task, or if it’s clogged with dust, the temperature will rise. Ensuring good airflow in your case and using a high-quality cooler can prevent this. Common Causes of High CPU Temperature

There are several common reasons why your CPU might be running too hot. Identifying these causes early on can help you take the right steps to keep a good CPU temp. Here are 4 main factors to watch out for:

Dust Buildup: Dust can clog fans and heatsinks, restricting airflow and causing your CPU to overheat. Regular cleaning is essential to maintain efficient cooling. Overclocking: Overclocking your CPU increases heat production. If you’re pushing your CPU beyond its factory settings, it’s important to monitor temperatures to prevent overheating. Poor Ventilation: Placing your PC on soft surfaces like a bed or couch can block airflow, causing heat to build up. Ensure your PC is on a hard, flat surface to promote better cooling. Aging Hardware: Over time, thermal paste can dry out, and cooling fans can wear down, reducing cooling efficiency. Regular maintenance, like reapplying thermal paste and cleaning fans, helps keep temperatures under control. 5 Tips for Maintaining a Good CPU Temperature

Maintaining an optimal CPU temperature requires regular attention and a few simple adjustments. By improving airflow, upgrading your cooling system, and performing routine maintenance, you can ensure your CPU runs efficiently and stays cool. Here are some practical tips to help you manage your CPU’s temperature effectively.

Improve Airflow

To keep your CPU cool, make sure your PC is placed in a well-ventilated area. Ensure there’s enough space around your PC for air to flow freely. Adding extra case fans or organizing cables inside the case can improve airflow and help cool your CPU more effectively.

Upgrade Your Cooling

If you’re into gaming or regularly run demanding applications, upgrading to a more efficient cooling system is a great idea. Consider switching to a liquid cooling system, which is more effective at heat dissipation compared to traditional air cooling, especially under heavy load.

Clean Your System Regularly

Dust accumulation is one of the biggest factors that can affect your cooling system. To avoid overheating, clean your PC’s interior every few months. Focus on removing dust from fans, heatsinks, and vents, which can all block airflow and increase temperatures. Using compressed air or a soft brush can help remove dust without damaging components.

Reapply Thermal Paste

Over time, thermal paste between your CPU and cooler can dry out and lose its effectiveness. Reapplying fresh thermal paste ensures better heat transfer, helping your CPU stay cooler. This is especially important if you’re experiencing higher temperatures or if it’s been a while since you built or serviced your system.

Use a Cooling Pad for Laptops

If you’re using a laptop, a cooling pad equipped with fans can significantly help reduce temperatures, especially during gaming or multitasking. Cooling pads provide additional airflow to your laptop’s bottom surface, preventing excessive heat buildup and improving performance during intensive tasks.

Conclusion

Maintaining a good CPU temp is vital for performance and longevity. By keeping an eye on your CPU temperature, cleaning your system, improving airflow, and investing in better cooling, you can ensure your computer runs smoothly and stays reliable for the long haul. Regular monitoring and simple maintenance can prevent overheating and help you get the most out of your machine, whether you’re gaming, working, or just browsing.

Learn more: Top 10 Ways to Prevent Internet Leaks on Your Devices

About Herond Browser

Herond Browser is a cutting-edge Web 3.0 browser designed to prioritize user privacy and security. By blocking intrusive ads, harmful trackers, and profiling cookies, Herond creates a safer and faster browsing experience while minimizing data consumption.

To enhance user control over their digital presence, Herond offers two essential tools:

Herond Shield: A robust adblocker and privacy protection suite. Herond Wallet: A secure, multi-chain, non-custodial social wallet.

As a pioneering Web 2.5 solution, Herond is paving the way for mass Web 3.0 adoption by providing a seamless transition for users while upholding the core principles of decentralization and user ownership.

Have any questions or suggestions? Contact us:

On Telegram https://t.me/herond_browser DM our official X @HerondBrowser Technical support topic on https://community.herond.org

The post Maintaining Optimal CPU Temperature for Peak Performance appeared first on Herond Blog.

A hundred years ago, in 1925, the world was barely electrified.

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Here are the main industry highlights of this week week impacting identity and fraud, cybersecurity, trust and safety, financial crimes compliance, and privacy and consent management.

🪄Innovation and New Technology Developments

Socure Launches RiskOS, an AI-Driven Risk Decisioning Platform for Identity Verification, Fraud Prevention, and Compliance

Socure has launched RiskOS, a risk decisioning platform that combines its AI-driven identity verification, fraud prevention, and compliance solutions with orchestration and decisioning capabilities from its Effectiv acquisition. RiskOS integrates over 50 third-party data solutions, offering real-time decision-making and proactive risk alerts. Built on Socure’s identity graph with a network of over 4 billion known outcomes and 314 million recurring identities, the platform provides a no-code interface for creating workflows and integrating data services. It addresses key use cases, including consumer and business onboarding, KYB automation, bank account verification, account takeover prevention, and trust and safety in digital marketplaces. (Source)

Google to Test AI Model for Age Estimation to Enforce Age Restrictions Across Its Products

Google announced it will begin testing an AI model to estimate whether users are over or under 18 to enforce age restrictions across its products, including YouTube. The initiative is part of Google’s broader push to integrate AI into its services while addressing increasing regulatory pressure on child safety. The company plans to expand the AI-based age estimation model beyond the U.S. over time, following similar efforts by Meta. (Source)

Adobe Launches a Standalone Firefly AI Subscription Service With Focus On AI Images Videos And Vectors

Adobe is expanding its Firefly AI models into a standalone subscription service with a focus on AI-generated images, vectors, and videos. Users can choose the Standard plan ($9.99/month) for unlimited AI images, vectors, and 20 five-second AI videos or the Pro plan ($29.99/month) for 70 AI videos per month. A Premium tier, offering up to 500 AI videos per month, is also in development. These plans integrate with Creative Cloud, offering access across Photoshop and Express. Competing with OpenAI’s Sora, Runway’s Gen-3 Alpha, and Google DeepMind’s Veo, Firefly aims to differentiate itself by training on a licensed, brand-safe dataset to avoid legal risks. Adobe’s move reflects its strategy to monetize Firefly’s early success and attract creative professionals seeking customizable AI-generated visual content. (Source)

South African Banks Expanding Smart ID Services to Accelerate Digital Transition

South African banks plan to expand branches offering Home Affairs services to streamline the issuance of biometric smart ID cards. This initiative supports the government’s transition from outdated green ID booklets to more secure digital IDs, aiming to reduce inefficiencies and long wait times. Currently, over 30 banks provide ID services, and many intend to open more branches in 2025 to alleviate congestion at Home Affairs offices. The government has set a goal of issuing at least 2.5 million smart ID cards as part of its broader digital transformation strategy. While no official deadline for the full transition has been announced, authorities expect the process to be completed in the coming years. (Source)

💰 Investments and Partnerships

OneID Secures New Funding to Expand Bank-Verified Digital ID Services and Market Reach

OneID® , the UK’s only provider of bank-verified digital identification services, has secured new funding led by ACF Investors, though the investment amount remains undisclosed. The company has raised over £16 million from more than 200 angel investors across the UK, Sweden, and the US, positioning itself as a leader in the sector. OneID’s technology enables real-time verification for approximately 50 million UK adults without requiring registration or storing personal data, streamlining identity authentication for businesses. The new funding will support product expansion, entry into new market sectors, and further adoption by existing and new customers, including NatWest and Adobe. (Source)

CyberArk Acquires Zilla Security for $165M to Strengthen Identity Governance and Administration Capabilities

CyberArk has acquired Zilla Security for $165 million in cash, with an additional $10 million earn-out, to enhance its Identity Security Platform with modern Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) capabilities. Zilla’s AI-driven SaaS platform automates identity compliance and provisioning, addressing the limitations of legacy IGA systems by offering faster deployment and streamlined access management. The acquisition aligns with CyberArk’s strategy to provide a comprehensive identity security platform, integrating privilege controls, entitlement management, and lifecycle governance. Zilla’s solutions, now available through CyberArk, will support enterprises in managing digital identities more efficiently across hybrid environments. (Source)

Sardine Secures $70M to Expand AI-Powered Fraud and Compliance Solutions

Sardine raised $70 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total capital to $145 million, with backing from investors like Activant Capital , Andreessen Horowitz , and GV (Google Ventures). The company, which provides AI-driven fraud and compliance solutions, has profiled over 2.2 billion devices and serves more than 300 enterprises, including FIS, Deel, and GoDaddy. Sardine is launching AI agents to automate risk operations, reducing manual work in fraud detection, compliance, and credit underwriting. These AI tools streamline processes such as KYC verification, sanctions screening, and chargeback handling, aiming to reduce false positives and improve efficiency. With this investment, Sardine plans to scale its AI infrastructure to help financial institutions manage increasing fraud and compliance challenges more effectively. (Source)

Cleversoft Acquires Fineksus to Expand Regulatory and AML Solutions Across Europe and the Middle East

Fineksus has been acquired by cleversoft group after receiving regulatory approvals. The acquisition integrates Fineksus’ financial messaging and AML expertise with cleversoft’s regulatory technology, expanding services across Türkiye, the Middle East, and Europe. Customers of cleversoft will gain access to financial messaging services, while Fineksus customers will receive EU regulatory compliance support and improved service in Europe. Fineksus will retain its brand and leadership, with its CEO, Ahmet Vefik Dinçer, joining cleversoft’s executive board. The two companies aim for full integration by the end of 2025, focusing on enhancing regulatory and AML solutions. (Source)

Securitize, Apollo, and Wormhole Tokenize $1.3B Credit Fund for Multi-Chain DeFi Integration

Securitize, Apollo Global Management, Inc., and Wormhole have partnered to tokenize the $1.3 billion Apollo Diversified Credit Fund ($ACRED) and deploy it across six blockchains, including Solana. This allows institutional investors to access private credit markets on-chain, increasing liquidity and accessibility. Wormhole’s protocol enables $ACRED to move across blockchains, letting users trade, lend, or use it as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi). Solana’s low-cost infrastructure is playing a key role in supporting institutional asset tokenization. The success of $ACRED could encourage further institutional adoption of tokenized assets, expanding blockchain’s role in traditional finance. (Source)

Turn/River Capital to Acquire SolarWinds for $4.4 Billion in All-Cash Deal

Private equity firm Turn/River Capital has agreed to acquire SolarWinds for $4.4 billion in an all-cash deal at $18.50 per share, taking the IT management and observability software provider private. SolarWinds, which became infamous for the 2020 supply chain attack linked to Russian-backed hackers, will no longer be publicly traded on the NYSE. The company faced SEC scrutiny in 2023 over alleged failure to disclose cyber risks, though most allegations were dismissed. The acquisition has been approved by SolarWinds’ board and is expected to close in Q2 2025. (Source)

Signaturit Group Acquires Validated ID to Expand Digital Identity and E-Signature Solutions

Signaturit Group, a Barcelona-based provider of secure digital transaction solutions, has announced its acquisition of Validated ID, a fellow Barcelona-based vendor in digital identity and electronic signature solutions. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Validated ID, known for its VIDwallet mobile identity wallet and biometric signature solutions, serves over 4,000 clients in 35+ countries. (Source)

France Secures €109 Billion in AI Investments to Boost Infrastructure and Innovation

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that private sector investments in France’s artificial intelligence sector will reach approximately €109 billion ($112.5 billion) during the upcoming Paris AI Summit. Key contributions include €20 billion from Canadian investment firm Brookfield, largely for data center development, and potentially €50 billion from the United Arab Emirates, which will help finance a 1-gigawatt data center. The initiative aims to position France as a leader in AI infrastructure, though energy demands for large-scale data centers remain a challenge for Europe. The announcement follows the U.S.’s recent commitment of $500 billion in AI infrastructure from OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle to maintain its competitive edge over China and other rivals. (Source)

AttackIQ Acquires DeepSurface to Enhance Cybersecurity Risk Analysis

AttackIQ, a Santa Clara-based cybersecurity firm specializing in Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV), has acquired Portland startup DeepSurface Security. Founded in 2017, DeepSurface developed software that prioritizes security risks by mapping out potential attack paths for hackers. The acquisition will integrate DeepSurface’s risk analysis technology into AttackIQ’s security control validation and breach simulation offerings. DeepSurface’s CEO, James Dirksen, and CTO, Tim Morgan, expressed enthusiasm for the merger, emphasizing its potential to enhance security teams’ ability to analyze and mitigate threats. The startup previously raised $1 million in seed funding in 2020 from Cascade Seed Fund, SeaChange Fund, and Voyager Capital. (Source)

⚖️ Policy and Regulatory

Hackers Breach OmniGPT Exposing Personal Data Of Over 30000 Users And 34 Million Chatbot Interactions

Hackers allegedly breached OmniGPT, an AI chatbot platform, exposing the personal data of over 30,000 users, including email addresses, phone numbers, API keys, and 34 million user-chatbot interactions. A hacker named “Gloomer” claimed responsibility on February 9, 2025, posting leaked samples on a hacking forum, which included plaintext emails, phone numbers, chat logs, and sensitive documents stored on Google Cloud. The leaked chat logs and uploaded files pose serious privacy risks, potentially revealing personal, financial, or corporate data. (Source)

India Considers Banning Chinese AI Chatbot DeepSeek Over Data Privacy And Cybersecurity Risks

India is considering banning DeepSeek, a Chinese AI chatbot, due to data privacy and cybersecurity concerns, with CERT-In, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, investigating its data collection practices. DeepSeek reportedly gathers user data through prompts, device metadata, app interactions, and external sources, raising fears of unauthorized access to sensitive information and potential manipulation of political discourse. Unlike ChatGPT, DeepSeek poses elevated privacy risks, as it can track user behavior across other AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Similar concerns have led countries like the US, Italy, and Australia to restrict DeepSeek’s use. India’s finance ministry has already warned against using AI tools like DeepSeek on government devices, reinforcing the need for strict regulations to protect national security and user privacy. (Source)

UK Government Pressures Apple to Weaken iCloud Encryption, Sparking Privacy Concerns

The U.K. government secretly ordered Apple to create a backdoor to access encrypted iCloud backups under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, aiming to weaken Apple’s end-to-end encryption feature, Advanced Data Protection. The order, which Apple is likely to comply with by removing the feature for U.K. users, has sparked concerns over privacy rights and the potential for similar demands from other governments. Critics argue that the move would set a dangerous global precedent, making encrypted data more vulnerable to cybercriminals and authoritarian regimes. Security experts warn that weakening encryption contradicts efforts to protect users from state-sponsored cyber threats, such as recent hacking campaigns by Chinese-backed groups. The U.K.’s approach risks straining alliances with nations prioritizing encryption as a safeguard against espionage and cyberattacks. (Source)

Lee Enterprises Confirms Cyberattack Disrupting Operations at 72 Newspapers

Lee Enterprises, a major U.S. newspaper publisher, has confirmed that a cyberattack is behind ongoing disruptions at its 72 publications, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Casper Star-Tribune. CEO Kevin Mowbray stated that the company is working to restore systems, but Lee has not disclosed the nature of the attack or whether any data was compromised. The outages have affected newspaper production, subscriber services, and internal systems like VPN and call centers. While Lee’s earnings report this week omitted mention of the cyberattack, this marks the company’s second known breach in five years, following a 2021 Iranian hacker attack. Recovery efforts are ongoing, with no clear timeline for resolution. (Source)

PayPal Fined $2 Million by New York for Cybersecurity Failures

PayPal has been fined $2 million by New York State for failing to meet cybersecurity regulations, leaving customer data vulnerable to cybercriminals. The investigation by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) found that PayPal lacked qualified cybersecurity personnel, failed to implement adequate security measures like multifactor authentication, and did not provide sufficient training. The breach occurred when untrained teams expanded access to IRS Form 1099-Ks, allowing hackers to exploit compromised credentials and access sensitive customer data. DFS Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris emphasized the importance of trained cybersecurity personnel and strong policies to protect consumer information. This case highlights the enforcement of New York’s updated cybersecurity regulations, which set strict standards for financial institutions to prevent data breaches. (Source)

DeepSeek iOS App Banned Globally Over Security and Privacy Risks

Critical vulnerabilities in the DeepSeek iOS app have raised serious privacy and national security concerns, leading to global bans by governments and organizations. The app transmits unencrypted user data to ByteDance servers in China, bypassing iOS security protocols and exposing users to surveillance risks. Researchers found multiple security flaws, including weak encryption, insecure data storage, and extensive fingerprinting, making user information vulnerable to interception and misuse. Given the regulatory and compliance risks, countries like South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and U.S. agencies have banned the app on official devices. Security experts recommend prohibiting its use in corporate environments, adopting self-hosted alternatives, and conducting regular security assessments to mitigate emerging threats. (Source)

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The post The State of Identity appeared first on Liminal.co.

Barclays has revealed that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the biggest financial regulatory body in the UK, has been investigating their AML processes due to possible misconduct. Read our guide and find out what happened.

The post Barclays Under AML Check Scrutiny first appeared on ComplyCube.

Dijital dönüşümün öncüsü iki şirket TÜRKKEP ve Paperwork BPM arasında gerçekleştirilen entegrasyon ile KEP iletileri anında iş akışına dahil ediliyor, yasal süreler aksatılmadan yönetiliyor ve insan kaynaklı riskler en aza indiriliyor.

Hey 👋

Welcome to the first edition of The Kinside Scoop 🎉

It’s our new bi-weekly update on how we’re improving Kin to evolve with you and better support your professional and personal growth journey.

This time we’ll go through:

What's New with KIN?🚀

A company's name carries its heart

Top 5 articles we’re reading

Super prompt: How Do You Handle Emotions?

Join the community on Discord, LinkedIn and TikTok

Last week, we made some meaningful changes to make your experience with Kin faster, smoother, and more intuitive.

You may have noticed some of these updates, but just in case you didn’t…

Let's dive in ⬇️

What's New with KIN?🚀

Simplified interface ✨

Your conversations with Kin are now front and center, in a clean, distraction-free space that lets you focus on what matters: your personal growth and reflection.

Conversations & lists 💬

Whether you're continuing yesterday's breakthrough or starting fresh, everything's right where you need it, like picking up yesterday’s conversation with a close friend.

One-tap action buttons ⚡

New shortcuts in your chat view mean less time navigating, and more time growing. Start journaling, prep for meetings, or capture insights with a single tap.

Need to capture a quick thought? Just tap the journaling shortcut, and Kin will store it for you.

—

This update transforms how you interact with Kin, making every conversation more natural and every action more intuitive.

More than anything, we want to create a space for deeper insights and more meaningful growth moments.

Go to KIN

A company's name carries its heart

Sometimes, the right name finds you. 18 months ago, on a hike in Spain, it just clicked. The best things we’ve built came from real friendships - the kind where you grow together. That’s what Kin is all about. Read the full story here.

Top 5 articles we’re reading

Articles shared in our #market-research channel

DeepSeek moved me to tears': How young Chinese find therapy in AI
READ - BBC

Elon Musk says he’ll drop his $97bn bid for OpenAI if it remains a non-profit READ - The Guardian

DeepSeek database left open, exposing sensitive info
READ - The Register

What if the issue with personal AI isn’t privacy - it’s intimacy?
READ - Customer Futures

Paper: LM2: Large Memory Models
READ - Arxiv org

Super prompt: How Do You Handle Emotions? Quiz me to determine my go-to strategy for dealing with emotions, based on 'Gross' Emotion Regulation Theory' by using the 'Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, ERQ' by James J. Gross and Oliver P. John. When the final question is done, then summarize the quiz results.

If you have Kin installed, click the button below to try this prompt in Kin ☺️

"Open prompt in Kin"

Share your thoughts 💡

Your feedback shapes Kin.

Once you've experienced the update, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

What feels great? What could be better? What would make your Kin experience even more impactful?

We’re all ears.

Just reply to this email or share your thoughts directly in the app (just take a screenshot 💬 ☺️)

Until next time,
The Kin team

This conversation features Jamie Smith, Founder of Customer Futures, and Nick Lambert, CEO of Dock Labs. Nick serves as the host, guiding the discussion, while Jamie, an expert in empowerment technology and digital identity.

As cyber criminals adopt advanced tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes, businesses are tempted to rely solely on AI to counter these threats. But the reality is more complex. AI alone isn’t enough to protect against the multifaceted tactics fraudsters employ. The smartest approach blends AI with traditional tools and context-aware strategies.

The rise of e-commerce has led to an explosion in demand for packaging,
with much of it ending up in landfills. Reusable packaging offers a
sustainable solution, but its success hinges on high return rates. This
article explores the potential of gamification and blockchain rewards to
incentivize customers to return reusable packaging, specifically
focusing on mailers that can be returned via mailbox. We will analyze
two business models: one leveraging these technologies and one that does
not, providing a comprehensive value comparison.

Gamification and Blockchain Rewards: A Powerful Combination

Gamification involves integrating game-like elements, such as points,
badges, and leaderboards, into non-game contexts to drive user
engagement and influence behavior1. By tapping into our natural desire
for competition, achievement, and rewards, gamification can make even
mundane tasks more enjoyable and motivating. Studies have shown that
gamification can lead to increased participation, improved information
retention, and higher conversion rates2. However, the success of
gamification depends on customer readiness, which is influenced by
factors like the simplicity of the program and the quality of
information provided3.

Blockchain technology, a decentralized and transparent system for
recording and verifying transactions, provides a secure and efficient
platform for managing rewards programs. Its key characteristics, such as
immutability and traceability, foster trust among participants4.
Blockchain also enables the creation of tokenized rewards, which can be
used across different platforms and even traded on secondary markets,
offering greater flexibility and value to customers5.

The synergy between gamification and blockchain creates a powerful
incentive system. Gamification provides the motivational engine, while
blockchain ensures the security and transparency of the rewards program,
enhancing its credibility and appeal to customers4. This combination
is particularly relevant in the context of loyalty programs, a market
that has experienced significant growth in recent years. In 2015, 3.8
billion loyalty program memberships were active in the US, with
enrollment growing by 20% across various industries6.

Incentivizing Reusable Packaging Returns: Two Business Models

Model 1: Traditional Approach (No Gamification or Blockchain)

This model relies on traditional methods to encourage returns, such as:

Deposit fees: Customers pay a deposit upon receiving the
packaging, which is refunded upon return.

Pre-paid return labels: Including a pre-paid return label with
the package for easy return.

Environmental messaging: Emphasizing the environmental benefits
of returning the packaging.

While these methods can be effective to a certain extent, they often
lack the engagement and motivation needed to achieve high return
rates7.

Model 2: Gamified Blockchain Rewards

This model integrates gamification and blockchain to create a more
engaging and rewarding return experience:

Tokenized rewards: Customers earn tokens for each returned
mailer. These tokens can be redeemed for discounts, exclusive
products, or even exchanged for other cryptocurrencies5.

Gamified challenges: Introduce challenges, such as returning a
certain number of mailers within a specific timeframe, to earn bonus
tokens or achieve higher tiers in the rewards program8.

Interactive tracking: Allow customers to track their return
history and token balance through a user-friendly app or online
platform9.

Community building: Create a community around the program,
allowing users to interact, share their achievements, and
participate in contests10.

By combining the motivational power of gamification with the security
and transparency of blockchain, this model aims to create a more
engaging and rewarding return experience, leading to higher return rates
and increased customer loyalty.

Beyond tokenized rewards, blockchain has the potential to transform
loyalty programs by enabling features like real-time tracking of
rewards, personalized offers based on individual customer behavior, and
interactive challenges that make earning rewards more engaging9.

To further enhance the program, businesses can leverage the
psychological principles behind gamification. For instance, by
incorporating elements of challenge, accomplishment, and social
interaction, they can tap into users' intrinsic motivation and desire
for rewards, making the return process more appealing and enjoyable12.

Value Comparison

Feature Model 1: Traditional Approach Model 2: Gamified Blockchain Rewards

Incentive Mechanism Deposit fees, pre-paid labels, environmental messaging Tokenized rewards, gamified challenges, interactive tracking, community building

Customer Engagement Limited High

Return Rate Moderate Potentially very high

Customer Loyalty Moderate High

Brand Differentiation Limited Strong

Cost of Implementation Lower Higher

Data Analytics Limited Advanced, through blockchain transaction data

Security and Transparency Moderate High, due to blockchain's immutable ledger

Scalability Limited High

Fraud Prevention Moderate High

Environmental Impact Moderate High

Analysis:

Model 2, with its gamified blockchain rewards system, offers several
advantages over the traditional approach. It has the potential to
significantly increase customer engagement and return rates by making
the return process more fun and rewarding. The use of blockchain
technology adds a layer of security and transparency, building trust
with customers and enhancing the program's credibility. Furthermore,
the tokenized rewards offer greater flexibility and value to customers,
increasing their motivation to participate13. However, it's important
to acknowledge the potential downsides of blockchain rewards, such as
the risk of token value fluctuations and the need for technical
expertise to manage the blockchain system14. Businesses need to
carefully weigh these costs against the potential benefits of increased
return rates and customer loyalty.

Environmental Impact of Reusable Packaging

Reusable packaging offers significant environmental benefits compared to
single-use alternatives. It reduces waste, conserves natural resources,
and lowers greenhouse gas emissions15. Studies have shown that
reusable packaging can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 82% and plastic
waste by 87% compared to single-use options16. The break-even point,
where the environmental impact of a reusable container becomes less than
that of single-use, varies depending on factors like the type of
container and its production process17.

Furthermore, blockchain technology can contribute to a more sustainable
and ethical supply chain for reusable packaging. By providing a
transparent and immutable record of the packaging's lifecycle,
blockchain can be used to track the origin of materials, ensure
responsible sourcing, and promote transparency in the recycling
process18.

Several successful initiatives demonstrate the feasibility of reusable
packaging programs. For example, Starbucks' "Borrow a Cup" program
allows customers to borrow a reusable cup for a small deposit and return
it at any participating store. Other successful examples include the
"Banff Borrows" program in Canada and the reusable container system at
the Our Tampines Hub hawker center in Singapore19.

By incentivizing the return of reusable mailers, both business models
contribute to reducing the environmental impact of e-commerce packaging.
However, Model 2, with its potential for higher return rates, could lead
to even greater environmental benefits.

Current Return Rates for Reusable Packaging

While data on the return rates of reusable mailers specifically is
limited in the provided research, studies have shown that reusable
packaging systems in other sectors can achieve significant return rates.
For instance, a study by Fashion for Good found that reusable packaging
systems in the fashion e-commerce industry can achieve return rates of
up to 80%, leading to substantial reductions in waste and emissions16.

Boosting Customer Engagement and Loyalty

Gamification and blockchain rewards have the potential to significantly
increase customer engagement and loyalty. Research suggests that
customers who engage with gamified loyalty programs are twice as likely
to be satisfied with the brand12. Moreover, blockchain-based loyalty
programs offer enhanced transparency and security, which can further
strengthen customer trust and loyalty13.

Manufacturing and Shipping Costs

The cost of manufacturing reusable packaging is generally higher than
single-use packaging due to the use of more durable materials20.
However, this cost is offset by the savings from reduced packaging
consumption over time. Shipping costs can also be reduced with reusable
packaging due to its efficient stacking and reduced need for frequent
shipments21. It's important to consider that shifting to reusable
packaging for e-commerce can lead to a cost increase of more than 50%
for mailer bags and nearly 200% for cardboard boxes, depending on the
specific scenario22.

SWOT Analysis

Model 1: Traditional Approach

Strengths:

Lower implementation costs

Simple and easy to understand

Weaknesses:

Limited customer engagement

Moderate return rates

Limited brand differentiation

Opportunities:

Partner with recycling facilities to offer convenient drop-off
locations

Educate customers on the environmental benefits of reusable
packaging

Threats:

Competition from companies offering more engaging return programs

Customer apathy towards environmental messaging

Model 2: Gamified Blockchain Rewards

Strengths:

High customer engagement

Potential for very high return rates

Strong brand differentiation

Enhanced security and transparency

Weaknesses:

Higher implementation costs 14

Potential for token value fluctuations

Requires technical expertise to manage the blockchain system

Opportunities:

Create a thriving community around the program

Partner with other businesses to expand the use of tokens

Leverage data analytics to personalize rewards and challenges

Threats:

Competition from other blockchain-based loyalty programs

Regulatory uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrencies

Customer unfamiliarity with blockchain technology

Conclusion

The use of gamification and blockchain rewards presents a promising
avenue for incentivizing the return of reusable packaging. By creating a
more engaging and rewarding experience, businesses can encourage
customers to actively participate in the circular economy, leading to
higher return rates, increased customer loyalty, and a more sustainable
future. While the higher implementation costs of Model 2 may seem
daunting 14, the potential long-term benefits, both economically and
environmentally, make it a compelling option for businesses seeking to
optimize their reusable packaging programs.

This approach has the potential to drive sustainability in the
e-commerce industry by significantly reducing waste and promoting
responsible consumption. Moreover, it can transform customer engagement
and loyalty programs by offering more personalized and interactive
experiences. The integration of blockchain with other technologies, such
as AI and IoT, can further enhance these programs by enabling smarter
rewards, personalized offers, and more efficient tracking of
returns14. As blockchain technology continues to evolve and gain wider
adoption, we can expect to see even more innovative applications in the
realm of customer engagement and sustainable practices.

Works cited

1. The Pros and Cons of Gamification in the Workplace - Bonusly,
accessed February 3, 2025,

2. Why Gamification is Important & Its Benefits - Spinify, accessed
February 3, 2025,

3. Full article: Understanding Customer Readiness for Digital
Gamification - Taylor & Francis Online, accessed February 3, 2025,

4. What are the Benefits of Blockchain? - IBM, accessed February 3,
2025,

5. Crypto Loyalty Programs: How Businesses are Tokenizing Customer
Rewards - Coinmetro, accessed February 3, 2025,

6. Making blockchain real for customer loyalty rewards programs -
Deloitte, accessed February 3, 2025,

7. Gamification Marketing Examples: 10 Success Stories - Proven
Reality, accessed February 3, 2025,

8. Gamification Success Stories: Real-World Case Studies, accessed
February 3, 2025,

9. The Impact of Blockchain Technology on Customer Experience - New
Metrics, accessed February 3, 2025,

10. Gamification Case Studies: Lessons from Top Brands - Reward the
Worldâ„¢ accessed February 3, 2025,

11. From Transaction to Transformation: Blockchain's Loyalty
Proposition - PYMNTS.com, accessed February 3, 2025,

12. How Gamification Can Enhance Customer Experience (CX) - Renascence,
accessed February 3, 2025,

13. Customer Loyalty Blockchain: A New Ecommerce Rewards Program |
BigCommerce, accessed February 3, 2025,

14. The Future Of Loyalty: How Blockchain Is Transforming Rewards |
ZebPay, accessed February 3, 2025,

15. The Environmental Benefits of Reusable Packaging - Seaside
Sustainability, accessed February 3, 2025,

16. Reusable Packaging Pilot - Fashion for Good, accessed February 3,
2025,

17. The Environmental Impact of Single-Use vs. Reusable Food
Containers, accessed February 3, 2025,

18. Case Study: Use Cases for Blockchain in Fashion/Luxury - The
Fashion Law, accessed February 3, 2025,

19. A practical guide to understanding reusable packaging: - Muuse,
accessed February 3, 2025,

20. Review of Life Cycle Cost Analysis for Reusable Packaging for the
Retail Industrial - Simple search, accessed February 3, 2025,

21. The Many Advantages of Returnable Packaging and Reusable
Containers, accessed February 3, 2025,

22. The potential impact of reusable packaging - McKinsey & Company,
accessed February 3, 2025,

Delve into the highlights of the AI Action Summit in Paris, where experts addressed pressing issues in AI, including ethics, regulation, and the sustainability of technology.

Celebrate the success of Super Bowl LIX, the most-watched in history with 128 million viewers. Uncover the intriguing social media dynamics from this iconic event.

It’s natural to question whether you’re happy in any relationship, even with your KYC provider. In this guide, we’ll dive into how to spot red flags within your platform, and how you can find the provider that's right for you.

The post Is Your KYC Provider “The One”? first appeared on ComplyCube.

Identity and fraud are two sides of the same coin, and emerging technologies have made it impossible (and risky) to separate the two. Leveraging stolen credentials, synthetic identities, and artificial intelligence (AI), fraudsters are exploiting vulnerabilities across organizations with siloed identity and access management (IAM) and fraud functions. Account takeover (ATO) fraud surged by 354% in 2023 alone, underscoring the need for a unified approach. Addressing today’s threat environment requires identity and fraud teams to share insights and adopt integrated strategies that proactively stop fraud before it occurs. Collaboration is not just a technological necessity but a strategic imperative to protect organizations and their customers from increasingly sophisticated attacks.

Bridging the Gap

For developers looking to build in Web3, the transition from Web2 can feel like stepping into an uncharted territory. While decentralization unlocks incredible possibilities, it also introduces unfamiliar complexities, fragmented tooling, and new security paradigms that can slow down innovation and adoption.

🛠 The Developer Struggles in Web3

Web2 development has long been streamlined with centralized hosting, standardized SDKs, and predictable infrastructure.

Web3, on the other hand, presents a maze of challenges:

Burner Wallets & User Retention — Temporary wallets lead to high churn rates, making it difficult for developers to retain users.

Fragmented Infrastructure — No single framework exists; developers must juggle multiple chains, protocols, and standards.

Gas Fees & Transaction Friction — Onboarding users comes with the burden of explaining gas fees, network congestion, and transaction speeds.

Security & Custody Dilemmas — Self-custody is empowering, but it also places greater responsibility on developers to ensure key management solutions are secure and user-friendly.

Developer Tooling Gaps — Compared to Web2, Web3 lacks a polished, standardized stack, making it harder to ship production-ready applications efficiently.

How Web3 Can Make Onboarding Developers Easier?🤔

💡 If Web3 is to reach mass adoption, we need to lower the barriers for developers by addressing key inefficiencies:

🎯 Unified Developer Tooling — Simplified SDKs, modular APIs, and cross-chain compatibility to reduce friction in building dApps.
🎯 Abstracting Complexity — Gasless transactions, account abstraction, and streamlined wallet UX to eliminate unnecessary hurdles for both devs and users.
🎯 Scalability Without Trade-offs — Optimized rollups, L2 solutions, and auto-scaling infrastructure to ensure smooth, high-performance applications.
🎯 Security-First Design — Better frameworks for key management, on-chain security, and phishing protection to enhance developer confidence.
🎯Bridging Web2 Standards — Making the transition easier by integrating familiar Web2 authentication models (OAuth, SSO) with decentralized identity systems.

🌍 The Future: A Frictionless Web3 for Builders

Developers shouldn’t have to choose between innovation and usability. The goal should be a Web3 ecosystem that feels as intuitive and powerful as Web2, without sacrificing decentralization. The real Web3 revolution will come when builders can focus on creating great products without the unnecessary headaches.

The next wave of Web3 adoption starts with better developer experiences. Let’s make Web3 as seamless as it is powerful.

Team Safle ✨

We’re happy to announce Season 10 of the Ocean Zealy Community Campaign, an initiative that has brought together our vibrant community and rewarded the most active and engaged members.

💰 Reward Pool

5,000 ($FET) tokens that will be rewarded to the Top100 users in our leaderboard 🚀

📜Program Structure

Season 10 of the Ocean Zealy Community Campaign will feature more engaging tasks and activities, providing participants with opportunities to earn points. From onboarding tasks to Twitter engagement and content creation, there’s something for everyone to get involved in and earn points and rewards along the way.

⏰Campaign Duration: 12th of February — 14th of March 12:00 PM UTC

🤔How Can You Participate?

Follow this link to join and earn:

https://zealy.io/cw/oceanprotocol/questboard

Season 10 of the Ocean Zealy Community Campaign! was originally published in Ocean Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Shyft Network continues to expand its presence in India’s crypto market, announcing a new partnership with Unitic for the integration of Veriscope’s compliance solutions. The partnership comes as India’s crypto sector continues to develop, blending traditional finance practices with digital asset innovation in one of the world’s most dynamic trading environments.

By integrating Veriscope’s Travel Rule solution and User Signing functionality, Unitic joins other Indian exchanges in strengthening the country’s crypto trading environment. The implementation addresses the need for robust compliance solutions that work in harmony with local trading dynamics, while ensuring users benefit from enhanced security features.

Zach Justein, Veriscope co-founder, reflects on the partnership:

India’s crypto microclimate represents a unique convergence of technological adaptability and market potential. Unitic’s integration of Veriscope shows a deep understanding of where the market is heading — towards a future where compliance enhances rather than hinders trading efficiency. This partnership recognizes India’s distinctive position in global crypto while ensuring its traders operate within a secure framework.

The phased integration will establish secure channels for VASP counterparty discovery and information exchange, essential components of FATF Travel Rule compliance. User Signing capabilities will further enhance the security framework, particularly for transactions involving non-custodial wallets.

As the implementation progresses, both teams remain committed to maintaining the seamless trading experience that Unitic’s users value while introducing advanced compliance capabilities that will benefit the broader ecosystem.

About Unitic
Unitic is a pioneering Web3 firm at the forefront of revolutionizing the crypto landscape in India. The platform offers seamless trading of various cryptocurrencies and fiat pairs, including INR, with a focus on providing a secure and user-friendly experience. Committed to transparency and regulatory compliance, Unitic maintains strict adherence to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms while prioritizing the safety of users’ funds and information. The platform features streamlined INR deposits and withdrawals, robust security protocols, and responsive customer support, making it an ideal choice for both experienced traders and newcomers to the crypto space.

About Veriscope
Veriscope, the compliance infrastructure on Shyft Network, empowers Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) with the only frictionless solution for complying with the FATF Travel Rule. Enhanced by User Signing, it enables VASPs to directly request cryptographic proof from users’ non-custodial wallets, streamlining the compliance process. Veriscope brings trust, security, privacy, and reliability to the crypto compliance process and is a go-to solution for the leading virtual asset service providers worldwide.

Shyft Network Expands India Presence with Unitic Partnership was originally published in Shyft Network on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Mark is the founder of a growing logistics company, and after months of negotiation, he’s ready to seal a major partnership with a global distributor. But first, his company needs to undergo a Know Your Business (KYB) verification—a process he assumes will be long, tedious, and full of back-and-forth document requests.

Instead, Mark is about to experience how modern KYB technology makes business verification faster, simpler, and more secure.

A New Kind of KYB Process

In the past, Mark would’ve been asked to submit business registration papers, proof of ownership, and leadership information through email. On the other side, the distributor’s compliance team would spend days cross-checking everything manually, verifying documents, and screening for red flags.

This time, Mark receives a secure link to a KYB platform. The process is refreshingly simple:

Step 1: Mark enters his company’s registration number, and the system pulls verified data from official registries in seconds. Step 2: He completes a quick biometric verification using his smartphone to confirm that he’s the authorized representative. Step 3: The platform automatically runs global sanctions checks and searches for adverse media mentions.

By the time Mark finishes his morning coffee, the verification is done.

Instant Verification for Ownership and Key Personnel

KYB goes beyond company registration—it verifies who owns and controls the business. The platform prompts each key executive to complete their own ID verification remotely, ensuring they are who they claim to be.

Government-issued IDs are scanned and validated. Biometric liveness detection confirms that the individuals are physically present. The system’s secure, blockchain-backed ledger keeps records tamper-proof and ready for audits. Cross-Border Compliance in Real Time

Mark’s company operates internationally, which means regulatory checks across multiple jurisdictions. Thanks to automation, the KYB system:

Cross-references corporate filings from various countries. Screens against global sanctions and politically exposed persons (PEP) lists. Ensures that beneficial ownership is transparent and compliant with regulations.

What once took days of manual research now happens in minutes.

KYB as a Business Enabler

Instead of being a bottleneck, the KYB process becomes a point of confidence for Mark and the distributor. By verifying his company’s legitimacy quickly and securely, the deal moves forward without delays.

For growing businesses like Mark’s, digital KYB isn’t just about meeting regulations—it’s about building trust and accelerating partnerships. With tools that combine biometric verification, automated regulatory checks, and secure data management, KYB is transforming from a necessary step into a competitive advantage.

Mark signs the contract that same afternoon, knowing his company’s reputation is as solid as the deal itself.

For industries like real estate, insurance, and lending, digital KYB solutions offer more than regulatory compliance—they enhance transparency, strengthen relationships, and foster faster, safer transactions.

Learn about the latest trends in edge computing, including insights from industry experts on how AI and modern CDNs are reshaping content delivery and user interaction.

Gartner VP Analyst Akif Khan has good reason to believe workforce use cases for identity verification (IDV) will gain serious traction in 2025. Having received just five calls about the topic in the first five of his six years on Gartner’s IAM team, he reports there’s been a major spike in such queries in recent months. In a January LinkedIn post, Kahn reveals the biggest drivers of client interest in workforce IDV are account recovery flows and employee onboarding.

It’s easy to see why. Thanks to high-profile data breaches at MGM and Caesars, IT service desks have become prime targets for fraudsters impersonating employees seeking assistance with a password reset and account recovery. In these “vishing” scams, information gleaned from employee social media profiles can help hackers fool overworked IT service desk personnel into granting them unfettered access to corporate systems.

Meanwhile, more than 100 US companies in aerospace, defense, retail, and technology have fallen prey to North Korean nation-state attackers leveraging falsified identity information and deepfake technology to gain employment in remote IT positions from which they can exfiltrate data and conduct espionage. Even though technology to prevent such incursions is readily available, the frequency and severity of successful attacks keep growing.

Workforce Wake-up Call: The IDV Imperative

Whether it’s the service desk or employee onboarding, the cost of doing nothing about workforce IDV can be catastrophic. Once fraudsters have infiltrated corporate systems, they are free to escalate their access privileges, steal valuable data and source code, deploy crippling ransomware, and more.

Ransomware exposure costs US businesses an estimated $124 billion annually, and 35% of victim organizations never retain their data. And that’s just the start of the pain. A year after the February 2024 ransomware attack on UnitedHealth, the $22 million ransom was nothing compared to the $3.09 billion in total financial losses stemming from the incident.

Meanwhile, the average cost of a data breach topped $4.88 million in 2024—$9.48 million for US-based organizations. But according to PwC, 27% of companies worldwide, and 34% of companies in North America, have suffered a data breach that cost them between $1 million and $20 million in the past three years. As much as 44% of organizations hit by an identity-related breach estimated the associated costs exceed those of a typical data breach.

In the case of North Korea’s operatives, fraudulent employees who passed background checks, reference verifications, and rounds of Zoom interviews performed job tasks while installing remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools to establish a persistent presence within compromised networks. Others worked to exfiltrate data stored in OneDrive, SharePoint, and other cloud-based systems.

With help desk attacks, the ever-growing attack surface of outsourced IT support and call center operations crewed by less experienced, often short-term employees make these organizations especially vulnerable to vishing. Emerging, AI voice-enabled attack modalities only make matters worse

Hope Is Not a Strategy: Balancing Security, Cost, and UX

Put it all together, and it’s no wonder Khan is fielding more questions about workforce IDV. And in his post, he asks the exact right questions: “Will organizations see the value in using IDV for these workforces use cases? Do they see the cost and challenges to the UX as proportionate to the risks being mitigated? And do they feel confident that IDV can mitigate those risks?”

As I mentioned, technologies to effectively address these use cases are widely available today. Organizations sourcing solutions are likely to find these same technologies prompt answers to Khan’s other questions in the affirmative.

The problem today is that HR departments and IT service desk operations with remote workers tend to rely on antiquated identity verification processes that rely on manual review of government-issued credentials shared in the clear via email and SMS messaging. High-quality fake credentials and deepfake technologies easily defeat these measures. Traditional forms of multifactor authentication (MFA) aren’t much help. Fraudsters increasingly demonstrate the ability to compromise SMS-based codes and push notifications through social engineering, SIM swapping, and other techniques.

Many forms of biometric authentication aren’t foolproof either. Anyone with administrative access can register things like user biometrics to any device they access—or set up an alternative identity provider to bypass authentication measures all together. These technologies aren’t always easy to integrate with existing workflows or infrastructure either—let alone meet a growing array of privacy mandates.

Modernizing Workforce Verification and Authentication

With traditional forms of MFA growing unreliable, modern forms of identity verification and authentication are setting new standards for security, convenience, and efficiency. Solutions certified to FIDO2, iBeta biometrics-, UK DIATF, and NIST 800-63-3 standards, for instance, combine machine-verified identity to government-issued credentials (driver’s license, state ID, passport, etc.) and enable non-phishable multifactor authentication when verified users login to digital services.

1Kosmos, for example, is a case in point. Our workforce verification solution provides an order of magnitude improvement in credential issuing during user onboarding and account recovery—replacing weak, knowledge-based and two-factor forms of authentication with a simple self-service workflow that accommodates government-issued credentials in 140 countries with 99% accuracy. Executed from any device, anywhere, anytime, 1Kosmos detects stolen and synthetic identities while establishing high-assurance trust for legitimate workers.

Meanwhile, our workforce authentication solution eliminates the vulnerabilities of traditional passwords via passwordless, identity-backed biometrics. Built on a decentralized identity framework, it ensures secure, frictionless authentication of employees, contactors, and supply chain partners and, importantly, puts users in control of their own personal identifiable information. We also provide support for password reset and legacy 2FA/MFA to accommodate disparate IT environments built over decades.

Our solutions are built on the only platform certified to NIST 800-63-3, UK DIATF, FIDO2, and iBeta ISO/IEC 30107- standards with an SDK and standard APIs to avoid security exploits and prevent vendor lock. With collaborations like our partnership with Concentrix, we help organizations enable workforce verification and authentication that transforms security, reduces costs, and enhances the user experience.

Khan-versation Starter: Looking Forward to What’s Next

In his LinkedIn post, Gartner’s Khan writes, “I’m super interested to see whether this takes hold in 2025,” adding,” I look forward to engaging with clients and vendors this year to see how this shapes up.” We couldn’t agree more—and we look forward to doing just that.

To learn how 1Kosmos can help protect your organization against worker fraud and service desk attacks with the only NIST, DIATF, FIDO2, and iBeta certified workforce verification and authentication solutions on the market, click here.

The post Gartner’s Right: Why Workforce Identity Verification Can’t Wait appeared first on 1Kosmos.

Educational institutions, such as universities, public schools, and entities issuing certification courses, face a growing need for secure, efficient identity verification systems that support a mobile-ready world. Ensuring that students, staff, and alumni have safe and convenient access to their credentials is essential, and in today’s world, having their credentials easily accessible on their phones is the experience they expect. Traditional paper-based documents, from diplomas to transcripts, can be cumbersome, prone to forgery, and slow to access and verify. These outdated processes create inefficiencies, increase administrative workloads, and open doors to credential fraud.

Verifiable Digital Credentials (VDCs) offer a streamlined, tamper-proof solution that addresses these challenges head-on. By moving away from paper-based records to digital verifiable credentials, educational institutions can improve security, efficiency, and user experience. Read on to explore the top ten real-world applications of digital credentials in education and how SpruceID can partner with institutions to drive digital transformation.

Today’s Top 10 Real-World Applications

1. Digital Diplomas and Certificates: Traditional diplomas are susceptible to damage, loss, and fraud. With VDCs, students can access secure, verifiable digital diplomas that are easily shared with employers or graduate programs. This ensures authenticity while enabling institutions to reduce administrative burdens associated with paper records.

2. Transcripts and Academic Records: Transcripts often take weeks to process and are costly to manage. Digital credentials provide instant, secure access to academic records, allowing students to share their achievements with prospective employers or other institutions. VDCs streamline the verification process, making it more efficient and less prone to error.

3. Enrollment Verification: When students apply for discounts or benefits based on their enrollment status, paper verifications can slow down approval processes and increase the risk of fraud. VDCs enable instant, accurate verification of enrollment status, facilitating faster access to services such as health insurance, transportation, and housing.

4. Professional Certifications: Digital credentials can serve as verifiable proof of certification for students completing professional courses, simplifying the job application process. Employers gain confidence that candidates possess verified skills, reducing onboarding time and enhancing workforce quality.

5. Student ID Cards: Physical student IDs can be lost, stolen, or counterfeited, posing security risks on campuses. Digital student ID credentials streamline campus access—from libraries to dining halls and reduce the risk of unauthorized access to campus facilities. They can also be presented to businesses or services that offer benefits and discounts for enrolled students.

6. Continuing Education and Micro-Credentials: Lifelong learning is on the rise, and micro-credentials are increasingly important. VDCs allow institutions to issue verified micro-credentials and continuing education certificates, empowering individuals to build a verified portfolio of skills for career advancement.

7. Internship and Extracurricular Verifications: Internships and extracurricular involvement are valuable experiences, but verifying participation can be challenging with paper-based methods. Digital credentials can serve as verifiable records of participation using cryptographic technology that can’t be faked, simplifying the application process for further education or employment.

8. Financial Aid and Scholarship Eligibility: Applying for financial aid and scholarships often requires students to verify their identity and enrollment status, which can be a time-consuming process involving paperwork and manual checks. By integrating Verifiable Digital Credentials (VDCs)—such as mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs) or digital student IDs—students can instantly confirm their identity and eligibility, expediting the verification process and reducing administrative delays. This streamlined approach can ensure faster access to student funding while improving security and trust in the application process.

9. Alumni Identity and Credentials: Educational institutions often manage records for alumni long after graduation. Digital credentials ensure alumni can easily access and share their academic records and certifications, providing value long after their time at the institution and allowing them to slowly transition out of university accounts.

10. International Student Verification: International students often need to verify their credentials across borders, which can be a slow and complicated process. VDCs enable fast, reliable verification for visas, immigration, and educational assessments, helping students navigate cross-border requirements efficiently.

SpruceID’s Solution

SpruceID partners with educational institutions and government workforce development councils to create a secure ecosystem of verifiable digital credentials that enhance trust, security, and efficiency. We are currently working with Colorado on skills-based hiring and digital learning records (LERs), aiming to create a future where skills, not just credentials, connect people to job opportunities while addressing workforce challenges.

Learn how SpruceID is supporting this vision as the chosen tech vendor to help ColoradoFWD toward its goal of designing a multi-use digital wallet.

Our Credible platform supports a wide range of digital credentials, from diplomas to student IDs, utilizing cryptographic signatures to prevent tampering, unauthorized sharing, or fraudulent reproduction. With minimal data disclosure, students can confirm credentials with only essential information, keeping their personal details secure and in compliance with privacy standards. This approach reduces administrative bottlenecks and streamlines verifications, ultimately lowering costs related to physical records, printing, and mailing.

Shaping the Future of Digital Identity in Education

We believe the future of education will fully embrace verifiable digital credential solutions that integrate seamlessly with industry standards and foster collaboration across the sector. By adopting VDCs, institutions can protect students’ data, improve the services they provide, and reduce administrative burdens.

SpruceID is committed to helping institutions prepare for this digital transformation, working with universities, colleges, and other educational entities to implement scalable, interoperable solutions. To learn more about how SpruceID can support your institution’s digital credentialing needs, visit our website and get in touch with us.

Contact Us

About SpruceID: SpruceID is building a future where users control their identity and data across all digital interactions.

Here’s our progress over the last two weeks:

Holochain Core, Runtimes & Dev Tooling: Holochain 0.4.1 has moved from release-candidate to an official release. This version has been integrated into the deployment runtime Kangaroo, the scaffolding tool has been updated to use it, and the Launcher update is in progress.  We have positive reports from the field of people using the 0.4.1 release in their apps.

Networking: We are wrapping up the rewrite of our low-level networking modules: tx5 and Kitsune2. Tx5 implements the low-level p2p end-to-end encrypted WebRTC connections between peers, while Kitsune2 implements the layer on top of tx5 to store and sync data through gossip in distributed hash tables (DHTs) between the peers. The first versions of Kitsune2 crates have been published to crates.io! Our next steps are:

1) creating Wind Tunnel tests for Kitsune separate from Holochain,

2) writing a simple showcase kitsune-only p2p app for internal review, and

3) integrating the crates back into the Holochain codebase.

These next steps have been scoped, estimated and are underway.

Testing: It was quite fun to run through our current manual testing process on the first 0.4.1 release candidate, catch an error, have that fixed and run through the same test procedure successfully to then yield the green light for the full release. On the automated testing front, we’ve spun up our orchestration Nomad server, and hooking that up to Nomad-clients deployed to Holoports is well underway.

Dev Docs: We are continuing work to improve our developer documentation. Over the last two weeks we published Build Guides on DNAs & Zomes, next up are docs on hApps, validation and genesis self-check!

As always, the best place to really see the details behind the Dev Pulse is to look at Github’s Insights page for whichever repo you are most interested in. For example see Holochain and Kitsune2. 

Researchers are required to navigate a complex regulatory landscape to ensure compliance with security, privacy, and ethical standards.

What is a Digital Signature? Secure Your Information with Encryption & a 6-Step Signing Process

2024/6/30

In the digital era, securing electronic documents and transactions is crucial to prevent fraud and unauthorized access. Digital signatures are cryptographic security measures that authenticate the identity of the signer and ensure the integrity of documents.   

Table of contents 

I. What is a Digital Signature? Is it Legally Recognized?

A. Definition of a Digital Signature B. How Digital Signatures Work C. 3 Key Legal Elements of a Digital Signature

II. Digital vs. Electronic Signatures: What’s the Difference?

📌Comparison Table of Digital and Electronic Signature Differences

III. How Do Digital Signatures Work? Encryption & Signing Process

A. Introduction to the principles of digital signature B. Step-by-Step Guide to Apply a Digital Signature

IV. Turing Certs: The Most Secure Digital Signature Solution

I. What is a Digital Signature? Is it Legally Recognized? 

A. Definition of a Digital Signature  

Digital Signature is an anti-counterfeiting method that can verify the authenticity of digital credentials such as electronic documents and electronic certificates. 

According to Article 2, Item 3 of Taiwan’s “Electronic Signatures Act” by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, a “digital signature” refers to a type of electronic signature created using mathematical algorithms or other cryptographic methods to generate a specific length of digital data encrypted with the signatory’s private key. It can be verified using a public key and is supported by a certificate issued by a certification authority. 

To simplify, the digital signature is a way of signing e-documents. It is encrypted with the “private key” that belongs to the document owner. When others receive a digitally signed document, they can use the ‘public key’ to verify the signature. If the verification is correct, it can prove that the original owner truly signed the document and that the contents have not been tampered with or forged. 

If you see an e-document as an official printed letter, a digital signature is a seal that can prove the letter’s authenticity. 

B. How Digital Signatures Work

There are 3 main functions of digital signature: 

Ensure the identity of the signer: Digital signatures can authenticate the identity of the signer to ensure that the signer of an e-document is the actual owner or authorizer of the document.  Keep the security and integrity of document content: Digital signatures can maintain the integrity of e–document content and prevent it from being tampered with or omitted.  Avoid contract disputes: A legally valid digital signature can protect the rights and interests of both parties and prevent either party from repudiating the contract.  

C. 3 Key Legal Elements of a Digital Signature 

To be legally valid, a digital signature must meet three criteria: 

Verifiability – Must be issued by a recognized Certification Authority (CA).   Full Presentability – Must be readable and accessible in any format or device.   Mutual Agreement – Both parties must consent to digitally sign the document. 
Contact Turing Certs now to learn more about digital signature!

II. Digital vs. Electronic Signatures: What’s the Difference?

The most common way to sign a document is to sign it with a physical handwritten signature. However, paper documents are not only easily damaged and not conducive to archiving, but also have low security. Therefore, with the development of digital documents, handwritten signatures have gradually been transformed into electronic signatures and digital signatures. 

Digital signature is a type of electronic signature, but the two have different meanings. 

The electronic signature covers a wide range, as long as it is in electronic form, i.e. the signatures generated through digitizing can be considered as electronic signatures. Common forms include text, images, symbols, etc. Scanned documents of handwritten signatures are also counted as electronic signatures. 

Digital signatures refer specifically to the signature generated by encryption algorithm technology.

The biggest difference between digital and electronic signatures is security. Digital signatures use algorithms, encryption technology, and third-party certification authorities to enhance security and credibility, while electronic signatures lack the guarantee of these certificates. 

📌Table of Digital and Electronic Signature Differences 
Digital signatureElectronic signatureSecurityHighestLowerVerification methodKey encryption technologyElectronic formatApplication ScenariosE-commerce, financial operations, e-certificates, government documents, etc.Emails, contracts, agreements, etc.

III. How Do Digital Signatures Work? Encryption & Signing Process

A. Introduction to the principles of digital signature
a. Encryption Methods: Symmetric vs. Asymmetric Cryptography

Digital signatures and digital documents are based on the same encryption principle, but the execution method is slightly different. 

Digital signature uses asymmetric cryptography to sign documents with a private key and verify signatures with a public key. Besides digital signature, asymmetric cryptography can also be applied to digital credentials, which encrypts the document with the public key (lock) and decrypts the document with the private key (unlock). 

Symmetric Encryption: One lock matches one key. The key for encryption and decryption is the same. Thus, if you lock with key A, you can only open with key A.  Asymmetric Encryption: The key that encrypts and decrypts is not the same, but a pair of different public and private keys. Use public key A to lock, but use private key B to open. The private key is not publicly available, so it can be used to decrypt or sign files. 
b. RSA

RSA is one of the most widely used asymmetric encryption algorithms for digital signatures, secure email, and online banking. It was developed at MIT in 1977 and remains a critical security standard. 

B. Step-by-Step Guide to Apply a Digital Signature
a. How to Obtain & Use a Digital Signature

Follow these six essential steps to securely sign digital documents:   

STEP 1. Apply for a Digital Certificate from a Certification Authority (CA). 

STEP 2. The CA confirms the applicant’s identity. 

STEP 3. Receive Your Private-Public Key Pair linked to your verified identity. 

STEP 4. Digitally Sign Documents using the private key.   

STEP 5. The CA issues the credential to the applicant. 

STEP 6. Recipients confirm authenticity using the public key. 

b. Security Precautions for Digital Signatures

Even the most secure encryption methods are vulnerable to cyber threats. Here’s how to safeguard your digitally signed documents:  

Use a trusted Certification Authority (CA) for issuing digital certificates.   Ensure public key & identity binding to prevent unauthorized access.   Store private keys securely to prevent cyberattacks.   Verify signed documents before accepting them to avoid fraudulent transactions. 
Turing Certs, your most reliable Certification Authority!

IV. Turing Certs: The Most Secure Digital Signature Solution

Turing Space is a TrustTech startup founded by Jeff Hu in 2020, dedicating to addressing the complexity of certifications among industries worldwide. We build up a borderless digital trust network with blockchain technology, advancing global digital transformation, aiming to become the cornerstone of international trust transmission. 

With Turing Certs, you can gain a variety of e-document services:  

✅Large-quantity, quick credential creation and issuance
✅Sign digital credentials
✅Effectively manage digital credentials
✅One-stop rental management with reasonable prices 

✅ Verifiable information and immutable blockchain records 

✅ Strictly verified digital credentials for enhanced information security 

✅Provide real-person customer service support so that even novices in digital tools can adapt quickly 

Schedule a demo to know more about Turing Certs!

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The post What is a Digital Signature? Secure with Encryption & 6-Step Signing Process first appeared on Turing Space Inc..

A new digital wallet will be introduced in 2025, enabling UK citizens to hold digital identification documents on their mobile phones, such as driving licenses. Learn how this will fortify transactions and prevent identity fraud.

The post New UK Digital Wallet in 2025 first appeared on ComplyCube.

The post Top 5 reasons to migrate from Hyperion to EPM Cloud appeared first on Mythics.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)—together with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office—has today sanctioned Zservers and two of its administrators. Cryptocurrency addresses used by these actors were added to the Specially Designated National (SDN) list.

Agentic AI is changing authentication faster than our identity models can keep up. We’ve built systems assuming users are human, but what happens when an AI agent, not the user, needs to authenticate on their behalf? Our current identity frameworks weren’t designed for this, and the gaps are starting to show.

Audio Blog

If you’ve read my earlier post, Are You Human? A Dive Into the Proof of Personhood Debate, you’ll notice some overlaps here. That post dove into the tricky questions around distinguishing humans from non-humans and explored some early efforts to tackle proof of personhood. This post extends that conversation by examining how agentic AI complicates the identity landscape further.

As if digital identity wasn’t confusing enough…

“Traditional” Federation Models

In federation models that assume a relying party (RP) and an identity provider (IdP), the process of authentication is kicked off by a user. From there, the RP and IdP have a lovely chat about what data is being requested (by the RP) and what data will be sent in response (by the IdP). These systems have served well in scenarios where it’s important to recognize the information may be about the user, but it does not belong to the user. (Example: a user’s affiliation with an organization is not something the user owns; it’s owned by the organization. The user should have control over releasing that information in most circumstances, but they do not own it.)

Enter agentic AI. What happens when an AI agent, not the user themselves, needs to authenticate?

Trust Boundaries: Can existing federation models extend trust to an agent acting autonomously on a user’s behalf? And if so, what ensures the agent’s actions align with the user’s intentions? Granularity of Authorization: Federation models today operate on relatively coarse-grained permissions (e.g., scopes in OAuth). For agents, finer-grained controls may be necessary to specify “what” an agent can do. Those controls will also need to specify “when,” “where,” and “how.” Auditing and Accountability: When an agent performs actions, how do we audit and attribute those actions to the user who authorized the agent, particularly if something goes wrong? OAuth2 FTW! (Right?)

In some of my conversations with people deeply embedded in the authentication space, they suggest that OAuth2-based authentication should make this a non-issue. But I’m not too sure. While OAuth2 does provide a framework for delegation, where a user can grant an agent limited access to their resources, I’m not actually asking about the basic mechanics (but if you’d like to discuss those, this is an interesting post to start with). I’m asking about under what circumstances those mechanics can and should be used, and whether they actually solve for all the use cases.

OAuth2 Handles Delegation, But Not Autonomy

So, first, my understanding is that OAuth2 would allow a user to delegate access to an AI agent by issuing tokens with specific scopes and permissions. For example, a user could grant a personal assistant app access to their calendar or email. Brilliant! We need that.

However! OAuth2 assumes the agent is an extension of the user’s intent, not an autonomous actor. Agentic AI introduces the possibility that an AI might make independent decisions, adapt over time, or interact dynamically with other systems in ways that extend beyond the original scope of user intent. And before you say “that should never happen,” that horse is leaving the barn even as I type.

Here are some potential scenarios:

An AI-powered email assistant that autonomously schedules meetings and replies to clients—What happens if it books a flight without explicit user consent? An AI stock trading bot that exceeds the user’s intended risk profile—Who is responsible? A personal shopping assistant that buys items based on inferred preferences—What happens if it misunderstands intent?

Is it the user, the developer, or the service that may have manipulated the AI agent to behave in a particular way?

Granularity and Oversight

OAuth2 tokens typically grant access to resources but don’t provide detailed controls over how, when, or why those resources are accessed. So, in the use cases I’m worried about, an agent might need to send emails on your behalf but not at all times or for all recipients. As far as I know, OAuth2 has no native mechanism to enforce or audit such fine-grained boundaries.

For highly autonomous agents, a more nuanced authorization model is needed that could dynamically enforce user preferences or constraints as the agent operates.

Federated and Decentralized Contexts

In federated systems (systems that externalize their authentication and even authorization actions), introducing agentic AI complicates how trust is propagated across domains. OAuth2 scopes might suffice in single-domain scenarios but fall short in multi-stakeholder environments.

In decentralized identity systems, such as those using verifiable credentials, the challenge extends to ensuring agents can securely act as verifiers or holders without compromising privacy or security. More on this in a bit.

While OAuth2 provides a solid foundation for today’s delegation needs, addressing agentic AI in authentication may require:

Enhanced granularity of scope to define not just what an agent can do, but how and when it can do it. Dynamic consent and revocation mechanisms that allow users to adapt permissions as agents operate. AI-specific identity standards, potentially building on OAuth2 or incorporating concepts like decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials, to handle autonomous behavior.

So, yes, OAuth2 is excellent for handling simple delegation. ut agentic AI isn’t just about delegation. It makes independent decisions, adapts over time, and interacts unpredictably. Agentic AI introduces complexities around autonomy, accountability, and trust that stretch beyond the protocol’s original design. The question isn’t whether OAuth2 can delegate, it’s whether it can adapt to the nuanced and evolving behaviors of autonomous agents. (I both enjoyed and freaked out a bit with this post on AI and end-to-end encryption, which is another part of the discussion.)

Comparing and Contrasting FeatureHuman OAuth2 DelegationAgentic AI AuthenticationWho initiates?User explicitly grants accessAI may act autonomouslyBoundariesPre-defined scopesNeed real-time contextual controlsRevocationUser can revoke manuallyNeeds automated monitoringAccountabilityUser is responsibleHarder to attribute actions Verifiable Credentials and Identity Wallets: Issuer, Verifier, and Holder

The identity wallet model, with its issuer, verifier, and holder, offers an alternative framework for authentication. These systems are often designed with decentralization and user control in mind. What’s not to love? The growing ecosystem of mobile driver’s licenses and EU Digital Identity wallets that live on browsers and devices suggests some interesting conversations when it comes to agentic AI.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, here are a few quick and simplified definitions for the entities involved in identity wallet issuance and verification. The concepts are similar to RP and IdP.

Issuer: Provides credentials (e.g., a verifiable credential) to the holder. Holder: Stores and manages credentials, presenting them to verifiers when needed. Verifier: Validates the presented credentials. Agentic AI and VCs

This is a beautiful system when it applies to humans. When applied to agentic AI, however, I have questions:

Agent as Holder: If an AI agent acts as a credential holder, how does it securely store, manage, and present those credentials? How do we prevent misuse if the agent is compromised? Should an AI agent ever be a credential holder at all? Delegation: Can an agent act as a delegated representative of the user, and how do we enforce boundaries? For example, could an agent be issued temporary credentials with limited scope and validity? Probably, though some systems might not allow agents for various security and privacy reasons. Selective Disclosure: Identity wallet models often emphasize privacy through selective disclosure, such as revealing only a user’s age without exposing their birthdate. How might agents balance this with their need to automate tasks efficiently? It’s like a self-driving car; it’s a self-managing agent.

The wallet model seems to offer more flexibility for agentic AI than “traditional” federation models, but it introduces a new layer of complexity. It has to ensure the AI agent’s autonomy doesn’t come at the cost of security or user control.

Glimmers of Direction

It’s no fun asking all these questions without having associated answers. Regardless, I suspect work is underway (or will be soon) in a few areas:

Delegated Trust Models: Expanding on existing delegation mechanisms to allow users to grant agents fine-grained, revocable permissions. AI-Aware Standards: Developing new identity standards that explicitly account for agentic AI, whether by enhancing federation protocols or building on the identity wallet paradigm. Contextual Authentication: Leveraging contextual signals—such as behavioral patterns, location, or task context—to authenticate agents dynamically. Reputational Systems: Having people and systems “vote” on whether something is a person or a bot. I cringe a bit about the potential liability involved here, but the idea is definitely receiving some attention.

Ultimately, the questions of “if,” “how,” and “when” agentic AI and authentication will align are as much about societal and regulatory readiness as they are about technical feasibility. The opportunities are immense, but so are the challenges.

The identity industry has spent decades building systems for human authentication. Agentic AI changes the game. If we don’t rethink our identity models now, we’ll be retrofitting yesterday’s solutions onto tomorrow’s problems—and I’d rather avoid that headache. If you’re working in this space, let’s talk at IIW, EIC, or Identiverse!

Want to see how I tackle real-world challenges in digital identity and standards development? Check out my mini-case studies—short, practical lessons from projects where strategy meets execution.

If something sparks an idea for your team, let’s chat. I’d love to hear what you’re working on.

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The post Agentic AI and Authentication: Exploring Some Unanswered Questions appeared first on Spherical Cow Consulting.

Fraud prevention has historically been perceived as a trade-off between robust security and a seamless customer journey. However, as fraud tactics have evolved over the years, so too have prevention and detection strategies, proving that security and smooth customer experiences can coexist. However, recent technology advancements have shifted this narrative. Is it still possible for increased security and low-friction customer experiences to compliment each other in our current age of artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes? In today’s interconnected digital economy, does fraud prevention still equate to intrusive verifications, login frustrations, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) fatigue? Here’s how modern identity tools and strategies can help businesses build trust and foster customer loyalty while reducing financial losses and protecting their customers from identity theft.

So, you’ve decided to enter the Brazilian gaming market? Here’s everything you need to know to remain compliant, fight fraud and offer a frictionless customer experience.

So, it’s finally happened.  

After years of ‘Will they, won’t they?’, the Brazilian powers that be have finally managed to agree on how its sports betting and online gaming market should be regulated. 

This means that for the first time ever, Brazilian operators can serve Brazilian players, capitalizing on the country’s huge customer base and generating millions of tax revenue in the process. Brazilian players, meanwhile, can now use Brazilian platforms, benefiting from the local language and accessibility options that a local platform offers. 

This is great news as before January 1, 2025, players had to either use black market platforms or international ones; neither of which were ideal for providing sufficient consumer protections. 

Read more about the dangers of using black market gambling platforms in our blog, ‘Before Brazilian regulation: The dangers of gambling without KYC.’

Of course, as Brazil is such a new market, complete with new regulatory requirements, there are certain compliance challenges operators need to be aware of and important considerations to factor in before launching.

SBC Summit Rio Will you be at SBC Summit Rio and want to discuss how we can help you fight fraud and maximize conversions in the Brazil gaming sector? Book a meeting How to offer completely compliant gaming experiences in Brazil.

Being compliant and adhering to regulatory requirements not only protects a business from potential anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility fines but also from reputational harm. Each year, hundreds of millions in fines are levied against gaming operators and although there haven’t been any fines against a Brazilian operator yet, it is surely only a matter of time. 

In fact, according to Neil Montgomery, a lawyer that operates in Brazil, there is no doubt that Brazilian operators will soon find themselves on the receiving end of fines and even civil cases due to the country’s litigious culture. 

“Disgruntled consumers will now have a local door to knock on and use the Brazilian courts to obtain favourable awards. Brazilian courts will look at sports betting and iGaming operators as wealthy companies and an expectation for companies to compensate damages costs to consumers,” said Neil Montgomery, founder of Brazilian law firm, Montgomery & Associados.

Working with an identity verification provider with regulatory expertise and deep knowledge of the market ensures operators can navigate the complexities of Brazilian legislation and regulation with ease; safe in the knowledge they’re offering completely compliant player experiences.  

For more information on Brazil’s newly regulated sports betting and online gambling market, read our blog, ‘Everything you need to know about online gambling in Brazil’. 

As experienced providers of KYC and identity verification solutions for the gaming industry, IDnow has customers from around the world using IDnow to offer all manner of compliant use cases, from new account openings and age verifications to affordability checks and deposit withdrawals, and everything in-between.

Working with companies operating globally has equipped us with a deep knowledge of different regulatory environments, along with every nuance of their customer onboarding processes, every document or data point required to be processed and every product innovation and functionality that could make the customer experience more inclusive, intuitive and, of course, compliant.

How gambling operators should really be onboarding players.   Most common fraud attacks that gambling operators were subjected to in 2023. Size of some of the most popular global gambling markets. The steps required to legally onboard players in nine different countries Download now 7 steps for compliant customer onboarding in Brazil.

A robust customer onboarding experience for a Brazilian gaming platform should restrict fraudsters and underage or ineligible users from opening accounts, while protecting genuine players from fraud and potentially saving the company millions in AML fines.  

Here’s how to offer an end-to-end compliant player registration and verification process in seven steps:

CPF Validation: In Brazil, every citizen is issued a unique Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas (CPF) number, which is used for tax purposes. When cross-checked against the national CPF database, the numbers can be used to verify the identity of players during onboarding. Checking against restrictive lists: You know the saying: one rotten Brazilian apple spoils the whole Brazilian barrel (or something like that). Offering a safe and secure gaming experience requires operators to be assured that every single one of their players are entitled to be there, which is why the second important step in the player registration and verification process should be to check applicants’ identities against multiple official restrictive betting lists (lists containing those who could jeopardize results of sporting events, e.g.: athletes or managers).  PEPs and Sanctions: Like the second step, checking against PEPs and Sanctions lists is essential to assess and effectively mitigate the associated risks of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and sanctioned individuals.  Document verification: When combined with CPF validation, document verification enables operators to cross-check and verify identity data with other forms. It’s also important to be able to process a variety of different document types, especially in Brazil, where different provinces often have different identity formats and types. The three most common documents that operators should be able to check and verify in Brazil as per the regulation are:

1. Brazilian passport 
2. Carteira de Identidade (RG) (National identity card) 
3. Carteira Nacional de Habilitacao (National driving license)  Advanced fraud detection: Fraud detection technology can provide an additional barrier by protecting against various fraud attacks. For example, our seamless advanced fraud detection technology flags whenever a forged document is submitted and can verify whether prospective players are real through liveness checks – all without adversely impacting the user journey. Such checks can help prevent common and emerging fraud types like bonus abuse, identity theft and synthetic identity theft.  Biometric enrolment: The penultimate step in our player registration and verification process records players’ biometric information, including facial images to facilitate future smoother player authentication.  Optional manual review: At this stage, the player has registered and verified their identity and are able to start playing. However, for additional security, operators can also choose to perform a manual review of submitted documents and biometrics for additional peace of mind, especially for high-risk individuals.   Customized consistency.

While knowing what needs to be done to create a compliant onboarding process is clearly important, perhaps what is even more important is how it is done and what the user experience of doing it is like. After all, if the customer experience is too complicated then customers will seek out a competitor that does offer an intuitive process or worse still, revert to the black market to platforms that are less concerned with KYC or robust identity verification processes. 

Of course, customer abandonment isn’t something specific to the gambling industry. In fact, 90% of companies said they lose customers during the digital onboarding process, with the top three reasons for drop-offs including: 

Too long processes (29%)   Identity proofing and affirmation pain points (26%)   Too many manual steps (26%)

At IDnow, we are committed to delivering cutting-edge identity verification solutions that address the specific needs of our customers and their end users. 

For example, when we discovered that most Brazilians tended to keep their identity cards in plastic sleeves, we amended our onboarding instructions in the user interface. By including culturally tailored instructions, such as requesting the removal of IDs from plastic sleeves, we ensured users could complete document capture with ease.  

It’s important to bear in mind that while compliance and regulatory requirements may differ by country, operators must offer a consistently positive user experience, regardless of the market or the regulatory requirements.  

Simply put, the user experience needs to be as seamless as it is secure, which has benefits for both the operator and ultimately the customer.

Integrate seamlessly, with IDnow.

Managing multiple point solutions (e.g. biometrics or documents) across different service providers not only creates inefficiencies and complexities in identity verification processes, but it can also make integration difficult, especially if journeys need to be adapted to regulatory changes or to detect and mitigate new risks. 

Our modular and scalable orchestration hub has been designed to reduce technical complexity and enable global operators to balance strict KYC/AML requirements with seamless UX. What’s more, any third-party KYC and compliance service can be easily added to IDnow making it easy to manage in one integration. 

Tailored for Brazil’s regulations and localized needs, IDnow simplifies identity verification and compliance with a plug-and-play solution, allowing users to access data, document and biometric verification through a single, unified integration point.

As regulations, data and document types, and ultimately customer requirements differ per region, there is a huge advantage in choosing an identity verification provider that can be tailored to a specific country’s risk and KYC needs.

Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk, VP of Global Gaming at IDnow.

“Being able to offer a holistic approach to identity verification that can combine compliance services, including IDV, biometric authentication and data verification to meet any country’s requirements will very quickly become a necessity,” Roger added.

Learn more about our Brazil-ready identity verification solutions here.

SBC Summit Rio Will you be at SBC Summit Rio and want to discuss how we can help you fight fraud and maximize conversions in the Brazil gaming sector? Book a meeting

By

Jody Houton
Senior Content Manager at IDnow
Connect with Jody on LinkedIn

 

After years of cautious observation, financial institutions are now at a critical juncture with digital assets. According to new research from Elliptic, 75% of financial institutions say they will need to progress their digital asset activity within the next two years to avoid falling behind competitively and financially. This is among the key findings from Elliptic’s new research report, State of Crypto 2025: The readiness of the digital asset ecosystem.

Veracity Trust Network’s Web Threat Protection works by providing client-side bot protection using AI behavioural analysis to stop malicious human-mimicking bots.

Our mission since we set up the company has been to identify and block unwelcome bots on both web and mobile platforms, working in real-time by providing detailed insights into the source of these threats – whether they come from competitors, foreign actors or other malicious agents.

The post Client-side bot protection from Veracity appeared first on Veracity Trust Network.

Imagine discovering that a loan was approved in your name without your knowledge. That’s how identity crimes begin. Fraud doesn’t start with stolen money, it starts with stolen or forged identities. Businesses often focus their fraud prevention efforts on financial losses, but by then, the damage is already done and personal information has already been compromised. To effectively combat fraud, organizations must address threats earlier in the lifecycle, when identity crimes such as phishing, credential and identity theft, and synthetic identity creation take place​​. By recognizing identity crimes as the foundation of fraud, businesses can proactively disrupt these attacks before they lead to financial or reputational harm​.

 

The Myth That Fraud Happens at the Moment of Loss

For many, fraud seems to begin when money or goods are stolen. It's easy to see why - the most visible impact of fraud is financial loss. This focus often leads organizations to invest heavily in transactional fraud detection systems, believing that stopping unauthorized transactions is the key to stopping fraudulent activities​​.

 

The truth is, financial loss is merely the final chapter in a longer story of identity crimes. Fraudsters rely on stolen identities, synthetic profiles, and breached credentials to set the stage for their schemes. By the time money changes hands, the groundwork has already been laid through compromised identity or unauthorized access. Addressing fraud earlier, like during account creation or login, is far more effective than reacting to suspicious transactions later​.

Discover how large HTTP headers can impact your web page's loading speed. Learn about essential headers and strategies to optimize their size for better performance.

Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform designed to provide fast, secure, and low-cost transactions for a variety of applications1. Developed by Mysten Labs, a team of former Meta engineers, Sui aims to address the scalability limitations of existing blockchains while offering a user-friendly experience for both developers and users2. This report delves into the core components of the Sui blockchain, exploring its architecture, tokenomics, ecosystem, and future plans. It is the first blockchain built for internet scale, enabling fast, scalable, and low-latency transactions3. Sui was designed to solve some of the problems around web34. In addition to its focus on speed and scalability, Sui is also designed with social interactions and Web3 experiences in mind5.

Mysten Labs

Mysten Labs is building critical infrastructure to enable a more decentralized internet6. The company was founded in 2021 by former engineers from Meta's Diem blockchain initiative2. Mysten Labs has secured the backing of multiple prominent investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto, Binance Labs, and Coinbase Ventures2.

Sui's Architecture and Consensus Mechanism

Sui distinguishes itself through its unique object-centric data model. Unlike traditional blockchains that revolve around accounts, Sui treats all on-chain data as objects with unique identifiers and ownership properties1. This model enables parallel transaction processing, significantly enhancing scalability and efficiency1. Each object in Sui maintains its state and versioning. When an object is modified, a new version is created while retaining the previous versions for transparency and traceability8.

Sui's architecture allows for the management of multiple network states simultaneously while ensuring that the final state is consistent across transactions9. This minimizes conflicts, enabling smooth and effective parallel execution9. Sui also has a flexible storage design that enables users to record and delete objects created as a result of running a transaction10. Users pay only for the actually used storage space, which is perfectly optimized10.

Sui employs a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, where token holders delegate their SUI tokens to validators who are responsible for verifying and processing transactions1. This approach allows for faster consensus and lower latency compared to traditional Proof-of-Work systems11. The Sui consensus engine, Mysticeti, builds upon the Narwhal and Bullshark consensus algorithms. Narwhal acts as a mempool, ensuring efficient transaction batching, while Bullshark handles the sequencing of transactions within a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure2. This combination enables Sui to achieve high throughput and sub-second transaction finality7. After finality is reached, a checkpointing protocol produces a causal history of all transactions in the system12. This is used for complete audits, as well as to keep Full nodes and lagging validators synchronized efficiently12.

It is important to note that Sui does have blocks, referred to as "checkpoints", which are contained within epochs10. The blockchain's current status and parameters can be accessed on the Suiscan homepage, Chain Info Parameter page, and Staking Parameter page10.

Sui Move Programming Language

Sui utilizes the Move programming language, originally developed for Meta's Diem project13. Move is designed to be secure and efficient, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities in smart contracts13. Its resource-oriented approach prevents issues like asset duplication or unintended loss, making it well-suited for financial transactions and NFTs2. Sui also uses the Move Prover, which allows developers to verify that their code executes as intended1.

Sui Move introduces several key differences compared to its implementation in other blockchains:

Sui uses its own object-centric global storage.

Addresses represent Object IDs.

Sui objects have globally unique IDs.

Sui has module initializers.

Sui entry points take object references as input14.

Sui Lutris Protocol

Sui Lutris is the distributed system protocol that powers Sui, allowing it to achieve very low latency alongside high-throughput and long-term stability12. Sui Lutris combines DAG-based consensus with consensus-less approaches to achieve sub-second latencies and sustained throughput of thousands of transactions per second12.

Sui Lutris relies only on consensus to process complex smart contracts that operate on shared objects, that is objects that any user can mutate12. Sui Lutris also supports network maintenance operations, such as defining checkpoints and reconfiguring validators12.

Key Features and Advantages

Sui offers several key features and advantages that contribute to its growing popularity:

High Performance and Scalability: Sui's parallel execution model and optimized consensus mechanism enable it to handle a high volume of transactions with low latency13. Sui's take on parallel transaction processing is one of its most innovative technologies15. Tests have shown Sui achieving up to 297,000 transactions per second (TPS)15. In fact, Sui recently processed 65.8 million transactions in a single day, setting the record for most transactions recorded on any blockchain in a 24-hour period16.

Enhanced Security: The Move programming language and Sui's object-centric model enhance security by reducing vulnerabilities and limiting attack vectors15. Many errors in application design are rejected by Sui's software and are impossible due to Sui's application guardrails17. Sui's DPoS mechanism ensures that validators are incentivized to act in the network's best interest15.

Low Transaction Fees: Sui's efficient architecture and Storage Fund mechanism contribute to low transaction fees, making it cost-effective for users13.

Developer-Friendly Environment: The Move programming language and Sui's comprehensive documentation provide a user-friendly environment for developers to build and deploy decentralized applications13.

Improved User Experience: Features like zkLogin allow users to interact with dApps using familiar web credentials, simplifying the onboarding process and enhancing user experience18.

Cross-Blockchain Compatibility: Sui's interoperability features allow for seamless interaction with other blockchains19. This expands Sui's reach beyond its own ecosystem and allows for greater flexibility in how assets can be used and traded19.

Network Capacity: Sui's network capacity expands to meet demand, growing with businesses, not against them20.

SUI Tokenomics

SUI is the native token of the Sui blockchain. It has a fixed total supply of 10 billion tokens11. This is the total number of SUI that can ever be minted, but the total supply is not available for transactions11. SUI serves several key functions within the Sui ecosystem:

Staking: Users can stake SUI to participate in the DPoS consensus mechanism and earn rewards11. Sui's PoS system is more energy-efficient than Proof-of-Work (PoW) systems8.

Gas Fees: SUI is used to pay for gas fees required to execute transactions and other operations on the network11. Sui's gas-pricing mechanism achieves the triple outcomes of delivering users with low, predictable transaction fees to optimize their transaction processing operations and prevent denial-of-service attacks21.

Governance: SUI holders can participate in on-chain governance by voting on protocol upgrades and other key decisions11.

Utility and Liquidity: SUI can be used as a liquid asset for various applications within the Sui ecosystem, including facilitating transactions within various DeFi applications and NFT marketplaces11.

The distribution of SUI tokens is as follows:

Category Percentage Purpose Community Reserve ~50% Grants, ecosystem development, and community incentives. Early Contributors ~20% Rewards for developers, builders, and early network contributors. Investors ~14% Supporters and investors who provided funding in the early stages. Mysten Labs ~10% Reserved for core team members and long-term project sustainability. Public Sale ~6% Available to the public during token sales or auctions.

Sui's tokenomics are designed to support the long-term financial needs of the ecosystem and encourage sustainable growth11. The gas pricing mechanism aims to provide low and predictable transaction fees while preventing denial-of-service attacks23. Sui (SUI) has a structured token release schedule, with significant unlock events planned throughout the year8.

As of December 23, 2024, approximately 2.9 billion Sui tokens are currently in circulation, representing about 29% of the total supply of 10 billion tokens8. The current market cap is approximately $12.66 billion, placing SUI among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap8. Sui is currently ranked as the 16th largest cryptocurrency24.

Sui Ecosystem and Partnerships

The Sui ecosystem is rapidly growing, with a diverse range of projects and applications being built on the platform25. Sui achieved 1 million active addresses within two months of its mainnet launch26. Some notable areas of development include:

Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Sui's high throughput and low latency make it well-suited for DeFi applications. Several DeFi protocols, such as Cetus, Navi, and Turbos Finance, have launched on Sui, offering services like decentralized exchanges, lending, and yield farming27. Sui's DeFi ecosystem has made impressive progress, reaching a historic milestone, peaking at over $2 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) in January of 202528.

Gaming: Sui's scalability and ability to handle complex on-chain interactions make it an attractive platform for blockchain-based games13. Sui offers what games built on blockchain require: well-rounded functionality, abstraction, scalability, speed, and affordability20. Sui has partnered with companies like BytePlus to explore new avenues in Web3 gaming29.

NFTs: Sui's object-centric model and support for dynamic NFTs (dNFTs) enable the creation of unique and evolving digital assets18. This has led to the emergence of various NFT projects on Sui, including collectibles, gaming assets, and digital art18. The various applications and use cases being built on Sui showcase the diversity of the Sui ecosystem30.

Sui has established several strategic partnerships to further its ecosystem growth and adoption:

Ant Digital Technologies: Sui partnered with Ant Digital to tokenize real-world assets (RWAs), focusing on the ESG sector31.

SatLayer: Sui integrated with SatLayer to expand Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (BTCfi) capabilities32.

Phantom Wallet: Sui integrated with Phantom Wallet, a leading Web3 wallet, to provide users with a seamless and user-friendly experience33.

OKX Wallet: OKX wallet is integrated with Sui34.

Sui Development Tools

QuickNode offers a global network that always routes Sui API requests to the nearest available location, ensuring low latency and the fastest speeds35. The Sui TypeScript SDK is a modular library of tools for interacting with the Sui blockchain36. The SDK contains a set of modular packages that can be used independently or together36.

To set up a Sui validator node, you need:

curl to download required files.

dialog for user interface.

systemd to run sui-node service.

An Ubuntu server capable of running SUI validator or full node, with required open ports37.

Team and Advisors

The Sui team first made headlines in 2021 when several Meta engineers peeled away to create Mysten Labs18. Prior to the creation of Mysten Labs, all co-founders worked together at Novi:

Evan Cheng, CEO: Former Head of Research and Development at Novi and...source Novi. Previously worked at VMware, Oracle, PeerNova, HSBC, JP Morgan.

George Danezis, Chief Scientist: Former researcher at Novi. Previously worked at Chainspace, Microsoft.

Kostas (Konstantinos) Chalkias: Former leading cryptographer at Novi. Previously worked at R3, Erybo, Safemarket, NewCrypt38.

SUI Market Performance

Sui has shown consistent growth with increasing investor confidence39. The current market sentiment is bullish, supported by SUI reclaiming critical psychological levels39. There is a potential surge in bullish momentum for SUI39.

Historical SUI price information:

Time period High Low 7 days $3.89 $2.65 30 days $5.24 $2.65 1 year $5.35 $0.46 5 years $5.35 $0.36

40

Sui Roadmap and Future Plans

While specific details about Sui's roadmap are limited, several key areas of focus have been identified:

Scaling the Network: Sui aims to continue scaling its network to accommodate wider adoption and increased transaction volume41.

Enhancing Developer Tools: Sui plans to provide developers with more advanced tools and features to facilitate dApp development41.

Improving User Experience: Sui is focused on improving user experience through initiatives like zkLogin and integration with major exchanges41.

Expanding the Ecosystem: Sui aims to further expand its ecosystem by attracting new projects and applications in areas like DeFi, gaming, and NFTs41.

Upcoming upgrades and improvements include:

Mysticeti v2: This upgrade refines Sui's parallel transaction model, potentially leading to faster confirmations33.

SIP-45: This proposal addresses transaction fees during peak demand, ensuring vital actions don't stall when network activity spikes33.

Walrus: This decentralized storage protocol will broaden Sui's capabilities by enabling large-scale data storage33.

Synthesis

Sui is a promising Layer 1 blockchain that offers a unique combination of scalability, security, and user-friendliness. Its object-centric model, Move programming language, and optimized consensus mechanism position it as a strong contender in the blockchain space. With a rapidly growing ecosystem and ambitious future plans, Sui has the potential to become a leading platform for a wide range of decentralized applications.

Sui's key strengths lie in its ability to handle high transaction volumes with low latency, its focus on security through the Move programming language, and its commitment to providing a user-friendly experience for both developers and users. The platform has already seen significant growth in its DeFi ecosystem and has attracted a diverse range of projects in areas like gaming and NFTs.

While Sui is a relatively new blockchain, its technical capacity and overall architecture have gradually stabilized42. However, it faces challenges in a competitive landscape and needs to prove its long-term viability16. Sui's future success will depend on its ability to continue scaling its network, attract developers and users, and deliver on its roadmap and future plans.

Works cited

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13. What is Sui? A quick dive into the next-generation L1 blockchain. - Backpack Learn, accessed February 9, 2025, https://learn.backpack.exchange/articles/what-is-sui

14. abhi3700/sui-playground: Everything about Sui blockchain: About, Write smart contract - GitHub, accessed February 9, 2025, https://github.com/abhi3700/sui-playground

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18. Exploring the Sui ecosystem (a high throughput L1 blockchain) - Backpack Learn, accessed February 9, 2025, https://learn.backpack.exchange/articles/exploring-the-sui-ecosystem

19. Sui Blockchain - The Best Platform for Your Meme Coin in 2025 - Nadcab Labs, accessed February 9, 2025, https://www.nadcab.com/blog/sui-blockchain-best-platform-launch-meme-coin-2025

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23. Sui Tokenomics - Figment, accessed February 9, 2025, https://figment.io/insights/sui-tokenomics/

24. Sui Team | CryptoRank.io, accessed February 9, 2025, https://cryptorank.io/price/sui/team

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27. Top Sui Projects: Sui DApps, Games, NFTs & Wallets Explored! - Coin Bureau, accessed February 9, 2025, https://coinbureau.com/analysis/top-sui-dapps/

28. Tipping Point: Exploring The Amazing Progress of Sui's DeFi Ecosystem - Stakin, accessed February 9, 2025, https://stakin.com/blog/exploring-the-amazing-progress-of-suis-defi-ecosystem

29. Sui: Strategic Partnerships A Catalyst for Growth | by RookStrike Asset Management | Jan, 2025 | Medium, accessed February 9, 2025, https://medium.com/@RookStrikeCapital/sui-strategic-partnerships-a-catalyst-for-growth-91068cba4b59

30. The Sui Blog, accessed February 9, 2025, https://blog.sui.io/

31. Sui Blockchain partners with Ant Digital on tokenized ESG assets, accessed February 9, 2025, https://suipiens.com/blog/sui-blockchain-partners-with-ant-digital-on-tokenized-esg-assets/

32. Sui Network Expands Bitcoin Integration Through SatLayer Partnership - HackerNoon, accessed February 9, 2025, https://hackernoon.com/sui-network-expands-bitcoin-integration-through-satlayer-partnership

33. What's Next for Sui in 2025 - Bankless, accessed February 9, 2025, https://www.bankless.com/read/whats-next-for-sui-in-2025

34. Sui explorer | View Sui stats - OKLink, accessed February 9, 2025, https://www.oklink.com/sui

35. Sui RPC - QuickNode Docs, accessed February 9, 2025, https://www.quicknode.com/docs/sui

36. Sui TypeScript SDK Quick Start | Sui TypeScript Docs, accessed February 9, 2025, https://sdk.mystenlabs.com/

37. Scale3-Labs/sui-node-helper: Utility to setup and manage SUI validators and nodes, accessed February 9, 2025, https://github.com/Scale3-Labs/sui-node-helper

38. Who is Sui Team - General - Sui Developer Forum, accessed February 9, 2025, https://forums.sui.io/t/who-is-sui-team/23145

39. Sui Price Prediction: Forecasts for 2025-2033, 2040, and 2050 Trends and Analysis, accessed February 9, 2025, https://www.coinspeaker.com/guides/sui-price-prediction/

40. Sui (SUI) Price Today, News & Live Chart | Forbes Crypto Market Data, accessed February 9, 2025, https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/assets/sui-sui/

41. Sui Coin's 2024 Roadmap: Scaling Up for the Future $SUI the | InspectorGadget on Binance Square, accessed February 9, 2025, https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/4066117250913

42. A Full Introduction to Sui's Tokenomics and Market Statistics | Bitcoinist.com, accessed February 9, 2025, https://bitcoinist.com/a-full-introduction-to-suis-tokenomics-and-market-statistics/

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In real life, just as in any good story, internal conflict shapes who people become. However, as technology becomes more focused toward round-the-clock production, the modern workplace increasingly presents dilemmas that pit people’s roles, values, and desires against each other.

This rising tide of inner conflict isn't surprising. Just as a main character faces challenges that drive character development in literature, people face opposing forces in their daily lives. As remote work blurs the lines between professional and personal spheres, and social media constantly shows alternate paths, many find themselves caught between these competing personal choices.

Understanding what is internal conflict and how to resolve it has therefore become crucial for maintaining both self-image and well-being. Writers have long used writing tips about character development to illustrate how internal conflict drives personal growth—and these same insights can help us understand our own inner struggles.

I’m Yngvi Karlson, Co-Founder of Kin. Born in the Faroe Islands, I’ve spent my career building startups, with two exits along the way, and five years as an active venture capitalist. Now, I’m dedicated to creating Kin, a personal AI people can truly trust.

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To help, I’m going to discuss the following in this article:

Understanding Internal Conflict

Evidence-Based Strategies for Conflict Resolution

Creating an Internal Conflict Action Plan

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Internal Conflict Resolution

How Kin Supports Internal Conflict Resolution as a Personal AI

Get Started Today with an AI Assistant You Can Trust

In short, we’ll explore the nature of inner turmoil, its impact on our life stories, and evidence-based strategies for finding resolution—including how artificial intelligence like Kin can help navigate these challenging waters.

Photo by Windows on Unsplash Understanding Internal Conflict

Internal conflict occurs within a character's mind—whether that character is fictional or, as in our case, ourselves. These conflicts manifest as tension between what we think we should do and what we want to do, creating moral dilemmas that challenge our self-awareness. This differs from external conflict, where we battle external forces like circumstances or other people.

Writers often use various types of internal conflict to drive character arcs. Writing tips from skilled authors remind us that the most compelling stories feature characters whose internal struggles mirror our own experiences with personal growth. In our own character development, we might face similar conflicts.

A classic example is the struggle between career advancement and work-life balance—like a professional weighing whether to take a higher-paying job that requires more time away from loved ones. Here, the character's internal conflict (ambition versus personal values) often intertwines with external forces (workplace demands versus family needs).

The different types of internal conflict we face include:

Moral conflict between competing ethical principles

Self-doubt about our abilities or choices

Cognitive dissonance between beliefs and actions

Personal growth challenges that test our self-image

Examples of internal conflict in professional settings often mirror those found in a good story: the ambitious employee torn between advancement and ethical concerns, or the team leader struggling with difficult decisions about resource allocation. These inner struggles create compelling character arcs in both fiction and real life.

Common Causes of Internal Conflict

Understanding why we face such inner turmoil helps in resolving internal conflicts effectively. Research in psychological literature identifies several common triggers that any main character in their own life story might face:

Value Conflicts: When different personal values compete for priority, creating moral dilemmas. For instance, valuing both honesty and loyalty can create conflict when keeping a friend's secret would mean being dishonest with others.

Decision Paralysis: The tension created when multiple good (or bad) options exist, each with their own advantages and drawbacks. This often occurs in career decisions, relationship choices, or major life changes.

Role Conflicts: When different roles in life demand conflicting behaviors or time commitments. A common example is balancing professional responsibilities with personal relationships or self-care.

Identity Transitions: During periods of personal growth or change, internal conflict often arises between old patterns and new aspirations. This is particularly common during career changes or relationship evolutions.

Signs of Unresolved Internal Conflict

Recognizing internal conflict is the first step toward resolving it. Research from the American Institute of Stress identifies several common indicators that internal conflict may be affecting someone's well-being.

In emotional terms, persistent anxiety, irritability, and mood swings often signal unresolved internal conflict. People might notice themselves feeling constantly unsettled or unsatisfied, even when external circumstances are relatively stable. Many report a sense of being "stuck" or unable to move forward with decisions.

Behaviorally, internal conflict often manifests as procrastination, indecisiveness, or inconsistent actions. Someone might repeatedly change their mind about important decisions, or find themselves unable to stick to resolutions they've made. Sleep disturbances are another common sign, with studies showing that unresolved internal conflict can reduce sleep quality by up to 30%.

Physical manifestations can include tension headaches, digestive issues, and muscle tension—particularly in the neck and shoulders. These symptoms often worsen during periods when the internal conflict feels most pressing.

Photo by youssef naddam on Unsplash Evidence-Based Strategies for Conflict Resolution

Research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience has identified several effective approaches to resolving internal conflict and cognitive dissonance. These strategies don't just provide temporary relief—they help build lasting resilience and decision-making confidence.

While seeing a mental health professional can be beneficial during times of extreme internal conflict, sometimes that can be too costly or impractical. It’s also helpful to learn how to work through it individually, so that it can be more efficiently dealt with.

The current science suggests three main approaches:

1. Changing conflicting behavior to align with values

2. Updating beliefs to accommodate necessary behaviors

3. Adding new information that bridges the gap between beliefs and actions

For the first, one powerful approach comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is a type of talking therapy that helps patients recognise and follow their personal values.1 This involves deeply examining what truly matters to someone—beyond surface-level preferences or societal expectations—by asking them to open up and examine all of their thoughts, reactions, and feelings.

For the second, cognitive restructuring can be a helpful exercise. This evidence-based technique involves examining and challenging the thoughts underlying internal conflicts, and proposing plausible alternatives to uncomfortable beliefs. This might mean questioning whether moving for a new job is inherently negative, or whether a difficult conversation at work really will end a relationship—and considering possible and less extreme situations instead.2

For the last, research as a tool is as important as ever. For example, someone in a creative tech role like the games industry might initially have an issue accepting lucrative AI support in their work. However, they may be able to bridge the gap by discovering and supporting ethical and genuinely useful AI products, rather than more environmentally-damaging AI.

Mindfulness approaches like Journaling have also shown remarkable effectiveness, as discussed previously, as they allow people to better understand and recognize sources of conflict.

But, how does that actually get put into practice, and used to help?

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash Creating an Internal Conflict Action Plan

Moving from understanding to action requires a structured approach. As we discussed in our goal-setting article, breaking down conflict resolution into manageable steps significantly improves outcomes. The key is creating a process that feels both comprehensive and achievable—here’s an example to begin working with:

Define the Conflict: Start by clearly articulating the conflict, including all competing elements. Write down not just the surface-level conflict, but the deeper values and needs at play. For instance, a conflict about taking a new job might actually be about balancing security with growth, or personal fulfilment with family responsibilities.

Develop Evaluation Criteria: Think about what the ideal solution might include, both practically (like salary) and emotionally (like family time). Try to be as clear as possible.

Examine the Assumptions Underlying the Conflict. Often, people have incorrect, unconscious beliefs that make conflicts seem worse than they are. By writing out all of the things that feel true about a dilemma, and tackling them with the methods from the last section, truth can be more easily separated from fiction. For example, the belief that a role with a new company means contact will be lost with old teammates can be challenged by the fact that many people stay friends with ex-colleagues.

Brainstorm Solutions: This section is easier said than done. Still, by combining the previous steps, it’s common that a solution or decision that felt unrealistic due to unconscious assumption now appears more fitting. Either way, the goal isn't to find a perfect solution—research shows that aiming for ‘good enough’ decisions that honor our core values leads to better outcomes than pursuing perfection.3

Even with all of the above support, however, trying to resolve internal conflict independently can be a long and stressful process. This is why more and more advanced support systems are being developed for exactly that reason.

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Internal Conflict Resolution

Modern technology, particularly artificial intelligence, has introduced new tools for addressing internal conflict effectively.

Though the internet has made knowledge and psychological support more accessible than ever, an AI companion can serve as an unique space for exploring thoughts and feelings without judgment, AI chatbots can respond back with tailor-made responses.

This dynamic can help identify patterns in someone’s decision-making, emotional responses, and behavior that contribute to internal conflict—and an advanced enough personal AI could even suggest therapies, therapists and tactics to deal with these personal triggers.

However, the effectiveness of these tools depends heavily on user trust and privacy—without it, users won’t discuss their internal conflicts in enough detail for the AI to provide accurate support. As we’ve said before, this is why the relationship between users and their personal AI must be built on a foundation of complete transparency and robust privacy protection.

How Kin Supports Internal Conflict Resolution as a Personal AI

Kin represents a new approach to resolving internal conflict, combining the benefits of traditional self-reflection tools with advanced AI capabilities.

Kin’s empathetic and customizable Chat interface and Journal systems gives users an open space to explain and express their internal dilemmas either in conversation or in notes, while still providing web search capabilities and custom responses.

However, Kin’s unique power comes from its advanced Memory, which allows it to remember and reference everything said to it in its Chat or Journal, unlike standard AI chatbots.

This understanding enables Kin to provide increasingly personalized guidance, as the AI assistant can identify patterns from past situations, highlight previous successful resolutions, and guide users through using and personalizing structured reflection processes like the one given above.

This way, resolving internal conflict never has to be an individual job again—and at the very least, Journal notes become much easier to access.

But, we don’t expect you to blindly trust our AI companion with your personal struggles. Kin maintains strict privacy standards, storing and processing information locally on user devices whenever possible, and securely in the cloud wherever possible.

This data can be viewed and deleted at any time, and Kin will never be able to read it, let alone trace it back to an individual user. Supporting people is our business, not their data.

Get Started Today with an AI Assistant You Can Trust

Ready to begin addressing your internal conflicts more effectively? Download Kin here, and start with this message:

"Hi Kin! I've been struggling with internal conflict about [specific situation/decision]. I feel torn between _______ and _______, and it's making me feel _______. I'd like to work through this with you and develop better strategies for handling similar conflicts in the future. Can you help guide me through this process?"

From there, Kin will help explore your conflict, identify patterns, and develop personalized strategies for finding resolution.

Remember, resolving internal conflict is a journey of personal growth—and having the right support, built on trust and understanding, can make all the difference.

1

Clarke, B. 2024. ‘What Is ACT therapy?’ www.bupa.co.uk. Available at: https://www.bupa.co.uk/newsroom/ourviews/act-therapy [Accessed 02/05/25]

2

Crum, J. 2021. ‘Understanding Mental Health and Cognitive Restructuring With Ecological Neuroscience.’ Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 697095. Available atL https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.697095 [Accessed 02/05/25]

3

Swider, B.; Harari, D.; Breidenthal, A.P.; Steed, L.B. 2018. ‘The Pros and Cons of Perfectionism, According to Research’. hbr.org. Available at: https://hbr.org/2018/12/the-pros-and-cons-of-perfectionism-according-to-research [Accessed 05/02/25]